"My Country Has Been Hijacked" by Cynthia McKinney

Cynthia McKinney is a true American patriot. A former six-term member of the House Of Representatives representing Georgia as a Democrat, she left the party in 2007 to run as the Green Party candidate for President in 2008. McKinney is also an outspoken commentator on all things related to 9/11.

In short, Ms. McKinney does not mince words when it comes to politics and power. Here is a transcript of a speech she gave at a peace rally in Munich, Germany in February 2010.

Thank you for allowing me to come from the United States and participate in this rally for peace.

My country has been hijacked by a criminal cabal intent on using the hard-earned dollars of the American people for war, occupation, and empire.

As a result, the national leadership of my country, both Democratic and Republican, became complicit in war crimes, torture, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the peace.

As a Member of Congress from the Democratic Party, I drafted Articles of Impeachment against George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice. Later, when Democrats voted to support more war rather than take care of the needs of the people, I declared my independence from them and all national leadership; the Green Party nominated me to run for President, which I did on a platform of truth, justice, peace, and dignity.

I watched as Candidate Barack Obama came here to Germany to speak. I saw tears on the faces of many in the crowd who believed that, finally, there was something worth believing in again. That America had turned a page from its evil playbook that had so outraged and disappointed the world. That good was finally about to triumph over evil.

I know that beleaguered people all over the world, victims of cruel and deadly military, economic, imperial policies finally could believe in hope and change. And America could be believed in again.

Everywhere I went all over the world there were pictures of Barack Obama, slogans “Yes, We Can,” and the words “Hope” and “Change” plastered everywhere.

And after eight years of George W. Bush, Barack Obama seemed to be the man the world was waiting for.

So when the Candidate became the President, we held our breath in anticipation.

That torture and rendition; spying on innocent, dissenting Americans; war and occupation; crimes against the U.S. Constitution and crimes against the peace would end and that the United States would finally join the community of nations.

Sadly, one year into the Presidency of Barack Obama, that is not the case.

On our front door step we have witnessed U.S. complicity in the overthrow of President Zalaya in Honduras and the hostile takeover of Haiti by 20,000 troops with guns sent in when the devastated people needed food, doctors, and heavy lifting equipment.

President Obama is expanding U.S. troop presence in Colombia, threatening the people’s gains in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, and Nicaragua.

President Obama has drones killing innocent people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. And Administration lawyers are trying to figure out how to legally kill U.S. citizens. You even have U.S. assassination teams on German soil!

Sadly, President Obama is guilty of every item I cited in my Articles of Impeachment against President Bush.

Both Tony Blair and President Obama justify war in Afghanistan by citing the tragedy of the September 11th attacks in New York and on the Pentagon. But my government has not told the truth about what really happened that day. Just like they lied to start a war against Iraq.

So what are we to do? Let us work together on behalf of truth, justice, peace, and dignity. I will struggle in the U.S. and I will struggle with you:

Not one more dime for war.

We can’t give in and we can’t give up. We must take our countries back.

Joe Walsh Vs Joe Walsh

Guitar maestro and talented singer/songwriter Joe Walsh issues the old cease-and-desist to a politico candidate in Illinois who happens to share his name. And who is illegally utilizing one of Joe's tunes as a campaign ditty.

It's funny to me that this kind of thing keeps happening over the years - Reagan using Springsteen, Tom Petty and Jackson Browne getting co-opted. Is it me, or are the offenders mainly conservative/Republicans?

In any case, life's been good to musician Joe Walsh and he's refusing to walk away, calling time out, becoming the bomber; stealing songs may be okay in Illinois, but it's not the Rocky Mountain way! What is this candidate Joe Walsh doing, living a life of illusion?

At a James Gang reunion show I saw a couple of summers ago, Joe mused on running for President. Why not a rock star musician in office? As former Texas gubernatorial candidate and singer/songwriter/author Kinky Friedman has famously said, "How hard can it be?"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/01/joe-walsh-vs-joe-walsh-the-rock-star-wrestles-with-a-tea-party-copyright-infringer.html

Howard Zinn 1922 - 2010

"From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than 'objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble." - Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (1994).

It's hard to imagine a world without Howard Zinn, a singular human being and citizen of the planet. His penetrating and honest recounting of the hidden history of power in the USA and the world influenced millions. But now Zinn has died, in the fashion he lived much of his life - on the road, speaking and teaching.

The teacher has passed on, yet his lessons remain: imagining a better world was Zinn's message.

I never created the opportunity to hear him in person, something I now regret. This summer I read the graphic novel "A People's History Of American Empire," the latest iteration of themes first presented in Zinn's game-changing book "A People's History Of The United States." Highly recommended as an introduction to some real American history, with arresting visuals:

There will be hundreds of articles in the coming days, weeks and months reflecting on Zinn. Here's nice one from Fred Branfman at the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fred-branfman/howard-zinn-has-died-long_b_440480.html

The Only Rational Response

The only rational response to the Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to spend as much money as they want on political campaigns.

Corporate Money Wins

Stunning news yesterday - the Supreme Court has opened the door for corporations to jump into political campaigns with both feet. Go here to read/watch a very clear explanation about the decision and the background of the case:http://jonathanturley.org/2010/01/21/supreme-court-rules-5-4-against-campaign-limitations-in-the-hillary-the-movie-case/

Going forward, it's legally possible for these "persons" (as corporations long ago gained many of the same legal rights/protections as individuals) to openly spend money in elections - oops, I mean exercise their right of free speech - just like any other "person."

Of course corporations already dominate the political/government landscape - but now they can forgo those pesky rules about PACs, corporate money bundling, and other contributory efforts.

Individual citizens are still face a dollar limit on contributions to any single federal campaign. Corporate "citizens" - probably not.

I guess the "equal-opportunity" of the American system provides a solution: the interested citizens can set up a corporate entities to increase their electoral spending power - oops, I mean amplify their message. That seems simple enough! Then those citizens can successfully compete with messages being sent by their fellow citizens, named Goldman-Sachs, Haliburton, etc.

"Swift boat"-style ads are where corporations may now indulge freely. The overall effect on hearing both sides of an issue in the media - already a massive challenge - will be chilling. Writer/legal consultant Richard Goldberg on the tattered state of regulating money and elections:

As many have noted, this amounts to a significant gutting of our already tepid campaign finance laws, and it will allow corporations like Aetna—if they can find a political issue about which they feel strongly (can anyone think of one?)—to use corporate funds, derived from success in the economic marketplace, to defeat candidates in the political marketplace. That political marketplace, which was once called the "marketplace of ideas," may henceforth be called the "marketplace of whichever corporation can buy the most ads." This money will be spent nearly without regulation.

http://www.openleft.com/diary/17055/can-anything-fix-our-broken-campaign-finance-system-part-i

Journalist Greg Palast weighs in on the Supreme Court ruling. He explores some scenarios and analyzes the potential real-life results of the decision. His assertion that the Obama campaign of 2008 was majority-funded by individual citizen contributions has been proven wrong, but he raises pertinent issues - like the potential that foreign governments/mega-corporations, with a registered U.S. corporate arms (gotta love Joe Biden's Delaware, home of the corps), could spend without restriction on political campaigns.

The danger of foreign loot loading into U.S. campaigns, not much noted in the media chat about the Citizens United case, was the first concern raised by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who asked about opening the door to "mega-corporations" owned by foreign governments. (Ted) Olson (arguing in favor of the plaintiff) offered Ginsburg a fudge, that Congress might be able to prohibit foreign corporations from making donations, though Olson made clear he thought any such restriction a bad idea.

http://www.gregpalast.com/supreme-court-to-ok-al-qaeda-donation-for-sarah-palin/

Wow, really? It's a bad idea to restrict foreign interests from participating financially in our electoral system?

If that's the case, our system is broken. The two-party system of government "by the people, for the people" has been purchased by business interests - and one of the last see-through curtains shielding us from that reality has been removed.

Corporations are organizations of people - a small minority of our population with a majority of the money. Time for the majority population to figure out how to exercise influence. It won't be through a Democrat or Republican political party, although we can scare them into some action.

It's best to seek another path - let's think seriously about reforming the entire system so it benefits people, not companies, and creates safety and wealth benefits for all - not the minority.

Speaking The Truth - On The State Of The Democrat Party

"We have to be more defined as being on the side of the people and not on the side of interest groups that are so entrenched. And we can't do that by playing patty-cake with Wall Street, by caving into the demands of big banks, by playing footsie with insurance companies and by jumping in bed with the pharmaceutical industry." - Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) on his political party.

Speaking the truth, usually unvarnished and clear-eyed, is Representative Dennis Kucinich's stock-in-trade. Thankfully, the voters of his Cleveland district keep returning him to Congress.

Rep. Kucinich, in this interview, outlines his view on the state of the Democratic Party - essential reading.

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/exclusive-kucinich-shreds-democrats/

Ricky Gervais and W.C. Fields - Connections Deeper Than Dentistry

The ability to create comedy is one of humanity's signature triumphs. And I am grateful that mankind also invented motion pictures (with and without sound) to capture humor and allow generations (both current and future) to enjoy it.

That said, let's jump way ahead to a particular pair of comedy movie stars - past and present.

From the past, one of my all time favorite comedians is W.C. Fields. Several books have been written about him and his uniquely caustic comic style, but there is no substitute for simply watching the man himself in action. So you should do so at your earliest opportunity!

Fields' characters tend to fall into distinct categories - including the flamboyant liar/braggart with a fondness for drink that has become his immortal stereotype (see "My Little Chickadee", "You Can't Cheat An Honest Man"). My fave "type" is the hen-pecked husband/father/son-in-law who is trying to survive a wickedly, often hilariously complex world (see "The Man On The Flying Trapeze", "It's A Gift", "You're Telling Me").

Another of Fields' types is the near-total misanthrope with a pulverizingly hilarious wit. This character roundly disdains most people, issuing devastating verbal asides muttered when the target is just out of earshot. And that's where Ricky Gervais steps in. The creator of "The Office" is in fine form in the extremely funny film "Ghost Town," playing a self-absorbed character immensely sure of his superiority even as his actions reveal the comic absurdity - and the emptiness - of that stance.

In "Ghost Town", Gervais plays a New York City dentist whose near-death experience enables him to see ghosts - and the spirits of Manhattan have a lot of unfinished issues that only a human partner can help them with. But their unwilling accomplice has built a life around denying other living people exist, let alone dead ones. How the dentist must connect with the undead to forge a path to a new life is the basic story, and offers Gervais playing the contemporary equivalent of a Fields film.

So how is Gervais' dentist - Bertram Pincus, a worthy nom de plume on par with Fields characters like J. Pinkerton Snoopington and Egbert Souse - channeling W.C.? It's in the way he casually tosses hilarious insults and routinely looks to gain the upper hand. Pincus will semi-gleefully cut in line to steal a taxi ride, and vacuously apologize while pushing the "close doors" button on the elevator while a package-laden woman runs to catch a lift, both bits recalling various Fields adventures in one-on-one exploitation. Gervais' style is more deadpan than W.C., but his gruff, comically acidic exterior hides a man seeking humanity (though on his own terms) in a fashion that is pure Fields. And both comics play characters that continue to fight their largely imaginary wars even as they ruefully acknowledge that defeat could be just around the corner.

Ultimately, it's seeing another average, slightly rounded, pasty-faced man with a withering wit in a dentist's smock that provides the most direct Gervais-Fields link. Fields made perhaps the greatest film on dentistry:"The Dentist" sharply skewers family issues, modern technology, golf and sex in a snappy twenty minutes. Seeing Gervais essay a Fieldsian comic style while wearing his professional uniform in many scenes outside the office is simultaneously reminiscent and pretty funny on its own ("I'm a dentist, I just came from work...this is how we do it, baby" he explains at one point).

Enough chatter. If you haven't seen "Ghost Town" with Ricky Gervais, go and rent it. And if you have not seen W.C. Fields, you've got a whole lot of catching up to do. Fortunately, in both cases, you'll have a great time.

C.I.A. Venture Capital, The Internet And You

In-Q-Tel's multiple investments spread across a wide range of technology companies.

Click below for the secret message!

I have a myspace page for music, a couple of photo site accounts and this blog, so my internet privacy is already hopelessly compromised. I made these choices knowing big-brother style monitoring - either for commercial/marketing gain or something more devious - was going on. But I’ve refrained from joining Facebook or any other social networking sites.

Aside from being basically anti-social, it's knowing that Congress - via the Patriot Act - gave up so many citizen privacy protections that tells me to keep a low profile. That doesn't seem to bother millions of Americans, though. That's why this recent press release was an attention-grabber.

Visible Technologies - a “social media monitoring” company - has joined up with In-Q-Tel to “listen” to consumers across a broad range of internet social networks. From the attached press release, highlights are mine:

“In-Q-Tel is the not-for-profit, strategic investment firm that works to identify, adapt, and deliver innovative technology solutions to support the mission of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Launched by the CIA in 1999 as a private, independent organization, In-Q-Tel’s mission is to identify and partner with companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve the national security interests of the United States.”
http://es-es.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=161002463047&comments&ref=mf

Our tax dollars at work – spying on us! If you've got a good surveillance idea, the C.I.A.'s In-Q-Tel has got the start-up dough! I know Facebook has a pretty wide-ranging “we can do what we want with your stuff for as long as we want, and give/sell your info to pretty much anybody - especially law enforcement” terms of service agreement – I don’t know much about any others. but all that fine print detail is just a few clicks away on the internet.

Myself, I think I’ll preserve whatever privacy I have left from the CIA’s investment firm as best I can. Although who's to say this blog entry isn't being read by deeply-hidden lurkers right now?

Here is the Visible Technologies website:
http://www.visibletechnologies.com/

Here is the In-Q-Tel website – I enjoyed the FAQ section on “Submitting A Business Plan” – hey, the CIA’s got unlimited venture capital:
http://www.iqt.org/

And two items in the “just for grins” department:

ISS: Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception, Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Gathering
Check out this online security company’s conference agenda from last month. Clicking into the specific program topics is an eye-opening experience. While much of what’s being discussed here is lawful – meaning we’ve allowed the creation of laws to enable this sort of electronic monitoring – the scale is troubling. Not to mention the ongoing revolving door of lawmaking, policing, and surveillance/security equipment private enterprise that financially enriches all its participants.
http://www.issworldtraining.com/ISS_WASH/

And here's an ISS tidbit that just dropped: Sprint fielded 8 million law enforcement information requests over the last year!
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/surveillance-shocker-sprint-received-8-million-law

And the Department of Defense is staging an internet treasure hunt! Only it’s not all fun and games :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/04/darpa-balloon-challenge

Letters To Washington

A copy of a letter sent to Representative Ed Perlmutter, my congressional district representative, on 12/2/09:

Representative Perlmutter:

I urge you to help stop this madness of ever-escalating war and empire in Iraq and Afghanistan. How many more soldiers have to die before you and your Congressional colleagues begin to shut down these wars of occupation?

How many more soldier's families have to suffer the loss or injury of a loved one? How many more innocent civilians have to die in Afghanistan? How much more money has to be spent, lining the pockets of multi-million dollar private contractors as they build the infrastructure to house the US military for a long-term presence in the region?

How can a Democratic majority, elected in 2006 to both houses with a mandate to end the wars, continue to vote to expand them instead? How can our country absorb the incredible financial, physical and psychological costs that endless wars bring? How do you think we'll manage it - I'm interested in your view, since you have repeatedly voted to continue these wars.

And as soon as someone in the government can tell me how Al-Qaeda was responsible for the destruction of World Trade Center 7 on September 11, 2001 - well, then maybe the other flimsy rationales offered by the President for expanding the wars will make sense.

Stand up and be counted on the side of sanity and peace, Mr. Perlmutter. The President's twisting of words to explain this "surge" is as dumbfounding and insulting as any mangling of the language used by Mr. Bush. Do not blindly support the President because he is a Democrat.

There are resolutions before the House now to stop funding this war - H.R. 3699 from Representative Barbara Lee is one such measure and I hope you will co-sign and champion it. The House has the power to stop the killing - please use it!

If not, I'd like to know how you sleep at night, knowing you have a direct hand in meting out unnecessary death and destruction that will affect - and haunt - generations of Americans, Afghans and Iraqis.

Same Old Story: But Now It's The Nobel Peace Prize Winner Who's Expanding The Wars

I would like to think I'll be able to retire this picture someday...but someday is not today.

I'm getting really tired of writing about the wars, but they keep going on, keep getting bigger, keep getting more and more of our tax dollars to pound down a Middle Eastern sinkhole. Except for the dollars that enrich the hundreds of thousands of private contractors and energy company operators.

That's why these wars will never end - too many people making too much money at the expense of soldiers and their families lives, and citizen tax dollars fuel the enterprise.

President Obama's speech on December 1st outlined his new plan to "surge" 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan. Yes, the Nobel Peace Prize winner is fulfilling his campaign promise to expand the US military presence in Afghanistan and continue the wars. Will Congress fight back this time?

They did not fight back against the Bush Administration war machine, even though by 2006 the Congressional Democrats could have severely hindered if not outright stopped the free-flowing money spigot required for endless war. So if they wouldn't stop their Republican political opponents, does anyone think they will stop their own party's leader?

A colleague at work told me of a Thanksgiving holiday encounter with a military officer relative just returned from a lengthy tour of duty in Iraq. "He says it's a joke over there" was the quote, and he recounted several examples related to him of excessive resource waste, luxury building materials, and unrestricted budgets available for the officer's duties. I urged him to watch Robert Greenwald's movie "Iraq For Sale" to get even more details. (http://iraqforsale.org/)

I think most people have the idea things in Iraq and Afghanistan are much different than they are portrayed in the American media. More folks need to understand that, and start hounding their congressional representatives to stop this fiscal/military madness. It's the only way this particular folly of empire can be halted.

Some other notable reactions:

From Cindy Sheehan, pointedly dead-on in her analysis, as usual - "You Get What You Vote For": http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24089.htm

Blogger Arthur Silber expertly analyzes between the lines of the President's speech, pointing out that Obama has effectively gutted the anti-war movement, leaving an open field to continue the Bush Adminstration's war machine:

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2009/12/deadly-liar-and-manipulator.html

And Representative Dennis Kucinich uses just a few words to skewer the President's war plan - "What part of 'get out' do we not understand?"
http://www.kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=157597