It's too easy to say that this is not the "right time" to seek criminal prosecution for political crimes. For crimes against the State. For war crimes. Or that we need to look forward, and not backward. That we don't need to think about retribution or revenge. Is this the answer you would want from any Law Enforcement or Judicial system whenever crimes against Person or State have or may have been committed, that we should look forward and not backward? What if the offense were against you personally? Would you still feel that way?

And what about Justice? The application of Justice can only be applied towards acts already committed. The future is reserved for prevention, and the application of Justice is part of that prevention.

The "right time" to do this is now! If not now, then when?

This past Friday, May 29, 2009, Bill Moyers Journal devoted the entire hour to discussion and review of a 2008 joint documentary film effort between the George Washington University's National Security Archive and Washington Media Associates entitled: Torturing Democracy.

Those of us who are old enough to remember the anti-war movement of the Vietnam War era know first hand how much influence the mainstream media can have on forming public opinion. And until the media, often referred to as The Fourth Estate, for reasons largely unearned today, began showing Americans the real horrors of that war, any war, this nation was polarized between the younger and older generations. What came to be known as The Generation Gap reared it's ugly head in nearly every home across America where there were teenagers. Eventually the media message began to show the harsh truth and the generations began to unite and put an end to the Vietnam War. To all war. Or so we hoped...

Now it is over thirty years later, and many of the players who kept the imperial military of this country on constant alert for imaginary threats, are still behind the scenes quietly manipulating foreign and domestic policy, while simultaneously using the powerful corporate mainstream media to forge public opinion using lies, nonsensical logic and a dangerous ideology of false National Pride to polarize our citizenry. Between Republican and Democrat. Democrat and Independent. Rich and poor. The Powerful and the powerless.

I was aware of this documentary when it was first released, and I tried to watch it objectively. It wasn't easy. Sometimes the truth hurts. Sometimes the truth is ugly and heartbreaking. Like betrayal, you feel sick, impotent, angry. As bad as Vietnam turned out to be, this film demonstrates clearly that our leadership has not learned the lessons we had hoped. But have in fact, only dug in their heels, and found ways to turn further towards the The Dark Side. Last Fall during the presidential campaign when Michelle Obama was condemned by FOX news and the like for proclaiming that she was more proud to be an American than she had been in a long time, many of us knew she was speaking patriotically, and that America was once again on a virtuous track. Even so, while I appreciate her sentiment, and wish it were so, I am nonetheless unconvinced of it myself.

But after revisiting this film via Bill Moyers last Friday, I felt compelled to help bring attention to some of the finest investigative reporting I've seen during the last eight plus years. And the embarrassing and horrifying truth that tells a story of raw political ambition for power and wealth, with little to no regard for the law. Not domestic constitutional law, or international law. Where the most vulnerable people of the world become the foundation on which their empires are built.

This film speaks of brutality. Of cruelty. Of inhumanity. And until we fully face these horrors and acknowledge their reality and hold those accountable, the forces behind these atrocities will continue to engulf our civilization, until the day we collectively wake up either in global bondage and/or on a ravaged planet that is dying from a continuing and unsustainable plunder of her human and natural resources, by a few selfish and arrogant global criminals.

Pay attention to this topic. Watch the film. Share your views...

Recommended reading from Amazon.com

It's Memorial Day weekend and I have nothing better to do than download music online and watch C-SPAN...

That's because I'm now at an age where my friends and family are dying more often. I'm at the point where I've lost both parents, my older sister (still have my younger), and even my dog died last year. I only have a couple of friends left alive that I have managed to stay in touch with over the years, while hearing of the deaths of others I regretfully did not. On top of that I have no immediate family of my own. So, no bar-b-q here, and I lost interest in professional sports back when they had the first baseball strike. The lust for money took the "sportsmanship" out of it for me. Of course that was even before I understood how corrupt the corporate institutions behind them are.

I also recently learned of a distant family suicide connected to the housing crisis and a potential foreclosure on a home owned by Senior Citizens. A tragedy I wish I had been aware of before it transpired. I believe I could have helped them find public advocacy in their plight. I also may write about this down the road after I am able to learn more. Their being Seniors has me very intrigued.

So, and keep in mind that I have no children of my own and no other involvement with children directly, I'm watching C-SPAN and a congressional hearing begins. Held last Tuesday, May 19, 2009, by the House Committee for Education and Labor, and chaired by Representative George Miller (D-CA).

The title of the hearing was: Seclusion and Restraint of Mentally Disabled Students. Although the hearing was 2 hours, it was anything but boring. To hear about the kinds and frequencies of abuse going on in our Special Education system is shocking. And that word feels weak in description.

I was at once reminded of the 1970's public debate on corporal punishment in our traditional educational system that I always understood was about less physical abuse. Yet here we are, thirty years later, being revisited by yet another ghost from our decaying Democratic past. I get this odd feeling of Deja Vu whenever I hear of another issue that we are currently debating that was originally debated thirty years or more ago. Coming to mind would be "war", "civil rights/human rights", "labor rights", "public housing", "the environment", and on and on with the fact that our leaders prefer to lie to us always at the heart of it. I also get a sinking feeling that we are up against a "monster" that wins more often than not. Particularly when it concerns a subject where, not the corporations directly, but the inhuman influence they infect on the individual's sense of morality causes the individual to commit the immoral act. I mean how could any individual willingly commit an act of such cruelty, whether it is at the policy direction of a higher-up or by their own decision? It's not unlike the torture debate going on that analyzes, tries to justify such despicable behavior from a National Security perspective rather than from a moral perspective, such as the morality that we tried to define with our Constitution. Like most of the Bush era policies, there is still no honest conversation going on between our government and her citizens. Except the corporate citizen of course.

Chairman Miller must have been thinking along the same lines, because after hearing opening statements from the panel of witnesses, which included two parents of abused children, he made the connection between this kind of extreme reaction to child behavior and our government's interrogation policies. He made the very astute comparison between the technique of waterboarding and a method used by these special educators to restrain a child. A method that has resulted in moire than one death...

I'd like to note that both sides of the aisle on the hearing committee were appalled at what they learned was regularly going on. All that is but the committee co-chair Howard McKeon (R-CA). Again, I cannot fathom reacting to something like this in any manner other than outrage, but some politicians seem to ever confuse the challenge as policy driven, when they should be thinking about the right and wrong of it.

Below is the hearing in it's entirety. If your browser does not support this kind of embedded video (you don't see anything), here are two other options for you:

Flash video link.

Page link with video link

Whether you have children or not, you need to know about this. And if you do have children, you should consider what might be going on in our other schools and watch this with a keen ear.

There's no doubt that the higher up the power ladder you get, the more contentious you get. Maybe it feels "wobbly" up there, and too confined for too many. Maybe you just like being on top, whatever it takes.

But whatever the reasons beyond simple greed and arrogance and vanity, these top elites are no different from a bunch of spoiled kids and not enough candy to go around. Take the following for example.

It's flu season and swine flu is the headline version we're now watching kinda closely in the news.

An article from Slate talks about scientific opinion on the relationships between different types of flu and their biological targets. The consensus is looking like all bird flues may not work on other animals and humans, but all flues may work on birds. So that all flu is avian flu. Whatever kind of flu, a global pandemic is something to consider.

At least you'd think that was on the minds of congress as they debated the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Think Progress reports that some senior Republicans in the Senate were responsible for stripping funds intended for flu "preparedness".

Excerpt:

On February 5, Karl Rove took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to argue against President Obama's Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act because, in his view, the spending was not targeted to create or preserve jobs. In particular, Rove complained about the fact that the bill included "$900 million for pandemic flu preparations." He contended that such spending was unnecessary because the health care sector "added jobs last year."

These political dog-fights that have erupted since the election of President Obama are all about the Republican party feeling "wobbly" at the top. It wasn't about the flu, it was about stealing "candy"

Here's another ..

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The New York Times today printed this story exposing at least 10 years of subterfuge by the oil and gas industries to conceal their own scientists' consensus with the rest of the scientific community on the validity of the Human contribution to global warming.

Here is an excerpt:

“The role of greenhouse gases in climate change is not well understood,” the coalition said in a scientific “backgrounder” provided to lawmakers and journalists through the early 1990s, adding that “scientists differ” on the issue.

But a document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked to sway opinion, its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted.

Hearings began in Washington this week on the Climate Change Bill. Among the witnesses that appeared today were VP Al Gore, Senator John Warner and former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich. Most people could likely guess where the Speaker and the Vice President stand on the issue of Global Warming, but many people may be surprised to learn that Senator Warner has had a big change of heart, brought on partially by the urgings of his Grandchildren.

The hearings today, in one way, sounded just like others that have preceded this one. Fewer Republicans are outright denying the existence of climate change, but all who were present still could not resist disputing the modeling and severity of the consequences, and of course, the impact of the fossil fuel industry. All of them are hinting that without the inclusion of lots of nuclear and coal, they will not support any climate bill.

The hearings being held by the House Energy Subcommittee, Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA), and Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), among others took center stage on C-SPAN today and will re air later in the evening. Other hearing will be held in the forthcoming days. Anyone interested in hearing the portions that included Al Gore and John Warner can view that here. Their appearance is followed by a round of discussion with Mr. Gingrich.

Speaker Gingrich's testimony illustrates very well how deeply entrenched the Republican Party continues to be in the oil, gas and automobile industries, the nuclear industry and the coal industries, all of which are dirty by nature, and less often discussed, all have unique and dangerous environmental consequences from their mining and processing activities. When we talk about coal, we don't talk about mining. When we talk about nuclear, we fail to account for waste disposal. So we end up with marketing campaigns that tout "clean-coal" and infinite atomic energy.

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Today we celebrate the 39th anniversary of Earth Day. On April 22, 1970 more Americans (over 20 million) came out in public support for this cause than had ever done before in support of the environment. President Nixon, against his personal and party political convictions, but under immense public pressure, approved the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (Click Here to view a video message from the new EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson). This was also the year that domestic oil production peaked in the United States. 3 years later, we were in the grips of OPEC and Americans were to become increasingly concerned about things like pollution & global warming, over-population, world hunger and poverty. At least for a few years until we forgot...

The EPA went on to pass several environmental laws & regulations over the next few years, and by the late seventies many of us were beginning to believe that we had won back control of our planet from the Corporations who mindlessly created these calamities. But then, we got foolish and elected a failed Hollywood Cowboy actor to the White House. The same man, who as president, pushed us solidly in the economic direction that is giving us fits now. President Reagan began by dismantling the Solar Energy collectors on the roof of the White House that President Jimmy Carter had installed. Then he went about relaxing corporate regulation on just about anything he could get his misguided hands on. Not only on the environment in general, but on the auto industry as well. So that by 1988, on average, automobiles in America were actually now getting less MPG than they were 10 years earlier after the EPA began regulating automobile mileage standards through it's pollution control regulatory mechanisms. Consequently, mileage did not substantially improve for another 10 years. Only now, when it seems so Deja-Vu-like, we are once again opening our eyes to the even greater damage the insatiable corporate lust for profit has brought to our Earth. And also like a nightmare returned, we are now at or very close to global peak-oil production. At least half of the world's population is too young to remember the gas lines of the early-mid seventies, and the fear that gripped us from feeling impotent against the huge forces of nature that appeared to be going out of control.

Of course the ultimate blame goes squarely on us, the citizenry, for not only believing the rhetoric that our corporate-lobbied politicians tell us, but for becoming so incensed with measuring our freedom by the yardsticks of consumerism and materialism. Ripping our planet and it's peoples apart through selfish imperial military domination over the world's dwindling resources, displacing whole populations and causing a chain reaction of ecological consequences we cannot even accurately predict or imagine. Well, we better wake up!

Last night on Frontline, they aired what could very well be the most important and thought-provoking program they have aired on the state of our environment since they aired the segment "HEAT" last year. It's entitled: "Poisoned Waters". It looks at the state of our global water supply from the perspective of the current condition of the Chesapeake Bay, over 25 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act.

You can view it by clicking here:

This is a must-see for anyone who is concerned about the future of our freshwater supplies and the health of our planet. A state of health that will determine our own future survival...

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(Originally posted on March 25, 2009)

The latest White House, Treasury, Fed and not to mention Wall Street “bailout” plan is to reimburse hedge and equity funds. Reimbursement is what this has been about all along. That and a firmer grip by the banking system on our political system. (Ironically it is these types of businesses who have had the biggest hand in nuking our economy…)

“Reimbursement” or “bailout” as you prefer, is not intended for those of us who have lost equity in their 401K or IRA, or our meager efforts to invest, or in our homes. No that money is likely gone forever, and only the ruling elite will be reimbursed for losing “our” money. Which by the way, if there are monetary obligations on any of those losses we have incurred, they will NOT likely be forgiven. It is really just like those games of Monopoly we played when one of our friends lost all their money, and we said “that’s OK here’s some more". If you don’t work for AIG, Goldman Sachs, etc., or are an elected official, or a long-time employee or executive of some industry who profits from these policies such as the Military Industrial Complex, the GMO ("genetically modified organisms” or better known to us as “food", “medicine", etc.) industry, health insurance industry, etc. then you are not one of these “friends".

You buy a home on a “esoteric” loan scam, or maybe it’s a regular loan and later you just lose your job or a spouse dies, etc. The lender has already bundled it and sold it. The bundle buyer then further leverages it and borrows or sells against future losses. Or they do the insurance scam SWOP or something similar (no I do not understand how any of it works!). Finally it goes bust. But everyone in the transaction process gets reimbursed, except the original borrower. If that isn’t “having your cake and eating it too", I don’t know what is…

The damage though affects everyone else. Home values go down, personal and state budgets, including health, education and welfare get forcibly reduced, price increases for necessities. On and on. We all see it daily.

Just as I have been saying now for many months, this is all about our monetary system, campaign financing, the income-gap and the ruling class domination by big corporations from energy & resources (including food and water), healthcare, finance and military imperialism. Greed and stupidity are givens. But nothing about this is sustainable, and if you factor in the expotentiality of population growth, economic growth under a debt-based monetary system, and the opposites of growing demand vs. finite resources, you may very well end up with something like “Soylent Green” (Charlton Heston - 1973). And it could begin to look that way in our lifetime, really. Just look around the world now in India, Bangladesh, South Africa, etc. The lone street sweeper in the early hours of dawn will be replaced by garbage trucks designed to scoop up the abandoned infirm, the dead and the dying…

Have you ever looked at the trash along the road and thought “I’d like to clean this up, but how can I by myself?". But on the other hand you’ve also probably seen or heard of concerted efforts by groups of people and the trash can and does get picked up. Of course the littering continues because those who do litter, do so thoughtlessly, and are not confronted in a way that “teaches” them why they shouldn’t. Instead we feebly use regulations, laws and punishment as though we are children who cannot “learn their moral lessons". Instead we have to be “conditioned” to our behavior until it comes to us naturally, not even recognizing the right or wrong of it anymore and if ever.

This is similar to the problems we now face. We’re not spreading the word, and more importantly the logic and morality in a visible enough fashion. No one person can make a sign and start picketing, and expect to do any good. Especially if those who see you are ignorant to your grievances and what they mean. My own state of Florida is going to likely pass a law cementing “private” campaign financing. They sold it by comparing “public” financing to “political welfare". That’s what they always do. As Gore Vidal once said, they market politics in such a way that the average person will generally end up voting against their own self-interest.

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