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Ahmadinejad hasn't sent his armies around the world murdering innocent civilians, and installed hundreds of military bases in those countries, in order to steal other peoples resources and impress powers on them as the US has continually done. Ahmadinejad may be no angel but he still speaks the truth about what the US has done and continues to do. Ahmadinejad may be a hypocrite but the US is so much bigger a hypocrite than Ahmadinejad will ever be.
I am an American who is ashamed of the behavior of our leaders and our military and the blood thirsty corporations and banks that are behind it all. I have no intention of moving to Iran or anywhere else. As long as we can still speak out (freedom of speech)...and that is fast becoming taboo and perhaps even illegal...we need to tell it like it is...speak truth to power.
We are not far behind Iran and China or even Uzbekistan in suppression of our "freedoms" of being able to speak out and to object to what our leaders have done in our name. Just because I agreed with most everything Ahmadinejad said about the US does not mean that I believe he is much better and is worse only because he is a step ahead of those criminals in the US who are working for the same kind of oppressions. He does...because he can...and our ruling elite are working on it. With Homeland Security, and everything else that happened since 911, that has worked to destroy our freedoms...our financial and health well being...the real evildoers are doing everything they can to make us xenophobic and afraid of the boogieman. They strive to turn our attention away from their own evildoing and concentrate on false flags and the specter of "terrorism". It used to be "communism" till that could no longer play. Ray Gun even hinted that we might have to "fear" some extraterrestrial biological entities that might invade the earth. Boo!!!! Are you scared? Of Ahmadinejad? or of the evil banksters and Wall Street scumbags and the other corporate leeches that are sucking our economy dry?
It's time to draw a line in the sand, starting with the 2012 elections. The real problem is the news media from the press to t.v. and radio is controlled by the right wing, much of which is financed from fats cats like the Koch brothers. The right wing needs to become a bigger player in these markets to inform people of the danger represented by the real enemies of this country such as the Koch brothers. We need more Thom Hartmann's and we need to expand coverage for people like Thom. The worst nightmare for such people is exposure and factual information. Let's start with getting more people to donate to programs such as Free Speech t.v. What I do with everyone I know who preaches the Republican talking points is to give them copies of sections of "Unequal Protection" and it shuts them up.
It's time for Democrats to become a united party and not give an inch. They are dealing with the most dangerous situation we have in my lifetime. Not Communism, not Iran, not Bin Laden. Tea Party Republicans. They don't care who gets hurt or how they win. Reminds you of Corporate America. You never give in to blackmail, especially a bunch of one day wonders with no idea or interest on helping the average American citizen. When attacked by a bully you don't back up, you simply rearrange their anatomy in whatever means necessary. If they want a fight let's give it to them. This is a war. Start acting like it.
Justcie, yes. Premeditated killing for justice, no. We are all demeaned by carrying out the death penalty. Is it thirst for vengeance slaked? Is it righteous, collective anger expressed and relieved? Is it a salve for victim anguish? There are lots of subjective justifications. But after the postering of justice concluding in killing someone for the sake of justice we may be left with having to answer for ourselves coming to terms with that part that gets satisfied by someone else's death.
Tax them for not creating well-paying jobs in this country.
Life in prison without parole is a more severe punishment. We did it before - in 1972, in spite of Nixon's "law and order" platform..
It's much worse than that they just "place bets" on the price of oil.....
They intentionally set out through the pure force of money, to game the system and rob us all by manipulatively distorting the basic free market price discovery factors of supply and demand--- through massive, unregulated buying and selling of paper oil futures (which also happens to impact the ongoing cost of energy to the world).
It's a pure gambling operation using essentially counterfeit chips, ie. promises to buy or sell at a specific price in the future... whether or not they will actually be able to do so and stay in business (think AIG). It's the dirty little secret of how market insiders in many markets prosper by manipulatively exploiting the process to the detriment of everyone else.
The same kind manipulations in gold and silver markets has produced an increasing disconnect of blatantly finagled futures prices-- from those of the actual physical metal itself. The difference is that in manipulating the price of oil, a resource essential to America's national security and well being, the whole country (and world) is made to suffer solely to further enrich an insatiably voracious few.
Let's face it, we will never stop the relentless greed of parasites like the Kochs. So with the absence of laws to prevent their sort of economic terrorism, we need a simple corrective measure...... TAX THE LIVING HELL out of their ill-gotten wealth. At least this way the money could be directed back into the hands of its rightful owners...those who drive to work and heat their homes. For example, give it back in the form of rebates or refunds on energy expenses.
This type of price fixing would never be allowed to happen in a socialistic society living under a democratic government. Industries like energy would have some type of government control or ownership. In other words the economy would be under the control of the general public, not the KOCHS!
If you want to really hit these guys where it hurts, authorize a hundred new drilling permits and open Alaska areas now prohibited and get that cross Canada pipeline going. Oil prices will drop like a rock and these guys, just like the Hunts with silver in the 70's? will have their corpulent bodies scrubbed raw. But of course, the Democrats consider oil drilling evil and if that means the Koch's et. al. making billions, it is a small price to pay. Besides that, Democrats ride bikes and the oil price does not impact them. (Last line is sarcasm for those that can not tell.)
Question. which country do you think keeps the world from going into another WORLD WAR?
HEY LOOSER, what do you think they do with there money eat it?
There surely are people who deserve death. If you don't think so you've led a sheltered life.
Take a test on that: Honestly consider whether Big Man deserved what he got in Susanne Bier's film "In A Better World" (a meditation upon both the strength and weakness of nonviolence).
That said, those who support the corporate-state's death penalty sentencing probably haven't ever had the police accuse them, then lie on the witness stand with the prosecutors assistance, and the judges knowing approval.
Do you know why the prisons are not filled with white liberals?
The crimes of liberals are more often found in what they did not do that they could have, than in what they have done that they shouldn't have. Liberal crimes are legal.
If Troy Davis was white, Obama would have happily granted him a presidential pardon.
http://www.chenangogreens.org
The Libertarian-ish caller who was against the HPV vacination intrigued me. First, I wonder if she felt the same way about any vacine or just this one. Second, I wonder what would happen to the research and development of vacinations in general if the massive sales by those nasty government regulations did not exist. Would we be essentionally making it unprofitable to develop any vacination? Wouldn't this apply to medical products in general if that nasty government wasn't involved in creating demand with Medicare, Medicaid, etc?
Finally, I like how Libertarian-ish say from one side of their mouth that high drug prices is a good thing since it encourages innovation while from the other side they say that high medical costs are due to insurance and that if enough people couldn't afford medical care then prices would come down. Won't innovation, available products all collapse along with dropping prices?
They are not "job creators" they are job degraders and job exporters. They are happy with things as they are; there is no economic crisis for them. They have many reasons to want to continue the recession with policies that caused it.
We don't need them. We'll nationalize industries or, maybe better yet, start cooperatives and worker owned businesses. We don't need them for "work". All we gotta do is work - ourselves.
It is true that speculation is the major driver of oil costs in this country. And this makes sense, concerning the Kochs and their escalating fortune. Then stop for a moment and think about who these guys are. It isn't just about polluting the environment: they are also polluting the political environment.
The Kochs backed the John Birch Society, which was a precursor to the bigger Tea Party of today. Tea Party addicts read the books by Skousen ("The Naked Communist") and believe them. This is old paranoia from the '50s and '60s and the Cold War Era. This is ultra-far-right shifting that harkens back to the Koch brothers' father who left the Soviet Union after being screwed by Stalin. It's like this old grudge that turned into a right-wing movement.
All totalitarian movements started in a just such a hard-right political shift according to Sheldon S. Wolin, professor emeritus of politics at Princeton and author of 2008's "Democracy, Inc." Are we witnessing such a shift (think: pre-Hitler Germany) in America today? And now it is funded and led by these radical right-wing, ultra-wealthy purveyors of paranoid politics.
Republicanism, going back to one of its founders, Machiavelli, has NEVER been partial to populist movements. Republicanism is always pro-aristocrat and anti-populist. So is the TP really a "populist" movement? It isn't. It is simply millions of people who are being duped out of fear. Or, as one pundit put it: They have the football, but they're running toward the wrong goalpost.
I would file a RICO lawsuit if I had the resources.
It's past time to quit letting the government kill us. Lifetime in prison is a much better punishment for the guilty.
You are praising Ahmadinajad ? Pathetic and disturbing ! Why not move then and try to speak your mind over there ?
I voted YES but I stiill think Crimes against kids deserves death penalty if proven guilty
The conservatives only seem to value life before one is born. I never could understand how the same people who want to protect fetuses can kill people with poverty and execution.
I truly hope I am wrong about voting yes and it seems it's close to a 50/50 vote right now.
Larry Swearingen is on Death Row in Texas for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Melissa Trotter. The evidence against him was circumstantial - he had been seen talking to her the day she disappeared. The evidence in his favor is scientific and compelling.
Her body was discovered in an area that had been extensively searched for weeks. The forensic examinations, by seven experts, show that she had been dead for less than five days when discovered. Swearingen had been in jail all during that time, having been arrested on outstanding warrants shortly after the victim disappeared. A Federal judge laid back on procedure - his lawyers should have discovered these facts sooner. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals did order a stay of execution in August; a rare occurrence.
A good synopsis at http://www.texastribune.org/body-of-evidence/
Once a government body gets the meat hooks into a likely (and usually not very smart) suspect, the show is on. Any evidence to the contrary is resisted with increasing force and propaganda. It has to be frightening to sensible people that a person who is in jail can be convicted of murdering a person who is not in jail, and then murdered by the state for reasons having nothing to do with guilt.
Should politicians be held liable for the deaths of people who are not provably guilty?
Gotta end this death penalty stuff. Governor George Ryan should be pardoned and given a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping executions in Illinois.
I was watching Ahmadinajad on CNN and I have to agree with most everything he said...then the arrogant cowards, like so many cockroaches scurrying about, from the US walked out on him...truth was too much to bare for them, I guess. Then shortly after that, CNN started to flash on the screen their own "detractions" against Ahmadinajad while he spoke...and then CNN finally cut in and cut him out of the broadcast with some ridiculous hypocritical smirking news anchor.
Ahmadinajad is more truthful than Obama ever was. He called a criminal fascist country and their criminal murderous and torturous exploits for what they were and are. We are all victims of the exploiting and murderous ruling elite now....it's not just the poor and downtrodden victims of our greed in third world countries anymore. We, the people, are being sucked dry by the parasites that have wheedled their way, by hook, crook, or just plain luck, to the top.
I think you're missing the 800 pound Gorilla in the room Thom. Protests are happening in America, but then quietly dissolve unreported. But I'm hearing about them more and more often on left-press outlets. I think protests are like a tea kettle with water heating up. When the whistle is heard you take the kettle off the heat source. However, here in America, the kettle is being silenced by being stopped up... so like a overheated boiler that isn't venting, only one thing can be expected to happen. The corporate media is congratulating themselves in their ability to silence these small protests, thinking the problem is well under control. They are making things worse, obviously and they're going to be dumbfounded when the steam escapes.
N
So quite simply it seems to me that an economy acts like hydraulics. The poor is a large piston and the rich are in a narrow funnel. A small amount of pressure on the large piston raises the fluid (finances) in the narrow funnel immensely. The government is sort of the fluid in this case, if it taxes the wealthy, money flows back into the large chamber, if the government removes regulations the fluid fills the small chamber rapidly.
We have a hydraulic economy, and like a hydraulic vise can squeeze an object with immense pressure, the governments policies are squeezing the majority of the American people. And like a hydraulic mechanism, it takes only a small amount of fluid movement to get extreme results.