Conservatives

Like the sheep in ANIMAL FARM,
That bleat on cue,
Regarding what is right and what is wrong,
Conservatives haven't a clue.

Isn't it odd?

The world's largest producer of weapons of murder claims it is concerned about the life of a stem cell,

Steroid-shooting athlete better role model than Congressperson

A Congressional Committee investigating steroid use by athletes is akin to death row inmates assembled to chastise a jaywalker. Our guardians of values claim athletes are role models for our children and their anti-social actions will have adverse affects on our youngsters.

Instead, athletes should be conducting inquiries into why no parent would hold up a Congressperson or other politician as a role model for his or her child. The cream of the crop of one of the investigating political parties is a barely-literate former alcoholic [Bush], a foreign-born, groping, sexual pervert [Schwarzenegger], a drug addict who rails against drug usage [Limbaugh] and a man with a gambling habit who writes books about ethics [Bennett]. That party is so desperate for acceptable candidates, it wants of amend the Constitution so the Austrian-born pervert could be elected president of the U.S.

The obvious question here is why good character has defaulted to athletes. Shouldn’t our members of Congress be the pillars of principles? Instead, they asked self-righteously how athletes could betray the children who look up to them.

After all, we trust those 535 members of Congress and the chief executive with $2.6 trillion of our tax dollars. They decide whether or not we will go to war and kill people including children and babies at great cost in money, lives, property and reputation. Shouldn’t we insist that those representatives be of stellar character, high intelligence and unimpeachable morals?

Just the opposite is true. The electorate selects its political representatives from a cesspool of the slickest treasury robbers who can bring home the most pork to its district. Who is that electorate? It’s the parents of those children. The parents and politicians are such corrupting and corroding forces that the children have little chance of becoming decent adults even if the athletes are pure as the driven snow.

The electorate chooses its representatives from a pool of the most disgusting, lying, cheating, criminal elements of society. The strategy is to win at any cost. Winning justifies any infraction of values according to the politicians. If steroids could promote their political careers, the politicians would be shooting up in an instant.

Isn’t that what the athletes want to do? Win. Why should they not be expected to do it at any cost by people who practice “win at any cost?” Why are athletes held to higher standards than politicians are? Politicians represent us and are custodians of our security, environment and reputation plus one-fourth of our money. What they do reflects on all of us, not just the children. They are our primary image to the rest of the world. Yet, they acknowledge that they deserve less respect than athletes do.

Athletes are role models by default and desperation. All other groups, including most religious sects, are too degraded to serve as examples for our children. Perhaps athletes are the only group with the integrity to investigate the political, religious and business leaders and make the necessary changes so that our children have more positive role models than negative role models.

Finite Freedom

Apparently there is a finite amount of freedom in the world. As new nations gain freedom, others lose it.

American rulers are eager to donate our share of freedom. On March 19, 2005, Chicago’s Mayor Daley and his Gestapo forces demonstrated that they had contributed their full allotment of freedom to anyone who would take it. Daley and his cohorts menacingly impeded freedom-loving, war-hating citizens with consciences who attempted to exercise their alleged fundamental First Amendment rights to freely assemble and petition their government to stop torturing and murdering people and leveling their cities to the ground like primitive savages.

Could there have been a more urgent need to exercise our first amendment rights. Daley believes rich people’s shopping convenience is more important than stopping cruelty and murder. That explains why John Wayne Gayce, Richard Speck, Geoffrey Daumer and other serial killers and mass murderers, so prevalent in America and Chicago, can believe their brutal acts aren’t that bad. These choppers didn’t inconvenience any shoppers. In the minds of Daley and Bush, that puts them a moral level above protesters.

Apparently Dick Daley’s version of the Constitution has a restrictive clause, which reads something like: “These rights are valid only if you have a permit signed by the your local dictator.”

Being a Dick doesn’t make you a dictator!

The freedom we had was not won by fighting wars in foreign lands. Except for the War of 1812 and the attack on Pearl Harbor, they have not been defensive wars at home. The vast majority of the wars for our freedom were fought in our streets and workplaces against our rulers. The fight to free the slaves, the fight for women’s suffrage, the fight for workers’ rights and the fight for equal rights were gained at the expense of hundreds of thousands of lives and the suffering and sacrifices of millions of progressive people.

Saddam Hussein must be flattered to see his ruling style adopted in Chicago. Saddam can rest assured that as long as there is a Daley in the world, his legacy will live on. All Iraqis and everyone in the Middle East should see videos and photos of Chicago’s March 19 arbitrary intimidation tactics to see what American freedom really is. Of course, if they saw his daddy’s freedom tactics in 1968, they don’t need to be reminded.

If freedom is spreading through the Middle East, as George Bush claims, it is disappearing in the U.S. The U.S. discarded its freedom at every opportunity in the 20th Century. The Palmer Raids in 1920-21 saw the attack dogs of Attorney General Palmer sweep across the U.S. arresting and imprisoning people by the thousands for what they thought. Then there was repression justified by the 2nd World War, the Cold War and the Vietnam War. The vast majority of Americans supported every trashing of the Bill of Rights. Most Americans fear freedom as if it were the plague.

For the 92% of Americans for whom right and wrong are relative, and moral equivalency is the method of determining good and evil, Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people were not involved in the 9/11 attack. There is stronger evidence that George Bush and members of his administration were directly involved in the attack.

Practitioners of moral equivalency would not demand the execution of George Bush and his collaborators if it were proven that they were complicit in 9/11. What position would they take? They would wait until Rush Limbaugh or Fox News told them how to react.

In his 23 years of rule, Saddam Hussein killed about 300,000 Iraqis. In half that time, the U.S. invasions and American-led embargo killed 2,000,000 Iraqis. Equivalent American murders would equal 4,000,000 Iraqis or nearly 20% of the population. That is genocide.

Moral people would be outraged. Genocide, as long as the U.S. is the perpetrator, is not significant to Daley and the “law-enforcement” elements of Cook County. The Constitution is even less significant. Granted, most of them couldn’t understand it.

Bush hasn’t been correct yet, so the alleged “spread of freedom” is as premature as his “Mission Accomplished” banner on May 1, 2003.

The Constitution has meant little for democracy, freedom and equality since the minute it was signed. It was drawn up by rich, white males to serve the interests of rich, white males. It’s an 18th Century horse-and-buggy document. We’re living in the space age. The mindless masses that dominate our nation are at the mental level of 17th Century savages.

Bush's Iraq Invasion: 2nd Anniversary

March 20 will be the 2nd anniversary of George Bush’s invasion of Iraq. In 2002, the minor problem of Iraq came to Bush’s attention. Bush looked at it and saw a major problem that required immediate, emergency measures. Bush had a simple solution.

The Commander-in-Chief’s plan called a rapid deployment of a small, crack, light military force that would stun the Iraqi’s into “shock and awe.” As the Iraqis stood frozen in shock, Bush’s friend Ahmed Chalabi, a convicted embezzler and alleged international con-man, would be installed as the new leader. The military action would be over in a few weeks and cost no more than $6 billion, which would be recovered from oil proceeds.

Two years later, the cost is approaching $300 billion. Over1500 American lives have been lost. Thousands more were wounded. Chalabi was arrested by the Americans on a counterfeiting charge, then was caught negotiating with the Iranians. There is no end in sight.

If the American deaths in Iraq continue at the average rate of two per day, by the time Bush leaves office, he will have caused the deaths of more than 4,500 Americans. That’s 50% more Americans than Osama bin Laden killed on September 11, 2001. If you consider that one-third of those who died at the WTC were not U.S. citizens, then Bush already has killed nearly as many Americans as Osama bin Laden.

A few months ago, a small problem at Social Security came to George Bush’s attention. Bush looked at it. He saw a major problem that requires immediate, emergency measures. He has a simple solution

Why American is hated and deserves it

The mindless mass level of the U.S. of A. is at the critical point. It’s at 90%. That means 90 percent of Americans can be duped and fooled again and again and again. The old epigram (modified) applies:

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me thrice,
A fool I’ll always be.

George W. Bush alone fooled these people at least eight times. He’s no genius. Perhaps it takes a fool to fool a fool.

Two percent of Americans make up the corrupt, greedy, ruthless rulers of the nation. There’s only a marginal 8% (the Enlightened Eight) that are capable of comprehending the power structure.

The mindless masses (MM) are morally bankrupt, heartless, dehumanized and incapable of thinking critically. They remain at a juvenile level and want to live in an infantile fantasy world. All they ask is that the government praise them and tell them they are wonderful, virtuous, intelligent and brave. The Neo-cons that run the Bush Administration believe leaders need to lie to the masses for everyone’s benefit. These lies, the Neo-cons claim, are “noble lies.” The lies are necessary to maintain discipline. Left on their own, the masses descend into chaos, which is bad for the masses and worse for the rulers.

The lies are intended to render the masses ignorant and dependent. They help instill unfounded trust in strict paternal figures. The MM are more comfortable in a monarchy than in a democracy.

The MM are children in adult bodies. They remain 19th Century savages. Slavery was ripped violently from their bellies like a C-section birth, but the Plantation mentality is alive and intact. George Bush does not disguise his vision of a return to the 19th Century McKinley era of unrestrained, predatory Robber Barons viciously exploiting the ignorant masses. The ignorant masses are doing everything in their power to insure that Bush gets his wish.

The cruel, savage simpletons that make up the majority of American citizens actually believe they are better than someone else. In fact, they believe they are better than everyone else. With the Nazis gone, they are better than no one.

Why are they so ignorant, and easily duped into opposing their own best interests? It’s not natural. It takes decades of determined efforts to produce so many ignorant people. In the 1930s, the National Association of Manufacturers informed the government that its members wanted workers who were “dumb as an ox.” These workers were needed for the new mindless assembly line jobs. The monotonous, repetitive routine of assembly line work was not compatible with thinking individuals.

The education bureaucracies complied with the wishes of the manufacturers. Many parents blame the schools for producing so many ignorant graduates. The schools are not at fault. They are doing what they were asked to do. They are doing it superbly.

The movie Raising Arizona comically portrays Americans as most mature the day they are born. As they grow older, they become more and more childlike.

The U.S. of H. is the world’s leading propagandist. To dupe Americans into joining the insanity called World War One, the Woodrow Wilson Administration created the Committee on Public Information (CPI). Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays led the CPI. CPI members decoded human instincts, thought processes and stimulus/response reactions that can lead all except the EE to respond in the desired way.

A young soldier on the Axis Army keenly observed the experiment. His name was Adolph Hitler. He learned well from American propaganda methods and was able to refine them and also convince otherwise intelligent people to engage in insane, inhumane behavior. U.S. of H. rulers have pursued the same ends.

George Orwell brilliantly portrayed, in an exaggerated form, the functioning of modern propaganda in two very readable books titled Animal Farm and 1984. His predictions came true in the U.S., except they were nearly a generation late.

Today, America has the world’s most sophisticated propaganda system. Most Americans don’t realize that they have been completely brainwashed.

A simple test to determine if you are one of the totally propagandized.

(1). Is the United States a democracy?

(2). Is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) un-American?

The U.S. is not a democracy. The word appears nowhere in the Constitution. The Constitution says the nation is a Federal Republic.

The ACLU adheres strictly to the Constitution. That’s why it is so unpopular. The easiest thing in the world is to support your own freedom. The most difficult is to support everyone else’s freedom. The ACLU was formed in 1923, three years after U.S. Attorney General Palmer rounded up thousands of Americans and jailed them not because they had robbed or killed anyone, but for their beliefs and what they said. Since the government refused to adhere to the Constitution, and the media showed no signs of understanding it, and the public had even less desire to promote liberty and justice, the ACLU was chartered to demand strict adherence to the Bill of Rights.

Most Americans still hate the Bill of Rights as indicated by the number who hate the ACLU. Many believe it is a communist document if they hear the amendments without knowing it’s the Bill of Rights.

Another horrible blotch on America’s record was its lynchings which continued in spite of efforts by the ACLU to intervene. Over 5,000 people were hanged without trials just because they were black. The concepts of freedom and justice are superficial at best in the U.S. Americans are not ready for the 20th Century, and certainly not for the 21st Century.

Too often the mindless masses believe an event is so extraordinary, such as 9/11 or WW II, that the Constitution must be suspended or circumvented. One embarrassing case was the internment of 120,000 innocent Japanese-Americans in reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. That incident belies the claim that America is the land of the free or the “most noble nation the world has ever known.” No one outside the U.S. or knows U.S. history believes that claim.

It is a typical infantile reaction to strike out mindlessly at someone, anyone, when a person feels wrongfully victimized. Those who oppose the ACLU merely confirm their immaturity and lack of sophistication.

CPI discovered that people respond best to images. In 1917 they produced caricature posters portraying German soldiers killing people. A common example was a poster baring the inscription: “German soldiers bayoneting Belgium Babies.” An alliteration like “bayoneting Belgium Babies” sticks in the memory, CPI concluded.

Today, the Ruler’s propagandists understand that the MM respond best to the vision or personification of an issue or villain. Even though a villain may not exist, or there are multiple villains, the juvenile mind is more attentive if it believes the end of the one villain will solve the problem. In the criminal invasion of Iraq in 2003, the villain was Saddam Hussein. After he was captured, and the resistance continued, the face of Zarqawi, a minor player who isn’t even an Iraqi, quickly was substituted.

Today’s leaders frequently draw on the propaganda lessons learned from WW I. In the First Gulf War, the George H. W. Bush Administration arranged for a young Kuwaiti girl to testify before Congress. She told horror stories of Iraqi soldiers ripping respirators off Kuwaiti babies. Members of Congress and the American people fell for it as easily as their WW I predecessors.

Neither infanticide story was true. They were “noble lies”. The young girl was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S.

America finds itself where it was in the 1920s. Republicans control all branches of the government. Supply-side economics is the business model again. The people believe it can get no better. The economists bragged in the 1920s that they had overcome the roller-coaster cycles of boom and bust.

Nevertheless, it did bust. The stock market crashed in 1929. The nation fell into its worst depression, which lasted for more than a decade.

Radical changes under the rubric “The New Deal” saved the country and elevated it to a higher level of civilization.

Immediately after the death of the father of the New Deal, the nation began a rapid slide back into barbarism. In response to the Cold War, it implemented the Madman policy. Under that policy, only those insane enough to press the button that would annihilate life on earth could hold the highest political offices of the land. That meant only white males qualified for president, vice president, speaker of the house and president pro temp of the Senate. Really stupid white males were preferred.

The Cold War has ended, but the practice of electing really stupid white males has become an American tradition. The world believed Ronald Reagan was the most stupid white man America could produce. They had not yet heard the name George W. Bush.

Today’s American rulers are not comfortable at higher levels of civilization. They love power. They want slavery. They love killing. Most of all, they love their wars. They take the country to war every two years. Each time, the mindless masses eagerly and proudly march off to war--to do the sacrificing, suffering and dying.

Until September 11, 2001, it never occurred to the American MM that killing thousands of innocent people always was evil. When the U.S.-led embargo on Iraq killed 1.5 million people, 1/3 of whom were children and babies, the morally deficient Americans didn’t know it was wicked to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. When the U.S. invaded Panama and killed 5,000 people in 1989, the ethically-challenged Americans didn’t think killing thousands of innocent people was wrong. When America invaded Vietnam and killed 2 million innocent people, mostly civilians, children and babies, integrity-deficient Americans didn’t understand that the genocide of millions of innocent people is sinful. When American planes carpet-bombed Cambodia killing over 500,000 Cambodians, honor-depleted Americans didn’t realize that killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Cambodians whose only crime was to live on the border of Vietnam, was criminal. When American soldiers and CIA agents crossed Laos anytime they pleased because they were more powerful than the Laotians, they murdered over 100,000 Laotians. The decency-deprived Americans did not realize that slaughtering 100,000 innocent Laotians was diabolical. America also murdered more than 1,000,000 Koreans and 500,000 Filipinos—all since the end of the Second World War.

How could rational people think killing 3,000 people on Sept. 11th 2001 was an atrocity, while the slaughters of 7,000,000 people by Americans just in the last 60 years were the actions of well-intentioned people? They can if they have no conscience, heart or soul. They really don’t care that 3,000 people were killed on 9/11. They are alarmed only because that attack hit so close to home. Even the mindless could conceive that they could become the victim, not just the perpetrator. In the end, they only care about themselves. Everyone else is of no more value than a bug unfortunate enough to fly into the path of an MM speeding car on a summer evening. They are just collateral damage.

The MM reduce complicated problems to simple slogans, images or faces. They reduce morality to sex. They better pray that their God doesn’t exist, because if He does, they are doomed to a hideous afterlife.

History tells us that only Americans are sick and twisted enough to incinerate tens of thousands of children and babies with nuclear weapons. The U.S. is the only nation that has been convicted of terrorism by an international court. That’s not to say it committed only one act of terrorism. Other victims know that the U.S. is never punished for its atrocities, so they don’t bother to go to court.

The U.S. is the Mafia of the world. It is a merciless murderer. It is rich only because it steals from everyone it can and runs a web of extortion schemes around the world. The U.S. practices torture at home and abroad. It is the only Western nation that routinely executes its own people, and until a few days ago, its own children. President George H. W. Bush once confessed that regarding international law “It is whatever we [the U.S.] say it is.”

Using the cowboy, vigilante logic of George W. Bush, any group of people has the right to form a posse and attack America and kill Americans. Americans understand only force and only force can turn it into a law-abiding nation. The attack on 9/11 was legitimate, justified and deserved. Most of the world sees Osama bin Laden as the righteous David fighting the Goliath American monster. U.S. money helped create al Qaeda. As the simple-minded Reagan who provided the money would reason: “It’s only us killing ourselves.”

Only a profound crisis can awaken the mindless masses and open the door through which they can be dragged to a level of civilization. The crisis will hit within the next three years. A nation of simpletons can survive only so long before they destroy themselves.

Bumbling Bush's Social Security Illusions

He saw huge surpluses in the Federal budget, so he gave it to the rich rather than pay down runaway federal debts. He saw Saudi terrorists threatening the U.S. so he invaded Afghanistan. He saw mushroom clouds in some miraculous way originating in Iraq.

Whatever hallucinogen George W. Bush is taking, it’s playing games with his mind again. Now he sees a disaster in the most solvent federal program—Social Security.

In 1978, Bush predicted the collapse of Social Security within 10 years. Of course, the vision-deficient simpleton was way off the mark.

Why fix the most solvent government program? The ship of state is full of holes. It’s taking on water fast. However, it is not as volatile as the private sector is. The glue holding the private sector together is massive deficit spending on an illegal war, and Asian banks in China, Japan, Singapore and others buying up that debt. Yes, Communism is propping up the world’s largest and most predatory capitalist.

President Bumbling Bush is an expert at destruction, not construction. In order to build a house, he must destroy a city block.

Bush needs to prop up his business friends, parasites and predators. He is more than willing to sacrifice the many for the benefit of the few. In his circles, profits have priority over people. Business has priority over the well-being of the nation.

As a former employee of the Social Security Administration and, later, the Internal Revenue Service, this author knows there are easy solutions to the presumptive problem.

Currently, Social Security taxes (FICA), or payroll taxes, are withheld from the first $90,000 in wages at a rate of 6.2%. That equals $5,580 per year for the highest contributor. Some corporate executives have paid their full FICA obligation by the end of the first workday of the year.

The employer matches the employee’s contribution.

Collecting payroll taxes on every dollar of wages can solve the problem easily. The average CEO of a top corporation is paid $6 million per year. That CEO is paid as if he does the work of 500 workers, yet he pays in only the portion one worker would pay. If the corporation can pay that much to one person, it surely can afford to pay payroll taxes on all wages.

Then reduce the amount paid to the biggest beneficiaries down to the employee’s portion each time Social Security outlays exceed the income. That way, the beneficiary always receives at least an amount equal to his contribution. The employer’s portion would compensate for shortfalls. When there is a surplus in the trust fund, the highest beneficiaries would have their checks increased accordingly.

Social Security is a pay-as-you-go program. It’s a flat tax. Current workers contribute the money that goes to current beneficiaries. Ideally, there would be no excess money in the Social Security trust fund.

Excess money becomes a problem when Republicans control the government. Republicans believe all money belongs to the rich people and can’t stop themselves from returning it when they find money laying around.

Ronald Reagan pushed through legislation that raised Social Security contributions. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, payroll taxes were 6.65% on the first $29,700 of wages. When he left office, the amounts were 7.51% of $48,000. That’s a 55% increase. That was and is the biggest tax increase in U.S. history, contrary to what the Republicans like to claim about Bill Clinton’s tax increase that balanced the budget for the first time since Lyndon Johnson’s last budget.

A payroll tax hits low and middle income earners the hardest. That’s why Reagan preferred it. It created a surplus of more than $1 trillion by the end of Reagan’s presidency—on paper at least.

What did the high priest of fiscal responsibility do with the money? He gave it to the wealthy. With payroll taxes rolling in from low income workers, Reagan seized the opportunity to give even more to his rich friends.

It took 200 years for this nation to run up a $1 trillion debt. It took Reagan one term to run up another trillion. For good measure, in his second term he added another trillion to the debt.

What does that mean to the average worker? The worker overpaid the money once in payroll taxes. Reagan gave it to the rich in the form of tax cuts. It must be replaced out of income taxes, most of which comes from the average worker. Since interest accrues on that money, the average worker also must pay the interest out of his income taxes. That slight of hand has the effect of each worker paying $3 into the fund and getting only one in return--if he is lucky.

Not only was it the biggest tax hike in history, it was one of the biggest cons in history. The people didn’t even know they had been mugged and raped. Why shouldn’t Bush commit the same crime if the victim isn’t going to complain?

When asked about his mathematical inadequacies, Reagan simplistically replied that “It’s just money we owe to ourselves.”

Who else is stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund? When Social Security was created in the 1930s, the method of collection was a significant issue. If people received the money, they would be reluctant to turn it over to Social Security or even refuse to do so. Therefore, withholding from wages was deemed to be the least imposing way of collection. That put some fiduciary responsibility on employers. A problem with corporations is that they are the super-citizens of the nation. For all intents and purposes, they are above the law. Their interests come first.

In America, the stick is used to get average people to work. The carrot is used to entice corporate executives to work. It takes huge salaries plus large bonuses to get American executives to work as the Japanese Minister of Finance pointed out. The high salaries also attract the most criminal elements of society. As one chant goes:

If you want to steal,
Don’t get a gun.
Charter yourself
A corporation.

As a corporation, you can steal with almost no chance of consequences. Even when there is a penalty, it seldom equals the amount originally stolen. Ivan Boesky stole over $600 million that can be traced. He spent a few months in a country club jail and paid $100 million in penalties. Who wouldn’t take a deal like that?

There is no incentive for a corporation to be honest, and every incentive to steal.

When Ronald Reagan deregulated the banking and savings and loan industries, the corporations interpreted it as an invitation to go forth and steal. Go forth and steal they did. Since most bank accounts are federally insured, deregulation cost taxpayers over $500 billion. S & L crime rush perpetrators ranged from Neal Bush (the current president’s brother) at Silverado Savings and Loan to Congressman Henry Hyde at Clyde Federal S & L in Chicago, Il. Neither criminal paid a penny in restitution or spent a day in jail. The story is the same for most other S & L crooks. Let the dumb working man pay the penalty.

So it should come as no surprise that the cream of American business sometimes don’t turn in the payroll and income taxes they withhold from their employees. Usually it is the small businesses that are insolvent or nearly insolvent that keep telling themselves prosperity is just around the corner. They finance their last months in part with the withholding collections. The courts have ruled that if the money was put into the business, the IRS can’t pursue criminal charges. In other words, if it is a super-citizen corporation doing the stealing, it’s not a crime according to our guardians of the law. If you want to steal without fear of going to jail, go into business.

Employees, including the business officers who unlawfully redirected the withholding funds, get credit toward Social Security benefits and collect as if the funds had been deposited with the IRS. This amounts to millions of dollars each year that are not paid in and an equivalent amount that is paid out.

Over 6 million people receive disability benefits from Social Security. If they have a family, the family can get an amount equal to that of the wage-earner. In cases of unexpected disaster or accidents that injure the wage-owner to the degree that he can’t do his job or a similar job, families can survive on Social Security benefits. What will happen to disability benefits if the Bush plan is implemented? I’m sure Bush hasn’t a clue and could care less about disabled people.

We can look at the S & L crisis and the deregulation of business in the 1980s for a clue as to how Social Security will fare under Republican tampering . Remember Worldcom, Enron, Tyco, Arthur Andersen, Adelphia, Dynergy, Global Crossing? They were just a few of the corporations caught in criminal activity made possible by deregulation and Republican tampering with the system.

Lebanon meets nasty NED

During the Clinton Administration, a “spontaneous” uprising took place in Yugoslavia against leader Slobodan Milosevic. During the George W. Bush Administration, “spontaneous” uprisings broke out in Venezuela and Haiti against their popular democratic leaders. Last year, “spontaneous” street protests erupted in the Ukraine.

Behind all of these events was the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). NED is an American NGO (non-governmental organization) established by Congress in 1983. NED is funded almost exclusively by the U.S. government and works almost exclusively for U.S. political objectives. By definition then, it is a non-non-governmental organization (NNGO)—an Orwellian contradiction. Its budget is $30 million annually, but it works hand in hand with the CIA and has unlimited access to that agency’s unlimited funds.

By its nature, it works best where there is a large degree of democracy and freedom. Since its mission is to change the government policies of the target nation, it is anti-freedom and anti-democracy. Its name should be the National Endowment for Dictatorship.

NED is the first line of attack against democracies and weak dictatorships out of favor with U.S. rulers. If NED fails, as happened in Venezuela, the CIA becomes the second assault vehicle. If it fails, the U.S. military is sent in.

When a popular former leader was assassinated in Lebanon in January 2005 and protesters swept into the streets carrying thousands of fancy banners that could not have been produced in that short time, the meddling and murderous hands of NED were unmistakable.

The U.S. was quick to blame Syria. The media obediently began beating the war drums. The Chicago Tribune carried an editorial calling for action against Syria, even before knowing for sure who perpetrated the assassination. Apparently that newspaper has forgotten all the White House lies it swallowed when it enthusiastically backed the invasion of Iraq.

The U.S. goes to war every two years on average. The last invasion began on March 19, 2003. The U.S. of H. date book says it's time for another invasion. Syria is deemed to be sufficiently weak and vulnerable enough to meet the need.

The second pretext to justify an occupation of Syria is that it has occupied Lebanon for the past three decades. What the politicians and mainstream media neglect to point out is that George H. W. Bush gave control of Lebanon to Syria in 1990 in return for a commitment from President Hafez al-Assad not to assist Iraq, when Bush invaded it.

Al-Assad also used chemical weapons to put down a rebellion against him. That was not pointed out when Saddam Hussein was being demonized for the same act.

U.S. agreements have expiration dates, apparently, after which the nation becomes guilty of doing what the U.S. instructed it to do. Just as the U.S. approved Saddam Hussein’s plans to invade Kuwait in 1990, then condemned Iraq for doing it, it is condemning Syria for doing what the U.S. agreed it could do.

The United States of Hypocrisy and its non-non-governmental organization strike again.