Working man blues on Labor Day weekend

In this day and age, the American working man and woman have very little to be happy about and more uncertainty regarding their future than ever. The holiday itself was created in order to give the working man a day of rest, it is a holiday that finds it’s origins in the unionized labor movement. Now our labor unions are toothless and the cards are stacked against them. The average American worker, who lives and sweats to live the “American Dream” is marginalized and no longer has a voice in government and little power at the bargaining table. Most are left to fend for themselves with no union to represent them.

We start the Labor Day weekend with a continuing war draining our resources and wealth from the public coffers into the bank accounts of the super wealthy who are making a proverbial killing off this war. Gas prices are still outrageously high, grocery shopping is enough to break the bank accounts of many Americans and the low hum of a President begging to nuke Iran still rings in our ears like the Taos hum.

We work longer hours, for less pay, smaller benefits and greater responsibility and workload than ever before. The pie in the sky isn’t sweet and the slices are smaller than our parents had to choose from. RealtyTrac.com predicts there will be over 2 million home foreclosures in 2007, which is 42% higher than all of 2006. Meanwhile, here in my hometown of Atlanta, the purchase of homes valued at over $1 million for just the month of May rose to 97, nearly double the number that were sold just two years ago, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The playing field hasn’t been level in this country for a long time. I don’t begrudge a person who creates wealth nor do I take offense at what they do with their money. On the eve of a national holiday that honors the average American worker, we have to ask ourselves why we as a nation allow this level of disparity and flawed thinking get to this point. The corporations and wealthiest among us have and will fight to maintain the power they have over our government and our lives. They will not give it up and if their power is diminished even slightly, they will not rest until they have gained back as much as they lost and more.

The most simple ways for the average American to fight back are:

1) Simplify your life to reduce the influence they have on your wallet and livelihood.
2) Reject as many corporate owned institutions as is possible.
3) Learn the voting record of your local, state and national leaders. Share what you find with politically minded friends, neighbors and co-workers.
4) NEVER believe what a politician, political operative or a “leader” tells you.
5) Raise a stink when your representative votes against your own best interests. Call, write a letter, send an email. Do anything to let him/her know they sold you out. Be nice though. Lunatic ramblings and rants don’t do you a lot of good.

Enjoy your three day weekend, folks. Take care, watch out for the drunk drivers and put the white clothing away until Memorial Day weekend next year. Think about how you can make YOUR life better, more productive and creative in ways that will mystify the powers that be and limit their control over you.

And above all, if you are traveling by airplane and need to visit the bathroom, beware of pervy Senators looking for a little bit of dick to suck.

Sociopath Tuesday! Politicians, athletes and the big toe of Big Brother!

There is simply too much going on right now to pick a single subject. Within the last 24 hours there has been the resignation of AG Alberto Gonzalez, another senior GOP Senator has been thrust into a sex scandal, Michael Vick apologists have been in over drive and there has been a curious media blackout regarding the murder of the former leader of the GOP in Georgia. It’s just too much to digest and sift through in one sitting.

AG Gonzalez, the man who never met a spy program he didn’t love, will be trying to outrun possible perjury charges for lying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Of course the Democrats will capitulate and not seek those charges, nor will they ever seek to bring to justice the liars and un-American bastards who have led our nation into a deep, dark sewer over the past 6 years. Gonzo will head back to Texas with the blessings of his President after a brief tenure as the head of the Justice Department and a history that will show him to have been the most destructive and least protective AG in the history of that cabinet position.

Senator Larry Craig of Idaho once again shows me that maybe the really wild sex fiends are the members of the Republican Party. I have no problem with the homosexual community, gays and lesbians are just regular folks trying to get by and live their lives too, in my eyes. I feel sorry for closeted gays who cannot tell the world how they really feel. However, I have no sympathy or patience for a hypocrite like Craig, who maligns and demonizes the gay community, all the while he is looking for kinky public sex in an airport. If Sen. Craig were to just come out and tell us that he does indeed suck dick and he was wrong for demonizing the gay culture and wrong for repressing his true sexuality, I’ll jump on the man’s bandwagon and back him 100%. Instead we get another bullshit lie that his toilet stance is a bit “wide legged”.

Speaking of lies, Michael Vick, the disgraced former star athlete is now getting the coddling he so desperately wanted all because he finally admits his guilt for torturing animals for the sheer pleasure of it. Hey Vick, I forgive you since you admit that you did it. Now, how about working on atoning for your cruelty and show us some action instead of words on how you will re-enter society as a normal human being. It’s not simply enough to say I’m sorry. You have to do a little more than that. I’m sorry only works when a 5-year-old get’s caught sneaking cookies out of the jar.

It’s was not “immature” what you did to those dogs, as you so innocently described it, it was inhuman, vicious and anti-social. MV7, I hope you realize that psychologists have found a link between children who torture animals and serial killers. Prove to us that you can contribute to society instead of producing more pain and suffering like you did and then we can start talking about you taking snaps again. You have a serious mental condition to not see the torture of animals to be disturbed behavior. To the apologists, leave the man’s dick alone and stop sucking it like it was candy. He fucked up and all the excuses you can muster do not make it all right. It’s not about race and it’s not about the victims being “just dogs” and it’s not about other crimes not being hotly prosecuted by the feds. It is about acceptable behavior in a civilized society. If you find nothing wrong with his actions or still believe in him regardless of what he has confessed to; please seek psychiatric help. You have a serious sociopath condition and need medical attention.

As for the murder of the former head of the Georgia GOP, Raphael Gonzalez, it’s difficult to gauge what did happen and the cause. Gonzalez was murdered along with another man in a 3-person murder suicide down in Orange County Florida. Even the Atlanta media has been tight lipped about this and only trickles of info have come out. What is known is that Gonzalez and the other victim were roommates in a house that was owned by Gonzalez. The killer was a former roommate and Marine, who took his own life after murdering them.

Strange tidings on this Tuesday morning. Sometimes there is too much for your paranoid blogger to fully comprehend and write about. I’m sure my ADD and OCD predisposition do not help.

Concentric rings of power

What could we expect if martial law were declared on a national scale in America? How would we react, how would it affect our lives and what could we expect on the street and cyberspace level? I’m thinking about these questions much more since the White House and the Department of Homeland Security recently denied a request by Congressman Peter DeFazio to view the secret plans already drawn up in case of a national emergency in a terrorist attack.

From looking at the way 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and major political events have been handled over the past six years I think we can draw several conclusions: 1) Restrictions would have an hierarchal structure in terms of location and the type of restrictions put into place. 2) The presence of government officials and armed forces (police, civilian or military) would be focused to specific locations. 3) Those not in the immediate area of focus would notice very little outward change in their lives and would be accepting of how it affected the few arenas of their lives; while those directly affected would see a significant change in their day to day lifestyle. 4) The media blackout would be extraordinary.

Let’s take a hypothetical situation where two major US cities are targeted and go from there. City A and City B suffer a man-made catastrophe and the top levels of government declare a national state of emergency. Martial law is declared throughout the United States and all of it’s territories. The exact nature of the catastrophe would be irrelevant, the focus of government response would not be assisting the victims and public at large, the focus would be on the consolidation of power and exerting control over the population.

The first step would be controlling all forms of communication in the US and it’s territories. This would mean the seizure of broadcast news in radio and television. All print media would fall into this aegis therefore all newspapers and magazines would be controlled by the government. Our electronic media would also need to be controlled and this is where it gets tricky.

To control the website content of corporate news organization would not be enough. The number of independent sources for news and access to foreign media is virtually limitless. People post and read messages on USENET, message boards and use instant messaging and text messaging for their phones. International calls are no longer the realm of large international corporations; international calling cards can be bought at the local convenience store as easily as buying a Coke. To stem this transfer of information and communication, all access to the Internet and telephones would be tightly controlled.

The Intelligence Community already resides within the Telco Hotels of the major US carriers, collecting data and voice streams as easily as we surf TV channels. They could, quite easily, gain control of the communications hubs and filter/block all electronic voice and data traffic. Control of the financial institutions would also be necessary and in the age of electronic funds transfer (EFT), this control would also be simple to implement and maintain.

With our means of communication stifled and funneled through their hands as well as our means of paying for services/goods needed by the average citizen under any circumstance, the government could create and maintain any scenario they wish to promote. With big business being joined at the hip with government and all major media in the US being controlled by big business it is not difficult to imagine their lack of outrage in such a situation. Compliance has already been bought.

Under this scenario the old lyric of “the revolution will not be televised” becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Government abuses cannot be exposed and the citizenry will have no means to know of events beyond their daily realm of living. You would, in effect, not be able to see the forest for the trees. The trees would be your neighborhood, the forest being the rest of the nation.

At this point the government could create concentric circles of control reaching out from the two cities, A and B, which are the epicenter of the event. The closest inner ring would resemble the government’s actions at the 9/11 attacks and especially New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The second closest ring would resemble crowd control in New York City during the 2004 Republican Convention. The third outer ring would resemble the military’s use of embedded press in Iraq and and this would be closest the media would be able to access the area affected. The fourth ring would be the boundary where direct, overt and overwhelming government influence ends/begins with the rest of the nation, which would see little change in their lives other than tighter restrictions on banking and communications. Since this would be a more rural area of the nation these restrictions would be marginally recognized or noticed.

Major cities other than city A or B could be controlled in a manner I describe for the 3rd ring of control, listed below. The undeclared boundaries of urban and suburban life are easily controlled and noticeable in most major metropolitan areas via the interstate road system in the form of perimeter highways. Choke points can be established and controlled easily in this manner.

Inside the central ring, no one would be able to leave to the second ring and no one from the second ring would be able to enter, except specific government personnel. Those caught in the central ring would in all likelihood be rounded up for transportation to specific locations, such as we saw with the survivors of Katrina in New Orleans who attempted to use the Superdome and the Convention Center as their shelter. No one in the outside world or even within the second ring would be aware of the happenings and events taking place in this central ring.

The size of this central ring would most likely depend on the population density and the circumstances surrounding a disaster. A nuclear, biological or dirty bomb attack could result in a very large area being classified as a central ring area, such as an entire city. What would make the job of determining the size and shape of the central ring easier to control is the geography of the area. The more susceptible a city is to being cut off from the rest of the world, the more easy it would be to control it. Such as Manhattan (island) or San Francisco (peninsula). Cities like Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago are bordered on one side by a body of water. A city like Dallas or Denver would be difficult because of the lack of physical boundaries.

The second ring would reach beyond the first ring just far enough away to keep prying eyes from seeing what is going on inside the first ring, yet close enough to give a panoramic view of the central ring. It would provide a staging area to move specific people and equipment in and out of the first and second rings. Anyone trying to sneak in or out of the area could be rounded up easily and quickly, as travel would be completely restricted. Centers for temporary detention could be quickly and easily set up. The typical industrial areas of large cities are an example of this. There would be plenty of room for staging equipment and personnel, processing curfew violators in secret as well as being an ideal location for Command, Control and Communication (C3). Think of the Baghdad Green Zone and you have an idea of the level of security and that example also provides you with an idea of how geography can control the shape and placement of an ideal quarantine zone.

The third ring would operate under nighttime curfew restrictions with stereotypical checkpoint style monitoring of travel by citizens. Access into and out of this area would be tightly controlled on a need to travel basis. This area would operate more freely for it’s citizens as communications in and out of this zone to the rest of the nation would be tightly controlled but it would exist. Think of odd/even, travel/work days. This would be the closest the media would be allowed to get to the area in question. A certain resemblance of normalcy would be seen but with tight restrictions. This would be suburbia, the bedroom communities of the city affected. It would be white, upper middle class to middle class, predominately white collar and educated with too much to loose for speaking up, their silence and compliance would be simple and they would view it as logical and maybe patriotic.

The fourth ring would be the rest of the nation. Travel would be free and open with no restrictions. Communication would be monitored and controlled but it would be easily and freely available. The vast bulk of the US population would live in this zone. Few government officials would be needed in this area but there would be a government presence in locations such as the post office or in city hall of towns and cities across the nation.

So, what would be the purpose of such a restriction of citizens and under what conditions could this occur? Control and power are of course the main motivation for such a scenario but there is another scenario I believe we are heading into. The general attitude of the average American is quickly evolving into an angry response to what they see at the highest levels of government. No longer are we simply satisfied with electing new officials, there is a rising tide of voices wanting accountability for those who have lied to us over the last six years. These voices are becoming more and more loud and the numbers of Americans who want to see criminal charges brought up against those in power is beginning to become more mainstream.

It is obvious that those who are currently in control of this nation have no intention to leave this power behind. The powers they have granted themselves are not the sort of thing they wish to leave behind for another party or a new set of leaders. They will not relinquish their power under any circumstances, even in the slightest bit. An exit strategy from office is simply not an option for them and as the voices grow louder in dissent, the choices they have in maintaining their power grow larger. It would require only a false flag operation or the act of looking the other way when intelligence tells them an attack is imminent.

When the voices in the room become a loud roar, this is when it will occur. Not a moment before or too early. Our economy is clinging to a thread and will only add to the situation when the time is ripe for the takeover. As it stands today the major lenders are announcing that the mortgage crisis is deepening as prime borrowers are now falling behind in their debt and mortgage payments. When the sub-prime market belly flopped we were told again and again that the prime market was strong and steady, that this was a simple correction. We are now seeing the tip of the iceberg as those with outstanding credit and generous incomes are falling behind as well.

A falling stock market, rising inflation, a failed housing market, a failed credit system and an overall sense of desperation will be the sign that something is on the verge of happening in this nation. When the economy is in shreds, the anger is at it’s highest and the leaders are at their most smarmy, condescending levels we can expect something to occur.

When the MSM realizes a Conspiracy Theory may be true.

An op-ed piece that was published this week by the Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon and deeply discussed on the Crooks and Liars blog has caught my eye. Once again we are seeing the mainstream public opening up to conclusions that the Conspiracy Theory crowd has been talking about for many years. The piece discussed the recent refusal to let Congressman Peter DeFazio see the secret plans by the current administration on what they will do following a terrorist attack.

For most of us, the first inkling we had of secret government plans to declare martial law, suspend the Constitution and round up American citizens came to light when we learned about Rex 84 in the early 1990's. Most of us began to brace and keep a suspicious eye open following 9/11 and the passage of the Patriot Act. The current MO of our leaders have a lot of us jumpy at the thoughts of what is coming next and what is in store for us. The MSM occasionally pops up with a response like the Register-Guard, which should be a major red flag to people who dismiss Conspiracy Theories outright.

Each segment of society has extremists; this community is no different in that regard. There are theories out there so elaborate and extreme that it is difficult to rationalize the loops and twists that make up even the foundations of belief. However, it is obvious that many ideas floated in the past 5 ½ years are showing up as fact. Real ID, the suspension of Habeus Corpus, the criminalization of dissent, the destruction of the 1st Ammendment; all of these things were laughed at 10 years ago as mere paranoid ramblings from the fringe. Now, who is laughing?

I am someone who drifts in and out of the false veil of normalcy in America, the America we were brain washed into believing existed, the America that we were taught in school, the Boy Scouts and in history books. The America that is a mirage and a symbol of hope but doesn’t exist in reality. The real nature of power over the public and over the image of what America actually is, comes banging on the door like storm troopers each time I look at what we have actually become. Reality is sometimes difficult to swallow.

The America we were told existed is like comfort food. It is something to imagine when fear and despair and confusion set in. Like wishing we were young again, waiting for Santa Claus, and the world is good and innocent and right. There never were “Good Old Days” only a blissfully innocent youth for those of us lucky enough to not be shattered by tragic and evil events. Sooner or later the evil presents itself and we are never again the same. We are shattered and left bloody, like ex-virgins on the backseat of a 57’ Chevy with blood drying on our thighs. We never again see things as we thought they were, we are bloodied and we are left knowing that the fantasy and innocence of childhood are long gone.

If the public were confronted with the reality of what we really are and what we have become I think the nation would change. Opening the eyes of those who still believe in the fantasy of a normal America could become the instrument of change. No one in the MSM is willing to weave together the tapestry of reality, a reality that has only a thin glaze preventing it from being seen by all, and open the public at large to a new way of dissecting the day’s events.

We are left to our own devices and left to rely on each other to help us see what is actually occurring. Just because some Conspiracy Theories are outrageous doesn’t mean they are all wrong. The outrageous and seemingly impossible are always possible. Once we all realize that fact we can go about trying to effect real change in the world. The saying from the 90’s of think globally, act locally is possibly the most subversive thought to arise in the last 70 years. Imagine if we were able to effect change on a small scale in our homes and in our communities, how the collected effect would devastate the old guard, the powers that be, the evil men who hold true power in this world.

If an abusive spouse controls a woman the most powerful action she can take is to simply leave him, disappear into the ether and never be seen by him again. If money controls us how can we shed the chains that bind us? Society has been configured to include money and earnings into every aspect of our lives. Escaping it entirely means turning your back on society as a whole. This is a drastic response and is really far beyond what needs to be done. If even 1% of the population were able to reduce their monthly bills by 1% and redirect those funds into something that benefits themselves and their local community, the masters of our economy would notice, immediately. Like the old saying goes, a billion dollars here, a billion dollars there and sooner or later you are talking real money. A billion dollars may not represent 1% income of 1% of the population but a million here and a million there out of more than 400 million Americans and the next thing you know we would have Wall Street scratching their greedy little heads.

Imagine for a moment if you and your neighbors were able to knock that 1% out of your bills every month and reinvest it into something you can all use such as a community garden or the installation of solar power panels, the effect would be immediate. Corporate farms would see a huge decrease in demand for their goods. The energy sector would see a drop in their income and the manufacturers of alternative energy devices would see a rise in their income. Imagine their reaction when they realize that they have slightly less power over the public than they did yesterday.

I’m not talking about creating hippie communes or exhuming socialism. I’m talking about reducing the control over your life that is held by evil, corrupt men and returning it to your hands. Simple modifications in our lives can have far ranging effects. Driving less by combining trips saves gas and reduces the money residing in the coffers of big oil and the government. Using electricity more wisely reduces the money in the coffers of the energy conglomerates and the government. Planting a vegetable garden keeps you and your family and neighbors fed and keeps your money out of the coffers of the corporate food industry and the government. They understand money and the power that comes from controlling how much you spend each month and how much you earn and save from your labor. The slightest chink in their profit margins would go far in reducing their power over us. Even failing to meet expected profits when there is still a profit can be devestating to the men who control our lives through money.

Would this prevent martial law being declared in the event of a terrorist or false flag attack? In our current state it would not. We have allowed ourselves to become so swaddled in the cotton of the world they created that far too many of us would bow down to anything as long as the cable is working and the McDonalds is stocked. Taking nicks and pieces of their control would certainly be beneficial to all of us and it’s not too late to start.

In my mind the most valuable aspect of Conspiracy Theories is that they can be used as cautionary tales in our lives. If your food is being poisoned in the factory, grow your own food or buy from a local farmer. If your freedoms are being threatened, use your mind and talents to determine what aspects of your life that can be truly made free from outside interference. If your future is threatened, plan for a future that avoids or limits how much of your present life is being controled.

A true revolution can be silent and peaceful.

Astroturf movements and blog comments

A comment left by someone on the 12th for my post about the recent Blackwater legal maneuver seemed a bit odd to me. After searching a bit I found the identical comment posted on three different blogs that were commenting on this story. While I can understand the desire to post a comment on a subject that you feel strongly about, the overall tone and attempt to redirect attention away from Blackwater and into “ambulance chaser” hatred didn’t sit right with me. While I only did a quick search for similar comments on blogs, finding 3 identical comments in only a minute from a loose search query makes me wonder if the anonymous poster of the comment (using the name “scar’d” in the other postings) has a dog in this fight, so to speak.

Astroturf movements get started in similar ways as this and viral advertising gets spread in a similar manner as well. Individuals with an agenda to spread an idea with ulterior motives do tend to seek out open comment sites such as message boards and blog comments. While I can’t say with certainty that the poster is an agent tasked with seeding this idea their action fits the mold. Is this comment poster hitting other blogs and message boards with this same message in an attempt to sway attention away from the direction of the Blackwater suit and stir anti-lawyer sentiment as the means of distracting us from the subject?

For your own thoughts here are links to the comment posted here at my blog as well as the other three blogs.

Burning embers

This morning’s news about the bombing of the Askariya shrine adds to a foreboding situation throughout the middle east. The shrine is one of the holiest to Shiite Muslims and is prophesized as the place where the 12th Imam will return. The bodies of the 10th and 11th Imams are interred at the Mosque. With an increase of violence in Iraq, battles in Gaza spreading between Hamas and Fatah factions and verging on civil war and a tenuous cease fire being declared between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish government, we are heading into a tense summer.

Old tensions are increasing throughout the region and even the cold war between the US and Russia is beginning to pick up steam once again. International tensions such as this are not new but there seems to be a sense of urgency and hair-trigger response that we haven’t seen since the late 60’s and early 70’s at the height of Israeli/Arab tensions. I believe we truly are entering a phase where one event could trigger a cascade of events that sends all of us into a real world war. The idea was floated last summer at the height of the fighting between Israel and Lebanon last summer.

As usual, watch for periphery events to guide you as to what could be in store for the future. The decision to oust General Pace as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and replace him with an Admiral who had a command level role in the Serb bombing campaign, who also has close career ties to the new head of CENTCOM, the US appears to be getting it's own ducks in order for more combat. The placing of Admirals Mullen and Fallon into these positions are a clear indication that a Naval-centric approach to US strategy in the middle east is coming.

My pet theory right now is that yet another "surge" or increase of troops in Iraq will occur within a year while the Navy begins a surface warfare strategy against Iran. Those troops already on the ground will need to dig in before the Navy begins its operations and hell will break loose once they do.

The War on Terror, post Memorial Day

On the heels of a Memorial Day that has left 8 American soldiers dead in Iraq, this would be a good time to compare the operational and political methods that al-Qaeda used in 2001 and where they stood as an organization at that time to where they are today in 2007. A review of where things stand at this point in time, a "snapshot" as our President would say, can be illuminating. The information in this posting has come from various independant government reports that are freely available on the web, reports from journalists who have specialized in al-Qaeda and various books written about the organization over the last 10 years.

In 2001, al-Qaeda was organized under a strict hierarchical design. The planning , financing, leadership and operational responsibilities were centralized at the top level, with regional Lieutenants working under close supervision of the Captains of bin Laden. Training en mass was confined to Afghanistan with graduates of these training programs being sent to a handful of regions around the world without orders to train others. Instead they were sent to these places to carry out the technical aspects of their missions with support of locally recruited sympathizers who acted as soldiers.

The organization was considered outside the mainstream to Muslims in the African, Arabic and Persian cultures. Recruits for soldiers were targeted in the most susceptible environments of poverty and chaos. Recruits for positions as Lieutenants came from extremists backgrounds who had skills and educational backgrounds that could be exploited from bin Laden’s Captains. The Captains were long-term mercenaries of the Jihadist movements and virtually all shared experience in combat against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan or as covert militants in nations such as Egypt. Most of the Captains had exposure to CIA training or methods of operation that had been learned from CIA operators.

Their financial support was derived from bin Laden’s personal fortune and supplemented by running a variety of bogus religious charities worldwide, including a presence inside the US. This fund raising was apparently too small or too well run to bring attention to US authorities as this network was not exposed until well after the 9/11 attacks had occurred. They were politically marginalized, finding their only state support from governments that operated outside accepted channels of the world political stage. Sanctuary could only be found in nations of utter chaos such as Yemen and Ethiopia or a nation which rejected all norms of society and operated in it’s own bubble, as they found shelter in the Taliban government of Afghanistan.

Their strategic capabilities were severely limited although they did display an uncanny ability to organize attacks in a methodical, clockwork process. Their primary and only method of attacks were the use of bombs even though they were researching and experimenting with the use of non-conventional weapons such as poison gas. Their MO involved car bombings of buildings, vest explosive type suicide bombers and an interest in using civil aviation as a tool. The only members who had combat skills were the Captains. They had no understanding of the tactics, weapons and methods used by armed forces and no knowledge of those same subjects in how they were used by the US military.

Now, in 2007, they have altered this entire overview of their organization. Some of this was forced as Captains and Lieutenants were captured or killed, the majority appears to have been a conscious effort on their part to evolve and adapt in response to the changing environment in which they operate.

The organization is no longer operating in a rigid hierarchical structure. The planning , financing, leadership and operational responsibilities have moved away from the top down approach and it is now comprised of regional leaders who operate as independent Captains that are interconnected with one another and receive support from the top echelons of their chain of command. Regional Captains are now have autonomy. The Lieutenants now carry out the commands of the Captains, which allows them more freedom to train others, plan and lead attacks as well as creating operational relationships with sympathetic groups.

The organization is now mainstream in not only the African, Arabic and Persian cultures, it is now gaining the sympathy and empathy of Muslims residing in the First World countries of western Europe and the Americas. Soldiers once had to be recruited among the vulnerable populations using methods related to mind control and conditioning, now the organization has educated and intelligent sympathizers coming to them for membership. al-Qaeda can now pick and choose among candidates and a wider range of skills and academic backgrounds have integrated into their toolbox.

Financial support is much easier to gather, from a wider source of contributors, with a greater pool of wealth to draw upon. The actions of the current administration have forced even the polemic moderates around the world to condemn American actions, if not sympathize with the goals of al-Qaeda.

Their strategic resources have expanded, deepened and become very advanced. Combat experience has been gained as well as and understanding of how to adapt in crisis. Their chain of command appears to be robust with experienced and capable leaders able to rise as various managers and leaders are killed or captured. The entire organization appears to have evolved to a point where it is self-healing and adaptable. Their combat against US forces have given them an enormous boost in the arts of gathering, analyzing, classifying and disseminating intelligence gathered from combat missions. It also has given them real-world skills at being able to create, implement and evolve strategy based on that intelligence based on the activities seen in Iraq.

Instead of decapitating the leadership of the organization, instilling feelings of defeat and the sense of facing an unbeatable force as the war in Afghanistan began; the current administration shadow boxed with the top levels of power in the organization and brought a meager sized force to the theater of operations. While al-Qaeda was dealt a small blow at the onset and the Taliban was utterly defeated by 2003, the war in Iraq gave them a chance to regroup and prioritize their movements. al-Qaeda has since grown and become a more well defined organization and now even the Taliban have not only re-emerged but are now threatening to regain control of not only Afghanistan but possibly expand in Pakistan.

al-Qaeda operates freely in Iraq, many north and east African nations, is fortifying cells in Afghanistan and now have another government sponsored safe haven in the area of western Pakistan. The sub-Asian regions where they are actively hunted are still active and now they have created relationships with Sunni and Shiite militias that would have been unthinkable even two years ago.

The way this organization has grown and survived over the past 6 years, in spite of two declared war fronts and an undeclared front in southern Pacific nations, one cannot help but wonder if the abject failure of this administration to contain the organization is because of incompetence, or an intentional act. Following the fall of the Soviet Union the US had no clear-cut and terrifying enemy with which to base it’s military strengths and budget against. The War on Terror has seen a massive increase in defense spending and the usual suspects are the ones who have made a financial killing. Should we view the War on Terror and al-Qaeda’s growth as being a symbiotic creature, with one sustaining the growth of the other?

The angry American on Memorial Day weekend

Looking at my recent postings to the blog I’ve noticed that my tone has been decidedly pessimistic, cynical and angry. By nature I am none of those things. Am I wary of those with big white smiles, fake folksiness and promises that they hold the answer to our ills as a nation? Most decidedly, I am wary. But I’m not pessimistic, cynical or angry as a man. I do have faith in my fellow man, maybe not all of them but I believe that by and large most people are good people, who try to do the right thing and be their brother’s keeper.

What makes good people make bad decisions? For this century to date, fear mongering has clouded our judgement. We are hammered with propaganda and the hard sell on a daily, hourly and by the second basis. Watch TV and you’ll be confronted with angry people yelling that death and depravity lurk ahead on the dark path. In between angry fake rants we are told to buy, buy, buy and the medium’s masters know how to use psychology to make us feel unloved, unwanted and unsuccessful if we don’t plunk down the plastic for this or that.

It’s no wonder we make stupid choices and can’t understand why we made them to begin with. Critical thinking is an obscenity in the current environment and thinking critically will get you ostracized. We are a nation that was founded by radicals and free thinkers of who’s descendants we have become pliable clay, afraid of our own shadow and the common sense of a child in the throes of the “Terrible Twos”.

I detest the hypocrisy and lies of the powerful leaders of the evangelical movement in this country, but I have known more good Christian men and women who do not deserve such God forsaken leaders, than you can imagine. Growing up and living in the south puts you in very close quarters with the most decent, devout and faithful you can imagine, those for whom Wise Blood is an apt description, if I may shamelessly steal from the great Flannery O’Connor.

If James Dobson had to live like and with the common mill worker, who is trying to stay afloat and survive, he would never make it because he doesn’t have the real faith in God that it would require. And chartalins like him manipulate the most vulnerable among us. Dobson is a truly evil little demon who has and will continue to poison our waters. He and his ilk plant the seeds of hate, cruelty and apathy for God's children.

But I still have faith in the men and women who live in small communities in the hills and valleys of Appalachia, who struggle with faith, temptation and doing the right thing every single day. I have no faith in the creatures that would take advantage of those good folks. Faith and empathy for your fellow man are traits that the sociopathic leaders of the evangelical movement only understand as tools to enslave their flock.

I still have faith in some people running for public office because they feel that they can actually change things and make the system fair, and expose those who control that system for the evil crooks they are. Those people are so hard to find today, but they are out there.

How can a political leader maintain their office when raising funds for elections is more important to them than voting and discussing a war in the middle east, as John McCain has recently shown with his absence from the hill? I feel that if the John McCain of 1967, the one who survived the Forrestal flight deck fire, only to be shot down and tortured as a POW, would be sorely disappointed in the John McCain of 2007. 40 years have shown the John McCain of 2007 that the sweet teet of public office bears power and money for those who can maintain their false image.

With the way our society and the world itself has evolved, we have no more use or need for the way things have been, just because that’s the way they always have been. We, the people of this nation, have evolved and changed, our leaders have devolved. And only a few have the bravery and intelligence to admit that basic truth of the matter.

To steal once again from another great southerner, who understood the human nature and faith better than our political, religious, business and economics leaders, till things get better, my posts will be in black.

The death of the 100th Georgian in Iraq

A grim milestone has been passed, the 100th Georgia service member has died in Iraq. The most recent fatality was a Sgt. Brian Ardon from Acworth, who died this past Monday in Baghdad. Another of our fellow citizens, neighbors, family members and friends; who is gone forever. How many more are we going to lose in a war that was justified through intentional and blatant lies? The forged yellow cake documents that scream of being faked by someone who is or was from the Intelligence Community. The pack of bald faced lies that were created by the people in the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon. All of those OSP members were placed in their position with the expressed reason of circumventing traditional methods of Intelligence Analysis.

In the Vietnam War we lost 1,584 Georgia citizens, another war precipitated on lies, fear mongering and corporate greed. A generation later and we are once again in a war that has the same foundational legacy. Lies, fear mongering and corporate greed. How stupid can we be to allow things like this to happen all over again, in almost the same way?

The Democrats that were elected 6 months ago with a true "mandate" in their hands, end this war now, have turned their backs on the will of the American public and the men and women who have died in Iraq. The numbers of the dead keep rising, American and Iraqi. The politicians hand wring and keep on raking in the dough for their campaigns, hand over fist. I guess there is no time for crying when there is money to be made.

I wonder how many of that 100 from Georgia who have died ever got the chance to stand in downtown Atlanta in front of the Capital building, look up through those trees at the beautiful gold dome and at the numerous statues that surround our state house, and feel a certain twinge of excitement and pride at what our system of government represents? Reality is brutal and the fake smile of the "way things are" is cruel. If only we could live up to our potential and see through the smoke and mirrors and bullshit.

Another day, another 100 men and women gone forever. We are the poorer for their passing.

Commentary - The political conspiracy of the Evangelical movement in America

Under the radar and away from the collective consciousness of Americans, there has been an open plot by the extreme evangelical movement to undermine and take control of American government. With Presidential elections a year away, the political commentators and pundits on both sides of the aisle talk about the Republican candidates and whether or not they can appeal to the Republican “base”. The “base” they are describing is not the traditional group of fiscal conservatives, the Republican party has morphed and the Goldwater conservatives are long gone as the demographic being catered to. Even the Reaganites who were created a generation ago have lost their luster and place within that party. The course of the Republican party is steering from a chart plotted by the evangelical movement.

This movement has not shirked away from their stated goals, to assume control of the American government, overthrow judicial rulings that do not conform to their theocratic ideals and to force all Americans to live under their vision of America and God. The conspiracy of this movement has never kept its goals a secret and the conspirators willfully and openly admit what they want to achieve. With the recent death of Jerry Falwell, the subjects being discussed among the Republican Presidential hopefuls and the scandal of the fired US Attorneys this is a good opportunity to look at a few aspects of this movement.

I have to admit to a certain amount of underestimating on my part about this movement. In the 1980’s when Pat Robertson’s cache grew within the political right and ministers such as he, Falwell and others openly discussed a future where evangelicals ruled the courts, I dismissed and scoffed at the claims. My sentiment at the time was that the evangelicals attempting to gain political control of the nation were sadly gullible. Time and time again they had attempted to make in-roads of gaining political clout, only to be disappointed by the actions of the leaders they had backed, Reagan included, when they were cast aside. I misjudged how sly these leaders could be.

Instead of putting all their eggs into the overt basket of one political leader, the leadership of the evangelical right-wing bet the farm on a covert, yet fully in the open plan of education and changing policy from within the structure of government. Universities such as Regent began churning out lawyers and a grass roots movement of evangelical lawyers began to grow. Their goals were clear and concise – turn the nation into a theocracy through an aggressive legal campaign. With a changing political landscape in the mid-90’s, one which they had a major hand in shaping and one in which fear and loathing became the modus operendi, the evangelical movement created and nurtured the political alliances that would allow them to inject their legal commandos for God into the upper tiers of the American judicial and legislative branches. With the election of George W. Bush to President, the third branch of power was the missing piece and full sympathy to their goals was found.

The most worrisome aspect of this conspiracy is that the stated goals of this movement are to literally turn America into a theocracy and they have been active in actually making this happen. They do not want to simply have freedom of religion, where all people are allowed to worship as they desire with no fear of retribution, they wish to change the fundamental way in which Americans are allowed to live.

Civil rights would vanish as even the most centrist of these leaders are violently opposed to gay rights, abortion and free speech. Abortion would not only be outlawed under their vision for America, sexuality would be criminalized outside the marriage between man and woman. Free speech would suffer as criticism of religion and religious leaders would be tantamount to blasphemy and the overall tone of adult discourse would be watered down as literature, film and music would be affected by classifying words and ideas that they consider obscene.

The hidden agenda of these leaders is far more dark and frightening than what they extol on the surface. Time and time again we can see that what most Americans would consider to be extremist beliefs are widely shared by these evangelical leaders and their followers. When confronted with their statements after they have been made, insincere apologies are made, but the cat has been let out of the bag. The comments made by Falwell after the 9/11 attacks are an example, but there are far more examples of this type of belief.

If the mainstream media ever decide to fully report this movement and report their beliefs, goals and actions in a serious, compelling tone then perhaps the public at large will recognize the danger that these sociopaths present to the nation as a whole. I fully support and wish that every person can worship and live their lives the way they feel is best. I do not condone silencing the extremists of the evangelical movement. I do however believe that when dangerous fools show their true nature, it is the responsibility of others to expose these frauds and hypocrites. The cultish quality of the modern evangelical movement and the hatred they display are dangerous, labeling their actions as religious freedom is an affront to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Agnostics and Atheists -- in other words, all people, all children of God.

How the press is complicit in the tainted food scandal and how this promotes the goals of Big Business.

The recently unearthed scandal of tainted food imported into the US from China brings a host of problems to light. How government trade policies with China are flawed, how our food safety system is ineffective and how the investigative journalism of America’s once-great fourth estate is no longer capable of performing the basic “Five Ws” of reporting.

The question of why Chinese exporters are intentionally using toxic substances in the food items being exported is not being fully investigated. We are being told that melamine was placed into the faux wheat gluten to boost nitrogen content in the product, which would then indicate a high protein level. The mass media in America has left that answer as being the final word on why the melamine was present in the food items with little follow-up to the story.

The foreign press has performed a much better service than their American counterparts. What they have unearthed is a global effort by Chinese exporters of food, medicine and hygiene products to add toxic substances to the products they manufacture. Over 100 Panamanians have been killed in recent months after taking Chinese manufactured cold medicines that contained di-ethylene glycol. Di-ethylene glycol is an ingredient found in anti-freeze. This isn’t a one-off case as the same chemical has also been found in toothpaste made in China that has also killed numerous Panamanians and an unknown number of other Latin Americans.

This problem cannot be simply brushed aside as a case of human error. Too many of these cases show forethought and the intention to deceive regardless of the consequences. This cannot be brushed aside as a case of greed. Sooner or later the mounting deaths and fallout over safety will flare up and someone will have to pay the price.

There is a much darker reason behind the organized and systematic poisoning of our food and health items. When our own government admits that they cannot inspect all food that enters out country, which they have done, only two things can be done. One; is to increase the funding for food inspections to a level far beyond what it is at this moment. The effect of this is to anger Americans over the cost and condition us into accepting that this is something far to big for us to control. The other thing that can be done is to simply accept this as a new fact of life and we will have to learn how to live with the threat posed by imported food items.

Our government will not address the root cause of this problem because this would alter the power of the new global economy. In the end it would adversely affect the bottom line for existing and emerging big businesses. In the end it promotes a greater agenda where the lives, money and future of all people are controlled by big business. Fear and feelings of powerlessness are two methods of conditioning that are used by these people to control our lives and as this story evolves watch for the media to promote fear and portray the process of inspecting all food products to be an impossible task.

The daily dose of Doublespeak

One aspect of the current administration that constantly amazes me is the skilled and precise manner in which they have perfected Orwellian Doublespeak, and the methods they display of using language to condition the American public. A recent news report of the violence in Iraq underscored this ability and what appears to be our complete disinterest in studying the effects of Doublespeak. Words have indeed changed their meaning under President Bush and it goes beyond the jingoism that has been a component of American politics for many decades.

The use, meaning and variations of the word insurgent is one of the most clear-cut examples I can think of. The words insurgent and insurgency have been overused in frequency and as an all-encompassing description for describing attacks in Iraq and the words have taken on a new meaning. Late this past week a group of more than 50 “insurgents” attacked a US base in Baqouba, a Sunni stronghold, which required US forces to call in reinforcements. Officials state that only six of the attackers were killed.

When you think of the words insurgent and insurgency what do you think they mean? As time has passed and the use of those words has grown to describe attacks and attackers that range from a single sniper or suicide bomber up to a large, organized group of individuals it seems that the White House, Pentagon, CIA and our press have given the words a whole new meaning. The usage has brought to mind a loose and rag-tag group of individuals, with no strategy other than the use of single attacks and death-by-a-thousand-cuts type of approach to their goals. Small and large attacks are lumped together and over time the real meaning of those words has diluted.

Attacks like the one in Baqouba are not rare, they have now become common and this has fallen almost off the consciousness of the American public. We focus more on the IED and suicide bomber attacks than large-scale operations such as the one in Baqouba. The large-scale attacks are a sign of organization, training and intelligence gathering within the Sunni and Shiite factions and a transformation in theater. My belief is that this is the result of work by the CIA and paramilitary groups such as Blackwater, but this is the subject of a future posting. The subject today is Doublespeak.

Support the troops is another gem from the President and the Republican Party. The recent disclosure that the White House is not backing a small increase in pay for members of the military, as well as an increase in benefit pay to the families and survivors of service members is telling. The pay increases that the White House is against would result in an increase of only $7 per week for a typical E-3 enlisted person (Navy Seaman, Air Force Airman 1st Class, Army PFC or Marine Corp LCPL), but that has been shot down by the administration. They believe their current proposal is “sufficient” for the military. With the scandals that have erupted over treatment of wounded veterans, the constant and deliberate gutting of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the absolute disregard for the well being of our military is all the proof you need to see that “Support the troops” is nothing more than a hollow, insincere attempt to illicit Pavlovian style conditioning from the American public.

The insurgents have now formed militias and their skills grow with each day. Our troops are not being supported by the current Presidential administration regardless of what they claim. These are just two examples of the Doublespeak we must sift through on a daily basis in America. Take the time to think about the other examples you can easily find on the evening news and in your local newspaper.

Has the President declared the entire US population to be enemies of the state?

A significant and terrifying revelation came to light in this week’s round of testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The revelation is subtle and nuanced and a small amount of decoding is necessary to unravel its meaning, but it is there. Former Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey testified that Chief of Staff Andrew Card and White House Counselor Alberto Gonzales attempted to trick then Attorney General John Ashcroft into reauthorizing a domestic eavesdropping program while he was hospitalized. This, of course, is what was widely reported but the details of that program and the reasons why it was not reauthorized is the actual story.

From statements made by government and White House officials from the President all the way down the chain of command, its obvious that they are talking on one level and we are listening on another. This is being brushed aside by many as classic Orwellian Doublespeak but what they say and how they parse their words, combined with their actions and those of the telecommunications industry point to a much more sinister and frightening reality.

First off, most people assume that the comments made by the President and various government officials about this situation are directly focused on the FISA and warrantless wiretap situation. In actuality, when they testify and comment to the press they are actually referring to other programs being run at this very moment. Let’s look at this item by item:

1) FISA – While the focus of the media, political and conspiracy theory commentators and the average citizen has been placed on FISA there are comments being made by those involved in this scandal that are obviously intended to divert our attention away from the authorization of wiretapping program that circumvented FISA. The question has been “why was FISA circumvented?” when the question should have been, “What program are you using that supersedes FISA and under what authorization?”

2) The AT&T/NSA collusion – No one in the government or the telecommunications industry wants us to know more about the authorization which forced the telcos to allow the US Intelligence Community to literally tap into all data and voice transmissions coming and going from US soil. They are attempting to hide something much deeper than what we see on the surface.

3) The program that the White House was trying to trick Ashcroft into authorizing is not FISA or the AT&T/NSA programs. Comey, Gonzales and Bush have admitted so by deflecting questions or giving misleading answers for.

4) The program that the White House sought approval for from Ashcroft was so illegal and so un-Constitutional that every person who refused to sign off on the program threatened to resign if it were authorized.

5) The details of this program are not yet known, but this much is known: the program was indeed authorized by someone and it allows for spying at levels far beyond what we are being told with sweeping powers far beyond the pale of any program in history.

The press and the rest of us make much of the President’s power grabbing exploits and the un-Constitutional aspects of these powers. One thing has been overlooked. In all cases a justification has been made for their legality by Bush neophytes even if the justification is flawed and self-serving. The actual legality and Constitutional standing of these authorizations have not been contested to date because we have not seen the documents that are allowing the programs in question. What we have seen in the form of FISA, the AT&T/NSA wiretapping and even with the torture authorization scandal are appearing to this blogger to be nothing more than a smokescreen. Something is peering from the cracks that are forming in this smokescreen.

My belief, based on Bush administration history is that there is a massive and all-encompassing surveillance program that has been authorized behind the FISA and AT&T/NSA programs that is beginning to be seen in pieces. The White House is desperate to maintain the FISA and AT&T/NSA facade but their actions and words hint that those two cases are not their central concern. Their actions and words are directed at a program that is sitting directly behind those two cases. This program, a Program X as it were, is so invasive and overwhelming that their greatest fear is that it’s existence will be known.

What could this program entail? At this point all we can do is guess but based on the issues at stake, the methods and means used and the severity of the fallout my guess is this:

The President has secretly declared that all Americans are potential enemies of the state and he has authorized all Intelligence Agencies of the federal government to monitor, classify and identify who we are. To expedite this process, all of the major telecommunications providers, the owners of the backbone, have been federalized. In other words, an undeclared and modified state of martial law is in effect. This explanation would cover the lengths the government has gone to in hiding the details of the FISA and AT&T/NSA scandals. It would also explain the curious Doublespeak being used in discussing these cases. What we see our government doing and what it really is doing are two different things. What we are allowed to know and what is easily discovered by investigative journalists are smokescreens to draw our attention away from what lies behind them.

Has VP Cheney been caught with his pants down?

To be taken with as many grains of salt as possible, Wayne Madsen has been reporting of late that Vice President Dick Cheney is among those who frequented DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s escort service when he was the CEO of Haliburton. Madsen, for those who are not familiar, runs an interesting political news website that sometimes has reported both rumor and conjecture as fact and often confuses commentary with reporting. But I still find his website to be valuable and an excellent resource for information because of the questions his reports often leave with me. Madsen’s site is an excellent alternate point of view clearinghouse.

Let me begin this posting by saying that it makes no difference to me what sexual preferences any person has. As long as the partner doesn’t walk on hooves or paws and no one is getting hurt and it’s between consenting adults, go for it folks. I don’t necessarily agree with the whole prostitution angle but if that is where you need to go for sexual fulfillment, by all means, do your thing. Where I do have a problem is when people in positions of power frequent or experiment in alternative sexual means. This isn’t a question of ethics or morality, it’s a purely pragmatic stance I have.

When the CEO of a large, international corporation or a powerful politician, who has a family and reputation to maintain, indulges in sexual promiscuity they open themselves up to the possibility of being blackmailed. If the Vice President is dipping his wick somewhere other than Mrs. Cheney, he is opening himself up to being a victim of blackmail from other politicians, business leaders or the Intelligence Community of other nations. In other words, his sexual desires and tastes can damage his ability to maintain his loyalty to the oath of office. This also opens him up to a potentially embarrassing internationally known scandal.

All men and women in positions of power, political and business, cannot underestimate the lengths that other people, people with agendas of their own, will go to in order to get what they want. The more powerful a position in society that a person holds the greater the need for that person to maintain control of their own desires. This is not only applicable to sexual desires but also true for money and notoriety. When a person in power makes a conscious effort to continue their exploration of sexuality by using more discreet means its simply a sign that even they recognize the necessity of their activities being kept secret. In effect, their actions validate the idea that great risk to themselves and their position is at stake.

If the Vice President has patronized the services of this or any other escort service, he should resign his position. Not because his actions are immoral or unethical, but because his actions have made him a risk to the security of our nation and it’s people.

We are all casualties in the War on Drugs

One of the most simple and effective ways of controlling the thoughts and actions of the American public is, and always has been, the War on Drugs. Through this “War”, those who hold true power in this country can redirect the anger, dissatisfaction and sense of justice that the citizens become self-aware of as a collective entity every few years. This allows those in power to shape the common ideal of who is desirable and undesirable as Americans and who can be scapegoat for punishment. The most vulnerable of our society, those with little or no money and those with no political or economic leverage are the ones who are targeted for punishment.

We allow this to happen because we are conditioned to accept the jingoism of the propaganda created by our political and business leaders. The payoff we receive for unquestionably following the conditioning is the promise that someone, who is always stereotyped as less worthy and productive as the rest of us, will be ostracized from our society and incarcerated. We will be given a self-fulfilling sense of pleasure that “good” is being done for our society at large and that our self-righteousness will lead to greater safety in our own homes and for our loved ones. The beneficiaries of this propaganda are not the average citizens; the beneficiary is in fact the ones who maintain economic, political and theocratic control over America.

Poverty and lack of education are often cited as the two main causes of drug addiction. My belief is that while drug addiction is indeed a socio-economic problem, the actual root cause is hopelessness and pain. Poverty may increase the chances a person will become an addict but a lack of good paying jobs, fear of what tomorrow may bring and an ultimate sense of “giving in” to the futility of being a “tilting windmill” is what causes the impoverished to turn to drugs. The emotional pain that comes with this act of giving in is no different than what is felt by the victims of tragedy or abuse. The latter, tragedy and abuse are aspects of drug abuse that know no socio-economic boundaries.

No one aspires to be a drug addict when they are young. Addicts turn to this vice in response to what they believe about the outside world or to numb internal pain. Feeling good or better than your outlook on life is alluring, deadening pain is critical when all you feel is pain. These are traits that are shared with not only the addict but also the casual drug users who often get caught in the net of the War on Drugs. Their fate of the recreational user is the same as the addict if they do not have economic or political ties that may shield them from the full brunt on the American legislative and judicial branches.

The closed loop system of drug abuse, drug addiction, drug trafficking, drug legislation, enforcement of drug laws, state mandated drug treatment and incarceration is self-sustaining and needs little outside stimulus to maintain itself. The War on Drugs and a variety of legislative practices do not limit or reduce this system but instead cause growth of the system, which in turn increases the size and power of government as an end result. Society does not benefit from drug addiction and the War on Drugs does not benefit society either. This “War” merely marginalizes citizens and dehumanizes the victims of addiction as well as the one-off cases of individuals who self medicate for the treatment of any professionally diagnosed medical condition that decreases the quality of life of the patient.

The central method the government uses in delivering anti-drug propaganda is to demonize all drug users as deviant, dangerous and crazed. They are portrayed as immoral and outsiders of accepted society. This removes any and all sympathy the average citizen may have for the victims of drug addiction. Punishment of drug offenders satisfies the sadistic and vengeful impulses of the citizenry.

If 10 meth labs were raided in a single day, in a single state, and only 1 person was arrested for possession of the drug, the law enforcement agencies would use the single arrest of a user as justification for increasing their funds and power. The labs would be verification that their policies and laws are valid, the single drug addict would be the sign that even more needs to be done.

Law enforcement, judicial and penal systems do not grow when crime rates are down. All three of those systems need a constant rise or growth of crime to not only maintain their funding but in reality they need an increase of crime to justify what they always demand, more money. What those systems gain from the War on Drugs is far more than just public funding. What they gain is greater control of the public at large and in the end they gain a person’s money, property and life.

When a person is arrested for possession of drugs, depending on the type of drug and the amount of the drug they are arrested for, the following things occur:

1) The accused is now added to the state and local drug crime statistics.

2) The accused may try to make bail or bond out of jail, which adds money to the local bail bonding industry. If the accused does not show up for their hearings, trial dates or sentencing date the bail or bond is forfeited to the state or local coffers.

3) The accused must seek legal representation, which they may or may not be able to afford. If they can afford the legal expenses they are adding money to the local legal community. If they cannot afford representation they must petition the court, which places an added burden on the government budget.

4) If the accused is found guilty they will be paying fines, which adds to the government income. They may spend time in jail, prison or on probation and in all three cases a burden is placed on the government’s budget.

5) The guilty may have to forfeit all property they own to the government depending on the law they violated. This also adds to the government coffers when the property is auctioned to the public.

6) If the guilty receives a prison sentence there is a strong likelihood that they will be forced to provide cheap labor while incarcerated, which also adds to the government’s coffers.

7) The government will use that person’s arrest and conviction in its statistical reports for its budgets. With an increase of crime, especially targeted crime there is a corresponding demand from law enforcement to gain funding to combat that crime.

8) Once the guilty is released from prison they now have a criminal record that will adversely affect their ability to gain honest and good paying employment. This reduces the taxable income that the government can access and it can add to a burden to other government programs such as welfare if the guilty has to support a family.

9) If the guilty is desperate enough they may turn to a full time life of crime that adds to this cycle.

This doesn’t include the ancillary charges that can be brought up against most addicts and dealers. Possession of illegal weapons, tax fraud, possession of stolen goods and many other ancillary crimes are committed by both the addicts and the dealers who live in the world of drug addiction. With the rise in meth labs being raided what we also see is a number of child endangerment cases as well and homeowners and apartment managers who rent to a person who runs a meth lab on their premises are also looking at massive bills to cleanup what are now being defined by the EPA as contaminated sites.

The War on Drugs as it has been waged does not address the root causes or the prevention of drug addiction. It targets users and sellers of illicit drugs to fund it’s own goals, expand the reach of government over it’s citizens and centralize the people who benefit from the spoils of this war. Its sole purpose is to consolidate power, perpetuate itself and ignore the root causes of the war.

A person can provide and contribute more to the overall health of society by being a tax paying, law abiding and conscientious citizen. All people in a community share in the wealth that comes from keeping people happy and employed as the citizens will pay taxes, work to improve their standing in society, help their fellow citizens and reduce the burden of the cost of government by being model citizens. Why is the War on Drugs focused on finding the addicts, drug suppliers and drug manufacturers and “eliminating” them instead of eliminating the factors that lead it’s citizens to create and fuel the demand for drugs?

If a society were to reverse the flow of funds from the legislative, judicial, law enforcement and penal systems that drain resources and talent for this War on Drugs and direct those funds to repairing the problems that cause drug addiction what would be the end result? What would need to be addressed?

As I mentioned earlier, it is my belief that drug addiction begins in the local community. When there is little or no hope for the citizens of a local community or if there is no advocacy of people who suffer emotional trauma, those people will turn to substance abuse to deaden their sense of pain. This means that local communities must maintain a strong local economy and provide medical treatment for those people who have suffered deep emotional trauma if they wish to reduce the drug problem in their community.

Local communities are severely limited by how much money they can generate from their citizenry. Property and sales taxes, possibly a small income tax, are all they can draw from. Too much taxation and they stifle the economic viability of their community. They have necessary services that they must provide such as law enforcement, maintaining roads and utility services. This leaves little for reinvesting into the promotion of the local economy. Providing basic medical care for its citizens is out of the question under these conditions.

Under these conditions a local community would need funding from the state and federal government to provide greater economic investment opportunities and medical care for its citizens. States have a much greater reservoir of taxable resources than local governments. They can tax not only income and property but they can also tax the sales of fuels, targeted business and industrial sectors, as well as taxing the use of its road systems via tolls. The state also has the same budgetary issues of providing necessary services but its pool of taxable resources is much greater and the state can also provide basic medical care for its citizens.

To address economic growth and medical care for its citizens the state is in a much better financial position to address those needs than a local government but they still do not have the massive resources that the federal government has. Not only can the federal government collect income and property tax from its citizens it can also tax imported goods from other nations, negotiate the interest rates it must pay for loans, it can also generate funds by charging for a much wider range of services that it oversees. Telecommunications services, postal and other communication channels and medical coverage are prime examples of federal government generating income outside taxation.

Let’s suppose for a moment that the funnel of funding and disbursal of funds were aimed at state and local governments instead of keeping the pool of money at the federal level and spending it on federal programs. State and local governments could share the burden of economic growth by sharing the funds directed at them. State governments could address general and physical health concerns and the local community could be funded to address the mental health of its citizens by creating local community hospitals, hiring mental health professionals and providing both long-term and short-term assistance to its citizens. Victims of assault, natural disasters and poor upbringing could be offered high quality mental health care from professionals who live and are a part of their local community. The driving interest of improving your community and empowering your fellow citizens is a powerful lure to many and this quality can be found in teachers as well.

The local government would benefit from this by having a larger group of healthy, happy and optimistic citizens. This base of workers would in turn be appealing to private business not only because of the capability to maintain quality in the production of its goods and services, but also for the lower overhead that would arise because they would no longer need to provide or assist in the payment of health care services for its employees.

The state government would benefit because a large pool of happy, healthy and optimistic citizens contribute to the overall quality of economic selling points it can make to businesses who are considering a move to their state. The more businesses you have in your state and the more they produce, the greater the amount of money that can be generated by a state government in the form of taxes. Healthier, happier and more optimistic citizens and companies will steadily raise their incomes over their lifetime, which leads to more money generated by taxation.

The federal government benefits off this scenario by lower overall costs for medical care, a lower cost for providing social services, a lower cost in the enforcement of its laws since there would be a decrease in crime and it sees a greater tax base from which to draw from.

Addressing the root causes of addiction reduces the overall problem of drugs by taking away the demand for drugs. There would, of course, be a group of people that cannot be helped or aided no matter how much money is spent trying to help them. We as people have free will and we have to accept that some people simply would not accept help or want to change their lives. This is a fact of human nature that cannot be avoided but it should not be used as an excuse to not address the root problem. The key to this aspect of the War on Drugs is to recognize that the numbers of people who are beyond reach is small in comparison to the sheer volume of people that are swept into the net under our current policies. They, like career criminals, are a portion of society who will not change their behavior and they are a much smaller segment than we are currently dealing with.

This scenario as I described will never be addressed seriously. It may be hinted at or even discussed in a general sense, but it will not be addressed seriously at the higher levels of power in this nation. The reason is simple. The way we currently address the drug problem narrows the group of people who actually benefit short and long-term in the War on Drugs. These people bring true and pure power to the problem and sharing the benefits and wealth of the War on Drugs is not what they want. Who, then, benefits from the status quo in this war?

On the first level of the war, law enforcement gains funds and power. Law enforcement is the foot soldier and pawn of those in power. Law enforcement allegiance is bought and sold by those who wield true and pure power. In some instances the US Military is used in the same way as law enforcement in the war on drugs. They also act as a kind of canary in a coal mine when those at the top of the chain of power want something. If the ends they wish are new laws that restrict the freedoms of Americans, the means of that goal would be to make the law enforcement officials demand new laws to be enacted that they claim will make Americans safer. Use the statistics gathered from arrests to validate the point and people will fall into line when this propaganda is used.

The second level of this war is comprised of the individuals and companies who make a profit off this war. This level includes the obvious people and groups such as lawyers and corrections departments but there is an entire multi-billion dollar industry that drives this second level. That industry comprises companies such as Wackenhut and Aramark who provide outsourced services to the correctional facility industry by providing administrative, maintenance and food services to jails and prisons. Also in this level are the companies who make millions of dollars each year in the construction of new jails and prisons. This is the middle area where cash can be split, transferred and washed by those at the bottom and the top.

The third level of this war is the legislative and judicial branches of government, who provide the legal precedents, legal representation and oversee the funding for this war. These people guide the direction of the war to enhance and expand their power. They have even carried this power to the point where every citizen is considered a criminal regardless of what they actually do with their lives. All one has to do is look at the current missions of the US Intelligence Community and what it is doing in the NSA spying scandal as well as the process that the Intelligence Community uses when it accesses the private databases of companies such as ChoicePoint, to see that we all are being actively monitored in an attempt to not only catch us in the act of committing crimes but to predict when and/or if we will commit crimes.

The War on Drugs is a facet of a much larger operation of consolidating true power into a small group of individuals. Its sole purpose is to create instability in our communities, breed paranoia and suspicion about our fellow citizens and marginalize and target a select group of our own citizens. The very select few gain in this while the vast majority of Americans pay the price. The true price is our freedom and rights.

Even if you and I take no drug stronger than aspirin, we are still a part of the War on Drugs. We pay the price with a weaker community, a weaker economy and a more powerful government. We pay the price because we are under constant surveillance by our government and its representatives. The price we pay is our freedom.

Commentary - Who truly controls America?

Who truly holds the reigns of power in this country? This question weaves its way through the Conspiracy Theory community regardless of the theory being researched. Power, the gaining of and maintenance of said power, is the root thread in all conspiracy theories. Many researchers and enthusiasts point to the Illuminati and it’s connected components such as the Bilderberg Group, Freemasonry and other secret societies, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Just who is in power is worthy of debate and research, who is not in power is obvious. We, meaning you and I, have absolutely no power at any level in this country.

We are the bottom feeders in the food chain. When the average person thinks along the lines of class and finances we tend to think the rich are in power, and those with some riches seem to think so too. Both of those groups are sadly mistaken. True wealth, wealth that brings power to bear along with vast amounts of money is where the power lies. Several million dollars, an expensive infill home and putting the kids in private school puts you in the bottom feeder class with day laborers if you can’t bring true power to the equation. The only advantage that being rich provides is a little less discomfort in the day-to-day existence of life.

What is the source of true or pure power in America right at this moment? True or pure power comes in several forms but in the world of conspiracy theory there are only three areas where this power can be found. Controlling politics, finances and religion. All three intertwine in some theories but for the sake of this posting I’m going to address these three areas with real world examples of how this power is being wielded against us today.


Polemic Control

Regardless of whether you consider yourself a leftist, conservative, libertarian, environmentalist or apolitical; the true source of political power in America isn’t centered on the fair and honest operation of a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”. The true source of political power comes from the financial rewards offered by corporate America.

Laws are passed from bills written by lobbyists, of whom their allegiance is devoted to the companies they represent. The lawmakers allow this to happen for two reasons; to ensure they will get campaign contributions from those companies and their executives and to ensure that once they leave public office they will be guaranteed a paying position with either the corporations or the lobbying firms. The companies involved in this scheme need this full and complete control of legislation to ensure the aspects of government that were created to regulate their growth and exercise of power over the American public, are not unleashed upon them.

All that is left to do is keep the American public ignorant of their work, which is easily accomplished by controlling the mass media and by creating bills that are so large and complex that the average American will never be able to decipher the contents no matter how much time they are given to study the bill. It also helps to distract the public by creating inner worry and turmoil in their lives by controlling the economy and providing them with mindless entertainment that helps them to pass their time while they worry about bills and being employed.

From this work a small cadre can wield true and pure political control over the public at large. There will be no secret conspiracy to cover up and covert methods to operate are not needed. The conspiracy can be carried out in full view without worry of retribution because the layers of corruption are too deep and too overwhelming for one person to expose, and even then, what could one person do?


Economic Control

As I mentioned in the description of Polemic Control, the use of Economic Control can be used to meet the goal of gaining even more power or maintaining the power that is already held. The central aspect of economic control in America is the dwindling number of companies that provide goods and services. All goods and services in this country are controlled by a small number of groups, which grow larger by mergers and buyouts, which reduces their numbers even more. The power and wealth becomes concentrated and the resources for them to continue this trend expand exponentially at each merger.

Look at your paycheck and think of where it must go before you have, if ever, money left over. Food and shelter are your main concerns. Transportation and maintenance of your goods and life follow. By time you are done with the monthly bills, how much of the money that you worked so hard to earn is left? Very little and that amount is dwindling weekly.

You need a place to stay, be it a house that you are paying to own or an apartment that you rent. There goes the largest chunk of your hard earned pay, a place to live. You have to eat and no matter how much variety you have in your diet or how little you may eat, the foods you buy are made by a small number of companies. 98% of all poultry is produced by a small number of companies like Tyson and Cargill. 50% of all agricultural products that are produced come from just two corporate farming companies. 80% of all beef slaughtered in America is produced and owned by just 4 companies. 60% of all pork produced in America comes from just 4 firms.

You need water, heating, garbage services and sewerage services where you live. Not to mention electricity and possibly gas for cooking and heat or oil for heating your home. Now the utilities are being scoured by private buyout firms, looking to plunder your checking account and the money held by the communities where those services provide a vital service. Gas and oil are subjects all to themselves. The billions of dollars made in pure profit every single month by even the most ineptly managed oil company are staggering.

The money grab is non-stop and against you, the government will not stop it because the companies have already bought and sold our government. The mega-companies will continue to narrow in number, prices will always escalate and quality in their products will always deteriorate.


Theocratic Control

Founder of the Christian Coalition, Pat Robertson, has never made it a secret that the goal of the Christian Coalition and the offshoot groups that orbit around this movement, Regent University which was created by Robertson and the people who align themselves to this movement; are actively engaged in taking control of the American government so that they may shape the laws of this nation to suit their beliefs and not yours.

Their success has been astonishing as it has only been of late that the tip of the iceberg has been seen. One revelation in the scandal about the firings of US Attorneys, it was learned that over 150 graduates of the Regent law school, a Tier-IV university, are employed at various levels of power within the US Justice Department. Just how deep this infiltration of our government by agents of the theocratic conspiracy goes is unknown.

This group bypassed economic control and instead aimed for a polemic means to their ends but their connection to the polemic and economic forces are strong. The reason is simple. It’s not because the politicians and people who hold power over politicians have a deep-seated faith in God. It’s not because Big Business are Christian men and women who wish to share their wealth with the impoverished. The reason they have allowed this group to gain the power they now have is that they are enablers for the goals of the people who hold polemic and economic power.

The Theocratic power base accepts the money given to them and the money that they are allowed to share in as they promote the needs of Big Business by placing themselves in positions that will allow them to control the mechanisms that control companies. The movement into the Justice Department by the religious right-wing is a sign of this as that department can control investigations into corrupt business practices.


How this affects you, today.

Today is Friday and most of us get paid for our work on this day. Let’s look at your routine after work and see how it empowers the conspirators who wield power in America.

After you get off work you’ll probably go to the grocery store. On the way to the store you may pass a gas station and notice that gas is now $.10 higher per gallon than the last time you filled your tank. You may even consider how much it would cost you to convert your car to Ethanol or Bio-Diesel. When you get to the grocery store you get sticker shock. Almost everything we eat now is made with corn.

Corn is at historic all-time high prices because of two things. The fuel needed in the growing and harvesting process for the corn is at outrageously high levels and corn is in demand outside the food market for use in creating Ethanol, the higher cost gets passed to you. The cost of fueling trucks that transport the food to the wholesaler, then the distributor and then to the retailer is higher; the higher cost gets passed to you. The grocery store has to pay higher rates for electricity to light the store and keep the freezers going as well as a higher price for the goods they sell. The higher cost gets passed to you.

You drive home, maybe stopping for gas at a station that’s $.03 cheaper per gallon than the others. You get home, use gas to cook dinner, burn electricity to see what you are doing and watch TV, of which the cable rates have gone up 45% over the last 10 years, and you worry about the bills you have to pay this month with what little is left from your paycheck.

Your income is steadily dropping and there is no such thing as job security no matter how hard you work or how good you are at your profession. The profits made by the companies that are eating more and more from your paycheck are much higher now because the price of raw materials has skyrocketed. Their bank accounts are bulging at the seams while yours is frighteningly short. Big Oil has even said they don’t even know what to do with all the extra cash they are floating in.

You can’t look to the government for relief because they are in the pockets of Big Business and they are busy mopping up such things as war, terrorism, corruption and foreign policy. Sorry but they are just too busy to do something about your monthly bills.

So, what’s left for you to turn to but God? Guess who’s got that market cornered too?

Commentary - Think it's hard following national politics?

Even Eugene Talmadge would shake his head at this mess.

If you think it's hard following National politics try following local politics, especially in Georgia. Earlier this year the state Democratic Party brought forward a complaint to the State Ethics Committee against the Speaker of the State House regarding what has been described as an "improper" and "personal" relationship between the Speaker of the House and a lobbyist for the Atlanta Gas Light Company (AGL). At the time of the relationship, the Speaker co-sponsored a bill that was to have financed a $300 million dollar pipeline for the company. I may be a paranoid "Joe Six Pack" but even I know this is wrong and there is no amount of rationalization in the world to make it right.

What became of the investigation? Dismissed by the Ethics Committee, half of whom were appointed by the Speaker. Nice catch, Richardson, and a tip of the hat to the 12 members of the "Ethics Committee" who let this get swept aside. You folks are really representing your constituents well and you sure are making an effort to "earn" your keep. All sarcasm aside, we need to send a truckload of hand baskets from Atlanta to Helen, because that's where this state is going.

insideradvantagegeorgia.com, a political clearinghouse for Georgia political stories ran a poll regarding the Speaker's ethics problem and the results are pretty sad. 71% of the poll respondents didn't know or were not aware that there was even an ethics complaint against their own Speaker. Our mainstream news sources here in Georgia are no different than the Big 5 of the nation who blabber away about nothing, real stories that have an impact are pushed aside for fluff and distractions while the real news, the events that effect all of us get a fraction of the time spent discussing whether or not Mr. Mexico gets high at the dog fights or not.

In light of this I have to say that it's a shame that Ralph Reed didn't win the Lt. Governor seat. A Bible waving crook with no moral compass always knows his way around the gold dome. He would have been a better fit for the Georgia legislature.

Commentary - The militarization of America - Part 2

Part 1 of this commentary can be found here:

http://theconspiratorsnest.blogspot.com/2007/04/commentary-militarization-of-america.html

Rumors about the toy box

Coinciding with the late 80's-early 90's escalation of combat operations and shining publicity was a curious sideshow involving secret desert bases, exotic advanced weapons and technology and a faint hint of otherworldly connections. Starting around 1987 the subject America's stealth fighter technology and experiments came to light. It began in technical and trade journals as well as the sub-culture of aviation enthusiasts. The existence of the B-2 bomber and the F-117 Stealth fighter had been verified by time of the Panama invasion. The invasion was the "test bed" for the capabilities of both weapons delivery systems, the first Persian Gulf war was the coming out party.

Bubbling under these two developments were rumors of other, far more exotic toys being played with in the toy box of the high desert of Nevada; Area 51. American interest had been piqued by the story sub-plots found in TV shows and movies like "The X-Files", "Men in Black" and "Independence Day" which hinted at or directly covered the existence of advanced military weapons systems that were kept in the secret Area 51 air base. These rumors and plot devices satiated the American appetite for superiority in all things related to the military and gave popular culture a new outlet for conspiracy theories and urban legend. Instead of public fear and outrage at these stories, Americans were strangely seduced and pleased by these stories. Why?


Look around you

The military, its suppliers and its second cousins are all around us. Turn on the TV if you have cable and there is literally a 24-hour a day presence of the military on your TV. The Military History Channel is one of the many channels which fall under the broadcast umbrella of General Electric and it's A&E Television Networks. In the early and mid-90's another basic cable staple, The Discovery Channel, was a science and history centric source of programming. It's shows featured stories about ancient societies, space exploration and world history. The only military themed shows were the 1 hour-long documentaries about military action from history. This aspect of the programming can be prominently seen in early episodes of HBO's The Sopranos, as lead character and mob boss Tony Soprano, is an enthusiast of these shows and their historical figures. In Gus Van Sandt's film "Elephant", a fictionalized account of the Columbine Massacre, the killers are seen skipping school with a Discovery Channel styled documentary playing in the scene where an automatic rifle is being delivered to them.

The Discovery Channel and General Elctric's web of cable stations all use the modern military, it's weapons and tactics as a central subject of much of their programming on top of the 24 hour coverage featured on The Military History Channel. The quantity and tone of this type of programming is quite unsettling when you begin to look closely at the subject material. Is this glut of military themed programming a result of public demand, or is it a carefully orchestrated plan to desensitize the American public to the mission of the military (wage war and cause death and destruction) and/or to desensitize them and give sympathy to the suppliers of military weapons? General Electric stands much to gain by their own form of self promotion.

I have not seen a single example of criticism of the fraud, corruption or fleecing of the American public by the makers of the American weapons industry on these channels. It is only wall-to-wall praise and glory for the purported capabilities of these weapons, weapon delivery systems and their designers. No mention of the checkered history of the Osprey aircraft platform. No mention of the massive cost overruns, abject failure to produce viable products in accordance with contractual obligations and flawed production of the LCS and Deepwater Programs. No mention of the sham and money pit that was the A-12 Avenger program. Chest thumping and sexy base reactions from the masses, yes. Honesty and critical thinking, no!

Switch channels to over-the-air broadcast TV and you'll see even more propaganda. The Armed Forces have spent a ton of money to sponsor cars in the NASCAR Nextel Cup racing series. At any sporting event worthy of national attention there is the obligatory honor guard and flyover of high tech aircraft. You can't sit down and simply watch a football game on a lazy Sunday afternoon without being assaulted with images of spit and polished servicemen, a close-up of a formation of F-18 Hornets, and now the on-screen box score even features the logos of and website address of the military. GoArmy.com indeed. Especially if my team can go 5-2 after this game.

The military's advertising has even morphed into a variation on themes. One commercial features the POV of a middle aged parent, with their child informing them of the news that they have or are considering joining the military. The POV parent, of course, is silent for the length of the commercial as your youngster rattles off the promises of the recruiter. Another commercial approach shows the military as a video game. No comment necessary.


In conclusion

This militarization of the American masses is so ingrained in our culture that it's virtually a useless exercise to reverse the trend. Spend some of your time with your eyes open and your mind aware of the military symbolism all around you. What does your local police force look like? Here in Atlanta where I live and in the rest of the state of Georgia, out police officers rarely act or dress in the traditional way of law enforcement agents. Many wear all black uniforms, with their pants combat dressed into their boots.

All we need is for the Commander in Chief to dress in the uniform while in office and all is complete. Wait a minute, that already happened.

Image from Reuters