Some very interesting items.

Greetings good people.
I ran across some very interesting things today and I just have to share with anybody who might want them.
Now, let me give a simple explanation of this. The items were acquired legally. OK, supposedly they were given out due to some "oversight" or other. Still, they were obtained legally and the links to them were posted on a web site that is open to all. Sort of like this corner is open to all who stop and read and even reply. No restrictions here at the old corner, and I intend to keep it that way. As long as Google lets me at least.
OK, here is the link to an article that describes the items and provides links to the actual items that you can download and print out and/or save. I have copies of all four saved in multiple places as I don't need to print them all yet. www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/richmond-police-protest-guide-anarchist/13391/

Yes, the web site green is the new red is the site that posted the story and has the links to those very reports. As they have been posted on the net and they were given by request in a Freedom of Information Act request, even though, perhaps by accident. Well........one cannot put this sort of thing in my grasp and then tell me; "Oh, don't read them. Don't even look at them. By all means, do not share them." No, do that and I WILL post links or even the very items themselves. Hey, why worry? An old former US Marine, Vietnam war vet, what do I worry about? Hell, I am permanently disabled so I have no job to get fried from. Oh, true, that nasty NDAA signed recently by dear Gobomber. Well, I have enough health issues now that it would cost the Feds more in medical expenses than I will ever be worth, in jail or not. 


Call this the new "wikileak" of 2012 or what ever. Just check it out if you wish. It looks like it might be interesting reading. The people can read the tactical information that the police use against the Occupy Movement among others. Why keep this secret? I have yet to read all of these items, so that question may have an answer.


Well, there you have it folks. A link to the web site that links to the items, available for reading and/or download.
America, hat a country.
semper fi

Here we go again.

Well, some of our troops have just gone and done another damn fool stunt.
This time it is not Marines who made total fools of themselves. Nope, this time it was the US Army. These clowns are members of the 82nd Airborne Division.


What you may ask have these guys done? Oh, just posed with body parts of Afghan suicide bombers is all. Yes, I said they posed for photos with the body parts of dead suicide bombers, They were supposed to check out a report that the Afghan police had recovered  the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Their mission was to try and find out if they could get an iris scan and/or finger prints from the remains. OK so far as that goes. Apparently, that is standard procedure in Afghanistan. Nothing unusual.


Well, that wasn't enough for these troops. No sir, they had to pose for photos with the remains of the dead. Some of them posed with the hand of the dead person with the middle finger raised as in "giving the finger". Oh nice guys, real compassion from you all. Respect for the dead? Not here folks, no way. 


As I have said before here on my soapbox, while I was in Vietnam during that miserable war, we didn't actually like the VC, but we sure as hell gave them our respect. These troops need to read old Sun Tzu as it sure looks to me that they never have done so. They may never even have heard of him, though that is highly unlikely in my opinion. This lack of respect for the enemy or opposing forces is not the way to win any war. Naturally, you are never expected to like the enemy. Actually if you like your enemy, it seems to me, then the enemy would no longer BE an enemy. My point is, you must respect your enemy. These troops sure do not.


After the most recent "incident" with the Marine snipers urinating on dead Afghans, how this could take place is amazing. One report on this mentioned a lack of discipline and a breakdown of leadership. No kidding. If this is the result of leadership in the US military today, I pity us all.


Will these guys get any punishment for this act? I wonder. Does anybody know if the Marines who urinated on dead Afghans get any punishment? I have not seen any mention of those troops since the news of their "act" broke in the US. Bets they got no punishment at all. Hell, they may even have been complimented for their "act". Yeah, see what "we" do? We piss on the "bad guys". What a way to win hearts and minds..............not.


It is time to get ALL US/NATO troops out of Afghanistan. Not next month, not next week even. NOW, today. Start packing all your personal equipment and stow all the gear and get out of that country NOW. There is no point at all in staying n after these recent "events". If this is how our troops act, well, America is in even deeper crap than I thought we were. Where is the leadership? Where is any military discipline? We do not see any at all in the recent examples from our Marines  and soldiers of the 82nd Airborne. How sad, and so very disgusting.


America, what a country.
semper fi

It never stops

Wars and rumors of wars. No, not the "biblical" hash about some "prophecy" or other from some old book of tales, but just a cursory look at the web any day recently.
The latest example being Syria of course. That country looks to be in the midst of a civil war. "Civil" war? When have wars ever been "civil"? OK, that might seem to be a trick question as in my opinion no war has ever been or ever will be "civil". In fact one could make a very good argument that war is the most uncivil thing we humans ever do or have done. Unfortunately, we seem destined to continue to have more wars, not less. That might be a sign that as a species, we humans have not evolved much in our somewhat brief, in geological time  at least, short history on this planet.
And yet, it still seems to me at least, that we should have evolved much further than it appears we have. By now, I think that the human race should have come at the very least to getting closer to have outgrown our "need" for war. What with all the supposed teachings of various religions, one would hope that we no longer went to war for petty grievances and maybe even renounced war totally. No such luck. Does this mean that the religious teachings have not "taken" hold of the human conscience? Could it be that a majority of religious people really do not practice what they preach? 
While these question I just mentioned may be unanswerable, I do not ask them purely as rhetorical questions. Somebody should be able to provide a real answer. By a real answer I mean that I will not accept the standard reply to such questions as we, the human race need to "have faith" or that we just need to "believe" in some god or other. That, in my opinion is a cop out, a total non answer. It is too easy by far, and it has been and continues to be given by the supposed church leadership of the various religions that seem to occupy so many of our fellow human beings. What a crock! I do have faith, faith in the capacity of our fellow human beings to be very kind and caring to others, even those we do not know personally and are not related to by either blood or marriage. Of course I also have faith that our fellow human beings have the capacity to do great harm to other human beings and all non animal species as well. This from personal experience in the imperial war in Vietnam which I was a participant in. I have seen first hand what war does to human beings, physically as well as emotionally and mentally/spiritually. War is a destroyer, period. There are no winners in any war. Of sure, one side emerges "victorious" in that they beat the others into submission or exterminated so many that the capacity to resist further was eliminated. And yet, some call that victory. 
I ask questions that I want answers for. Unlike school days, I do not do as the teachers did, I ask because I do not know the answers. Ever notice in your school days how every teacher asked questions that he/she knew the answer to? Yeah, just what did they learn from asking? OK, maybe I am taking this "line" a bit too far off topic, but just think about it for a minute or so. Why do we tend to ask questions when we already know the answers? Some will say to test or teach others. OK, true, to some extent, but it is more than that I think. In part, at times any way, I think we do so to keep from asking more serious questions. We even ask when we already know the answer to impress others, not always, but some times. Yes, I do this myself at times. Asking the hard questions isn't so easy every time. We tend to stay away from hurtful things. Pain is way we do our best to avoid. I know in some respects I sure do. Take my own life as an example. I take pain medications to keep the pain from getting intolerable. Damn straight I want to avoid real, serious hurtful physical pain. Thanks be to chemistry for the pain meds I am given by my pain management doctor. Personally, I detest taking these medications. They are quite powerful and I don't ant to get addicted to them. After a time, the meds I take no longer control the pain and we need to increase the dosage and/or change to a different pain killer. Ah, there is a misnomer if I ever saw one. The pain killers do NOT kill the pain at all. At best, they mask or suppress it to the point where one can still function as a somewhat normal human being. 
We do our best to avoid psychic pains also. Americans take a great number of medications to relieve mental pain/emotional distress. Yes, I am talking here about meds like Paxil(tm), prozac(tm), and others of that "family" of chemicals. And yes folks, ALL drugs/medications are chemicals, just in case you weren't aware of that fact. You might be surprised at how many people do not know that. I am certain that some don't know that drugs are chemicals knowingly. Hey, we "all" know that chemicals can be bad and the same goes for drugs. By drugs, most people immediately think of "street drugs", or "recreational" drugs. Funny, but I have never seen any drugs out recreating. Has anybody? OK, that may not be a "serious" question. My mind(if I really do have one and it is functioning anywhere near correctly) tends to "think" up odd questions like that.
I think that we do ourselves a great dis-service at times by relying on medications/drugs/chemicals to relieve our various pains. America tends, according to various reports (sorry no links) to over medicate. The USA has the highest number of prescriptions for various "psychic" medications in the world. While these do actually help a great many people function, I wonder about the long term use of these powerful chemicals on us. Read the research, most of the medications like Paxil(tm) and such are NOT intended for long term (more than two{2}years) use. And yet, no doubt all of us know people who have been taking such meds for much longer. Another question that NEEDS a real answer, what is going to happen to all the children who during their school years have been on chemicals like "Ritalin(tm)? When they finally graduate (fewer do now than before) from high school, they no longer get these meds. What does the withdrawal do to these children? Are they supposed to stop NOW, cold turkey as it were? What are the long term consequences of their taking these powerful chemicals for years and then, suddenly taken off them? I have not researched this and maybe it will be one of my own next projects to search out any, if there are any, reports that give any answers to those questions. If any of the readers of this blog have any information at all on this PLEASE send me any links you have. While I do not have any children, I am very concerned about what we are doing to our children. They ARE the future. What sort of future are we giving them? By that, I am not asking about the future occupation or economics wise, that looks fairly certain now, it will NOT be as good as what their parents have had. For the first time in the history of the US of A, the kids graduating high school and college may NOT have life even as good as their parents have had life. They will be hard pressed to even attain the life style the parents have. We used to "know" that the kids would be AT LEAST as well off as the parents and probably better. No more folks. We can all "thank" the "too big to jail" banksters for this. Way to go there Wall Street. You rat bastards.
I apologize for my "bad" language here. I have tried over the last few years to keep my language polite. Well, there are just times when I cannot do so and make my point clearly.  I'll try to keep the rest of this post "nicer", but make no promises. Yeah, I AM hedging my bets......LOL. NO, that does not make me a hedge manager, just human.


Back to the wars. Useless, damn fool wars of choice. Again. And again, and again, ad infinitum. "We" preach tolerance and "good will to all" and yet, we maintain the biggest military force ever along with the largest  number of nuclear weapons on the planet. The US out spends every other country on this rock. The last I checked, the US accounts for at least one half of ALL military spending for the entire world. We outspend the top 20 or so of our closest "competitors" combined. 
Oh we are told, the weapons and weapon systems "create jobs". Yes, but not as many as the politicians would have you believe. There are numerous reports/studies that show how much the country could accomplish for the benefit of ALL Americans for the cost of a single weapon or weapon system. Take for example the new F-35. This "fighter/bomber" aircraft is the costliest weapon/weapon system ever. It is extremely way over budget and it under preforms by a large margin. It is no way near as fast as originally planned. Its "mission" has increased to the point of nearly being the "one tool that does many jobs". Yes, just like the old "Jack of all trades, master of none". This aircraft fits that description to a tee. Almost as if that definition was coined to describe this over budget, under performer. 
There I go again, off on another tangent. Sorry about that. My mind is wandering across a wide range of topics and I can't seem to hold onto one before another pops in and demands its own "say".
Poor Syria, the country is in the midst of what looks to be a civil war. Yes, it is not all just Syrians fighting other Syrians. There ARE many outside forces at work there. Not just jihadis from the Iraq, Afghan, Libyan wars either. Reports have stated that there are various "special ops" types from Britain and France there along with the al-Qaeda types. No doubt there are a few mercenaries as well, hey, they fight for the highest bidder, yes, even Blackwater or whatever that outfit calls itself today. Mercenaries have no loyalty to any country/flag, just to who pays the best for their services, that is why they are called mercenary. Look it up in the dictionary. The "goal" of the "West" is regime change of course. Apparently the current leader is no longer of use to the US/NATO types. Also, the zionist entity would love to see the current regime go the way of Saddam and Gaddafi. Chaos is what they are giving that country. Just as they did in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Serbia, Kosovo, Vietnam, Korea.......the list goes on and on folks. Another reason  is that there is oil under the sands of Syria, and we all know how "we" must control that oil, determine who gets to buy it and at what price. Add to the invaders of Syria the GCC, as Pepe Escobar calls it the Gulf Counter-revolution Club, called by the West, the Gulf Co-operation Council. Members Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the prime members of that gang, having supported the elimination of Gaddafi from Libya, they now want to eliminate al-Assad. Poor Syria, the people there do not deserve such "attention" from the US/NATO. Syria is not any threat to the US or Europe. Yes, they do allow the Russians to have a naval base on Syrian territory. So what? Is Syria a "sovereign" nation or not? 
On to Iran. Trying to keep from boring the reader. 
I saw another article today that said the the zionist entity is making demands on the talks between the 5+1 and Iran. he 5+1 being the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany as they attempt, I hope they DO, discuss with Iran, the nuclear program that Iran is running. From the reports and web sites I have read, the Iranian nuclear program is entirely for civilian use, in short, to generate electrical power with one smaller reactor being used to make medical isotopes. There is NO evidence whatsoever that Iran is doing ANY work towards making a nuclear weapon. The Supreme Leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khamenei  has stated publicly that the possession of such a weapon is a sin against Allah. This from the highest authority in Iran. Yes, we all know the president of Iran has been accused of making ridiculous, outlandish statements. Well, big deal, he does not have the final authority, that is where the Ayatollah Khamenei comes in. Only the Ayatollah has the final say on the matter, if he says no nikes, the no nukes is what will be. The US "media" in particular needs to stop paying such close attention to what the president of Iran says and pay more attention to what the Ayatollah says. Listen to the REAL power in that country. 
Iran has the LEGAL right to possess nuclear power for generating electricity and to make medical isotopes, in short of non-military/commercial use. ALL countries in the whole world have that RIGHT. It is stated so in the agreements/treaties of the United Nations and the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). EVERY country has that right, including Iran. What would be almost comical, if it were not so awfully serious, as in life or death serious, is that the ONLY nuclear weapons holding country in the Middle East is demanding that Iran not be allowed to have ANY nuclear power of any sort. Sort of a "I got mine, but you can never have any". What I call, for lack of a more polite term, chickenshit and cowardly. Yes, I know about the holocaust and World War Two and all that. Iran has not attacked another country in more than 100 years. During the Iran/Iraq war in the 1980's Iraq invaded Iran and Iran naturally fought back. That miserable war, during which the USA supplied Saddam and the Iraqi forces with in tell and weapons, was finally fought to a standstill after the loss of more than one million of both sides. In short, another damn fool war of choice that may have been instigated by the USA in retaliation for the take over of the US embassy in Tehran during the Carter administration. 
Now the US and the zionist entity want to punish Iran for doing what they have a legal right to do. Can you say double standards? Of course you can, but, will you? Yep, there is the question to ask yourself. So far our(?) congress looks to be all set for yet another damn fool, useless war of choice by making threats to Iran to stop what they have every legal right to do. Of course the biggest war mongers in congress are all for a war with Iran, you know the "top" ones, McCrazy, LIEbermann, and Graham(bone). As one commentator called them, the "three Amigos". I bet they never saw a war they didn't favor, particularly if they didn't have to do any fighting. The (ig) Nobel Peace Prize winner, Gobomber, keep making disgusting comments like the old standby; "nothing is off the table". Yes, apparently that means that he would use nuclear weapons against Iran. 
A bit of history here folks. The USA is the ONLY country to ever use a nuclear weapon in war. You remember that "we" dropped two such vile weapons on a basically defeated and undefended Japan in 1945. No other country has ever used these weapons in a war............yet. Would the zionist entity use any of their estimated 200-300 such weans on Iran? Personally I would not trust "Bibi"Nutty-assed-Yahoo to refrain from that, but at the same time, no doubt he would prefer the US to use its nukes instead. All the "better" to save their own and let us do their dirty work.
If I have bored any of you good people, I apologize for that. It was not my intention to do so. Honestly. It is just there are so many things to rant about. So many negatives in this world. Notice, I have not even mentioned Africa in this post. That alone could be its own long post even if I don't mention the "viral video" from the Invisible Children group. Or poor Somalia or South Sudan and the oil that may be there. From just a casual glance across the internet or a major newspaper, one can see that the US military/intelligence community is always at work with war or rumors of war. As to any possible connections to any religion with regards that last comment, just when in human history has there ever been a time when there were NO wars or rumors of wars? Yeah, I thought so. That sort of puts a lid on that "prophecy" in my opinion. We humans seem to have never enjoyed a time where there were no wars or rumors of wars. How very sad and disgusting that this is still true today in the early part of the 21st century. Will we ever learn to actually live in relative peace and harmony with our fellow human beings? For the lives of the children and their children I sure hope that we find a way to do so, the sooner the better for all.
One last comment on war before I end this post. This comes from good old Tom Paine and his writings on the rights of man and common sense. He says:"....taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes".
One final quote from the good Mr. Paine. This one I particularly like as it seems to give some small measure of hope to me.  "Ignorance is of a peculiar nature: and once dispelled, it is impossible to re-establish it. It is not originally a thing of itself, but is only the absence of knowledge; and though man may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant." That gives me some hope for the future. Now, go and spread some knowledge so that we might end some of the ignorance out in the world.
semper fi

This stuff just gets stranger and stranger

Greetings good people.
Sorry for being so slow, it has been a month plus since the last post here. I could say that I had not felt very great and it would be true. I could also say I have been lazy about the blog and that also would be true. I'll go with plain old lazy. Overwhelmed is also a possible. Good grief, there has been so much going on and every new day seems to just bring more of the odd, strange, and just plain crazy to the computer screen.
We started out earlier with the vile NDAA. Just recently, the clowns who populate the US congress gave us the next installment, by that I mean HR 347, the "trespass act". It seems it isn;t enough for the president to claim(!!) he has the authority to kill anybody anywhere, even Americans on American soil, now we the people are not to be allowed to protest anywhere that we might upset some "grand personage" who has Secret Service protection. To do so will be a felony. And here we thought that Shrubbie and the "dark creature" Cheney had done us in with the "free speech zones" crapola. Now even those "zones" will be further away from any government buildings/property. Yes, keep the protesters far away from all federal buildings, never know when some "important people" might be there for a visit. Well, sure, after all, we don't want to make the job of the Secret Service any harder than it may be. 


In view of the above, today there was a news item that really got me "up and running". According to NBC and MSNBC news sources, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was in Afghanistan and yesterday he gave a speech to some 200 US Marines. Now you might say big deal Charlie, so what? Well, yes, normally it would not be any story at all, except for this; the Marines were asked to leave their weapons OUTSIDE the tent where Panetta was giving his speech! No screaming eagle shit folks! The bloody Secretary of Defense for the USA asked that US Marines leave their weapons outside the place he was speaking! this is absolutely amazing to me. I remember back in my days in the imperial war in Vietnam, the commanding general for 1st Marine Division was going back to the states and there was a ceremony for him in DaNang. Some of the Marines I was with went to the party. Hey, they got a nice ride on a CH-47 and all plus a day away from the boonies.They did NOT have to leave their weapons outside of the building where the ceremony was vein held. Hey, it was a war zone. Afghanistan is a war zone. Why did the troops need to be unarmed to hear the speech?


Well, according to Major General Mark Gurganus, there were some two dozen Afghan troops also in attendance and they were unarmed and the general didn't want them to think  they were being treated differently. Why in hell would they not be treated differently? The recent killings of US and NATO troops by Afghan Army and/or police is why. Of course I am NOT excusing the murder by a US Staff Sergeant of 16 Afghan civilians. By now, if you stop by here very often, you know that I oppose all killings of fellow human beings. War IS mass murder, true, but the killing of these civilians is a war crime and should be prosecuted as such. Some articles have called it the Afghanistan My Lia. It just may be and then some.


No matter what the media calls that murder, it is a war crime, period. The person who did the killing must be held to account. Add this along with the desecration of dead Afghans, the burning of the Koran and you have a very nasty situation for the US/NATO troops still in Afghanistan. No matter how nasty and messy that war gets, the commanders cannot allow discipline to break down to the point of killings like this recent one. 


One needs to step back though and take a hard look at what is going on there. In my view, the first offense in this damn fool war of choice is fighting it. Second, a very close second, if we are going to fight this idiotic war, the troops need to have a better understanding of the culture of the Afghan people. To me there is no excuse for the US/NATO troops to not know that the Koran is the most revered book in Afghanistan. For a majority of the Afghans no doubt it is the ONLY book they know of. For any foreign troops to desecrate that book will provoke an outrage. The commanders should have known this and instructed the troops accordingly.
Well, hell, why bother? Sure, we didn't get much, if any, indoctrination into the Vietnamese culture before we left to go fight there either. Well, remember how that imperial war ended? Yeah, with the last helicopter taking off from the roof of the US embassy in Saigon. Any bets the Afghan war ends the same way?


All that and I have not even commented on the morons in the elephant party and the freak show they have been putting on for all to see. I had some articles set aside on good old Rick Sanitarium and was going to link to articles that show how he deviates from even his own Roman Catholic Church and how he does not follow faithfully his own Pope, but why bother. The guy is just so disgusting and I don't feel up to looking to closely at that train wreck just now. Same goes double for Newt. That guy sure does think very highly of himself. One comment I saw about Newt dealt with why he in on marriage number three. The person who made the comment speculated that it was because no other human being could love Newt as much as he loves himself. I think that person has a very valid point.As to Mittens, he is a typical weather vane, he goes which ever way the wind blows. To say that Mittens is a flip-flopper is both obvious and an understatement.  Looks like we just may be in for four more years of Gobomber, or as he has been called; "Mr. Hopey-Changey".  


I still fail to see how Gobomber is worth my vote. He and his (in)Justice Department claim he can kill anybody, anywhere, and at any time. Who knew that the US president was judge, jury, and executioner? I sure didn't, but then I have read the entire US Constitution. More than once even. As recently as three weeks ago in fact. Yes, I have a personal, pocket size copy of that document. It even includes the Declaration of Independence. I also swore an oath to defend the Constitution when I enlisted in the Marines. When I was released from active duty and later when I got my final discharge, there was no asking me to revoke that oath. While it is not perfect, which no document or any form of government can ever be, it is still the best that we have devised yet. I still believe in both of those documents and I think they are worth protecting and defending; against all enemies, foreign AND domestic. How this congress can allow such a power grab by the president to go unchallenged is beyond me to comprehend.  One really begins to see just how it is that the richest 1% are able to get control when the congress critters pass such crap as the "patriot act", the vile NDAA, and now HR 347. All these bills restrict the civil liberties of US citizens. None of these act/bills make us any safer.  Our rights and liberties are being eroded right before our very eyes. We are fast becoming a police state. Economically, we are fast becoming a third world country. Neither of the two wings of the war party care at all about this. Hell, they are the ones who vote on and pass the damn bills that restrict our civil liberties. Be a congress critter, it is one really sweet job. Hey, they vote on their own pay raises and they almost always exempt themselves from every law they pass that we the people must now obey. Yes sir, one really sweet gig, if you are rich enough to grab one. And when you do finally quit, as very few incumbents ever go down to defeat, you get some really swell, high paying lobby gig and/or a seat on the board of directors for some multinational corporation, maybe even the same ones who funded your campaigns. 


America, what a country.
semper fi

What planet do some of these people live on?

Greetings good people.
By now many of you may have run across this item. I first saw it on the Think Progress web site yesterday. Here is the link; http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/02/13/424239/fox-women-military-expect-rape/
Just what planet does Ms. Liz Trotta live on? Earth? Really? And in the country of the United States of America? Seriously? And she "IS" referring to the US military?
Wow. If so, then the country and the military sure has come a very long way down hill since my days in a Marine Corps uniform. I do not recall any of the women Marines ever being raped during my time in the Corps. True, there may have been instances of such vile behavior, but I do not recall any. Maybe it was covered up better then. I cannot say from my own experience as a Marine. I like to think that the officers we had then would have seen to it that any such vile crime would have been punished to the full extent of the laws regarding such crimes. I know that my buddies and I would have had no respect at all for anybody who would rape any woman let alone a woman Marine. Honor would have prevented us from thinking a rapist anything but a criminal to be despised.
That a TV commentator would make such an outlandish statement that women in the US military "expect" (??) to be raped is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in some time. This sort of "comment" by Ms. Trotta goes even beyond the outlandish crap we have been hearing from the elephant gang clowns vying for the nomination of that party to run for president. Yes, she tops even the vile critter Newt.
In another article today, women veterans of the US military have called her comments "breath taxingly offensive". I agree 100%. The link to that article follows; http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/02/14/women-vets-criticize-liz-trotta/
My personal view is that NO woman in any military or even civilian setting should ever "expect" to be raped. If a woman is in any setting where she might expect to be raped, she needs to vacate that situation as soon as possible.
What sort of military do we Americans have when the women members of that military "expect to be raped"? I say that if the women members of the US military "expect" to be raped, then our(??) military has failed and failed big time.
In the article yesterday, Ms. Trotta also mentions women who have been "raped too much"! Just what the hell does that mean? "Raped too much"?? I am no expert but to me, being raped once is being raped "too much". No woman in any setting, let alone the US military, should ever be raped once, let alone be "raped too much". Does Ms. Trotta have a functioning human brain? Does she have any real sense of human dignity? Does she have any sense of real morality? Or, is she just another right wing, bible thumping "christian"? She certainly does not come off as a caring human being in my opinion.
Outrageously offensive barely begins to describe how her comments hit me. Beyond belief is too mild. Words fail me. Disgusting beyond words. And to think that this really is 2012.
Rape is a very serious crime, no matter if it happens in the military or civilian life. Rapists need to be caught and punished as per the laws of this country. People like Ms. Trotta do nothing to lessen the occurrence of rape. Her comments are in no way helpful, just very shameful.
America, what a country.

There are laws about this.......

I don't know if any of you good people have read about these two "incidents" on the web. They did not make much of an impression on the "media" here in the US. The second, which I'll get to in a moment, did not make it to the TV news at all.
I am referring to two recent items where in Gobomber was verbally threatened.
The first was made by the speaker of the House of Representatives in Kansas, a Mr. Mike O'Neal. He referred to Psalm 109.8 which goes: "Let his be few and brief; and let others step forward to replace him." That verse goes on in Psalm 109.9;  "Let  his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."  Now as this was made in reference to Gobomber, it sure appears to me that this guy is wanting Gobomber dead. How else does one wish for a mans' children to be fatherless and his wife a widow? The only way is for the man to be dead. I would think that any lawyer worth his/her law school diploma would be able to make a case of threatening the president. That is a crime folks.
Even with an apology, it was and is a crime to threaten the president. When will the FBI or some other law enforcement agency investigate this?


The second takes us to a publication; the Atlanta Jewish Times. The editor of that paper was writing about an attack on Iran and how the US appears to not be 100% 
on board" with such a folly. He goes on to suggest possible methods to get the US to be fully with the zionist entity to attack Iran and take out its nuclear plants. His third "option" is as follows; "...give the go-head for U.S. based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel, in order for the current  vice president to take his place and forcefully dictate the United States' policy includes helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies."
Wow! Now there you have it, in black and white on the pages of a newspaper published right here in the old US of A. A call for the assassination of the president of the United States. How much more unsubtle does one need to be? How much more direct can a person be? 
Now, of course the ADL has come out against this article and has called it "irresponsible and extremist "  It is all that and more. Very extremist in my view. How nice of the ADL to tell us all how such comments are irresponsible and extremist. As if we could not have figured that out for ourselves. Yes, that last was sarcastic. That is how I see it.
Such comments by these two people just point out the mean, nasty character of the country today. This may upset some people, but it remains true to an extent. Mush of the criticism of Gobomber has to do with his skin color. Yes, racism IS alive and well here in the USA. 


None of this excuses such comments by anybody. That an editor of a small paper puts such vile comments in print is one thing, for an elected representative to say such comments out loud and on the record is quite another. Neither are in any way excusable though.
The editor, a Mr. Andrew Adler has resigned according to a according to an item at Talking Points Memos Livewire posted at 2:34PM today, 23 January 2012. How nice of him. Yes, there I go again, being sarcastic. Well, when a person, a US resident in  both cases here, issues a threat to the president, I take the "apology" quite sarcastically/cynically. That is just my nature.
Mr. O'Neal has been given a petition signed by 30,000 citizens of Kansas asking that he resign from the state legislature. The petition drive was headed by two ministers from the Topeka, Kansas area. Thank you both and all who signed the petition. They made the following statement;   "As people of faith, we believe that scripture should never be used to justify praying for the death of anyone. Speaker O'Neal's  hateful abuse of scripture is unacceptable and a disgrace to his office, and he should immediately resign."  Again, thank you both and all those who signed. 
As many of you know, I do not belong to nor do I follow any religion. I do think that one should give credit where credit is due. In this case, to the ministers who started the petition and those who signed it. 


Now onto another question. When will these tow men be investigated by the FBI or some other law enforcement agency? The Secret Service is supposed to protect the president. They should be getting an investigation going into both of them.
There ARE limits to our freedom of speech. Advocating the overthrow of the government is among those limitations. Threats on the life of the president is also unprotected speech, as it should be. 
U.S. Code 2385 states: "Whoever  knowingly or willfully advocates, abets,advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States .....by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government;....
"Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both......" U.S. Code
The story of the newspaper editor has not been picked up by any TV station that I am aware of. As of now, Mr. O'Neal has yet to apologize. As I said above, Mr. Adler has given an apology and he has resigned from his position with the paper. One further comment on that, he owns the paper where his remark was published. So, he steps down as editor, he still owns the paper, how will he continue to influence that paper?
My personal view, which is what this blog has always been and will continue to be, is that Mr. Adler only made his apology because the ADL and  AJC (American Jewish Congress) him out . Both groups have expressed their revulsion to what he wrote regarding Gobomber. So, these two groups get a "congrats" from me today. Again, give credit where it is due.
Again, we all need to ask, when will the FBI and/or the Secret Service investigate these tow people? Comments like these cannot be allowed to stand unpunished. Not is we are a nation of laws. There are recognized limits to our freedom of speech. These limits are known, have been known for years. There is no excuse nor is there any apology that will do here. Both of these people should be arrested and in court on charges for the threats they made. 


Some may say, with reason it seems, that these people are a symptom of the racist attitude that still inhabits the US today. There is some truth to that, sad to say. Some of the anger at Gobomber IS due to his skin color. There are those among us who despise his presidency only because he has a beer tan that they have. In my opinion, these comments are in part due to the racism of the people who made them.  Some people made comments to this effect about the "tea party" meetings where some who attended brought their guns in plain view to all assembled. 
We have candidates running for their party nomination who express racist views. The calling of the president as the "food stamp president" comes to mind. Well, the facts are that more white people receive food stamps than black people get them. It brings to mind the garbage pulled by "saint" Ronnie of Raygun and his "welfare queens" who did not exist in any number.The American voters are bombard by false statements, rumors, and out right lies. And yet, many still buy into the crap. They are too busy or disconnected to not bother to check on the factual information that would prove they are being lied to. 
It is the duty of all citizens to stay informed. We cannot ever sit back and let the media do that for us. If we fail to do that, we will end up with a government that cares not at all about  "we the people" even more than is the case today. If you think things are bad now, just wait, they CAN get worse. We need to hold our elected officials to account. We need to challenge those running for office when they spout idiotic statements. We all enjoy the freedoms we have as citizens of the US, we need to take to heart, our responsibilities as citizens.
semper fi

Afghanistan is officially finished

Today I am now 200% certain that the Afghanistan is done. It is over, finished, send the troops home, or maybe for some, off to jail. 
By now I am sure many of you, if not all of you, have at least seen the headline about some US Marines urinating on the dead bodies of some poor Afghans. 
This sort of "conduct" is beyond disgusting. It is a huge propaganda win for the Taliban and every other group, people, or country that opposes the US. 
In war you do not like your enemy, but you sure as hell had best respect that enemy. These damned fools have shown to the world that they have no respect at all for their foe. I cannot understand the sort of "leadership" that allows this to happen. Is there an NCO among these troops? If so, did he ever go to NCO school? Did the NCO or squad leader ever get any leadership training ? Do they no longer teach anything in boot camp about the UCMJ and other rules of war? Has the military gone that far down hill since my days in uniform (1968-72)?
These goddamn idiots need to be brought up on charges for this behavior. Even so, the damage is done. It is one thing to commit  so sort of outrage, but to video it is something else entirely. And of course, once they get a photo or three and some video, hat do they do? Why, they post it on the net. How else would any of us ever know that they did this "act"? We would never have known if they had not posted it on the internet. If they had done this and kept quiet, it would still be a very vile, inhuman act, but the world might never know that it happened.
No, I am NOT saying they should have kept it off the net. I AM saying they should have known that this is NOT what one does to an enemy. This is more like the very bad old days of the Mongol hoards and the Huns rampaging across the fields and hills of our distant past. I know that war is very barbaric, but this sort of "act" is not forgivable, no way, no how. 
The sad thing is, we have no way of knowing how many times an "act" like this has happened in any of the damn fool wars of choice that the US military is in.
Some will say that in war, all sorts of nasty things happen and that this one is no worse than some other "act" in some other war. That misses the point. The point is that even in war, you have to respect the enemy. You have to have certain standards, morals. 
That this happened is so sad. It shows to me that there is no real leadership in the military. At some point in these troops basic training they should have been taught that this sort of thing is a crime. They should have had a basic lecture in the UCMJ and the rules of war. 
America claims to be a "Christian" nation. And yet, we turn out troops like these goddamn assholes. Or, maybe I am just too stupid for words and this "act" is OK fine by "American Christian" standards. No matter, I just know for certain that this sort of vile behavior cannot be allowed to happen. Not only do these morons need to answer for their actions, their superiors need to be held to account also.
These damn clowns make me ashamed to have been a Marine. They make me ashamed to be an American.

When I'm on a roll.......

Yes, back again.
Man, when I get all wound up, I don't seem to stop. Well, the Energizer Bunny has no worries, I won't keep this up much longer. I'll run out of steam soon enough. Until then, here are some other things I found out and about on the old net.


A big hat tip to a good friend and frequent commenter at the corner. Thanks John. 
From the latest that he posted at his site; http://robinlea.com/wordpress comes the news that  the folks over at the five sided puzzle palace (the Pentagon) are seriously set to cut military retirement AND health care benefits for the military. Oh, but before you "cheer" any serious military cut backs, they will not stop buying more high tech weapons. No sir, got to have more and fancier toys for those generals to command all over the globe.
Now this just figures doesn't it. Cut retirement and health care for the troops. Get forced to enlist in the military as there are very few jobs available, go off to some damn fool war of choice, get wounded and now, your health care will be drastically reduced if not eliminated totally. How is this going to aid in getting more fresh recruits? Or, is this just part of the plan to further "privatize" the military and the wars? Maybe that is what the intent is, get more "contractors" actually mercenaries, to fight the wars. While the cost per mercenary is higher than for regular troops, the government will not be on the hook for their medical care. That will be up to the companies that provide said mercenaries. Or, better yet, the outfits who supply these hired guns might just claim that these gunslingers are individual, private contractors themselves and are therefore responsible for their own medical bills. Boy, the hired guns had best start getting a savings policy started so there might be some funds in the bank or under the old mattress in case they are wounded. 
How does cutting the retirement and health care for the military support the troops? This idiot government of ours keeps telling us all that we must "support the troops" and they go and do something like this. No doubt our "support" for the troops might even extend to paying the cost of their health care now. Maybe the families of the troops will now get the medical bills for their sons and daughters who are injured while in military service. This way, the government could really save as they will no longer have to provide decent hospitals and long term care and the VA can be cut way back also. The only health care the military may then provide is just the front line medics/corpsmen and possibly some sort of triage hospital. Any care needed beyond that will be billed to the troops and/or their  families. Yes sir, cost savings that can then be used to buy ever more high tech weapons/weapon systems.
No doubt the congress totally approves of this cost cutting method. Support the troops? Not so much.


Well, 2012 sure has got a fast start. So much outrage that even old, broken me has so much to rant about. And today is only the 6th of January. If the rest of the year is like this, I'll be totally wore out before the election in November, assuming we get one.


Another story  has the elephant gang up in arms over an "unprecedented" power grab by Gobomber (aka Mr. Hopey/Changey).  You see, he made a recess appointment of a certain Mr. Cordray to head the Consumer  Financial Protection Bureau. The claim is that congress, or at least the Senate, WAS still in session. From the bit on the Daily Show that they were in session is up for debate. Still, it is a bit odd that they are angry that Gobomber finally made an appointment to that job  that congress created two years ago. Actually, by finally getting the top spot in the CFPB in just two years is fast by the D.C. standards.  How many jobs that were vacant when Gobomber took office are still open? I have no idea, but I am certain that more than a few are still open. Well, getting that "piece prize" and fighting all them that wars be hard work ya know. 

A couple of other items caught my attention, if only briefly. Old McCrazy is really starting to show some early signs of senility. While he was giving a speech to endorse Mittens, he said that Gobomber would turn the country around. One of the handlers had to tell him more than once that he was supposed to say Mittens would turn the country around. Getting old is not for the faint hearted folks. 
The other item was where the folks at  Freddie Mac said they do not care at all if Newt tells us about the terms of the contract he had with that outfit. Seems that Newt was asked about the contract and he had said he could not discuss it, the folks at Freddie Mac didn't want that made public. Poor Newt, caught in his own mess, again. Any bets that he is working on another mistress to replace wife number three yet? Yes, I know that was rude, mean, etc of me. Oh well, he earned it. Dump you wife as she is recovering from cancer and I'll rip you also. Talk about bad timing, or was it just that he is a pure mean spirited jackass? 


America, what a country
semper fi

A funny thing happened on the way to the caucus.

Well, the first "test" of the 2012 election year is now history. The Iowa caucus is over. As of this morning, 3 January, 2012, it looks like Mittens came out on top with the nutty Santorum a very close second. From the early reports, Mittens won by eight, yes 8, votes. Talk about your close calls. Ron PAul came in third. The "surprise" is Newt. From what I can gather, old Newt finished a rather distant fourth. Yes, he came in 4th.
Why is that a topic here? Well, it seems that Newt is the first "victim" of the nasty bit of judicial ruling, aka, Citizens United. You remember that one, the decision by the Supreme Court that allows for corporations to stoke the election campaigns with unlimited monies and they do not have to report how much they give or who the give it to.
The "super PAC" that supports old Mittens pumped tons of money into the campaign leading up to the Iowa caucus this week. In short, Mitt and his supporters way out spent Newt and every other candidate. My irony meter may not be operating 100%, but to me it is rather amusing that the first politician to "suffer" from that court ruling would not just be a member of the elephant gang, but in fact, one of the biggest members. That Newt is that "victim" has a very nice ring to it for my opinion. Imagine, Newt falling "victim" to a nasty bit of legal opinion that had been pushed by the elephant gang and clowns just like Newt. I would not be at all surprised to find out that Newt himself was behind that move and no doubt he cheered the ruling. Poor little feller, he should have learned long ago to be careful what he wishes for.
Yes, there is a rather delicious flavor to Newt being done in by a right wing bit of garbage.
The unfortunate thing is that some very worthy people will also be done in by that court ruling. This is just the start of the election cycle. No doubt the super PAC that helped Mitt to his "win" will be out to shoot down other candidates and when we get to the general  election this fall, expect more of these super PAC's to be out in force buying the election.
America, what a country.
semper fi.


p.s. Hold the presses! I just checked at Think Progress and they have a report that claims that the nut, Santorum, actually won in Iowa. The claim is that a typo gave Mitt 20 extra votes. Well, no matter, the money did help Newt to end up fourth any way. I did not care who "won" the Iowa caucus. As you know if you stop by here very often, I have no use for either wing of the war/greed party. I support neither the donkey nor the elephant gang. 

Extras

Back again.
I have added another link on the old corner. It is one I should have added long ago, but I'm old, disabled, and lazy. Some days, all at the same time. The old part is more or less constant. Can't seem to escape that, but none of us seem to do it. The disabled part is a constant that I'd be happy to be rid of. If only it were a tradable commodity. The lazy is the part that comes and goes. I hope to get it to go more in the future.
The link is for an excellent site and monthly report by Mr. William Blum. Many of you probably already stop by his site and/or subscribe to his excellent Anti Empire Report. If you have not visited his site please do and sign up for the report while you are there. So far I have not found much to disagree with him on anything he has written in his reports. You might even want to buy  a book he has written. Highly recommended by me.


This caught my attention today as I surfed the old net. There are two companion bills floating through the congress now. They are; HR3166 and S1698. These vile pieces of bovine excrement would allow dear leader and/or the "appropriate authorities" to strip the nationality (citizenship) from anybody caught "engaging in or supporting hostilities against the US. That includes US nationals would lose their US citizenship if they are found to be doing such things. YES, a natural citizen, that is born here in the US of A, would lose his/her citizenship if he/she is deemed to have engaged in or supported hostilities against the USA. This then makes it SO much easier to be sent off for indefinite detention in some dank, dark hole of a prison. And here I was thinking that after the vile crap of the recently signed NDAA, things had hit bottom. Well, it looks like the government is doing what I have done at times when I have been depressed. When they hit bottom, they grab a damn shovel and start digging to see how much deeper they can get. 
It never fails. Every time I think we have seen the absolute worst that this government can do, they come along and stoop even lower. Folks, there is NO depth to which they will not stoop.


A personal not; it has been with extreme care that I have kept my language on the polite side for this post. My brain is screaming the most vile obscenities at this sack of garbage that is being passed off as |"legislation". Mind you, these bills are just now in committee and have not even been voted on by either house. Of course, we have seen this sort of garbage get voted on and passed, then signed into law before, so we need to keep a close eye on these bills. 
America, what a country.
semper fi

Happy, we all hope, New Year

Greetings good people. 
I hope that the New Year is a better one than last year for all of us. Yes, we will be hearing way more than we ever care to hear on the Mayan "apocalypse" and the end of the world coming to a location near you on December 21/22  of 2012. Oh joy. Well, fear not my friends, according to some really smart folks, scientists even, the "galactic alignment" that will be a major factor in this coming "end of the world" scenario is exactly what we just went through 12 days ago. Yes, you see, according to astronomers, every year at the winter solstice the earth is in alignment with the galactic center. The same alignment will occur on December 21/22 of this new year(2012) just as it was so aligned this past December 21/22 and has done so since , well damn near forever, at least since the earth formed and started its near endless journey around our sun. No doubt there are those who will shoot down any explanation I may offer to "debunk" the "end of the world" scenario they are pushing. Well, if you can put away any conspiracy theories, just go over to the NASA web site and search 2012. Yes, I know, it is a government web site. They still give you the truth about the solar system as far as I am concerned. I trust that the science there is honest and not any part of a conspiracy. You see, some agencies of the government DO tell the honest truth. 
For those who have a problem with any government web sites, so be it. Try one of the observatory web sites of maybe some science museum web site and check what they have to say regards 2012 and the Mayan calendar. Basically, there will be no "world ending" event heading our way, no "mystery" planet entering earth orbit to destroy us all. IF, and it is a very, very big if, there were some "rogue" planet that was going to impact earth this coming December, many astronomers would have seen evidence of it by now. In fact there would have been evidence of it quite some time ago. No way would any group or government be able to silence every astronomer IF such a planet existed. If you still think that the mysterious Niburu is headed our way, well, so be it. Enjoy your ideas, but I don't buy it. 


On a "lighter" note, we have just under 12 months left until the campaign for president in 2016 begins. WAIT!!  Hold ON you say, what about the 2012 election? It has not happened yet. Yes, I am totally aware of that. Way too aware in fact. On some web sites and TV channels it is about all they talk about. I just figured since the candidates for president seem to start their campaigns the day after, if not the very day of, the current election. Look for the folks who will be running in 2016 to come out in early November of this year. Sorry to be the one to bring up this bad news, but it sure seems like we here in the US are in a basically unending election cycle. As more than one observer of the current campaign put it, Mitt has been running since 2008, if not longer. Ah yes, what money can buy for you. Not for me, probably not for most of you good folks who stop by this old corner either, but if one is rich.  Yes, if one is rich, then the "world is your oyster" seems fairly accurate. 
Well, we are at the start of another year, many things await us. New laws and of course new challenges, and more than a few old ones carried over from 2011. An example of a new law; Indiana has proposed a new law that would punish those who "sing the national anthem" inappropriately.  If this becomes law, woe unto those who mess up while singing the "Star Spangled Banner". If you do make a mistake singing that song, you would be fined $25.00.  Schools would be required to keep recordings of each performance for two years. Wow, they take that song seriously in Indiana. Or, do they? Really? How will they judge if the mistake was an honest one? How do you decide? True, it may be easy to point out a blatant butchering of the song, but being nervous singing to a large group, say a full sports stadium, and flubbing a word or line should not be punished. Maybe they will only allow "professional" singers with a long track record of singing the national anthem to sing it at large public events.
Pop quiz, (The first ever on the old corner) How many know the second and third verses of the "Star Spangled Banner"? OK, I will be the first to admit I do NOT know them. Does that mean I am in violation of the Indiana law?  I wonder how many law makers at any level of government know all three verses. Bets that you can count them on one hand and have a few fingers left over. But that just may be me, being sarcastic again. Yeah, I'll buy that.


I'll be totally upfront and honest with you all. I do not do prognostications. No, what I think will happen in the US and/or the world. I am not now, nor ever was or wanted to be, any sort of prophet.  I have no great insight into what may happen. In fact, I cannot even predict whether or not I'll make it out of bed tomorrow. At least not with 100% accuracy. Also, most every site on the net has done or is doing their predictions for 2012. Yes, that includes many who are pushing the Mayan "end of the world" deal.
What I hope happens is, that OWS and the occupy movement continues and grows stronger. I hope that more and more people wake up to the crap the government and both wings of the war/greed party are pushing. Yes, that is the "new" and "improved" name for the donkey and elephant gangs; the war/greed party, of which the two animal gangs are just the two wings of.
I have decided to add the greed part to the description of the war party. Maybe this year will see the rise of a truly independent third party. True, it may be almost too late now for such a party to have much of a real chance at winning. Still, as far as I am aware, it is still legal to dream/hope in the US of A. I did not see anything about dreams/hope in the miserable NDAA that Gobomber just recently signed. 
Which brings me to the first real rant of 2012. The above "rant" on the Mayan apocalypse does not count as a "real" rant, just my opinion. 
An excellent report on 2011 is over at EFF web site. The following is well worth your time; www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/2011-review-year-secrecy-jumped-shark. Among the outrageous items listed in their review, one really caught my attention. It is disgusting and at the same time absurd, almost what I would expect from Monty Python or maybe Catch 22. I refer you to the following; "President Obama accepts a transparency award.......behind closed doors. And some of you good people think the government is getting(?) too secret? Naw, no way that Gobomber is "obsessed" with secrecy. Not much, when he only accepts a "transparency" award behind closed doors. As others before me have said, you can't make this stuff up.  I believe it was Will Rogers, I may be wrong, who said he didn't have to write his material, all he had to do was read the newspapers. I think Mort Sahl may have said either that or something quite close to it. Not that I am in their class, no way, they were masters, I'm still working towards my journeyman status. One last item from this list; The government attorneys insisted in court they CAN censor a book which was already published and available for free on the internet! Yes, the list has many such outrageous items on it. Well with the time to check it out. You will not be happy, but you will have a better idea of where the government is headed. This will not get better this year. In fact, here goes a "prediction" form me, it will get worse. No great "prophecy" that, as you all can see that the government is getting much more secret every day.
Back to that vile piece of legislation; the National Defense Authorization Act that Gobomber recently signed. As you are aware, he issued a "signing statement" as/after he signed the damn thing. He made noises about how he would not detain an American citizen captured on US soil without a trial. Oh? Really? Well, even IF, another of those very, very big if's, He may well decide to actually DO allow a US citizen captured on US soil to have an actual trial and not just be sent indefinitely to Gitmo. What, if anything, would stop the next president, the one who gets elected in 2016, from just tossing Gobomber's signing statement in the trash bin? Answer, not one damn thing. Nope, nothing about ANY presidential signing statement is binding on the next person to hold that office. In fact, there is nothing binding on Gobomber himself to abide by his own signing statement. Yeah, he can just "forget" this signing statement any time he feels like it and "no harm, no foul" and we all get screwed, again. 


Now some folks may say that I am ungrateful to Gobomber for his signing statement. Well, they just could be right. He said he would not allow for the indefinite detention of a US citizen without a trial. OK, fine, as far as it goes. But, and it is a kind of big but, he DID kill a US citizen AND his 16 year old son. Neither of them got any trial, not even the kangaroo/faux military tribunal like they run at Gitmo. Nope, Mr. Anwar al-Awlaki and his son were killed simply because Gobomber (and probably his close advisors) thought that Mr. al-Awlaki was some sort of terrorist. Now, how "secure" do you feel with his signing statement?  Yeah, I thought so. Me too.When that drone flies over me and fires a missile of some other weapon, hey, no problem. But, he won't detain me indefinitely without a trial. And.............if he doesn't want to waste all that time on so many trials, well......easy solution, just kill off any suspected terrorist/terrorist sympathizers. See, it is so simple even a president can figure it out. Yes sir, ain't 'Merikkka just grand?


For some extra insight into the minds(?) of senior US military types, I highly recommend an article at the Counterpunch web site, the weekend edition of Dec 30-Jan 1. Here is the link;
www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/30/cross-border-incident/. The author Brian Cloughley is a former military officer. He knows Pakistan and its military very well and he has a wealth of information and knowledge on the country, its military, and that general area of the world. I have read all of his articles that have been posted on the Counterpunch web site since about 2004. I count him as a friend and an excellent source of information.  Brian writes about the "incident" where the US/NATO attacked a Pakistan Army outpost on the border of Pakistan/Afghanistan and killed 24 Pakistani troops. Odd that this happened as the US military has the exact location of EVERY Pakistani border outpost. Read Brian's excellent article and find out more on the minds(?) of some US military officers and one particular US general. The stupid, it hurts. Sorry, that just needed to come out. I am not sure if it is stupidity, hubris, arrogance, or what that some US military officers think, or even IF they think at all. Brain shows one for what he really is.


A further comment on the current election/campaign. I ran across a quote that I must pass along. Somebody was describing Newt Gingrich and came up with this; "Newt is a dumb person's idea of what a smart person sounds like". I forget who said that, but it captures the "essence" of Newt quite well. Hmmm......essence of Newt, eye of toad, pinch of Mittens, dash of Bachmann, slice of Perry, tea spoon of Santorum, dusting of Paul? Yep, sounds like a "devils brew" to me.If I missed any of them, well, tough beans and hard cheese. I find it quite difficult to take any of them very seriously. Although, even Glen Greenwald has some kind words to say about Dr. Ron Paul. Having read his article on the Dr. I have to agree with Mr. Greenwald here. Ron Paul IS talking about things that NEED to be brought into this campaign. No, I will not vote for him though. He holds too many views that run counter to my way of thinking. No, I will not vote for Gobomber, nor did I vote for either war/greed party candidate in 2008. The LAST time any candidate from either wing of the war/greed party got my vote was in 1980. I voted for Carter. Dad was very much against "saint" Ronnie. He had been a disaster as the governor of California and Dad did not want him as our president. Unfortunately, Dad died the Saturday after "saint" Ronnie won that election. For years we used to say that Reagan killed Dad.


I am going to end this rant with another quote. This is for all of us to consider as we support, however we can, the occupy movement. It is by James Baldwin and I think it applies to all who are working to make this a better world for everybody. 
"People don't have any mercy. They tear you limb from limb in the name of love. Then, when they've killed you by what they made you go through, they say you didn't have any character. They weep big, bitter tears---not for you. For themselves, because they've lost their toy."
Something to think about.
semper fi

We are headed into uncharted waters

How to start this post. I wanted to start with something that would catch your attention, a "hook" if you will. Unfortunately I don'e seem to be able to do that. No "witty" phrase of such comes to mind. I am just deeply sickened that the USA has dropped to such lows that it is almost unbelievable. Most unfortunately, it IS believable. The Senate has passed the vile, disgusting piece of legislative crap and Gobomber is now set to sign this bloody excuse into law.
I refer you to the "National Defense Authorization Act" and all of its implications. This is the very same piece of bovine excrement that "dear ;eager" WAS on record as saying he would veto.  I suppose that "dear ;eager" has had a "change of heart". Must be that, or did he get some message from a "higher" authority? Yes, maybe that is it, he may have changed his mind after a phone call from Bibi Nutty-yahoo. That would be the "higher" authority.
Oh dear, it sure looks like I might wind up on some damn list as a "security threat" for being so damn sarcastic. Folks may very well tell me to go straight to hell even. Big deal, I have had countless "offers" for such a journey that I just might take up that offer. Hey, when so many tell me that I should go to a certain place, I figure it is only the decent thing to go and see what all the fuss about the place is like. Yeah, you survive the Marine Corps and time in the Vietnam war zone and not much can scare you. Just ask the troops who have made it back from Iraq or Afghanistan. After surviving a war, not much else they can do to you to frighten you. 
Also, I want to share this quote I came across on the internet. I have not seen who is supposed to have said it, no origin was given, but I think it fits our times. Here goes; "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty".  Ah yes, words to ponder. Words to take to heart even. I'll resist as long as I can. True, my physical disabilities might crack without too much undo pressures, but I doubt my spirit will crack very easily, if ever. Maybe that attitude of mine is something I can thank the Marines for. Works for me.
The White House announced after the Senate passed the NDAA that yes, the president WILL sign this bill into law. This means that Gobomber is on record as being openly supportive of denying American citizens basic due process rights, such as the right to trial by peers, the right to legal representation. 
This new law allows the military to detain without trialAmerican terror suspects arrested on US soil. These people can even be shipped off to sunny Cuba. Yes, those people could be sent to Gitmo to be held indefinitely, without trial. This was NOT reported in the New York Times.  The donkey gang has NOT spoken out about this outrage.
The US supreme court ruled in 2004 in Hamdan vs Rumsfeld that the use of military tribunals for terror suspects CLEARLY violate basic protections under the Geneva Conventions. Being that the USA ratified the Geneva Conventions means that the supreme court said that the use of military tribunals for terror suspects violate US law. Yes folks, any treaty that is ratified by the congress of the USA IS law. Don't believe me? Check out the Constitution of the United States of America. This from Article VI of the US Constitution states that; "This Constitution and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and all Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." The US Constitution makes the Geneva Conventions the "Law of the Land". 
Of course that does not seem to phase our "dear leader" very much. The same can be said of the majority of BOTH houses of our(??) congress and also of past (recent even) occupants of the White House. One of our most recent occupants of "our" White House is said to have referred to the Constitution as that "goddamn piece of paper". Well, sorry to let you down there bud, but it IS the law, like it or not.
The trouble is, how do we, as common citizens of this country go about enforcing the Constitution? OWS surely has got the attention of the folks in congress and even the banksters have taken notice. Then again, they had the police out to destroy the encampments of OWS in more than one city. New York and Oakland seem to have suffered the most abuse by the riot cops. I may not be 100% correct in that, but from my readings on the net, those cities seem to have had the most violent abuse from "authority". 
I know that my "attitude" gets me in deep manure from both sides of the political mess. The "right" thinks a former Marine should wave the flag and support every damn fool war the government gets us into. The "left" cannot stand that I am critical of Gobomber and the donkey gang. Well, too damn bad. I stand by my positions and will change them only when presented with a good enough argument to get me to change my views. 
I ran across some more quotes that I want to share here. First off, Dwight Eisenhower said; "May we never confuse honest dissent  with disloyal subversion."  I stand by my own honest dissent. 
Now for Theodore Roosevelt; "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president.....is morally treasonable to the American public." 
I wonder how much honest dissent or criticism Gobomber and congress can manage. No doubt I have made it onto a list or three, big deal. I fail to see how a disabled war veteran could be to the powers that run this show. Well, after this vile "act" is law I might find out how much, or better yet, how little dissent is still legal here in the "land of the free and the home of the brave". 
As the state motto of New Hampshire goes; "Live Free or Die"
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New "security" bill in the Senate

People, we are entering very dangerous times. A bill now in the US Senate would allow the president to send anybody, including American citizens to Gitmo to be held indefinitely without any recourse to legal representation. In short, the president could send anybody he thinks is a security threat to the US to be held as long as he wants to hold them with no lawyers allowed to represent him/her.
All that would be required for any of us to be held indefinitely is for the president to say that any of us is a "security threat" to the US. There is NO requirement for the president to say just how the person represents such a threat. In short, it is entirely the whim of the president. This is extremely frightening. No president has ever had such powers. The bill apparently also includes the authorization to allow the president to us the US military troops to be used as law enforcement. The last time that was done was during the Reconstruction period after the US War Between the States. WHen Reconstruction ended in 1876, the Congress at that time passed a law that prevented all presidents from that time until now from using the military as law enforcement.
Consider a USA where the president can us military troops as a police force and he alone can designate any of us as a "security threat" and have us locked up in some dank prison indefinitely with no legal representation.
You think this cannot happen in America? Think again my friends, this bill now in the US Senate would allow all of this and no doubt much more.
I wonder, if this vile piece of legislation passes, will the next Occupy action result in the protesters being carted away to Gitmo for indefinite detention? Who among us would trust anybody with such power? I would not even trust myself with that amount of unlimited power, let alone some Wall Street tool as Gobomber.
Now, our president has said that he will veto this bill if it passes the Senate. Do you really believe this guy? Remember, he promised during the campaign in 2008 to shut down Gitmo by the end of his first year in office. He has been on the job almost three years now and Gitmo is still operating as usual. Now, do you still trust this guy? Hell, I just might be on his "hit" list for my rants here on the old, corner. Well, hell, if you don't hear much from me in the next few weeks, no doubt I might be in sunny Cuba in one of those "nice" cells at Gitmo. 
I'm going to close this rant with a few quotes that I have run across recently. I may have read them before, but this week I came across them again, and decided to share them.
Steve Biko said "The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." 
These next two I have no idea who said them, they came off different web articles. As to the OWS making no list of demands, one of the protesters said; "OWS has made no demands. Terrorists make demands. OWS are NOT terrorists." How very true, they ARE patriots who are asking for the broken system to be replaced with one that is fair to ALL of us.
The last one is; "Bailing out banks to save us from socialism is like fucking to save virginity." Excuse my language but that is the BEST way to describe things in my opinion. Short and to the point.
We are entering very dangerous times people. I have no idea where this is going or how it will end. I know that the system IS broken and we need real change. I hope it does not devolve into armed revolution with blood running in the streets. We can do this peacefully, but that means the top 1% has to listen to the people and put aside their greed for ever more and more. At some point even the very rich must have to ask themselves, how much is finally enough. The people have had more than enough of the greed of Wall Street and the war industries. End the damn fool wars of choice. Close all those military bases in foreign countries. Rebuild America and let the rest of the world alone to sort out their troubles without the US interfering. ENOUGH! Enough of the damn fool wars of choice. Enough of the greedy banksters and their pals on Wall Street and in the war industries. 
America, what a country.
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Books must be very dangerous

In Amerikkka, books are very dangerous things. Why do I say this? Consider that when the New York police raided the OWS folks at Zuccotti Park last week they threw ALL the books from the temporary library into a dumpster. Most of the books were damaged beyond repair. Why did the police toss those books into the trash bins? Well, to me it is obvious. Books are dangerous. Books contain ideas. Ideas can be very, very dangerous. In particular, ideas that say that we are all human beings, we ALL have the same basic needs, that ALL humans have the same basic desires. Yes, those ARE very dangerous ideas folks. ALL human beings need food, clothing, and shelter. ALL human beings want to be able to provide a decent standard of living to their families, they all want their children to have at least as good a life as they have, hopefully a better life than they have. In the Amerikkka of today, we are facing the very real prospect that our children will NOT have a better life than we have. They may not even have as good a life as we have or have had. For the first time since the Great Depression, Amerikkka faces the very real prospect that the next generation will have less than their parents.
This truth is a very dangerous thing. Those at the top do not want this to be widely known. They want to suppress this fact as they want the masses to continue to believe in the fairy tale that "things will get better, trust us". They continue to try and push the "American dream". That dream has turned into a very real nightmare for many people. The bad loans, liar loans, and the foreclosures have turned the "dream" on its head. 
The top 1% continue to prosper while the 99% try their best to "make due" with the crumbs. The "saint" Ronnie of Raygun trickle down at work here folks. Big time.
The old "rich get richer while the poor get poorer" is no longer just a saying, it is reality. Another idea that is very dangerous as it becomes fact. Those at the top of this heap don't want the masses to know this. Too bad, the truth IS out and the people are angry.
OWS has started something and it will not just go quietly away. 
The "media" has tried to brush the OWS aside by claiming that they have "made no demands". True, but consider a reply by some in the OWS movement to that statement; "Terrorists make demands. OWS are NOT terrorists". Try that on for size "media".
The powers that be may silence some of the people, but they can never kill an idea.  
Keep reading people. Keep the protest alive. We, the 99%, have the numbers.
semper fi