Where Does One Begin - Again?

New Revelations, Related To So Much I've Already Written About. . .
by The Old Hippie Because It, Our Constitutional Republic, Needs Constant Diligence

"America, Love It Or Leave It!"  If only life, reality, could be so simple - But, alas, it is not.  The only way the American Constitutional Republic, the once greatest hope for so many, could be destroyed - Was from within - and now, indisputably, that destruction is becoming fact.  The only ones that can "save" it, are also within.  Us.

I loved our country, actually I still do love our Constitutional Republic -Deeply - but I readily admit I do not love what "our" nation has become - Which is no longer the healthy representative republic that it was before this administration purposefully destroyed its checks & balances, its separation of powers, its regulatory structures, its multi-party-rule, its separation of the Church and State, its sane cooperation/diplomacy with other nations, its manufacturing base, its social-safety-net protections, its workers input/protections via labor unions, its free and open dispersion of information system, the media, via corrupt corporate consolidation of 99% of "our" media into the control of just six corporations, etc. . .  All for the outright open criminal greed of "profits over everything/anything," including the needs of its citizens, and life itself.

Sonni, my wife, and I have discussed leaving, but for many and complex reasons we decided - No.  We'll stay - and fight.  For a very long time I only saw "us" losing the fight, and the reality is that "we" still may lose in the end.  History is definitely not on "our" side.  Not once in the written history of this planet as a nation ever survived the internal destructive forces "we" now face, but neither has a nation like the American Constitutional Republic ever existed.  Because of the underpinning protections built into "our" Republic, "our" representative Democracy, by the Founders of this nation, there is still existent hope of mitigation, and possibly even recovery.  So, because of our love of our real nation, we stay.

"You Are With Us, Or You Are Against Us!"  Again, if only life, reality, was so simple.  That remark is one of those pesky logic enigmas, where it is both true, and false, at the same time.  This nation is now a corrupt theocratic/corporatist oligarchy, of, by, and for the corporate/monied few, and I am definitely not "with" them, and openly "against" their agenda of profits over the needs of all other considerations, and if you are not with "us," then you are my enemy, and the enemy of my nation, the American Representative Constitutional Republic.

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If you are apathetic, apolitical, "above it all," - Then you are not only pathetic, you are the most destructive of citizens in the destruction-from-within, and a "useful tool," for them that actively pursue profits, even over sanity, and nation.  You are not my enemy, because in the freedoms granted by "our" Constitutional Republic, you have the "right" to your self-centered self-destruction, but I don't have to like freedom's demand of my tolerance of your lack of responsibility.  Don't help "us" in this fight to save "our" freedoms, and you will deserve what will happen to you - But not the rest of "us" that fight to protect "your" freedom to ignore your nation's destruction.  See?  It's not "with us or against us," it's many shades of grey, but yet - It is possible to be not against us, but still be against us, as well as not with them, but yet you are.

If only it were simple - But, alas, It is not.

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Once Again It's. . .

Time For Another One Of My, "A Bit Of The Old Rant. . ."
by The Old Hippie, Because It Is So Beyond The Pale, And So In Our Collective Face

This picture says a thousand articles about how we "elected" this administration.  In essence We didn't.  We all know it is true - not possibly, not maybe, not could be - but definitely true.  You know it, and I know it.  It's a sure bet that all of us Americans deserve what is coming, because we did "allow" this to happen.  No ifs ands or buts, we "allowed," and we are still "allowing" it all.

All of the born-again imbeciles that actually wanted this do truly deserve what's coming much more than the "we" that fought this, even though it is now obvious we just didn't fight hard enough.  Most of us, the other 49%, actually believed, right up to the end, that our democracy was still intact, and would weed out the insane religious zealots and the criminal politicians with the vote - What a joke on us.  But the "why" of our deserving what's coming?  Is because - "We" knew - "We" knew private corporations, run by two arrogant "Bush Pioneers," two brothers heading both corporations, had full control of the voting computers, and "we" knew these same corporations had 23 convicted felons in positions of manage- ment, and software control, of the programs that control the

"count," without any traceable paper trail.  "We" knew it, and allowed it to happen anyway.

And Now. . . ?  The voting machines have spread even further in the states, We know that they corrupted all of the last three national elections, (2000, 2002, and 2004.) - But yet - Even in the face of all the expose facts of criminal corruptions - We continue to "allow" their use?!?  Are we, as a nation, insane, or simply stupid???

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Yes - I'm angry at "them" for bringing this about - BUT - I'm much more pissed off at the "we" that "allowed" this to come about.  No matter how you reason it, or justify it, or deny it, the "we" are more at fault, than the "them," of our divided nation.

"We" were not deluded by insane religious rapture, "we" were not lost within the throes of profit and power of neo-con'ed aggressive Empire, "we" were not members of the corporate criminal cronies - "we" were/are simply naive Americans that believed our Constitutional Republic actually was still a reality.  Believed it would protect us.  But the reality is our government is now, and has been for the last six years, run by the combination of insane fundamentalist zealots, delusional neo-con imperialists, and opportunistic corporatist criminals taking every advantage of the other two's insanity.

No matter how you twist it - It is a conspiracy that is so obvious that it's invisible within the denial.
Every day we look more and more like Germany of the late 1930s, or a least not different enough.

We deserve what is coming. . .

The rest of the innocents on the planet do not.

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Now More - The Reality Is. . .

It's (Almost) Over - And Some See How Close It, The Reality, Is.
by The Old Hippie Because The End Of The Constitutional Republic Is, (not maybe,) At Hand.

1.  We Do Horrifically Torture - The Proof, Again   2.  What It Means To Be A Republican - Larry Beinhart   3.  Okay - There Is A Solution - A Truthout Diary Post   4.  Ice Sliding Twice As fast - An AFP Report   5.  A Secret Advisory Session For Bush With A Novelist - !   6.  "President's Gone Insane" - A Republican 9/11 Dad

  7.  USA Has More Poor Than Any Other Developed Nation - This Is "Our" Reality

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Bombshells 15. . .

A Selected Bombshell That Clears Much Of The Manufactured Fog
by The Old Hippie Because I Truly Believe It Might Help Clear The Fog

1.   Nuking the Economy - This Should Jerk Most Out Of Their Denial.  2.  There are other "Bombshells," but none that are as important. So I'll stop here, and allow you, dear readers, to have the time to read this, and to absorb its significance.  The link is to the original, but if there is a problem, I have a copy of the full text "Below The Fold" - - -

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Forget Iran, Americans Should be Hysterical About This

Nuking the Economy

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - CounterPunch - Feb. 11/12, 2006 Issue

Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics re-benchmarked the payroll jobs data back to 2000.  Thanks to Charles McMillion of MBG Information Services, I have the adjusted data from January 2001 through January 2006.  If you are worried about terrorists, you don’t know what worry is.

Job growth over the last five years is the weakest on record.  The US economy came up more than 7 million jobs short of keeping up with population growth.  That’s one good reason for controlling immigration. An economy that cannot keep up with population growth should not be boosting population with heavy rates of legal and illegal immigration.

Over the past five years the US economy experienced a net job loss in goods producing activities.  The entire job growth was in service-providing activities--primarily credit intermediation, health care and social assistance, waiters, waitresses and bartenders, and state and local government.

US manufacturing lost 2.9 million jobs, almost 17% of the manufacturing work force.  The wipeout is across the board.  Not a single manufacturing payroll classification created a single new job.

The declines in some manufacturing sectors have more in common with a country undergoing saturation bombing during war than with a super-economy that is “the envy of the world.”  Communications equipment lost 43% of its workforce.  Semiconductors and electronic components lost 37% of its workforce.  The workforce in computers and electronic products declined 30%.  Electrical equipment and appliances lost 25% of its employees.  The workforce in motor vehicles and parts declined 12%.  Furniture and related products lost 17% of its jobs.  Apparel manufacturers lost almost half of the work force.  Employment in textile mills declined 43%.  Paper and paper products lost one-fifth of its jobs.  The work force in plastics and rubber products declined by 15%.  Even manufacturers of beverages and tobacco products experienced a 7% shrinkage in jobs.

The knowledge jobs that were supposed to take the place of lost manufacturing jobs in the globalized “new economy” never appeared.  The information sector lost 17% of its jobs, with the telecommunications work force declining by 25%.  Even wholesale and retail trade lost jobs.  Despite massive new accounting burdens imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley, accounting and bookkeeping employment shrank by 4%.  Computer systems design and related lost 9% of its jobs.  Today there are 209,000 fewer managerial and supervisory jobs than 5 years ago.

In five years the US economy only created 70,000 jobs in architecture and engineering, many of which are clerical.  Little wonder engineering enrollments are shrinking.  There are no jobs for graduates.  The talk about engineering shortages is absolute ignorance.  There are several hundred thousand American engineers who are unemployed and have been for years.  No student wants a degree that is nothing but a ticket to a soup line.  Many engineers have written to me that they cannot even get Wal-Mart jobs because their education makes them over-qualified.

Offshore outsourcing and offshore production have left the US awash with unemployment among the highly educated.  The low measured rate of unemployment does not include discouraged workers.  Labor arbitrage has made the unemployment rate less and less a meaningful indicator.  In the past unemployment resulted mainly from turnover in the labor force and recession.  Recoveries pulled people back into jobs.

Unemployment benefits were intended to help people over the down time in the cycle when workers were laid off.  Today the unemployment is permanent as entire occupations and industries are wiped out by labor arbitrage as corporations replace their American employees with foreign ones.

Economists who look beyond political press releases estimate the US unemployment rate to be between 7% and 8.5%.  There are now hundreds of thousands of Americans who will never recover their investment in their university education.

Unless the BLS is falsifying the data or businesses are reporting the opposite of the facts, the US is experiencing a job depression.  Most economists refuse to acknowledge the facts, because they endorsed globalization.  It was a win-win situation, they said.

They were wrong.

At a time when America desperately needs the voices of educated people as a counterweight to the disinformation that emanates from the Bush administration and its supporters, economists have discredited themselves.  This is especially true for “free market economists” who foolishly assumed that international labor arbitrage was an example of free trade that was benefitting Americans.  Where is the benefit when employment in US export industries and import-competitive industries is shrinking?  After decades of struggle to regain credibility, free market economics is on the verge of another wipeout.

No sane economist can possibly maintain that a deplorable record of merely 1,054,000 net new private sector jobs over five years is an indication of a healthy economy.  The total number of private sector jobs created over the five year period is 500,000 jobs less than one year’s legal and illegal immigration!  (In a December 2005 Center for Immigration Studies report based on the Census Bureau’s March 2005 Current Population Survey, Steven Camarota writes that there were 7,9 million new immigrants between January 2000 and March 2005.)

The economics profession has failed America.  It touts a meaningless number while joblessness soars.  Lazy journalists at the New York Times simply rewrite the Bush administration’s press releases.

On February 10 the Commerce Department released a record US trade deficit in goods and services for 2005--$726 billion.  The US deficit in Advanced Technology Products reached a new high.  Offshore production for home markets and jobs outsourcing has made the US highly dependent on foreign provided goods and services, while simultaneously reducing the export capability of the US economy.  It is possible that there might be no exchange rate at which the US can balance its trade.

Polls indicate that the Bush administration is succeeding in whipping up fear and hysteria about Iran.  The secretary of defense is promising Americans decades-long war.  Is death in battle Bush’s solution to the job depression?  Will Asians finance a decades-long war for a bankrupt country?

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration.  He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.  He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.  He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

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Well - This Sucks. . .

Are Our Revelations-Of-Reality Seriously Bumming You Out Sunshine?
by The Old Hippie Because The Continuing Of What's Still Being "Allowed," Just Ain't Cool. . .

This Sucks - "Our" Vice-President, (who is still being paid over $200,000/yr. by Halliburton,) has now been proven to have 'authorized' Libby to leak classified information, to openly support torture, to openly support spying on all Americans, and to sneeringly support corporation's rights over our rights. . .  Is still "allowed" to be "our" Vice President.

This Sucks - The White House knew the levee failed the night Katrina hit. This Sucks - Frist and Hastert rigged the Defense Department appropriations bill to benefit the drug corporations with a back-room last-minute "deal" - without the approval of members of a House-Senate conference committee - say several witnesses, including a top Republican staff member. This Sucks - "No-Paper-Trail" e-voting machines are still "allowed" to spread. This Sucks - Bush lied about the threat to LA that he "supposedly" foiled.

This Sucks - I Would Ask “Have They No Shame?”  But. . .  I know that they don’t.

This Sucks - "Of course - I'm sorry Mr. Attorney General - I forgot you can't answer any questions that might be relevant to this." -- Sen. Pat Leahy

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Nothing else - For now. . .

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And Some Wonder. . .

Just What Is It That Has Made The Old Hippie So Very Cynical. . . ?
by The Old Hippie Because It Still Being "Allowed" To Slap Us In The Face Every Day.

First, the poster on the right describes one of the obvious reasons for my cynicism.  Other causes of my cynicism come from my fellow Americans "allowing" it to become our collective reality in the first place.  "Allowing" the complete corruption of our representative Constitutional Republic into a "Pax Americana Empire," an Empire that has been "allowed" to become an openly criminal,

arrogantly corrupt, and sneeringly cronyism-ridden, un-representative and one-party-ruled Theocratic/Corporatist Oligarchy "of, by, and for" the very few. As if that isn't enough to make most sane and reality-based people cynical, add in the fact that "our" nation now "allows" and "legally" justifies; 1. Torture - 2. Indefinite detentions, without charges, without habeas corpus - 3. The indiscriminate spying on all citizens without cause, or warrants - 4. The purposeful ignoring, and destruction, of all Checks and Balances - 5. "Free-Speech-Zones" - 6. Even further consolidation of the corporately-controlled "mainstream" media - 7. The blocking and/or marginalization of all "investigations" into any and all of their activities - 8. The complete take-over of the entire federal regulatory structures with the openly corporately-corrupt lobbyists, ex-C.E.O.s, and lawyers representing, (and still being paid by,) the military-industrial-complex, ag-chem, pharmaceutical, oil and coal extraction corporations, et al - 9. Etc. . .

Now - Add in the fact that it is all still being insanely "allowed" to continue - day-by-day getting even worse, without any real signs of protests or revolt, and you begin to maybe realize why I have become so very cynical.

"It was, and still is, the allowing, stupid."  Let's look at some recent examples of the allowing. . .

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1.  Delay "allowed" to be placed on the subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department's
     handling of the Abramoff investigation. [Link]

2.  Bush "allowed" to bury detailed Social Security privatization proposals in his budget. [Link]

3.  Oil C.E.O.s "allowed" to not swear in during congressional testimony. [Link]

4.  Gonzales "allowed" to not swear in during congressional testimony. [Link]

5.  Gonzales's domestic spying testimony on Monday "allowed" to directly contradict
     what the Bush administration told FISA judges were told privately. [Link]

6.  Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, who was elected House majority leader last week, is
     "allowed" to rent his Capitol Hill apartment from a veteran lobbyist whose clients
     have direct stakes in legislation Boehner has co-written and that he has overseen
     as chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee. [Link]

7.  24 year old Bush appointee, who was "allowed" to dictate (censor) national science
     policy at NASA, did not actually graduate from Texas A&M University - and who
     didn't even major in science. [Link]

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Bombshells #14. . .

A Select Few Bombshells That Clears Much Of The Manufactured Fog
compiled by The Old Hippie Because I Truly Believe It Might Help Clear The Fog


Not so nice when you aren't protected by your
hand-picked crowds - Now is it?
[ Video Link Here ]

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, who was elected House majority leader last week, is renting his Capitol Hill apartment from a veteran lobbyist whose clients have direct stakes in legislation Boehner has co-written and that he has overseen as chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee. [Link]

Nice Catch by Arianna Huffington: The Infamous Richard Mellon Scaife's Pittsburgh Newspaper Endorses Murtha's Plan for Withdrawal from Iraq.  Not a Good Sign for BushCo. [Link]

Republican Overseeing NSA Breaks From Bush Ranks. . .
Wants Full Investigation Into Domestic Spying. . . [Link]

Those Republican Jokers. . . [Link]

Guns Over Butter - Cut $40-Billion in aid, increase defense 7% (Profits Over Life) [Link]

Bush rewards our brave soldiers with the smallest annual pay raise in 13 years. [Link]

Leading American senator [Republican] says U.S. prepared to return to international negotiations on global warming. [Link]

Top 10 'Conspiracy Theories' about BushCo.  (How many have now been proven true?)
[Part I - Link]   -   [Part II - Link]

Don't Like Research Results?  (Even if correct?)  Yank the Funding. [Link]

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Nothing Else Today - -

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Cynical. . . ?

With All That Has Gone Unpunished - It's Hard Not To Be. . .
by The Old Hippie Because It's Now Gone Well Beyond The Point Of Sane Reasoning. . .

With the full one-party-control now completed, and with Karl Rove's arrogantly renewed open threat to Republican reps, that if they vote against the president, they will be cut off from any support - I am a bit cynical as to any real punishment of the Bush administration, its corporatists cronies and sycophants, for their well proven purposeful, and profitable destruction of "our" Constitutional Republic, in favor of the reality of the openly corrupt "profits-over-even-life-for the very few" of the Theocratic/Corporatist Oligarchy, that is now the better description of our nation.

I am not alone in my cynicism, as I am seeing more and more of it expressed in the forums, (i.e. Alternet, Huffington Post, Truthout, Crooks and Liars, et al,) - Not that any of us are giving up, just that we have witnessed so very many jaw-dropping destructive and arrogant disregards and/or abuses of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the regulatory structures, the Checks and Balances, the Separation of Church and State - not to mention the open theft of the Treasury, proven lies for an illegal war of profits, open support of corporate profits over the needs of the citizens, the corruption of the last three national elections, and all of it supported by the 5-corporation-controlled media - And none of it corrected or punished in any real way at all.  So far.

These realities do not frighten the wealthy top few percent of the profiting few, as they can simply "move," and/or purchase "protection" for themselves.  (Whereas almost all the rest of us "fodder units" can't.)  They are well aware of the realities, and even promote and favor them, as these realities add to their profits, and to their power to manipulate the fears induced by these realities.  And the most salient point that most Americans, particularly those 44%, (that "know" [22%] or "think" [22%] The Rapture will happen,) don't seem to understand. . .  Is that they do not care that you care.

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Nothing else

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Bombshells #13. . .

A Select Few Bombshells That Clears Much Of The Manufactured Fog
compiled by The Old Hippie Because I Truly Believe It Might Help Clear The Fog

1.   National Debt - $8,206,866,034,180.97 (as of today)  2.  Trouble in Cubicle Nation - AlterNet.org  3.  Secret Grand Jury investigations. . . - IndyMedia.org  4.  "Let The Dollars Soar" - MediaTransparency.org  5.  Big Success In Iraq - IAVA.org

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  6.  "Lights Out in Tehran" - Counterpunch.org

  7.  Meet John Boehner - MoJones.com

  8.  Stark, Dreadful, Inescapable: The Question of Survival. - Noam Chomsky
       539kbps Windows Media Video (Starts at 2:30 into it - 1:46:19) - Jan. 19th in Dublin, Ireland

  9.  New Pre-War Bush/Blair Meeting Memo Proving Again the Conspiracy of Lies
       British "Channel 4 News" Video Report - Watch It and Judge For Yourself

10.  Senate Session on Security Erupts in Spying Debate - New York Times

11.  U.S. Plans to "Fight the Net" Revealed - TheExperiment.org

12.  Bush Is Wrong, Chirac Is Right - Truthout.org

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A Failed Administration. . . ?

Even In The Face Of The Failures, They Have Successfully...
by The Old Hippie Because The Obvious Is Staring You In The Face

  1.  Emptied the entire U. S. treasury, all of the borrowed monies from foreign governments
       [According to the U.S. Treasury Department, from 1776 through 2000, all the previous
       42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and
       financial institutions. . .  But in the past five years alone, this Bush administration has
       borrowed more than all the other 42 administrations combined!] and all of the tax-cuts,
       [cuts for the corporations and wealthy few, increases for the rest of us]. . .  All of it. . .
       Directly into their pockets.

  2.  Done away with the checks and balances.

  3.  Completed a full one-party-rule.

  4.  Taken full corporate control of the media.

  5.  Completed a corporate take-over of all the regulatory agencies.

  6.  Destroyed the Separation of Church and State.

  7.  Transferred real power from the Legislative to the Executive.

  8.  Sabotaged science in favor of corporate profits.

  9.  Legalized "Free-Speech Zones."

10.  Legalized torture.

11.  Created a "Unitary Executive Theory."

12.  Ignored all international environmental treaties.

13.  Gotten away with using chemical weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

14.  Broken all international nuclear non-proliferation treaties.

15.  Avoided capturing/stopping/killing the real enemy, Bin Laden/Al-Qaeda, and has
       illegally taken "our" nation, also dragging other nations along, into a never ending
       Orwellian "war of corporate profit" against a tactic, "terrorism" - And not against
       a state/government/nation.

16.  Turned "our" representative Constitutional Republic into an openly criminal, and
       corrupt one-party-ruled Theocratic/Corporatist Empire, that has proven to be very
       profitable to only the very few, (e.g. Exxon's 2005 profits were the highest in the
       recorded history of this nation, even as the gas price hikes continue unabated.)

And they have successfully accomplished all this, and so much more - Without any real
protests, or revolt - They were "allowed" the "perfect theft" of power and money.

Did I forget to mention, they are still in power - Still getting away with it all, and that your expressed frustrated anger. . .  Is now "too little - too late," and meaningless?  Just as is
the "opposition" Democratic party, which in the future should be more correctly referred
to as the "allowing/enabling" party.

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Do you think, or believe, they care that you care?  Really?

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