Tuesday February 21, 2012, 9:31 am
The US enjoys a lot of independent media choices especially on the state and local level . Most corrupt government in human history. What standards were used for this judgement?

Tuesday February 21, 2012, 9:55 am
From reading Zinn to Chomsky, and John Perkins, and hearing what Major General Smedley Butler said in 36 of all the wars he had fought in being for corporate profit, I agreed with Paul Craig Roberts when he wrote that in this article.

Tuesday February 21, 2012, 6:03 pm
Thanks , A lot to both sides .

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 5:20 am
From Michael Parenti's Facebook Wall, and had heard of in other places.

16 Things Libya Will Never See Again
October 24, 2011

1. There was no electricity bill in Libya; electricity was free for all its citizens.
2. There was no interest on loans, banks in Libya were state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at zero percent interest by law.
3. Having a home was considered a human right in Libya.
4. All newlyweds in Libya used to receive $60,000 dinar (U.S.$50,000) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start up the family.
5. Education and medical treatments were free in Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25 percent of Libyans were literate. Today, the figure is 83 percent.
6. If Libyans wanted to take up a farming career, they would have received farming land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and livestock to kickstart their farms... all for free.
7. If Libyans could not find the education or medical facilities they needed, the government funded them to go abroad. For it was not only paid for, but they got a U.S.$2,300/month for accommodation and car allowance.
8. If a Libyan bought a car, the government used to subsidize 50 percent of the price.
9. The price of petrol in Libya was $0.14 per liter.
10. Libya had no external debt and its reserves amounted to $150 billion -which are now frozen globally.
11. If a Libyan was unable to get employment after graduation, the state would pay the average salary of the profession, as if he or she was employed, until employment was found.
12. A portion of every Libyan oil sale was credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
13. A mother who gave birth to a child received U.S. $5,000.
14. 40 loaves of bread in Libya used to cost $0.15.
15. 25 percent of Libyans have a university degree.
16. Gaddafi carried out the world's largest irrigation project, known as the Great Manmade River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 5:47 am
thanks for sharing

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 5:56 am
very interesting post, thank you Michael!

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 5:57 am
thanks Michael

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 6:41 am

I am glad Michael you selected this as a topic

Have a look, how democracy looks alike:
Libya Before (2007) and After (2011) Liberation

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 6:48 am
Noted!!

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 6:55 am
for the love of everything good in this world
stop spreading propaganda about syria.

Long before any of you even heard of what was going on there and long before Obama or the U.S. wanted to get involved at all in either libya or syria
I was in contact with rebels from all over these places trying to help them petition the U.N. to intervene.
You're talking about something you know nothing about.
Go and talk to some of these rebels yourself.
Go and watch readily available videos of people getting shot in the street for protesting
and the piles of bodies of familes that gaddafi had burned alive.
You Americans are so arrogant
you think that everything in the world revolves around you.
Yes, the United States finally decided to support the rebels after more than a year of us petitioning them to,
but to assume that this is some U.S. war without any evidence is putting hundreds of thousands of lives at stake.
Anyone here remember rwanda.
Everyone took too much time debating over it until it was too late and it was because of propaganda like this that we weren't able to stop those mass murders.
I don't know how you people can just sit back behind your computer screens and assume this stuff without actually asking the people it's about.
People are dying everyday over this.
The writing is all over the wall
and unfortunately is painted in Syrian blood.

At least go out and talk to some of these people.
You can contact just about anyone in the world through ustream (as long as they're still able to get internet in Syria right now)
there's no excuse to just sit back and assume without going to the source in the information age where it is so easy to cross check this stuff.

Shame on all of you.
Lives are at stake.
This isn't just a matter of opinion.
The conflict in Libya for example was going on for 40 years
and you guys assumed that the U.S. started it.
It's your fault that you weren't paying attention to this conflict before it made the U.S. headlines,
but don't go and assume that you're an expert without any knowledge of the subject before it hit U.S. airwaves.

I'm so sick of you guys being so fickle that you cause so much suffering in the world.
Stop getting in the way of change.
I have more than a few Libyan friends
and they are royally mad at all of you for throwing them under the bus.
good job.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:11 am
My dear Michael,i agree absolutely about Libya.
What i don't understand (and sorry for the disgression) is how,for example,some Ron Paul's followers think the same about Lybia,and the next second they're saying that government must be reduce to its minimum size possible. It's like a squizofrenic political thinking.
Noted and thanks!

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:15 am
Pat Buchanan: 300 Nukes in Israel yet Iran a Threat?

Video By RT

Islamic wars have brought questionable benefit to the US over the last 20 years, former US presidential advisor Pat Buchanan, author of Suicide of a Superpower, shared with RT. ­A new war in the Middle East will be a disaster for the US and for the world economy, he says. "I opposed the Desert Storm operation in 1991 cleaning Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait because, I said, 'This would only be the first Arab-American war.'" Looking at the number of conflicts in the Islam world that America is taking part in now, one cannot but admit that Buchanan was right 20 years ago. "You cannot replicate the Middle West in the Middle East," Pat Buchanan concluded.

From the time of the Cold War the US has military bases all over the world. Today, running a budget deficit of 10 per cent of its GDP, America simply cannot afford to continue "to carry this enormous burden, defending 40 or 50 countries around the world," Buchanan says, "We have to bring troops home." Getting rid of these bases essentially means dismantling the American Empire to help the US survive beyond 2025. America's crusade under the banner of ending tyranny in the world is "utterly utopian".
Wach the video

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30610.htm

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:17 am
Noted and WoW.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:22 am

Send a Green Star to Michael Dewey
Sending a Green Star is a simple way to say "Thank you"
You cannot currently send a star to Michael because you have done so within the last week.
Sending your comments Michael to my contacts. Some will be shocked because propaganda told them otherwise and they bought into it. (How easy is that?)

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:25 am
Thank you frank for your courage and raising your voice to show the truth.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:27 am
Sorry for the mistake. I meant thank you Michael

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:29 am
Sorry for the mistake.I meant to say : Thank you Michael.Agreen star on its way to you. You are ONE in a million.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:34 am
Thanks to both Michaels, but i'm with Michael M. on this one.
We can grt the real story if we search for it.
What we cannot get is the return of all those killed in these violent conflicts that by our idleness and silence we seemingly condone. Thanks for this post. We need to keep the dialogue alive if we are to affect change.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:35 am
noted

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:35 am
Everybody here especially the two Michaels have hit the jackpot with their comments :)

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:47 am
Noted,thanks Michael.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 8:12 am
I will be voting for Ron Paul for his Foreign Policy, and monetary plans, of which both would help America be the example to the world it could have always been. Yes, I do wish he would talk of North Dakota's State Bank, that other States are studying how to do, as a way to compete with the Fed, while also helping to fund the States.

Am no expert on the complicated Middle East, by any stretch of the imagination. But what Paul Craig Roberts says here, ties so closely to what John Perkins says he did and saw, in his book, ''Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, that there is little doubt in my mind's eyes, the CIA has their fingerprints all over things in the M.E, which I do understand has many different cultures, traditions and things.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 8:16 am
This article is pretty radical. Pat Buchanan was a right-wing nut, and I am kind of glad he is gone. I just don't know what to say about the information. I feel like we are shielded from the truth so much that we have lost sight of what is true and what is not, and we just don't know. Libya's people might have had a nice ride, but that kind of generosity sounds a little too good to be true too. I think we have to doubt all media, use discernment, and look with our hearts together with our minds at what is going on, despite all media reporting including this one.
I do believe that there is more ugliness going on than we would tolerate if it were exposed. I think we need to pay more attention and read more varied sources for information. You know the adage: "3 truths and 1 lie"-------it seems its all we ever get from any one source.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 8:46 am
"The most corrupt government in human history"??? I do so love a good conspiracy theory.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 8:51 am
Michael MacDonald........ I have talked to a friend who lives in Syria. She confirmed that the "Rebels" are being funded, armed and instigated by the USA. Syria was on the list of seven nation that Paul Wolfkowitz targeted for regime change.

As far a Libya goes Camila? Yes. Libya had the highest standard of living in Africa. Gas was subsidized and cost 11 cents. The down payment on a home was paid by government for newly wed couples. Education was free and students were subsidized for College overseas. Health care was free and universal. And more. Now the country is chaos. Tribes are at each others throats. Women's rights are being repressed. Other sects of Islam are being persecuted. Murder and rape are widespread. Civil war looms.

So, I invite you to investigate the truth. .We are being lied to on so many things. Keep an open mind and look carefully for the truth.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 8:52 am
Well how damn sad is this . :(

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 9:03 am
So to live as a slave in comfort or start the messy business of taking responsibility for our own live's well that’s a hard one, really?

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 9:26 am
A government should always be afraid of its people, not the other way around.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 9:30 am


Noted and informed....

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Wednesday February 22, 2012, 9:40 am
I shudder to think of the friends in Syria that I know there and the destruction of their country (just as Libya has been destroyed) by Zionism Imperialism and its lackeys in the Gulf.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 10:15 am
I am going to have to go with Camilla on this one. Too soon to send you a greenie.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 10:46 am
Noted, thank you Michael.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 11:03 am
Noted! Thanks!

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 11:59 am
THANKS MICHAEL!

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 12:11 pm
Ah Zinn, such a great loss his passing was. He would recognize our current plight and he would offer sage advice. The mainstream does not serve we the people, so pay it no mind. It does not deserve one iota of your energy.

Zinn is not with us. The others you mentioned have valuable things to teach us but with too many words. How about Chris Christopherson: "Freedom is what you have when there is nothing left to lose" "Help me make it through the night", "Please don't tell me how the story ends". Each quote should help us recognize the unbeatable human spirit in all of us. The human spirit that makes men (and women) who cannot be broken. For instance the 1981 hunger strikes in Belfast. The hunger strikes of Palestinians in Israeli prisons now.

We are at the point Bobby Sands described so well: Existence is Resistance. It seems so bleak but this is the point from which winners start. Just being alive and aware is resisting and there is so much more we can be doing.

Next month will contain my 67th birthday. But I still firmly believe that it is "Never too late to be who we were meant to be." I am now a student at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, AZ. I am updating my 2002 Masters in Internet Technology. I am throwing all of my energy in with the young companions I am meeting at protests and in classes.

It is tragic that some people here on Care 2 see these critical hours as a time to spread fear, doubt and crippling hasty judgments. Some of the people doing these activities are fully aware of the harm they are doing.

"We are anonymous. We are legion. We are everywhere. We do not forget. We do not forgive. Expect US."

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 12:13 pm
Thank you, Michael, the most informative threads. I see the human spirit so brightly in you, my friend.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 12:42 pm
Lying has become the mainstream and governments modus operandi. It is totally pitiful yet most Americans accept being complacent. When the rubber don't meet the road all hell is going to break loose. All of us need to wake up NOW!

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 1:04 pm
Thanks Michael, there is so much going on, and always good to check multiple sources for news.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 1:32 pm
Since I can't believe anything the media says any more - I can't believe all the things said in the article or comments.. I can only hope that the People of Lybia & other countries can get control of their own lives & governments & try to do the right thing.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 2:02 pm
1st, Putin is a member of the world's ruling elite. When the Iron Curtain fell, we had a chance to see real democracy installed in Russia, instead the US leaders and the rest of the world leaders were content to watch the KGB take over. The rulers use wars and violence to keep "we the people" of the world from uniting. Plus, the rulers 'encourage' the "thinning of the herd" whenever possible and by whatever means available. So, if Putin decides to contest US power in the region, then you can bet that it is already approved by the ruling class.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 2:45 pm
A great post Micheal Thank you

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 2:59 pm
We need to look at all issues from many sides because somewhere in the middle is the truth. While I agree with one or two points of Ron Paul's in theory, I don't necessarily believe in his implementation, and I certainly find him a racist and a bigot. I do not agree with an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran and I believe at this point that the US is trying to distance itself from that conflagration. I have Iranian friends and acquaintances that left Iran because of the politics, the human rights abuses etc, but that is no reason to march in in a red cape and tights. The same goes for Syria and Libya. At sometime, everyone has to stop and take a deep breath.

As I understand from several sources, Buchanan was severed by MSNBC for promoting his book on company time and overt racism and bigotry. As for Fox News, I would hardly call them mainstream media --- more like a reality TV show in the most crass and voyeuristic way. They wouldn't know the truth even if it bit them on the butt.

Thanks Micael --- we need to keep looking at all sides to glean the truth. Sometimes it is easier than other times.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 4:15 pm
Thanks for sharing.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 4:48 pm
Thank you, Michael for this.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 4:57 pm
We need a Peaceful Revolution of the people against those oppressing us! We are the many, they are the few! Deceptions & false flags were their tools, war was their game, but it is falling apart as more awaken to what was pushed to the masses as TRUTH, were all LIES. Any one still asleep? Thanks Michael.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 6:02 pm
Thanks for sharing Michael, Noted.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 6:30 pm
Noted. Most corrupt government in history?

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 6:34 pm
The problem I see is that our Press isn't free anymore, all the different Papers, and TV Networks are owned by the same Corporations, so we don't get the truth anymore...Thanks, Michael

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 7:00 pm
Thanks Michael

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 8:31 pm
Noted. Thanks for posting Michael.

Wednesday February 22, 2012, 10:07 pm
We get the truth that George Soros wants us to get! Look to George Soros for any kind of widespread world problems! You can bet he is in the center of many of them!

Thursday February 23, 2012, 1:45 am
Noted, thank you!

Thursday February 23, 2012, 1:46 am
Great post,thanks Michael.

Thursday February 23, 2012, 3:33 am
My dear Michael,with all love,cultures might be different,but there are some universal concepts such as government,state,sovereign...the ways may vary from culture to culture,but you can be absolutelu sure that it wasn't private iniciative what granted Lybian citizens those benefits...It was the ordered work of a strong government.

Thursday February 23, 2012, 4:14 am
I was not knocking any of the Cultures over there. Maybe I didn't say that America has next to no clue of any of their Cultures. Have heard from those in the no about Iraq, that with all of the different Tribes and Sects, they would have ended up killing each other with out a strong man in charge. Seems about what happened, when we got rid of him, only we brought in 140,000 more targets. Oh America has a strong fascist corporate owned Govt. and media. They have proved to me that we don't need DC, in this 21st Century to tell States what to do. Nobody today is talking of doing away with the Bill of Rights. Some will argue that we ''might'' have ended up better off today, had they just added the Bill of Rights to The Articles of Confederation.-speculation yes

Just came across this the other day.
"The very idea of converting what was formerly a confederation, to a consolidated Government, is totally subversive of every principle which has hitherto governed us. This power is calculated to annihilate totally the State Governments. Will the people of this great community submit to be individually taxed by two different and distinct powers? Will they suffer themselves to be doubly harrassed?"-George Mason (One of those old timers who seems as if he describe our times well.)

Thursday February 23, 2012, 4:21 am
noted

Thursday February 23, 2012, 10:16 am
Noted , Thankyou....

Thursday February 23, 2012, 11:38 am
Calle has provided a link to photographs of Libya 2007 and Libya 2011 to "have a look at how democracy looks alike". Two photographs are offered. Neither photograph has anything to do with democracy.

The 2007 photo shows a country that enjoyed an above 10% rise yearly in gdp for 15 years due to petroleum revenues. The 2007 photo shows a country that exceeds the IMF criteria for a "first world county". (Point of interest. Iraq exceeded the IMF standards for a first world country before the western powers imposed sanctions.) The second photograph shows a devastated country in the midst of a three way armed conflict.

Petroleum prosperity and destruction from heavily armed hostile actions show the people involved in their government???? I just do not get it, Calle. I do not understand, Calle, why you are one of two men who like to alarm, confuse and deceive Care 2 members. I also do not understand your declarations that you want to be here for the awakening of man when you are one of two men who tirelessly tries to hinder human revolutionary and evolutionary progress.

Michael, petroleum revenues (not held at the top but shared with the people), underwrote the programs in Libya which you have listed above. In pre-sanction Iraq, petroleum revenues (shared with the people not held at the top) offered the same programs plus an educational program that included four years at a university outside of Iraq.

Next the REAL happily thereafter fairy tale of the 21st century.

Thursday February 23, 2012, 11:53 am
I'd be all for Nationalizing America's Oil with Gas Stations, set up as the Post Office is, and competing as, who could fund the Communities better. Is that out there or what?

Thursday February 23, 2012, 12:14 pm
Those In-the-Know may debate this Article.
The Author claims that the United States to be
"The Most Corrupt Government In Human History".
Perhaps...

Thank you for Posting, Michael

Thursday February 23, 2012, 12:27 pm
The REAL happily thereafter fairy tale of the 21st century.

A time long ago, 2008, there was a small happy prosperous country. Some details about this country. It had a fantastic single payer health care system. In 2008, it was the closest to carbon neutral of all industrial countries. All of its municipal, industrial and residential energy needs were met by sustainable non-polluting hydro power and geothermal power. It was and is a world leader in developing hydro and geothermal power. It was planet friendly country on our poor planet. (Well, almost, they are a whaling nation, Alas.)

It led the world in 19 disciplines within the Information Technology field. That was 2008, additional IT disciplines have been developed by this country since then.

Healthy food, in a large variety, is available and affordable. Comfortable housing is available and affordable. Gainful and emotionally satisfying employment is enjoyed by most. It is impossible to describe the educational opportunities or the creative, healthy, leisure activities that are an integral part of the life of the people.

LO!!! A dark cloud is spreading across the sky. The banks of the small nation have been carelessly and greedily involved in speculation. The banks have behaved horribly. Through sale and resale, manipulation and repackaging, their assets are assets no longer. The financiers of the world rush to ICELAND to explain how the banks can be bailed out at the expense of the people. The International Monetary Fund arrives at the doors of the government with a primary austerity program to help the people begin to pay the debt they will be incurring from bailing out the banks.

And, the government of Iceland lets the banks DEFAULT. Strange government. It does not believe that banks can be too big to fail. It does believe that the people are too big to fail.

So what does Iceland have left out of all of this ....?

Single payer excellent health care system, earth friendly power, people friendly food, comfortable abodes for all, enjoyable employment, world leadership in the two technology fields that will dominate the globe in the 21st century

AND the people of Iceland are living happily ever after.

Thursday February 23, 2012, 12:34 pm
That is a great way out, Michael. Absolutely fantastic and the framework of the post office has already been developed. I owe you so many green stars. I have a sticky on my monitor which reads send Michael D. a green star on Wednesday.

Thursday February 23, 2012, 12:57 pm
Noted with a judicious amount of sodium chloride.

Thursday February 23, 2012, 9:02 pm
Noted!! Thanks Michael!!

Friday February 24, 2012, 12:50 am
Noted. Thank you Michael!

Friday February 24, 2012, 1:25 am
thank you for the article. All comments noted with interest and am particularly glad that there is a srong dialogue alive. As long as there is dialogue, we may actually get closer to the truth. However, I do feel that the time has come, when our thinking has to be revised. Especially our views on growth and economy. The time has come to contest these views and in the box thinking. We have tio be bold and seek answers outside the oaradigms even if we do not know what their consequences will be.

If we follow through the much propogated theory of Darwin that only the fittest will survive we can expect the worst-- even the extermination of most of humanity. It's time to be brave and dream. of a better world and get out there to do it= not necessarily in the way our government's are telling us. I question governments of today as they no longer can effectively represent their people's interests as they are manipulated by the few and highly dangerous power brokers who are without race or creed-
If we do not see this, then we have a blinkers over our eyes. We can effect change with simple actions such as keeping our minds and hearts open. blessings to you all

Friday February 24, 2012, 1:50 am
Thank you for the information.

Friday February 24, 2012, 2:41 am
Noted. Thanks for sharing Michael!

Friday February 24, 2012, 5:20 am
@ Betsy, You Go Girl! You deserve so many stars on so many levels i don't know where to begin!
Expect Us.

Friday February 24, 2012, 5:56 am
@ Ellen. Together we go, shoulder to shoulder. All of our efforts made so powerful by the boundless love that is our motivation. Together we go, bolder and bolder. Living fully in the present and in the spirit of our last GA. The corrupt fear us, because they do expect US.

Yet, another sticky on my monitor reads "Give Ellen a great star, etc."

Friday February 24, 2012, 6:01 am
Sending a Green Star is a simple way to say "Thank you"
You cannot currently send a star to Bee because you have done so within the last week.
Yes I can.May be a gold star.

Friday February 24, 2012, 6:27 am
Abdessalam, wise friend, a gold star to you, for the same reason. Thank you.

Friday February 24, 2012, 6:58 am
Noted. As nervous as all of this stuff makes me, I also realize that in reading these posts, we, as a people now more then ever need to stick together. Stand side by side.Gather strength from one another, to help oursevles, each other, our country and hpoefully, the world.

Friday February 24, 2012, 7:21 am
Michael D., I just reread your quotation from that venerable old timer, George Mason. Uncanny how the words and actions of the old timers seem to be addressing our current problems.

I have spent half of my life in the Vermont back woods, but I was born and raised in Savannah, Ga. There is a colonial/early US cemetery in the very center of the historic district. It is very quaint. Some of the inscriptions on the tombstones reflect the Southern culture and expose the hot Southern temperament. People who died in less than socially acceptable ways were buried in fenced little graveyards and not mixed with the main cemetery. That would include people who were executed or killed in duels.

Three of the duelists buried there were killed by Aaron Burr, George Washington's vice president. These people has all been Congressmen. Aaron Burr challenged these men to duels and killed them for seeking a third term in office. Burr was convinced that career politicians would serve their own personal interests and not the interests of the people they supposed to represent. There is much to learn from the words and deeds of the old timers.

Most of us learned something about the revolutionary war hero, Alexander Hamilton. He served as George Washington's Secretary of the Treasury. He was constantly trying to take power from the states and give it to the federal government. He was also trying to establish a central bank on the order of the Federal Reserve. Aaron Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel and killed him for both reasons.

The old timers were driven to revolution by times such as our own. I think we should study their words and deeds.

Friday February 24, 2012, 9:43 am
Bee Hive, I wish I hadn't lost this cartoon put out by the Federalist, Hamilton about started, about Tom Paine. I copied it at the Memphis Library in 98 and it had been included in my snail mails attacks of those days. It had a building with Federalist written at the top, with a rope going down to Paine, (Like in that back to the future movies waiting for the lightning to strike the clock tower.) with the devil behind Paine saying, ''Come on Tom pull harder I'm right behind you.'' It will turn up someone online one of these days.

Friday February 24, 2012, 11:38 am
Such a great cartoon, Michael. It is part of your vibration since you included it in your snail mail attacks. The Information Age will return it to you.

Kathy, my friend we are still in the education and bonding initial part of this protest. Many, maybe millions, are waiting for the information we exchange with each other, post in threads such as this, post in You Tube videos, post on your door as you have done and I am sure there are pedestrians who have read your door and are thinking about the truth concerning the destruction of our representative republic. Green star to Kathy.

Friday February 24, 2012, 11:46 am
This is from an OEN Article just read which probably will be a News Feed on Care2 soon...

From the Article: President Dwight D. Eisenhower may have said it best in his Chance for Peace speech of April 16th 1953.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. These plain and cruel truths define the peril and point to the hope that comes with this spring of 1953."

I had heard the beginning of it before, but not the price of what each weapon could have paid towards a better quality of life for Society.

Friday February 24, 2012, 12:01 pm
Noted! thanks Michael

Friday February 24, 2012, 5:07 pm
Many many thanks to Abdessalam for his comments. Its very important to hear from some-one who understands the Middle Eastern culture.
Without wanting to create a controversy, I would like to submit some information which is not well known concerning how external poitics actively gets involved in other nations strife not necessarily for their good.Just after the second world war Greece experienced a bloody civil war. Supposedly it was the government against the rebel communists ( I have my doubts about this as do many Greeks). Did you know that a particular western foreign power was funding both sides - by sending weapons.. Isn't this strange. By sending weapons to both sides, effectively the Greeks killed half million of their own brethren.
I therefore have my doubts about foreign interventions and their true motives.

Saturday February 25, 2012, 2:03 am
What a sad world we live in - may peace prevail!

Saturday February 25, 2012, 6:48 am
Michael
President Dwight D. Eisenhower who passed WW2 experience gave us a lesson.I tried to calculate how many schools,homes for the homeless,Orphans shelters,hospitals,built roads,deserts greened,cancer patients recovered,lives saved,agricultural tractors instead of tanks,emergency and intensive care rooms...etc instead of wars that coasted trillions and trillions of dollars during the last 12 years.The world would have been much better,people would have been healthier,Education would have been better and our mother earth would have safer but the greed of hate and war mongers made us loose all these benefits of peace.We have to stand shoulder by shoulder and hand by hand against any war for any reason specially fabricated ones.

Saturday February 25, 2012, 7:03 am
Thank you Helen.Actually what happened in Greece after WW2 is still going on.War mongers and military manufacturers are ONE.What they care for is not how to save peoples live but how much money they are going to gain.Their own pockets and bank accounts is more important than killing a whole nation.They together with warmongers politicians are the ones who must be faced strongly for their crimes against humanity.Look at the current situation and the engineering of a new war in the middle east, a war that only God knows how bad it is going to be.That war has been hanging for years.In my next comment I will copy an Article from 2010 talking about that war which,in my opinion ,is going to serve no body on earth except Zionists and war machine suppliers who are mostly Zionist.

Saturday February 25, 2012, 9:51 am
Firsthand Account: Israeli Plot to Murder Former US Senator?

By James Abourezk

The FBI had uncovered a "plot" on my life. Not a threat, but a plot. But, the agent said, it's OK now, as the guy who intended to murder me had now gone back to Israel...

February 24, 2012 "Information Clearing House" --- James Abourezk represented South Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971 to 1973 and in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 1979. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Advise & Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the U.S. Senate. CNI asked Senator Abourezk about his experiences with the Israel Lobby while he served in Congress. In his response he told of an Israeli plot against him that has received perplexingly little coverage in the U.S. press. Below is his description of this and other incidents:

Q: Despite such books as Paul Findley's They Dare to Speak Out, Edward Tivnan's The Lobby, and Mearsheimer and Walt's The Israel Lobby, some people still tend to downplay the power of the Israel Lobby. Can you tell us about some of your experiences with it?

A: I'm an eyewitness to what the Lobby does to Members of Congress, including to me during the time I spent in D.C. I was threatened, marginalized, attacked, lied about, among other matters in an effort to silence my criticism of Israel's policies and of the Lobby.

At one time Bob Cordier, from the Washington FBI office, called me to tell me that, during the investigation into Alex Odeh's murder (Alex was one of my staff people) the FBI had uncovered a "plot" on my life. Not a threat, but a plot, but, he said it's OK now, as the guy who intended to murder me had now gone back to Israel. Alex Odeh's murder came not long after I had run four full page ads in the Washington Post asking for support against the Israel Lobby. My assumption was that, reading the ads had enraged the plotter, which led him to bomb the ADC office in Orange County, California.

I also assume that the plotter was Robert Manning, a hit man who was later convicted of the murder of the secretary of a Jewish businessman in California. Apparently Manning had been hired by another Jewish businessman who was a competitor. They found the fingerprints both of Manning and of his wife on remnants of the letter bomb that was sent to his target, but opened by his secretary, who died as a result of the explosion.

Manning and his wife were safe from extradition from Israel, due to Israeli policy of not extraditing Jews for any reason, until Peter Jennings on ABC nightly news did a story on how Manning was running free in his West Bank settlement. The news story so embarrassed the U.S. government as well as the Israeli government that he was allowed to be extradited to California, but on the condition that he not be tried for killing Alex Odeh, but only for the Secretary. That condition was tantamount to a confession that he had murdered Alex Odeh. Manning's wife died of a heart attack in an Israeli jail while awaiting extradition.

James Bamford, now a writer living in Washington, D.C., and who was Peter Jennings' producer then, has film clips of the news story that he shows at lectures he gives on the subject. He went to the West Bank and filmed a machine gun toting Manning for the news story.

Lobby-engineered mud-slinging

I was under continual attack by the Lobby while I was in politics. Because I kept myself clean during my time of service, someone in the Lobby dug up a story designed to embarrass me by exposing my oldest son to ridicule. He was, at the time, living on an Indian reservation in South Dakota on food stamps. The Lobby got Spencer Rich, who was a political reporter for the Washington Post, to do a story on him. Rich several times called both my wife and me trying to get us to comment, but we refused. So he ran the story, headlined, "Senator's Son Living on Food Stamps." That set off a fire storm of criticism against the Post, and against Ben Bradlee, who was then Editor in Chief. Larry Stern, who was one of my friends, and an editor of the Post, complained bitterly to Bradlee. Senators McGovern and Ribicoff both took to the Senate Floor denouncing the article, saying the Post was trying to destroy the food stamp program.

One of the Style section writers, Tom Zito, whom I had never met, called me one day and told me the story about his protest to Bradlee over the story. Bradlee finally said, "Alright, go find some other famous people whose kids are living on food stamps and we'll run it." Zito told me that he had found that Bradlee's daughter was living on Food Stamps out in Oregon, causing Bradlee to kill the story on the spot.

Years later I ran into Spencer Rich in a store in DC. He confessed to me that he still felt bad about doing the story on my son's food stamp adventure.

"We're going to get him"

Si Kenen, who was then Executive Director of AIPAC, used to tell anyone who knew me, to tell Abourezk "we're going get him." And when I returned from a trip through the Middle East, I spoke about the trip at the Federal Press Club (reserved for women and blacks) and talked about how every Middle East leader I met with said they would be willing to sign a peace treaty with Israel if Israel would go back to the 1967 borders. A young fellow named Wolf Blitzer, who was then writing for AIPAC, rose to ask me several hostile questions before he walked out. The next issue of the AIPAC newsletter headlined that "Abourezk Sells Out to the Arabs." That was the beginning of the war, as I failed to collapse after that broadside, and worked to make AIPAC regret their unfair attack on me.

I used to take the lead in human rights legislation in the Senate. I once offered an amendment to a bill that would cut off American money for any country violating the human rights of their people. Before anyone would vote, I was asked during debate "whether the amendment would apply to Israel." When I said "no" I would get that person's vote.

I also had all kinds of pressure put on me by rabbis who would come to visit me. Once an Iraqi Jew, a woman, came to visit me to tell me how bad it was for Jews in Iraq, I suppose trying to get me to change my mind on the Palestinian issue. She said she was constantly beat up and called a "dirty Jew" when she lived in Iraq. I told her I knew her feeling, because when I grew up in rural South Dakota, other kids would beat me up and call me a "dirty Jew."

I was invited to speak at Yeshiva University when I was in the Senate. Before the time came for me to travel to New York, I was visited by a Rabbi Miller, who was from Yeshiva, and who advised me that "the students were marching against me and my speech," and that, "It would calm things down if I would just make a public statement that I was for face to face negotiations between the Palestinaians and the Israelis."

I told Rabbi Miller that, while I was for such negotiations, I recognized that requested statement was part of Golda Meier's propaganda initiative, and that I had no interest in being a part of that. He kept coming on strong about the statement, so I finally asked him if it would be better if I cancelled my appearance at Yeshiva. He agreed, and that was the end of that. One of my friends from New York commented that, "They are in favor of face to face negotiations in the Middle East, but not in New York."

After I left the Senate, Art Meggido, a writer for the Baltimore Jewish newspaper asked me for an interview. When I asked him why I should give him an interview, he told me that the Jewish community would eventually have to deal with me when it came to making peace in the Middle East. So I agreed. When the article came out, he related a story that an unnamed Ted Kennedy staffer told him that I had approached Kennedy and asked for money to go to Iran and free some hostages to help him in his 1980 primary campaign against Jimmy Carter.

The truth of that libel was that Kennedy sent three of his supporters to me to ask if I would go to Iran to free some hostages in his name. One was Jan Kalicke, one was Sen. John Culver and the other was Ted Sorensen. I supported Ted for president, so I agreed. The only thing I asked for was that they buy my ticket to Tehran, which they agreed to do.

When I read Meggido's article I wrote to him telling him that unless they retracted the lie, I would sue him and the newspaper. They ran the retraction. Because we had agreed that we would not talk on the phone about this, we decided to talk only in person about the trip. No one knew about our deal except Kennedy and his staff, which included Tom Dine, who had been working for AIPAC earlier. It had to be Dine who talked to Meggido with the lie. And during the kerfuffle, I had a hard time getting Kalicke to call Meggido to verify my story, but it all came out in his retraction.

Although I was afraid that either my phone or Kennedy's phone was being tapped by the Carter people, we avoided speaking about the trip over the phone, except for one occasion when I called Kalicke to talk to him about it. Almost the next day, a Lebanese journalist who covered the State Department told me that he had overheard both Marvin Kalb and the Israeli TV journalist there talking about "Abourezk acting as a messenger for Ted Kennedy over in Iran."

There are other stories that I could tell you at the risk of boring you to death, but the Lobby had every Senator, except me, scared shitless.

Since CNI does not feel that anyone will be bored by these other stories, we have asked Senator Abourezk, who is a member of our board of directors, to provide additional ones, which he has agreed to do on occasion. He is a columnist for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, which has long published such commentaries and reminiscences. For an earlier article by Senator Abourezk on this topic, see "Yes, It's the Lobby: 'Political Fear' Drives US Support for Israel."

Senator James Abourezk is a member of the board of the Council for the National Interest Foundation, he served South Dakota in the U.S. Senate between 1973-1979. Notably he was the first Arab-American to become a Senator. He also served South Dakota’s second district in the House of Representatives between 1971 and 1973. Currently he is a senior partner in Abourezk Law Offices, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30640.htm

Saturday February 25, 2012, 2:30 pm
Special Announcement. Special Announcement. Special Announcement.

Here is your chance to stand with your brothers and sisters in the 99%. Here is your chance to be part of the Expect US so feared by the bankers and corrupt corporations and even the government shills.

http://the99spring.com/.

As Bob Dylan sang in the "Times, they are a changing, keep your eyes wide, the chance won't come again."

Saturday February 25, 2012, 2:33 pm
"We are anonymous. We are legion. We are everywhere. We do not forget. We do not forgive. Expect US."

Sunday February 26, 2012, 9:58 am
Americans can surely do it.We did it January/February peacefully in Egypt.

Sunday February 26, 2012, 1:31 pm
Egyptians are blessed with a glorious sense of history and I believe they are well. adapted in the art of collaboration.

Americans lack both of those revolutionary attributes. Americans also have a critical blind spot for which they have been wrongly accused of being asleep. Despite the fact that our republic was founded out a visionary revolution, so many Americans cannot even imagine themselves as change agents.

Thank you, my friend, Abdessalam, for your confidence in us. I fear that only real privation will bring the American awakening.

Monday February 27, 2012, 12:25 am
I would blame most of America's problems on the extreme religious right, who I call lunatics. I call extreme Islam, Renegade Muslims.

Monday February 27, 2012, 11:05 pm
I am blame the American people for letting themselves be treated as objects, for allowing a society that is ruled by force, and an equal blend of apathy and laziness.

Tuesday February 28, 2012, 12:05 am
The 60s had shown us our dreams. We did become drunk in a land of material wealth. Shit happens. My fiance Marie, nicked named this man we she had met in the Woods, Woody. He ended up sleeping on my couch last with my 20 gigs of Classic Rock and Youtube. After a month he says this, ''You know what went wrong with the 60s? We stopped believing in the music.'' Oh shit happens to make the flowers grow.

Tuesday February 28, 2012, 12:23 am
Yes, we stopped believing in the music and ourselves. Why did we get smug about ending the Viet Nam war when we knew about "out of thin air money" and the Federal Reserve and why wars "happen".

Tuesday February 28, 2012, 5:36 am
An other case in the same direction.

CNN Silences War-Skeptical Soldier

By Ray McGovern

This one-minute video-that-is-better-than-a-thousand-words could come in handy
as at least a symbolic reminder of the bias at CNN and other parts of the FCM when
it comes to allowing a full and fair discussion about going to war against some
"designated enemy."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30658.htm

Tuesday February 28, 2012, 5:47 am
An other case in the same direction.
CNN Silences War-Skeptical Soldier By Ray McGovern This one-minute video-that-is-better-than-a-thousand-words could come in handy
as at least a symbolic reminder of the bias at CNN and other parts of the FCM when
it comes to allowing a full and fair discussion about going to war against some
"designated enemy."