Animal Farm Friday - Stop! Thief!

I am a US Air Force Intelligence Veteran of the War in Afghanistan and I support Wikileaks.

I am a US Air Force Intelligence veteran of the war in Afghanistan and I support Wikileaks.

[...]

After reading many of the Iraq/Afghan/Cablegate logs I am compelled to inform my fellow citizens that I saw nothing in these logs that could endanger our troops or public servants.

Here’s what I did see: I saw Iraq war logs that painted a very bleak picture of the situation there which doesn’t match up with the “improved security” that’s been reported by the “Defense” Department for years. I saw proof of public officials acting dishonestly and abusing their posts. Overall, I saw an out of control government that is in over its head and does more to endanger the lives of its people than any publishing organization ever could.

I volunteered to protect this country under the impression that my government followed the will of the American People and adhered to the US Constitution.

I'm not a Ron Paul supporter, as the writer of this post appears to be, by I am in line with Paul's anti-war/pro-WikiLeaks stance. I also think it's high time for everyone who has taken the oath to defend the Constitution to take a moment and think about it, to think about whether or not their actions are consistent with the Constitution, and whether or not it's time to take decisive action in defense of the Constitution against those who would malign it by breaking their oaths.

We Americans Have No Principles to Sacrifice

To say that most Americans are without principle can only be accepted as a misstatement insofar as there exists no direct data to support the descriptive "most". But all one needs to do is look at the available evidence from innumerable sources to find support for this statement.

As just a few past examples, how many of us Americans who railed against the support AT&T and Verizon gave to the government to illegally wiretap American citizens still give money to these companies for services?

How many of us railed against Obama after he campaigned vehemently against warrantless wiretapping, only to flip-flop and help block legal action against these companies?

And more recent examples, how many of us Americans actually tried to hold Obama accountable for grievously breaking his promise to not extend the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, compared to those who gave him a free pass?

How many Wikileaks supporters actually boycotted Amazon, or PayPal, or Bank of America when these companies shamefully blocked off support to this organization, ostensibly at the behest of the Federal Government, justified with spurious claims that their terms of service were being violated, even though these companies still offer services to pedophiles, and the KKK, and such?

How many of us Americans complain against the mistreatments and physical violations thrust upon us by the TSA, yet refuse to stand up against these abuses, but instead choose not to miss our flights?

How many of us Americans complain loudly against climate change and global warming, yet still drive cars instead of taking public transportation, or walk, or ride bikes?

We live in a country where lies are no longer lies, but are simply misunderstandings, or misrepresentations. We live in a country where we all idly stand by and accept that it is okay to send thousands of our citizens off to fight and die in unjust and illegal wars. We live in a country where the vast majority of us can be bought off with a little chump change in order to pump the greatest amount of our national treasure to the least amount of people, those who need it the least, all while our country's infrastructure continues to crumble. We live in a nation where the principles of most of us only extend as far as our tweets and status updates. We live in a country where convenience and our insatiable desire for entertainment far outweigh our ability to take any sort of stand based on principle.

The sacrifices for principle that most of us Americans are unwilling to make these days are not the kind of sacrifices people once had to make. These days, we won't even sacrifice our iPhones or our iPads or our Droids or our Comcast cable or our ability to buy crap from Amazon and pay for it with PayPal for principle.

This is not like being forced to choose between crossing the picket line versus being able to pay your bills. This is not like being asked to choose between the shame of accepting food stamps versus not being able to feed your families. Most of us Americans today are unable to give up something as small and needless as a magazine subscription to stay in alignment with our principles.

Perhaps this is simply because we Americans have no more principles to sacrifice.

Animal Farm Friday - Jingle Goats

Animal Farm Friday on Monday - TED Talks: Life Lessons from Big Cats

This is incredibly important, an absolute must to watch. Be warned, though, it is as heartwarming as it is heart wrenching.

Animal Farm Friday - Let the Bodies Hit the Floor!

Instigating parrot!

THIS is not America!

How did we get here?

This country was founded by enlightened men, spilling their blood to fight the oppression (through taxation) of a tyrant. The people of this country have long upheld and demanded the right to our personal freedoms since before the founding documents were signed into law. Our unwavering commitment to our freedoms, and championing the cause for freedom around the globe has for centuries been a symbol for what it means to be an American.

Yet, for more than the past decade, our freedoms and our rights have been eroding, bit by bit. We've accepted this in the name of more security, and the promise of prosperity, but we've been given nor earned neither.

Instead, we have the majority of our political leaders, feigning opposition, but in fact, colluding with one another at the behest of their corporate masters to willingly defraud us all of our tax dollars for the primary benefit or making the rich more wealthy, and the poor more poor, and those of us in the middle heading further down the economic ladder than up. We let them do this to us because they promise us everything they cannot–and will not–deliver.

They make backroom deals with fossil fuel companies to determine our energy future, not a future in our healthful interests, but in the interests of profit. They make backroom deals with health insurance companies to determine how much we (not they) will pay for our healthcare, not in our interest, but in the interest of profiting the insurance companies. They make backroom deals with the very bankers who nearly collapsed not just our economy, but the global economy because of unregulated 'gambling' that is otherwise illegal in most cases outside of the banking industry, and they use the money we've made through blood and sweat to "recapitalize" those hucksters (by recapitalize, I mean "award even more extravagant bonuses than ever to those who provide no tangible benefit to anyone besides themselves); then they tell us they have no other choice. They make backroom deals with each other to keep billionaires from paying their fair share in taxes, but make sure your taxes and my taxes help to ensure these corpulent vampires get richer and richer, so they might in turn throw them back chump change to fill their campaign coffers, or give them lucrative lobbying jobs when they retire (voluntarily, or not).

We the people stand idly by and let this happen. (Caveat: Tea Partiers, screw yourselves. You're equally complicit, if not more so. Evidence that corporations were pulling your puppet strings was more obvious and public than anytime in American history, and you ate it up like crack-laced chocolate).

There was a time when America and Americans championed those who would speak truth to power. There was a time when we Americans, once exposed to the lies and treachery of those who claim to be our leaders, would demand accountability and force those so-called leaders to accept responsibility for their transgressions. We would even accept the international shame of putting those failed leaders on trial (in a manner of speaking) for the sake of retaining our credibility and standing on the global stage.

America 2010? This is not the America I grew up in. In this America, we now have public and private figures in this country calling for the censorship of the free press, and for assassination of those willing to expose the lies and the treachery of the so-called leaders who continually sell us people out to the bidding of their corporate masters who finance their campaigns, those whose feet should literally be held to fire.

If this was the America I grew up in, we'd all be marching in the streets, protesting on campuses, risking tear gas and bullets, and demanding that we will not let ourselves be trodden on, nor abused by the privileged and powerful; we would instead show them all where the real power lies. The French had the courage to stand up for themselves over two hundred years ago, and Americans did too.

What are we Americans going to do now? Are we going to stand idly by and allow our leaders to sell us out to the highest bidders? Are we going to continue to allow our *leaders to send our loved ones into battle to die for principles they refuse to honor and uphold? Will we continue to allow our bloated nouveau riche (Palin, Beck, Hannity, Rush, O'Reilly) to pretend to be on our side while they rake in millions and millions of our dollars, all while pushing the agenda of their political and corporate masters?

OR!!!

Will we Americans actually do something about it?

Teabaggers - Ironic or Hypocritical...

...both, and also fun to make fun of.

(click to embiggen)

Animal Farm Friday - An Idiot, an Asshole, and a Cute Puppy

How Obama Assured He Would Be a One-termer

In Obama's speech today, he all but declared proudly that he is not, in fact, a leader. But rather, he proudly applauds himself for being an outstanding conciliator, compromiser, negotiator.  He glowingly praises himself for the smattering of weak and neutered legislation that barely got passed, even with significant Democratic majorities, and even more significant acquiescence to Republicans in each and every case. As he grandstands, scolding the progressives (because that worked so well for Democrats before the mid-term elections), he all but guarantees he will be a one-term President. 

With respect to the bottom line, in terms of what my core principles are, yeah look, I've got a bunch of lines in the sand. Not making tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, that was a line in the sand. Making sure that the things that most impact middle-class families and low income families, that those were preserved, that is a line in the sand. I would not have agreed to a deal, which, by the way some in Congress were talking about, of just a two-year extension on the Bush tax cuts and one year of unemployment insurance, but meanwhile all the other provisions of earned income tax credit or other important breaks for middle class families, like the college tax credit, that those had gone away, just because they had Obama's name attached to them instead of Bush's name attached to them.

So this notion that somehow we are willing to compromise too much reminds me of the debate that we had during health care. This is the public option debate all over again. So I pass a signature piece of legislation where we finally get health care for all Americans, something that Democrats had been fighting for, for a hundred years - but because there was a provision in there that they didn't get, that would have affected maybe a couple million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people, and the potential for lower premiums for a hundred million people, that somehow that was a sign of weakness and compromise.

Now, if that's the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let's face it, we will never get anything done. People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position, and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves, and sanctimonious about how pure our intensions are and how tough we are. And in the meantime the American people are still seeing themselves not able to get health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out. That can't be the measure of how we think about our public service. That can't be the measure of what it means to be a Democrat.

This is a big, diverse country. Not everybody agrees with us. I know that shocks people. You know, the New York Times editorial page does not permeate across all of America - neither does the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Most Americans, they're just trying to figure out how to go about their lives, and how can we make sure that our elected officials are looking out for us? And that means because it's a big, diverse country, and people have a lot of complicated positions, it means that in order to get stuff done we're gonna compromise.

This is why FDR, when he started Social Security, it only affected widows and orphans. You did not qualify. And yet now it is something that really helps a lot of people. When Medicare started it was a small program, it grew. Under the criteria that you just set out, each of those were betrayals of some abstract ideal.

This country was founded on compromise. I couldn't go through the front door of this country's founding. And you know if we were really thinking about ideal positions, we wouldn't have a Union.

And so, my job is to make sure that we have a North Star out there - what is helping the American people live out of their lives? You know what is giving them more opportunity, what is growing the economy, what is making us more competitive. And at any given juncture there're gonna be times where my preferred option, what I'm absolutely positive is right, I can't get done. And so then my question is, does it make sense for me to tack a little bit this way, or tack a little bit that way, because I'm keeping my eye on the long term, and the long fight, not my day to day news cycle, but where am I going over the long term?

And I don't think there's a single Democrat out there, who if they looked at where we started when I came into office and look at where we are now, would say that somehow we have not moved in the direction that I promised. Take a tally, look at what I promised during the campaign. There's not a single thing that I said that I would do that I have not either done or tried to do. And if I have not gotten it done yet, I'm still trying to do it.

And so, to my Democratic friends, what I'd suggest is, let's make sure that we understand this is a long game, this is not a short game.

And to my Republican friends, I would suggest, I think this is a good agreement, because I know they're swallowing some things that they don't like as well, and I'm looking forward to seeing them on the field of competition over the next two years.

Instead of excoriating the very people that got him into office in the first place, Obama needs to look hard in the mirror and see just who is being sanctimonious. North Star? Really?

As for patting himself on the back for what he's accomplished since he's been in office, a handful of watered-down victories, attained only by overly compromising or totally capitulating to Republican demands is hardly anything to be proud of. 

• Health Insurance? Who benefits from that the most? Insurance companies do, because the people are FORCED to buy corporate health insurance, but there are no checks on rising premiums, or on what hospitals, pharmaceuticals companies, or healthcare providers can charge, or even any guarantees that the coverage will pay out when needed. This might have been a small tactical victory, but Big Business won the long game here, because the idea that the government is not on the side of the people, but on the side of business is what the people will remember.
• Closing Guantanomo? Still open, but lets not forget Bagram.
• Ending torture? Maybe only in some other countries, but not all, certainly not this country.
• The stimulus? Uh, that was George W. Bush.
• GM bailout?  I'll give him that one.
• BP? Obama authorized more offshore and deepwater wells after the disaster in the Gulf.
• Ending DADT? That remains to be seen, but it won't be because of HIS leadership. Repeated appeals and challenges in court against victims of DADT are actions that run counter to the lip service we've been getting.
• Create jobs? Let's just forget about the spike due to census workers, unemployment has barely moved a percentage point since he took office. But Wall St. is making windfall profits, but businesses aren't hiring, because people aren't buying.

If Obama sees these as examples of his leadership, of his being a "North Star", he's more delusional and out of touch than I ever would have guessed. In each one of these examples, Obama has sold out the idea that government can be a force for for good to the idea that Big Business comes first at the expense of the people. By allowing the Republicans philosophic victory over the idea that tax cuts are good, Obama has decimated the progressive idea that taxes are needed to keep this country - namely its economy - running. 

Obama says this is a long game, not a short game, but it is painfully evident that he cannot see that he got beat at the long game by the Republicans. This was not a short-term battle for extra money for the wealthy, it was a war over ideas - of the idea that the rich deserve to get richer at the expense of the poor and the middle-class. Not only did Obama not "tie" in battle, he has all but assured that he lost the war for progressives. Philosophies are ideas, and ideas are power. 

Obama has proven that he has no idea, and that he is utterly devoid of power, at least when compared to Republicans.

David Samuels on the Shameful Attacks on Julian Assange

David Samuels has a bold and illuminating article in The Atlantic, which does an excellent job at calling out other so-called journalists for their shameful cowardice in their responses to the Wikileaks exposing of US diplomatic cables. The closing paragraph is telling:

In a memorandum entitled "Transparency and Open Government" addressed to the heads of Federal departments and agencies and posted on WhiteHouse.gov, President Obama instructed that "Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing." The Administration would be wise to heed his words -- and to remember how badly the vindictive prosecution of Daniel Ellsberg ended for the Nixon Administration. And American reporters, Pulitzer Prizes and all, should be ashamed for joining in the outraged chorus that defends a burgeoning secret world whose existence is a threat to democracy.

Apart from the sad irony that Obama's memorandum is completely at odds with his administration's actions and statements, this closing paragraph makes an important point. So many of our news media's reporters and many in the American public alike should be ashamed by their cowardice. Rather than buy into the false argument that our government's exceptionally "secret" activities are somehow making us safer, they should wake up and realize how dangerous that sort of unchecked secrecy is to our democracy. That more journalists and more Americans have not actively stepped forward to defend Julian Assange and Wikileaks is as frightening as it is disgusting.

BP Dispersant is Killing the Gulf

Those responsible for allowing the dispersants to used need to be imprisoned.

Watch step by step as WPI Chemical Engineer Marco Kaltofen performs an experiment using actual crude oil from the BP well and Corexit 9500A, the oil dispersant used by BP in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Mr. Kaltofen demonstrates how Corexit suspends the most toxic hydrocarbons in the water column by a factor of about 35X more than absorbtion from crude oil alone, which floats to the surface in its natural form. BP used close to 2M gallons of this dispersant at the base of the blown out oil well and at the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, allowing this substance to mix into 5000 feet worth of water from the base of the well.

Head Injuries: Why Motorcycle and Bicycle Helmets Should Be Mandatory

It is not unreasonable to expect every motorcycle rider in the country to be licensed specifically for riding (and many states do have this requirement). Perhaps one condition that could be imposed - strongly highlighted - would state that any time a rider chooses to not wear a helmet, they automatically waive their right to care paid for with public funds.



This would keep freedom of choice in the hands of the chest thumping riders, and the freedom for me to not have to pay for their uninsured butts when they smear their faces across the highway.



(I'll bet the rider who was wearing this helmet was glad he did! http://www­.samatours­.co.za/ass­ets/pictur­es/crashed­-helmet.jp­g)
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Animal Farm Friday - Cat v Corvids and Cat

I didn't know cat fights lasted this long! (Hat tip to @Scamper for the find!)

Animal Farm Friday (on Saturday) - Laser Cats!

From the SFist:

Photo by Andrew Dalton of Aggressive Panhandler.

If we must to go down in flames, shouldn't it be at the hands of darling felines? Andrew Dalton of Aggressive Panhandler (and, ahem, SFist) snapped this pic of the new cherishable cat mural that went up at the Harding Theater on Divisadero.

On The Commission to Balance the Federal Budgets Report

I do think there are a lot of ideas here worth seriously considering, even if they need some adjusting. But there's one very simple way this country could have been saving, and could start money on, and that's to STOP fighting UNNECESSARY wars!

Why this concept seems so hard for the frightened sheeple majority amongst us to grasp is a sad statement on our current reality.

Imagine if even half of the money spent on Iraq and Afghanistan went to developing smarter and more efficient means of detection, and went to expanding our intelligence apparatus, and went to foreign development and education in means not of welfare, but of meaningful support systems.

This is the difference between investing and gambling; the former rewards more often, the latter rarely rewards.

Animal Farm Friday - Leaps of Faith

Sometimes, your god just isn't there for you.

How it Works

The Distinction Between Fox and MSNBC

Here's a 'little' something that might make Jon Stewart's comparison of Olbermann/Maddow/MSNBC to O'Reilly/Hannity/Fox and notably, Beck, seem somewhat quaint. Neither Keith Olbermann–nor anyone else at MSNBC–has inspired any of their audience to attempt to commit an act of murder. In this particular case, it could have been a case of mass murder (in my backyard!!!):

From a letter written by Drummond Pike, CEO of the Tides Foundation:

On July 19th of this year, I arrived at our San Francisco office to learn that a misguided person carrying numerous guns and body armor had been on his way to start a "revolution" by murdering my colleagues and me. The Oakland Police Department called to tell us that, following a 12 minute shootout with the California Highway Patrol, law enforcement officials arrested an assailant who had targeted the Tides Foundation, an organization which I founded and currently serve as CEO, and the ACLU for violence. To say we were "shocked" does not adequately describe our reaction. Imagine, for a moment, that you were us and, had it not been for a sharp eyed highway patrolman, a heavily armed man in full body armor would have made it to your office with the intent to kill you and your colleagues. His motive? Apparently, it was because the charitable, nonpartisan programs we run are deemed part of a conspiracy to undermine America and the capitalist system, which is hogwash.

Although not a political organization, the Tides Foundation has been a frequent target of misinformation, propaganda, and outright lies by Fox News' Glenn Beck. Since his arrival at Fox in early 2009, Beck has repeatedly vilified Tides, suggesting we are intent on "creat[ing] a mass organization to seize power." He accuses the foundation of indoctrination and says we are "involved in some of the nastiest of the nasty." Beck tells viewers that Tides has "funneled" money to "some of the most extreme groups on the left" and that our mission is to "warp your children's brains and make sure they know how evil capitalism is." In total, prior to the attempted rampage, Beck had attacked the Tides Foundation 29 times. On September 28th, more than a month after the shooting, Beck reiterated his focus on the Tides Foundation, warning, "I'm coming for you." In jailhouse interviews, the gunman confessed he views Beck as a "schoolteacher" who "blew my mind." My would-be killer admitted that Beck "give[s] you every ounce of evidence you could possibly need" to commit violence.

Jon Stewart sees fit to lump Keith Olbermann into the same camp with Glenn Beck. Perhaps he should consider this distinction first.

You should consider sending this link to the full letter to everyone you know.

Bill Maher on the Million Meh March and Stewart and Olbermann

Bill Maher makes my point quite well, without all the fire breathing, but with a whole lot of well deserved snark.



Well said, Bill!