The Road Previously Traveled

I’ve refrained from writing about Palin. Frankly, she’s a herring, well played to distract from the complete lack of substance offered by the McCain campaign. I don’t see that adding to the noise about her serves the nation, whose citizens are justifiably alarmed by the faltering American economy, the exorbitant cost of the Iraq invasion/occupation and the nose diving dollar. They are freaked out by the size of the deficit and the staggering and escalating debt we have with China.  They are disgusted by the selfishness of the Katrina response, the idea that 5 million is the cut off for the middle class to an out of touch McCain, and that tamping down American innovation on alternative energy and drill, drill, drill, will somehow resolve our oil energy crisis.

Our citizens are looking for answers. Americans are a nose to the grindstone kind of people. We work hard. We like it. Give us an insurmountable task, and we’ll do it. We think it’s because we’re Americans, and that’s how we roll. To a degree, that mindset is part of it, but we tackle things like going to the moon or building railroads across and entire continent because we’re winners. We interact in a highly competitive mindset. American companies who set their people up to grow and excel in their work kick ass. You can almost predict when the middle age spread, in the guise of too many layers, too much compartmentalizing, and too much self-positioning robs the essence out of a company. Right now, our nation is feeling this bloat.

We’ve felt this way before, and we tap our best tool to dig ourselves out. We call it American ingenuity, this ability of ours to continually reinvent ourselves. In reality, it’s not a we as much as a few. A few Americans (or people who have adopted us) burst into our consciousness as the right people at the right time. In my lifetime, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee, Helen Greiner and Al Gore are some of the people who moved us, inspired us, and changed the way we tackle the world.

There are unknown citizens out there right now who are on the cusp of being the next amazing Americans. There are people who will harness renewable energy in an economically viable way. Still others will tackle the distribution issues, while others will build the new technology for transportation of the next decade and beyond. It’s an exciting time to be an American innovator. This is a cyclic opportunity, and for a few thinkers and doers, their time is nearly here. Barack Obama sees this. He sees that this country can renaissance yet again, be the global phoenix, cement our innovation superiority, lead by example and wean the world from a self destructive fossil fuel addiction by making it more profitable to embrace the new greener business model, mindset and markets.

That smells like a win. Breathe it in, folks. Remember that smell? It smells like the moon.

This brings me back to Palin. One of the publications I read regularly is the National Catholic Reporter.

If she is a “post denominationalist” today (see the analysis earlier by NCR senior correspondent John Allen (McCain’s VP choice a woman - and a post-denominationalist) her language at times clearly comes out of her earlier Pentecostal formation. Two examples that are making the rounds in recent days occurred in June when she returned to the Wasilla Assembly of God, her previous church, to speak to a graduating class of commission students.

“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right,” she said in a presentation that was video recorded. “Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending out [troops] on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”

Later in her talk she turned to the subject of a $30 billion national gas pipeline project that had been proposed for Alaska. “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that.”

Many have drawn the conclusion that such lines provide an insight into how Palin would govern and assess issues, determining whether something was “a task from God,” or “God’s plan” or “the will of God.”

It’s the kind of “God talk” - certainty that a public policy or strategy finds favor with the divine - that can raise eyebrows beyond the church walls. - NCR

It’s certainly raising mine. This is a road previously traveled with George W Bush, and with despots, zealots, the unscrupulous, the maniacal, and the Machiavellian for two thousand years. History is rife with manipulation through religion for personal gain. We are closing the book on an administration that talked to God and screwed the pooch. I think attempting to justify profitable policy with the words “will of God” is a big fat sin. Period.

Greed is one of the seven big ones for a reason.

He (Cecil M. Robeck Jr., a Pentecostal and director of the David du Plessis Center for Christian Spirituality at Fuller Theological Seminary) emphasized that discerning God’s will within Pentecostal denominations is not a matter of “hoodoo” or some magically determined direction. Determining the will of God, he said, occurs in a variety of ways, through using Scripture, for instance; or common sense and personal feelings about a situation; or seeking direction in concert with others in the church or family.

Questions such as “Where can I make a difference or where can I do the greatest good?” are also means for discovering the will of God, he said.

“Often times, within our circles,” he added, “people will say that they think something is God’s will if they have a strong inner sense that something is right.” - NCR

My strong inner sense is that voters need to run as fast as they can from this potential path towards the ruination of America. We need leaders who listen to experts, marshal facts pertaining to topic, use critical-thinking skills, decide, and lead. I am personally sick of my faith being cheapened by shills who subscribe to the philosophy that if they “want” something with a strong inner sense or persuade others to want it with them, that somehow constitutes a divine intervention. As someone who believes the ways of God make sense in his time, not mine, it is a farce, or worse, to hold forth that some public works project or church gymnasium is holding God’s attention. Famines hold God’s attention, and WE are supposed to step up and fix them. As you treat the least of these, so you treat me. Feed the world? Yes. Profitable pipelines? I don’t think so.

We can’t afford another executive officer who listens to her gut more than facts and figures. America stands at a crossroads; we either continue this long slow decent into self destruction or we choose to innovate into a revitalized leader ready to tackle the challenges of the 21st Century. This won’t happen with people who govern on a whim, it takes leadership, vision and analytical critical-thinking skills to meet difficulties head on. We have big problems; we must select leaders that understand fixing a problem requires owning the problem first. Once we all accept where to start from, the spirits of entrepreneurs and individual endeavors ignite to solve the myriad of problems we face. But first, voters must choose leadership that wants to deal with reality.

We tried touchy feely for eight years and it’s nearly bankrupted us, literally and figuratively. Our country is broke, one of our cities drowned and we stand at the edge of a global famine. This is our window of opportunity to solve our problems and lead the world in a sustaining direction. McCain and Palin offer us only the option to squander this historical moment. God’s will is his, in his time; ours is now, manifested in the willpower of hard working Americans and responsible leadership that will see us through this crisis and seize the opportunity to better our country and the world.

Crossposted at Bring It On!

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Overcome By Greed

I began a career in the banking industry forty years ago.  At that time, especially for someone starting at the bottom of the ladder, new hires were required to attend night courses conducted by the American Institute of Banking.The very first course was titled “Principals of Bank Operations” and I had a text book by the same name for the course.  I am not sure if I still have that text book laying around the house anywhere, but there is one important principal that I was taught in that course, that has always stayed with me, the principal that as a bank employee I had a fiduciary responsibility towards our depositors.

A fiduciary responsibility meant that I was obligated to follow all bank procedures, all regulations, to exercise care and sound judgment in protecting the money that our customers had placed in our hands.

In those days before banking de-regulation, in many respects banking was simpler.  Banks were more localized, limited to operating in only the state that they were chartered in, there was no such thing as super regional, or truly national banks, as we know them today.  Bankers primarily received deposits in the form of checking accounts and savings accounts (bank liabilities) and used those monies to fund loans for business uses and housing in the form of construction loans and mortgages (bank assets).  Other funds were raised by the sale of bank stock, in many cases bank stock was owned by members of the community that a bank operated in, as a borrower you knew that someone in your local community trusted you with their money, and depended upon you to return it whole.  Bankers were known for their conservatism in the management of money, “safe and sound” were the values they wanted to project to their depositors and shareholders.  In that environment the depositors and shareholders would give bankers the seed money, that when invested wisely in terms of reasonable risk would return a reasonable and fair amount of income and the original principal to them.  The borrowers would achieve their objectives through use of the money which might be a home for their family or growth of their business and the lenders would achieve their objectives of increased income by renting out their assets and helping feed economic growth.

In the intervening years since the 1960’s de-regulation of the banking industry occurred.  (The term de-regulation applies more to markets as opposed to actual operating procedures and rules; banks in particular are still subject omnipresent government oversight, and in fact, since 9/11 subject to much more regulatory procedure .)  In the de-regulated world, banks have been allowed to branch in to other market activities that they were previously barred from, such as insurance sales, and investing, and other industries, such as insurance, and investment firms, were allowed to provide services formerly restricted to banks.  This has led to ever more “creativeness” in the conception of and packaging of investment funds.

In addition to de-regulation, the government lead by an ideologically conservative driven administration and abetted by a Congress that if not controlled by ultra conservatives outright, has succumbed to conservative pressures from business lobbyists and other special interest groups, and succeeded in dismantling every government initiative to protect consumers, protect public health, protect the environment, etc.

The word “conservative” that was formerly descriptive of careful, cautious, risk averse best practices by bankers in an earlier, simpler time, has become synonymous with free market economics, where anything goes, where government is disjoined from the regulation of business and industry, where financial buccaneering in pursuit of the accumulation of ever greater investment returns, and the ability to spend freely and ostentatiously on any nonessential material artifact is considered an attribute of success in our society.

Modern “conservative values” have brought upon our society the current home loan crisis by allowing unsound, and arguably, fraudulent mortgage lending practices to proliferate.  Modern “conservative values” have brought upon our country tremendous debt, by conducting warfare not on a pay as you go basis, not by raising taxes, but by mortgaging future generations to the Japanese and Chinese who hold the greatest amount of U.S. Treasury bills (IOU’s of the U.S. Government).  Modern “conservative values” have brought a health care crisis to our country, where millions cannot afford health care, but where insurance companies and drug companies continue to reap massive profits.  Modern “conservative values” have lined the pockets of war profiteers as our government and military services have outsourced logistical and combat operations, not the to lowest bidders, not to the bidders with the best ability to perform the job, but to the bidders with inside contacts, the bidders able to fund the biggest lobbyists, the bidders who eventually kill innocent civilians with their non-accountable paramilitary operators in Iraq and who eventually kill American soldiers with their shoddy infrastructure.  Modern “conservative values” pursue the drilling of oil off our coasts and in the pristine Alaskan wilderness all for short term profits, without regard for the diminishing natural resources, without regard for the destruction of the environment, instead of applying a significant amount of their treasure towards discovering how to harness renewable, non carbon burning, energy.  Instead of figuring out how to provide food for all who are hungry, commodity speculators have turned plant material in to more fuel to burn in internal combustion engines and generate more carbon emissions for our atmosphere.

The concept of fiduciary responsibility seems to have been forgotten in the deregulated banking and investment industries today in the pursuit of greater and greater profits.  Whether or not consumers are sucked deeper and deeper in to debt, encouraged to buy more “stuff”, to overextend themselves credit-wise, whether or not the building of more coal and oil burning factories, electrical power plants, automobiles, trucks and airplanes results in global warming,  whether or not people still needlessly die of malnutrition or disease, if the consumers keep consuming, and the shareholders keep thinking they are attaining more income, and the few at the top of the heap keep obtaining greater and greater portions of the available wealth, without making corresponding contributions to the greater society, then we will become overcome by greed, and eventually consumed by it.

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RIAA and MPAA on the warpath again OR how to shake down folks just like the MAFIA.

The RIAA has really, seriously lost their collective mind. H/T to Chet at the Vanity Press for this gem. From Wired:

The recording industry and U.S. radio companies have squared off for decades about whether AM and FM radio broadcasters should pay royalties to singers, musicians and their labels.But now the debate is getting meaner; there’s more at stake as the recording industry seeks new income avenues in the wake of wanton peer-to-peer piracy and declining CD sales in part due to the iPod and satellite radio. A U.S. House subcommittee could vote as early as Thursday on a royalty measure.

On Monday, the recording industry sent the National Association of Broadcasters - the trade group representing the $16 billion a year AM-FM broadcasting business - a can of herring to underscore that it believes its arguments against paying royalties are a red herring. The NAB says its members should not pay royalties because AM-FM radio “promotes” the music industry.

How in the blue hell would anyone know about new artists or new albums from our favorite artists if it wasn’t for radio? The radio stations also promote the artists by running ads for their concerts which usually coincide with the release of a new album right? From the Wired writeup we get to the…cough..bottom line:

The argument boils down to this: Radio is making billions off the backs of recording artists and their labels; and the recording artists gain invaluable exposure because they’re on the radio, so royalties should not have to be paid.

The recording industry needs the radio industry and vice versa. Each side in this money-grubbing argument needs the other in order to make any money. This is fucking extortion and it stinks to high heaven. The RIAA is looking for ways to make up for the losses in revenue due to the electronic music industry. People are not buying CD’s near as much as they used to..and I for one pretty much buy all my music in the form of an electronic download. I only buy a CD when the artist’s electronic album is exclusively on ITunes..because I hate ITunes.

In other money-grubbing news..the MPAA has the nads to use the following argument also in a court case of copyright infringement:

The Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.(emphasis mine)

“Mandating such proof could thus have the pernicious effect of depriving copyright owners of a practical remedy against massive copyright infringement in many instances,” MPAA attorney Marie L. van Uitert wrote Friday to the federal judge overseeing the Jammie Thomas trial.

“It is often very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to provide such direct proof when confronting modern forms of copyright infringement, whether over P2P networks or otherwise; understandably, copyright infringers typically do not keep records of infringement,” van Uitert wrote on behalf of the movie studios, a position shared with the Recording Industry Association of America, which sued Thomas, the single mother of two.

Well gents, if you can’t prove anything, where in the hell is your infringement? By using your skewed ass logic, I could sue my husband for divorce because he has what it takes to cheat on me. I wouldn’t have to prove he cheated on me, I would just have to show that because he has a penis, he has the ability to cheat on me. The proof must be on the individual that brought the lawsuit..it has been that way for-fucking-ever, its part and parcel of the Rule of Law for christs sake.

Fucking greedy bastards..

Crossposted at Bring It On!

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it has occurred to me

that i haven’t been around in the loop much of late. it doesn’t mean that i haven’t been thinking about the world at large- because i have. i finally made my party affiliation a non party affiliation. i no longer belong to a major party- or any party- in america. i try to adhere to what i believe in- and i have been pretty diligently trying to parse out my belief system for myself. a good friend of mine once told me that what i wanted was the entire system to grind to a halt and to scrap it and start over. and, he told me, that it wasn’t realistic. i know. and he knows that i know.

much of what we have inherited of our lives has come from our parents’ and grandparents’ generations- the 20th century was a booming one and the western world exploded with wealth and power. folks here have lived the good life- and this country sold it’s soul (and our planet) to the devil to do so. well, the devil has come to collect his due- and we are left holding the bag. sigh. however, there is much that we could do that could at least alleviate suffering of untold millions- and we won’t because there isn’t the political will.

this is where it gets somewhat scathing- so if you are a liberal- you may want to back away and go read kos or something. i left the democratic party because of issues i complained about going on two years ago- and all through last year. (i am not digging through my own archives to link up to the posts- i have already read all of my own stuff- but feel free. check betmo’s musings first and then go from there.) the biggest issues i see with democratic politicians- they are no different than their republican counterparts. they all take corporate monies and are swayed by lobbyists. don’t take my word for it- i just posted about dems making money from mercenary groups and war profiteering by the dems in congress recently- and i linked to the original stories for good measure.

the biggest issue i have with so called liberals in the democratic party- and this primary season showed it in all of it’s red glory- they use the same thought patterns and tactics as the republican party. yep. misogyny, racism, smears, innuendo, insults, slurs, outright lies- and the thorough tearing down of ‘the other side’- in this case fellow dems- were all present. not just on the big blogs- you know the ones hob nobbing with the democratic politicians at the same functions- but the rank and file bloggers like me and you- at each other’s throats for no other reason than they wanted their candidate to win.

and what the fuck would have been the big prize? clinton or obama. both in aipac’s pocket- and countless other corporate interests- obama just backed the telecom bill- couched with an exception of course in typical political maneuvering so as not to insult anyone (wouldn’t want any votes to slip by for standing on principle). so, what did we win? nothing. just a stay of execution- instead of the quick death of democracy we will continue to slowly bleed to death- because obama as president won’t be any different than any other president- except maybe cheney. there will still be war in iraq and afghanistan; there will still be domestic spying that the congress will continue to sanction; there will still be idiocy with homeland security and the militarization of the police state that is becoming a stronger presence by the day- why?

because the democrats want that power- they just don’t have the balls to grab it for themselves. they are certainly not going to give it back. hence, the stay of execution and the slow bleeding versus the neo cons just doing whatever the hell they want to do. hence, obama, pelosi, hoyer, et al and the telecoms or impeachment or the lack of caring for the will of the people.

the democrats don’t have the set needed to rise up in revolution and neither do the real republican conservatives. ‘when in the course of human events’ are just words on paper that has been shredded and thrown into the circular file. so, you can wheedle and whine and talk about ‘lesser of two evils’ but you will get nowhere with me. we have a one party system in this country and it is a corporate oligarchy. we, the people, mean exactly nothing and they laugh in our faces because they consider us the have nots- and when you look at pelosi or reid or conyers or hoyer or shumer or clinton or obama or any of the haves- you will see the little white man standing in the background pulling the strings that makes them dance- and it is attached to a checkbook.

cross posted at life’s journey

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5 years of war

[youtube]U7KqqD5UugM[/youtube]
“The song is about an innocent young guy, who, after the events of 9/11, wants to do his part for his country. He doesn’t know he’s going to end up in Iraq, watching the horror that’s going on there and he ends up losing his life. It’s a subject that needs to be spoken about and is in some ways, a continuation of one of the songs we did on the last album.” RC

20

When you’re used up, where do you go Soldier
Mother dry your eyes, there’s no need to cry
I’m not a boy, it’s what I signed up for

When you’re used up, where do you go Soldier
I can’t take the heat, and I hardly sleep anymore
What’d we come here for

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broken hearts

i was going to post about water- and how we don’t have much potable water left in the world and how this is going to lead to privatization and wars- but i read the headlines again. i try hard not to read the news because it is too much for me. it breaks my heart. i am just absolutely overwhelmed at the lives we have ruined in the name of oil and greed and profits. oh sure- it is billed out as a ‘war on terror’ chasing down the elusive al qaida but i know in my heart- there is no al qaida- at least not the al quaida that the best military on the planet never seems able to catch. no- instead we have to go and bomb the shit out of any poor country with oil. odd that. and our ‘allies’- our friends- our brothers and sisters in god- well, the old saying goes- ‘you are as your friends are’ and the israelis are nothing if not greedy- for land that is. it is ironic that hitler used anti-semitism to acquire vast fortunes taken from his jewish victims- and now, a new century later- the israelis are doing the same thing to the palestinians. i wonder what the hell the somalians did to piss us off? i didn’t bother to read the news accounts of why we bombed in somalia. i figured the official version would be lies anyway.

the heart and soul of the world is being systematically broken by people who don’t have any. how long are we, the people, going to remain silent? i don’t believe in god and i am not sure that it would make a tinker’s dam worth of difference if i did. my heart would still be broken. but- i do believe in evil. evil exists- of that i am convinced. sitting by for decades knowing that the planet we live on was being decimated for profits- and not telling anyone- that’s evil. mining and overusing the resources on the planet for the profit of the few- that’s evil. invading and killing innocent people in the name of saving spoiled white westerners- for greed and profit- that’s evil. starting world war 3 on every continent on the planet- for greed and profit- that’s evil. believing that all of this is acceptable because the rest of the world isn’t white- that is the purest evil of them all. i don’t really give a rat’s ass if obama is christian or muslim- or if hillary is a man or a woman. what i do care about is that they don’t get endorsements from white supremacists who style themselves religious- and that they will inspire the people of this country towards finally doing the right thing- for this country but for the rest of the world too. we have much to atone for. and we need not be defensive about it- we need humility and humbleness as we try and right the wrongs committed in our names.

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corporatocracy, u.s.a.

Border Fence To Bypass Property Of Wealthy Oilman Who Donated $35 Million To Bush Library

anyone else as shocked as i am about this ?

i mean really, as aesthetically pleasing as the wall is- property values will go through the roof!!! i cannot fathom why i am still continually amazed at the fact that everything that goes on in this country- is about money:

“Even before the bill has been signed into law, the Department of Homeland Security has awarded a contract to the Boeing Corporation to develop sensors, cameras, and other equipment to control the U.S.-Mexican border.

Those who failed to win the contract include giant corporations such as Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Ericsson.

The three-year contract Boeing won is estimated to be worth over $2 billion.

“This strategic partnership allows the Department to exploit private sector ingenuity and expertise to quickly secure our nation’s border,” said Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in a recent statement.”

seriously. think about it- this whole wall thing- money. the rise in corn production for ethanol (which is horrible for the environment fyi)- all about profits. the whole war/security sector- money. we have outsourced all of our manufacturing jobs and with our farms safely in the hands of the corporate powers that be- well, we need jobs that don’t require much brain power for the dumbed down constituency. voila!! security jobs with the fortune 500 and the fbi!!! where else can NRA members get a job that allows them to ‘shoot to kill‘ without fear of repercussion? oh- right.

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EVANGELICAL NAVEL CONTEMPLATION:How Radical Religious Right theology Embraces Republican Social Darwinism

By PraetorOne

Sometimes I’m a little slow but it finally dawned on me–there are very real theological reasons why the Christian Right is so attracted to the Republican Party, and I suspect that part of it has to do with the fact that the Evangelical belief in “faith only” salvation goes hand in glove with Republican economic policies. In the past I have referred to Republican economic policies as “the law of the jungle,” “social darwinism,” and survival of the fittest, etc. Little did I realize that the right wing, evangelical belief in faith only theology is a suitable companion to Republican economics.

When you think about it the whole thing makes a certain degree of sense. Not only do many right wing evangelicals believe in faith only salvation, they also try very hard to keep the idea of works, good deeds if you will, out of their religious paradigm. Now why, one must wonder would THAT be the case? The answer is rather simple when you get right down to it. Once you place all of your emphasis on faith and eliminate acts of humanitarianism, it becomes much easier to excuse the greed and graft which has become the current incarnation of the Republican Party. Never act, never worry! If you emphasize faith over acts you find yourself in a position where it becomes easy to forgive–or worse yet–condone the idea of transferring wealth away from the lower classes while handing it to th nation’s wealthiest elite who clearly have no need for additional wealth. Worse yet, it becomes easier to blame the victims for their poverty–a tactic which many Republicans, both economic and evangelical, have become quite accustomed to. It works out very nicely for the right wing evangelical who wouldn’t lift a finger to help someone who he considers anti-christian anyhow. Why help all those non evangelicals out there who are so clearly condemned to go to hell anyhow? Why bother with social programs, environmental programs, and educational programs etc when God is only going to come in the End Times anyhow to destroy the whole bleeding planet anyhow? It’s much easier to follow a religious dogma which emphasizes faith over acts because an emphasis on faith will justify the very noisy navel contemplation which passes for evangelical worship. Although I have to admit, the only time that evangelicals EVER seem to get off their asses is when they want to convert the lowly heathens who they so clearly believe are below them in the theological pecking order. On those occasions the far right is only more than willing to extend a little time and energy on an act, but only because they believe it will provide them with the POLITICAL power that they crave–political power which, of course, will promptly be channeled into convincing people that the only things they need to do are believe and sit on their lazy haunches while the world around them goes to Hell in a hand car.

Ironically–or perhaps not so ironically now that I think about it–the right wing evangelicals, who can quote scripture at the drop of a hat–seem to have a very poor understanding of the Gospel of Christ. True, the New Testament does talk about faith and belief, but that doesn’t explain those portions of the New Testament in which Christ delivers specific instructions about the poor–about giving up wealth, but helping those who are less fortunate, healing and comforting the sick, offering guidelines by which we can live better lives. In the Evangelical dreamscape we are apparently supposed to believe that Christ issued these instructions because it was a boring Tuesday afternoon and he didn’t have anything better to do with himself. Welcome to the happy sappy nightmare world of the Christian Right where the only thing that doesn’t matter in the Gospel(s) of Christ are the teachings of Christ!

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thoughts

on why i am not writing about the bhutto murder. i am a woman and i recognize that bhutto’s stint as prime minister in an islamic country was important. her role as a strong leader among men was as important as golda meir and margaret thatcher’s were in paving the way for women everywhere. however, i am someone who believes that people are equal. men and women are equal even as they are different physiologically. that bhutto was murdered is newsworthy because she was an opposition leader backed by america to disrupt a nuisance who doesn’t want to toe the mark. that doesn’t detract from her former accomplishments or what her future could have held. but is her life any more newsworthy or precious than any number of iraqis or kurds or palestinians or sudanese or rwandans? or anyone else on the planet? in my mind no. she was a daughter and wife and mother- just as countless other women are. she suffered loss just as any number of women have. she was special only because she moved up the ranks of power- something that many women can’t do.

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Resolved: Greed Is NOT Good

How often did we hear the promises made by the “free” traders that abolishing tariffs on countries that allow de facto serfdom and allow unregulated assaults on the environment would be just great for us? We did NAFTA, we’re implementing CAFTA, and we’ve basically outsourced our manufacturing and service sectors to China and India. How’s it working out?

We’ve also been told forever that if we just did away with those bothersome regulations, that the good-hearted souls in the financial sector would behave like altar boys in church. We’ve done away with a lot of those regulations, and we’re turning a blind eye to a lot of violations. How’s THAT working out?

Like it always works out. Greed seems to be an addiction that is worse than opium, or tobacco, or alcohol. The greedy will absolutely cut their own legs out from under themselves in the quest to turn over that quick profit, and they’ve been that way forever. To deregulate and not supervise business seems to have the effect of encouraging the pathologically greedy in the business community to act upon their pathologies with a complete abandoning of ethics, or even common sense.

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A friend to Bush and a top polluter..

“An American power company with close financial links to President George Bush has been named as one of the world’s top producers of global warming pollution.The first-ever worldwide database of such pollution also reveals the rapid growth in global-warming emissions by power plants in China, South Africa and India. Power plants already produce 40 per cent of US greenhouse gas and 25 per cent of the world’s.”

And so begins the story on CommonDreams.org. This is a disgusting tale of corruption and greed. Its always about those two things isn’t it my dear reader? Check this out…

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