Nearly 3,000 years ago a Chinese warrior by the name of Sun Tzu penned his famous “The Art of War”. The principles outlined by this single soldier are still being taught not only in our military training academies but by people from all walks of life, from corporate executives to professional athletes and even the application software engineers who design video games like Total War and other Real Time Simulation war games. One of his most important statements is: “If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril. ”. This means that if you expect to be successful in any competitive in your endeavors you must understand your opponent strengths, weaknesses and goals at least as well as you know your own strengths, weaknesses and goals.

It appears the not one single Republican leader, on either the State or Federal level, has bothered to read a single word of this book. The Republican plan seems to be, one at a time, to alienate large swaths of the American electorate, the very votes they will need if they expect to retain their jobs in November. Examples include Latinos, African Americans, Gays, Women, Workers, the Middle Class, and Muslims. While this has been a trend during the last 40+ years, it has only been during the last 12 years that the attacks have taken on a direct and even violent nature. During the early Presidential campaign, especially during the debates, Candidates spent months trying to one-up each other on illegal immigration by suggesting things like putting deadly electrified fences and alligator on the border. States like Alabama, Georgia and Arizona are trying to pass identification laws that resemble nothing more than Nazi or Soviet overreach. This is an interesting tactic when we consider that 16% of the US voting population is Latino.

Latinos are far from the only targets in the Republicans iron sights. There are more than 500 Bills in State legislatures that directly attack women´s health care, several States have even go as far as to legalize rape as a form of intimidation. They have attacked Planned Parenthood, which offers free or reduced price health care to tens of millions of poor women. In States like Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and others they have even tried to make hormonal contraception illegal. In Arizona the Legislature recently passed a Bill that states that “life” begins two weeks before conception. This essentially means that our leaders are suggesting that human life begins before the actual sex act takes place. This week the Senate not only voted against ending wasteful Oil Subsidies but would not even allow the Buffet Rule to be debated on the floor, deciding to filibuster it instead. In Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker repealed the equal pay legislation for women.

Scholarships for minorities are being cut at record rates by both State Legislatures and Congress, voting rights are being restricted and civil rights are gradually disappearing. On every one of these issues public opinion is solidly against the Republican positions. In the reddest State in the United States, voters shut down a “person-hood” Amendment to the States Constitution by 16 points, yet that did not stop Republicans from introducing the exact same Bill in the new legislature just a few months later. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of citizens across the county are taking to the streets in protest but Conservatives, instead of addressing concerns, double down and introduce something even worse. These people are supposed to be our leaders and it only makes sense that our leaders should be at least competent enough to know not to attack their own people.

The last three years in the United States have been surrealistic at the very least. The good thing about this insanity is that it has served to pull the blinders that the Bush Administration hobbled the people with by using fear and division. When Republicans were running for office during the 2010 they swept both State and Federal elections. When they received this win however they somehow thought that their platform of Jobs, Jobs, Jobs could be translated into a Social War. The third Bill introduced by Congress in the new 2011 session was an anti-abortion bill and the number of these Bills has gone from 2-3 per year to nearly 100 per year. The fact is that the Republican majority has yet to pass an actual jobs Bill, focusing on actually cutting Federal and State jobs and increasing tax advantages of the wealthy and businesses.

The problems in State Legislatures and Assemblies are even worse and while some States are worse than others, the Legislature in Texas seems to have lost their collective minds. Anyone who spent any time trying to figure out exactly what Rick Perry was saying would think that the Lone Star State is the place to go for the best jobs and best education. The facts are far different however. The State of Texas actually has the lowest percentage of High School graduates in the nation and the highest percentage of minimum wage workers. The worst part of this is that Perry is actually proud of these numbers, talking extensively about how many jobs he created. The thing is that they are all minimum wage jobs and he was unable to do that until he accepted the Stimulus that he then turned around and vilified when he was running for office. This is also the man who suggested in a speech that Texas should just simply secede from the United States altogether.

But talk like this from Texans should really be no surprise as most citizens of the State do not consider Texas to be a part of the United States. That is until they need disaster relief or when they are waiting for their Social Security and Medicare checks. Perry actually said in yet another speech that he would take all the money the Federal government wanted to give but refused to adhere to any requirements that the government puts on it, such as following the law. Texas politicians have been following lockstep with the national parties social agenda, adopting the most extreme laws passed in the other States as their own. Texas copied the Mississippi “person-hood” Amendment, Virginia´s vaginal probe ultrasound, the Wisconsin union stripping laws and all of the worst aspects of the various voter ID laws that are becoming so popular. Perry has cut more from public education, including support for for some of thebest online colleges and Universities in the nation.

If there were ever any questions about the Texas agenda, they flew out the window with the news yesterday that the State Republican Party planned to change its delegate allotment rules so that Rick Santorum will win all of the Texas delegates. The reason for this is simple. The State has a population of nearly 26 million. Of that number nearly 8 million, or 30% of the voting population and nearly all of the none socially conservative voters live in the 6 largest cities. The problem is that while 30% will not win a primary if the delegates are awarded by district, instead of by State, there are more people, and more social conservatives, in the rural areas of the State, but the largest number of delegates are from the cities. In effect the State Republican Party has decided to change the rules right in the middle of the game and effectively disenfranchise all those voters in the largest cities, most of whom are not socially conservatives.

 

These are tactics that the Republican Party is becoming famous for. If they cannot win using the rules, they simply cry about changing them. Texas was just slapped down by the Federal courts for illegal redistricting. This recent move is just another attempt to disenfranchise anyone who might disagree with them. We must understand something about social conservatives. These people´s ideas some exclusively from the Christian Bible and the people who use it actually believe that the only rules that should be followed are “God´s”. We continue to treat them as if they are following the same playbook. As a people we must understand that democracy, true democracy, is anathema to these people.

The Opus Dei movement was nearly 75 years old before anyone in the United States, even most Catholics, knew anything about it. The first real mention, to the general public, of this group was in the novel “The Da Vinci Code”, by Dan Brown. While the book was heavily dramatized and most certainly put both Opus Dei and the Catholic Church in a bad light, it has now become important for society as a whole to know more about this very secretive organization. The reason for this is very simple. While Rick Santorum´s campaign denies that he is a member of this group, Santorum sends his children to Opus Dei Schools, has said on several occasions that he follows the words of Saint Josemaría Escrivá, the groups founder, in both his personal and political decisions, attends Opus Dei services at lease one time each month and contributes heavily to the organization.

First we need to take a look at Opus Dei itself. The group was started in 1926 by a Spanish Monk named Josemaria Escriva. Escriva believed that he had had a vision of God and that this vision had given him a plan to bring the Word to the world. Escriva believed that only God´s Law was relevant to all of mankind and that secular laws were simply tools of the Devil. There have been many pundits who have called Opus Dei a cult, not really a part of the Church, but the fact is that the organization and its activities have been endorsed by every Pope since its creation and the Church was publicly furious about Brown´s depiction of the Order in his best selling book. The Pope´s endorsement means that the Order, and everything the Order stands for and does, is supported by the Vatican and the Church as a whole.

The Order is divided into two types of members: Numeraries and Supernumeraries. Numeraries, a full third of the total members, are required to “suffer like Jesus”. They are required to wrap spiked chains around their legs for two full hours each day and beat themselves with a whip each day, both of which can cause serious injury. They are also required to be celibate. All of the leaders are required to be Numeraries, as are teachers in Opus Dei schools. This means that Rick Santorum´s children are being educated by men, the only members with teaching jobs in the Order, who wear spiked chains around their legs, possibly while in class, for the sole purpose of causing themselves agonizing pain.

 

Masochism is a serious psychological disorder. The definition of a masochist is anyone who spends an “abnormal amount of time thinking about being humiliated or physically hurt in some way…”. This disorder is usually related to sexual deviancy, but not exclusively, and can be very dangerous, its practitioners unstable. The questions should be asked however because Catholic celibacy has already been shown to contribute to pedophilia, a recognized sexual disorder. But the real question is how a man who obviously fully supports and endorses this type of lifestyle (masochistic teachers), could get so close to the White House. Even his stand on abortion is false because his wife had a years long sexual relationship with the doctor that delivered her and was an abortionist at that time. He also approved an abortion for his wife when she was experiencing delivery problems. Nothing about this man is real and many things are possibly dangerous.

The United States was involved in four major wars during the 20th Century and before the end of the third year America had become hopelessly enmeshed in two more major wars. The neighbors of the United States however are relatively peaceful. Mexico has not been in a war for more than a century and while Canada has supplied troops for several wars initiated by either the United States or Great Britain, their involvement has been minimal. The United States now has more than 300,000 troops scattered around the world, stationed on foreign soil, a number not equaled since the Roman Empire. In the United States crowds of Conservative leaders are pushing for yet another war as crowds cheer the possibility of executing innocent people and allowing someone with no insurance to die. In the United States even social betterment efforts such as drug abuse are called “wars”.

But one thing that Americans seem unable to understand is the fact that just because a people do not like war, this does not mean they have no principles. America seems to have forgotten that the concepts of peace, justice, mercy, all are principles. Recent events in Canada are excellent examples of this simple fact of life. According to every International Treaty signed during the last 60 years dealing with conduct in war, has labeled the use of torture under any circumstances a war crime. International law also controls the treatment of prisoners of war. In early 2002 the United States invaded Afghanistan with the stated purpose of killing or capturing Osama Bin Laden and destroying Al Qaeda. Both Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were integral parts of the government in power, the Taliban, in much the same way that Germany controlled by the Nazis. One of the first moves by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney was to create an “extra-jurisdictional” prison to hold prisoners taken in what they had begun calling the “war on terrorism”.

The military and Intelligence community who were conducting interrogations of these prisoners immediately began using what they called “enhanced interrogation techniques”, such as water-boarding, sleep deprivation, extremes in heat and cold. The main sponsor of this program was Dick Cheney who used it because he said it “saved lives” and that it was not torture. But the fact is that International law does not forbid torture unless it “saves lives”. It forbids the use of torture under any circumstances and all of the above techniques are classified as torture by both the United Nations and with World Court. Finally, all United States Special Operations personnel, Green Berets, SEALS, Rangers, Combat Controllers, Even some federal undercover, DEA and FBI special agents, are forced to endure all of these techniques in training as preparedness to defeat torture.

In 2009 President Obama pressured Spain to drop charges filed against 6 members of the Bush Administration, including Dick Cheney, for their participation in this interrogation program. The charges were filed in Madrid because some of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay were Spanish Citizens. The International group Human Rights Watch has been pressuring the Federal Government to launch an investigation but has been ignored. Canadians however seem to be of a different stripe. In typical Cannuck style they let the ex-VP know that he was not welcome in their country. Cheney has had problems in Canada, related to his activities as Vice President, but this time he seems to be taking warnings seriously and has canceled an April 24^th speaking engagement Toronto, citing security concerns. Dick Cheney has no problem going to Baghdad but Toronto might not be safe for him? What does that say about Canada?

The United States could stand to learn a few things from its neighbors. American politicians, even when convicted and imprisoned, come out and go on speaking tours and write books after committing horrendous crimes. The Bush Administration broke the law, both American and International, on many occasions. The crimes they committed can be traced to the deaths of thousands of people. Refusing to accept these facts only brings more trouble for the United States. Our neighbors are not being attacked by “terrorists” because they are not sending invading armies and torturing prisoners in made up wars.

 

“The problem with socialized medicine – socialized anything?  It’s a narcotic,” Santorum said.  “You don’t even know what you’re missing. You don’t even see the dynamism of life, and the economy, because you’ve been given something for nothing, and you’re happy to have it. This is not us. We are different.”- Rick Santorum

The politics of division has been around at least since the time of Machiavelli who said, “There is no surer way of corrupting the citizens, and to divide the city against itself, than to foment the spirit of faction that may prevail there; for each party will strive by every means of corruption to secure friends and supporters.” — Niccoló Machiavelli, The Discourses. 1517. But at no time in history has there been such a massive campaign to divide a nation into such small chunks. The Bush campaigns began this deluge of divisive attacks but the current crop of politicians have raised it to an entirely new level. The amazing thing about this trend however is not that they are trying to divide the country. Division is one of the easiest political tricks in the book. The surprising part of this is that they both claim to be ethical, moral, Christians, yet their positions and actions are the complete antithesis of the teachings of Jesus.

We can compare and contrast the teachings of Jesus to the politics of division and see how well that they match up. Christ taught us to love our neighbors, Republicans teach us that anyone who dresses different, speaks a different language, has a different skin color, political/religious beliefs, economic standing, and many other things, are the enemy. If they are not American, they are probably criminals and certainly hate us for what we have. This has always been the message of both the Right and American Churches. Republicans are constantly chanting about the liberals who want the government complete control of our lives, effectively turning us against government, while at the same trying to pass laws at the State and Federal levels that give the Government control over your actions in the bedroom.
Every liberal policy deals directly with helping people have better lives. Food Stamps feed the hungry, Medicare heals the sick. Education funding gives access to all Americans, not just the wealthy and privileged. Illegal immigrants are not “criminals”, they are men and women who are seeking a better way to provide for their families. Rick Santorum´s statement above is a perfect example of this tactic. According to Santorum, at no time in human history were people treated equally until Judaism, Christianity and America came along.

Christianity and American came into being. Judaism, Christianity and America see people as equal? Really? Well, in the Old Testament an ox or donkey that killed a human would be stoned to death. But when it was a slave that was killed, the owner of the ox merely had to pay the owner of the slave 30 shekels. Exodus 21:28-32. The New Testament is not much better. In Matthew 10:24 it says, “A student is not greater than the teacher. A slave is not greater than the master.” The history of the Christian Church is full of examples of this intolerance. The Council of Cardinals in Holland, where the European slave trade was born, endorsed the idea of the enslavement of African people. Holland was the birthplace of slavery but when the Pope supported the idea the rest of the world followed. This decision, made by Christian leaders, in 1457 led to nearly 400 years of slavery in America.

The politics of division are also the politics of fear. Fear of anything unknown. Everyone and everything is the enemy. Socialism? Our public school system is essentially socialistic in nature. Social Security, Medicare, even your local police and fire departments are socialistic. Socialism is simply a group of people pooling their resources to create programs that benefit all citizens. The nations with the highest standards of living in the world, Scandinavia and Western Europe, have been doing all of the things that American Liberals are proposing and have been extremely successful. There are at least 8 nations that have a higher standard of living than the US. Their achievements in educational standings, health care and criminal reform are nothing short of astounding, but the nature of Americans is that nothing that is done is done correctly unless they think of it first. Again, the division.

When the attacks began after the mid-term elections in 2010 most voters thought it was the same old anti-abortion crowd just stepping up the pace. When it began no rational person would have thought that the issue was not really about abortion It was about sex. The attacks on abortion themselves are irrational when you consider that not only is it an ancient practice, there are many references to religious leaders, such as St. Augustine, for most of Christian history, saying that abortion was a matter to be dealt with by ecclesiastical courts, not criminal or civil. Tertullian, a 2nd and 3rd century Christian theologian, made a number of positive references to the practice, citing the invention of the various tools used to perform the procedures to the ancient Greeks. Christianity itself has many positions on the issue of abortion, with only a tiny minority being against it in all circumstances. Yet the politics of our nation have been completely dominated by this issue.

The simple reason why this seemingly unimportant issue has such staying power is that it is not an idea: It is a banner. A flag that followers can rally behind. The real issue has always been, is now and always will be sex. We have a small, but well financed and connected, group that feels that the practice of their religion requires that they not only control their own behavior, but also the behavior of others. The believe that the Universe is a place of black and white and that anyone who does not follow their narrow set of beliefs, that they are evil. This group has managed to seize a great deal of control on both the State and Federal levels by either having their own elected to public office (George W. Bush, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee), or using intimidation with other elected officials.

The issues have gone far beyond abortion however. Attacks on Roe versus Wade have become the norm but in an effort to render that ruling toothless, Republican legislatures nationwide, in 37 States, have begun to pass laws that not only make all forms abortion illegal but also threaten most forms of hormonal birth control. When the President ordered all employers to offer birth control coverage in worker´s health insurance policies religious institutions, like hospitals, charities and Universities, complained that such a plan would force them to pay for a medication that is against their religious beliefs, even though there was no requirement that anyone use this insurance or contraceptives if they are available. This week a female evangelical student attending classes at Stonehill College sued her first school, Boston College, because she said her roommate was having “too much sex” and the school refused to provide her a “private” room. While there is no doubt that, if her stories were true, her roommate had indeed crossed a line. But she had options of finding another roommate or renting an apartment in town with other girls who shared her beliefs.

The Christian Church, in its many variations have understood for centuries that sex is a biological function and that controlling this biological function allows them a great deal of control over people´s lives. Last year the Pope went to Africa, the most AIDS ravaged Continent, and told the people that it was a sin to use condoms. Ask a Public Health Nurse or Doctor how many lives condom use saves in the United States by protecting against STDs. Black and White. Reality, truth, honesty. None of these words mean anything to these people. The issue is not about abortion and while it is more about sex, the real central goal here is control. The issue is whether we get to keep the few individual freedoms that we have left as a nation. Republicans rail about government control of Health Care while passing one Bill after another that attempt to restrict access to legal, medically necessary things like contraceptives and abortion. At the same time they are cutting education funding so we would have more people like Rush Limbaugh, who apparently thinks you need to take the “pill” after each sex act, running our country. This is the future we can look forward too.

One of the biggest stories on the news today deals with the huge jump in the prices of crude oil and gasoline. Experts are suggesting that prices will top $4 a gallon by the end of the summer and surpass $5 a gallon before the end of the year. A report on MSNBC´s Bottom Line today attempts to explain the reasons for the increases but, as is usually the case with the mainstream media, many factors are left out. According to the report, most of the problem comes from Iran-of course. Any time the United States wants a reason to go to war, connections to our problems can be traced to the target nation. We all remember when Bush wanted to invade Iraq how the government found numerous links between Saddam Hussein and “Al Qaida”. The fact that Bin Laden was a member of the Wahhabi sect and would never have dealt with Saddam under any circumstances, was never released.

Today´s reports place the majority of the blame on Iran and the rest on nations like Japan, China and India because they “use too much” oil. We can start by exploring each of these contentions. Iran supplies about 20% of the world´s oil an most of the oil flowing from the Persian Gulf region passes through the Strait of Hormuz. After a year of more of saber rattling by the US the Iranians threatened to “close” the Straight. According to “experts” this would reduce the amount of oil available, and drive up prices. But the very idea that the Iranians could actually keep the Straight closed in the fact of American navel and air power is simply ridiculous. The single aircraft carrier task force currently on station could open that straight and defend it in a matter of a couple of days, if not hours.

There are two very important aspects to this rise in gas prices that MSNBC and the rest of the mainstream media always seems to miss however. Last spring we saw a short debate over the possible effect on oil prices brought on by Wall Street speculation. President Obama even ordered an. investigation into this problem. Another aspect is the fact that the Republican Party is now and has been for nearly 4 decades, dependent on the political support of the American oil industry and this same

Party has shown time and again its willingness to completely trash not only the American economy but the economy of the entire world to further their political goals. Understanding that an improved economy would be a death sentence to their chances in November, raising gas prices seems to be the next logical step in their program. High gas prices will drive down the economic recovery, possibly cause a Republican to be elected, who will support deregulation, keep subsidizing the industry, and drive prices higher still. When we consider that all of the mainstream media outlets have energy divisions, such as GE, which owns MSNBC, and its GE Oil and Gas division, it is pretty obvious why we never seem to get the entire story from them.

The State of Veracruz, Mexico is trying an experiment. In a stunning move in December the Federal Government in Mexico City ordered the entire police department in the port city of Veracruz fired and replaced by Marines. In Mexico police corruption is a severe problem because local police are both under-trained and underpaid. The government simply cannot compete with the massive amounts of money offered police by the Cartels and since many of the police have poor educations, this seems to be the only way to improve your life in a moderately poor nation. The government plans to train new police but unless they also increase their pay significantly the problem will likely continue, or get worse, because they cannot keep soldiers on post indefinitely. Teaching these men and women how to become a police officer is only one part of solving the problem of corruption.

But if we look at American police we might want to question whether money and training really make a difference. Most American police agencies require a minimum of an Associates Degree in Criminology or psychology and a period of intensive training in an Academy. American police officers are also paid more than any other police officers in the world. That does not seem to matter however when we consider the rash of police corruption cases during the last few decades. The entire Nassau County Sheriff´s Office, including the Sheriff, Tommy Seagraves, was investigated in December on charges ranging from taking kick backs, blocking drug persecutions of close friends, stealing things like marijuana grow lamps and beer keg taps from evidence rooms, disappearing drug raid money, using steroids, physically assaulting suspects, and improper use of police property. This was not the case of a few rogue police officers but an entire Sheriff´s Department, dozens of officers and employees. During the same month in St. Louis a former Sheriff´s deputy was sentenced to from 18-30 years for buying heroin while on duty, chauffeuring a drug dealer, and possession of an illegal firearm. Jason Stewart was arrested in the middle of a drug buy by both local and Federal authorities.

Even small towns are not exempt from this problem. In the town of Rogersville, Tennessee another former Sheriff´s deputy, and ex-narcotics officer, was arrested in December for stealing drugs from the evidence room. Captured on tape prying open lock-boxes with a screwdriver, his home was searched and many examples of his thefts were found, ranging from Schedule IV to Schedule II narcotics. He was arrested and charged with nearly two dozen separate charges. In Haskell, Texas a former Haskell police officer was sentenced for planting drugs in a person´s care and in Beaumont, Texas, not far away another police officer is currently on suspension, with pay, while charges that he leaked information in a drug investigation to the targets of the probe are being considered. Finally, this week, two officers in Chicago were arrested in an FBI sting operation in which they were trying to intercept a drug payoff and keep the money.

Our mainstream media loves to promote stories of “lawlessness” in Mexico. But the truth is that, removing the drug violence that is generated by American demand, Mexico actually has a much lower crime rate than the United States. We see one example in the US of an entire police department being investigated for corruption and a string of serious felonies in the United States. According to NationMaster, a web site that tracks global statistics, the US is on top  in the number of crimes committed overall and has nearly 10 times the number of crimes as Mexico. But while the US has ten times more crimes than Mexico, it only has 3 times the population, putting the per capita crime rate far higher in the US than in Mexico. You are less likely in Mexico to get a fast police response to a crime, but at the same time you are much less likely to become a victim of one while you are there.  Our suggestion to the mainstream media is that before you spread myths about crime in Mexico, take a look at the statistics.

It is interesting to note that the Republican Party invested more than $7 million to run a primary that had no meaning in Colorado yesterday. Because the State did not hold their primary on the “correct” date, the results were meaningless. The real vote will be taken at a caucus in about two weeks. This complete waste of money comes from the Party that claims to stand for financial responsibility. The number of hypocritical stances that come out of the GOP numbers in the dozens. The Party that is so strident about “family values” is also the Party with far more prominent members who get caught being unfaithful to their spouses and heavily supports Newt Gingrich, a serial adulterer. The Party that resents Government programs so much that most of their members are actually recipients of those same funds.

But it is the Party´s complete disrespect for our military veterans that has become  terribly repulsive.

When the wars first began, back in late 2001, the families of American soldiers were being forced to buy the body armor so sorely needed by our combat veterans. The simple addition of extra armor plating on the bottom Humvees, to protect soldiers from explosive devices, took nearly 4 years to implement. In 2006 it was discovered that funding had been cut so drastically from Veteran´s Administration Hospitals across the nation that men and women permanently disabled in our war were not being cared for. Finally the Bush Administration found it was necessary to extend combat tours for under-trained and inexperienced National Guardsmen and Reservists to have enough bodies to fight two wars. No Republican, in fact very few of any Party, has asked for an investigation into the reasons why we sent out soldiers to die in Iraq in the first place. Not even an investigation. Several thousand Americans and more than 100,000 Iraqis are dead because of a decision that was based on false information.

But these much abused heroes are still being treated like second class citizens by our politicians. The City of New York has been the home of ticker-tape parades for returning veterans for more than a century but since the beginning of Republican dominance, starting with the Nixon/Ford decision not to honor returning Vietnam veterans, the ticker-tape parade for these brave men and women has become a thing of the past. Ronald Reagan invaded both Panama and Granada and no parades were given for them. It was not until nearly 50 years after the end of the Korean War that its veterans received a parade in 1991. During that same decade however there were six parades for sports teams and athletes, one for Nelson Mandela, who is not even an American citizen, and John Glenn. Several individuals, some of whom were not Americans, were given multiple parades, like Charles de Gaulle.

But according to New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, the “Pentagon” says that it is “inappropriate” to give Iraq War Veterans a parade while there were still soldiers in Afghanistan. The idea is ludicrous for a number of reasons. First of all many of the returning Iraq veterans served in both conflicts and, while our government refuses to admit it, the mission in Afghanistan ended when Osama Bin Laden drew his last breath. There is simply no rational reason for an American presence in that nation. When World War II ended and ticker-tape parades were given in New York to six generals, one French, nearly one year before any recognition was given to the troops themselves. French, Italian and British leaders were all given individual parades and the 82^nd Airborne was the only military unit recognized.

Our leaders all get on the stump and talk about honoring our veterans but few of them put their money where their mouth is, being far more concerned with honoring only the politicians and Generals then wi the the men and women who are doing the real fighting and dying. One city had enough respect for these brave people to honor them with a parade-St Louis, Missouri. New York on the other hand thought that it was much more important to honor a group of millionaire athletes who never put on a uniform than citizens who put their lives on the line for years defending our freedoms.

Stealth pricing is a technique generally used in the service industry. It is illegal for retail stores to advertise one price but when the customer tries to buy one that special is “out of stock”. This is called “bait and switch” and has been a crime for nearly 40 years. But the retail industry is the only industry that is actually affected by this consumer protection. Service industries, such as airlines and hotels, cell phone and cable companies, banks and many other sectors of the service industry have been hiding the costs of their services, many of which do not show up until you get the bill, for many generations. Cable Television companies were found guilty of this a number of years ago and the Federal Communication Commission enacted a set of rules that required cable and pay-per-view companies to clearly list all charges for different services in their advertisements and this month the U.S. Department of Transportation is passing new rules that will require the airline industry to follow the same practices.

A news report on MSNBC this week describes what has become a serious problem for fliers not only in the United States but through out the Western Hemisphere and large parts of Asia. It is nearly impossible to travel in the West without using an American airline and it can be difficult in some parts of Asia, such as Australia, the Philippines, South Korea and Japan. Airline tickets can often end up costing as much as 40% more than the listed price during an online purchase and when you add this increase to the fact that the standard airline ticket can also have as much as 40% in taxes added to the price, added after the hidden costs are tacked on, the end result is a ticket that is more than 60% of the advertised price.

It should not be surprising that the airline industry has decided to fight the new regulations in Federal Court. We need to keep in mind however that while the industry has the Constitutional Right to challenge any law that they feel is unfair, exactly what it is that they consider to be unfair. The laws merely require them to fully disclose, before purchase, the total price of the ticket. If the “passenger usage fee”, which can add nearly $20 to the price of a ticket and is just one example of a “hidden” charge, is justified and actually reflects a service rendered, why would the airline industry not want to present it to buyers? The reason for this is simple. This fee is attached when customers use a companies web portal, instead of buying it at the ticket counter. The problem with this fee however is that instead of reflecting a service that costs the company money to offer, using the Internet actually saves the company money as it does not have to maintain as many ticket counters, with live clerks as any human resources management specialist can tell you. The larger the web presence, the smaller number of employees needed.

In 2010 the airline industry collected nearly $6 billion in baggage and change fees alone and none of these fees are listed when tickets are advertised. The vehicle rental industry will be subject to the same regulations. This industry will advertise a daily car rental price of $10 a day but when the car is returned the fees can end up being well over $30 a day. Hotels and motels who advertise one price and, when the customer arrives, tells them this price is based on “double occupancy” are yet another problem, especially for business travelers, many of whom are traveling on limited expense accounts that have to be accounted for. Several years ago the same rule had to be forced on banks who were tacking on hidden charges on overdrafts and ATM fees.

Conservative politicians tell us over and over that industry needs no regulation. They tell us that these huge corporations will always play fair if only allowed too by the Government. But the above information covers three difference segments of the American service industry and all three are effectively engaging in what amounts to unfair trade practices. Buying tickets online saves the airline industry money and using an ATM instead of a highly paid bank teller for simple transactions, such as deposits and withdrawals. But until the Government regulated them these industries were charging consumers.

The Republican Party has been defending big business for many years but the last few years, despite scandal after scandal, usually uncovered either by international media or foreign police agencies, the Party, and most American Conservative voters, simply blind themselves to the realities of the situation. Two of the largest, most powerful, companies in the United States, News International and Coca Cola, have been under fire in both Britain and Latin America for acts that rise far above simple white collar financial crimes. Despite numerous allegations of everything from hacking cell phones and computers to paying bribes to police officers in England, News International seems immune in the United States. Coca Cola is being investigated by trade unions in the United States for prosecution in civil court in the United States for using right wing death squads in Columbia to harass, kidnap and even kill workers in its plants in that country. The United States Justice Department however remains silent on this issue.

Early last year British authorities uncovered a plot by numerous employees of News International to steal data from the cell phones of both British and American citizens. When the investigation first began investigators thought that the crimes were committed by a single rogue reporter but further research discovered that many of the top executives were not only aware of the acts but had actually ordered them. Before the initial investigation was over 30 regular employees of News International, including the organizations chief editor and the personal assistant of Rupert Murdoch, company CEO, Rebekah Brooks, who was forced to resign and was later actually arrested because of the investigation have been arrested. The very idea that Brooks, Murdoch´s Chief executive, knew about the crimes and Murdoch, known for his hands on approach, did not, is simply ludicrous.

Despite this, while the US Justice Department claims to be investigating the huge corporation, which owns Fox News, one of the most powerful media companies in the United States, the only “crimes” they are investigating are “unfair” trade practices. When we compare this with the recent case of MegaUploads Kim Dotcom, of who was charged with not only copyright infringement but also Conspiracy and violations of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization act, it raises some serious questions about the fair and balanced treatment of criminal investigations in our country. Now we have news that four more employees of the company have been arrested for allegedly bribing British police officers during the investigation. These are potential crimes that go far beyond simple unfair trade practices and the idea that these crimes were committed exclusively in the UK is nonsensical.

The situation in Columbia is exactly the same but in the case of the Latin American country that has been embroiled in a civil war that has lasted 37 years. The one difference however is that in Columbia more than 1,500 Union members have been killed and thousands more have been kidnapped and tortured by Colombian Death Squads, who are officially part of the Colombian military. American trade unions are now preparing a civil action against Coca Cola simply because the US Justice Department has refused on numerous occasions to even begin an investigation on the claims. According to Coke executives they have no control over what the company does in Columbia because its agents in the country are Colombian, yet Coca Cola claims more than $1 billion in profits from its Latin American sales. The company is saying that while they are making huge profits from the use of its name in the region, it has no responsibility for the actions of the plants that generate the profits and our top law enforcement agency apparently agrees.

There is an old adage about not “messing with City Hall” that all citizens need to understand. Anytime a society develops a government that no longer pays attention to the will of its people or the rules that it lays down for everyone to follow, that society has a serious problem. This is a problem we are seeing more and more of every day in the United States and the governments reaction to the Internet industry´s protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Internet Protocol Act is a perfect example of a government that is completely out of the public´s control.

We saw the beginnings of this trend when Congress was debating whether or not to impeach Clinton. Even though 82% of the public did not want their President impeached, the Republican controlled Congress voted to impeach him. There were any number of examples from the 8 horrid years of the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration has essentially changed nothing. The public wants the Patriot Act repealed, secret prisons eliminated, Marijuana legalized, same-sex marriage approved, Social Security and Medicare left alone and the wars to stop. Instead the Patriot Act´s power was extended with the Defense Authorization Act, Guantanamo Bay is expanding instead of closing, legal marijuana stores in California are under attack, social safety networks are being cut to the bone and Washington is ratcheting up tensions with Iran. And despite millions of pages of evidence of crimes committed by Wall Street and the banks, which caused the economic meltdown in 2006, no criminal investigators are assigned to find out if they were guilty.

But yesterday the US Justice Department demonstrated exactly how much real respect for the law that they actually had. In a sudden move the Justice Department not only blocked the website MegaUpload, essentially shutting it down, but have crossed International borders to arrest foreign nationals for doing every thing from violating US Copyright law to Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) and other Federal felonies. The tenuous connection used by the Justice Department is that this site leased server time from at least one US hosting company. MegaUpload is not only one of the largest file sharing websites on the Internet but also one of the most popular and is not only used by the general public but by musicians, writers, actors, directors and many other people in the entertainment industry.

SOPA is supposed to give the government the power to do exactly what the Justice Department did yesterday. But the Bill itself is not scheduled to be voted on until January 24^th, 2012. If it is this Bill which gives them the power to shut down websites and prefer charges for Internet piracy, and the Bill has not even been voted on by Congress yet, this raises two very important questions. If the they need the Bill to enforce the law but it has not been passed then the government does not have this power. But if the Justice Department acted legally then the Bill is simply unnecessary.

While Congress has temporarily suspended efforts to pass both SOPA and PIPA, this is an  issue that has been plaguing us for nearly two years now. It was early last year that the first efforts by the government to seize control of the Internet and it is a fair bet that they will simply reword the Bill, change the name and give it another try in a few months. The fact is that piracy does not threaten the entertainment industry, which has been posting record good years for nearly a decade. The laws are already on the books to prosecute violators and giving the government control of an off switch for the Internet brings visions of Internet access in China.

The Republican Party has been accused of race baiting and of having a “plantation” mentality for many years. They have also been accused of having an unholy alliance with big business. There are not many politicians who are absolutely perfect example of the mind set of the current Republican party however. But while they are hard to find, they do exist and their positions of power make this a dangerous mindset. One example is Haley Barbour, now ex-governor of the State of Mississippi, who has popped up in the national news in two big stories during the last several months. Barbour is a Mississippi born an educated native but shortly after finishing college he moved to Washington, D.C. To become one of the most successful and powerful lobbyists in history. While working as a lobbyist, Barbour continued to be active in Republican politics, being an operative for both the Nixon and Ford Administrations during campaign season. He was never able to compete successfully in the political arena on a national level however and was defeated for two Congressional runs, despite having the endorsement of a popular Ronald Reagan during the second campaign.

A great deal of Barbour´s problems on a national level is his long time links to racism. While running for the Senate in 1982 Barbour publicly told one of his aides that he would be “reincarnated as a watermelon and placed at the mercy of blacks” if they used the word “coons” in public again. He has defended the Ku Klux Klan on several occasions and has staunchly stood behind the racist group Citizen Councils. This group was formed in 1954 in protest to the anti-segregation decision in Brown Vs. The Board of Education. He has also been the featured speaker at the Blackhawk Rally, which raises money for the racially segregated Blackhawk School in Blackhawk, Mississippi. The Blackhawk School was founded by the White Citizen´s Council but despite this outspoken support his challengers never seem to call him on it.

But Barbour´s true colors were on full display this week, his last in office. Barbour came into the Governor´s Office straight from K street in Washington and that his exactly where he is returning in the next few weeks to trade on his popularity with conservative politicians. The one thing that is certain however is that Haley Barbour will not be returning to electoral politics any time soon. Before leaving office due to term limits, Barbour pardoned more than 200 State prison inmates, some of whom were convicted murderers and rapists and the people of the State are furious. Barbour ran on a Criminal Justice platform and promised to increase sentences and make long sentences mandatory for any crime committed with a gun. He also promised to expand the number of jobs in criminal justice and actually increased the budget by a large amount. Barbour´s Plantation mentality however shines through when he gives his reasons for pardoning two of the murders.

“They were good workers”, Haley said. Referring to the fact that these convicted killers worked as Haley´s personal servants in the Governor´s Mansion. One Mississippi Judge has managed to block four of the releases and the Attorney General´s Office is planning an action of their own but in most cases the damage has already been done. Only a few months ago Haley Barbour was suggested as a serious candidate for President of the United States and less than a month ago people were speculating that he would be a good VP choice for someone like Romney, whose Conservative credentials are in question. The shame is that a once respectable political party in the United States has allowed itself to fall to the point that the last several groups of candidates offered by the Party are more likely to me mistaken for the cast on a poorly made reality show.

One of the most horrific wars of the 20^th Century was actually the first “Gulf War”. This Gulf War however was not fought between “Coalition” forces and Saddam Hussein s Revolutionary Guards, it was fought between Iraq and Iran. Until the US´s abysmal performance in the Gulf Region during the last decade this war was the longest of the 20^th Century and cost more than half a million lives in the fighting. While there is little doubt who started the war, Saddam and the expansionist policies that would eventually cost him his Palaces, there should be little doubt about what kept the war going: Religion. Saddam´s government was completely controlled by the Sunni sect of Islam and Iran´s Ayatollahs had only recently won control of Iran´s government when they had over thrown the Shah only three years before and these religious leaders were Shia and who viewed the Iraqi invasion as an attack on their faith. This belief kept the Iranians fighting for more than 6 years after they had recovered all territory taken in the invasion. At one point the Iranians were so exhausted that they were using old men and children armed with swords and old Garrand rifles to charge interlocking Iraqi machine gun emplacements. The US Intelligence agencies, using in place spy’s that had been in place before the fall of the Shah, have been able to track the details of the war very closely. Groups of Intelligence officers, working under the direction of a executive assistant or manager, analyzed mountains of electronic data studying every aspect of the war.

The nation of Iran is a textbook Theocracy. The country has a President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but he is simply a mouthpiece for the Supreme Leader, the current Ayatollah, Ayatollah Kameinei. The Iranian Constitution, designed in 1979, in Article 4, it states that “all civil, criminal, financial, economic, administrative, cultural, military, political, and all other statutes and regulations (must) be keeping with Islamic measures;…the Islamic legal scholars of the watch council (shura yi nigahban) will keep watch over this.” The “Watch Counsel” appoints the Supreme Leader. The Counsel is composed exclusively of Mullahs and they appoint one of their own as Supreme Leader in much the same way as the Catholics appoint a Pope to direct the Church.

When George Bush went to the United States for approval to attack Iraq based on “evidence” that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, the only evidence presented had been collected by the United States and Great Britain. The United Nations agency that deals with investigating suspected rogue States who try to develop nuclear weapons, told the Security Counsel they had no evidence that he was trying. This UN agency turned out to be correct. In light of this, recent news from this same agency can only be seen as disturbing. The agency reports that it possessed intelligence reports, with very credible information, from at least 10 countries that Iran was in fact attempting to build a nuclear weapon. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was responsible for the truth in Iraq and there is no reason to suspect that they are in error here. Some of those countries, with inspectors in the agency,  are Islamic and at least one is in the region.

No one hates the idea of war more than this writer. At the same time any rational person will understand that sometimes war is necessary to prevent a greater evil. The current regime in Iran has the same mentality as religious extremists everywhere and the idea of a nation of extremists having nuclear weapons in their possession is terrifying. The nation of Iran has no external enemies yet has a military more than half a million strong and have been rapidly expanding their navel power with purchases from both China and Russia. This is a country that is preparing for war, not a country with peaceful intents. We as a people should carefully consider the consequences of inaction. The Iranian regime has become mentally unstable to the point that they will soon be a real danger to the safety of the entire world and allowing the problem to grow worse.

The last ten years have seen a flood of media stories about Islamic fundamentalists and their crusade against human rights in favor of religious extremism. Our blogs have also talked about American Christian Conservatives and moves both in the United States and around the world to promote this type of behavior as well. We have connected the anti-gay death penalty law in Uganda and “corrective” rapes in South Africa to the “Family”, a secretive Christian cult that has far too much political power in the United States. But very few media outlets have talked about Jewish extremism. A recent story by MSNBC however made us want to look into the subject a bit better. We also conducted a great deal of time looking into religious extremism by other religions. Interestingly enough, while we were able to find hundreds of examples of Jewish/Christian/Islamic extremism, we we completely unable to find any examples of either Buddhist or Hindu extremism. It seems to be only these three cults, all of whom claim to be religions of peace, who use violence in the name of religion. It does not take FBI agent training to understand that these “religions of peace” are actually flying false colors.

Eight year old Naama Margolese, is afraid to go to school in the small Israeli town of Beit Shemesh. She does not fear Muslim fundamentalist operatives or Palestinian insurgents in her walk. She fears her own people. In the United States when we think of Hasidic Jews we picture men in black suits, old fashioned hats and strange hair styles and we seldom see them anyplace except in the New York area. In Israel however the situation is far different. Ultra Orthodox Jews in Israel have a belief system that does not allow them to serve in the military, serve in politics and most of them do not even work for a living, leaving most of them unemployed and essentially a burden to the rest of the people. These people now constitute as much as 10% of the population of Israel and the numbers are projected to grow exponentially during the next several years.

But, like Christians and Muslims, we find these religious extremists are at war with half of the world´s population: Women. When little Naama goes to school and passes them on the street she is spit on and has been physically assaulted on numerous occasions simply because she was dressed in a way they consider “immodest”. Women are being discouraged from going to the voting booths and even from riding buses in the country and all of this is being done by Ultra Conservatives Jews. The rest of the population of Israel has been protesting this behavior for many years but the Ultra Conservative government in Tel Aviv seems to be terrified of the enormous amount of power that this relatively small segment of the population holds in the country and has decided to ignore the protests.

Any reasonable person can see the effects of extremism from these three religions that have plagued humankind for millennium and there must come a time when we as a people should question whether there strict interpretation of our relationship with the Universe (whether you call it “God”, “Allah”, “Jehovah”, “Brahma” or even “Odin”) are beneficial. We know that not everyone who follows these religions are dangerous but we also know that there are far too many dangerous people who use these “faiths” to commit heinous acts to blame it on individual eccentricity. There must come a time when we should question whether it is the actual religions themselves, their basic teachings, which cause the problems. We know that not everyone who uses drugs acts irrationally, but because there are so many who do, we understand that the drugs themselves are dangerous. All drugs do not cause people to act irrationally. Drugs like caffeine, marijuana, sugar, nicotine, while they have adverse health affects for the user, do not impinge on the rights of others. But drugs like cocaine, heroin, meth, alcohol do and should be legalized. Maybe we  should apply the same reasoning to religious writings. Maybe religions who actually have writings that promote tolerance should be legal to possess. If we want to advance as a civilization and survive the next century we must learn that religious intolerance, in any form, is simply intolerable.

The recent shenanigans of Rick Perry can only be seen as despicable. It seems like this man will stoop to any level that will get him into a public office. Perry learned the art of division-ism in politics from the acknowledged masters of the craft: The Bush Family. The problem is however that Perry does not have the Puppet Master, Karl Rove, to direct him and seems lost. But the one thing that Perry has been consistent about however is his Christianity. Even before he announced his run for the Presidency he made it clear that he planned to make religion an issue in his campaign however. His first move was to call a “prayer meeting” and sent out a call to all of the Republican Governors to attend.

But now Perry is stepping up the pace. His utter failure to make it through even one debate, or even conduct an interview that lasts more than about two minutes, without making a complete fool of himself has seen all but the most obstinate knuckle draggers in the Republican Party desperately seeking other choices. But Perry, like the Bushes before him, has stayed true to the formula and has decided to create yet another “war” for Americans to panic about.

According to Perry certain elements in the United States are “at war” with Christianity. He claims that without “Christian” leadership the country will certainly fail and be completely taken over by “Godless” non-Christians. His most recent television ad was a study in intolerance, full of wild claims about anti-Christian Legislation concerning homosexuality, prayer in schools, and, of all things, a “war to end Christmas”. But we need to consider two very important things however. The first is whether someone running for public office has the Constitutional right to take such a strongly religious stance and second, whether or not his claims have any basis in fact.
But now Perry is stepping up the pace. His utter failure to make it through even one debate, or even conduct an interview that lasts more than about two minutes, without making a complete fool of himself has seen all but the most obstinate knuckle draggers in the Republican Party desperately seeking other choices. But Perry, like the Bushes before him, has stayed true to the formula and has decided to create yet another “war” for Americans to panic about.
According to Perry certain elements in the United States are “at war” with Christianity. He claims that without “Christian” leadership the country will certainly fail and be completely taken over by “Godless” non-Christians. His most recent television ad was a study in intolerance, full of wild claims about anti-Christian Legislation concerning homosexuality, prayer in schools, and, of all things, a “war to end Christmas”. But we need to consider two very important things however. The first is whether someone running for public office has the Constitutional right to take such a strongly religious stance and second, whether or not his claims have any basis in fact.

The United States Constitution has two sections which address the proper place of religion in politics. It seems that most of the Republican candidates are short on knowledge of the document that even someone with a paralegal certificate is required to know. The First Amendment states clearly that the Government may not make any law with respect to religion. While this means that the government, or its employees acting on behalf of the government, can make no laws promoting one religion over another, it also means that it cannot suppress one religion over another. The fact is however that all anti-gay laws in the United States are religiously inspired and the vast majority of protesters at pro-gay functions are Evangelical Christians. Our blogs have traced the connections across the planet between American Evangelical groups and Ugandan Death Penalty laws, “corrective” rapes of lesbians in South Africa and many more. The majority of American favor equal rights, including the right to marry, for the LGBT community but politicians, pandering to the small but vocal minority of Evangelicals, continue their anti-gay rhetoric.

But the Sixth Amendment is much clearer on this issue. This year every single Republican candidate has been forced to align themselves not only with Christianity in general but with Evangelical Christianity in particular. 60% of Republican voters have openly stated that they would not vote for Romney simply because of his Mormon faith, which they do not consider “Christian”. But the Sixth Amendment states clearly that “there shall be no religious test for public office”. This simply means that when a voter considers a persons religion when voting that they are in direct violation of the Constitution.

But Mr. Perry is completely correct in his assumption that there is a war against Christianity in the United States. But the war is not, and never has been, to end Christianity or make its practice illegal. The battle has been to remove the exclusively Christian presence from public life. The Supreme Court, for instance, has never ruled that children cannot pray in schools. The ruling simply prevented school employees (public employees) from determining what prayer would be prayed and too who, leading prayers and making them mandatory. The same thing applies to anti-gay laws. If your religion forbids homosexuality then you have the choice not to practice it. You do not however have the ability to push your religious beliefs about homosexuality on others and one religion does not own the concept of marriage. The same applies to Christmas. Holiday celebrations around the time of the Winter Solstice are thousands of years older than Christianity and many religious systems have celebrations at this time. Christ was not even born at this time and using it to celebrate his birth was a trick used by the early Church to allow them to phase out other religious celebrations.

Rick Perry is running for the office of Commander in Chief, not Minister in Chief but since he is obviously unqualified for the first he is now applying for another job. His problem will come when he realized that there is no such job. But at least his staff has a sense of humor. Perry might not have ever seen Broke Back Mountain but it is a guarantee that someone on his staff has and the use of Heath Ledgers jacket was completely appropriate.

The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, or Camp Delta, was created in 2002 by Executive Order by then President George W. Bush as a detention and interrogation facility for suspected terrorists who are accused of being involved in planning or actually attacking Americans or American interests. From the very beginning however many civil rights groups have questioned not only the Constitutionality of detaining these men outside the United States, with no chance of legal protections, no oversight or accountability to anyone except the military authorities in charge of the camp, and very little chance of proving their innocence. The Declaration of Independence, signed by the Founding Fathers on July 4^th, 1776, stated clearly that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” We should notice that the document did not say that all Americans were created equal. It said explicitly that all men were created equal. The Declaration goes on to say that it is the responsibility of our duly elected government act to guarantee this fundamental right.

This facility was opened in 2002 and despite the many suicides, allegations of homicides and sexual assaults and religious oppression, not one single FBI Special Agent has been tasked to investigate. The investigations have been exclusively conducted by Navel Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS), and in house agency. In the beginning and for several years detainees were denied even civilian counsel and even now, while being allowed to consult with private attorneys, these attorneys are barred from investigating these allegations or even inspecting investigation reports. The United States Constitution was the natural follow through from the Declaration of Independence, which is a document which talks about inalienable human rights.

The question about what to do with these men boils down to resolving several issues. First of all most of these people did not commit crimes, even if guilty, on military property so why is the military responsible for their detention? The only thing that would justify this, under international law, is that if they were classified as prisoners of war (POW). Prisoners of war can be legally held for the duration of the war but they are also guaranteed certain rights under the Geneva Convention Accords. If they are not classified as a POW then they must, again under international law, be charged by civilian authorities, tried in civilian courts, and receive all of the rights of protection that are guaranteed by our Constitution.

The fact is that many of these men have been held for nearly a decade. Does it really take our investigators and intelligence communities this long to determine the guilt or innocence of these people? The average time a criminal defendant in the United States is 6 months and a speedy trial is guaranteed by the 6^th Amendment. Now that the US is pulling out of Iraq we see President Obama being faced with what the press is calling a “dilemma”. US Forces are still holding one prisoner in Iraq, who was accused of taking part in an attack in that country which led to the deaths of 5 American personnel in January 2007. The very fact that after all of this time, nearly 5 years, his guilt still have not been determined is questionable by itself. If enough evidence cannot be collected to convict him in nearly 10 times as long as it takes to convict a criminal in the United States, we must seriously question the validity of his captivity in the first place. The next question is fairly simple. Iraq is an independent nation and this person is accused of committing murder within its jurisdiction. When first arrested his detention by US authorities was reasonable when we consider the volatile situation in the nation during that period. But total control over the country has been handed over to the elected government of Iraq and this includes their criminal justice system.

The world is watching Mr. President. We claim to recognize human rights in the United States while maintaining secret prisons away from our shores (which you promised to close in 2008), and we insist that all people have equal rights. Yet we imprison (yes, imprison, not “detain”) people for more than a decade while we claim to be investigating their participation in terrorist acts. We need turn the only remaining prisoner in Iraq over to Iraqi civilian authorities and the investigations of prisoners in Cuba to US civilian authorities who actually investigate the crimes they are accused of committing and set an example of justice and honor the the rest of the world can actually respect.

While most people will not voice it we all know that Israel and the American Jewish community have an have a disproportionate and unnerving amount of influence on both American politics and American policy. This article is intended to be simply a list of facts about the American/Israeli relationship without exploring the legality of the Israeli occupation of those lands in the first place. The blog is however open to a dialog about those issues as well.

We know that most of the animosity in the region is caused not by the presence of a Jewish community there. There have been Jewish communities in Palestine for a thousand years or more. The animosity comes from the fact that instead of living peacefully with their neighbors as they had for, they decided that they wanted all of the land for themselves. Once Israel was granted a large part of this land, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, they still were not satisfied and began and aggressive push to expand their borders, which continues today. The nation claims to be surrounded by aggressive enemies by has not been attacked by a nearby nation in nearly 40 years. The Palestinians, who lost their lands, do not even have and army or modern equipment and Israel refuses to accept them as a nation, even in the small territory they were left with. We have seen the Israeli people who have spoken up against the government in Tel Aviv that are being led by huge financial industries.

The United States has in fact had numerous opportunities to ally itself with other nations in the region and have rebuffed every one of them. If we really want to understand this position we must first understand the difference between Judaism and Zionism. Regardless of its merits or veracity, Judaism is a religion, a spiritual path and is the primary religion of the Jewish population of this region. Zionism however is the political philosophy which currently controls the Israeli government. While Zionism chose its name to link its causes to the Jewish religion, the actual goals of its followers is to basically bring back the nation of Israel to its prestige in the region at the time of Solomon, the same way that Osama Bin Laden´s goal was to return the region to the time of the Caliphate.

The question that Israel needs American Tax payers money to “defend” itself is simply outlandish. At this point in history no other nation in the region would dare invade or even attack Israel in remembrance of what happened to Iraq when it invaded Kuwait. The response from the United Nations was extremely rapid and eventually led to Saddam´s downfall and execution. The threats that Israel does have come from terrorists who are much better tracked using intelligence and police agencies instead of armored invasions of civilian populations. Much of the problem can also be eliminated by allowing the Palestinians to become an independent nation, form its own intelligence and police agencies and assist with the investigations. There is no doubt that while there would still be resentment and tensions because of the presence of a Jewish State, allowing the formation of a democratic Palestinian State can reduce tensions greatly.

But the fact that this sort of move would save both the American and Israeli government hundreds of billions of dollars each year and remove a huge wedge issue among American voters does not seem to matter. The President can be seen publicly kow-towing to the American voter by supporting the decisions of the Ultra Conservatives in Israel after Republicans said that everything he does is “anti-Semitic” in some way. CIA agents, Federal Police agencies and even the Justice Department itself is forbidden to look into the activities of Groups like Goldman-Sachs, a Zionist controlled bank who is deeply involved in the economies of most Western nations, while those same economies are collapsing and Goldman-Sachs is having record shattering returns and politicians defend them voraciously.