The Bush Decade – Ten Worst Things;
Or, the Rise of the New Oligarchs

A great article about the worst of the Bush years. Here are a few highlights. For more, read the whole article as it appeared on the NewsTrust.net website:

• 10. Stagnating worker wages and the emergence of a new monied aristocracy. Of all the income growth of the entire country of the United States in the Bush years, the richest 1 percent of the working population, about 1.3 million persons, grabbed up over two-thirds of it. The Reagan and Bush cuts in tax rates on the wealthy have created a dangerous little alien inside our supposedly democratic society, of the super-rich, with their legions of camp followers (sometimes referred to as ‘analysts’ or ‘economists’ or ‘journalists’). The new lords and ladies are the Dick and Liz Cheneys and the people for whom they shill. They are the Rupert Murdochs and the Richard Mellon Scaifes, and they are guaranteed to own more and more of the country as long as more progressive taxation (i.e. pre-Reagan, not pre-Bush) is not restored. They are the ones who didn’t want a public universal health option, did not want the wars abroad to end abruptly, did not want the Copenhagen Climate convention to succeed. They are driven by pure greed and narrow profit-seeking for themselves. They always get their way, and they always will as long as you poor stupid bastards buy the line that when the government raises their taxes, it is taking something away from you.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 9. Health and food insecurity increased for ordinary Americans. Health care costs skyrocketed. Most Americans in the work force who have health care are covered via their employers. ‘From 1999 to 2009 health insurance premiums increased 132%” for the companies paying most of the costs of coverage to their employees. Euromonitor adds, “Average private health insurance premiums for a family of four in 1999 were US$5,485 per annum or 7.2% of household disposable income. 2008 premiums were estimated at US$12,973 per annum or 14.8% of average household disposable income.” By Bush’s last year in office, food insecurity among American families was at a 14-year high. About 49 million Americans, one in six of us, worried about having enough food to eat at some points in that year, and resorted to soup lines, food stamps, or dietary shortcuts. Some 16 million, according to the NYT, suffered from ‘“very low food security,” meaning lack of money forced members to skip meals, cut portions or otherwise forgo food at some point in the year.’
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 8. The environment became more polluted. The Bush administration was the worst on record on environmental issues. Carbon emissions grew unchecked, and the threat of climate change accelerated. In fact, Bush muzzled government climate scientists and had their reports rewritten by lawyers from Big Oil.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 7. The imperial presidency was ensconced in ways it will be difficult to pare back. But note that its powers were never used against the oligarchs (unlike the case in Putin’s Russia), but rather deployed to ensure the continued destruction of the labor movement and the political bargaining power of workers and the middle class, and to harass and disrupt peace, rights and environmental movements. A part of this process was the abrogation of fourth amendment protections against arbitrary search, seizure and snooping into people’s mail and effects, and of other key constitutional rights…
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 6. The Katrina flood and the destruction of much of historic African-American New Orleans, and the massive failure of the Bush administration to come to the aid of one of America’s great cities.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 5. The Bush administration’s post-2002 mishandling of Afghanistan, where the Taliban had been overthrown successfully in 2001 and were universally despised. The Bush administration’s attempt to assert itself with a big troop presence in the Pashtun provinces, its use of search and destroy tactics and missile strikes, its neglect of civilian reconstruction, and its failure to finish off al-Qaeda, allowed an insurgency gradually to grow…
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 4. The Iraq War, in which the US illegally launched a war of aggression that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, displaced 4 million (over a million abroad), destroyed entire cities such as Fallujah, set off a Sunni-Shiite civil war, allowed Baghdad to be ethnically cleansed of its Sunnis, practiced systematic and widespread torture before the eyes of the Muslim Middle East and the world, and immeasurably strengthened Iran’s hand in the Middle East. All this on false pretexts such as ‘weapons of mass destruction’ or ‘democratization,’ for the sake of opening the Iraqi oil markets to US hydrocarbon firms– a significant faction of the oligarchic class.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 3. The great $12 trillion Bank Robberry, in which unscrupulous bankers and financiers were deregulated and given free rein to create worthless derivatives, sell impossible mortgages to uninformed marks who could not understand their complicated terms, and then to roll this garbage up into securities re-sold like the
  Cheshire cat, with a big visible smile of asserted value hanging in the air even as their actual worth disappeared into thin air.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 2. The September 11 attacks on New York and Washington by al-Qaeda, an organization that stemmed from the Reagan administration’s anti-Soviet jihad in the 1980s and which decided that, having defeated one superpower, it could take down the other. Al-Qaeda’s largely Arab volunteer fighters had confronted the Soviets over their occupation of a major Muslim country, Afghanistan. Bin Laden was himself a Neoliberal Oligarch, but he broke with the Gulf consensus of seeking a US security umbrella, thus creating a fissure within his powerful social class. Al-Qaeda viewed the US as only a slightly less objectionable occupier, though they were willing to make an atliance of convenience in the 1980s. But they were increasingly enraged and galvanized to strike, they said, by the post-Gulf-War sanctions on Iraq that killed 500,000 children, the debilitating Israeli occupation of the Palestinians, and the establishment of US bases in the holy Arabian Peninsula (with its oil riches that Bin Laden believed were being looted for pennies by the West, aided by a supine and corrupt Saudi dynasty).
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 1. The constitutional coup of 2000, in which Bush was declared the winner of an election he had lost, with the deployment of the most ugly racial and other low tricks in the ballot counting and the intervention of a partisan and far right-wing Supreme Court (itself drawn from or serving the oligarchs), and which gave us the worst president in the history of the union, who proceeded to drive the country off a cliff for the succeeding 8 years. And that is because he was not our president, but theirs. Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here…
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.

Recently, Micah Daigle, Executive Director of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), asked supporters to vote for SSDP in a competition on Facebook that would have earned them $25K and a shot at $1 million. Thousands of activists and supporters took action, catapulting SSDP into fourteenth place. The SSDP needed to place within the top 100 to win, so victory was assured.

Or so it seemed… As the New York Times reported this Saturday, during the final days of the contest, Chase rigged their own system to obscure the vote count and then revoked the winnings of a few groups, including SSDP and the Marijuana Policy Project!

Clearly, Chase can’t be trusted to handle our money. This morning, Micah canceled his credit card account with Chase, and he hopes you’ll join him. Please make the Chase Boycott Pledge at http://www.ChaseBoycott.com

To be clear, this isn’t sour grapes over not receiving a grant – this is about demanding honesty and accountability of a corporation that handles billions of dollars of American assets. The banking giant had every opportunity to disqualify SSDP from the start if they disagreed with the charity’s mission. Instead, Chase Bank used popular social networks to generate free advertising for their brand, and then revoked the winnings after the contest was over without providing an explanation. When asked by SSDP and the New York Times to produce a vote tally, they smugly refused.

Chase executives are not only out of touch with the principles of honesty and transparency, but they are also out of touch with the majority of Americans when it comes to drug policy. Are you aware that 75% of Americans think the bogus War on Drugs has failed and that 53% support legalizing marijuana? This is a mainstream issue that’s gaining more support every day.

By boycotting Chase, you’ll be sending a message to corporations that they need to earn your trust before they earn your money. http://www.ChaseBoycott.com

And by making a donation to SSDP today, you’ll be sending a message that excellent organizations like theirs don’t need to rely on grants from big banks so long as they can rely on the generosity of supporters like us.

If you donate $25 today, and 999 others take a stand with you, SSDP will raise the $25,000 that Chase revoked. With more than 400,000 supporters on SSDP’s e-mail list and Facebook networks, we can make that happen. I’m in. I hope you are, too!

Will you step up and help the Students for a Sensible Drug Policy reach that goal by making a donation of $25 right now? http://www.ssdp.org/donate

It’s up to us to fight the good fight, when there stakes are high. We are a country governed of the people, for the people, and by the people. Let’s not give it away to the reckless and unconscionable mega-corporations. Donate today. Your support is greatly appreciated and needed.

Today, Sunday March 30, on the Downsize DC Conference Call, Libertarian Jim Babka’s two-hour radio show, will air at at 3:06 PM Eastern (2:06 PM Central, 1:06 PM Mountain, and 12:06 PM Pacific). The focus of today’s show will be about the Real ID Act.

Not only does Mr. Babka contend that Real ID is not good for America, but he also believes it is anti-American. He is not alone. He’ll provide a great many details about what’s going on in the fight because we’re now at the point where we need to turn up the pressure at a national level. This will be a show featuring some good news.

For the last two years the battle has shifted to the states on this issue and he wants to hear from the activists working in the states. What’s happening in your state?

Please let him know at CALL at DOWNSIZEDC dot ORG (we ask that you type that address in as it sounds because if we provide a hyperlink, spam harvesting programs will snag the address, and make a headache out of it).

To call-in during the show the toll-free number is 1-800-259-9231.

And, by the way, if you want to send a message to Congress asking them to repeal the Real ID Act, you can do so at the website, DownsizeDC.org.

The best way to hear the program is on the Genesis Communications Network website.

And previous episodes are available as mp3 “attachments” to posts on our DownsizeDC.org blog.

For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning.

Dear Friends

I have mixed feelings about forwarding this, but feel it has enough important info in it to make it worth watching.

To me, Alex Jones is unnecessarily antagonistic, and what the elite are trying to pull off is at least somewhat consistent with nature’s pattern of evolution: recursively reducing unmanageable complexities to higher level simplicities. (Subatomic particles form atoms, which form molecules, which form cells, which form organs, which form organisms, such as humans, who form tribes, villages, counties, states, countries, unions of countries, and inevitably it seems, World Government).

On the other hand, I feel Jones has a valid outrage about the elite’s win-lose, domination and control through secrecy and stealth, agenda. I favor Buckminster Fuller’s prescription for social evolution, as expressed in the purpose of World Game: “To make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.” He said the world will be changed by individuals of integrity freely joining in this effort. Instead, what we see happening appears to be an end run by the most powerful of the elite who are set on creating a world of super-privilege and ultra-longevity for their own offspring, with a dumbed-down servant class to provide their labor, and the elimination of everyone else as irrelevant.

W.

Alex Jones – Endgame

Watch the full-screen video here (will open in a new window or tab)

For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world’s population, while enabling the “elites” to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity’s extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite’s bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest wars—creating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

• Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world’s agenda and instigating World War III.
• Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.
• Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.
• View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Part of their motivation is probably due to foreseeing the effects of global warming. It seems likely that there will be extensive displacement of major populations within this century as coastal cities flood, and current temperate zones become desert, while new temperate zones are pushed toward the poles. The rate of polar ice melting is accelerating at continually astonishing speeds. Today, glaciers are retreating twice as fast as just five years ago. Greenland is covered by about 636,000 cubic miles of freshwater ice, which is now hemorrhaging into the sea at a rate of seven billion gallons an hour. That means every day it loses as much fresh water as New York City consumes in a year. We may also be reaching a tipping point, where melting sea ice (reflectance .75) reveals enough polar water (reflectance .25) for the water to absorb enough solar heat (that is otherwise reflected back to space) to heat the water enough to melt more ice to reveal more water, etc, in a runaway feedback loop. This would further speed the acceleration of Greenland’s melting. If Greenland loses its entire ice covering, oceans will rise by 23 feet. We lose New York at 10 feet, and most of Florida at less than that. Plus, warmer oceans breed stronger and more frequent hurricanes. Even at today’s ocean level, a hurricane could shut down New York with major flooding. Then there’s Antarctica . . . In other words, global warming is advancing rapidly, and is likely to produce severe consequences that the elite are making secret provisions for, which include hundreds of concentration camps already built in the U.S., and plans to eventually eliminate 80% of humanity to make the earth again sustainable.

Anyway, enjoy the movie – and have a nice day.

W.

“Endgame” is an interesting study

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists’ dark agenda. Endgame’s compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite’s program to dominate the earth and carry out the most wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite’s own words.

Spies Like Us

I find it insane and outrageous the the Bush Administration continuously beats the drums of fear and mis-information in order to keep killing off democracy, stripping away civil liberties, while rampant large-scale corruption, big business cronyism, and the continued spying on ordinary U.S. citizens continues to blossom. Some democracy!

It’s for your own protection

We’re told that this nonsense is for our own protection. This is exactly the type of thing that was happening in Germany in the 1930’s when Hitler and his troop of deadly, lying pranksters were coming into power… It’s as if the Bush administration is using the Nazi play book, step by step. Painting by numbers, if you will… Painting it black.

More info on the ACLU website

Here’s a good article on the ACLU website that debunks Bush’s fear-mongering at his (final) State of the Union Address, where he keeps pushing for the gutting of current FISA laws in order to keep on illegaly wiretapping American phone lines. He must be stopped.

Contact Your Senators

They need to hear from you. Following this link will allow you to quickly, easily and securely send a message to your senators. Communicate with them. It does make a difference!

Arizona’s Budget Will be Banking on Speeders

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano gives her State of the State address in the House Chamber of the State Capitol in Phoenix Arizona

I don’t know whether Arizonans want to be policed by cameras. It smacks of Big Brother to me.

Senate Transportation Chairman Ron Gould

Janet Napolitano, Arizona’s governor, insists that the deployment of new photo radar and ‘other’ speed enforcement technology on state highways is “all about public safety”. But her proposed state budget counts on the anticipated speeding fines to help disappear a projected revenue shortfall.

The proposed state budget anticipates $120 million in revenue the first year, which includes $90 million in net income from the statewide effort (that’s right…*net income* of $90 Million, after expenses are deducted). Larger dollar amounts are expected to continue in future years. And that’s sure a lot of money being bled off of the public just as that same public’s privacy standards dwindle ever closer to oblivion. Isn’t that thoughtful, they not only find ways to take our rights away, but we also get to pay them to do it. Crafty devils, they are.

The state faces a projected revenue shortfall of at least $1.2 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1.

While some states use photo radar and similar technology on a limited basis in areas such as construction zones, experts said Arizona intends to move toward widespread deployment of speed technology on the state’s highways.

All Those Camera Watching You, All the Time

Perhaps you’re going to feel like a star!

Which is just another way of watching *you*, Mr. and Ms. John Q. Public. Where ever you might go. Under the guise of public safety, yet another attempt to turn America into something that it is NOT. If we’re not careful, we’ll have a constantly monitored society, continuously under surveillance “for our own good”. And we will have handed it to them on a silver platter. One civil liberty at a time. A healthy dose of FEAR, propagated by those in power, chock-full of conflicts-of-interest, via the media they more or less control. Their job is to first *Spread the Fear* real or imagined, then once the fear has spread via the many tentacles of the corporate controlled media giant, then they can offer the worried masses protection and piece of mind. In its most base incarnation, this is the form, the basis of these public safety projects… however, the reality, the final result, is a palpable lessening of your privacy and freedom. That’s the soft white underbelly of this particular smelly beast.

Governor Napolitano said, “It wasn’t designated primarily for revenue generation but since we have it (and) it works, we want to move statewide. We made that decision before the whole budget issue arose. Now we take advantage of it and use it for law enforcement highway safety purposes.”

The governor’s budget aides could not provide details on assumptions used to project the revenue estimate, including the numbers of expected violations. Maybe they all have a healthy portfolio of stock options from the companies that make the speed-trap machines which will make the rest of our lives miserable. The more money that they can make from these photo-radar machines, the richer they get. So it’s in their best interest to make sure that those damn machines give out as many citations as possible. No matter if they are accurate or not. Most people are unlikely to make a stink and fight the ticket, even if they feel that they were wrongly cited. They are more likely just to pay the fine and be done with it. So you see, the people behind this proposal stand to prosper no matter what. There’s that word again: Conflict of Interest…

Gov. Napolitano’s plan needs approval by the Legislature, which is currently controlled by Republican leadership. There is at least one key lawmaker who has expressed immediate opposition.

Arizonans Might Not Want to be Policed by Camera

“I don’t know whether Arizonans want to be policed by cameras,” said Senate Transportation Chairman Ron Gould, adding that he plans legislation to require that voters decide the issue. “It smacks of Big Brother to me.”

Proposals calling for even limited use of cameras have run into opposition in some states.

Maryland’s transportation secretary on Tuesday told lawmakers that cameras in highway work zones would improve worker safety and reduce accidents, but lawmakers raised concerns on privacy, effectiveness and motive.

Arizona Automobile Association spokeswoman Linda Gorman said the 750,000-member group representing drivers supports photo radar as a way to improve traffic safety but not to help balance the state budget.

A year ago, Napolitano cited results from suburban Scottsdale’s use of fixed cameras on a stretch of state freeway when she directed the state Department of Public Safety to begin researching the possible use of new speed enforcement devices.

As for myself, I’ll just as soon drive *around* Arizona, then drive through it… if that’s the game they want to play. It’s not a problem to avoid the state entirely. Might even make for some exciting Arizona-less road trips.

An Arizona State University professor who studied the Scottsdale project found that it reduced speeding and accident rates. That system uses sensors embedded in the freeway to trigger cameras that snap photos of speeding vehicles. Motor vehicle records are checked to find the vehicles’ owners, ultimately leading to citations for identified drivers.

It’s also important to keep in mind that these photo-radar machines are owned and operated by independent 3rd parties who have an interest in the financial aspect of the photo-radar “industry”. So, they funds that are raised will not only go to help pay off Arizona state’s budget shortfalls, but those funds will also be used to line the pockets of the people and companies that the road authorities will be contracting with. This is a for-profit business, my friends. You and I are the unwilling “consumers” being forced to pay for a “product” we do not want nor need. It stinks of legalized extortion.

Think about that. And if you don’t already know the meaning of the phrase “Conflict of Interest”, I suggest you pick up a dictionary and look it up.