Grateful Dead

Beck may be a fascist but nobody needs to tar and feather the entire German people and their language. I think what you are seeing is the use of an old stereotype. Some of this may come from the cover photo of one of Beck's books showing him in a Nazi uniform.

...increasingly. The fact that Beck drew 300,000 people to DC for a rally shows just how much. I find it sad that people actually believe people like Palin and Beck and other fab foxoids.

It's hard to declare victory when the government isn't formed and the US is STILL training Iraqis to do traffic control. The fact is Iraq is a large, stinking mess and 50,000 of our troops are still there. What was accomplished? We got rid of Hussein and destabilized the entire region. We drove thousands to become suicide bombers. In another post in this thread I detailed how it was necessary to split the Muslim world in the era of post-peak oil. The offal being fed to the masses as a rationale for our fighting the war is pathetic. The people who decide policy are smiling smugly. What a waste of blood and treasure on... ~ that shining ball of blue that we call our home ~

Well, there is a way to kill bed bugs without chemicals. Intense heat. Whoops, I guess that comes with the news that there is a bed bug epidemic. News stories about this problem always show people of color who have bed bugs, thus enforcing the stereotype that it is "a colored problem", that 'colored people are dirty and don't clean their homes". All mattresses, by law, are returnable for at least 90 days. Beware what you buy in clearance or "discount" stores.

I have been feeling that, while it is in quite poor taste and insensitive for Muslims to build a place of worship there, it is their right as citizens of the US to do it. When people decide that it is all right for the government or a mob (I'll allow that the government may be a mob) to take away that right in any circumstance it is the start of a ride down a slippery slope. I think that the Jewish mayor of NYC knows that, and, given his heritage, knows how important it is to protect that right. The Jewish people know only too well what can happen when religious intolerance spreads. We are losing our rights in this country. Most people believe the Bill of Rights is too radical of a document. I have to change my mind on this issue in favor of religious freedom, though an interfaith prayer center would certainly stem the tide of current criticism. So, kudos to you Lilly for standing tall in the face of that avalanche of criticism, if you still feel the same way...

That kind of makes my skin crawl and not want to stay in a hotel anymore...

By BOB HERBERTPublished: August 30, 2010 NY Times We learned on Saturday that our so-called partner in this forlorn war, Hamid Karzai, fired a top prosecutor who had insisted on, gasp, fighting the corruption that runs like a crippling disease through his country. Time magazine tells us that stressed-out, depressed and despondent soldiers are seeking help for their mental difficulties at a rate that is overwhelming the capacity of available professionals. What we are doing to these troops who have been serving tour after tour in Afghanistan and Iraq is unconscionable. Time described the mental-health issue as “the U.S. Army’s third front,” with the reporter, Mark Thompson, writing: “While its combat troops fight two wars, its mental-health professionals are waging a battle to save soldiers’ sanity when they come back, one that will cost billions long after combat ends in Baghdad and Kabul.” In addition to the terrible physical toll, the ultimate economic costs of these two wars, as the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and his colleague Linda Bilmes have pointed out, will run to more than $3 trillion. I get a headache when I hear supporters of this endless warfare complaining about the federal budget deficits. They’re like arsonists complaining about the smell of smoke in the neighborhood. There is no silver lining to this nearly decade-old war in Afghanistan. Poll after poll has shown that it no longer has the support of most Americans. And yet we fight on, feeding troops into the meat-grinder year after tragic year — to what end? “Clearly, the final chapters of this particular endeavor are very much yet to be written,” said Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, during a BBC interview over the weekend. He sounded as if those chapters would not be written any time soon. In a reference to President Obama’s assertion that U.S. troops would begin to withdraw from Afghanistan next July, General Petraeus told the interviewer: “That’s a date when a process begins, nothing more, nothing less. It’s not the date when the American forces begin an exodus and look for the exit and the light to turn off on the way out of the room.” A lot of Americans who had listened to the president thought it was, in fact, a date when the American forces would begin an exodus. The general seems to have heard something quite different. In truth, it’s not at all clear how President Obama really feels about the awesome responsibilities involved in waging war, and that’s a problem. The Times’s Peter Baker wrote a compelling and in many ways troubling article recently about the steep learning curve that Mr. Obama, with no previous military background, has had to negotiate as a wartime commander in chief. Quoting an unnamed adviser to the president, Mr. Baker wrote that Mr. Obama sees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as “problems that need managing” while he pursues his mission of transforming the nation. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking on the record, said, “He’s got a very full plate of very big issues, and I think he does not want to create the impression that he’s so preoccupied with these two wars that he’s not addressing the domestic issues that are uppermost in people’s minds.” Wars are not problems that need managing, which suggests that they will always be with us. They are catastrophes that need to be brought to an end as quickly as possible. Wars consume lives by the thousands (in Iraq, by the scores of thousands) and sometimes, as in World War II, by the millions. The goal when fighting any war should be peace, not a permanent simmer of nonstop maiming and killing. Wars are meant to be won — if they have to be fought at all — not endlessly looked after. One of the reasons we’re in this state of nonstop warfare is the fact that so few Americans have had any personal stake in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no draft and no direct financial hardship resulting from the wars. So we keep shipping other people’s children off to combat as if they were some sort of commodity, like coal or wheat, with no real regard for the terrible price so many have to pay, physically and psychologically. Not only is this tragic, it is profoundly disrespectful. These are real men and women, courageous and mostly uncomplaining human beings, that we are sending into the war zones, and we owe them our most careful attention. Above all, we owe them an end to two wars that have gone on much too long. A version of this op-ed appeared in print on August 31, 2010, on page A21 of the New York edition.

The ACLU is successfully dragging several police departments into court over what they say are unconstitutional arrests for recording police conversations and behavior. DAs say that because police have sensitive conversations with witnesses, etc., they can't be recorded. They make the distinction that the recording is not illegal, just the publication of it. What bullshit! Cops don't want their illegal behavior to ruin their careers. Not all cops, just the ones that are doing illegal things. This has to change but I'm not holding my breath for the Supremes to make the right decision.

Corporations need your money! Who are you to stand in the governments way of profiting a privileged few? They especially need to take it from ther minimum wage earners cuz they'll only spend it on cigarettes...

good luck with your direct action at parliment. would advise having an affinity group to support you. i encourage all actions of principled nonviolent disobedience. ********************************** **********( $ ) ; ~ }}*************** i'm outta here, calling it a week early. have a great holiday weekend everybody! carry on!!

Angela Merkel, that wild and crazy head ramrod from the Fatherland, has extended the operating life of nuclear power plants as a way to shore up support for elections coming in a year. Ohh Goody! More nuclear waste for the planet! C'mon anarchists! Do something!!

A Florida church preacher is campaigning to burn Quarans (sp.?) on 9/11. General Petreaus is begging for them not to do it as it will put US troops in danger. This whole thing is surreal. A US military general telling Americans not to be free? How much more of this do we have to endure before it stops? In the name of preserving our way of life we are destroying our way of life. I guess peace and tolerance are just quaint old ideas that no longer have any currency in our current world. It reminds me of American proclamations in the Vietnam war saying in order to save the village, we have to destroy it. I never thought I'd see the day when this would happen again, but can't say I'm surprised. ~ All the soldiers dying from Muslim bibles frying ~ Give me an F, a U, a C, a K! Whats that spell? Whats that spell? F * U * C * K, F * U * C * K, F * U * C k!!! Uncle Sam's in a terrible jam Way down yonder in Afghanistan

Here we are agreeing that Muslims have the right to build a mosque near ground zero because it is their right -- their right as an American... Yet, when we are talking about our right as Americans to free speech you feel that right should be abridged if it offends people in a foreign country. The people it offends are already fanatics and trying as hard as possible to kill to American soldiers. I am not prepared to give up my rights in this country because a bunch of fanatics in a foreign country don't like our right to free speech. Again, it brings up the question of what exactly it is we are fighting for over there...

I also agree that it is insensitive and in poor taste to burn anybody's holy books. I wish this intolerant person would give up his ill-advised idea but I 100% support his right to do it.

If there is a way to get people in line and have them do what you want them to do it is Fear. Fear is being used as a weapon against the American people in the "War on Terror". In order for us not to question the billions upon billions of dollars being spent on the military we have been goaded into fearing all Muslims when in fact it is a small minority who oppose the US. By attacking the Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan we have created thousands and thousands of suicide bombers where there were very few to start with. We have created the thing we fear most and thus have been forced to spend money for useless and unnecessary things that do not improve our society. The question must be asked: Who profits from this? The private contractors and arms and munition makers who make up the military-industrial complex. In order to line their pockets we have to made to be scared shitless of every Muslim. If not the Muslims then the Russians. If not the Russians then some other country or race or religion. Being kept in a state of fear is the name of the game they are playing and have been playing for some time. They are quite good at it. There are other interests involved also. Those interests have to do with corporations who wish to do business freely wherever they please and brook no opposition or competition. Therefore they find ways to manipulate countries to oppose their "enemies" . So many suffer so very few can profit greatly. We must come together as human beings and resist control by corporations and masters of war. Of course, where our enemies are real we must thrust the spear forward. Our current state of evolution does not allow for pure nonviolence. However, to be perpetually afraid by manipulation so that we create new and better spears forever is a monstrous sin against our higher nature.