I think that people in this country are so afraid of realizing the truth about what is happening to this country that citizens are choosing to continue to believe in the rhetoric of the incoming administration rather than see it for exactly what it is, another chapter in America’s slide toward fascism. I do not agree with the people that claim Obama is not getting a fair chance to prove he is any different than the man he is replacing. I understand the fear and frustration that drives these people to continue to hope against hope that he will deliver the change he promised in his campaign. The very idea of admitting that we are facing another four years of corporate socialism, of ignoring the plight of the Middle Class, of unchecked power in the Executive Branch and the prospect of more military adventures by a nation that has squandered its resources on the concept of an open-ended “War on Global Terror” is too much to contemplate for most of us.

Still, hiding from reality will not change the situation we find ourselves in. Denial will not stop this nation from continuing on this path of self destruction. Some may believe that I am exaggerating the problem, I don’t believe I am. There is just no way that we can continue to fund the military at the present rate.

The nightmare of the Bush Administration that brought us eight long years of neo-con rule is almost over. I can honestly say that the United States was closer to losing its way than I have ever seen it in my lifetime. When I say “losing its way” I’m talking about operating outside the rule of law, and having our government basically ignore its responsibility to be honest with the American people and to at least consider the American people’s wishes in its decisions both foreign and domestic.

I’m not naïve. I realize that our nation has often ignored the wishes of the American people and has operated outside the rule of law many times, not only in recent history, but throughout our history. I believe at times it was necessary and I also believe at times, it was not. As I get older, and as revelations emerge as to what has transpired over the years about specific events, I understand to a greater extent how many times our government has kept information from its people, and how many times our government has lied to the people. Sometimes I believe it may have been in the best interests of the nation, and sometimes it was not. In fact, there were times that the government acted illegally and recklessly, and made decisions and performed actions that were definitely not in the peoples best interests. At times these things were done out of a genuine desire to do the right thing in the long run, and sometimes they were not. Either way, we are still here with our representative form of government, somewhat injured, but nevertheless, intact.

I may be disgusted and tired of the current paradigm in Washington and the nation, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to throw in the towel and accept the fact that my government is following the only path available. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. The American government is hell-bent on its own world agenda and feels that there is nothing in this world that can stop them from realizing its goals. They are pursuing world hegemony at the expense of all other nations and their own people. “Peace in our time” is an illusion, for the government seeks no peace, only more power that is bought at the end of a gun.

In the last five years, the media has become the stomping ground for corporate mouthpieces that not only own most of the media outlets, but also control the advertising revenues that keep these television, radio and newspapers afloat. This is a direct result of the “fairness doctrine” being scrapped by the FCC and also the placement of Michael Powell (the son of Colin Powell) to head the agency. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 also added fuel to the fire. According to Network:

The Telecommunications Act of 1996. Under the 1934 Communications Act, everything was clear and precise - there was NO option but to regulate - and the Commission did what the Act instructed it to do. The 1996 Act, however, introduced the so-called forbearance doctrine, where the Commission could, on its own initiative, refrain from regulating an industry segment. That's when things began to collapse. In its haste to create local exchange competition, the FCC went either too far or not far enough in the early days. Three methods of local competition were introduced: (1) Local resale, but the discounts were not deep enough and so hardly anyone chose that option; (2) Unbundled Network Elements (UNEs), where discounts were probably too deep, so everyone jumped in; and (3) Facilities based competition, which has not taken off because of the UNE discounts. Chairman Powell, who strongly favors facilities-based competition decided to "fix" the problem by moving too far too fast in the opposite direction by essentially deregulating UNE price regulation for the Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers. The result: Policy disarray and chaos!

Let me start this article with a supposition. How long do you think it would take Russia to conquer Georgia if that were their intent? I believe that if the war started at say midnight, than the next midnight, Georgia would cease to exist. They might last a little longer if it was a spur of the moment decision, but if Russia was earnestly trying to take over little Georgia, it would have already been a done deal.

Now for all of you Americans that get your news from the American media, you don’t have a clue to what’s really going on. I’ve decided to tell you what I know from what people on the ground are writing. Before you get into that though, let me say that the Bushmaster and his little statement that he will not allow the Georgians to be defeated, is a little like the Captain of the Titanic saying he won’t let his ship go down. He doesn’t have a chance in hell of altering the circumstances. Especially when NATO doesn’t want to get involved and we are fighting a two-front war in the Middle-East.

In this article I am going to make an attempt to clarify my views on this presidential race, U.S. foreign policy, the economy and what we are experiencing in this new era as far as our civil liberties, the constant threats (real and perceived) to our “security” and the increasing gap between the rich and the not so rich in this country. One could write a book about each of these subjects, putting everything in one article is a daunting task. I’m not an expert nor am I an economist, diplomat or a military genius. What I am attempting to do is separate fact from fiction as I see it. I’m sure that many will take exception to what I have to say and that’s understandable, we all can’t be mirror images of each other. I ask your indulgence beforehand.

Those words…so haunting, seemingly harmless and benign, I love my country whether it’s right or wrong. That’s what the phrase means, right? To some it may mean that, but to me, it means something entirely different.

“My country right or wrong”, that part is entirely correct. The Egyptians, the Spartans, the Romans, the Spanish and the English all supported their nations, whether they were right or wrong. What most people don’t realize is that the last two words of that phrase changes the meaning so completely; “my country”.

The truth is that it is your country whether your country is right or wrong. It’s still your country. That makes you part and parcel of what is done in your name. “My Country” is the damning part of that phrase. Yes, it’s your country, and what your country does reflects on you. The truth may be that you have no real power to move your country in a different direction, but that doesn’t take away the fact that you are complicit. What your country does, what it stands for, or doesn’t stand for, is certainly part of your responsibility. You may only be one voice in the wilderness, but you still have that voice.

I didn’t go to “Netroots Nation”, mainly because I can’t afford to travel to Austin right now. If I could have gone, I would have, if only to raise questions that the other so-called “Progressives” won’t ask. You see, I have quite a different “take” on things that most “Progressives” accept as business as usual in politics.

The difference between the people attending “Netroots” and myself is that I don’t trust the Democrats as much as I don’t trust the Republicans. Of course, being a realist, we have to accept that the Republican and Democratic Party duopoly will continue to keep the power in Washington. There is no real threat or challenge to them. The thing that bothers me the most however, is how quickly and totally the members of “Netroots” fall on their swords for Obama, even after he voted FOR telecom immunity on the FISA Bill. This type of behavior enables the politicians to take the Left for granted.

An editorial in The New York Times, No Friend of the Workers, today http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/opinion/18fri2.html?ref=opinion was a scathing indictment of the Labor Department. Now I don’t want to lecture anyone about what they should be paying attention to, but this one was too hard to ignore. The editorial was spot-on in it’s reporting, and that was gratifying in itself. The New York Times has published a number of editorials that could come under the banner of “dissent”.

In the article, there were clear indictments of the Labor Department. In one paragraph of the editorial the Times stated:

It’s very early in the morning and I’m here writing about the possibility of my country attacking another nation in the Middle East for no real reason except to put some capitalistic fears to rest. The major reason that the United States desires to attack Iran isn’t because they believe that they will build an atomic weapon, it is the fear that Iran will switch from the dollar and embrace the Euro which will send our currency into free fall and bring about a possible recession or depression in this country as our dollar becomes worthless.

Make no mistake about why wars are fought. The central reason is almost always about resources, markets or threats to an economy. The rhetoric that precedes a war is usually never about the real reasons a nation desires to attack another. The reasons for war are veiled in talk about freedom or principles, but warring nations usually have neither. This nation, built on a system of values called capitalism or a market economy is always ready to use its armed forces as a means to force their economic needs on other nations.

I’ll bet that George Bush and Dick Cheney are tap dancing together today. There is nothing better than getting your way when most of the people in the country are absolutely disgusted with the FISA Bill and the immunity it gives for the telecommunication industries fir knowingly breaking the law Must be a sweet deal for AT&T that gave ALL of its telephone messages in the west coast to the government.

Barack Obama was a real patriot too. He flew in to Washington just so he could give a free pass to all those that broke the law! Some country we have here. Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd were magnificent in their caving in on their supposed filibuster. Yeah, kudos all around the Senate for showing that they believe in the rule of law, as long as it’s the citizens that break it. The Government apparently is above the law. This bodes well for Bush when (and if) he ever gets charged for breaking the FISA Statues.

I have been wondering of late where it is on the political spectrum that I would feel comfortable? There was a time when I considered myself to be a Democrat. This wasn’t because I believed in the party’s platform; it was because I disagreed with the Republican point of view. The last seven years have reinforced my view of Republicans, but at the same time my fondness for the Democrats has also waned. The truth is that frankly, I don’t see much of a difference between the two; both the Republicans and the Democrats are financed by the same entities.

Who are the people behind the curtain, so to speak? Well, they are basically the same people and organizations that have always ruled in this country (with periodic breaks from time to time). These are the captains of industry and the bankers that back them, and lately, religious groups (that pop-up occasionally). The government claim that the people are behind the government and they are responsible for electing their government is patently untrue. The only thing that the people are responsible for is rubber-stamping the candidates that are selected for us. The two political parties, the Republicans and Democrats, seem to be the only game in town, so to speak. While it is true that this nation has other political parties, in national elections, there are basically only two parties that matter.

I can’t remember a time when the political landscape has been as bleak and littered by crackpot ideas than it is now. The two representatives of the duopoly that share power in this nation have consistently changed positions and both have endorsed the use of force (including first-strike nuclear attacks) on nations that are opposed to U.S. foreign policy. These positions would have been anathema to a presidential race just a few years ago, but now statements supporting pre-emptive nuclear strikes are talked about with hardly any eyebrows being raised, or indignation expressed.

This presidential race has become a “gotcha” fest of the lowest moral caliber. Instead of portraying themselves as morally worthy of holding the highest office in the land, the two major party candidates have consistently raised the bar of what is considered acceptable to Americans. Time and time again, ideas and policy statements that would have been unthinkable in the 20th century are now commonplace rhetoric on a planet that has seemingly forgotten the horrors of nuclear warfare, and now has become inured to scenes of death and destruction of civilian populations in the name of bringing “democracy and freedom” to the corpses that litter the streets and back alleys of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It seems as if we have been debating the FISA Laws forever. It isn’t a difficult task in understanding how the thing is supposed to work. The original law was fine as it was, and I believe that the President circumvented the law because of his arrogance, not because the law was too unwieldy. The intent, I believe, was to make the FISA Law that way so any Federal Agency that wanted to eavesdrop on American citizens had to go through the mechanics of justifying the act.

Apparently the Bush Administration thought that the law was outdated for this day and age, so they circumvented the FISA statutes. This is typical of this administration, if you don’t like the law, just go ahead and break it. God forbid you work to change the law, break it first and after you have done this deed, ask a compliant Congress to cover-up the crime by changing the law to suit the administration’s needs.

William Kristol must believe that he is extraordinarily sanguine and the rest of us extraordinarily stupid when he wrote his column in the New York Times today. The column entitled “Someone Else’s Alex” was in response to a Move-On.org ad that showed a mother with a one-year old baby named Alex. and saying that her son would not be available for Senator John McCain’s 100 Year War in Iraq.

According to Kristol;
“I’m not persuaded. Having slandered a distinguished general officer, MoveOn has now moved on to express contempt for all who might choose to serve their country in uniform.”

There is no “Left” and “Right” in the mainstream political scene today. There are nuances of liberal thought in the Obama campaign, but that is terribly overshadowed by the “thought police” in his campaign that don’t want to give the McCain people any “talking points” that they can use against him. This particular episode in US history is very unfortunate. The fact that the Democrats must play the role of the quasi-belligerent and bellicose imperialists, in order to thwart the rhetoric of John McCain is a crime in itself. This type of behavior and rhetoric dooms the American people to a campaign that disallows the type of discourse that we so desperately need in this nation.

This is directed to Barack Obama and the people that make up his campaign. The rhetoric from the campaign is that Senator Obama wants to be the President of all the American people. The tone of the campaign is that he wants to be the President of all the American people that blindly accept the current status quo. When I say this I’m talking about the people that blindly accept that this nation’s economy is based on the Military Industrial Complex. Our largest industries are manufacturing airplanes, helicopters, tanks, munitions and weapons of war.

These aren’t the only things that the American people accept as the status quo. The mainstream media that is owned and operated by the corporate entities that fund the majority of politicians campaigns and only let the majority of Americans hear the news tat they want them to hear. The same mainstream media that hyped the Iraqi War and fails to tell us when the government enacts measures to curtail our civil liberties. The same mainstream media that helps to select our candidates for office and keeps them from talking about the issues that many Americans are actually concerned about.

The decision of the Supreme Court yesterday was a return to the rule of law in this country in the most basic sense. The writ of habeas corpus, one of the most fundamental precepts of American law, was upheld even though this administration pushed the Detainee Treatment Act and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 through Congress to circumvent this basic precept. The ruling which was 5-4 in favor of the detainee’s, this was a slap in the face to the Bush Administration that had heretofore counted on the supplicant Congress to willingly follow their incessant attacks on the Constitution.

The prevailing opinion was given by Justice Kennedy, who by abiding by precepts that predated our Bill of Rights, has helped this nation return to the rule of law that citizens in this country can be proud of. The dismantling of the Constitution that this criminal administration has embarked on since it took office with voluminous “signing statements” numerous Presidential Directives and willful disregard for the rule of law have been thwarted by the highest court in the land. All Americans should celebrate this ruling and cheer for the five Justices that put the law over the wishes of this administration. You can see the text of the decision at: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/06-1195.pdf

These are the darkest days that I’ve ever seen in this country. There are so many Americans walking around completely clueless about what is really happening in this country. I’ve been wondering why the government has released so many formerly “Secret” files on how we overturned governments around the world and how we forced “regime changes” and how many people we were responsible for helping to massacre since the end of WWII. I think I’ve figured it out. It isn’t that out government “wants to come clean”, rather it wants to inure the American people to bloodshed for economic reasons.

Progressive Americans, that’s a joke. Barack Obama promised change and one of the first things he did after clinching the Democratic nomination, was to continue the rhetoric of the Bush Administration. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel like a knife has been driven through my heart, and I didn’t even support him! The truth is what’s happened to this country? I’m no fool, I know that we have been involved in toppling unfriendly governments and have started imperialistic wars for a long time now. The difference between then and now is that America no longer looks after just it’s “interests”, it wants control of everything.

If there is one thing that Dennis Kucinich has, it’s the courage to tell the truth, even when the deck is stacked against him. In this case he has an entire Congress (or most of them) that seem to want go along to get along. It will be a cold day in hell when the Articles of Impeachment that he delivered in Congress last night, all 35 of them, ever get out of the Committee where they will sit on them until the new elections , mainly because the majority of Democrats in the House have no sense of justice and of course, no spine.

I was glued to C-Span last night. I was mesmerized by the litany of abuses that this sitting President has perpetrated on not only the people of America, but the World. Step by step, Kucinich meticulously brought every charge against George W. Bush and backed those charges up with times, dates and testimony from Administration insiders. This Congressman has done his homework; there was not a single thing I believe he missed. There were a few things that I didn’t even know this President was responsible for, and I follow him like a hawk.

I’ve waited to write this article for a while now. I used to be a loyal die-hard Democrat for 54 years of my life. I no longer know what a “Democrat” is anymore; I don’t know what a “Progressive” is either. I once thought that a “Progressive” was words that people who were too shy to say they were “liberals” used in its place. I don’t feel that way anymore. These so called “Progressives” aren’t liberals, they are something else completely. They are not people that have liberal values that put the welfare of the people of our country first. There are mass-media believers that can’t think past the last “sound-bite” they heard on a campaign video from the DNC.

While wandering about the web, searching for what some would call the truth, I happened to come across a few articles that had the same thing in common. While the subjects of these stories were not even remotely connected, the underlying theme that brought them together was abundantly clear, that this nation has taken a wrong turn towards the dark side.

I’m sure that many people think I am being needlessly dramatic and think of me as someone overly pessimistic by phrasing what I’m about to say in this fashion, but let me make myself clear, I don’t believe for a minute that I am. This dark side that I will attempt to illuminate can’t be explained in simplistic terms; good/bad, black/white, right/wrong. No, it’s not that easy. Maybe good/evil is the most succinct way I can approach our nation’s bellicose behavior and attitude as of late.

The majority of the people in America today have basically said yes to corporate ownership of the government. The majority of Americans seem to have decided to let the corporate media do their thinking for them. Welcome to the information age in overdrive. You may not get the correct information… but you will get lots of it. The task is to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The blame cannot be shifted solely onto the shoulders of our political leaders. The American people cannot claim that they were “misled” by their leaders and don’t know the truth. While they were indeed misled, the truth wasn’t long behind the lies. Whether it its the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, the food crisis, the loss of our civil liberties or the sinking of our economy, the American people have been informed and apprised of everything. We know who the people behind the curtain are. We know how they did the things that they did. There are no great secrets that the American people don’t have access to. Everything is in plain sight.

I'm tired of the networks telling me what the news means. More importantly, if the news media would tell us all the news instead of what they want us to hear; we wouldn't need these mindless pundits telling us what it all means. This country had been around for 332 years without a King telling us what we need to know. The news stations leave out 90% of what is really going on in the world. We hear about freaking celebrities, we hear "human interest" stories, we hear enough crap to drive us crazy. How about news that affects our lives? That would be a welcome change from the pabulum that you dish out. I need to know about Brittany Spears custody battle about as much as I need to know the price of pork belly futures. Put it on MTV where it belongs.