break

i'm going to be hanging out by myself for awhile so there won't be any new posts for a week or so

kbye

Wall-Mart... Sucks

A new study found that Wall-Mart has had a direct impact on poverty rates in the U.S., contributing to over 20,000 people falling below the poverty level. The reason is because Wall-Mart invades small towns and forces the small stores to close down, those employees that worked at those stores are forced to find a new job at Wall-Mart, and therefore receive a lower wage.

(full story)

Ignorance is Strength

Hopefully you have heard this already but if you haven’t I want to at least get you interested into this disturbing news. The NSA (National Security Agency) has been building a database of domestic and international phone calls. The information in the database includes the phone numbers and times of all calls. AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth have all consented to releasing this information while Quest Communications refused because no warrants were given. All the major telephone companies involved broke their own policies of releasing private information to government without a valid warrant. So basically every call at any time is recorded into this database – the largest database ever assembled. This is a scary thought not because it records statistics on calling patterns but because it can track the specific calls of a single number. Although the NSA denies including names and addresses into the database, that information can be very easily found from unclassified sources.

The information collected by the NSA is used to “data mine” which in many cases can be very scary. The information might not be used for corrupt reasons right now but, it may very well be used for counter-terrorism. But, the information could be used later for corrupt reasons. For example: say in a few years down the road, we have an even more corrupt administration, one that decides they don’t want any citizens in the nation that might be against their agenda. So that administration goes ahead and looks at the phone records in the massive database, that “data mining,” which creates complicated statistics and such; those corrupt officials would then gather the numbers of questionable citizens who oppose their agenda. They look up their names and addresses from unclassified sources and some how affect that person’s life. They could harass that person with mail or phone calls or even worse - charge them for anti-American activities; a scenario very reminiscent of the McCarthy era. Just imagine if McCarthy had this technology available to him, it would have been an even more scary time. To avoid this happening now we must act eminently to stop this illegal and very scary activity.

In George Orwell’s modern classic novel 1984 countless telescreens constantly monitor the people of Oceana. Any time a person opposes the views of the “party” they will secretly disappear never to be seen again. The part’s motto was the following: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.

President Bush uses war in the name of peace, he uses slavery in the name of freedom and he knows that our ignorance is his strength. Making sure we know nothing about what is going on in our government keeps his power. He replies to every leak of very scary corrupt material as a “national security issue” and should have never been leaked in the first place. He says “its bad for troop moral” or we should be silent during war time. But I thought the war ended 3 years ago! I guess not. And now our freedoms are being compromised in the name of security. It’s sad how we are moving closer and closer to fascism in our nation of “freedom,” our nation of liberty and justice and due process of the law. But our president won’t even obey the laws, he just puts them aside and ignores them, in the name of freedom. What freedom? It’s like propaganda slogan in America: “promoting freedom.” How profiting off of the third world “promoting freedom”? They don’t give two shits about the third world; all they want is money, money, money (and tax cuts). They are corrupt on a scale beyond Nixon and if we let to go they will be right up their with the fascists dictatorships of the past.

I don’t want to see this nation go to a fascist state, but its fast on its way. Back in the revolutionary war we had the Patriots and we had the Loyalists. The loyalists in both cases are the ones who remain silent, and the ones who won’t do anything and the patriots are the ones who will question and the ones who are brave enough to stand up and speak. And that’s what I want all of my very few readers to do: to listen, to think and to speak because knowledge truly is power.

SCIENTIA EST POTENTIA.

the glen beck show on CNN hn

In conservative loud mouth Glen Beck's new show on CNN Headline News Beck says he is "not wearing pants." And makes fun of Iran's president's name and says the name Bush is much better.

read/watch the rest

Unjust drug laws strike again

A Massachusetts 17 year old, Mitchell Lawrence was arrested and convicted for selling a joints worth of marijuana to an undercover police officer. The high school senior will spend 2 years in prison. His life is basically ruined as a result of his felony conviction. Unjust laws resulted in this atrocity against this young man; because Mitchell sold the pot in a “Drug-Free School Zone” he is required to spend a mandatory prison sentence. Mitchell had no idea he was selling in a “Drug-Free School Zone” for he was almost 1000 feet away from the closest school. For more scary facts watch this video from the drug policy alliance.

Repeated History

Does anyone remember the McCarthy era, where communists were enemies of the way of life in America? And how we put measures forth to counter act any opposition of our so called beliefs or values, measures that target citizens of our own country and other independent nations as well? Well this history is clearly being repeated now more then ever as many are scared of terrorists, and we wire-tap our own people to stop these terrorists. Well what’s wrong with stopping terrorists? Nothing, it's just the way we are doing it. But this is not the problem I am talking about today, no, now it's something different. Instead of stopping communism we are targeting socialism. Many conservative pundits are calling socialism “a threat to America.” My question to them is: what about Britain, and virtually all of Europe? Are they a treat to America? The reason they are saying this right now is because recently Bolivia has nationalized their domestic oil in an attempt to stop foreign and probably American companies from drilling for cheap costs and little benefit to the people of Bolivia. As a landlocked country, and south Americas poorest nation, Bolivia has made an intelligent decision to better their country by claiming the oil that rightfully belongs to them, which it is. Why are they so angry? Because, it’s simple: this hurts big oil companies, and its simple that republicans love big oil companies. I mean our own president is an oil man. Anyway this in addition to bad publicity for Venezuela is contributing to the deterioration of the socialist image. This is unfortunate, but hopefully it won’t last long.

Weekly Update

Well a bunch of stuff happened while I was taking a break from the computer and during the weekend; including some insanely ridiculous things such as the Star Spangled Banner controversy. Here’s what happened in case you missed it.

White House Press Dinner
Watch this video, I can’t believe how much balls Steven Colbert has, I wonder what Mr. Bush was thinking. And there was also Bush and his alias
also very funny.
Protest for Darfur
A massive demonstration took place on Sunday in Washington D.C. for relief and peace in the Darfur region of Sudan. Among the protesters many celebrities and politicians smoke including most notable George Clooney and Barack Obama. Amazingly, 5 congressmen were arrested for disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly.

Immigration Rally
Thousands marched on Monday for immigrant rights. Many protesters skipped school and work to attend.

Star Spangled Madness

The recent “controversy” of the Star Spangled Banner being sung in Spanish has stir up a lot of unnecessary attention. Many are saying it is “an insult” such as conservative nut job Pat Buchanan. What I don’t understand is why anyone cares if immigrants sing the nation anthem in Spanish or any other language, its better then them singing it and not understanding, right? I hope so. At least these people are showing their allegiance to the United States; more importantly understanding and proclaiming the American way.

Bush and GOP Prefer Big Business over the Consumer

As the recent realization that petroleum costs might be gouged buy corporations to make huge profits, the American people are demanding something be done to control prices at the pump. President Bush and the GOP proposed a few plans, but is a far cry from a plan that will reasonably affect prices, especially in a long term.

The Republican plan calls for stopping shipments to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve and "follow suit on what we have been emphasizing, particularly through the energy bill, and that is to encourage conservation, to expand domestic production and to develop alternative sources of energy like ethanol,” bush said. Bush also plans on temporarily easing EPA clean air regulations to help “shortages.”

Meanwhile, Exxon Mobile, the world’s most profitable corporation recorded profits of $36.1 Billion in 2005 as well as giving executives huge salaries and retirement compensations worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I’m very curious of the reasons why republicans are blinded by this. They are putting on a show saying that “[we] won't want and will not accept is manipulation of the market” bush said.

Bush is also fooling the American people by saying "Record oil prices and large cash flows also mean that Congress has got to understand that these energy companies don't need unnecessary tax breaks like the write-offs.” Even though in 2005 Bush signed into affect the first energy legislation in decades. His act gave $14.5 Billion in tax breaks to big oil companies. Republicans claimed these tax breaks would spark research into alternative energy, new technology, and domestic sources of energy. Instead it just gave more money to the big oil, allowing them to make even larger profits.

I hope I’m not the only person that realizes the correlation between Bush and big business. For example in the 2004 presidential campaign the largest single contributors were major banks and financial services firms. Later, in a “coincidence” the first piece of major legislation happened to be the Bankruptcy Reform Act. This act controversially benefits firms during bankruptcy and gives firms more power to rape consumers with unfair financial practices. In addition to this one example, Bush almost always favors big businesses over the consumer and the common American; Lobbying for legislation that benefits big businesses by deregulation and by making it harder for Americans to succeed fairly. This comes in hand in no better example then the oil companies, as deregulation has lead to massive problems with price gouging and unfair practices by big oil.

Deregulation could be the single most dangerous thing republicans can achieve while in control of congress, for it takes years to undo. Just as deregulation in the 1980’s lead to corporations such as Enron taking advantage over the consumer, the current deregulation can lead to devastating affects on the working class.

What needs to be done to help the citizens of this nation is tough regulation of oil companies and stiff prosecution for unfair price gouging. Not ridiculous short term “solutions” such as opening the ANWR or easing up EPA regulation.

We might not be able to achieve the prices we are looking for this summer but hopefully when the Dems take back control of congress later early next year something can get done. Until then, I recommend taking the bus, riding a bike, or buying a Toyota Prius. I’ll keep on updating with more as the events unfold.

Help me with my Zine

I need help, big time. I'm working on creating an alternative weekly or bi-weekly magazine about politics, culture, entertainment and news. The main focus, though, will be on politics. Want to help me make this something big? Just post a comment here or email me at arikwithana@gmail.com

Also, I need your help on choosing a name. Any ideas? Post ideas here.

Tony Snow to become White House Press Sec?

Well this is what Mr. Snow has to say about Mr. Bush: "An Embarrassment," "Impotent," "Doesn't Seem To Mean What He Says"...

read more

Ronald, government is the solution not the problem

I seriously wish Public transportation where I live (the suburbs of Detroit, MI) would just be a little bit better. I would take it everywhere. But right now it sucks! No trains what so ever, no subways, horrible bus system (which by the way is being reduced and removed in Livonia). Why ride public transport? Because gas prices are expected to rise to record levels this summer. Up to 100 dollars for a barrel of petroleum, this comes out to over 5 bucks a gallon at the pump. My mom is doing something right now, looking into buying a Toyota Prius. I'm trying to do something by getting a more fuel efficient vehicle. But trust me, this is not enough alone.

The consumer is NOT in power as many conservative voices are saying; the corporate executives of oil companies are in control. With oil companies reporting record profits my question to them is: Why not take that profit and reinvest into alternatives fuels and new technology? But of course they will not listen; they just waste the money on stock holders, executive salaries, and misleading television commercials. (I’m actually watching one right now).

What I hate the most is when conservatives believe that high gas prices are the result of supply and demand. Come on! It’s not a result of supply and demand. We are not running out of Oil! And no Ronald, free market capitalism is not the best thing for the nation, and government is the solution to the problem, you sad ignorant man. At least your policy bought a lot of houses in the vineyard though, right?

What needs to be done is for the federal government to take emergency action to protect the American people. Michigan’s Governor Jennifer Grandholm is asking the federal government to do just that. In addition, I would like to see President Bush take permanent action to initiate aggressive research into alternative fuels and become completely independent of foreign fuel. Hydrogen Combustion Engines are a completely feasible alternative to gasoline and can be mass produced for extremely low prices. All that needs to be done is add a new pump to the local gas station: "Hydrogen - %1.00/gal." But still I have never seen such a thing.

Why? Well the reasons are numerous and there is no one answer but what I know is that something needs to be done and we must do something about it - the consumer, the corporations, and most importantly (contrary to popular conservative belief) the government.

So with my options scarce as far as public transportation and alternative fueled vehicles, the price for energy and transportation lays in the hands not of me (the consumer) but in the hands of big business and the hand of the government which can regulate that business – and should.

Bush approval rating at all time low

The latest CNN poll shows Bush's overall approval at an all time low of 32%
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Happy Earth Day!

It's Earth Day. To celebrate go ride a bike instead of driving, eat organic food, and don’t eat anything made from animals, recycle as much as possible, run the water a little less, keep the lights off a little later, roll down the windows in the car instead of the air conditioning, oh there is thousands of possibilities. At least do one or more of the latter. Bye Bye.

"Science is Cool"

Bush supports growing science skills in middle school and high school and supporting research; being competitive with Japan and others. But what Huffington Post’s Steve Benen points out is that not only does Bush not know what he is talking about but he contradicts himself with his policy of knocking down any science program that doesn't fit his larger agenda (think evolution, stem-cells, global warming).

click here for more