Friday, April 29, 2005

Surprise Suprise Look Who's Heading The Iraqi Oil Ministry

Surprise Surprise Look Who’s Heading The Iraq Oil Ministry


“WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq's choice of Ahmad Chalabi as acting oil minister has raised concerns that he is not the best person for the job because he has little energy experience and was once convicted of bank fraud, U.S. energy experts said on Thursday.” 04-28-05 Reuters News Article

The Bushites must be smiling from ear to ear after having to wait out all that haggling over who was going to be what in the Iraqi government to see their boy ( although he was kicked to the curb in t false flag move earlier) Ahmed Chalabi emerge and the new acting oil minister. In a Reuters article dated April 28, 2005 US energy spokespersons express feigned alarm Chalabi was chosen. “‘You are to some extent, from the perceptions of many Iraqis, putting a fox in charge of the henhouse,’ said Anthony Cordesman, referring to Chalabi. Cordesman is a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies based in Washington.
Chalabi is taking over the ministry at a critical time. It must make decisions on which companies get preference for oil sales, which contracts are honored and which will be renegotiated. The ministry also faces frequent sabotage against its oil pipelines. ‘(Chalabi) is going to make it extremely easy for people to make charges about corruption and raise questions on how the oil money is distributed,’ said Cordesman.” True Chalabi has no expertise in oil, oil drilling, engineering or management, however he has connections. At one point Chalabi who was the source of much of the Bush administrations delusional justification for the invasion of Iraq in the first place, has been a long time recipient of front money supplied by the influential Rendon Group to the Iraqi National Congress; a group created by Rendon himself. In 1992 Chalabi was tapped to head the INC. Chalabi is a native Iraqi who was raised abroad in Jordan, Lebanon, England and the US. He has an interesting past one that is easily found via the World Wide Web. The fact he was charged and convicted in absentia of banking fraud and embezzlement in Jordan when the Jordanian government seized his bank Petra in 1977 and had to pump millions into it to avoid financial collapse. This sort of personal history makes Calabi an excellent ally for the Bushites (see Savings and Loan and Harken scandals for a better idea of how the Bush family rolls.) Chalabi is cunning and ambitious, just the type the US would use to further their own aims in the region.
In fact once the green light was given to invade Iraq the NeoConmen in the Bush administration picked Chalabi to be their boy running the show following the toppling of Saddam Hussein, despite the fact both he and the INC had lost credibility with the CIA and serious intelligence agents. In fact Chalabi and his phony INC Iraqi exiles were flown in and given prominent media play as a precursor to setting him up as Bush’s puppet in Baghdad. Unfortunately for Chalabi a hustler and con man who told Bush and Co what they wanted to hear,( US invaders would be welcomed as liberators with roses and cheers), the struggle to liberate Iraq from AmeriKKKan occupation caught the Bush administration totally unprepared, and when no WMD were found Chalabi was totally exposed as a fraud. But needing a man they could use, they mounted a campaign to distance Chalabi from the Bush administration so the Iraqis would think he wasn’t still on the US payroll. Chalabi became the subject of a raid on his office and charges he was in cahoots with Iran. Voila, Chalabi is instantly tainted and not seen as a stooge for the US. Through it all, Chalabi’s ambitions kept him in the hunt. Being seen as on the outs with the AmeriKKKans Chalabi was able to weasel his way into negotiations once the Iraqi clerics pressured Bush to allow general elections, something Bush never wanted in the first place. Chalabi inserted himself into the mix and now has emerged with a position in the fledgling Iraqi government as acting oil minister. The question becomes, is this a testament to Chalabi’s cunning and skills or is this due to clandestine machinations by the Bush administration to get one of their boys into a key position in an Iraqi government Washington knows will be pressured by Iraqi citizens to get AmeriKKKa out of their country ASAP? Many folks believe the US invaded Iraq for the oil, what better way for Chalabi to ingratiate himself to AmeriKKKa than by being the one who doles out the contracts and sets the agenda for which oil companies get first crack at Iraq’s oil? It just seems so rigged to me. Sort of like CIA asset and former Unocal oil company advisor Hamid Karzai just happening to be appointed interim president of Afghanistan after the US bombed the Taliban out of office. Karzai was subsequently “elected” president of Afghanistan with serious US backing in that country’s sham elections. Democracy (AmeriKKKan neocolonialism?) at work to hear the Bush administration tell it. Of course they don’t tell us Afghanistan along with the other countries AmeriKKKa has “liberated”: Haiti and Iraq are in shambles but what’s a small detail like that got to do with the Bush Bizzarro world realities? The last thing in the world the AmeriKKKan empire wants is true self-determination and self-rule in Iraq. So they work behind the scenes to get their guys in place to do their bidding. In many ways Chalabi resurfacing as a key player in the role of acting oil minister is no surprise at all.

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Thursday, April 28, 2005

Truth Crushed To Eart Will Rise Again

Truth Crushed To Earth Shall Rise Again



“NEW YORK Half of all Americans, exactly 50%, now say the Bush administration deliberately misled Americans about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the Gallup Organization reported this morning."This is the highest percentage that Gallup has found on this measure since the question was first asked in late May 2003," the pollsters observed. "At that time, 31% said the administration deliberately misled Americans. This sentiment has gradually increased over time, to 39% in July 2003, 43% in January/February 2004, and 47% in October 2004." Also, according to the latest poll, more than half of Americans, 54%, disapprove of the way President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, while 43% approve. In early February, Americans were more evenly divided on the way Bush was handling the situation in Iraq, with 50% approving and 48% disapproving. Last week Gallup reported that 53% now believe that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was "not worth it." But Frank Newport, editor in chief at Gallup, recalled today that although a majority of the public began to think the Vietnam war was a mistake in the summer of 1968, the United States did not pull out of Vietnam for more than five years, after thousands of more American lives were lost.”- www.Editorandpublisher.com Published: April 26, 2005 11:45 AM ET

An April 26, 2005 blurb in the online edition of Editor and Publisher a journal that covers the newspaper industry pointed out a recent Gallup poll indicated 50% of AmeriKKKans now openly say they believe the Bush administration misled (a euphemism for lied) to the public about Iraq’s WMD. Ironically on the same date the US Chief Weapons Inspector released its own report saying “inquires into Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have gone as far as feasible.” Charles Duelfer head of the Iraq Study Group was quoted in the BBC News Online edition of 04-26-05 as saying, “After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted.” In other words all the searching and all the torture and abuse of Iraqis revealed there were no WMD! The Iraq Study Group was formed in 2003. Its’ first head, David Kay resigned in 2004 because he stated categorically no WMD would be found in Iraq. After extensive search by 1,200 experts from the US, Britain and Australia the ISG finally admitted what many people feared, there were no WMD in Iraq. What does this mean? It means Bush and Co: Cheney, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld and the rest of the NeoConmen lied to start a war to invade a country that was not a threat to the US or its neighbors. It means the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis, 1,500 US soldiers and the wounding maiming and traumatizing of countless other humans was all for nothing! How does that make you feel, Mr. And Mrs AmeriKKKa? How do you feel now that you know you have been chumped and punked by Bush and Co? Not that it’s any consolation but most African-Americans, 76% to be exact opposed the war because we know how white AmeriKKKa rolls, having experienced the brunt of its terror and brutality for four centuries. Now how does the rest of AmeriKKKa feel knowing that the distrust, contempt and loathing the world feels towards you is justified? How do you feel knowing AmeriKKKans razed and destroyed Fallujah for nothing? What about the journalists US soldiers shot and killed? Does that make you sleep sounder knowing AmeriKKKa went to war based on the lies of megalomaniacal sociopaths? How does it make you feel knowing we’ve allowed our young people to be put in harm’s way because of oil and empire yet the price of gas is higher now than any time before the invasion of Iraq and its still rising?!! Do you feel safer now knowing more and more people around the world hate us not for “our freedoms” as our village idiot says but because we’ve killed thousands of innocent men women and children who come from a culture that demands revenge: an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth and blood for blood?
How do you feel now AmeriKKKa knowing you’ve been duped and lied to? If the falling military recruitment numbers are any indication, young folks are taking a fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me attitude. The good news is they are shunning signing up to be cannon fodder for Uncle Sam’s latest crusade for oil and empire. If the rising number of taxpayers refusing to pay taxes to a government that initiated an immoral and illegal war are any indication, people are starting to wake up. Maybe Abraham Lincoln was correct when he observed, “you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” If a recent Gallup poll is any indication more and more folks are realizing truth crushed to earth will rise again.

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Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Pay Yourself First

Pay Yourself First

“A recent study by the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute found that 51 percent of workers are falling behind in their retirement savings because of the high expenses of daily bills, child care and medical costs. A separate study by the same organization found that half of those surveyed had to reduce their general savings or 401(k) contributions in order to pay medical bills. These results show families face more risk today, not less. Day-to-day living expenses continue to rob the middle class of its ability to save for retirement. Compounding these challenges, American families have in recent years witnessed a sea change in the traditional retirement savings structure. Once, the average American could achieve retirement security by building a three-legged stool: a company pension, personal savings, and Social Security. For millions of families today, Social Security is the only leg remaining. For middle-income retirees, it is the predominant source of retirement earnings -- making up 64 percent of retirement income. With pensions in peril and middle-class families squeezed by flat wages and rising costs, the savings rate has declined from 10 percent in 1980 to just 1 percent in 2004.” Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel 04-22-06 Chicago Sun Times

Most of us are on the proverbial financial treadmill running harder, exhausting ourselves but getting nowhere. Wages are stagnant, rising costs and taxes are eating our paychecks. To compound the situation we are all living outside our means. The banks, credit card companies and advertisers encourage us to spend, spend, spend and take no thought of the long term consequences of our fiscal irresponsibility. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If we spend more than we make the difference is debt. The more we spend the deeper in debt we get because not only do we owe the amount we have over spent; we also owe the interest. Once we get on the negative side of compound interest it makes it increasingly more difficult to get out of debt. Once upon a time in AmeriKKKa thrift was a value, we were encouraged to save, save for the consumer goods we needed, save for education and save for the proverbial rainy day. Now we are encouraged through the psychological manipulation of the media to spend carelessly for the gizmos and gadgets that have a short shelf life or which will depreciate shortly after the purchase, (our homes or real estate being the other exceptions). Few of us have savings or future financial security plans. I remember when I was in elementary school we purchased US Savings Stamps, we had vacation and Christmas saving clubs. Those entities aren’t popular now because savings are not encouraged. As a result AmeriKKKa went from being a lender nation to a debtor nation and individually we went from a nation that promoted thrift to a nation obsessed on conspicuous consumption. As a result we are drowning in a sea of debt.
An article by Illinois Democratic Congressman Rahm Emanuel in the 04-22-05 Chicago Sun Times points out just how tenuous most AmeriKKKan families financial situations are. “With pensions in peril and middle-class families squeezed by flat wages and rising costs, the savings rate has declined from 10 percent in 1980 to just 1 percent in 2004. Only half of U.S. workers participate in employer-sponsored retirement plans, and 80 percent of small business employees have no plan at all. Nearly 40 percent of all households have no retirement savings accounts of any kind beyond Social Security. Half of the households headed by a worker aged 55 to 59 have $10,000 or less in a 401(k) or in an IRA. Of that age group, 36 percent have no 401(k) or IRA savings. For single women, the problem is even worse. Only 38 percent have 401(k) plans from a past or current job, with a median balance of just $8,000, as opposed to married females, who participate at a 54 percent rate with a median balance of $27,000.Given the reality of the savings deficit, we should devise new ways to help Americans save for retirement.” While the gist of his article was about promoting ways to save money for retirement, saving in general is an important issue. We need to save just for what the old folks used to call GP; general principle. Africans in AmeriKKKa need to promote thrift, we need to move away from Pavlovian consumption and develop savings and investment strategies as part of building an ethnocentric economic infrastructure. We need to investigate ways to start savings and investment clubs, credit unions and banks. We need to better understand how compound interest works and how it can work for us! We need to save and start credit unions and banks so we can finance businesses in our communities, buy land and help revitalize and transform where we live.
I know times are tough, all the more reason to work diligently to get out of debt, stop wasting our money and start paying ourselves first by establishing a habit of saving. When I was working I got into a deferred compensation plan. It helped me save because the money was taken right off the top. I didn’t miss it. As time went on, I was able to increase the bi-weekly deduction. My only regret is I didn’t get into the program earlier. Now I am retired. I have a pension, my money in the account is growing. I have funds I can fall back on in later years or use now, if I choose to pay the withdrawal penalty. There was a time when we didn’t have financial advisors and planners in our community but we had leaders who promoted thrift and savings. I must admit there is little incentive to save due to low interest rates. Nevertheless, compound interest works whether the interest rates are high or low. Eventually you will reap the benefits of it. Start a savings plan, even if it’s only a few dollars a week. Start an investment or savings club with a group of trusted friends or family members. Begin today get on the positive side of the compound interest wave.

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Saturday, April 23, 2005

Why Social Security Privatization Is A bad Idea

Why Social Security Privatization Is Bad Idea

“With private accounts, workers face risks that are not part of Social Security (Weller and Wenger, 2004a). An important risk here is the risk that financial markets could stay below their historical averages for long periods of time, which is known as market risk. Although it is theoretically possible to reduce market risk by buying insurance that guarantees a specified rate of return, workers would have to spend large shares of their annual savings on this insurance to see a meaningful rate of return (Lachance and Mitchell, 2003). When considering stock market fluctuations over time, the average rate of return over a typical working life, approximately 35 years, matters.[1] While the real rate of return of the stock market has averaged 6.6 percent over the past 100 years, its average rate of return over 35-year periods has fluctuated between 3 percent and 10 percent (figure 1). That is, market risk is real because workers can experience long periods of underperforming financial markets while they are saving for retirement.- The Retirement Savings Gamble Christian E. Weller

As the Bush administration prepares for its disinformation blitz to promote their plan to privatize Social Security look for them to tout privatization as the best things since sliced bread while obfuscating the risks involved. The real benefactors to privatization will not be the young people Bush and Co are targeting with their disingenuous message of “personal accounts” “ownership” and “fixing Social Security” . The real beneficiaries of privatization will be the Wall street investment banks and brokers who will make huge fees off of the accounts and if the Bush family pattern holds, millions from ripping the funds off like they did the Broward and Silverado Savings and Loan Companies. The losers will be the young people who bought Bush’s pig in a poke notion they would have more via privatization than the current system. The other big losers will be the state and local governments that will be forced to pick up the tab for supplemental social programs if and when the stock market underperforms. This could be a real problem. While the Bush disinformation team paints a rosy and optimistic picture of economic growth the reality is the stock market fluctuates and experiences both boom s and downturns. If the market fails to produce the desired rates of return, what happens to the retirement funds? How will young people who had their money invested for them by the Wall Street firms (thus far Bush’s plan does not allow you to pick and choose which funds your money will be invested in) survive a sustained economic downturn? What happens if another Enron or Worldcom scandal occurs or we experience another bust similar to the Dot.com collapse of the late 1990's? Will folks be left out in the cold like the people who lost everything in Enron or the people who saw their 401Ks shrivel, the result of massive fraud? What happens if the bad news at GM and Ford causes the market to go down even further now before Bush’s plan is either approved (unlikely) or defeated? Scenarios like these can’t happen with the current system which was designed to be a pay as you go safety net for the elderly. What happens if there is massive fraud, insider trading and corruption like the Savings and Loan fiascos in which George H.W. Bush, his sons Neil and Jeb profited handsomely leaving the tax payers to bale out the bankrupted savings and loan and thrift associations? Given the players in Bush’s Social Security scenario this is a very real possibility.
If there is a stock market boom all is well, everyone makes out. But if patterns hold true to form there will be down times, there will be volatility and there will be recessions. Who will or what will serve as the safety net if and when these things happen? What if the fiscal irresponsibility of the Voodoo Economics championed by the Neoconmen persists? This will place an inordinate burden and strain on state and local governments to take up the slack in social welfare programs to supplement the monies for benefits that get lost due to stock market fluctuations and volatility. If you want to see the havoc Bush’s Social Security privatization plan will bring, think back on Reaganomics and multiply that with the mess the Bush administration is making of the economy and their ill conceived imperial military crusades. That’s the kind of shallow elitist thinking (the plutocrats will make out no matter what happens) that is behind the Bush plan. An article by Christian E Weller on www.Americanprogress.org addresses the problem of market risk. He says, “As President Bush continues to push for Social Security privatization, many new issues are surfacing, adding to the already substantial list of costs and risks of privatization. Under privatization, workers would be allowed to divert a large share of the money that currently goes to Social Security into private accounts. The risks of saving for retirement would be privatized. This includes the chance that financial markets will underperform for long periods of time, which is known as market risk. A worker's birth date could determine the size of his or her retirement account. The difference from worker to worker could vary widely. This could result in generations of workers with less money than they thought they would have for retirement and considerably less than they would have under the current Social Security system. Given few alternatives, future governments will be compelled to come to the aid of workers who have saved too little for retirement. Reasonable estimates show that this could add between $600 billion and $900 billion in present value terms to the costs of privatization over the next 75 years.” The federal government is broke now so where would the money come from to supplement income for those who lost their retirement money in a stock market Ponzi or pump and dump scheme? It would force state and local governments already overburdened by unfunded mandated programs, federal program cuts and rising costs of their own to find ways to help out putting even more strain on tax payers. Is this what you want in your later years, additional tax liabilities or hard choices about and between who to help and how much? Social Security despite the lies of the Bush administration is not broke. Minor adjustments in the way Social Security is now funded will make the program solvent during the rest of the twenty-first century. However the radical Neoconmen don’t want that. They want to destroy the last vestiges of successful socialist New Deal and Great Society programs while mismanaging the country into fiscal insolvence and ruin! This scenario will plunge the nation into severe class divisions as the wealth gap increases. This is why the privatization of Social Security is a bad idea.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2005

It's Time To Face Reality

It’s Time To Face Reality!


“The German people have been justly criticized for their failing to do anything to stop the Holocaust, with Jews disappearing off the streets of Nazi Germany to be killed while the Germans pretended not to notice. It has been one of the mysteries of history how the most civilized people on earth could have allowed the Holocaust to happen with nary a voice of opposition or complaint. How does this differ from the remarkable lack of opposition in the United States to the war crimes being committed by American troops in Falluja and elsewhere (scroll down at this site to find most of the links of eyewitness reports of the horrors)? Actually, there is quite a bit of difference. Nazi Germany was a police state, and any opposition or even a hint of opposition would have been met with instant dire consequences. Despite the best efforts of John Ashcroft, the United States is still not a full-fledged police state (but they are working on it). Nazi Germany had a completely controlled media, and any information embarrassing to Hitler's regime was simply not published. Despite the fact that the American media is disgustingly useless, Americans still have full awareness of what is going on in Falluja, largely because the Bush regime is quite proud of it. I once was impolite enough to ask some Germans in Germany who had lived through the Nazi period what they knew at the time about what was going on. They said they were very sorry about what had happened, but, although they had strong hints, they really didn't know. Unless one is certain, what can an individual do in a police state when faced with hints of wrongdoing? Americans have no such excuse. The hypocrisy of Americans complaining about what is going on in Sudan while American troops are doing much worse in Iraq is amazing.”- xymphora.blogspot

It is becoming quite obvious the game plan of the ruling elites is working extremely well. Following WWII the U.S. government initiated what they called “Operation Paperclip”, a scheme approved by President Harry Truman to bring selected Nazi businessmen, scientists, academicians, spies and assorted psychopaths to AmeriKKKa, South America or Eastern Europe, give them new identities and free reign to serve the imperialistic interests of their AmeriKKKan benefactors. It was Nazi scientists who headed up the AmeriKKKan jet propulsion and rocket programs. Nazi scientists also continued where they left off in the development of chemical and biological weaponry. The academicians furthered their racist ideologies of Eugenics, the racial superiority of the Aryan “race” (keep in mind Hitler and the racists in South Africa ,Angola and Rhodesia modeled their systems after the brutal and oppressive AmeriKKKan racial cast system euphemistically called “Jim Crow”) and their presumed need for population control of the darker peoples of the world. The U.S. integrated Nazi intelligence officers (an oxymoron if ever there was one) into the fledgling CIA and they helped develop the grotesque torture techniques we see being used around the world today. The AmeriKKKans replicated the mass propaganda techniques of the Nazis (who envied the U.S. advertising industry) used to get the Germans to go along with their criminal programs. We can see the results of Operation Paperclip all around us today in the existence of AIDS and Ebola (and numerous other man made viruses), the advanced missile programs and weapons of mass destruction (the U.S. didn’t’ need the Nazis to show them how to kill and despoil the environment they were already experts at that. They slaughtered the so called “Indians” and dropped atomic bombs on Japanese civilians) to further the notion of global “population control” ala the David Rockefeller/Henry Kissinger Global 2000 Plan and the history of human rights violations and tortures throughout South America, in Abu Gharib, and the indiscriminate murders of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. The list goes on in programs like the development and use of LSD as a political tool and mind control operations like MK ULTRA; its just the bogus War on Terror provides an up-front and close look at just how psychotic this nation has become. Keep in mind the Nazis didn’t bum rush AmeriKKKa, they were invited here! Remember the Nazis shared many of the same values as AmeriKKKa when it came to racism and imperialism. Thus it makes perfect sense why there is no outpouring of dissent against the killing fields in Iraq. It makes it easier to understand why the AmeriKKKa people meekly go along with the AmeriKKKan brand of fascism (corporatist backed and controlled militarist imperialism). AmeriKKKans dare not point fingers at the Germans for the atrocities they committed under Nazi rule! This country was the model for much of what Hitler did. People like George W. Bush’s paternal grandfather Prescott Bush and his maternal great grandfather Herbert Walker were prime supporters of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi war machine. Despite the success of the AmeriKKKan mind control apparatus, African people have no excuse to sit back allow the AmeriKKKan/Nazi warmongers to try to conquer the world. If we don’t move to stop them now, by refusing to fall for the okey-doke; sooner or later we and or our children will be in AmeriKKKa’s concentration camps (prisons?) and ovens. We know from past experiences this is a real possibility. It’ time to wake up and face reality!

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Junious Ricardo Stanton Posted by Hello

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Defend Your Mind

Defend Your Mind


“The United States is the only developed nation in the world that does not mandate media literacy as part of its public school curriculum. There are reasons why. Media literacy is dangerous-not to the individuals who gain it, but to the people and institutions that depend on our not having it. Once we master the tolls of media literacy, we cannot apply them selectively. If we demystify the role of our hi-tech pundits, we may demystify the role of our priests as well...The art of manipulation has become so prevalent that it drives our culture forward more than any of its best agents do. It is more constructive to think of the coercive forces in our society as part of the machine that has gotten out of control. As we become more conscious of how it works, we can begin to dismantle it.”Douglas Rushkoff Coercion Why We Listen To What ‘TheySay page 24-25.

As AmeriKKKa unravels in its’ metamorphosis into a repressive global empire, the ruling plutocracy is forced to program the minds of the masses in order to minimize resistance to their fascist programs and threats to the status quo. Rulers have long used psychological means to control their subjects because it is difficult to physically control large numbers of people spread over wide areas of land. One cannot physically lord over a large population even if they have huge armies at their disposal. Not only is it physically impossible because the populous outnumber the army and because the army’s physical presence and intimidation are obvious and arouse more resentment ala Iraq, Haiti and Afghanistan. Those being attacked know they are being attacked, those being oppressed know they are oppressed. But if psychological manipulation and mental dysfunction can be effectively employed, the masses may not even realize or care that they are being manipulated. If the psychological coercion is powerful yet subtle enough, the masses can be tricked into giving up their power to think independently. Then the masses become docile and passive sheep. They mistakenly believe their thoughts and actions are based upon their own volition. They think the coercion and outer directed focus are normal, the way things are supposed to be.
No one willingly gives up their power to think for themselves. We have to be tricked, forced, intimidated, coerced and brutalized into doing so. For example during slavery the European land owners who “owned” our ancestors used the most horrific means of torture to break the spirit and will of our ancestors. This was done so they would not challenge their dehumanization and would passively assent to their status as chattel. The slave owners used physical abuse, psychological denigration, systemic and institutional coercion to instill and re-enforce the notion the masters were all powerful, invincible and godlike. The power relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed was just as much a mental paradigm as a physical one. In order to maintain the power relationship our African ancestors had to be made to believe resistance was futile and victory impossible. That is why the Haitian Revolution sent shock waves throughout the Western hemisphere and Europe. The fact Africans soundly trounced a series of European nation states (France England and Spain) shattered the myth of European invincibility. That is why Europeans (especially the U.S.) hate Afro-Haitians (as opposed to the mulattos the Europeans used to reassert European hegemony over the Afro-Haitians) to this day. To punish the Africans for their audacity, once the Europeans recaptured the island, they used every trick in their book to keep the Haitian people under their heel. One of the main ways they keep the people powerless, docile and dependent is through fear. The fear of being targeted for brutalization or death by the puppet regimes of the U.S. is how AmeriKKKan hegemony is maintained, in Haiti and around the world.
In the U.S., the masses are kept lobotomized and dummied down through the mind control apparatus and socializing institutions such as organized religion, education and mass media. We are not taught in school how the media works. We are ignorant about how images, sounds, words and especially music are used to stimulate our central nervous system, to arouse emotional and psychological reactions by appealing to our fears, sexual drives and anxieties. The key to advertising effectiveness is psychological manipulation. The fascist transformation of AmeriKKKa has been facilitated by the use of an all pervasive propaganda machine to convince us we are threatened by internal and/or external forces like communism and terrorism. We are being programmed daily to believe we are under a constant threat of attack, that we are in danger or targeted for future harm. Pearl Harbor and 9-11 are classic examples. The masses responded to news of the attacks emotionally rather than rationally. Once the emotions of anger, grief and vengeance were stoked and exploited by the leaders and their media cohorts, it was easy to call for retaliation and war! In order to stoke the fires of negative emotions an enemy had to be invented, demonized and targeted. In 1944 it was the Japanese who just happed to be non-white so that made it easier for AmeriKKKa to put Japanese Americans in Concentration camps. Germany and Italy were part of the Axis but neither German Americans nor Italian Americans were arrested and incarcerated.
Following WWII it was “godless communists” and a series of “brutal dictators” who became the enemy of the month to keep the masses hyped and supportive of the need for a bloated military industrial technological fiscal boondoggle and corporatist provoked U.S. military “interventions” around the globe. After 9-11 it was okay to openly racially profile Arabs because they and their religion had been demonized over the years in the mass media. AmeriKKKans are used to Arabs being depicted as recalcitrant terrorists by the media. Anyone who dissents from the official line is, demonized and ostracized. Once we know how the process works we can defend ourselves from their machinations.
Don’t be a passive consumer of media. Check and recheck the facts that are given. This is the information age so don’t allow yourself to be duped and deceived by the media.. Look at the adjectives they use to describe people. You can tell by the pictures, words and tone whether we are being programmed to like or dislike a person, government or country. Remember the prime objective of the mass media is to perpetuate the notions of global white supremacy, the predatory right of white folks to dominate the world. Once we comprehend this, we can easily decode and demystify how the media is used to bamboozle us. Once we familiarize ourselves how this is done, we can see through their lies, ruses and con games. For example, the use of the word “insurgent” by the corporate media to describe Iraqi freedom fighters, is designed to condition us to think the people who are trying to rid their lands of invaders and torturers are rebelling against a legitimate democratic order. Nothing could be further from the truth. The last thing in the world the AmeriKKKan plutocrats want is a truly independent Iraq. Don’t allow the mind control apparatus to turn you into a zombie or Pavlovian automaton. The solution is simple, but may cause you some problems during these fascist times; think for yourself.

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Saturday, April 16, 2005

People's Tax Revolt

People’s Tax Revolt

“The Internal Revenue Service is reeling under the tax rebellion, as unpaid taxes reach $300 billion, according to outraged tax collectors. Do-It-Yourself Tax Cuts: The Crisis in U.S. Tax Enforcement by economist Max Sawicky found the tax rebellion ‘encompasses about 15 percent of all taxes owed to the government— or about one dollar of every six owed in individual and corporate taxes.’ Unfortunately, Sawicky views this news as bad. Most of the unpaid taxes—at least $250 billion of the total $300 billion—results from taxpayers either underreporting income or claiming too many deductions, he said. About $30 billion of the unpaid total is from nonfiling and another $32 billion results from underpayment. Individuals in the so-called tax honesty movement account for the lion’s share, the report found. Underreporting of individual income accounts for $150 billion to $187 billion in unpaid taxes, while another $30 billion is from underreported corporate income, $66 billion to $71 billion from payroll taxes, and $4 billion from death and excise taxes. ‘The tax enforcement system has become so dysfunctional that it is now its own worst enemy,’ Sawicky said. Many Americans ‘are dealing themselves a do-it-yourself tax cut.’ Sawicky and others called for more funding for IRS enforcement efforts.” James P Tucker Jr. IRS Reels Under Tax Revolt www.americanfreepress.net

I finished doing my taxes around 11:20 last night, jumped into my car and headed to the US Postal Distribution Center so I could make the Midnight deadline. Usually there is a long but orderly line of cars and US Postal workers manning stations collecting envelopes. Last night even though I got there around 11:45 there was less of a line and not that much traffic. Perhaps folks aren’t procrastinating like me, maybe they got here earlier or maybe there is a tax payers revolt brewing. I wondered as I handed my state and federal envelopes to an exceptionally congenial postal worker, what would happen if the majority of AmeriKKKans decided not to pay any federal income taxes as a protest against the Bush administrations policies? Hmm? Not that I’m advocating anything like that because I mailed mine off minus the check but I already have an account where the IRS takes $150 a month from my checking account for two years of owed taxes. ( I put up a good fight all by myself without any lawyers but they overwhelmed me and I capitulated due to threats of liens and fines.) Lo and behold I’m checking the World Wide Web and discover that is exactly what is happening! There’s hope! Joe and Jane Sixpack aren’t’s so gullible after all. They like the young people who have stopped enlisting in the volunteer military know what is happening and in their own personal way have decided enough is enough! According to an article taken from the American Free Press Website (www.americanfreepress.net) , the IRS is having difficulties collecting taxes. Imagine that. They actually used the term tax rebellion, interesting. That means on some level there is still some fight and gumption left in the heart and soul of AMeriKKKa. Even though I filed my 2004 taxes, I admire those who had the courage not to file or pay Uncle Sam. The article quotes an economist named Max Sawicky (author of the book Do It Yourself Tax Cuts- The Crisis In US Tax Enforcement ) who says the scop of the rebellion “encompasses about 15 percent of all taxes owed to the government— or about one dollar of every six owed in individual and corporate taxes.” What this means is that disgruntled (or possibly cash strapped ) AmeriKKKans are withholding about $300 billion in unpaid taxes from the Us coffers. According to the article, “most of the Most of the unpaid taxes—at least $250 billion of the total $300 billion—results from taxpayers either underreporting income or claiming too many deductions, he said. About $30 billion of the unpaid total is from nonfiling and another $32 billion results from underpayment. Individuals in the so-called tax honesty movement account for the lion’s share, the report found. Underreporting of individual income accounts for $150 billion to $187 billion in unpaid taxes, while another $30 billion is from underreported corporate income, $66 billion to $71 billion from payroll taxes, and $4 billion from death and excise taxes.” This means its not just the super rich who are skimping on their tax bills, Joe and Jane Sixpack are finding ways to not give Uncle Sam a huge chunk of the income! Maybe just maybe that will get the ruling elites attention. Odd, it certainly hasn’t caught the attention of the corporate media. But then again maybe the article on www.americanfreepress.net is one of those tongue in cheek pieces? Or maybe the corporate media doesn’t want to give the rest of us any ideas, you know they are afraid of “copycats” bilking the fascists out of tax money just like they are scamming and cheating us with their War on Terror rip offs, Spreading Democracy cash cow and tax cuts for the super rich boondoggles. Well all I can say is if you are one of those souls who is engaged in the taxpayer rebellion, God Bless you and I ain’t mad at ya!.

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Thursday, April 14, 2005

Jedi Mind Tricks and The AmeriKKKan Psyche

Jedi Mind Tricks and The AmeriKKKa Psyche

“ Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for truth, said they were.’ I will never forget the shock of recognition I felt when I first read those words several years ago, nor my first thought when I looked up from the page: ‘This happens to me all the time.’ It wouldn't be surprising if many of you reading this now have just had the same thought. This would be particularly true for those among you whom the American media, with increasing frequency, describe as ‘conspiracy theorists:’ those who suspect that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have more to do with oil than with any humanitarian or security motives; or those who question the omissions in the 9/11 Commission's report, and think that the 9/11 tragedy had more to do with the Bush/Saudi connection and neoconservative imperial ambitions than with America being "hated for its freedom"; or those who believe that American media are the finely-tuned propaganda organs of the military-industrial complex which, rather than failing their journalistic responsibilities, are doing an excellent job of keeping the American public confused and uninformed; or even the overwhelming majority of Americans who subscribe to the event that made the term ‘conspiracy theory’ mainstream: that the CIA was directly involved in the assassination of JFK.”Michael Hasty Establishment Media Plagued By “Coincidence Theorists” Propaganda Matrix 09-27-04

In the George Lucas motion picture Star Wars serial, we were introduced to a band of mystical warriors called the Jedi Knights who had the ability to influence the thoughts of weak minded individuals by causally waving their hand in front of the person’s face while conversing with them. Subsequently the weak minded would assent to the Jedi Knight’ mental mastery. In a brilliant analogy a writer at Online Journal referred to the corporate media’s propaganda mind control agenda/apparatus as “Jedi Mind Tricks”; inferring the masses of AmeriKKKans are unsuspecting dolts being manipulated at every turn. This manipulation however is not being done by courageous spiritual warriors out to save the universe from the Evil Empire but by a cabal of psychopathic megalomaniacs and crooks hell bent on controlling (destroying) the planet. The New World Order elites don’t of themselves possess the power to mold minds, but they do control the mass media; the tool by which they hope to lobotomize the masses. Thus far they have done a masterful job. Anytime seventy per cent of the AmeriKKKan public (according to public opinion polls the ruling elites control and manipulate as part of their mind control tricks) presumably believe Saddam Hussein was involved in 9-11 when the CIA has said repeatedly he was not, you know folks have been bamboozled. Why do they believe the lies? Because the Bush administration said so. Because the Bush- Neo-Con accomplices in the corporate media kept repeating it uncritically over and over again and because the corporate media squashed dissenting views. Now Bush is like the ruler in the Hans Christian Anderson story The Emperor’s New Clothes, everyone knows he is naked but no one had the courage to speak up and tell him so, except for an innocent little boy. In this case the masses have been overwhelmed by the Jedi Mind Tricks of the NWO ruling elites. If you are looking for truth go to the Internet. Thank the Creator for the Internet, it is the one place a truth seeker can find the accuracy to refute the deceit and disinformation pumped out by the corporate media and their henchmen. This is not to say the fascists have not infiltrated the Internet because they have. However unlike mainstream media, the Internet offers greater ability to cross check and scrutinize the material that is out there. I personally was encouraged several months ago when a Zogby Poll (Zobgy International is the one polling organization that has not totally sold its soul to the NWO fascists, yet) came out with a survey revealing almost half of New Yorkers interviewed believed the US government had foreknowledge of 9-11 and “consciously allowed it to happen”. There is hope! This means people are thinking for themselves just like the little boy in the Emperor’s New Clothes, they can see things aren’t as they are being told. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know the Bush administration’s version of 9-11 is as phony as a seven dollar bill. Interestingly the Zogby poll revealed sixty-three per cent of African-Americans believe the government knew about it and was in on it! Africans in America have had centuries of first hand experience with state sanctioned terrorism, violence and depravity so we know intuitively what the real deal is and we can cut through the BS.
It is sill not too late to take back our minds, our community and ultimately the world. We have a choice, we can fall for the okey-doke and march in lockstep to the fascists' NWO tune or we can critically examine the information being pumped at us and act in our own best interests. We can be fools and believe what the psychopaths who despoil the planet, who raped our grandmothers, lynched our grandfathers and abuse our parents and our children; who always blame the victim for what happened tell us, or we can think for ourselves. Make up your own mind and come to your own conclusions! Real empowerment is an internal process. It begins inwardly, it is inner motivated and directed continuum, that subsequently manifests outwardly. Don’t allow yourself to be manipulated into being outer directed, dependent upon or brainwashed by external forces. Consume media with a skeptical and critical attitude. Everything is interrelated and interconnected, connect the dots by integrating the facts, look for patterns to see the larger picture. Most importantly judge folks by what they do, not by what they say.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Lest We Forget Slavery and Jim Crow Collection

For almost thirty years Joe Ragsdale has been collecting slave era artifacts, items and memorabilia so people can see for themselves what Africans in America endured, overcame and transcended in our quest for human rights, individual and collective dignity, freedom and self-determination. As a young boy Joe Rags, as he is affectionately called, spent time in the South with an elderly great-uncle sitting on the porch steps listening to his uncle and his peers talk about their life experiences. On one occasion and elderly gentleman asked rhetorically, “Who will tell our story?” His uncle responded “Young Buck here,” nodding to Joe, “He’ll tell our story; won’t you Buck?” Rags nodded back but never paid the remark much attention until his uncle passed and he went down to clean out his house. Among his things Joe found an old U.S. Army uniform and some other items that intrigued him. Joe discovered his uncle had served in the US army. He also discovered chains and shackles he later learned were used to bind Africans during slavery. This started Ragsdale on a thirty year journey that has led to the documentation of the horrors of slavery and the dehumanizing conditions of the Jim Crow era in America.Currrently Ragsdale and his wife Gwen have literally thousands of items, assorted chains and shackles, whips, pistols, slave documents, manumission papers, photographs, a KKK robe with the blood stains still on it and grotesque “slave blankets” made of the human hair and skin of blacks unfortunate enough to have been subjected to the barbarism of the times. “I started out real easy. WhenI got my first piece, I wasn’t paying any attention to it but once I got it and I began to see pieces like it all around, I started scooping them up. As I started grabbing them up I became more aware of the periods, where they came from, more aware of who was giving them to me what they were used for, why they have fifty different keys. Then I realized even here in America, in New York and Richmond (Virginia) they made slave shackles. They made shackles in Belgium, England and the ships and everything slavery was a big business.”
I first met Joe and Gwen Ragsdale about fourteen years ago at an African-American Family Reunion Conference. What struck me about him was his enthusiasm for the subject, his passion for his collection and his desire to share our story with many folks who quite frankly at that occasion didn’t want anything to do with that part of our history. Ragsdale a successful business man who owns a construction site clean up company, who has since turned his business over to his children, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money traveling and collecting the items in his Lest We Forget collection. I recently saw him at a Black History month celebration where parts of his collection were being exhibited. As usual he was teaching a group of young people and their parents how the torture items had been used on our people and the fascinating story of how he had come by this particular item. Ragsdale makes the most of these teaching moments and the children and adults were mesmerized by him. Later he spoke excitedly about some new items in the collection. “Now we have two hair ponchos, we had one we picked up another one. Also, I’ve picked up some slave balls. There’s a lot of equipment that I didn’t bring. I have a collar from Hinson’s. They were purveyors of 'horses and niggers' that’s what it says on the collar. That will come next time. We have a collar where two people were connected so you would have two people enslaved in this collar. We’ve picked up a few other guns from the period and a coffle. A coffle is a chain about fifteen to sixteen feet long, it has different holders, manacles and bracelets on it and it was used to take slaves to market to sell. That’s what we wanted to bring to this show but we didn’t have room. We have the most extensive collection in the country. I don’t think any museum has as much as we have.” Stated Ragsdale proudly.
Joe and his wife Gwen are also using their own money to create a museum to house their collection. His goal is to finish it with his own money and not be dependent upon grants or outside funding. “We have the building what we are doing now is spending the money to have it renovated. It costs money. I’m trying to get this done. I’m trying to make this a reality in my lifetime, so people can come and see what happened to our ancestors in that day and how much we owe them. We’re standing on the backs of folks and we owe them, I don’t care how many PhD.’s and double degrees you have you owe somebody. Somebody laid across the fence, somebody laid across the barbed wire, laid across the woodpile, the fire so you could walk across.” He was getting back into his hyped teaching mode but settled down to talk about his future plans. As unpleasant as the material may be it is essential that we know about this to better understand our obligation to those who went before us, what we owe ourselves and our posterity. The Ragsdales take portions of their collection to schools, reunions, conferences, to give presentations; Lest We Forget we were bought with a price. They also accept donations. For more information about the Lest We Forget Collection, call (856) 427-4262.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Food For Thought

“Start with the irrefutable fact that Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system. The payroll taxes of today's workers go to today's retirees. And when today's workers retire, they'll be supported by the next generation's payments into Social Security. In other words, Social Security is a compact between generations, based on trust. I pay into Social Security to support my parent's generation in their retirement because I trust that my children's generation will pay into Social Security to support my generation in our retirement. If their Social Security payments are diverted into their own private accounts, their money won't be there for my generation's retirement. The compact will be broken.”- Robert B. Reich A Really Dumb Idea

The two most important issues facing AmeriKKKans today are the fascists’ attempts to roll back the clock to a 19th century climate of ruthless and cold-blooded monopoly capitalism/government collusion and the expansion of the US global empire. Both of these issues are inter-related because they are part of the plutocrats’ (the ruling elites who control both major political parties) agenda to reshape not only AmeriKKKa but the world in their demonic image. The reckless fiscal policies and pathological imperialism of the Bush administration are part and parcel to this agenda. The corporate media is the propaganda arm of the plutocrats who own or directly control the handful of conglomerates that own all the media in the US and the world. The role of the media and other social conditioning institutions is to promote the New World Order agenda by dummying down the masses by creating diversions, broadcasting anti-intellectual program content that discourages critical thinking and promotes values and a “reality” matrix that facilitates people falling for the lamest okey doke imaginable. For example the NeoCons who presently control the government are really NeoConmen. Traditional “conservatives” stand for limited government, fiscal responsibility, state’s rights, limited foreign entanglements, rigid race and class stratification and laissez faire economics. Except for the race and class stratification, the NeoCon agenda is the exact opposite of the traditional conservative doctrine. The NeoCons are radicals hell bent on altering AmeriKKKan culture and ushering in a society reminiscent of mediaeval era peonage or colonial indentured servitude and serfdom. The escalating federal deficits the NeoCons have promoted by their foolhardy tax cuts for the super rich, will ultimately force federal and state governments to curtail spending on their social programs such as education, social welfare programs and infrastructural maintenance. This is their way of subtly undermining these programs. The bogus War on Terrorism has become a giant sink hole sucking billions of our tax dollars that could go to universal health care, roads, river dredging, police and firemen, schools and alternative energy research to improve the quality of life here but will go to the military, special interest groups and the corporate defense contractors who fund and bankroll both major political parities. In the absence of social programs the populous will be forced to fend for themselves at a time when personal savings are at an all time low in a culture which places a premium on selfishness, youth, wealth and affluence.
The NeoCon’s radical agenda is designed to sabotage the remaining vestiges of the New Deal and Great Society social programs while simultaneously expanding the US global empire. We see this in Bush’s most recent budget. In it, he is asking for more funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (not to mention the one in Columbia and the wars they are planning for Iran and Syria) but at the same time he is recommending cuts in programs for the elderly, college students, veterans, education, subsidies for police and fire fighters and farmers. His assault on Social Security using scare tactics reminiscent of his equally fictitious claims about what happened on 9-11, the Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction and an Iraqi link to 9-11 will do the same thing his bogus War on Terrorism is doing, insure huge pay days for special interests (Wall Street investment brokers) but do nothing to “fix” the most successful social program in the nation’s history (a program by all honest accounts is not really broken) and in the process further bankrupt the nation. Thus far the nation has taken a “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame, on me” posture and vehemently opposes Bush’s privatization of Social Security. In the face of rejection of their latest lies, the Bush administration, the Wall Street bankers and special interest groups are preparing to spend millions of dollars in media ads and a PR blitz to further obfuscate the truth about Social Security privatization. Whether they succeed or not remains to be seen. If they fail, they will undoubtably try again later. This is why we must be vigilant and well informed. We must emulate our young folks who are shunning enlisting in the military because the risks of dying for a lie outweigh any benefits they might accrue. We must avoid falling for the lies and propaganda emanating from the White House, fascist think tanks, elite PR firms and the prostituted media. Think for yourself, glean as much information as you can and then act in your and our communities best interests.

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Monday, April 11, 2005

Ominous Signs on The Economic Home Front

“The economy has been in recovery since late 2001 and has been creating jobs since the fall of 2003. But despite the upward trend for jobs, the hourly wages of most workers (the 80% of workers who are in manufacturing or non-managerial services) have failed to keep up with inflation over the last two years. In the first quarter of 2005, real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) wages were 0.2% below those of the same quarter a year earlier. Real wages have fallen 0.3% over the last two years after rising by 2.0% over the prior two years starting in early 2001.” Job Watch Bulletin 04-01-05 Economic Policy Institute Washington D.C.

As the corporate mind control apparatus keeps Joe and Jane Sixpack distracted and occupied with Terri Shaivo and her family’s in-fighting, the Michael Jackson trial, sports of all sorts and the death of the Pope, lost in the sauce is any real discussion about the day to day reality of working class folks in AmeriKKKa. This is not coincidental; it is the way the plutocrats and oligarchy want it to be. As Catherine Austin Fitts told me once, “the people who run the government view the citizenry as mushrooms, to be kept in the dark and feed horse manure.” Rarely do you see anything in the major newspapers or network television about how bad the economy really is. Looking at the newspapers and television you would never know job growth in the private sector was so anemic; the worst growth performance since the US Department of Labor began keeping statistics in 1939 following the great depression. Corporate profits are way up, corporate executive compensation is off the hook but for the little guy, things are not so good. The “jobless recovery” continues. In March of 2005 110,000 new jobs were created. That’s the good news. The bad news is 150,000 new jobs needed to be created in March just to keep pace with the potential work force. That means there were 40,000 people in March alone that could not be employed because there were no jobs. This pattern has been consistent since George W Bush was enthroned as President. Not only aren’t there more new jobs, in many instances the jobs that exist aren’t paying wages that keep abreast of the rising inflation rate. An article on the World Socialist Web site (definitely not a cheerleader for monopoly capitalist globalism) dated April 5, 2005 revealed, “The 2.6 percent increase in wages is less than the 3 percent increase in consumer prices over the past year, meaning that for most workers, real wages are declining. In recent months, US consumers have been particularly hard hit by a sharp rise in gasoline prices. Crude oil was trading at over $58 a barrel over the weekend, before falling slightly on Monday. Gasoline prices in many states are soaring above $2 a gallon, with a continued rise expected over the summer as demand increases. One investment firm has predicted that crude oil prices could soar to over $100 a barrel over the next several years. The prices of other critical consumer goods and services have increased sharply over the past year as well, including medical costs (up 4.3 percent) and dairy products (up 5.6 percent). Declining real wages have been translated into depressed consumer spending and slack consumer confidence. The University of Michigan’s monthly measure of consumer confidence, also released April 1, declined from 94.1 to 92.6.” (www.wsws.org) Wages are stagnant and declining. So even if you are working, your paycheck is being stretched and strained to meet the increasing costs of living.
Just because you have a job now doesn’t mean you will have a job tomorrow. Two auto giants, General Motors and Ford are predicting more losses and will have to lay off workers or demand concessions from workers and perhaps bail outs from the government in order to remain in business. The article also noted, “The worsening economic situation will be leveraged by the auto companies to extract new and sweeping concessions from workers in the form of cuts in wages and benefits. The third auto giant, Daimler-Chrysler, has already secured an agreement from the United Auto Workers union to force workers to pay health premiums, a concession that will likely be extended to Ford and GM as well. The service industry in Michigan is also suffering, including at Michigan-based Kmart, which recently agreed to buy out Sears. Kmart will close its corporate headquarters in Michigan, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs in the state.” (ibid) To make matters worse GM and Ford’s bond rating have slipped to crisis levels due to ongoing losses and their projected 2005 losses which do not bode well for their investors or the long term survival of either company. If GM or Ford crashes (which is unlikely because the government, which is broke itself, will intervene to save them like it did for Chrysler in 1979) it will send a massive tidal wave through the economy swamping the working class in a tsunami of debt and employment chaos. The April 5 online version of Bloomberg reported, “General Motors Corp.'s debt ratings were cut one notch to Baa3, the lowest investment grade, by Moody's Investors Service. The rating company also said it was reviewing Ford Motor Co.'s debt for a possible downgrade. Moody's said the cut at GM stems from ‘an uncompetitive fixed-cost structure’ and ‘steadily declining market share.’ Moody's began reviewing GM's ratings on March 16, when the automaker forecast its biggest quarterly loss since 1992. The review of Ford's ratings was prompted by ‘increasing risk.’ Ford may not meet a 2006 target of $7 billion in pretax profits. Moody's rates Ford debt at Baa1, three levels above non- investment grade. GM and Ford, the two biggest U.S. automakers, have lost market share to Toyota Motor Corp. and other competitors. GM's market share declined to 25.7 percent in the first quarter from 27 percent a year ago while Ford declined to 19.5 percent during the period from 20.4 percent a year ago.” (www.Bloomberg.com ) Bet you didn’t see that on the 6 O’clock news! Couple this news with the escalating personal debt most AmeriKKKan families face, the spiraling federal and US trade deficits, the trillions of tax dollars missing from the Department of Defense, HUD and Iraq, the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the deficit at the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp, the new bankruptcy laws that were sponsored and written by the credit card companies and Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security, the future is one of debt serfdom and wage peonage. I hate to be the barer of ill tidings but it is much better to be informed a tidal wave is coming than get caught totally unprepared.

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Ominous Signs on the Economic Home Front

“The economy has been in recovery since late 2001 and has been creating jobs since the fall of 2003. But despite the upward trend for jobs, the hourly wages of most workers (the 80% of workers who are in manufacturing or non-managerial services) have failed to keep up with inflation over the last two years. In the first quarter of 2005, real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) wages were 0.2% below those of the same quarter a year earlier. Real wages have fallen 0.3% over the last two years after rising by 2.0% over the prior two years starting in early 2001.” Job Watch Bulletin 04-01-05 Economic Policy Institute Washington D.C.

As the corporate mind control apparatus keeps Joe and Jane Sixpack distracted and occupied with Terri Shaivo and her family’s in-fighting, the Michael Jackson trial, sports of all sorts and the death of the Pope, lost in the sauce is any real discussion about the day to day reality of working class folks in AmeriKKKa. This is not coincidental; it is the way the plutocrats and oligarchy want it to be. As Catherine Austin Fitts told me once, “the people who run the government view the citizenry as mushrooms, to be kept in the dark and feed horse manure.” Rarely do you see anything in the major newspapers or network television about how bad the economy really is. Looking at the newspapers and television you would never know job growth in the private sector was so anemic; the worst growth performance since the US Department of Labor began keeping statistics in 1939 following the great depression. Corporate profits are way up, corporate executive compensation is off the hook but for the little guy, things are not so good. The “jobless recovery” continues. In March of 2005 110,000 new jobs were created. That’s the good news. The bad news is 150,000 new jobs needed to be created in March just to keep pace with the potential work force. That means there were 40,000 people in March alone that could not be employed because there were no jobs. This pattern has been consistent since George W Bush was enthroned as President. Not only aren’t there more new jobs, in many instances the jobs that exist aren’t paying wages that keep abreast of the rising inflation rate. An article on the World Socialist Web site (definitely not a cheerleader for monopoly capitalist globalism) dated April 5, 2005 revealed, “The 2.6 percent increase in wages is less than the 3 percent increase in consumer prices over the past year, meaning that for most workers, real wages are declining. In recent months, US consumers have been particularly hard hit by a sharp rise in gasoline prices. Crude oil was trading at over $58 a barrel over the weekend, before falling slightly on Monday. Gasoline prices in many states are soaring above $2 a gallon, with a continued rise expected over the summer as demand increases. One investment firm has predicted that crude oil prices could soar to over $100 a barrel over the next several years. The prices of other critical consumer goods and services have increased sharply over the past year as well, including medical costs (up 4.3 percent) and dairy products (up 5.6 percent). Declining real wages have been translated into depressed consumer spending and slack consumer confidence. The University of Michigan’s monthly measure of consumer confidence, also released April 1, declined from 94.1 to 92.6.” (www.wsws.org) Wages are stagnant and declining. So even if you are working, your paycheck is being stretched and strained to meet the increasing costs of living.
Just because you have a job now doesn’t mean you will have a job tomorrow. Two auto giants, General Motors and Ford are predicting more losses and will have to lay off workers or demand concessions from workers and perhaps bail outs from the government in order to remain in business. The article also noted, “The worsening economic situation will be leveraged by the auto companies to extract new and sweeping concessions from workers in the form of cuts in wages and benefits. The third auto giant, Daimler-Chrysler, has already secured an agreement from the United Auto Workers union to force workers to pay health premiums, a concession that will likely be extended to Ford and GM as well. The service industry in Michigan is also suffering, including at Michigan-based Kmart, which recently agreed to buy out Sears. Kmart will close its corporate headquarters in Michigan, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs in the state.” (ibid) To make matters worse GM and Ford’s bond rating have slipped to crisis levels due to ongoing losses and their projected 2005 losses which do not bode well for their investors or the long term survival of either company. If GM or Ford crashes (which is unlikely because the government, which is broke itself, will intervene to save them like it did for Chrysler in 1979) it will send a massive tidal wave through the economy swamping the working class in a tsunami of debt and employment chaos. The April 5 online version of Bloomberg reported, “General Motors Corp.'s debt ratings were cut one notch to Baa3, the lowest investment grade, by Moody's Investors Service. The rating company also said it was reviewing Ford Motor Co.'s debt for a possible downgrade. Moody's said the cut at GM stems from ‘an uncompetitive fixed-cost structure’ and ‘steadily declining market share.’ Moody's began reviewing GM's ratings on March 16, when the automaker forecast its biggest quarterly loss since 1992. The review of Ford's ratings was prompted by ‘increasing risk.’ Ford may not meet a 2006 target of $7 billion in pretax profits. Moody's rates Ford debt at Baa1, three levels above non- investment grade. GM and Ford, the two biggest U.S. automakers, have lost market share to Toyota Motor Corp. and other competitors. GM's market share declined to 25.7 percent in the first quarter from 27 percent a year ago while Ford declined to 19.5 percent during the period from 20.4 percent a year ago.” (www.Bloomberg.com ) Bet you didn’t see that on the 6 O’clock news! Couple this news with the escalating personal debt most AmeriKKKan families face, the spiraling federal and US trade deficits, the trillions of tax dollars missing from the Department of Defense, HUD and Iraq, the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the deficit at the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp, the new bankruptcy laws that were sponsored and written by the credit card companies and Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security, the future is one of debt serfdom and wage peonage. I hate to be the barer of ill tidings but it is much better to be informed a tidal wave is coming than get caught totally unprepared.

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Sunday, April 10, 2005

Uncle Sam's Desperation

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army, stung by recruiting shortfalls caused by the Iraq war, has raised the maximum age for new recruits for the part-time Army Reserve and National Guard by five years to 39, officials said on Monday. The Army said the move, a three-year experiment, will add about 22 million people to the pool of those eligible to serve, from about 60 million now. Physical standards will not be relaxed for older recruits, who the Army said were valued for their maturity and patriotism. The Pentagon has relied heavily on part-time Army Reserve and Army National Guard soldiers summoned from civilian life to maintain troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. Roughly 45 percent of U.S. troops currently deployed for those wars are reservists. At home, the all-volunteer Army has labored to coax potential recruits to volunteer for the Guard and Reserve as well as for active-duty, and to persuade current soldiers to re-enlist when their volunteer commitment ends.” Reuters News Service 03-21-05

The AmeriKKKan Empire is desperate. It needs cannon fodder for the endless wars, “interventions” and crusades the ruling elites have in store for the masses, however due to its bungling of the Iraq war and occupation, recruits are getting harder and harder to come by. Black folks, long a good supply of soldiers because the military offered better options and opportunities than the class, race and color biased general society, have now abandoned it to the tune of a 41% drop in enlistments during Bush’s crusade for oil and empire. Things are so bad the U.S. Army is going to extend the maximum age for new recruits five years from 354 to 39 years old! The move will theoretically add more people to the potential pool of recruits. However if things keep going in Iraq and in a more limited way in Afghanistan they will have to either raise the age limit even higher or reinstate the draft. While to most politicians the idea of restoring the draft, at least publicly, is anathema; this option is being seriously considered. For politicians, the decision to reinstate the draft is so touchy; it has overtaken Social Security as the proverbial third rail of politics! They are fearful of rousing the sleeping giant of anti-war, anti-draft mass protests and resistance that thwarted the military/ politician axis from continuing the feckless Viet Nam disaster that polarized the nation during the late ‘60's and early ‘70's. While the politicians are loath to cast the vote to revitalize an inequitable system that tramples the freedom and career choices of young people sending them to die in another unpopular example of imperial over reach, the imperial war machine needs more fodder. Quietly behind the scenes think tanks and policy makers are studying ways to shore up the military so our bungling emperor has more grist for his imperial mill. Activists are pondering ways to circumvent what they see as the inevitability of a reinstated draft.
In a thought provoking article in the March issue of Washington Monthly Phillip Carter and Paul Glastris entitled, The Case For The Draft lay out the how and why AmeriKKKa faces a shortfall in its imperialist military forces and offer several scenarios how to remedy the situation. Reinstatement of the draft is one of them. In an extensive article on the Counter Punch (www.CounterPunch.com ) Website Tom Reeves offers a compelling argument why some form of draft or universal service/conscription will be forth coming and what peace, anti-draft and anti-war activists must do to prepare to get ahead of the curve. Reeve acknowledges the drop in African-American recruits but also notes the Iraq War is a class war, drawing its’ cannon fodder more from the ranks of poor and working class whites than people of color. He speculates but does not prove there is a movement afoot to whiten the military, ostensibly to prevent what happened during the Viet Nam debacle where black soldiers revolted refusing to kill people who looked like them. “So what's going on? Is the army in the field whitening again? Is there an unwritten policy to cleanse some parts of the military of Blacks and other minorities--whether to satisfy Black feelings that they are bearing too much of the burden, or to avoid a return to the Vietnam situation where so many Black soldiers resisted and rebelled against an unjust war where they felt they had to kill people of their own or a similar race? A close look at the military reveals a very major racial shift since the Gulf War--and one that has not yet been widely acknowledged. Charles Moskos says military recruiting is now much more aggressive in rural areas than in urban ghettos. The result is clear in the make-up of the military. While general enlistment of Blacks has now fallen from 30% (at its height in the late 1990s) to about 13% today, the re-enlistment level for Blacks has remained far greater than that of whites. This is especially true for those in non-combat units, especially communications and unit administration. Moskos says that of the 45,586 combat infantry in the army in 2003, 10.6% were black; of the 12,000 air force pilots, 2%; and of the Green Berets, 5%. ‘The U.S. forces fighting the wars today are disproportionately white,’ said experts quoted in USA Today (1/20/03). Moskos told me (email correspondence, February 2004), ‘The portion of Blacks in combat units has been shrinking for two decades. Special Forces are almost all white now. The high black numbers are in supporting roles. Even Black enlistment over all has been declining for the past two years--perhaps due to anti-Iraq and anti-Bush feelings among Blacks.’ (Counter Punch 03-19-05). The fact articles like the ones in Washington Monthly and Counter Punch are openly discussing the situation means it is a severe problem for the empire; one the hiring of more contract employees ( a.k.a. mercenaries the stock and trade of empires past and present) will never solve. As the problem (from the warmonger’s perspective) becomes more acute, look for a reinstatement of some form of universal conscription/service/skills draft.

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