You must be thinking right about now that I have truly gone insane, because I am now talking about sheep. I am not talking literally about any mammal that we make clothes out of, but about the citizens of the U.S. Why do I compare them to sheep? If you have ever talked to my science teacher Mrs. Nelson talk about political parties, you know why, but I will explain it now.
Imagine a large flock of sheep in a pasture. They are standing there, oblivious to the fact that most of the herders are on the way to sheer off their warm, fluffy coats. In fact, they are delighted when they arrive, expecting a tasty round of grains, or a few apples. There is more than one herder out there, trying to attract as many sheep as possible to their sheering buildings, because every extra sheep is money. The sheep blindly decide which herder to go to, for most of them carry a large carrot in their hands, and say sweet nothings. A few strange sheep actually look at the face of the herders, and discover who will sheer them, and who will feed them, and decide to go to those who have no treats, but have a good countenance. They are shunned and mocked by the other sheep, and become outcast.
I'll bet there are some of you readers who can already connect this to reality, and the party system, because it is very blatant if you take the time to think. Every party is one of those herders, holding out sweet promises, and we, the people, are sheep, and flock to one without questioning them at all. They do no research, no study, and just go with their party down to making this country even worse off than before.
We need to stop being sheep, and start thinking and acting to try to make this country better, and to be able to vote for those who will lead us to a better future.
Speaking of voting, I will say something about non-voting. When I grow up, I will likely be one of these. Now, you have heard all of your life that non-voters are cowards, and yellow-bellied fools. They say that we do absolutely nothing to change the future of our country, but not so.
There are two kinds: the ones who are lazy or extremist anti-patriot, and those that don't vote because there is NOTHING they think are a good choice to vote for. Why vote for the democrat who has a slightly better way of running the country, but will still bring it down. We show our dismay at ALL of the candidates, and say that we will not take the slightly better, but only the best.
In conclusion, we need to stop being sheep and realizing that not all that the politics say is evil, but just devices to gain votes. If not, our country will continue to suffer and rot from the inside until all of this is evident, but it is much too late.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, is something that is elusive, and few know its particulars. Of course, it's also a battleground for politicians and parties to fight over and point fingers and make each other look bad. I hope this post will be able to educate you in some of its particulars, and help you to form an opinion.
The basic idea of NAFTA was to create a trade bloc, a triangular trade between the three main North American countries Canada, U.S., and Mexico. Its main function was to remove protective tariffs from exports and imports. For those who don't remember their U.S. history class, or their Civics class, a protective tariff is a fine that you put on imports and exports, that increases its price so that the businesses in the country itself would be protected from foreign competition.
The hope was that removing these tariffs would encourage a stabilizing of the three economies and the classes of the countries. If they could remove the tariffs, the government stated that it would bring Mexico's economy up, and keep America's and Canada's stable and balanced.
Of course, that is what they said.
Originally, the bill was supposed to be signed into law by George Bush Senior. Unfortunately, his final term ended before he could, so he had to turn it over to the Clintons' administration. Of course, instead of signing it into law immediately, the Clintons decided to change the bill around a bit. More on that later.
The funny thing is, many members of the Republican Party today are angry with NAFTA, and claim that it is the cause of the ruining of our economy (ask any Republican in your ward or community about NAFTA, and you will find this true), when it was the Republicans that first supported the bill and attempted, themselves, to sign it into law. Also, in Canada, Progressive Republicans actually were the ones to sign it into law, while the Liberals fought constantly to repeal it, with the support of the men's and women's of the Liberal senate, and the majority of the Canadians' opinions, and some still do. Every party is to blame for the bad, questionable things in this law.
Okay, so now is the time to tell you what is wrong with this law. First, a major part of the law that Republicans created and Democrats supported, companies of the countries they were from could sue (not technically, its more like a usage of law, but it is hard to explain so I will use the word sue instead), the government in other countries for passing laws that although may protect its citizens, they hurt the companies' investments. If you have read my bit on corporations you know why alarm bells are sounding off in my head right now.
This is basically telling the corporations that they can screw other countries over. Because of their influence, they have sucked billions out of the pockets of other countries. Because of company influence, America wins about 90% of their suits, Canada wins only 30%, and Mexico about 10%. I have a few examples of suits I will share with you now.
1999 Sun Belt Water Inc. sued Canada, because of its prohibition on exporting fresh water in marine tankers. Canada was worried about the stability of its ecosystem and the preservation of lakes and streams, but the company won 105 million dollars from the suit. Reports of environmental damage have been made at sites of rivers, lakes, and streams.
1996 American sellers of the fuel additive MMT sued Canada for 201 million dollars, because Canada had banned its importation, and the companies were losing some money. Canadian researches claimed that its exhaust caused neural damage, while American researches claimed it had no effects. America won, and the effects are still not quite known.
Methanex Corporation, a Canadian corporation, sued the government 960 million dollars, because California had banned it due to some reports of it leaking into wells in the area. Of course, Methanex Corp. lost, and was forced to pay our government 3 million for it.
Metalclad, and U.S. corporation sued the Mexican government for 15.6 million after a Mexican municipality leader (who's name translated roughly to Ferris) refused the construction of a hazardous waste dump near a Mexican city. NAFTA delcared that the Ferris's statis as a municipality leader did not have the authority to stop it, because the federal government had agreed to it.
Now, with my second wrong thing with NAFTA, the responsibility for it is mostly Democratic. Bill Clinton had added a section to it that stated that America's partners had to adhere to environmental practices and regulations like their own. That means, that if we pass a law on a certain chemical, Canada and Mexico are automatically forced to have that law. We control what they do, which is very wrong. We have the ability to pull far too many strings, which is what politicians and corporations excel at.
All-in-all, I believe that this agreement is morally wrong, and gives Americans the power to manipulate the economies of others, and hurt the populations of them. There are other wrongs with the law, but I can't include them in this post, so look on some web sites. Here is a good reference website to start: http://www.suite101.com/content/nafta-is-a-bad-agreement-a46386. Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement. Remember, don't just take my word for it, research and develop your own opinions.
The basic idea of NAFTA was to create a trade bloc, a triangular trade between the three main North American countries Canada, U.S., and Mexico. Its main function was to remove protective tariffs from exports and imports. For those who don't remember their U.S. history class, or their Civics class, a protective tariff is a fine that you put on imports and exports, that increases its price so that the businesses in the country itself would be protected from foreign competition.
The hope was that removing these tariffs would encourage a stabilizing of the three economies and the classes of the countries. If they could remove the tariffs, the government stated that it would bring Mexico's economy up, and keep America's and Canada's stable and balanced.
Of course, that is what they said.
Originally, the bill was supposed to be signed into law by George Bush Senior. Unfortunately, his final term ended before he could, so he had to turn it over to the Clintons' administration. Of course, instead of signing it into law immediately, the Clintons decided to change the bill around a bit. More on that later.
The funny thing is, many members of the Republican Party today are angry with NAFTA, and claim that it is the cause of the ruining of our economy (ask any Republican in your ward or community about NAFTA, and you will find this true), when it was the Republicans that first supported the bill and attempted, themselves, to sign it into law. Also, in Canada, Progressive Republicans actually were the ones to sign it into law, while the Liberals fought constantly to repeal it, with the support of the men's and women's of the Liberal senate, and the majority of the Canadians' opinions, and some still do. Every party is to blame for the bad, questionable things in this law.
Okay, so now is the time to tell you what is wrong with this law. First, a major part of the law that Republicans created and Democrats supported, companies of the countries they were from could sue (not technically, its more like a usage of law, but it is hard to explain so I will use the word sue instead), the government in other countries for passing laws that although may protect its citizens, they hurt the companies' investments. If you have read my bit on corporations you know why alarm bells are sounding off in my head right now.
This is basically telling the corporations that they can screw other countries over. Because of their influence, they have sucked billions out of the pockets of other countries. Because of company influence, America wins about 90% of their suits, Canada wins only 30%, and Mexico about 10%. I have a few examples of suits I will share with you now.
1999 Sun Belt Water Inc. sued Canada, because of its prohibition on exporting fresh water in marine tankers. Canada was worried about the stability of its ecosystem and the preservation of lakes and streams, but the company won 105 million dollars from the suit. Reports of environmental damage have been made at sites of rivers, lakes, and streams.
1996 American sellers of the fuel additive MMT sued Canada for 201 million dollars, because Canada had banned its importation, and the companies were losing some money. Canadian researches claimed that its exhaust caused neural damage, while American researches claimed it had no effects. America won, and the effects are still not quite known.
Methanex Corporation, a Canadian corporation, sued the government 960 million dollars, because California had banned it due to some reports of it leaking into wells in the area. Of course, Methanex Corp. lost, and was forced to pay our government 3 million for it.
Metalclad, and U.S. corporation sued the Mexican government for 15.6 million after a Mexican municipality leader (who's name translated roughly to Ferris) refused the construction of a hazardous waste dump near a Mexican city. NAFTA delcared that the Ferris's statis as a municipality leader did not have the authority to stop it, because the federal government had agreed to it.
Now, with my second wrong thing with NAFTA, the responsibility for it is mostly Democratic. Bill Clinton had added a section to it that stated that America's partners had to adhere to environmental practices and regulations like their own. That means, that if we pass a law on a certain chemical, Canada and Mexico are automatically forced to have that law. We control what they do, which is very wrong. We have the ability to pull far too many strings, which is what politicians and corporations excel at.
All-in-all, I believe that this agreement is morally wrong, and gives Americans the power to manipulate the economies of others, and hurt the populations of them. There are other wrongs with the law, but I can't include them in this post, so look on some web sites. Here is a good reference website to start: http://www.suite101.com/content/nafta-is-a-bad-agreement-a46386. Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement. Remember, don't just take my word for it, research and develop your own opinions.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
The Health Care Reform Bill
Okay, okay, I know that sparks fly and teeth nash in Utah on this subject, but here I go anyway. Health care reform is a tricky thing. You have to look deeper, and for patterns in the different segments. I found a website: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0322/Health-care-reform-bill-101-what-the-bill-means-to-you.
This website is one of the least biased ones on the web, and explains things well, even if it was made in the last spring.
First of all, I believe that the government paying for our healthcare would be not a bad idea. Now before you all point at me and yell "DEMOCRAT," I do not agree to everything that the bill says.
Good Things About the Bill:
First of all, 32 million people that did not previously have health care coverage will be able to afford coverage. Second, health care insurers cannot refuse to insure because of a preexisting condition. Third, the less money you make, the less of it you have to spend on healthcare.
If you are in what is considered to be the federal poverty rate, the government will only let up to 9.8 percent of your income go to health care. The lower you are in the poverty rate, the less percentage you have to pay (counting down from 9.8). This means that you will still pay partially for you own health care, but the government will help you. This will allow millions of people to be able to have health care.
In the past, insurers have been able to deny you coverage just because of a preexisting condition (something that has happened in the past and may happen again, or perhaps is already happening again). Now, everyone who struggled to get health care because of preexisting conditions will be able to purchase health care.
Bad Things About the Health Care Bill:
There are a few not-so-good things about the bill. First, the healthcare STILL runs thought corporations! Insurance agencys are coperations, and they will do what corperations do, squeeze every last ounce of money out of you. Second, the rich societies will be taxed for this. Third, you will be required to buy health care. Also, do realize that I am only fourteen, and I don't know ALL of the good and bad things, just those I have been able to research.
If you want my rant about corperations, you should read my blog post entitled Corporations. Just keep in mind that insurance agencies are corperations.
To cover costs of the bill, the government is taxing insurance agencies, tanning booths, and the rich societies of the United States. Now, some say that taxing the rich is bad, some good. (I put it in bad because the message about corperations was short). It makes sense to take money out of people who have lots, and give it to people who have little, but many rich people got where they were through a lot of hard work and determination, and to have that given perhaps to people who don't or didn't work is a little unfair. Not to say that all poor people are lazy, because most are not.
Last but not least, you will be required of the government to buy health care. I cannot think of a reason why they would do this, and it doesn't say why in any of the websites that I have been to. So, I put it as a bad thing, because the government will give you a cumulative fine (one that increases in percent annually) that can cost a lot more than the health care.
Common Misconceptions:
There are a few things that people don't understand, or they ignore because they are biased (usually journalists and politicians). First, the government is not forcing us to buy health care directly from them, but from a corporation or small agency. The government only gives us support in the costs. Next, people claim that it is unconsititutional to force people to buy health care, but every major war we have had to draft people into the military. We FORCE them to risk their lives. With the health care bill, we will save many lives. My mother (who is a nurse) had to recently turn out a man dying from serious lukemia on the street basically to die slowly and painfully. With the bill, no person will be rejected from the hospital, because everyone will have health care. Are we all going to stick up our heads and declare selfishly "Unconstitutional!" or are we going to swallow our inflated pride, and save that lives of people that are hoping desperately for this bill to pass so that they can be cured and treated of diseases they can't afford to treat.
This website is one of the least biased ones on the web, and explains things well, even if it was made in the last spring.
First of all, I believe that the government paying for our healthcare would be not a bad idea. Now before you all point at me and yell "DEMOCRAT," I do not agree to everything that the bill says.
Good Things About the Bill:
First of all, 32 million people that did not previously have health care coverage will be able to afford coverage. Second, health care insurers cannot refuse to insure because of a preexisting condition. Third, the less money you make, the less of it you have to spend on healthcare.
If you are in what is considered to be the federal poverty rate, the government will only let up to 9.8 percent of your income go to health care. The lower you are in the poverty rate, the less percentage you have to pay (counting down from 9.8). This means that you will still pay partially for you own health care, but the government will help you. This will allow millions of people to be able to have health care.
In the past, insurers have been able to deny you coverage just because of a preexisting condition (something that has happened in the past and may happen again, or perhaps is already happening again). Now, everyone who struggled to get health care because of preexisting conditions will be able to purchase health care.
Bad Things About the Health Care Bill:
There are a few not-so-good things about the bill. First, the healthcare STILL runs thought corporations! Insurance agencys are coperations, and they will do what corperations do, squeeze every last ounce of money out of you. Second, the rich societies will be taxed for this. Third, you will be required to buy health care. Also, do realize that I am only fourteen, and I don't know ALL of the good and bad things, just those I have been able to research.
If you want my rant about corperations, you should read my blog post entitled Corporations. Just keep in mind that insurance agencies are corperations.
To cover costs of the bill, the government is taxing insurance agencies, tanning booths, and the rich societies of the United States. Now, some say that taxing the rich is bad, some good. (I put it in bad because the message about corperations was short). It makes sense to take money out of people who have lots, and give it to people who have little, but many rich people got where they were through a lot of hard work and determination, and to have that given perhaps to people who don't or didn't work is a little unfair. Not to say that all poor people are lazy, because most are not.
Last but not least, you will be required of the government to buy health care. I cannot think of a reason why they would do this, and it doesn't say why in any of the websites that I have been to. So, I put it as a bad thing, because the government will give you a cumulative fine (one that increases in percent annually) that can cost a lot more than the health care.
Common Misconceptions:
There are a few things that people don't understand, or they ignore because they are biased (usually journalists and politicians). First, the government is not forcing us to buy health care directly from them, but from a corporation or small agency. The government only gives us support in the costs. Next, people claim that it is unconsititutional to force people to buy health care, but every major war we have had to draft people into the military. We FORCE them to risk their lives. With the health care bill, we will save many lives. My mother (who is a nurse) had to recently turn out a man dying from serious lukemia on the street basically to die slowly and painfully. With the bill, no person will be rejected from the hospital, because everyone will have health care. Are we all going to stick up our heads and declare selfishly "Unconstitutional!" or are we going to swallow our inflated pride, and save that lives of people that are hoping desperately for this bill to pass so that they can be cured and treated of diseases they can't afford to treat.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
This is also another very important post that I have published that I hope a lot of people would read and comment on. I will be blunt: the bombing of Hirsoshima and Nagasaki, Japan were completely unneccesary, immoral, and self-served acts. In this post, I will try to explain why I think this way, and how I hope American People would think.
Although the bombings were terrible acts, the terrible truths about their use are evident even before the incidents. When America started their bombing raids, they set apart three separate cities all in the same approximate area for the Air Force to avoid bombing in any way. I bet you can guess two of them, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but there was another city that was never bombed called Kokura because of cloud cover preventing it. The government wanted not only to bomb for military strategy's sake, but to do it as an expirament to see how much damage it would cause. They decided to EXPIRAMENT on the Japanese people, because they could make up and excuse to exuse themselves.
Their excuse turned out convincing. During this time, we had blockaded Japanese seas, cut off supply lines, and had them cornered. The Soviet Union had plans to declare war on Japan (which Japan did not know of until after the bombings). We had given Japan the Postdam Ultimatum, which was a declaration of unconditional surrender. The Japanese government did not like that term, thinking that Americans would destroy their entire system of government and enforce executive democracy on them. In his speeches, prime minister Kataro Suzuki announced that Japan was still making a decision. They knew the outcome of the war, and they knew that they could not take long. I (and many professionals and army personnel) am sure that if we had waited a week for the Soviet Union to declare war, Japan would have surrendered. Our government seized the chance to justify dropping the bombs by purposely misinterpereting his speech into one of contempt.
They convinced us that Japan would not surrender, and if we attempted a land invasion, we would lose millions of Allied soldiers in the process. They told us that the bombs were life-savers, not life-takers. They even went as far as to compare the worth of a Japanese person to an American person. Of course that is not true, everyone is the same.
August 6, 1945, a small detachment of bombing B-29s and a camera ship took off from Iwo Jima, heading for the industrial city of Hiroshima, Japan. No alarms were raised, because the Japanese supposed that it was an intelligence sweep and nothing more because of the small amount of planes.
The bomb missed its target, and landed on a hospital not far from the target zone. Then all hell broke loose. 30% of all the residents of the city of 340000-350000 died instantly. They were the lucky ones. The bomb leveled buildings, and burned others, causing the trapped to die.
The bomb created temperatures of 3900 degrees celcius. Clothes melted and burned the skin. People became deformed. Many tried to jump into the canals to cool of, but died becaus the water was boiling.
The winds moved at a tousand miles per hour, knocking down buildings just by themselves, and killing more and more people.
The majority of Hiroshima was civilians. About 40% disliked Japan's war on America. We killed tens of thousands of innocent people in some sort of sick test, a display of power to the world. Inocent people almost half of whom did not even support the war in the first place were murdered in horrific, terrible ways.
Not only was this replicated in Nagasaki, it was even worse. The bomb was twice as powerful, and it was only due to the lucky placement of hills that prevented twice as much damage and death. It had the same effects, and was just as horrific in many ways.
President Harry Truman supported the bombings fully, and he may have not have fully known the effects, but he did threaten to destroy the entire Japanese Military with it. If he had done so, how many more thousands of people would have died.
The most powerful and horrific weapon on earth, maybe in the whole galaxy, and America is the only country to use it. It is our fault the ashes of thousands of innocent people float through the world today, and mingle with the ashes of thousands of burned Jewish peoples. America will never be able to attone for what it has done without first realizing what they have done. We need to be willing to spread the word, and see past the lies of the government. We must atone for the damage our ancestors have wreaked.
Although the bombings were terrible acts, the terrible truths about their use are evident even before the incidents. When America started their bombing raids, they set apart three separate cities all in the same approximate area for the Air Force to avoid bombing in any way. I bet you can guess two of them, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but there was another city that was never bombed called Kokura because of cloud cover preventing it. The government wanted not only to bomb for military strategy's sake, but to do it as an expirament to see how much damage it would cause. They decided to EXPIRAMENT on the Japanese people, because they could make up and excuse to exuse themselves.
Their excuse turned out convincing. During this time, we had blockaded Japanese seas, cut off supply lines, and had them cornered. The Soviet Union had plans to declare war on Japan (which Japan did not know of until after the bombings). We had given Japan the Postdam Ultimatum, which was a declaration of unconditional surrender. The Japanese government did not like that term, thinking that Americans would destroy their entire system of government and enforce executive democracy on them. In his speeches, prime minister Kataro Suzuki announced that Japan was still making a decision. They knew the outcome of the war, and they knew that they could not take long. I (and many professionals and army personnel) am sure that if we had waited a week for the Soviet Union to declare war, Japan would have surrendered. Our government seized the chance to justify dropping the bombs by purposely misinterpereting his speech into one of contempt.
They convinced us that Japan would not surrender, and if we attempted a land invasion, we would lose millions of Allied soldiers in the process. They told us that the bombs were life-savers, not life-takers. They even went as far as to compare the worth of a Japanese person to an American person. Of course that is not true, everyone is the same.
August 6, 1945, a small detachment of bombing B-29s and a camera ship took off from Iwo Jima, heading for the industrial city of Hiroshima, Japan. No alarms were raised, because the Japanese supposed that it was an intelligence sweep and nothing more because of the small amount of planes.
The bomb missed its target, and landed on a hospital not far from the target zone. Then all hell broke loose. 30% of all the residents of the city of 340000-350000 died instantly. They were the lucky ones. The bomb leveled buildings, and burned others, causing the trapped to die.
The bomb created temperatures of 3900 degrees celcius. Clothes melted and burned the skin. People became deformed. Many tried to jump into the canals to cool of, but died becaus the water was boiling.
The winds moved at a tousand miles per hour, knocking down buildings just by themselves, and killing more and more people.
The majority of Hiroshima was civilians. About 40% disliked Japan's war on America. We killed tens of thousands of innocent people in some sort of sick test, a display of power to the world. Inocent people almost half of whom did not even support the war in the first place were murdered in horrific, terrible ways.
Not only was this replicated in Nagasaki, it was even worse. The bomb was twice as powerful, and it was only due to the lucky placement of hills that prevented twice as much damage and death. It had the same effects, and was just as horrific in many ways.
President Harry Truman supported the bombings fully, and he may have not have fully known the effects, but he did threaten to destroy the entire Japanese Military with it. If he had done so, how many more thousands of people would have died.
The most powerful and horrific weapon on earth, maybe in the whole galaxy, and America is the only country to use it. It is our fault the ashes of thousands of innocent people float through the world today, and mingle with the ashes of thousands of burned Jewish peoples. America will never be able to attone for what it has done without first realizing what they have done. We need to be willing to spread the word, and see past the lies of the government. We must atone for the damage our ancestors have wreaked.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Corporations
This is a very serious subject, and perhaps the most important of all my posts about Politics. In this paragraph I will attempt to explain why allowing capitalism and corporations to do certain things is, I'll say it, an evil idea. I will also try to explain why we are allowing these companies to do these things. Also, I will jump around a bit. I will provide an example (the Iraq War) and explain what you can interperet from it.
March 20, 2003. That is the date of the start of what has been called the Invasion of Iraq. Our troops invaded the northern portion of the country via the southern portion. We quickly staked up positions, and prepared to wage a war that would last nearly seven years and cost over twenty thousand American lives.
Now there are a few things you need to know. First, the middle east is where about 55% of all of the oil extracting occurs on earth. Iraq has the third-largest amount of oil wells of any other middle-eastern country. It was the perfect spot for the terrorists to attack, but it was even more perfect for the United States.
Why? Because it was a split nation. It had operated under comunism for several years now, and the people were getting restless. Finally, the southern half of the country rebelled, and tried to fight for democratic freedom. It gave America a clean, right reason to go and invade.
At the time, Al-Qaeda had organized his group of terrorists, and considering somehow attacking Israel. He viewed the uprising in Iraq to be nothing, and that the better-equiped north would easily quash the strange patriotic feelings. At least, he thought that until America invaded.
When America started to push at northern Iraq, Al-Qaeda viewed this as an obvious victory for them. So he switched his attention, and began his march to Iraq, eventually meeting our soldiers in battle.
That is one proof of America's real intent in the war to seize natural resources. President George Bush declared it in the name of wiping out terrorism, when really America brought the terrorists to the country. He purposely lied to make America look good.
This also brings me to the first proof of the corruptness in corporations. They are called economic hit men. The role of an economic hit man was to go into underdeveloped countries, like Panama and Iraq, and convince them to take out huge developmental loans for corporations like World Bank and USAID. The countries, who were obviously unable to pay back completely, were pressured by American political power until they were forced to pay them back in other ways, like giving up natural resources.
In his book, Confessions of and Economical Hit Man, John Perkins made this statement:
Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly-paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.
This was exactly the purpose of the War in Iraq. The corporations were using the government to the extreme to gain access to a rich amount of oil wells. Did they succeed? You bet they did. We now control three-fourths of Iraqi oil wells, and because of this, the people suffer, the economy is shot, and we, America, caused it.
Am I done showing the evils of corporations? Not in the slightest, for I still have to tell the story of our troops, and how corporations made their lives miserable, and also the private horrors we have commited on the Iraqi people
With the war in Iraq came problems for the military. It could not care for all of the needs of their troops. So, the government decided to use private contractors and corporations to care for the troops and provide a few basic but essential military needs. The corporations worked as hard and as cheaply as possible to squeeze every last bit of money out of the government.
Here is a breakdown of what corporation controlled what.
Triton, CACI- In charge of torture. They took random people off of the streets with either very vauge reasons or no reason at all. They were put into the major prison Abu Ghraib prison, and always shared a cell with a CACI interrogator. They were treated like animals, and were tortured in horrific ways. The people they hired, most of them had not been confirmed loyal to America in the first place, and were unsupervised completely. Triton provided linguists, who were not trained or test and usually underquality. Many lives were lost because of these undertrained people.
If a soldier hurts a civilian, they are court marshaled. If a contractor's hiree kills a civil, they are sent home, and can come back next week under a new contractor. When a group of these hirees decided to speak out against their contractors, saying that they were acting under orders, they were sentenced to 18 years, and not even an investigation was made against the contractors themselves.
KBR/Halliburton- contracted to build laudry, shower, and mess hall buildings, supply trucks, and hundreds of other small jobs, and an to provide for those things. They took over hundreds of jobs of other mechanics, soldiers, and other professions to try to gain more money. Most of the drivers of their trucks were civilians, and most weren't even from our countries, but the surrounding middle east countries.
Convoys of trucks were attacked, and many civilians lost their lives. Entire trucks exploded. The drivers had no maps, had no protection, had under-date communication devices etc. The roads they had to travel were hostile, and the drivers were not told of this. The contractors knew that they could get money and replace the expendable civilians with more.
All of those lives because of the billions of dollars the contractors made every year from the government and military. They basically murdered civilians for their own gain.
Next, Halliburton was hired to provide clean, safe; drinking, showering, and cooking water. A water purification tester, Ben Carter, was alerted by an officer that he had seen something wiggle in his toilet water. Ben went out and tested the water in the storage tanks. Not a trace of chlorine or other purifiers. Each tank was completely contaminated and riddled with disease upon disease like Typhus and Malaria. The corporation was only interested in cheap profit, and not in how it would affect the troops. The soldiers may come home without a bullet wound, but they will come home with pathogens in their blood, and they won't even know to get tested because they trust the corporation.
Another offense, this time KBR, is concerned with dining halls and food. KBR had three mealtimes a day, mealtimes that any terrorist or Iraqi knew almost to heart. That is why almost all of single-man attacks were at dining halls. All this because KBR refused to do a 24-hour feeding plan where they always have food available because it costs them more money. They sacrifice lives and positions to save money and to earn profit, because they are paid by how many soldiers they feed, not by how many the save.
Also, Halliburton charged soldiers forty dollars for a six-pack of coke or pepsi that the army gave for free. The sodas were produced right there in the desert, so there was no huge transportation cost. Halliburton just wanted to squeeze every last drop out of the soldiers. They also charged 99 dollars for every bag of laundry, and it always came back even worse. The soldiers were forbidden to do it by themselves, they had to use KBR.
Both companies also would buy all the wrong and unneccesary equipment, and then burn it all to claim it as a loss and gain money, and buy even more wrong equipment. And the trucks had no oil filters, so that the engines would break soon, and they could bill the government for new trucks. Even if there was a popped tire, there were no spares, and they blew it up and bought a new truck. Not only that, but they would run empty trucks and bill the government for them. All of this came out, but they were not tried or punished or even forced to pay money back.
We could have gotten Iraqis to do it better, cheaper, and get them off the streets and into jobs so they could have hope.
All of these statements and this evidence came directly from soldiers, workers, and leaders that have realized what they did. And these are only four corporations, at only one time. Think of how much damage and money all of the corporations do, and not only to other countries and the military, but to you and me as taxpayers.
The corporations are the reason why we are in a recession, why the whole world is struggling, and there are no restrictions, no lines drawn, and no announcement of bad deeds to the public. Basically, corporations have free reign.
But why, why has the government not cracked down on this immediately? Because the corporations pay them, bribe them, lobby for them, and support them so that they look the other way, and so they don't get reported. They hold all the money and power cards, and whatever the corporations say goes.
Only two years ago did Joe Biden allow our phone lines to be tapped by the phone companies, and only a couple decades ago did our own head of the Department of Public Welfare paid off to announce that smoking did no damage and was not bad for your health by cigarrette companies, because Congress was considering a tobacco ban. That announcement ended it.
Truly, our country is run by those who have money, and not by the people. It is up to us as citizens to recognize this and to fight back and end the oppression. We can decide our futures, and the futures of our children.
March 20, 2003. That is the date of the start of what has been called the Invasion of Iraq. Our troops invaded the northern portion of the country via the southern portion. We quickly staked up positions, and prepared to wage a war that would last nearly seven years and cost over twenty thousand American lives.
Now there are a few things you need to know. First, the middle east is where about 55% of all of the oil extracting occurs on earth. Iraq has the third-largest amount of oil wells of any other middle-eastern country. It was the perfect spot for the terrorists to attack, but it was even more perfect for the United States.
Why? Because it was a split nation. It had operated under comunism for several years now, and the people were getting restless. Finally, the southern half of the country rebelled, and tried to fight for democratic freedom. It gave America a clean, right reason to go and invade.
At the time, Al-Qaeda had organized his group of terrorists, and considering somehow attacking Israel. He viewed the uprising in Iraq to be nothing, and that the better-equiped north would easily quash the strange patriotic feelings. At least, he thought that until America invaded.
When America started to push at northern Iraq, Al-Qaeda viewed this as an obvious victory for them. So he switched his attention, and began his march to Iraq, eventually meeting our soldiers in battle.
That is one proof of America's real intent in the war to seize natural resources. President George Bush declared it in the name of wiping out terrorism, when really America brought the terrorists to the country. He purposely lied to make America look good.
This also brings me to the first proof of the corruptness in corporations. They are called economic hit men. The role of an economic hit man was to go into underdeveloped countries, like Panama and Iraq, and convince them to take out huge developmental loans for corporations like World Bank and USAID. The countries, who were obviously unable to pay back completely, were pressured by American political power until they were forced to pay them back in other ways, like giving up natural resources.
In his book, Confessions of and Economical Hit Man, John Perkins made this statement:
Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly-paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.
This was exactly the purpose of the War in Iraq. The corporations were using the government to the extreme to gain access to a rich amount of oil wells. Did they succeed? You bet they did. We now control three-fourths of Iraqi oil wells, and because of this, the people suffer, the economy is shot, and we, America, caused it.
Am I done showing the evils of corporations? Not in the slightest, for I still have to tell the story of our troops, and how corporations made their lives miserable, and also the private horrors we have commited on the Iraqi people
With the war in Iraq came problems for the military. It could not care for all of the needs of their troops. So, the government decided to use private contractors and corporations to care for the troops and provide a few basic but essential military needs. The corporations worked as hard and as cheaply as possible to squeeze every last bit of money out of the government.
Here is a breakdown of what corporation controlled what.
Triton, CACI- In charge of torture. They took random people off of the streets with either very vauge reasons or no reason at all. They were put into the major prison Abu Ghraib prison, and always shared a cell with a CACI interrogator. They were treated like animals, and were tortured in horrific ways. The people they hired, most of them had not been confirmed loyal to America in the first place, and were unsupervised completely. Triton provided linguists, who were not trained or test and usually underquality. Many lives were lost because of these undertrained people.
If a soldier hurts a civilian, they are court marshaled. If a contractor's hiree kills a civil, they are sent home, and can come back next week under a new contractor. When a group of these hirees decided to speak out against their contractors, saying that they were acting under orders, they were sentenced to 18 years, and not even an investigation was made against the contractors themselves.
KBR/Halliburton- contracted to build laudry, shower, and mess hall buildings, supply trucks, and hundreds of other small jobs, and an to provide for those things. They took over hundreds of jobs of other mechanics, soldiers, and other professions to try to gain more money. Most of the drivers of their trucks were civilians, and most weren't even from our countries, but the surrounding middle east countries.
Convoys of trucks were attacked, and many civilians lost their lives. Entire trucks exploded. The drivers had no maps, had no protection, had under-date communication devices etc. The roads they had to travel were hostile, and the drivers were not told of this. The contractors knew that they could get money and replace the expendable civilians with more.
All of those lives because of the billions of dollars the contractors made every year from the government and military. They basically murdered civilians for their own gain.
Next, Halliburton was hired to provide clean, safe; drinking, showering, and cooking water. A water purification tester, Ben Carter, was alerted by an officer that he had seen something wiggle in his toilet water. Ben went out and tested the water in the storage tanks. Not a trace of chlorine or other purifiers. Each tank was completely contaminated and riddled with disease upon disease like Typhus and Malaria. The corporation was only interested in cheap profit, and not in how it would affect the troops. The soldiers may come home without a bullet wound, but they will come home with pathogens in their blood, and they won't even know to get tested because they trust the corporation.
Another offense, this time KBR, is concerned with dining halls and food. KBR had three mealtimes a day, mealtimes that any terrorist or Iraqi knew almost to heart. That is why almost all of single-man attacks were at dining halls. All this because KBR refused to do a 24-hour feeding plan where they always have food available because it costs them more money. They sacrifice lives and positions to save money and to earn profit, because they are paid by how many soldiers they feed, not by how many the save.
Also, Halliburton charged soldiers forty dollars for a six-pack of coke or pepsi that the army gave for free. The sodas were produced right there in the desert, so there was no huge transportation cost. Halliburton just wanted to squeeze every last drop out of the soldiers. They also charged 99 dollars for every bag of laundry, and it always came back even worse. The soldiers were forbidden to do it by themselves, they had to use KBR.
Both companies also would buy all the wrong and unneccesary equipment, and then burn it all to claim it as a loss and gain money, and buy even more wrong equipment. And the trucks had no oil filters, so that the engines would break soon, and they could bill the government for new trucks. Even if there was a popped tire, there were no spares, and they blew it up and bought a new truck. Not only that, but they would run empty trucks and bill the government for them. All of this came out, but they were not tried or punished or even forced to pay money back.
We could have gotten Iraqis to do it better, cheaper, and get them off the streets and into jobs so they could have hope.
All of these statements and this evidence came directly from soldiers, workers, and leaders that have realized what they did. And these are only four corporations, at only one time. Think of how much damage and money all of the corporations do, and not only to other countries and the military, but to you and me as taxpayers.
The corporations are the reason why we are in a recession, why the whole world is struggling, and there are no restrictions, no lines drawn, and no announcement of bad deeds to the public. Basically, corporations have free reign.
But why, why has the government not cracked down on this immediately? Because the corporations pay them, bribe them, lobby for them, and support them so that they look the other way, and so they don't get reported. They hold all the money and power cards, and whatever the corporations say goes.
Only two years ago did Joe Biden allow our phone lines to be tapped by the phone companies, and only a couple decades ago did our own head of the Department of Public Welfare paid off to announce that smoking did no damage and was not bad for your health by cigarrette companies, because Congress was considering a tobacco ban. That announcement ended it.
Truly, our country is run by those who have money, and not by the people. It is up to us as citizens to recognize this and to fight back and end the oppression. We can decide our futures, and the futures of our children.
Friday, September 24, 2010
The Party System
They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community-
George Washington, in his farewell speech of 1796.
I think that the way Mr. Washington put this sad statement is not only true and accurate, but is also something we should put into effect today as a general rule of how we should rule our country. I will now break down this speech into something easier to understand.
They [political parties] serve to organize faction
This simply means that the parties' consequently divide the people by their beliefs. They cause dissent through Americans that causes them to turn on their own people and be spiteful, hurtful, and close-minded.
to give it an artificial and extraordinary force
This phrase has a few separate components. The "artificial" part of the system is that they basically make a bigger deal out of a simple political belief, thus causing more "followers" to join, and making previous ones "die-hard."Overexaggeration has always been a tool that the government has used to gain support and affection.
The extraordinary force is that altough a party is supposed to constitute simply a belief, millions of people almost worship their parties. The will of this many is a very strong thing, and it is extraordinary because it only springs from a belief.
to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party
Simply put, the will of those who lead the party will seek their own ends. Almost none of them do the things they do in the name of the nation. Rather, they do it in the name of money, fame, and glory. They actively use tools such as the press to give them a "goody-goody-two-shoes" look that really is a devil in disguise. Does this mean that they are bad people? Not in the slightest. You might think that that phrase is contridictory, but all of these bad things do not spring out of only them, but all of us. It is in our natures to be greedy, nasty people sometimes, but they are only worse because they are in a good position to do it.
often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community
This means that altough the parties are greedy and ruthless, they are also smart. People who have doctorates run these kinds of things. They know how to manipulate, control, and lull the people to achieve their own ends. They are willing to take risks, and usually they end up winning.
In short, what Mr. Washington was trying to warn us about three hundred years ago is evident now! These things are happening around us all of the time! We, as the people of the United States need to see past lies and be able to run our government correctly. My goal here is to educate, and this is exactly the reason why.
And also, George Washington had another great many things to say about parties. You only need to read his speech, the rest is worthless. Go to this link to read the rest: http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/history/politics.html
George Washington, in his farewell speech of 1796.
I think that the way Mr. Washington put this sad statement is not only true and accurate, but is also something we should put into effect today as a general rule of how we should rule our country. I will now break down this speech into something easier to understand.
They [political parties] serve to organize faction
This simply means that the parties' consequently divide the people by their beliefs. They cause dissent through Americans that causes them to turn on their own people and be spiteful, hurtful, and close-minded.
to give it an artificial and extraordinary force
This phrase has a few separate components. The "artificial" part of the system is that they basically make a bigger deal out of a simple political belief, thus causing more "followers" to join, and making previous ones "die-hard."Overexaggeration has always been a tool that the government has used to gain support and affection.
The extraordinary force is that altough a party is supposed to constitute simply a belief, millions of people almost worship their parties. The will of this many is a very strong thing, and it is extraordinary because it only springs from a belief.
to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party
Simply put, the will of those who lead the party will seek their own ends. Almost none of them do the things they do in the name of the nation. Rather, they do it in the name of money, fame, and glory. They actively use tools such as the press to give them a "goody-goody-two-shoes" look that really is a devil in disguise. Does this mean that they are bad people? Not in the slightest. You might think that that phrase is contridictory, but all of these bad things do not spring out of only them, but all of us. It is in our natures to be greedy, nasty people sometimes, but they are only worse because they are in a good position to do it.
often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community
This means that altough the parties are greedy and ruthless, they are also smart. People who have doctorates run these kinds of things. They know how to manipulate, control, and lull the people to achieve their own ends. They are willing to take risks, and usually they end up winning.
In short, what Mr. Washington was trying to warn us about three hundred years ago is evident now! These things are happening around us all of the time! We, as the people of the United States need to see past lies and be able to run our government correctly. My goal here is to educate, and this is exactly the reason why.
And also, George Washington had another great many things to say about parties. You only need to read his speech, the rest is worthless. Go to this link to read the rest: http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/history/politics.html
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
My View On: Politics In General
What is my view on politics? I like to think of it as populitics and screwoveritics rather than the nice, tame word politics. I believe that the government is, and has been doing a horrible, nasty job for a long time, with every president from every party. Even Abraham Lincoln made many mistakes in his section of time as president. Today's "mistakes" are not actually mistakes, but are cleverly planned and enacted.
As what I like to call "America's Pride" grew during the War of 1812 and after, the people have become blinded by their belief that their country is the best in the entire world. This has allowed many of them to think that America can do no wrong, which led to such things as defending the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan. This belief has also led Americans to think that their leaders can do no wrong, owing to many of our problems today.
In conclusion to my overview, I think politics and politicians are wrong on many different levels. I hope that my next few posts will be and eye opener, or maybe only a thought starter, but sometimes that is enough.
As what I like to call "America's Pride" grew during the War of 1812 and after, the people have become blinded by their belief that their country is the best in the entire world. This has allowed many of them to think that America can do no wrong, which led to such things as defending the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan. This belief has also led Americans to think that their leaders can do no wrong, owing to many of our problems today.
In conclusion to my overview, I think politics and politicians are wrong on many different levels. I hope that my next few posts will be and eye opener, or maybe only a thought starter, but sometimes that is enough.
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