It is time to call the bluff of all the partisan posers, the greed mongers, and those who simply do not know what they are talking about when it comes to health care reform.

Health care reform is needed.  It is absolutely true that if this reform does not take place very soon, the health care and insurance industries are going to drain the United States dry.  We cannot sustain the inhumane way we treat people in need of health care -- financially, medically, or morally.  We stand alone among industrial nations in our horrendous health care system, skewed in favor of the wealthy and those who can afford the expensive health care premiums.  Every average American lives with the fear of bankruptcy from health care costs or lack of adequate health care.  People are dying in huge numbers today in America for lack of adequate health care.  People are losing their homes and/or filing for bankruptcy every day because of our predatory health care and insurance greed.  About 50 million Americans have no health care insurance at all.  Emergency rooms in hospitals are treating people who wait until the last minute for treatment because they do not have coverage to help them get ongoing, regular health screenings.  ER personnel are not trained for this, and people are dying prematurely because they wait too long.  This is the health care scenario of a Third World nation.

Additionally, to maximize profits and minimize costs. hospitals and other health care delivery systems are poorly or inadequately staffed with lesser paid personnel.  About 100,000 Americans die every year because of mistakes made in hospitals.  Folks, that is a major, catasrophic epidemic!

What is needed is a compatible combination of a national health care system with room for competitive, private insurance companies, as they have in Germany.  Yes, Germany has what right-wing extremists call "socialized medicine," but it also has competitive private insurance companies fluorishing.  Every German is covered by a health care program, and Germans can relax about health care costs.  What would Americans do to get such peace of mind regarding health care costs?  It is a dream, but a dream that can be realized with reform.  And the German health care system is excellent.  Recently the leader of the Egyptian government went to Germany to get surgical treatment because he wanted the best.  That is what is available to every German as well.  The long waiting lists for immediate treatment is a myth.

The health care and insurance industry has spread some amazing myths about reform.  The right-wing has told outright lies about health care reform.  Exaggeration is the by-word for right-wing supporters of price- and profit-gouging insurance companies and related health care organizations.  Amazingly, the American Medical Association and AARP support current bills for health care reform.  Is that a message?  What more do you want?  Do you expect an angel to come down from heaven and tell you that health care reform is needed now?  Do you want to wait until the government and financial system of the U.S. comes tumbling down around us because you want to wait?  We cannot sustain today's program of health care in America, period.  Let the irrational nutcases talk of what a good thing it would be if the government and financial system did come tumbling down.  Funny?  No!

The current health care reform legislation that is being proposed is not perfect.  In fact, I do not like it very much at all.  But major aspects of it are so needed that we all should compromise and get this badly needed reform into action and not allow political extremists to deny health care from you and me.  Yes, I wish President Obama had taken positive action to pass reform when he took office and not turn it over to a bumbling, politically-sensitive and partisan Congress.  But this is what we now have, and the reform is so needed that we must act.

Wait?  We have waited since President Teddy Roosevelt first proposed health care reform!  Every little step toward improving our health care system has been fought against by conservatives and right-wingers.  They have no intention to wait and make reform better; they want to stop reform at all costs.  These right-wing blockers are in the hip-pocket of insurance and health-care corporations, intentionally or unintentionally.  We need reform now.  To wait for perfect legislation is to wait for something unattainable.  Get reform passed now!

The forces most dangerous and destructive to the United States are not from the Middle East or south of the Rio Grande or anywhere outside of the confines of our own nation and our own people.  And hypocrisy is their religion.  The height of hypocrisy occurs when the super-patriots, the Founding-Fathers-citing, democracy-touting, Bible-thumping Americans morph into their true selfish, crass and bigoted selves.  Let's start with some quotes to clarify.  How about beginning with one of their "macho" heroes...

"I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them.  There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves." -John Wayne.

How much more moral, ethical, and honest is this...

"The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation." -William McKinley

However John Wayne was not alone in being a famous hero with horrible, bigoted ideas...

"It is time to turn from quarrels and to build our White ramparts again.  The alliance with foreign races means nothing but death for us." -Charles Lindbergh [he may have flown the Atlantic alone but he had lots of partners in this kind of thinking and love of fascism...Du Pont, Ford, Father Coughlin, and many extreme right-wing ideologues]

Many hypocrites think that war and armaments are always the answer.  Yes, we need to remain strong and prepared, but we get so carried away with our macho hypocrisy that we are irrational...

"War, like any other racket, pays high dividends to the very few . . . The cost of operations is always transferred  to the people who do not profit." -General Smedley Butler [two Medals of Honor]

"If we justify war it is because all peoples always justify the traits of  which they find themselves possessed." -Ruth Benedict

"What difference does it make to the dead . . . whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.?" - Mohandas Gandhi

"A man who experiences no genuine satisfaction in life does not want peace . . . Men court war to escape meaninglessness and boredom, to be relieved of fear and frustration." -Nels F. S. Ferre

"Instead of the government taking over industry when the war broke out, industry took over the government." -Claire Gillis

"A prejudiced person will almost certainly claim that he has sufficient warrant for his views." -Gordon W. Allport

"Hypocrisy -- prejudice with a halo." -Ambrose Bierce

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." -William James

I THROW THIS IN FOR EXTRA CREDIT: IT WILL REALLY RILE UP THE MACHO  RIGHT-WINGERS:

"The tendency to identify manhood with a capacity for physical violence has a long history in America." -Marshall Fishwick   [the enlistment centers are always looking for a few good men.....now re-read what I have written above about maintaining a strong nation to protect us, and hold off on the hypocrisy of macho heroism from the safety of your own home].

Almost from the beginning of his administration, I was scathingly critical of Lyndon Johnson's horrible policies in Vietnam.  Not only was Johnson insensitive to the horrors he was raining down on innocent Vietnamese people who wanted nothing more than a unified nation and the vote that was promised them.  They would have voted overwhelmingly for Ho Chi Minh, but the U.S. broke the agreement.  Today, with U.S. forces out of Vietnam, that nation is rebuilding, not bothering its neighbors, and is fast becoming a vacation destination for Americans, Europeans, etc.  But Johnson, his Secty. of Defense, and his horrible generals did not have to face the effects that Agent Orange had on babies and adults.

On Wednesday, the BBC broke a story about what is happening in Fallujah, Iraq.  The U.S. focused its great might on that Sunni stronghold.  The international community was openly critical of the U.S. for its tactics and its use of depleted uranium shells and white phosphorous.  Today, the BBC filmed and reported from Fallujah's hospital.  As many as 13 times the normal birth defects have been reported.  And these defects are of the most horrible nature.  A baby born with 3 heads, babies born with one eye in the middle of their forehead, babies born with an eye and a nose in the middle of their forehead and struggling to gasp for breath, brain damage, one leg, one arm, three legs, grotesquely distorted spines, and the list goes on.  The doctors at the hospital blame the U.S. weaponry and related attacks.

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the leading U.S. military officers in Fallujah should be made to stand in front of these deformed babies.  They chose the barbarous weapons used to cause this tragedy.  Women in that area are told not to have children anymore.  How sad!

Imagine an administration that set up torture sites in strange foreign locations, imprisoning men at Guantanamo with flimsy evidence, and used depleted uranium shells and white phosphorous in Iraq.  What have we become?  What is this America?  Who are we?  How can we justify acting like such monsters?  These are not the war guidelines agreed upon in the Geneva Convention.  But the Geneva accords are beside the point, no civilized nation should conduct itself in such monstrous ways.  We have slid a long, long way as a nation, a people, a culture.  We were despised, even by our allies.  They looked to Obama as a hope for a change, leadership back to civilization.  So far, his delivery is meek.

The United States of America has enough weaponry without depleted uranium and white phosphorous to obliterate any enemy.  Why should we stoop to the low point we have in battle?  Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld should be made to see what they have done.  Get them to that Iraqi hospital where every incubator is full with a disfigured child.  An entire generation of Iraqi women have been told not to have children.  This is our legacy.  Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and our military leaders are war criminals, and of the worst kind.  They have not only obliterated villages in Iraq, they have obliterated the good name of the United States of America.  Shame on us. 

Former big league pitcher, Jim Bunning, now serves as a conservative member of the Senate.  He has announced that he is not going to run for re-election.  But his reasoning is not the same as Senator Bayh, Democrat from Indiana, who also announced he will not run.  Bayh is sick of the petty bickering, but Bunning would not have been elected if he chose to run.  The differences between the two Senators is far, far wider than that.

GOP Senator Bunning has taken the role of the do-nothing conservatives to heart.  He will try to stop anything that has any relationship to Democrats...anything.  So, he alone stands in the way of moving forward on extending jobless benefits.  He probably wouldn't be the roadblock if he were running for office.  Not only his constituents are angry with him, but so are many Republicans.  But the Republicans will not break their negative ranks to "out" him.  Of course all Republicans are worried about the implications of his stubborn roadblock.  It affects all people who are unemployed or underemployed, and that is a very, very large number.  Each Republican will feel a backlash because the general public is far more sensitive and understanding than the stalwart do-nothings.  Imagine a major political party so hellbent on doing nothing that they will hurt their own nation and even some of their consituents.  That is a very cynical and insensitive position.  But the conservatives feel they have enough negativity sympathizers on other issues to off-set this one miscue.

The United States is in a horrible situation.  We have the stumbling, bumbling, lacking-in-leadership Democrats screwing up just about everything.  And we have the Republicans screwing up everything with their "no bill will pass this Congress because we can stop everything...and we will!"  Is there a single loyal American in either House, in either party?  Do politics trump what is good for America?  Are we so goofy in our focus on our own navel in Congress that we will actually hurt the United States?

The men and women who sit in the House and Senate are sabotaging your U.S. and mine.  How juvenile can one be?  Whatever happened to loyalty, patriotism, adherence to the spirit of America?  How low will we allow the U.S. to sink into an immoral, unethical morass?  How many people have to be unnecessarily hurt by this cynical Congress?  Does bigotry play a role in all this madness?  Is it a reflection of selfishness?  Has greed capitalism so captured us that we are now haunted by it?  Have we so bought the propaganda of greedy corporations and special-interest groups that we are willing to sacrifice our own nation to make a point?

While it will be interesting how the Republicans in Congress spin the open-ended invitation made by President Obama to discuss health care reform, but don't hold your breath for reconciliation.  In fact the very word "reconciliation" has already been manipulated by the conservatives in Congress.  Originally the ability to require only 51 votes in the Senate to move along legislation has been skewed by the GOP to filibuster everything...and I mean everything.  And when the "reconcilation" of the past when only 51 votes were required is told in truth, suddenly all the conservatives are aghast.  But the very term COBRA that is used to help people hold onto health insurance when they lose or change jobs, contains this provision because the "R" in COBRA means reconciliation...51 votes required.  Much major legislation in the past has been done this way.  Health care for children in poverty was covered by 51 votes.  So were many, many pieces of important legislation in the past.  Not  today; the GOP demands 60 votes.

Look, I am pleased that a minority in the Senate can delay action with the 60 vote requirement.  Repeat: I am pleased that is usually required.  But when there are lies floating around that it should always be required in major legislation, the historical facts prove otherwise.  The lies get me about the current conservatives in Congress.  Of course...let me repeat that...of course the Democrats lie.  But when "no" becomes the only thing permitted in the GOP because a black Democrat sits in the White House, then it is time to shed some light on it.

Conservatives point to Congressman Paul Ryan's alternative plan.  That is simply a way to reimburse more to private companies related to the health care field.  My goodness, when is enough enough for the drug companies and insurance companies?  They run up record profits and now are determined to raise premiums as much as 39% next quarter.  Somebody has to finally say, "STOP!" to these gouger corporations.

Conservatives scream that the current health care reform proposal would hurt Medicare.  That is so ridiculous it should not need an explanation to show that as a scam statement.  Ever since Medicare was passed, the GOP has fought tooth and nail against it.  They tried to keep it from being passed, and every Congressional session since that time has seen conservatives try to either rape it, limit it, take away its benefits, or end it.  And all-the-while Medicare has operated efficiently and with very low administrative costs.  If only the insurance companies could operate as efficiently and at such low administrative costs.  We are being swindled by these companies through horrendous adminstrative costs and ungodly profits.  For conservatives to use health care to reward these companies is abominable.  And for the GOP to say they are "protecting" Medicare is just as big a scam.

Unless major health care reform is legislated, the current federal budget problems will pale by comparison in the future as we are driven to the poor house by health care costs.  Unlike any industrial nation in the world, we allow this swindle to happen in the U.S.  And conservatives want to make it even a bigger swindle!  In every social democracy in Europe that has universal health care, there are private insurance companies doing very nicely.  Don't allow lying conservatives to tell you otherwise!  It is not socialism to cover everyone, it is the natural responsibility of a nation in its obligation to provide for people those things they cannot provide for themselves.  Our health care system is not working, and people are dying because of it.  How inhumane can insurance companies and the conservative community be?  Yes, you Mr. and Ms. America, we have an obligation to provide health care for every one of our fellow Americans...and ultimately at a far cheaper cost than private insurance now charges.

We need health care reform.  And we need it now.  Conservatives should offer specific and helpful suggestions.  We have waited a century for conservatives to come on board with this reform.  Obama made the mistake of turning this over to Congress in the beginning.  The Democrats made a huge mess of the reform, and the GOP fought everything to stop any progress.  They are both to blame.  It is time for Obama to show leadership, and for Congress to get off their rear ends and stop posturing.  Get it done!

Yes, it is possible to be informed in the United States.  Yes, it is possible to find objective journalism in the U.S.  No, no place is perfect in reporting the news.  However regularly following these news sources will get you much closer to the truth than following MSNBC, FOX, Moveon, Limbaugh, or other news outlets that only slant the news and do not report it objectively ...or even make an attempt to do so.  A partial list I suggest...

The British Broadcasting Co. is still the gold standard in international news.   BBC.co.uk/

Sunlight Foundation.org - A non-partisan, non-profit place to find refreshing openness about events and people who influence the news.  They recently revealed the secret meetings that Obama had with the pharmaceutical industry, its CEOs, its lobbyists, etc. after he promised  to eliminate lobbying in Washington. 

NPR.org   National Public Radio, with limited resources, presents a fair assessment of news and events.

PBS.org -   Public TV network is still too beholden to its major support groups, but does as fair a presentation of the news as can be found in the U.S. on network TV.

mediamonitors.net

alternet.org

commondreams.org

oppapers.com - has access to many research papers, essays, and theses on a variety of subjects.

CBC - The Canadians have a much better record of objective news reporting than most of U.S. news.

Of course there are many other sources that I could suggest.  But if you relied on the above resources in your search for objectivity in news reporting you would be far better infomred than 99% of Americans.

Last Thursday I was at a public insitution gathering when the first news came in about the plane that crashed into an office building in Austin, Texas.  Immediately I began to hear comments about "Obama is too easy on those damn terrorists!" or "When will Obama learn?" or "That's what we get for coddling the terrorists," or "No doubt it is some Moslem terrorist."  It was almost as though people were pleased that their illogical judgments about the Obama administration were being confirmed. 

A little while later more specific news began to filter in about it being some disraught American who flew his small plane into an IRS office building.  I could feel the air go out of the room, as though people were sad to learn that it was an American and not an Arab Moslem.  I was astonished.  Is this how prejudice and judgementalism play out in today's hateful American society?

We have become so hatefully segmented and ideological in our thinking that we rejoice in learning about Moslem terrorists so that our sweeping conclusions about them are assured and confirmed.  And that some of us rejoice in finding faults with liberals and progressives and "their" President.  Yes, we have sunk this low.

An interesting side-bar to this story in Austin is that the hatred against the IRS and the government "taxers" is only good if the action is against the liberal government's actions.  Amazingly, when it comes to taxes we seem to overlook the fact that the leading Republican candidate for Governor of Wisconsin, a wealthy man, has not paid any income taxes in 9 of the last 10 years.  And that the past conservative presidents have given tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and not the middle class.  We were told by conservatives when Bush lowered taxes for the richest Americans nine years ago that this would create jobs.  How is this playing out for you today? 

It was not too long ago that terrorism struck in the heartland of the United States when Timothy McVeigh, a right-wing nut, killed many Americans in his bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City.  There were some who celebrated this strike against the government, but not too many.  Today we have people acting out in strange, bitter, insane ways with the hateful agenda presented by the right-wing in America.  Many of this strange bitterness is against things that would help the majority of  poor and middle-class Americans.  Bombing federal buildings and killing innocent Americans is not a sane thing to do.  And to condone or celebrate it, or to assume in knee-jerk reaction against Moslems or liberals is an example of how nuts we have become.

We shall have to begin to carry outselves as sane, adult Americans and see the future in a spirit of cooperation for our nation and society.  The insanity of both the left and the right is destroying us.  Bitter and extreme ideology is seriously eroding our democracy.  Will sane Americans please step forward.

One of the more interesting comments left below a recent blog posting of mine is that I have to decide what I must believe.  That is totally anathema to me.  I've lived a long time, and things I thought were absolutely true now appear to me to be not true.  An open mind, free of judgments and belief systems is a healthy mind.  But people insist they must believe in some scripted menu for life, some road map for life, some exclusive deduction about life that far too often excludes "the others."  Below are some current "beliefs" that may or may not be true.  However none are true because they fit some pre-conceived belief system or political posture...

People enter the field of psychiatry or psychology to find themselves. *  People enter the field of theology to find God. *  Chicago is called the "Windy City" because of the wind [NOT true]. * Trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Umar Abdulmutallab in federal court shows Obama coddles terrorists. * The Bush administration almost always indicted terror suspects as criminals and tried them in federal courts. * When viewing how the federal court system worked in trying terrorists, Republican Mayor of New York and GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, commented: "I was in awe of the system.  It does demonstrate that we can give people a fair trial." [Jane Mayer story  in 'The New Yorker']. * The Bible tells children to kill their parents when they conflict with the theology of the day. * The Bible tells parents to kill their children when they are sinful. * The Bible chastises rich people and tells people to give away everything and follow Christ. *  The Bible tells people to pay their taxes and "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." * Roman Catholic priests married and had families until the Church felt is was losing too much money as these priests left their estates to their families...and thus the Church required priest to be celibate. * Some Popes married. * Rabbinical Judaism terribly mistreated the Essenes. *  Adolf Hitler was greatly helped to power in Germany by American industrialists. *  A young George W. Bush fathered a fetus that was then aborted with his family's help. *  Because of the lies and exaggerations uncovered at an East Anglia university, climate change is a hoax. * Global warming and climate change are the same thing. * Record snowfalls in the southern U.S. states prove there is no global warming. * When climate change occurs, weather patterns and fronts are altered and areas that were traditionally cold are warmed and warm areas receive more preciptation including snow because evaporations around the globe put moisture in the air. * Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. * Official birth certificate records show Obama was clearly born in Hawaii. * Amazingly, the same people who criticize Obama for being a member of a specific church also say he is a Moslem. * A higher percentage of Roman Catholics in the U.S. use contraceptives then people in the general population. * Violent crime has gone down in states that have eased up on laws related to concealed weapons. * Violent crime has gone down to a greater extent in states that have greater restrictions on gun ownership. * Crime has gone down in states that have enacted capital punishment. * Crime has gone down to a greater degree in states that have no capital punishment. * Using the term "Libertarian Party" is alot like the Nazis advocating liberty for big business to do what it wants to do...that's is how Nazism took hold in Germany when corporations like I.G. Farben, Messerschmidt, Krupp, etc. got whatever they wanted, including huge military contracts. * The health care reform advocated by Democrats would have saved Medicare, offered health care to tens of millions of Americans without it, and got costs down because big insurance companies would FINALLY have some competition for rates. * Newt Gingrich would make a great president. * Paul Ryan would make a great president...as long as nobody carefully looks at his plan for America. * More Republicans have decided not to run for Congress than Democrats. * Today the term Independent means one is independent of intelligent thought and information. * Reid and Pelosi have been horrible leaders in Congress. * The Haitian earthquake happened because Haitians made a deal with the devil. * Stop reading!, in confuses the issue. * Rush Limbaugh is officially a convicted criminal. * These kinds of absolutes are not at all helpful in moving the nation or the world forward.

The refrain from the old, emotional song confronts us with the choices we have to make in life.  Unfortunately, too many of us ONLY see the world as one in which one feels the MUST to ALWAYS support this side or that, especially in political matters.  We are a lesser nation for it.

All you have to do is identify a statement or program with a name and decisions are made without any knowledge of the relative merits.  We have become a nation of knee-jerk ideologues.  I don't know about the knees particularly, but we certainly have become jerks.

The free interchange of ideas and opinions has been lost.  Civilized discussion and civilization itself have taken a giant step backward.  We have shot ourselves in the foot.  We are so blinded by partisan reaction and judgment that the very act of moving forward is suspect.  We have become comfortable in our own excrement.  We are not the democratic nation we once were; our leadership among nations has taken some very serious hits.  We seem to take pride in partisanship and in the process have become either oblivious or uncaring about our sinking reputation in the world.

We hold onto sexual slips by "the other side."  We cannot get Bill Clinton's adultery out of our minds, and act as though this gives us license to act against the best interests of the general public.  Somehow we choose to forget the adulterous behavior of presidents through the years: Harding [GOP], FDR [Dem.], Eisenhower [GOP], JFK [Dem.], Reagan [GOP], Clinton [Dem.].  Taking sides on this issue seems to be a self-defeating effort.  We might  mention even candidates for President have had their adulterous behaviors [Edwards, Gingrich, etc.].  So???

It is high time we get ahold of ourselves and begin to act as adults.  It is beyond high time that we begin to make intelligent decisions, regardless of political party or some pigeon-holed ideology.  And we have to communicate this to our ignorant, partisan politicians.  Let us act as Americans, and see our potential as a nation and as a society.  Culture is not only relevant to cheese.  Let us see the United States of America for its great potential and not restrict this nation from it.  We are killing the very nation we claim to love.  We are playing out a plot of doom for America.

While there are some people who see liberals everywhere, it is well to point out that the United States of America is the only industrial nation in the entire world that never had a strong political movement from the left.  To a conservative this is hard to believe.  To a conservative, a movement to organize labor is a leftist threat.  To a conservative, any taxes are cause for concern and seen as unnecessarily bowing to the left [unless the money is spent on the military, border protection, taxing the middle class in order to give tax breaks to big business, drug enforcement to protect legal drug corporations, etc.]. 

Milwaukee is a good case in point.  For decades in the 20th century, the Mayor of Milwaukee was officially a member of the Socialist Party, and ran for office on that ticket.  The last Socialist mayor here was in 1960.  Prior to 1960, Milwaukee was well known to have just about the cleanest and most honest city government in America.  Since then, there has been a slide and Milwaukee is now seen as a city in great trouble financially, socially, racially, politically, etc.  Today not only the term "socialist" has been trashed and made people fearful, the word "liberal" is also feared by many.  And the liberals have allowed it to happen with their own lack of principled and assertive leadership.  Rather than fight to uphold the rich liberal tradition, liberals have been cowards and ran away to the term "progressive."

It is a joke to label today's Democratic Party as liberal.  The U.S. Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House of Representatives are hardly raving liberals.  They are politically expedient, and choose silly topics, heavily compromised bills, and awkward argumentation to put forth their shallow legislation.  It is not surprising that the Democrats in Congress have been miserable failures.

Adding to the misconception about liberals are the media.  On network "talk shows" there is always a gathering of liberals and conservatives to discuss a point.  I have seen no liberals come forward with anythng approaching intelligent discussion and proposals.  Usually they have "wimped out," or taken argumentative positions that may make for good media but do very little to move the U.S. forward.  There is no strong, intelligent liberal voice in America today.

Moving back to my hometown of Milwaukee, I found no liberal voice of note here either.  This city, long rich in liberal politics, is now without a liberal voice.  Oh, there are some modest, timid liberals who sheepishly speak out from time to time, but they are far too often beholden to their job, or their radio or TV outlet, or without intelligent discourse.  Liberals in Milwaukee are just about non-existent.  What a tragic development in a city with such an illustrious liberal heritage.

The loss of intelligent liberals can be clearly exampled in the way President Obama has handled his proposals and hopes for change.  He turned the future of change over to the politicians in Congress.  What a horrible mistake!  His strong leadership was essential from the first day he took office, and instead he tried to act "democratically" and allow the elected members of Congress to take the lead.  Leadership and Congress do not mesh, they are worlds apart in today's environment.  There is no leadership in Congress from the left or the right.  Wimpy LIberals vs. No-Nothing Conservatives.  What a nation we have become.

Oh, how we American "purists" love to heap piles of our "pure" criticism on Moslems.  The "purist of the pure" here identify all Moslems as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.  What if I were to be so blatant as to tell you that Islam is a religion of Peace?  Would you cringe?  Would that be impossible for you to process?  If you absolutely cannot accept the peace identification with the faith of Moslems, then it is an indication of how completely brainwashed you are, and perhaps more importantly, how easily you can fall prey to any prejudice, especially religious bigotry.

While the history of Mohammed and Islam are somewhat different and easily misunderstood by Jews and Christians, the majority of Moslems are people of peace.  True, many have been led in a direction away from the true precepts of Islam, there is also ample evidence to support the reaction that many of that faith have in the way Christians and Jews have historically mistreated Moslem people.  In truth, there has been a history of centuries of looking down at Moslem culture and people.  We do this even as we ignore the major contribution of Moslem culture, and the flowering culture that was flourishing while Christian peoples were languishing in a dark period in European history.  When the powerful nations of Europe evolved and became empires, they stomped heavily on Moslem people and raped them of much wealth and held them down in just about every way possible.

Even as we stepped on Moslems with our heavy Christian empire boots, we were always fighting among ourselves.  The history of the world is replete with Christian wars.  The brutality of Christians fighting Chrisitans and others is repulsive.  In southeastern colonial America, Christians nailed fellow Christians of a different denomination upside down on crosses.  The state of Maryland was formed so that Catholics would have a place to live in the strongly bigoted Protestant U.S.  The list of Christian on Christian atrocities is common in American history.  And the uncivilized treatment of Native Americans by Christians is clear and present in all of our U.S. history.  Indeed, the very existence of a wealthy American economy is built upon the stomping of American Indians, Hispanic Americans [especially Mexicans], and wars of both moral and questionable natures...World War I, World War II, but also wars against American Indians, Vietnam, Iraq, the Spanish-American War, taking of land from Mexico, invading the tiny island of Greneda, supporting horrible dictators like Somoza and Batista, ad infinitum.  Military-industrial wealth has been a big part of the economic "American dream."  We have left in our path destruction and the killing of hundreds of thousands of our "enemies" [which includes the very people who were here when Europeans landed in America].  The bringing of slaves to America, and the treatment of their anscestors is a sad, brutal history of the United States.  But we love to pound our chests in celebrating our own "heritage" and think of ourselves as pure and a leader of the "free world."  That free world meant white, Europeans and their descendants in the United States.  Proud?  Do we truly and honestly recognize it in ourselves?

There are many faces of evil.  The terrorism of people of a radical brand of Islam is certainly an obvious face of evil.  But the face of evil marks much of our history in the U.S.  To me, even a worse face of history is shown by people who ignore their own atrocities and hide behind the mask of two-faced religion.  As we judge others, we Americans must first take a long, hard, honest look at ourselves and how we have terrorized people of many faiths and cultures ...and not always for noble reasons.  Any patriotic American must first have a clear understanding of the history and actions of our nation, both noble and ignoble.  It is far too easy to judge people who we view as "different" from ourselves. 

"We stand for the maintenance of private property...We shall protect free enterprise as the most expedient or rather the sole possible economic order." -Adolf Hitler

"I cannot admit that any man born ...has either the knowledge or authority to tell other men...what God's purposes are." -Judge Ben B. Lindsey

"The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan values and ends is...the source of all religious fanaticism." -Reinhold Niebuhr

Selective memory is often found in political commentary.  Selective perspective also.  What is the most despicable are those comments and commentators that assume a lofty, honest, religious perch and conduct their lives quite differently.

It is easy to remember Richard M. Nixon and his talking "down" to people he considered below him morally and ethically.  He liked to lecture about others personal behavior, sexual practices, "liberal" morality, and so forth.  He was the darling of those who hold such "better than thou" positions.  And then came the Watergate scandal.  And then came the gutteral, filthy language from the White House tapes.

Along came Ronald Reagan.  Oh, how he and his wife liked to exhibit their pure life, lifestyle, and lofty observations about others' beliefs and behaviors.   Of course much of the public was counted on to forget or not acknowledge Ronnie's indiscretions while married; his reputation as a guy who bedded some of the most attractive women in Hollywood (and elsewhere).  Nevertheless, in the White House we received the pure messages from the guy who saw America as a movie set, with all the good guys and bad guys and the closing morality messages.  Of course, not only was Ronnie a dispersed lover, he was in the hip-pocket of the biggest and most greedy corporations in America.  And, oh, by the way, he also made secret armament trades with the horrible, extreme, Moslem nation of Iran.  Overlook it.

The first President Bush became president after he called Ronald Reagan's financial program suggestions, "voodoo economics."  Nevertheless he carried out the voodoo very well upon winning the election and following Reagan to the White House.  His family's long standing personal and economic ties to Saudi Arabia were happily exhibited when Saddam stupidly invaded the Saudi neighbor, Kuwait, and threatened to invade the Arabian Peninsula next.  Bush One gladly (and correctly) helped to throw Saddam out of Kuwait, and let it go at that.  The Saudis were pleased with that result and Bush One saw no further exploits in Iraq, something that would have angered our NATO allies and others.  Of course his son saw things differently, and his big military-industrial supporters needed more military income.  Bush One remains to this day active in Saudi business enterprises...and receives handsome pay-offs.

Along came that horrible man, Bill Clinton.  Right-wingers love to call him "trailer trash."  Of course the right-wing sleaze has proven to make even the most immoral trailer resident blush.  But when Clinton irresponsibly engaged in sexual activities in the White House with an intern, the right-wingers saw a marvelous opportunity to get even about Richard Nixon's impeachment and guilty charges.  And they pounced on it.  It was a comic opera.  The man who led the impeachment in the House was adulterer Henry Hyde.  Newt Gingrich, another adulterer, was lauded by his fellow Republicans.  When things began to unravel in Newt's life and an expose was about to take place, he left the House.  The right wing had trouble replacing Newt.  The guy from Louisiana that they chose for the job turned out to be an adulterer himself.  Shades of Monty Python!

In my previous blog I covered the sleaze factor with George W. Bush and his fawning over big corporations, tax cuts for the wealthy, attacking money spent on the poor and middle class, and desire to fill the coffers of the military-industrial giants.  He created a boom for Halliburton [his vice president's former employer] and the likes of Blackwater and the usual corporate suspects who care little about the men and women sacrificed if it means big profits in wars.

That brings us to the right-wing ranting and shouting about ACORN.  Gosh, they got tons of headlines about ACORN.  Far worse were the actions of the right-wingers who engaged in uncovering ACORN and left in their right-wing wake some broken laws, felonious activities, and illegal break-ins.  Eagerly supported by Republican and right-wing money, the likes of names like O'Keefe, Basel, Dai, Flanagan, Wetmore, et al broke in to try and get info on Democrat Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana.  This cabal of right-wingers have been planning and acting around the nation.  Some are conservative college newspaper editors.  Others search the limelight, regardless of the task or political crimes.  As reported by Jim Rutenberg and Campbell Robertson in a news service story last week: "Those methods took root on college campuses in the latter half of George W. Bush's presidency, fostered by a group of men and women in their early 20s with a taste for showmanship..."  Money was made available by old Republican families like the Coorses and Scaifes, and the conservative Leadership Institute's Balance in Media grant program.

So there you have a small taste of what is in store for us in the future.  Using high-sounding and moral words, these charlatan right-wingers have slithered into American society in a big way.  They do not want to promote anything for the common good, they want to destroy progressives ...period.  And for the past 30 years or so the right-wing has stooped lower and lower to achieve their goals.  Listen to Rush Limbaugh, and the other screamers on the air.  They are not entertainers, they represent what is more and more being adopted as right-wing politics.  We are a lesser nation for it.

While people from the left and right oversimplify the dilemmas faced by the U.S., and egocentrically think that all the government has to do is this or that and voila!, all will be fine.  It is especially distressing when these simple suggestions for complex issues come from power groups that only have an attitude that everyone who disagrees with them is the hated enemy.   Or conceal the fact that their opinions come from commercial and all-too-greedy motivations.  Too often these hate-filled attacks come from people and groups who have little or no understanding of the historical backdrop to events and developments.  When one has only an elementary understanding, elementary solutions seem obvious.

With George W. Bush we have a case in point.  From the beginning of his political life, he had the resources and power to devise his own life story.  Often it was done leaving others in his destructive wake.  His ridicule of John Kerry and John McCain for his own political gain is only a small portion of the story.  George W. Bush's trip to the White House and his subsequent horrid administration is not drawn by political perspective, it is drawn from his history; from his sordid history.

George W. Bush was born into wealth.  He always was used to favors offered his way.  His trek through Yale was one of lewd and partying behaviors.  His father and family always rescued him.  But it is not the wealth that bothers me, it is the way the family got the wealth and how they used it.  He was the spoiled brat who received the most from this spring of wealth and influence, and in many ways he was the least talented and deserving in the family.

George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, needs to be followed to know the nature of the Bush family wealth and influence.  [use any search engine: Bush.Nazi, Prescott Bush.Nazi, Prescott Bush.Saudi, etc.] Suffice to say, Prescott Bush built his wealth on the backs of America, including American soldiers fighting Nazi Germany in World War II.  Though illegal, Prescott Bush established a cozy relationship with the oil-rich nation of Saudi Arabia.  That close connection between the Bush family and the Saudi family and nation continues to this day.  Prescott Bush was the man who profited greatly from clandestinely selling Saudi oil to Nazi Germany.  His wealth was literally built on the backs of U.S. allies fighting the Nazis, and upon the backs of our military men, risking their lives to preserve the capitalist system that Prescott Bush twisted to his own fortune and advantage.  Repeat: this sale of Saudi oil by an American was illegal.  The Bush family never allows illegality to get in its way.  And Prescott Bush had other ties to the Nazis, including steel, use of Holocaust victims, Auschwitz slave labor, etc.

The horribly unpatriotic nature of the building wealth of the Bush family did not end in World War II.  The grandson, George W. Bush, our former president, was vulnerable to the military draft during the Vietnam War.  To escape the danger of being called to fight in Vietnam, George W's father, very influential in all parts of the federal government, arranged to have his son "serve" in the Texas air guard.  I guess our military hero, George, was protecting Dallas from a Vietcong invasion.  But that wasn't enough for playboy George.  He disappeared for long stretches of time from anything connected to the Texas air wing.  Indeed, he was AWOL.  That is what made his later landing on the aircraft carrier in full military pilot's uniform so repugnent.  And to land on that carrier and claim "Mission Accomplished" in his illegal war in Iraq is about as poor form as is imaginable.

I could go on and on about this.  It gets more and more sickening.  Read for yourself the story of Prescott Bush, whatever has not been stricken from the record of George W. Bush.  Some material on George W. miraculously disappeared before and after his campaign for the White House.

I could go on with the positive history of Dwight D. Eisenhower.  This is not a dialogue to criticize only Republicans.   Eisenhower was truly a war hero.  Eisenhower served his time.  Eisenhower would never have pulled that trick on the aircraft carrier.  Eisenhower was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  Eisenhower warned us against the military-industrial complex.  Some Republicans have been heroic.

However we should not run away from the sinister history of George W. Bush.  His sordid past, his sordid administration should serve as a warning: never again!  If we ignore the ignomineous example of George W. Bush, we are asking to be duped again.  It is no surprise that President George W. served the Saudis and military corporations very, very well in his administration.  After all, ONLY Saudis were allowed to fly in the U.S. immediately following 9-11.  George W. Bush's father still serves on Saudi oil boards.  We do whatever the Saudis ask when it comes to Middle East actions, at least during the two Bush administrations.

I anticipate the continuing criticisms in reaction to this blog entry by stating the sex exploits of Bill Clinton.  However it is interesting to note that Newt Gingrich was "fooling around" with young female government workers also.  And it is further interesting to note that the Impeachment of Clinton in the House was led by adulterer Henry Hyde, who called his adultery in his forties "a youthful dalliance."  And the man who the Republicans chose to replace Gingrich as Speaker had to withdraw his nomination when it was found that he was an adulterer.  But this is miniscule compared to George W. Bush and the Bush family ties to Nazi Germany,  the Saudi family, and the "special" favors offered George W. to avoid serving in Vietnam yet finding it expedient to sabotage two who did, Kerry and McCain.

Write all the diatribes you will, but instead of wild, sweeping statements, please try to do as I have always done here: used my historian's education and background to make a point historically.

Let the games begin!

Politics in the United States have sunk so low that just about anyone who does not agree with one's strict adherence to some political straight-jacket is seen, not as a political adversary or opponent, but as an enemy.  Sometimes the vitriol is so viscious that Americans treat fellow-Americans as outsiders, and call each other names like socialists, communists, fascists, Nazis, etc.  While it has been escalating since the 1980s, it has become downright outrageous since the U.S. elected a president of mixed racial background who was and is quickly identified as black.  In the U.S., one drop of African blood makes on black.  And we cast prejudicial stones at people based on skin color and shade.  Sad.

However, let's pause and look at the variance of comments that have been made about liberals and conservatives that carry a lighter aura and temperament.  Methinks we need this.

"I can remember way back when a liberal was one who was generous with his own money." -Will Rogers

"Conservative, n.  a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others." -Ambrose Bierce

"If a man is right he can't be too radical; if he is wrong, he can't be too conservative." -Josh Billings

"No man can cause more grief than that one clinging blindly to the vices of his ancestors." -William Faulkner

"The conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it." -Will and Ariel Durant

"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road -- they get run over." -Aneurin Bevan

"The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.  The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Though I believe in liberalism, I find it difficult to believe in liberals." -G.K. Chesterton

"Liberal -- a power worshipper without the power." -George Orwell

"One learns in life to remain silent and draw one's own confusions." -Cornelia Otis Skinner

"As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more." -Jules Renard

"The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes." -Frank Lloyd Wright

"We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon." -Konrad Adenauer

Among the myriad things we have forgotten about the horrid two terms of George W. Bush, the Iraqi mistake hangs over us.  It will haunt us for a long, long time.  Anyone with any historical and current understanding of the Iraq "nation" knew what a terrible mistake was made invading that sovereign nation.  Yes, Saddam was a horrible leader, but no nation, including the U.S., has the right to trump up false charges to justify such an invasion.  And have the ongoing ignorance and bravado to celebrate our "victory" there with a broad "Mission Accomplished" sign as President Bush had one shaky hand on the steering wheel of the plane that landed on a aircraft carrier with him in full military gear.  Shades of the AWOL military reservist Bush.

While Bush slinked out of the White House, conservatives, wishing to cover-up the Iraqi mistake, celebrated the new direction taken by General Petraeus.   That new direction shook out this way in Iraq.  To quell the Sunni insurgency, the U.S. under the new general's leadership, secretly put the Sunni military on the payroll of the United States.  The cost: $30 million a month.  And it was done without the knowledge of the Shiite government in Baghdad.  Who knows what else they were promised?  But this much I know.  The Sunni leaders thought they would get autonomy in their western province, a share in Iraqi oil revenue, and a voice in the national government in Iraq.  It does not look as though the central, Shiite-led government in Baghdad is prepared to grant those wishes.  And that government hated the deal the Americans cut wth the Sunnis.

As President Obama guides the pull-out in Iraq next summer, the real battle for Iraq will take place.  The inevitable civil war will wage on fiercely.  The mess we caused will begin to explode openly.  The Sunnis and the Kurds will blame the Shiite-led government, the Arab Iraqis will blame the United States, the American conservatives will blame Obama, the liberals will blame the conservatives, and so forth.  The mess will be the inevitable outcome that was to come about from the day we illegally invaded that sovereign nation.

Iraq never was a nation, in the truest sense of the word.  It was cobbled together primarily by the British Empire.  It always took a strong, military power to hold it together.  When the European colonialists lost control of Iraq, it was confused and lacked strong leadership until Saddam took control and brought a Sunni government to rule the Shiite-majority nation.  Hatred continued to simmer as Saddam ruled with a ruthless iron hand.  The Sunnis were given special considerations.  The Shiites and Kurds waited their chance.  Shiite Iran fought a bitter war with Sunni-led Iraq.  Saddam gassed the Kurds.  When we invaded, the bitterness that was divided among the Moslems in the area, solidified in their new hatred of the United States.  A mess was created for America throughout the Middle East.  It was inevitable.  Anyone with any insight into the area realized this.  The absolute ignorance of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al did not see it, and in their ignorant bliss they celebrated and then trumped up excuses for their horrible failure.  The Middle East was thrown into a worse cauldron than before.  Crazy!

Now it is time to pay the piper in Iraq.  Even with all their oil revenue, they cannot survive the divisionary rumble that we helped create.  As we pull out and problems arise, the U.S. will be blamed for it all.  It will be our sad legacy in the Middle East.

Today marked the demise of Air America, the predominently liberal radio system.  I have been searching to remember if I ever listened to it.  I don't believe I ever did.  No matter.  I do not like stilted political radio.

Most disturbing to me are the sweeping conclusions drawn about its demise.  Right-wing extremists see in its death the pending death knell for all of liberal thought and action.  They see it as proof that liberalism is a failure.  That's pretty drastic and over-reaching in opinion.  No similar conclusions were drawn by liberals about the bankruptcy of major American corporations that generously supported right-wing agendas.  Corporations that almost exclusively heralded conservative programs have died.  So?

While I find the broadcasts of Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh offensive and very low-level, I have never advocated for them to leave the air.  I suppose there is a place for such anti-intellectual, biased, and often bigoted radio programs.  What may disturb me is the fact that many Americans do not see those crude broadcasters for what they are.  They represent America at its worse.

This brings us to an interesting development.  Perhaps two of the most successful private corporations in the U.S. today are Halliburton and Blackwater.  Is this the America we want to be in front, leading the U.S. parade?  Are we to celebrate two corporations that see a marvelous bottom-line from killing other humans?  Not only has success almost exclusively been cascading on corporations in the military industrial marketplace in the U.S., we seem to blindly accept and celebrate it.  Is this really the America we want as our best example of private, corporate success?

Watching "Meet the Press" on NBC-TV, with the moderator sitting between former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton was a change in the environment.  I personally did not like either of their administrations or either of them personally.  But there they were, exchanging cooperative comments about joining them in support of Haiti following that horrible earthquake there.  Though differing in their political perspectives, they were able to put that aside for the good of humanity and for the good will of the American people.  How absolutely appropriate and examplery was this action.  In today's overheated political climate, with political wars swirling all around us, and every single thing dividing Americans in polarizing hatred, one could ponder for one brief moment the possibilities inherent in cooperation.  Could it possibly become a catalyst to return to the sanity of politics and government in the U.S.?

On another front, I reminisce about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in America.  I knew him.  I knew his father, "Daddy King," better.  I met his mother also.  In fact, I was asked by Daddy King to speak at their church, Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta.  I sat on Daddy King's front lawn with him one night as he spoke of his son's murder exactly one year ago on that evening.  He told me, "I thought that after one year the pain would begin to ease.  It hasn't."  I had no words.  I was emotionally blown away.  Someday some author will write a book about the impact of Daddy King on his son's life.  It was profound.  Someday, perhaps, a movie will be made about the largely untold story of Daddy King, the pastor with the worn-smooth dark blue suit, the humble man, the man of principle, the man of God.  His story and influence must be told!

NBC's reporter and sometimes news anchor, Lester Holt, is reporting from Haiti.  His reports are very good.  He captures the essence of the tragedy and the spirit of the Haitian people.  He spoke of sleeping outside one night and surrounded by all the hungry, thirsty, and ravaged people who began to sing in their suffering.  Mr. Holt was inspired, but he didn't overplay it.  But he did capture the special characteristics of the people of Haiti.  The long-suffering people of Haiti, taken advantage of by colonial France and then a succession of cultural rapes by other nations, and also the devious leaders that ruled them.  Yet, after a devastating earthquake, here they were tired and hungry and feeling personal tragedy, singing through the night.  Those of us who have so much by comparison could learn from those people  I hope we do.

Both right-wing evangelist Pat Robertson and equally right-wing radio squawker Rush Limbaugh have openly shared their similar opinion about the earthquake that ravaged Haiti.   They both have been critical of the  people of  Haiti and in a real sense blame the people of  that long-suffering nation themselves for much of  their misery.   Pat Robertson, receiving a backlash from the general American public, has tried to gloss over his insensitive statements, but remains critical of Haitians for their "deal with the devil," a total distortion of historical facts.  Rush Limbaugh is proudly holding fast to his boasting and insensitivity.

These political bed partners share more than just their inhuman reaction to a catastrophe of monumental proportions.  They are prototypes of the crude, cruel, inhuman, and unholy alliance that has been formed between the political right-wing and the fundamental religious pentecostals.  Each group was out of power, on the fringe of American political and religious society.  They parlayed their out-of-the-mainstream rants into a force to be reckoned with.  In fact, they helped in forming a coalition of those two fringe groups and took control of the Republican Party.  Not long ago, even the staunchest right-winger would have been embarrassed to be identified with either Limbaugh or Robertson.  Today, their power-grab in American conservative politics has elevated them to center court.

Sure, Robertson's influence has waned since he ran for President of the United States on a right-wing ticket.  Sure, his amazing charges and opinions have rendered him a somewhat old and out of touch hack.  He has, for example, charged that the CIA should be used to "take out" the democratically-elected leader of Venezuela. That alone should have uncovered him as a wacko with no credibility.  But he survives and still has quite a television ministry.  And his ilk still holds power in the right wing of American politics.

Limbaugh, on the other hand, has  used a different medium, radio, to garner a large following as he increases the craziness of the right-wing to new heights.  His rants are never wacky enough to shake his ardent followers.   Not even being caught at the Mexican border with illegal drugs lost him any of his legions.  Limbaugh has a voice in both the Republican Party and the right-wing, and he struts it regularly.

As the craziness has grown, the rich tradition of conservative leadership has been turned on its head.  Captured by this growing extremism, this power is growing, growing ominously.  This is not the conservative party of Robert Taft or William F. Buckley.  Those two gentlemen would find it an abomination if they were alive to watch this trashing of American politics.

The Democratic Party has chosen to react with too much of their own chicanery.  In need of big money to run their political campaigns, Democrats have succumbed to some of the same craziness.  Lacking moral and ethical backbone, Democrats have joined, rather than fought, the extreme right-wing game plans.

The result is that the two parties do not communicate with each other as conservatives and liberals did in the past.  They see each other as enemies, void of any compromising value.  They compete for too much of the same "protection money" of the extreme Mafia-like kingpins.  They do their talking in private enclaves, in private rooms, away from scrutiny. 

So, Limbaugh and Robertson, two wild and crazy guys, get way more attention than their immoral positions deserve.  And you and I, liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, are forced to play our insignificant roles and try to remain faithful to some legitimate ideology we used to call American politics.  Those days are over.  We are in a new place, and it continues to look more and more like a moral sewer every single day.  Watch Robertson, listen to Limbaugh, the stench is overwhelming.

As we watch and experience the death of American capitalism, there is a general finger-pointing exercise that aims at creeping socialism.  But the U.S. is much farther from socialism than ever, and there is no remnant of it if there ever was one.  In the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted some economic plans that put the brakes on run-away capitalistic greed in order to save the United States from total disaster.  Since then there has been a steady march toward greed capitalism.

Greed capitalism is not really capitalism at all.  It has been a carefully crafted scheme to bilk Americans into thinking they were engaged in a never-ending economic spiral upward.  We were made into spending and buying robots.  We became such good puppets that we never blinked when the American dream cost us two, instead of one, adult workers in each family unit in order to afford to make ends meet.  That meant doubling the work force in order to meet mediocrity in America.

Hints of danger in the future began to appear when corporate greed was not satisfied with immoral profits and organized to kill labor unions and big labor contracts.  Among the many schemes to do this was to ship good paying jobs overseas to underdeveloped nations where labor was grateful and grossly underpaid.  Slave shops that were outlawed in the U.S. became commonplace for U.S. companies in Asia, South America, Mexico, and elsewhere.  The U.S. economic engine kept going as citizens continued to spend, send even their children out to work just to stay even, and were told the future was rosy because home prices would escalate forever.  Everybody would have a bundle in later life.

The ship was kept afloat by social laws that were passed in the 1930s and 1940s, and more and more people who had lived high off the hog then were now struggling with menial jobs and took on second jobs just to stay afloat.  Corporate profits in America went through the roof.  The biggest (and most immoral) profits were protected in health care, pharmaceuticals, and especially war-related industries.  The "protection money" was what was purchased in Washington, DC where both Democrats and Republicans were in the hip-pockets of these industrial behemoths.  The huge corporate benefactors saw to it that they were needed in the political life of each elected politician because election campaigns became more and more expensive.  Therefore more and more "protection money" was handed out for favors to big corporations.

This meant sweeter and sweeter deals for health and war-related industries.  To hell with those corporations that weren't in on the deal!  We needed war and sweetheart deals to keep us going.  And so the U.S., wanted or not, became the policeman to the world...even where we weren't wanted.  And more and more the health-related industries fixed the system so they had exclusive monopolies with no-compete clauses to escape free-market competition in drugs and services.  Health costs everywhere else in the world were far, far cheaper than the U.S.  We no longer had a capitalistic system, we had corporate socialism guaranteed by the federal government.

That was not enough.  There is no end to corporate greed.  It will always seek more.  And so the straw that broke the camel's back was the gross economic greed of the financial industry along with other industries.  And when the entire house of corporate socialism came tumbling down and there was loathing to blame any right-winger, enter a black man who runs for president against a campaigner [McCain], already discredited by then-current President George W. Bush when he lied and lambasted John McCain in a South Carolina primary.  Throw this black man to the wolves.  Get McCain to select without proper inspection a dizzy Governor of Alaska as his running mate.  That should guaranty the election of a black Democrat to blame when the house of cards comes tumbling down.

That's still not enough.  The financial industries and banking giants had so mismanaged their money that they began collapsing from sheer greed and ignorance.  Save these immense, mismanaged giants and throw a trillion federal dollars at them.  Why not?  In corpoate socialism the federal government has a role to play [for greed capitalists, not the majority of Americans].  This now means that it would be like you or I going to Las Vegas with a plan to score big.  We gamble, and when we lose all of our money [as U.S. corporations and financial institutions did], the federal government simply gives us more to play with.  Eventually we might hit a jackpot.  But instead of quiting gambling, we give ourself a huge bonus.

So we have experienced the death of American capitalism, once the envy of the world.  It has been replaced by corporate socialism here.  Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for the U.S.  Meanwhile the social democracies of Western Europe have removed the fear of getting sick with universal health care, and have lessened the fear of job loss with guarantees for all citizens, and have not had to ship their industrial labor jobs to underdeveloped nations as the U.S. has done.  Time will tell if Europe can survive the death of American capitalism.  China is rising with a different economic plan.

Say goodbye to American capitalism.  It was a good run.  Hello corporate socialism, and the death of the American middle-class.

A few days ago a "journalist" on a FOX news program commenting about the public's revulsion with the actions of Tiger Woods, said something very seriously along these lines:

"I understand that Tiger is a Buddhist or something.  There is not the forgiveness in Buddhism that there is in Chrisitianity.  I would suggest that he convert to Christianity and receive forgiveness for his actions."

That is what passes for objective journalism by a journalist on FOX.  However there has not been a resounding criticism from the public.  What is further disturbing is that some people amazingly look to FOX News for their main source of news.  What in the world has happened to journalism in the U.S.?  In fact, what has happened to the United States?  This is an extremely disturbing development.

If Americans look past this serious development then we can be assured that what we were founded upon as a nation has disappeared.  The objective of a democratic society and government is to protect the rights of the minority.  If that is not done, the rest is silly rhetoric.

What would have happened if a journalist had said on U.S.  network television that Tiger Woods should dump Buddhism and turn to the Moslem faith?   Not only would the American public be up in arms, the entire journalism community would rally in revolt to that suggestion.  But we seem to accept it when it is a positive Christian reference?  Or is it that true professional journalists and people who understand what  objective journalism is have come to accept such democratic distortions and unmitigated opinion for what passes for journalism in today's media market when it is on FOX?  Do we now accept such low standards because it is FOX doing it?  Don't we know the impact of such closemindedness and ignorance?  Can't we see the extreme erosion of democracy in such a development?

In my blogs here and throughout my career I have shown by quotes from our Founding Fathers that the government of the United States is in no way based on the Christian religion.  In fact, that is an almost direct quote from John Adams.  Thomas Paine, who captured the essence of the Founding Fathers in his writings, went so far as to criticize Christianity openly.  But because the majority of Americans have always been Christians, Judaic-Christians,  or nominal Christians, we seem to think it is OK to distort democracy to accommodate it.  But a democracy must protect the minorities, whether it be atheism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, or others groups.  That is the essence of democracy.

If you want to read about someone who characterizes perfectly this broad public claim of being of the Judaic-Christian philosophy and acting very un-Christian, check out the life of Rupert Murdoch who owns FOX News.  He has money stashed away everywhere to avoid taxes, including in Cuba!  He encouraged our war in Iraq because it made money for him and his enterprises.  He hides information from his workers and tries at all times to cheat them.  He never saw a money-making scheme that he couldn't rationalize, no matter how immoral, unethical, illegal, or repulsive.

For your winter reading, I suggest you read some of the objective and honest criticism of Rupert Murdoch.  You will then realize why FOX is so dishonest in presenting the "news."  You will then realize why this Australian manipulates the U.S. government and its domestic and foreign policies to put money in his pocket.  He is a despicable man.  And FOX is part of his legacy.