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Synthesis & Synchronicity 036
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Politics: The Republicans have completed their latest foolishness. This time they were wasting taxpayer dollars by a 30 hour display of their fanaticism on getting their way
on judicial nominees by basically filibustering themselves in a continuing debate over the 4 nominees that they didn't let them force onto the Federal bench.
Now that they have done so, and yet again failed to get their way, they are now threatening to eliminate the right of Filobuster in the nomination process, thus one more try to remove all real power from their opposition in the senate. They really want a dictatorship, and are working hard to get it, by tearing apart the basic rules of operation and order that the senate operated under.
Meanwhile the CIA is warning the White House, according to a recent article on Truthout.org , that they are in danger of losing control of the situation in Iraq and finding themselves in a no-win situation. It's been ignored in the primary press sources, who are too afraid of accusations of sedition by John Ashcroft and friends.
And the US Army in the Boston Area is flyering bus stops, train depots, lundromats and anywhere else they can stick up flyers to convince college students or wanna be college students to mortgage their lives to pay for college via their recruitment office. These invitations to become the next round of cannon fodder are showing up all over the place, but primarily in greatest number in the poorer suburbs that have been harder hit by the economic crash (like Waltham, where I encountered about 40 of these flyers taped to various surfaces at the bus and train depots, on a recent dentist trip). They all scream about Getting upto $65k in College Loan payments and bonus pay for folks who can translate specific foreign langauges (mostly Middle Eastern tongues).
The fine print, of course is not shown... that you may find yourself sitting in Iraq long before you ever get any of those payments (and that the deal can be changed at the whim of our wanna-be Republican Dictators, despite written agreements). None of them tell the truth, that most soldiers will make less per month in the service than they could working at a minimum wage job at McDonalds. That the Bush administration is trying to reduce veterans benefits, cut off hospital care for wounds and diseases and injuries that they have received serving the country, and generally treats them like cannon fodder.
I seriously encourage anyone finding such flyers to deface, destroy, remove, and otherwise prevent the Army from tricking more young people into their clutches.
Meanwhile, despite the claims of the government in weeks past that things are "getting better" economically, unemployment first time filings are up. The number of long term unemployed continues to hold steady, and they keep having to "revise" the much touted "improved economic numbers" every few weeks to show the truth - its not getting better.
Actually ALL the supposedly money that American Companies and Wealthy folks saved from the Bush Tax Cuts has zipped on overseas in the form of an ever spiraling Trade Deficient, with the majority of the money ending up in China (along with lots of American Jobs) and India (where many major computer software firms, like Microsoft, are exporting jobs so they can pay programmers a mere $8-$10 an hour instead of fair wages in America).
I've decided I can't just sit on the sidelines and watch it all collapse. I'm seriously looking at getting involved in the Howard Dean campaign. I've never been one to be heavily involved in non-local politics directly, but I think it's time to do something before the Republicans become entrenched dictators that will rule for generations (echos of Facism are way too loud around these small minded men of dark renoun). I've added some links for this to the Luggage area, and will be getting involved in local meet-ups and flyer distribution over the next few months. I think this is something that needs my time and effort, as I feel he's the best chance among the challengers in the race and has valid viewpoints on many issues that are facing the country.
Criminal Injustice : There was an interesting piece in the newspapers on 11/11 that I thought I should make note of, because of previous writing here about the criminal justice system, death penalty and the courts. They released a man from jail after some 15 years that day, one Shawn Drumgold, who had been held for murder. They released him because the Boston Police had tampered with the witnesses that were the ONLY evidence to convict him of the crime, and thus he had been given an unfair trial. Nothing, of course, happened to the police that had been involved. And folks wonder why I don't trust governments with the power of life and death over people.
Catholic Church Spreads Aids! Yes, according to numerous newspaper reports, the Catholic Church is actually responsible for the spread of AIDS/HIV in many of the developing countries of the world. The Church, thru their spokespeople and clergy, have been lying to the poor in numerous countries, telling them that condoms do not protect against HIV, and encouraging the populations to not use them, increasing the spread of the disease. I can't stress exactly how sick this sort of thing makes me to hear. Someone needs to go to the UN and press international crimes against humanity charges on these fanatical men and lock them away for their crimes. Millions are dying because of this sort of misinformation. The Vatican holds a position as a sovereign state, and it should be held to the UN rules like any other, and if its leadership are guilty of these crimes, they should be tried for them like the leaders of any other country, and suffer the consequences of their actions.
Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.....
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