Another day, another rant

Things seem to be al little askew in the world today... It's no secret that we are currently engaged in two foreign wars, that our economy is in crisis, the government is about to spend a staggering $700+ billion, everyday regular Americans are suffering; losing their jobs, their investments, and their homes, and the health of the planet is in an alarming state.  What's with all of this anyway?  The powers to be in our society would like us all to believe that we are fighting our two wars as an act of self defense.  See, there are these small groups of men, hiding in caves, in remote parts of the world.  And these men are hellbent on destroying our way of life.  They can do it too, because they flew airplanes into buildings in New York, and tragic events like that would destroy our way of life you see... It is tragic what happened on September 11, 8 years ago, but in no way shape or form did i feel threatened in my way of life.  In no way shape or form do I believe that small groups of fanatics living in caves on the other side of the globe have a snowballs chance in hell of tearing down the system in which I live.  Hell, it's hard enough for an American to make a small change to the system.   So it's a ridiculous notion to believe that this "War on Terror" is real, why are we fighting?  Two more likely reasons are the oil pipeline now in place that the Taliban nixed in 1998, and the opium production, also something the Taliban cut down on while in power.  Yes, the Taliban were ruthless, ultraconservative, religious fanatics; but they did a great job in cutting down on their nation's opium production, and it seems made the fatal mistake of not doing business with Western oil companies.  In Iraq, the story has been a little less consistent, but no more believable. First, Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction; chemical, biological, and even nuclear weapons.  He was willing and able to use these weapons against us.  Before we get to the part where after we took over everything, we couldn't find anything, lets go back just a little bit... If Saddam had these weapons, which we know he didn't, how would he attack us with them?  He didn't have an airforce, no navy, and what he did have of a military would be of little use in attacking a nation on the opposite end of the globe, unless i guess they intended to dig a hole to the United States, and send their weapons of mass destruction that way... So why war with Iraq?  It's been rumored that after the sanctions were to be lifted, Hussein planned to start trading his oil in Euros not dollars which could cause considerable damage to US economic interests.  Also perhaps the fact that Saddam routinely acted against the interest of the West's economic powers.  Then there's that line about spreading democracy, and bringing freedom to the Iraqi people.  If the United States government gave two shits about freedom and democracy, they wouldn't have destroyed the bill of rights by passing the Patriot Act, and if invading sovereign nations were how we intended to spread freedom and democracy there are plenty of nations enduring greater tyranny and hardships than the Iraqi people before 2003.  Fortunately for the House of Saud, they have chosen to engage the West as business partners, rather than rivals.  The economy is in crisis and we're about to spend $700+ to try to fix it... Okay, well why is the economy in crisis?  Since 1980 our government has been shifting to more conservative methods of regulating the economy.  Ronald Reagan told us that government was the problem, and since then, government has been peeled back from hampering the profits of bankers, speculators, and the energy industry.  Sadly today the system is imploding on itself.  See that government regulation was in place to sustain the system and keep it from collapsing itself like it did in the Great Depression era.  So now everybody is in a panic, and the new government's solution to fix the problem is to spend an inordinate amount of money... The Republicans and I actually agreed for a minute about something though.  Mine and their opposition to spending $700+ billion from the government.  This agreement was shortlived though, the $700 billion I oppose is being spent in death and destruction, yes that is the budget for military spending in the United States this year.  The Republicans have no problem spending that much government money on death and destruction, but when it comes to helping Americans get back to work, NOWAY PAL not on my watch they say... It's clear to me, they are the party of moral standards in our nation today... Hey I don't care if it costs twice what they have written up, if it puts Americans back to work and puts some regulation back into the system I'm for it. As for the state of the planet, a scientific study released this week showed that the effects of global warming were further along than previously believed, and that the situation looked dire.  Something about this whole mess seems a bit fishy... I care about the planet, so I'm definitely on the clean energy bandwagon... I don't think that we should be fighting these two wars we are in, especially since they are being fought for economic interests mostly having to do with the control of fossil fuels... I realize that this economic mess was created by a lack of interest in sustainability, and a great deal of interest in profitability... Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems that the best and easiest way to fix all of these things at once would be to get away from burning coal and oil, invest in solar, wind, and geothermal power, and that in doing so we would put Americans to work, eliminate the need for these two wars, and save the environment for our children and grandchildren... But what do I know?

TV will rot your brain...

I turned on the television today, I was asked to watch one of the "best new" shows out there... something about "Homeland Hero's" or some such nonsense... I in no way want to take away anything from people that serve their country, nor do I want to belittle their jobs and the importance of law enforcement and security.  But something about all of this bothers me.  I thought about it for a while, and I have come to the conclusion that I do not want to ever see this show, I hope that it fails, and I think that in a way this show is an example of what's wrong with America.  Oh yeah, I just said it, there is something wrong with America, and it has to do with this "Homeland Security" stuff.  My problem is this... When I grew up, I was taught that the United States was a 'beacon of hope' the example of freedom, what everyone would want to strive to imitate.  We now have a department in the federal government that answers to the president called Homeland Security.  To me there is some sort of disconnect between being the 'city on the hill' and feeling a need for a department called homeland security.  We have a military force, you would think that this homeland security would be carried out by them. No.  Their job is more law enforcement.  Well we have relatively well funded police forces all throughout the nation, is that good enough? No.  Okay, we have a military force to defend our borders and police forces to maintain the peace, how about their combined efforts, is that enough? No, we need an entire leg of government to basically do what is already being done, and give it a name like homeland security so that no one can dispute what their job really is.  And the name homeland security bothers me too.. America, the bright shiny example of freedom in the world has, whether we like it or not, become an empire.  In order to preserve empire, we need our military forces carrying out invasions and occupations of foreign lands, and an entirely new force to ensure that the Home Land is Secure... Right before our very eyes, we have become the thing we were supposed to not like, the bad example of a dominant society, we have become an expanding empire willing to fight wars and conquer foreign lands to build a sea of wealth and "maintain the American way of living".  We are now one and the same with Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire, the Soviet Union, the same Rome that had Christians fed to lions, the same Persian Empire that threatened the livelihood of Greek society.  We are all of those things and probably more given modern technology and the insane amounts of impact our weaponry could have on the planet and civilization.  So it's less that the show looks to the overtly racist COPS as an inspiration, and it's not so much that the show will be broadcast into millions of homes on network television, it's more the fact that our society today feels the need for a program or department called homeland security.  There was something great about America in that we once believed that we did not need to involve ourselves with the politics and wars of the 'old world' and that our strength and greatness could be achieved through alliances, diplomacy, trade, and sharing ideals.  Now we have two wars raging, both more than 5 years old with no end in sight, and these wars are being fought with the intent of "preserving the American way of life"  and what we really mean by that is the desire to consume more than could ever be confused as necessary.  Topping that off, we now have the department of homeland security to keep us safe here at home while our "defense" forces are aggressively engaging in conquering and occupying foreign lands.  So I do not intend on ever seeing this show, and I hope we can someday stand up to possibly our greatest enemy... Ourselves.

Woah! Diplomacy?!?!

I heard the most astonishing news on the radio this morning... Russia has decided to delay the building of their missile defense sights in western Russia, a response to the irresponsible and practically pointless missile defense shield proposed by the Bush regime several years earlier.  -- A little background for anyone that's not that plugged in, several years ago, the international scene was turned on its head when the Bush administration announced they wanted to build some missile defense sites in Poland, their intent they claimed was to deter, and be able to stop any missile attacks from Iran or other "rogue nations" in the Middle East.  Now, I'm not sure how familiar anyone is with geography, but Poland is not necessarily between Iran and the United States.  Obviously the Russians saw this as reaching a little too far into their back yard, and with justifiable reason went damn near ballistic.  This opened a firestorm of debate on the international scene, brought up the idea of a second Cold War being started by the United States, and very well may have had a large part to do with the actions taken by the Russians in Georgia over the summer.--  Nonetheless, the Obama people have come out saying that there is no big hurry in implementing these "defensive" missile sights in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe.  The response then by the Russians; having felt threatened by American missiles capable of being launched so close to their nation was that they were now in no big rush to build their "defensive" missile sites to our "defensive" missile sites....  It's a sad, sick world we live in when nations are defending themselves from other nation's defenses... I can imagine that this is a result of some behind the scenes talks between the Obama administration and the Medvedev administration.  Holy balls, diplomacy in the twenty-first century!

It's about time, now get out of the way!

Welcome to my blog. This is my first post. Theres a lot of stuff going on in the world right now, I will be going on, sometimes to great lengths about them. First off, I feel this post is about a week late, but here it goes anyway. IT'S ABOUT FREAKING TIME! We've been tolerating this mental midget in the White House for eight long disappointing years. Good Bye and Good Riddance George W Bush. You will not only be remembered as a poor president, by putting us in this pointless war, ruining our image around the world, and dismantling the economy; you will be remembered as the WORST president. Now these Kool-Aid drinking whacko's on the right are busting Obama, Pelosi, and Reid's chops for taking action to fix the mess they put us into?! Listen here right winger's you've done enough for us, trickle down economics doesn't work, de-regulation doesn't work, pre-emptive war doesn't work, and cutting social programs doesn't bleeding work! I think you've picked up on a pattern here... Look all I'm saying, the American public has endured irresponsible economic policies since the Reagan era, 20 of the last 28 years have seen Republican rule of the executive branch, 12 of the last 14 years have seen Republican rule of the legislative branch, and now we have a right leaning supreme court that Bush stacked, give us a chance. How could anyone know if our socially responsible programs could work? You people haven't let them. How could we know that diplomacy would work abroad? You haven't tried to talk to anyone. And how would we know if good responsible regulation would work in the economy? You people haven't allowed it to happen.