Reply to thurstyone. Where to start with someone as wholly ignorant as you? First, my original post was directed to Thom, but out of the blue, you jumped in and attacked me first with a personal attack, suggesting I should "leave my country". So don't lecture me about how well-bred, well-mannered, and well-taught you are! And don't EVER think you can attack me without getting immediately blasted back! You simply hit me with a personal attack without any counter-points, facts or sources, which, after reviewing your comments, seems to be your M.O. I haven't seen you present any substantive arguments on specific issues, just personal attacks.I was open and forthright about my military service while you shrouded your "supposed" service affiliation in cryptic terms Sherlock Holmes couldn't figure out! If you were a little more forthright you might be more believeable! Plus the timidity of your counter-thrust also leads me to doubt you've ever served. Now...on to your points. You are correct, I wasn't in it for the money. I joined the Navy in 1980 and retired in 2003. You were probably still a wet dream when I was overseas serving this nation. I joined for the adventure partly but mainly for the same reason many of the current generation joins - economics! I had a low-paying dead end job, couldn't afford college, poor parents. Same as todays economy drives many to serve. I wasn't a rich kid like you abviously are. I was raised republican and was hard-core right wing all my life. I was actually saddened when Rush Limbaugh stopped doing his TV show. It was shortly after I voted for Bush the second time though that I had an awakening. It was the WMD's that pushed me over the edge. I HATE being lied to! And that was a lie of the highest magnitude! To the American people! I originally supported the Iraq war. After freeing myself of my Fox News addiction I was finally freed from the Matrix. I'm sure you can relate. Folks who watch to much Fox, don't see the world in reality. They see the world as painted by the flag-waving infotainers pushing the myth of American greatness and the scourge of evil liberals. I used to fall for it like you still do. Ever heard of Veterans against the War? They're not a bunch of commie pinkos. Many are combat veterans who, like me, have had an awakening. Who now realize that the wars we now fight have nothing to do with protecting our freedom, justice, mom OR apple pie. Look who benefits from the wars. Rich corporations, weapons manufacturers, war profiteers (like Halliburton, Blackwater). Did you know that the U.S. is the worlds biggest arms dealer, by far (of course, you didn't, they'd never tell you that on fox, or the mainstream corporate media for that matter). Do you think THOSE corporations don't have an interest in keeping us in a state of perpetual war? They're kids don't have to do the fighting! What of the flag draped coffins arriving daily at Dover that the Bush administration wanted to hide from the public? Did those poor souls profit from the wars? Did the families who will be shattered for a generation by their deaths profit? We woke up and realized that it's the poor saps like me, struggling paycheck to paycheck who fight, die, or get maimed in wars while the rich kids like yourself stay home and praise yourselves for being such great patriots.

Lets talk about freedoms and the myth of American greatness. It starts when we're young, Our history books present a whitewashed , sanitized version of U.S. history, the corporate controlled media propounds it, Fox news takes it to a whole new level. Have you ever heard a politician speak without proclaiming that we're the greatest nation ever on the planet? Lets examine shall we? Health Care - continually ranked around 37th in the world, right below Slovenia! Of all modern industrialized societies, we are the ONLY ONE that doesn't ensure the health of all it's citizens. But we're the greatest, right? We're the richest country on earth but we have millions of kids going to bed hungry each night. We have HOMELESS VETERANS for god's sake! But we're the greatest, right? The richest 1 percent own 90 % of the nations wealth, the rest of us 300 million squabble over the rest. We are, by scientific study (read "The Spirit Level") the most unequal society on the planet! But hey, we're still the greatest! We are SLAVES to a two-party election system, absolutely corrupted by corporate campaign cash. At the last presidential debates, I didn't like any of the candidates, republican or democrat. I wanted to vote for Nader, an independent progressive and a man imminently more qualified than any of the establishment candidates. But when I saw him escorted off the grounds of the debate hall by security, it sickened me! This is Democracy?! When a small handfull of ultra-rich white guys gets to decide who us millions of citizens get to choose from, something has gone, VERY wrong! We are slaves to a corrupted election system with voting machines that don't produce a paper trail and an electoral college & right-wing supreme court that do not reflect the will of the popular vote. A supreme court that decided that Corporations are people with the same rights as natural persons! We are slaves to one of the developed worlds most opressive tax systems, one that has morphed into nothing more than the greatest transfer of wealth upward from the poor and middle class to the already wealthy. Still the greatest? We bailout the ultra-rich when their personal stock fortunes are in jeopardy and curse the folks receiving unemployment (most caused by the rich). The Chinese own most of our debt and are mopping our asses economically, but they're stupider than we are, right? Most of the European societies have either solved or are light-years ahead of us on solving these basic social issues, but we are the chosen race of superior human beings, right, thurstyone? We live with the most secretive western government, secrets kept, not for national security, like they tell you, but to prevent embarrasment of goverment officials and the reputations of CIA power brokers responsible for massive intelligence failures with disastrous consequences. While the rest of advanced societies are turning away from war as the answer, we lead the charge with foreign adventures, usually designed for corporate profit in some way. Remember that bridge collapse in Minneapolis that killed a bunch of people? There's thousands more across the nation waiting to happen, but oh, I forgot, we're the greatest nation ever concieved, right? We're a nation enSLAVEd to middle eastern oil while vast wind, solar, & geothermal resources go untapped here at home. But we're the smartest people in the world, right. Our jobs moved overseas to Latin America, the far east and the subcontinent, but they're the inferior peoples, right? U.S. corporations cry about being the highest taxed corps in the world, yet last year, the richest company in the world (supposedly) paid 0, zero, ZERO, dollars in U.S. taxes! Goldman-Sachs, (who I believe is REALLY the richest company, with over 3000 offshore subsidiaries-do you know what an offshore subsidiary is, thurstyone?) paid an effective tax rate of 1%!!!. Must be nice! Wish I could only pay 1% rate. Do YOU pay just 1% tax rate, thurstyone? You probably do seeings as how you obviously must be rich since you support the party whos priority is making the rich even richer. And the republicans #1 platform fix for the economy and jobs: of course! Let's give the corporations even more tax breaks! It's worked so well this far hasn't it?

Don't you see? The myth of American greatness is a tool used by the theocracy to keep you blindly and blissfully in line while they rape the coffers of the treasury. All these things mentioned above, barely scratch the surface. And all those things are the freedoms we went to war for and served for and are supposed to keep on dying for?

I'd love to stand on the coast and shout to the rest of the world that we are the greatest nation, but they would look at the facts and reality as presented above and know that I'm the worlds biggest hypocrit / Liar / idiot - choose your poison. They're not stupid like Fox news has brainwashed you into believing. I CANNOT, IN GOOD CONSCIENCE, DO THAT AT THE PRESENT TIME. The military taught me the 3 pillars - Honor, Courage, Commitment. If you truly have honor, your conscience also should prevent you from enabling the great lie.

I dream of the day when I can proclaim our greatness to the world and the FACTS would back me up! That, my son, is what WE'RE working for. Join us, I can show you how! Suggested reading to start: When Corporations Rule the World. It helped open my eyes!

Mexico arrests drug trafficker Edgar 'Barbie' Valdez. Valdez had a $2m tag on his head Mexican police have arrested top drug trafficker Edgar Valdez, a US citizen also known as Barbie, Mexico's attorney general says.
vibram fivefingers

Mad Men wins top Emmy for third year running . It was the third time Mad Men had won the best drama series award The hit US series Mad Men was among the big winners at this year's Emma awards, taking the title for best drama series.
vibram fivefingers

I want to move to Sweden in 1980, when I see Reagan's response was to Postmodern progress, we had 60 s and 70 Zuochu's, while even the New Deal He Fasheng the TR into the era, but I hope It does not work so cruel, because it at that. I hope they enjoy that they are destroying the planet, one of the reasons is that they lack (not grown) ecological awareness and understanding of diversity are often brought in (our interdependence) of unity and understanding of the planet.

All the best

David, guide on jobs for 15 year olds for teens.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Muslims,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Muslim.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/chris_hedges_and_derrick_jensen_on_totalitarianism_20100712/

Where is our "Threshold" as a society? For the love of all that is holy: How much larger must the collapse be? Totalitarianism?

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have had the guts to speak what needed to be heard, for those who have ears to hear! Somebody needed to speak up. "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31 Beck is the new Hitler. So is Limbaugh and the entire right wing, who prance around with their Bibles shouting their religion from the rooftops, never opening those beaten Bibles to the pages with the red print and taking heed. Jesus said: "You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings." John 8:31 How have Beck and the far right followed Jesus teachings, I would like to ask all the vacant-eyed followers of these false prophets? They are an arrogant lot, spewing hatred, bigotry, judgement and fear...to gain money, power, and feel like they are superior to everyone else. Jesus tells us not to judge, lest we be judged. Yet this is what the Right is great at! This kind of fanatical frenzy is similar to that of Hitler's Germany. We Americans should be careful! Progressives say they want to stay home in November rather than get out and vote because they're disappointed that there are no jobs and nothing has been done for them. The Newscasters tell them it's all the Democrats' fault, and leave out the part about the Republican filibustering. I have talked to friends who did not know any of this. They really need to put a clothespin on their noses and get out and vote OUT the Republicans and conservative Democrats. Otherwise we will no longer have separation of church and state. Theocracy with the Right in charge is NOT an option! They are not gentle Buddhists like the Tibetans, who had a benevolent theocracy under the Dalai Lama before the communist Chinese overran them in the '50's. We would instead have a malevolent theocracy or corporatocracy or Plutocracy, and Americans would be even more oppressed than we already are. But our country as we knew it will be long gone if we elect Republicans to power by staying home in Nov. and let the frenzied tea-potty people do all the voting. If we want to keep our country the way our founding fathers envisioned it, we had better not give Beck & Co any more of our ear.

For Glenn Beck ---and many others--- patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel; and religion is the next to last refuge; (or it could be vice versa.) Religion is often used to further ulterior motives (George Bush,) or it is turned to as a way out when somebody gets their butt in a sling (Ted Haggard, Mark Sanford.)

In reference to the posting of the disclaimer about where the proceeds from the rally go,I heard about this on Stephanie Miller this morning. I wish someone would have called in today to talk about this, especially when Thom was talking about the whole rally as being nothing more than a Beck promotional rally and that one gentleman called saying that the rally was all about the SOWF. While I certainly hope that SOWF does get some proceeds from this event, as they seem like a legitimate veterans operation, it would be interesting to find out just how much SOWF actually gets from the event. Considering what Beck gets for an appearance, I have a feeling SOWF won't be getting much in the way of proceeds. I would venture that Ed Schultz raises more money for the IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran's Association) with the sales of his Big Eddie's Hawaiian Beans sold by USA Coffee Company ($3 of each bag sold goes to IAVA)

In relation: World Stage Actors: Terrorism and Propaganda Rules

You know Thom, regarding the caller who questioned your level of charitable contributions...I've seen Beck on his show wield that as a club whenever he gets a guest that he can't handle. He loves to throw it in their face about "how much do you give to charity?", much as the caller tried to do with you. I'm pretty sure that having that as a club is the primary (if not the only) motivation for Beck to give anything to charity, ever! Of course, Beck could never think of the concept that if we had a more egalitarian (look it up, thurstyone) society and addressed the root problems of poverty, there wouldn't be a need for so much charitable giving in the first place.

This is the response to Thurstyone. Thats not a bad idea, if I could afford it, I would. But I already know what it's like, as well as many other countries around the globe. As a retired 22 year Navy veteran, I've visited and actually lived in several foreign countries. You see, unlike you and Glenn Beck, two people who have never given a day of service to this country but yet proclaim themselves to be the geatest patriots and that anyone else who doesen't agree with you should leave, I can assure you, other countries have the same "Freedoms" we do (in fact, many more). The myth of American greatness is just that. I suggest you get off the computer yourself and go to the library and start learning the truth about our history. I recommend starting with "A Peoples History of the United States"

Brother P-Dub,

As long as you vote, we are in trouble. I hear southern France is nice the first two weeks of November, why don't you take a little vacation and find out.