Not the Same America Any More

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Arlen Grossman

BPR Quote of the Day

“The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.”

President John F. Kennedy

Commencement Address at American University in Washington, June 10, 1963
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Drop Your Drawers and Bend Over For America

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Arlen Grossman

BPR Quote of the Day

 “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Benjamin Franklin

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Spray Wars

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Arlen Grossman

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Thomas Jefferson: Let the Rich Pay the Taxes

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Arlen Grossman

BPR Quotes of the Day

Thomas Jefferson’s views on who should be paying taxes would clearly disqualify him as a member of today’s Republican Party…..

“The collection of taxes… has been as yet only by duties on consumption. As these fall principally on the rich, it is a general desire to make them contribute the whole money we want, if possible. And we have a hope that they will furnish enough for the expenses of government and the interest of our whole public debt, foreign and domestic.” –Thomas Jefferson to Comte de Moustier, 1790. ME 8:110

“The rich alone use imported articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the General Government are levied. … Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings.” –Thomas Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1811. ME 13:41

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Our Way or Our Way

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Arlen Grossman

Washington Leads World Into Lawlessness

by Paul Craig Roberts/ paulcraigroberts.org/ April 12, 2012

The US government pretends to live under the rule of law, to respect human rights, and to provide freedom and democracy to citizens. Washington’s pretense and the stark reality are diametrically opposed.

US government officials routinely criticize other governments for being undemocratic and for violating human rights. Yet, no other country except Israel sends bombs, missiles, and drones into sovereign countries to murder civilian populations. The torture prisons of Abu Gahraib, Guantanamo, and CIA secret rendition sites are the contributions of the Bush/Obama regimes to human rights.

Washington violates the human rights of its own citizens. Washington has suspended the civil liberties guaranteed in the US Constitution and declared its intention to detain US citizens indefinitely without due process of law. President Obama has announced that he, at his discretion, can murder US citizens whom he regards as a threat to the US.

Congress did not respond to these extraordinary announcements with impeachment proceedings. There was no uproar from the federal courts, law schools, or bar associations. Glenn Greenwald reports that the Department of Homeland Security harasses journalists who refuse to be presstitutes, and we have seen videos of the brutal police oppression of peaceful OWS protestors. Chris Floyd describes the torture-perverts who rule the US.

Now Washington is forcing as much of the world as it can to overthrow international treaties and international law. Washington has issued a ukase that its word alone is international law. Any country, except those who receive Washington’s dispensation, that engages in trade with Iran or purchases Iran’s oil will be sanctioned by the US. These countries will be cut off from US markets, and their banking systems will not be able to use banks that process international payments. In other words, Washington’s “sanctions against Iran” apply not to Iran but to countries that defy Washington and meet their energy needs with Iranian oil.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, so far Washington has granted special privileges to Japan and 10 European Union countries to continue purchasing Iranian oil. Requiring countries to shutdown their economies in order to comply with Washington’s vendetta against Iran, a vendetta that has been ongoing ever since the Iranians overthrew the Washington-installed puppet, the Shah of Iran, more than three decades ago, was more than Washington could get away with. Washington has permitted Japan to keep importing between 78-85% of its normal oil imports from Iran.

Washington’s dispensations, however, are arbitrary. Dispensations have not been granted to China, India, Turkey, and South Korea. India and China are the largest importers of Iranian oil, and Turkey and South Korea are among the top ten importers. Before looking at possible unintended consequences of Washington’s vendetta against Iran, what is Washington’s case against Iran?

Frankly, Washington has no case. It is the hoax of “weapons of mass destruction” all over again. Iran, unlike Israel, signed the non-proliferation treaty. All countries that sign the treaty have the right to nuclear energy. Washington claims that Iran is violating the treaty by developing a nuclear weapon. There is no evidence whatsoever for Washington’s assertion. Washington’s own 16 intelligence agencies are unanimous that Iran has had no nuclear weapon’s program since 2003. Moreover, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s weapons inspectors are in Iran and have reported consistently that there is no diversion of nuclear material from the energy program to a weapons program.

On the rare occasion when Washington is reminded of the facts, Washington makes a different case. Washington asserts that Iran’s rights under the non-proliferation treaty notwithstanding, Iran cannot have a nuclear energy program, because Iran would then have learned enough to be able at some future time to make a bomb. The world’s hegemon has unilaterally decided that the possibility that Iran might one day decide to make a nuke is too great a risk to take. It is better, Washington says, to drive up the oil price, disrupt the world economy, violate international law, and risk a major war than to have to worry that a future Iranian government will make a nuclear weapon. This is the Jeremy Bentham tyrannical approach to law that was repudiated by the Anglo-American legal system.

(Continued Here)

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Politician Called Out For Not Saying Pledge of Allegience!

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Arlen Grossman

Front Page Headline in Monterey Herald, April 17, 2012:

“Assemblyman Alejo Denies Not Saying Pledge–Alejo Says Assemblywoman’s Charge ‘Complete Invention'”

My Letter to the Editor, April 20, 2012:

Have politicians no shame?

I was so outraged by the headline in The Herald about a fellow lawmaker accusing Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, of not saying the Pledge of Allegiance (which he denies) that I did some digging to find out what else is going on with our elected officials. I discovered that his accuser, Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, was reported to have missed going to church four of the past five Sundays. I also heard accusations about our local Assemblyman Bill Monning, D-Carmel, who has been seen more than once stepping on a sidewalk crack and endangering his mother’s back.

Another assembly person, who shall remain anonymous due to the gravity of the charges, was reportedly seen sitting down a full five seconds before the end of the National Anthem at a recent Giants game. Have these politicians no shame?

Arlen Grossman

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Why Don’t the Afghans Love Us?

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Arlen Grossman

The Inconvenient Truth the Pentagon Would Prefer We Didn’t See

It is not photographs of US soldiers mocking Afghan insurgents’ bodies that incites violence, but the plain fact of US occupation

by Ross Caputi/ The Guardian/ April 18, 2012

The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, has promised an inquiry into the photos published by the LA Times. Photograph: Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images

The LA Times released new photos Wednesday of US soldiers posing in a celebratory manner with the corpses of dead Afghan suicide bombers. The photos were provided by a soldier from the 82nd Airborne division who felt that they revealed a “breakdown in leadership and discipline”, with the hope that the photos would force the Army to correct this situation.

However, US military officials requested the LA Times not publish any of the photos. The Pentagon statement argued that the photos “do not represent the character and professionalism of the great majority of our troops in Afghanistan” and that the photos “have the potential to indict” all of our troops in Afghanistan “in the minds of local Afghans, inciting violence and perhaps causing needless casualties”.

Treating these photos as an isolated incident by a few bad apples is the Pentagon’s second favorite response to news of our troops committing shameful acts overseas. This was how they treated the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the rape and murder of A’beer Qassim al-Janabi (a 15-year-old Iraqi girl), the Haditha Massacre, the “kill team” in Afghanistan, the Marines who urinated on dead Afghans, the recent murder of 16 Afghan civilians, and many similar incidents. If we count all the times US officials have claimed that the abhorrent and embarrassing acts of US troops overseas were isolated incidents, the numbers would reveal that this sort of behavior is actually quite regular.

The Pentagon’s preferred response to these sorts of incidents is to claim that acknowledging them puts our troops overseas in danger, because news of these incidents could enrage the populations that we victimized and provoke them to attack our troops. Thus, these incidents are better kept a secret.

There are several things that trouble me about this line of logic. First, it implies that the blame for the harm that comes to our troops falls on Afghan insurgents, not on the politicians and generals who sent soldiers to Afghanistan. This rhetorical sleight of hand shifts the blame from the architects of the occupation to the people we are occupying.

More importantly, this type of reasoning reveals just how little we care about bringing democracy to Afghanistan, because Afghan opinion is regarded as an obstacle to be forestalled or overcome. The “white man’s burden” is still very much alive in American war culture. Very few Americans question the assumption that we know what is best for Afghans; we don’t feel that they have a right to object to what we are doing in their country. So when some Afghans resist and fight back, we consider it to be criminal.

Our goal, then, is to keep Afghans passive, rather than treating them as rational actors and encouraging them to have a voice. If Afghans want something other than what the Pentagon wants, it is deemed irrelevant; and our actions that might enrage them (since, again, they are not rational actors) are best kept a secret.

The Pentagon rhetoric is meant to deflect attention from all the moral questions that American citizens should be engaging in and focus their attention on the plight of our troops. Honest public discourse would address a persistent pattern of brutal and inhuman behavior by our troops and why that sort of behavior is to be expected in this war with all of its ideological distortions and immoral foundations. And it would address the right of Afghans to resist the imposition of our policies in their country, and the callousness of our leaders for putting our troops in harm’s way by asking them to violate the rights of Afghans.

These photos do not reveal an individual instance of “breakdown in leadership and discipline”, but rather the reality of an immoral occupation. Revealing such photos to the public will not endanger our troops any more than a continuation of this war will. It is the simple fact of the occupation of Afghanistan that is the real inciter of violence. And as long as US chooses to continue the occupation, more Afghan and American lives will be lost.

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Just a Little Bit Farther…..

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Arlen Grossman

Image: origin unknown
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Senate Stuck in Quicksand of Record Filibusters

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Arlen Grossman

by Arlen Grossman/ The Big Picture Report

In just one more of numerous examples, the U.S. Senate vote Monday on the so-called “Buffett Rule” provided more evidence of the dysfunctional mess that is supposed to be our democratic political system.

By a 51-45 vote, the Senate voted in favor of a minimum tax rate for millionaires and billionaires. Polls clearly show the public agrees that the very wealthy should pay an equal or higher income tax rate than other taxpayers.

But of course the legislation didn’t pass because, after all, we are talking about the U.S. Senate, where 60 votes are required to invoke cloture, end a filibuster and pass most bills. With partisanship and obstructionism the  GOP’s preferred strategy, filibuster threats  have soared to record levels and explain in large part why so many popular Democratic Party proposals have been left in the dust.

What makes this all the more absurd is that the U.S. Constitution has a solution for a deadlocked Senate. Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 spells it out: “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.”

Exactly how this constitutionally mandated role can be implemented these days, when 60 Senate votes are needed to get legislation passed, is hard to figure out. Even if the Monday vote  had been 50-50, with Joe Biden sitting in the bullpen, the “Buffett Rule” never had a prayer of passing.

This kind of deadlock by minority rule has worked out wonderfully for the GOP.  With their stated goal, “for President Obama to be a one-term President” according to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, gridlock is easy and effective.

(ROFLMAO translation=rolling on floor laughing my ass off)

So once again, millionaires will continue paying lower effective tax rates, single-payer or public option in health care will be out of reach, and federal judges will fail to be confirmed. Is it possible Democrats will get tough and move to reform the rules to prevent such blatant obstruction by Republicans?  It’s about as likely as the GOP admitting they were wrong about global warming and abortion rights.

Expect a whole lot more good legislation to die in the United States Senate this year.

ALSO PUBLISHED IN OPEDNEWS.COM and OKIEPROGRESSIVE 04/18/2012
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Romney’s Dog “Loved” His Car Ride

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Arlen Grossman
I thought Randi’s daily news feed was particularly clever today……

S**t Romneys Say

by Randi Rhodes/RandiRhodes.com/April 17, 2012

Today is tax day… unless you’re Mitt Romney, or as rich as Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney doesn’t really have to pay taxes any more than Ann Romney has to work at Burger King. Mitt filed for a tax extension last Friday. How could he not be ready? Didn’t he see tax day coming? Mitt, as President of the United States you would have to deal with things that sneak up on you even more than that! For whatever reason, Mitt decided he was better off with the embarrassment of being late with his taxes than he would be with the embarrassment of whatever is on his taxes.

On that note, Mitt Romney has addressed the “dog on the roof” story again. When asked about the dog this time, Mitt actually showed remorse. Of course, since it was Mitt Romney, it wasn’t remorse for what he did. It was remorse for the fact that it has generated so much negative press. When asked if he would do it again, Mitt said “Certainly not, with the attention it’s received.” Wow! It’s another version of “We can’t have illegals. I’m running for office for Pete’s sake!” Classic Romney! At the time, the doggie-panic-fear-diarrhea didn’t sway Mitt’s opinion, but now the fact that it’s hurting his image has made him think twice. The bottom line is that Mitt Romney doesn’t live in a world of right and wrong—he lives in a world of what looks right and what looks wrong.
Meanwhile, in the same interview, Ann Romney was still defending the roof treatment for the dog! Ann Romney has doubled down on doggie diarrhea! During the interview, Ann jumped into the dog mess, so to speak. She said “The dog loved it.” Right. He was so happy he crapped himself! Looking back on the times in my life on the moments when I was the happiest, I never responded like Seamus the dog did. Good thing, too, or I would have ruined quite a few Kodak moments.

When Mitt was asked if he had anything to tell President Obama, he said “Start packing.” Ugh! When Mitt tries to sound like a tough guy, he just ends up sounding like a rich guy, again. Sorry, Mitt—if Clint Eastwood says “Start packing,” he looks macho. But when Thurston Howell III says “start packing,” he just looks privileged.

Image: welikerick.net
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