No Austerity. No Compromise with the Vultures. No bargaining with the Plutocracy. Barack Obama has the Mandate. It's time The Rich pay their Fair Share.

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.  - James Madison

Now, that Real America has rejected the preposterous slanders and smears of the rabid conservatives comes the serious task of reorganizing the Nation.

Overusing the bromide of being doomed to repeat history it seems We do have a difficult time learning from that which has passed before.

The Empire of Byzantium struggled with many of the same issues We, the People face today. Religion. Nobility. Taxes. Military interventions. Dynastic struggles. Culture Changes. Legal Codes.

As the centuries passed, new generations inherited problems and structures created by previous ones. They did their best to build upon the past work, reconcile new ideas with the old or create entirely new ones, but often their efforts became a jumble, a convoluted and a confusing mixture. Hence the term byzantine.

This was well understood by the Founding Fathers who sought to blend their new ideas with the ideas of the Ancient Greeks, Renaissance Italians, and the Thinkers of the Enlightenment in the creation of the New Nation.

One of the great myths of America is that we don't have Class Struggle and Class Warfare. Class division was written about and feared by James Madison, Father of the Constitution,

"The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property..."

During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Class Warfare was a major preoccupation of Madison and the other Founders. Some of the Founders, notably Alexander Hamilton, greatly feared that Class War was already upon them (he was thinking of Shay's Rebellion) and the common man would establish a Democratic Tyranny voting themselves the property of the Rich, but it didn't happen then and it isn't happening now.

James Madison believed his "extended republic" model aided by supplemental checks built into the Constitution would stave off Class Warfare, but that within 2 or 3 generations the struggles of rich and poor would result in conflict.

In 1829-1830 Madison became convinced the country was headed for Class warfare by 1930. He reasoned the massive populace crowded together would,

"necessarily be reduced by competition for employment to wages which afford them the bare necessaries of life. The proportion being without property can not be expected to sympathize sufficiently with its [property] right to be safe depositories of power over them." 

So, either the demos would rise up in revolt "by a law of nature". Or the Rich would degenerate into Oligarchy and destroy the Republic because,

"A republic cannot stand upon bayonets. We are free today substantially but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few."

But, this is not the Great Man of History longing. A Great President lets other people rise and the greatest Americans often come from the Middle Class.

James Madison knew this. He and the other Founders also warned of Foreign Entanglements, Standing Armies, and Unchecked Corporate Power.

Do Conservatives not re-read their own mythology? The Myth of Ronald Reagan wasn't that he got the Soviets to pass a universal healthcare coverage for their citizens. It was that Reagan goaded the Red Menace into an Arms Race which bankrupted them. What did Bin Laden accomplish with the 9/11 attacks? He got us to waste $10 Trillion in overseas folly of Empire-building in the Middle East. And not to mention the thousands of american families shattered by the physical and mental scars of war.

What happened, since the End of World War II, was the establishment of the Permanent War Status by the United States have drained the lifeblood and treasury of the Country.

Who has benefited from the Overseas American Empire and the Massive DoD Budget? Undying Corporations and an increasingly isolated Cadre of Elites who see no Country and no reason to spend to aid the poor, or support the infrastructure of this Nation.

President Harry Truman famously stated,

"Poor Ike! He'll sit there and say 'Do this! Do that!' And nothing will happen. It's not like the army. He'll find it very frustrating."

President Eisenhower presided over 8 years of American Prosperity. Ike had an America that was untouched by World War 2 and thus had it's infrastructure intact with which to dominate the world market. But, President Eisenhower had a tax rate of 52% on Corporations and a Top Tax rate of 91%!

"[W]e cannot afford to reduce taxes, reduce income, until we have in sight a program of expenditures that shows that the factors of income and of outgo will be balanced. Now that is just to my mind sheer necessity.” 02/17/1953

However, Ike had the benefit of a populace which was not going through a radical upheaval. Ike had a populace which was for all intents homogeneous religiously. He also had a Class of Wealthy Americans which still believed in the idea of Noblese Oblige. 

And what did Eisenhower warn of at the end of his Presidency? The Military-Industrial-Complex. 

Unlike in Ike's day it's not the same, today. The Rich see no reason to aid the poor or even to invest in the United States.

Mitt Romney's former energy policy advisor Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources. gave a speech on 09/13/12 to Congress demanding National Parks be opened to Oil Exploitation and that his Federal Corporate Welfare which he's received since 1967 continue. Hamm also pouted that, "Continental’s effective tax rate is 38%!" Except it isn't. Over the past 5 years Hamm's Corporation Contenintal Inc paid 2.2% in Income Taxes when adjusted for all the tax breaks, corporate kickbacks and federal assistance he's received.

On the books his Oil Company probably has a stated tax rate of 38%. But, Hamm paid next to nothing when all the byzantine tax laws are applied. The Tax Code has been made circuitous specifically because it aids the Plutocracy.

A business owner in Las Vegas on Wednesday November 7th, told a CBS radio station that he had fired 22 of his 114 "mostly Hispanic" employees because President Barack Obama had won re-election. David noted that he had "mostly Hispanic" employees and some had come to work wearing Obama shirts on election day.

The Republican Party's favorite Michele Bachmann believes in a platform of No Taxes on Corporations. That would be Zero. 

Corporate Profits have gone up quarter after quarter since the beginning of 2009. Verizon, for instance, reported a pre-tax income of $24.2 Billion in 2009-2010 and received, through U.S. federal income tax loopholes, a $1.3 Billion dollar refund.

The Richest 1% of this Nation control 50% of all financial investments. The top 10% have almost 90% of stocks, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. Less than 10% of the country own the United States of America. 

But it's important to note that for the Rich, most of that income does not come from "working": in 2008, only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries.

What the Plutocracy wants is a closure of the Middle Class because the Middle Class is too unpredictable. It's much better to have a pliant working class who are satisfied with crumbs from the government and whatever wages/benefits the Moneyed Overlords are willing to bequeath upon them.

The Middle Class too often flexes it's political power and votes themselves things like Supplemental Social Security Income and Medicaid for the poor. The Middle Class votes against Child labor and for safer working conditions and regulations on the dumping of coal slag or mercury waste from Oil refineries into rivers and lakes. The Middle Class fights and strikes for pensions and dental care for their family.

Much easier for the Rich to move to a Third World Hellhole and have a Totalitarian Government enforce Wage Slavery and Corporate Bondage.

Today, the reason "47%" do not pay Federal Income Taxes are because of the slap-dash additions and shaky edifices built into the Tax Code. The EITC, marriage deduction, child deductions, home ownership deductions were Republican backed ideas to encourage people to adopt mores, behaviors and family structures which Republicans favored. The biggest Moochers are the Ultra-Rich.

The last time we had a restructuring of the Tax Codes, with the Bush Tax Cuts, Conservative shills for the 1% shamelessly lied about it's goals. The Heritage Foundation's 2001 report proclaimed if the Bush tax cut legislation were to pass, it would:

1) Effectively pay off the federal debt; 

2) Reduce the federal surplus by $1.4 trillion; 

3) Substantially increase family income; 

4) Save the entire Social Security surplus; 

5) Increase personal savings; 

6) Create more job opportunities.

None of this happened and we've been stuck in the Republican Recession ever since. But, what this did accomplish was a massive transfer of the Nation's Wealth into the hands of the Ultra-Rich.

What the Rich desire is the semblance of Democracy with the reality of Plutocracy. They privatize the profits and socialize the losses.

Most of the problems, President Obama is dealing with, he inherited. Some he's allowed to happen; for instance, the ratio of public-sector employees to the overall population is the lowest it’s been since 1968.

What Barack should do is tear down the rotten Tax Structure and Economy of Income Inequality built by right-wing lies:

1) Let the Bush Tax Cuts expire, completely.

2) Void the Sequestration.

3) Eliminate the Cap on Social Security taxes.

4) Raise the Tax Rate on Capital Gains and tax it as normal income.

5) Eliminate the deferred compensation rule.

6) Eliminate any and all Tax breaks and federal subsidies with Corporations which out-source jobs and off-shore manufacturing factories.

7) Bring back a Financial Transaction Tax to curb Wall Street volatility and curb rampant Hedge Fund speculation gambling.

8) Propose a Tax cut package for the first $250,000 of income (98% of America).

9) Create and augment spending and hiring for public-sector employees.

10) The follow-on Budget should include a 50% reduction in DoD spending. 

Then watch Republicans tear themselves apart as they reveal their entire Party is devoted to guarding the obscene theft and reverse-robin-hood robbery of Middle Class wealth by the Rich. House Speaker Bohener immediately genuflected to the Rich after President Obama's resounding win. Congressman Peter King of New York has declared he and the Republican House members have a "Mandate" to protect the Tax Breaks for the Rich.

There is a window here for Barack Obama to cement himself as True Class Warrior fighting for the 300 Million Americans who desire the American Dream but are being shackled with the chains of Wage Slavery and Corporate Bondage to the Moocher Class of the Plutocracy. It is our Job as a Center Left People to pick him up and stand beside him and guide him to that Destiny.

*- I think Jerome Corsi did this same post, except his use of "man-date" meant Barack Obama was Gay Muslim *Married* to a Pakistani Man whom he later murdered.

Despicable Mitt Romney Smirks and Conservative Lie while Americans Die (Updated)

Mitt Romney wasted no time trying to polticize the murders of American Diplomats.

Romney's entire career has been profiting off of the misery of other Americans. So, it should be no surprise that as Romney read his lie filled politicization of a tragedy with a giant shit eating smirk on his face.

Romney saw a chance to profit and couldn't keep his smirking face in check. What a Despicable Plutocrat. It's preciesely the play a vile, lily-livered, pampered, never-done-a-day's labor in his life, chicken hawk, vulture capitalist coward would make.

But, as with everything associated with Mitt Romney this smear is full of lies. Romney timed the release of his smear for 9/11, Romney showed his ignorance of the difference between an Embassy and a Consulate and, of course, the entire smear is based on the Obama Apologizes for America Right-Wing Lie.

"It's disgraceful," Romney's statement began and yes Romney you and your campaign are disgraceful.

Related:
Adding to the disgraceful Smirking Romney, Right-Wingers took to Twitter to circulate the Big Lie that Marines in Benghazi (there are no Marines in Libya) and Cairo were forbide from carrying ammunition by orders from President Obama. Conservatives are Disgusting and Vile.

Updated:
The major offensive by conservatives to smear President Obama is on. Kim Sengupta at The Independent has an article claiming: Exclusive: America 'was warned of embassy attack but did nothing'.

Of course, Sengupta hides behind unnamed sources!!!

According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and "lockdown", under which movement is severely restricted.

Faux News and Right Wing Bloggers have learned The US Marines were barred from carrying Ammo in the Embassy Attacks! Unfortunately, it's not because Obama Hates America but the true story of Saint Ronnie Reagan stopping the Marines from carrying Ammo in Beirut in 1983.

No lie is too outrageous. The Plutocracy and their Conservative Slaves will stop at nothing to destroy President Obama and seize control of America.

Boeing's Welfare They Screw America and Republicans Help

Chicago based Boeing...Wait, why should we call Boeing "Chicago-based"? Yes, they have a nice skyscraper (it won the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois' "Most Innovative" Design Award) located along the River in downtown Chicago which they moved into in 2001. Boeing still retains their sprawling massive facilities along I-5 north of SeaTac International Airport.

But, the reason Boeing moved their International HQ to Chicago was a for millions in a tax dodge. Illinois gave tax breaks for the $170,000,000 million dollar building at 100 North Riverside Plaza and a special rate for their Corporate profits so they can engage in some special bookkeeping because nowadays the thing American Corporate leaders manufacture is legerdemain and accounting tricks to hide and obscure "their" money.

Anyway, one place we know Boeing is definitively not based out off anymore is Wichita, Kansas. On January 4th, Boeing announced it was moving the tanker work out of Kansas to other U.S. plants and closing its Wichita operation next year.

In 2008, Boeing asked Kansas officials to help win a $3.5 billion contract for 18 Air Force tankers. Wichita's Mayor Carl Brewer says Kansas had a long history of coming through for Boeing. In fact, Axelrod notes that Boeing received 650 tax breaks over the last 30 years and $3.5 billion dollars in bonds.

Boeing would have failed if it had to face the Free Market and only exists today as a Company because of the Trillions of dollars it has received in government assistance. Of course, when you're a Corporate Criminal like Boeing getting free money from the government just... isn't... enough... Boeing, the Corporate Criminals, admitted to stealing $644 Million via fraudulent contracts. That would be called stealing if you the regular person did it but a Corporate person named Boeing gets the nomenclature of fraud.

Boeing is a company who could never succeed except for Billions of tax payer assistance. As such, Boeing is basically a middleman. Their Corporate charter should require they abide by the the NLRB and all of the Government's rules but that would be SOCIALISM!

Corruption from the Military-Industrial-Complex! Boeing, Northrup-Grumman, Lockheed Martin among 37 Corporations Defrauding the DoD!

The U.S. Deficit was born and was raised in the Middle East. While much of the Republican Talk the last 2 years had been focused on curbing spending that goes to the poor, the sick, the downtrodden and the casualties of Capitalism, Mega-Multinaltional Corporations have received Trillions of dollars.

Besides the 10 Trillion Dollars allocated, over the last 10 years, to the Department of Defense for the Phony GWoT, guess what else the Corporations tied into the MIC have been doing? Rampantly defrauding the US Taxpayer. Fraud is a nice high-falutin' word for Theft.

Hundreds of defense contractors that defrauded the U.S. military received more than $1.1 trillion in Pentagon contracts during the past decade, according to a Department of Defense report prepared for Sen. Bernie Sanders. He called the report "shocking."

He said aggressive steps must be taken to ensure taxpayer dollars aren't wasted. "The ugly truth is that virtually all of the major defense contractors in this country for years have been engaged in systemic fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money," said Sanders. "With the country running a nearly $15 trillion national debt, my goal is to provide as much transparency as possible about what is happening with taxpayer money."

37 Corporations received $1.1 Trillion Dollars in Corporate Welfare, aka Defense Contracts. But, that's not enough for these cheats and swindlers as these companies have all committed Theft on a scale usually reserved for Wall Street Bankers.

Since 2000, Boeing has paid at least $644 Million Dollars to settle Fraud complaints. Remember how Republican scum buckets Nikki Haley and Jim DeMint cried about poor poor Boeing being targeted by mean old Obama! Did you ever wonder why Boeing ran to the Republican Party to defend them when Boeing tried to undercut American workers? It's because these Corporations are the biggest thieves in History and they couldn't get away with it without the Guards of the System looking out for them.

It's long past the time, when Liberals and #OWS, recognize that our current Economic System has long been rigged to Transfer Wealth to a small Elite whilst simultaneously driving millions into Wage Slavery.

The 99% know that Capitalism is a sham and isn't working for them. But, despite the rhetoric about sunlight being best to defeat corruption, merely exposing the truth is not enough, the 1% and their rabid dog Republican defenders will NEVER surrender the enormous power and vast ill-gotten wealth their have seized.

We must be prepared to #Occupy for the long haul, we must be prepared to suffer preposterous lies, smears, arrests, and eventually Conservative Terrorist Attacks because while the Elite and their Right Wing Guards are prepared to do their worst, We the 99% must be prepared to do our best!

Do you know why there wasn't a Medal of Honor awarded to a living Service Member under George W. Bush?

Because Dick Cheney would have lost his front of the line free medical care. Seriously. One of the "benefits" a Living MoH recipient gets is front of the line medical care and they are the only persons who could move ahead of Vice President Cheney in an emergency.

Of course, while the MoH recipient will (bravely) deal with the aftermath of multiple tours and will have to make do with his special $1200-a-month augmented by COLA pension, Dick Cheney is basking in the Hundreds of Millions of blood soaked pay off dollars he has been awarded by the Companies who hired him to start Wars.

And from late 2001 to early 2009 there was Dick Cheney, who had skirted duty and chickened out of the Vietnam War via 5 deferments, telling George Bush not to award a Medal of Honor to anyone, so that he could keep receiving emergency heart transplants, angioplasties and surgeries without the fear of a living MoH Hero delaying his medical treatment

So, how do we thank our current Living MoH Heroes? By forcing President Obama to end these Disastrous Wars of Choice and Empire. And by holding the Republican Party accountable for the Disastrous Wars they championed which have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and 6 TRILLION siphoned off and stolen by War Profiteers leading us to the Republican Recession.

But, while George Bush, Dick Cheney and the Republican Party hate our military Heroes I salute MoH Leroy Arthur Petry and Salvatore Giunta and all our honorable service members.

The Republican Party's notions of Shared Sacrifice

In order to be part of the totalitarian mind-set, it is not necessary to wear a uniform or carry a club or whip. It is only necessary to wish for your own subjection, and to delight in the subjection of others. ~ Christopher Hitchens, from god is not Great pg. 232, sums up the Republican Party and their conservative fanatics use of Government in order to subjugate the Poor and Middle Class.

Whenever you watch a Sunday Political Show and a Republican bureaucrat talks about Shared Sacrifice watch out it means the Middle Class is in for a beating. The Republican Party has spent the last 30 years dismantling the Federal Government in an effort to destroy the Poor and subjugate the Middle Class.

When Wall Street engaged in furious gambling aided by the blind eye of Republican de-regulation it meant the Middle Class would sacrifice by being on the hook for the debts incurred. Of course, the Wall Street hoodlums know this because they've been pulling the same scam for 30 years ever since Ronald Reagan and John McCain gave them the nod, with the Savings & Loan Scandal, that Corporate theft would be protected with stolen Tax payer dollars.

Shared Sacrifice means a Federal Worker pay freeze on Middle Class government employees while helping Goldman Sachs funnel Billions of Tax Payer dollars into bonuses for the Bankers whose profligate "investment" gambling was aided and endorsed by President Bush and the Republican Party and the cause of the 2007-2009 Republican Party recession.

When Republicans start wars, as a means of a gigantic transfer of wealth from the Nation to the blood sucking War Profiteers, for instance Halliburton and Blackwater (Xe), it meant the poor and middle class would bear the brunt of the suffering and sacrifice, while Republicans profit off the blood of dead Americans in wars they will never serve in for Republicans eschew military service due to their inherent cowardice.

When Republicans talk about shared sacrifice in terms of cutting Federal spending it means an elimination of regulatory bodies, like the FDA, the EPA, OSHA and MSHA which keep Corporate monstrosities from poisoning our food water and air or from working Americans in dangerous slave conditions. It also means Republicans will continue to strive to steal from pensions and social security as detailed in Paul Ryan's plan to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

It means Billions of dollars physically lost in Iraq as the price of Warmongering and Trillions of dollars stolen from Social Security and transferred to the Republican War Profiteers off-shore banks in the Cayman Islands and UBS Switzerland. It means the end of Regulation on Banks, it means apologies to Oil Companies who destroy our lands and defense of Rich Mine Owners who kill their workers, it means an increase of Taxes on the Poor, while Taxes on the Rich decrease.

Shared Sacrifice to Republicans means the rapidly expanding gulf between the Rich and the rest of America. It means the Grover Norquist and Voodoo Economists dream of destroying Unions.

"They can tell their unions that they have to accept cuts now or face a much more dire fate in bankruptcy court.”

And the Sham Tea Party Hateriots have allowed themselves to be conditioned that Unions are always to blame. The $30K-a-year garbage man in New York City is to blame for the economy and not the recklessness of real estate "moguls" who leveraged and repackaged billions in junk investments in order to make big scores on the Republican housing bubble scam. Conservatives blame dead Chicago Firefighters and not Harry Macklowe whose, as pointed out in the New York Times Real Estate section, "$7 billion gamble on seven Midtown skyscrapers at the top of the market almost cost him his entire empire, is out looking for new deals."

And while thousands of Americans have been fast-tracked into bankruptcy and home foreclosure,

the truth is that there have been surprisingly few career fatalities among New York developers, even though they have lost billions of investor dollars on overpriced real estate and have littered the city with unfinished apartment buildings. While a homeowner who lost a house to foreclosure would find it difficult to borrow for years, developers who defaulted on enormous loans have still been able to attract money.

Nope Republicans are busy browbeating their conservative slaves into believing the Middle Class is to blame.

Shared Sacrifice means the realization of the Republican Goal of Neo-Feudalism, wage slavery and cutthroat Capitalism for the Poor and Socialism for the Rich and their undying Corporate monsters.

Related:
EPA Reminds Republicans Cap-and-Trade Used to be GOP Idea - and it Worked for Acid Rain [The Center for Public Integrity]

Obama Don't Bow Down

President Obama don't bow down to the Republican Chicken Hawk Warmongers who want to continue to suck the life's blood of the American people by having you expand the war in Afghanistan. Be brave and strong enough to stand up to the MIC and not allow American lives and money to be expended futilely in Afghanistan.

President B. Hussein Obama your decision is easy, pull us out of the Wars and be remembered as the one of the Greatest American Presidents ever... You, like I, took an Oath to Defend the American Constitution not the Afghanistan or Iraqi ones!

Listen to General Powell, take your time don't let the Chicken Hawk Warmongers like Mitt Romney goad or bully you into sending hundreds of thousands of Americans (as long as they aren't any of Romney's 5 sons) into a war with no purpose to defend a CIA backed corrupt regime for ambiguously defined National Interests. (Surprise! The brother of Hamid Karzai, the Mayor of Kabul, Ahmed Wali Karzai is a CIA paid operative, despite also being a Opium Kingpin and possibly funding the Taliban and international Terrorism. The CIA also backed Ahmed Chalabi who played the CIA and Bush/Cheney like fools, getting them to remove Saddam for him, and then double-crossed the US by giving classified Intel to the Iranians)

Getting and Letting (Getting In, Getting Bin Laden, Getting Out, Letting the "Afghans" figure out the rest) was a better choice in the beginning but the Bush/Cheney Regime had no intention of starting a war and finishing it because Perpetual War is the prime way the REMFpublicans make money! For instance Condi Rice and Stephen Hadley are starting a consulting firm, a nice cover to receive their payoffs for using their offices to push War onto America.

President Obama, I know it will be difficult, the MIC has made Trillions on the Wars of Bush and Cheney and if you think the Fox News led outrageous attacks by the Punk Ass Bitch REMFpublicans and their Teabagging Birtherite followers has been bad over the last 2 years the open calls for your Assassination (Pray for Obama psalm 109:8) and Overthrow will be unending from the Extremist Right.

And even though The Equalizer passed away his line as Harry Harbord Morant in Breaker Morant is more apropos: There is an epitaph I'd like: Matthew 10:36. Well, Peter... this is what comes of 'empire building.'

Related:
Armchair Generalist: Afghanistan Corruption - Out of Control

Disrespect

"I must say, I'm a little envious," President Bush said in March 2008 to soldiers in Afghanistan. "It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger."

Yesterday was not the day to make any post on the futility of war or perhaps it was the exact day... But, I'll not show any disrespect to the memory of those who gave the last full measure overseas for "American Interests". Even though those in power seem to have no problem continuing the Bush Regime's policy of using and discarding Marines and other Troops for Interests.

9/11 is just another day now, thankfully, I'm not one to celebrate defeat. You reflect on it and try to ensure it doesn't happen again but how?

Well the REMFpublican Chicken Hawk Party of Deferments invoked 9/11 time and again to support their policies. Everything was tied to 9/11 including the necessity of keeping them in office. While the Bush Administration was in power, those who profited off of death made Trillions of dollars and anyone who questioned the Iraq War was accused of hurting the Troops and Treason against a sitting President. That second part is of course ignored now that Barack Obama is in office, "questioning" him during wartime and bringing loaded guns to rallies decrying his Presidency is now the height of Patriotism, of course, the money still flows to the architects of fear and death.



Lost in the homeland political squabbles is that average Marine. The Bush Regime and his defenders sought to quash all dissent by hiding behind Marines, Soldiers, Airmen and Sailors they also fought to shield the American people from the sight of any blood. Lest the people knew what their pilfered tax dollars were actually buying them.

The shielding from sight the cost of war was one of the lessons REMFpublicans Bush, Cheney, Tom DeLay and the Pentagon learned from Vietnam; to control the message coming from the battlefield. You can't let the American people see the consequences of the Warfare State. But, merely restricting official media members did not stem the flow of the ugliness and evil of War. Bans on cell phone cameras and soldiers blogs (until the blogs, like through amber lenses were silenced forever) were tried at various times while unceasing war propaganda was spewed by Chicken Hawk REMFers on Fox, CNN and every other news agency in order to ensure you Don't Mention the War!

The other lesson Young and Old REMFpublicans learned from Vietnam was let other people do the actual dangerous fighting abroad because their valuable pasty pampered flabby asses were needed to fight the propaganda battle at home convincing the American people of the costs, necessities, consequences, and benefits of war, while ensuring they would never fear having their balls blown off by an IED...

However, the Bush Administration did only a semi- effective job of hiding the costs of the war from the American people. Anti-war rallies were strong yet marginalized (Two-Thirds of the American people are against the war? So?) and the collapse of the US economy in 2007 was tied directly to the profligate war profiteering and Bush tax cuts for criminals who hid the money they siphoned off using Bush's government power into Swiss bank accounts. Of course, anyone who questioned Bush's competence was attacked as a traitor and faced daily Fox Attacks even while "The Decider" bungled Afghanistan, Iraq, the response to Hurricane Katrina, the economic collapse, the shrinking and battered American middle class, justice and the years from 01/20/01 to 01/20/09...

Now, Afghanistan is on everyones mind... Again. It's a fucked place. The area hasn't been effectively controlled since Tamerlane bestrode the land like a whirlwind of primal destruction. Since then it's been a crossroads of battle as time and again countries have moved into Transoxania in the pursuit of National Interests and the people have used the Panjshir Valley as a center for resistance against whomever the occupiers have been. But, controlling and administering the land should never have been our mission. It should have been Destroying AQ and killing Bin Laden and letting the Multi-Ethnic Peoples of Afghanistan figure out the rest. When it cam e to the kill/capture of Bin Laden the directed incompetence from the Bush Regime in failing the trigger pullers was detailed by the nome de guerred Delta Force Commander Dalton Fury who was given that mission, in his book Kill Bin Laden.

Delta developed an audacious plan to come at bin Laden from the one direction he would never expect.

"We want to come in on the back door," Fury explains. "The original plan that we sent up through our higher headquarters, Delta Force wants to come in over the mountain with oxygen, coming from the Pakistan side, over the mountains and come in and get a drop on bin Laden from behind."

But they didn't take that route, because Fury says they didn't get approval from a higher level. "Whether that was Central Command all the way up to the president of the United States, I'm not sure," he says.

The next option that Delta wanted to employ was to drop hundreds of landmines in the mountain passes that led to Pakistan, which was bin Laden’s escape route.

But they didn't do that either, because Fury says that plan was also disapproved. He says he has "no idea" why.

"How often does Delta come up with a tactical plan that's disapproved by higher headquarters?" Pelley asks.

"In my experience, in my five years at Delta, never before," Fury says.

Getting (Getting In, Getting Bin Laden, Getting Out) would seem to have been a better choice. Sure that plan may have failed and Afghanistan could have turned into another Somalia, or the Taliban could have reclaimed power or Gulbuddin Hekmatyar would have emerged as the next Dictator in the area but those things could happen even with American and ISAF forces in the country and we would be spared cowardly screes from Ralph Peters enticing the Taliban to kill captured US Soldier Bowe Berghdal.

And lest we forget Iraq is still festering threatening to burst forth with renewed violence after having been "won" so many times over the last 5 years just as Afghanistan has...

The Pimp and The Prostitute

Everyone knows that Anderson Cooper is understating the outrage which would occur if a Democrat took on, as his mission, to undercut the president and cheer on another terrorist attack the way Liz Dick are doing. They would be called traitors.

Just ask the Dixie Chicks, and they were not even praying Al Qaeda would attack America the way Liz Dick, She Who Will not be Named 2, and the Thrice Divorced, Drug Addicted, Pedarast Child Rapist are...

So Liz Dick tell the American people why is it that everyone who undergoes a very controlled and completely supervised water boarding states it is torture? Yet Liz Dick and the other members of the Pro Human Pain and Suffering Crowd who have not, rabidly cheer on the practice.

Mancow Muller is the latest and his wasn't even "enhanced", Muller somewhat sheepishly admits he did not want to believe water boarding is torture but concedes it is drowning. And the guy administering the "water cure" admits to be untrained plus he doesn't place Muller in hour long stress positions, slap him in the face or sleep deprive him before hand.

Who can take seriously the stance of the Pimp and the Prostitute who have never been shot at, who have never shit in a hole in the desert, and who have never experienced water boarding? Liz Dick should be tried for warcrimes and subjected to enhanced water boarding prior to their final sentencing.

Update:
The disgusting Pro Human Pain and Suffering Crowd predictably declare it's not Torture because Muller was able to stop the procedure whenever he wanted and drowning isn't dying if you live...

The Cool Parent

Poor people get bored, too... ~ JCvD, Hard Target (1993)

During the last dreadful months of Tipsy Canoe's Reign of Terror, at the behest of the economic bastards who control him and his party, the American people experinced a smash-n-grab pilfering. As a last kick to the coccyx a scheme was concocted to push through the TARP and directly funnel Billions of dollars to the rich (My Base as Tipsy calls them) while Oil companies gouged people with super-inflated gas prices, reaching over $4.50 a gallon in the Chicago-land area in 2008, which to this day no one in the Bush regime has explained or seems to have any inclination of explaining.

The battle between the parties* is like the battle between two divorced parents over their kids. Each wants the kids to choose them over the other, each uses dirty tactics. Each wants to use the government to enrich themselves, their cronies and their masters. The Republicans, have, developed a very clever idea. Be completely irresponsible and when the bill comes due leave it to the Democrats. They want to be the "Cool Parent".

Over the last 8 years Bush, like all Republicans, ran the country into the ground using the Piss Down Your Back Reaganomics. The clean-up is now in the hands of Obama. And wouldn't you know it, before he even took office the Republican Hounds began barking and yelping at the uncool Democrats who want to raise taxes and be fiscally irresponsible. Heres what Jack Cafferty has to say about Republican "fiscal responsibilty".

Will Obama's plan work? I don't know. But, the Republican party is a criminal Corporate Welfare Gang, they work tirelessly to Privatize Profits and Subsidize Losses. The Republicans know if they're honest about their Socialist plans to funnel Trillions of dollars to the Gang of Corporate Hacks, the people would rebel.

*- Libertarians are like your uncle who drops by every few years smelling like Denmark.

The Republician Insurgents

The "honorable" Pete Sessions declared the Republican party is going to become the Taliban. At least he's admitted with whom the GOP shares their ideology. The GOP is akin to a organization which banned kite flying, measured the length of men's breads in public, oh and murdered thousands of people who disagreed with their religious extremism.

Some great vignettes from Pete:
"If they do not give us those options or opportunities then we will then become insurgency of a nature to where we do those things that are necessary to making sure the American public knows what we think the correct answer is."

"Insurgency we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban ... And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with."

Wasn't it a scant few years back when the declarations were You're either with us or against us? And Republican Extremists were declaring The Jihad upon those who dared question them?

Sadly, this is mere window dressing. All the protestations by the GOP over the Stimulus and the Democratically controlled government is the flip side of the same coin, wherein the Dems complained about Republican spending. We are privy to the squabbling by the two aristocratic families vying for control over the American Kingdom.

However, The GOP is just extra upset a few more scraps are falling from their banquet table and making it to the poor instead of going to it's rightful owners the manufacturers of Death and Destruction. After all the GOP and it's Janissary's understand the Poor are poor because they lack values and ethics.

John McCain for the Everywoman

"Frankly I don't like him,” so says Lynn Forester de Rothschild of Obama in a July 2008 interview with CNN’s Joe Johns.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild went on to state, “I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him.”

The thrice married Lynn Forester de Rothschild, who met her third husband, Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild, at a Bilderberg Meeting in 1998, will now officially support John McCain.

I think Lynn is right and Obama is an elitist, after all she's spent her whole life amongst them.

Update 09/22:
Not to pick on Skye but here is a blogpost from her Midnight Blue Blog which highlights the strange Right Wing demonization of elitism. I can only speculate if good old girl Lynn was an Obama supporter she might be attacked for being an elitist.

But Skye supports Sarah Palin the All American Girl. Because as Skye writes, "Americans all know a Sarah Palin or have walked in her shoes at some point in time." And as she quotes Ralph Peters, "Sarah Palin's one of us. She actually represents the American people." Just like Lynn Forester de Rothschild?

Marines Lead the Way.

According to researchers, "A significant number of U.S. veterans back from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin abusing alcohol after returning".

The Corpse has always prided itself on the 'Tip of the Spear' Mantra. And when it comes to problems post Iraq War the Corpse is leading the way yet again.

"Active-duty Marines were also found to be at increased odds of continuing to binge drink after deployment, as well as to experience new-onset alcohol-related problems," wrote Isabel Jacobs and colleagues at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, California."

Ooh-Rah!

Anyone who has spent time on base knows this, just stop by any seven day store and look. Watch the number of young men with high and tights enter and make a straight line to the walk-in cooler and emerge with 24 cans of self medication for the day.

This, while it of course receives little attention in the public's eye, is another one of the benefits of the Warfare State. Thousands of lives ruined by war which will reverberate amongst thousands more with alcohol related diseases, alcohol fueled crimes (Drunk Driving, Domestic Violence, Assaults) and family problems so often captured in print by the children of veterans who never re-enter society and never form good familial bonds.

Of course, what do Bush, Cheney, Karl Rove, or any number of the Warmongers care? Their families don't suffer from the consequences. But, the people who do suffer, who lose sons and daughters, fathers and brothers have allowed themselves to be controlled and manipulated to transfer their unconscious anger and their grief and their unhappiness from the true cause onto false fronts and imaginary hobgoblins. Their anger is used and directed, dividing the people and keeping all of us beholden and in chains to the Warfare State.

US Army or Caesar's Tenth Legion

The Dod has sounded the alarm:

In an announcement that puts troops and their families in the middle of a political dispute, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that the Army will not be able to pay soldiers after June 15 unless Congress approves an emergency war funding bill.

What this means is the DoD used the funds set aside for soldier's pay for other purposes. Most likely, buying nearly useless MRAP vehicles, bribes to the Anbar Imams or to buy Erik Prince another fortified Dr. Evil mansion.

Why is the alarm being raised of the evil pro-terrorist loving Never were Anti-War Democrat Congress won't pay Private First Class Jones?

Because this is political gold for the Warfare State. It gives them the hammer of the Troops to bludgeon the people into submission. Give us the money or we wont pay your kids. Quite succinctly - Pay us or your kids die.

At least John Murtha has the guts to call this for what it is:

“It is unacceptable for the Pentagon to make a political statement like that, scaring troops and their families in time of war. They know they’re going to be paid, and we know they’re going to be paid,” Murtha said.

Or this means we're further along the Roman Imperial Road.

According to Appian this is what transpired.
"What is it you want? State your demands," Caesar said.
No one answered at first. Appian says that none had the courage to ask for money and so one or two men began to call out for their discharge. They had been detained in the legions, and they wanted to go home. There were loud choruses of agreement.
"Very well," Caesar responded, "I discharge you. all of you."
There was stunned silence.
"And," he went on after a judicious pause, "I will pay you everything I promised you, after I win this war with other legions, and after they have had their just rewards."

~ Stephen Dando-Collins, Caesar's Legion pg 147.

Maybe Congress could pay the War profiteers based on success. You'll get your TRILLIONS after we've won the war in Iraq. I bet the Occupation would end rather quickly in that case.

Every 2 years this is news...

It seems every 2 years the Press shockingly learns the US troops in Iraq are treated like expendable pawns and breaks the breathless news story the water given to US forces is contaminated.

From the AP Exclusive:

Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.

I don't know whether to be upset or vindicated the US people keep being exposed to this story. Of course, the warmongers can always say they support the troops and keep their ears and eyes covered to the evils of the War Profiteers.

Pay No Attention to the Carnage in Iraq

The ignorance or deceit by Bush and his rabid chicken hawk warmonger supporters about Iraq continues unabated.

In early 2007 when US and Iraqi deaths increased during the vaunted Surge, it was a sign of progress. Later when deaths tailed off because the insurgents went to ground to out wait the increased troop concentration it was hailed as even more progress.

Now Iraq is experiencing an increase in deaths and violence (only a troop hating anti-american terrorist would click any of these links) and the insurgents are adapting their techniques by using the mentally handicapped, to circumvent the identification of the stereotypical suicide bomber.

Of course, when you're funnelling 12 Billion dollars a month (Estimates are now 3 Trillion just for Iraq!) to the coffers of War profiteers, you need to keep lying.

Al Qaeda in Iraq follies

After the lies which were used to start the War in Iraq were exposed and debunked and the patriotic flag waving war fervor wore off, new rationales needed to be invented to ensure the DoD money train continued.

Two of the foulest reasons used by Bush, Chickenhawks and Warmongers are:
1) When they place the words like honor and noble deaths and scared blood on the lips of the dead and use their deaths to continue the occupation and
2) War is good because the massive destruction and mayhem it causes creates jobs.

Another oft quoted erroneous rationale is the "We're fight'em there so we don't have to fight'em here". Or as Sourcewatch phrases it Taking the fight to the terrorists.

Did we go into into Iraq to free the people from the iron fist of the Tyrant Saddam or did we go to create a sink hole for terrorists to fall into so we could slay them?

As an analogy:

Suppose your neighbor down the street beats his wife and children so you intervene and send in the police to arrest the abuser.

A good act.

But then you leave the police in the house and decide to fight the War on Drugs by inviting all manner of drug dealers in from the neighborhood and allowing them to set up a Meth lab inside the house. Then during the fighting the wife and children you just saved from a brutal tyrant are killed by the dealers or a Meth lab explosion or an errant round from a tac guy.

What did you accomplish?

Of course, I'm giving to much credence to those who believe the Al Qaeda in Iraq stories, usually ignorant Rush Limbaugh listeners or couch-bound commandos who've never been in Iraq. Foreign Fighters never made up more than 5% of the "enemy" in Iraq.

The "enemy" over in Iraq are Iraqis not Al Qaeda. The only Al Qaeda in Iraq prior to our invasion was Ansar al Islam a group of 200-300 guys in the Kurdish Northern Watch No Fly Zone, who hated Saddam and lived in the remote moutains. To think we went to war to kill 300 guys is either ignorant or buffonish.

The War in Iraq is a Racket.

Americans in Iraq for the Long Haul

As I have postulated in previous posts (here and here), Iraq in many respects mirrors the Philippines.

The US had military forces in the PI for 94 years and we now have verbal confirmation, besides all the circumstantial evidence provided by the enduring bases and Green Zone Mega-Embassy, the US plans to remain in Iraq for the Long Haul.

Bush has declared American forces will never leave Iraq during his Dictatorship and, when asked whether it might last 10 years, replied: "It could easily be that, absolutely."

Of course, John McCain isn't content with a mere decade. He wants the US to be in Iraq for 100 years...


And the military occupation will continue to be sold to the American populace as necessary for their safety, good for the economy and to bring the light of freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people...

Update (01/15):
Abdul Qadir, the current Iraqi Defense Minister stated Iraq will not be able to defend it's borders till at least 2018.

Update (01/18):
Tom Engelhardt has an excellent commentary on the Surge Success and the pronouncement of at least 10 more years...

John Edwards, maybe, but I doubt it

Well, Mr. Edwards says if he's elected all troops will be out of Iraq within 9-10 months, save a contingent at the Disneylandesque US Mega-Embassy.

I applaud Mr. Edwards for the courage, in the current American political world, of admitting he made an error with his 2002 vote for war. As I've have stated earlier, it is difficult to admit an error and with political opponents ready to pounce on any actual or apparent change as flip-flopping, changing one's position becomes nigh impossible.

But, before I get all weak in the knees over Johnny I need to more closely examine the way Mr. Edwards made his money on malpractice cases. I hope it wasn't in destroying individual doctors from the perch of perfect, years gone by, hindsight. I also need to peruse Mr. Edwards other campaign statements.

As for future foreign policy, with this kind of money being allocated will you be able to resist the demands of the Warmongering profiteers?

Free Republic Update:
It's also sober to read what the Freepers have to offer up on John Edwards plan. Of course these people claim to support the troops, by wanting them to stay in Iraq forever. In reality Freepers use the troops as a club to attack political enemies...

The Anti-War 110th Congress!

Yes, I'm so glad the democratically controlled congress is saying no to giving the Warmongers money!

Wait, this post reads the senate just approved another 70 Billion in war funding?!? And now Iraq/Afghanistan have surpassed Vietnam in War Profiteering...

Let's read what hillary had to say about Funding the Iraq War 7 months ago:
"Well, today we're talking about this very important immigration issue, there'll be time to talk about that later." ~ hillary clinton

Well of course you have time hillary, you don't have to worry about chelsea getting her Tits blown off by an IED! But, of course chelsea is special she's been groomed for leadership and has just started a $150000 job in New York. Can, We the People really ask such a special young woman to put that all on hold and endanger her health, life and sanity?

Unbelievable. Can anyone continue to delude themselves a democratic president will pull the troops out before 2012? Let alone any of the Insane republicans... This is one of the wages of the Warfare/Welfare State...

Vote for Ron Paul.