Ed Garren’s Weblog

 Normandie is awash with D day festivities. This must be the largest party in Europe right now. The beer and wine are flowing, the cheers and laughter pierce the air, lots of toasting and well wishes.

 In the midst of this, I am traveling with my brother, and we accompany a few of the surviving D day veterans who return every year. The remnant of veterans is lost in the circus of re-enacters, food stands, souvenir vendors, all of it awash in alcohol.

 There is a lot of pain here. The surviving veterans are the kernel of it all, but the children and grandchildren of the English veterans swell their ranks.

 At the Pegasus bridge cafe, Madame Gondree welcomes the returning vets who liberated the place decades ago. She was five years old when she opened her window in the morning to see what the noises were outside as the british commandos scurried across and around the bridge to disarm the explosives the Germans had set on it.

 Today, the cafe welcomes a group of bicyclists, riding to raise money for injured Afghan war vets in Britain. It seems that carnage is determined to continue.

 Last night we had dinner in an 800 year old farmhouse. The family that owns the farm, and has for six generations, offered us excellent steaks from the family business of raising beef cattle. The parents of our host entertained both German and British troops after D day. The house was in no mans land, the family trapped in it. The Germans spent the nights, the Brits spent the days. I wondered if they ate the fine steak. The stand off lasted 85 days, somehow both the house and family survived.

 History is very real here, but so is the present. Talks include the current banking mess that appears to be pervasive. It seems that banks in the UK also got bailed out, but are not lending money either. The current Middle East wars are sucking the British dry also, though at least the rich seem to be paying their fair share in United Kingdom.

 One of the elderly commandos made a comment about the issue of gays in the military, assuring himself that he never knew any. That one set me off, and I politely suggested that he knew and served with many.

At least one of the other elderly commandos had spent some of our shared time commenting on the pretty little faggot boys of his youth, as well as the nipples poking up under my knit shirt. It was our special bond as he winked at me. We truly are everywhere.

 My brother and I make a full compliment. He is a retired Sgt. Mjr. Airborne, Special Forces, Black Opps. I am semi retired from decades of working as a psychotherapist, child welfare worker, addictions counselor and Gay Rights activist. We both understand that freedom is not given, but must be fought for, that all the generosity in the world means nothing without respect.

On a very personal level, the cost of freedom for both of us, has been high.  I live with the hundreds of friends and peers who died in the AIDS plague years, the ongoing struggles of having basic rights and freedoms tossed around in dozens of ballot initiatives (during my lifetime) and other political games, mostly by so called “conservatives” who have no problem spending this country into massive debt, while telling me and my kind that we shouldn’t exist.  My brother has given his left hip, his right knee, and the bottom of his back to protecting freedom, not to mention living with PTSD for all the death he has seen.

 Though the content of our lives has been very different, what we both share is a life lived that only peers can really understand.

  This trip has been more than worth the cost. My brother and I have never felt closer, I have met some wonderful people, and I have spent time with many veterans. The young ones from Iraq, Afghanistan and such are living in as much or more pain than the old ones. On the bicycle ride, I see many young men with no legs, or an arm missing, or both. I wonder how their lives will fare in the coming world. The older vets came home with bodies more intact. Medical technology then did not allow for saving the lives of the almost dead.  There were no “Medi-vacs”, just dump trucks filled with bodies.  The American cemetery on a bluff above Omaha beach goes on for acres and acres.  

 The WWII ones returned as heroes in 1945. The D day vets were in units that lost 70 to 90% of their members.  Most of the carnage stayed in Europe in the enormous cemeteries that are part of the landscape.  We visited the British cemetery and the German cemetery as well.  In each of them, the special bond among the soldiers, which easily crosses national and political lines, is apparent.  Old men who once fought as enemies, now easily embrace and sob together as brothers, remembering their fallen comrades.

 The bond remains the same, maintain the mission, protect your buddies, bring everyone home. The old vets generously salute the young ones, they understand and honor their sacrifice. Not too many others do these days. 

The current crop of veterans return to a world that rarely remembers there is a war going on, much less that these young men and women left behind their innocence, along with arms, legs and shattered lives in some desert in the middle east.  The stories of being haunted by the faces of those they killed, often children and civilians, are rampant in their confessions to me. Their scars are deep, and few people take the time to listen to them. All of the beer and bravado fails to remove the faces that haunt their dreams. Self forgiveness is often elusive, and few beyond their ranks understand.

 Will we honor them as we honor the old ones? Will we have events for their fellowship and renewal? Or will we prefer to forget them, like we have so effectively forgotten our Vietnam veterans? As I write this, newly elected Tea Party members of congress are trying to privatize the Veterans Administration services. How quickly will our greed make these new veterans political orphans in their youth?

Our last night in France, Gene and I were sitting in the bar at the IBIS hotel with a friend of his who is a historian.  He was on his way to Poland to tour Aushwitz.   Joe is as “conservative” as it gets, probably a Tea Party supporter, who lives in Alabama.  A well dressed woman from Canada joined us, a retired teacher and principal, and we had a somewhat restrained conversation about the current state of the world.  She was holding a copy of “Time” magazine with the story “What Recovery” on the cover.  We spoke of the current state of things in North America, and she basically said the real problem is that no one seems willing to work together anymore.  Her father was a union organizer, she was a teacher, and then a principal.  When she became a principal, many of her friends had to stop speaking to her because as an administrator, she became the enemy.

She noted that Germany had similar economic problems a few years ago, and then leadership started working together to renew Germany’s industrial assets so that they could start making things that could be sold worldwide.  In other words, they started working together, not apart.

So it seems that we live in a very divided America these days, and the real reason we can’t seem to fix anything effectively is that we are working apart, not together.

If the D Day veterans have anything to teach this current world, it is that differences, even extreme ones, are temporary.  Today’s enemies become tomorrows allies.  What is essential is meaningful dialogue, forgiveness, and a vigorous commitment to common goals.  All of these elements seem absent from the current leadership landscape in our country these days, and the Europeans are genuinely baffled by it.  They remember an America that forgave Germany, helped it rebuild, and welcomed it into full partnership in NATO.  The current isolationism and arrogance of our immediate past leadership (Bush/Cheney) genuinely baffles them because they know Americans to be hospitable, generous of spirit and resources.

 The next question is, will we remember and renew that generosity as well?

 Edward Garren

A friend who subscribes to “Life After the OIl Crash” sent me this. If you think it’s awful, ask some folks who’ve lived in other DEVELOPED countries about life there. Or go visit one. It will really open your eyes to how much the corporations and the war machine have sucked this country dry.

 

Ed 

 

Date: Saturday 27 November 2010, 05:48:54

From: Dennis Kluesner <denniskluesner@hotmail.com>

To: america2point0@yahoogroups.com

 

From Saturdays Breaking News Post.

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/BreakingNews.html

Americans, I have some bad news for you:

You have the worst quality of life in the developed world—by a wide margin.

If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average Australian or Singaporean taxi driver has a much better standard of living than the typical American white-collar worker.

I know this because I am an American, and I escaped from the prison you call home.

I have lived all around the world, in wealthy countries and poor ones, and there is only one country I would never consider living in again: The United States of America. The mere thought of it fills me with dread.

Consider this: you are the only people in the developed world without a single-payer health system. Everyone in Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand has a single-payer system. If they get sick, they can devote all their energies to getting well. If you get sick, you have to battle two things at once: your illness and the fear of financial ruin. Millions of Americans go bankrupt every year due to medical bills, and tens of thousands die each year because they have no insurance or insufficient insurance. And don’t believe for a second that rot about America having the world’s best medical care or the shortest waiting lists: I’ve been to hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Singapore, and Thailand, and every one was better than the “good” hospital I used to go to back home. The waits were shorter, the facilities more comfortable, and the doctors just as good.

This is ironic, because you need a good health system more than anyone else in the world. Why? Because your lifestyle is almost designed to make you sick.

Let’s start with your diet: Much of the beef you eat has been exposed to fecal matter in processing. Your chicken is contaminated with salmonella. Your stock animals and poultry are pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics. In most other countries, the government would act to protect consumers from this sort of thing; in the United States, the government is bought off by industry to prevent any effective regulations or inspections. In a few years, the majority of all the produce for sale in the United States will be from genetically modified crops, thanks to the cozy relationship between Monsanto Corporation and the United States government. Worse still, due to the vast quantities of high-fructose corn syrup Americans consume, fully one-third of children born in the United States today will be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives.

Of course, it’s not just the food that’s killing you, it’s the drugs. If you show any sign of life when you’re young, they’ll put you on Ritalin. Then, when you get old enough to take a good look around, you’ll get depressed, so they’ll give you Prozac. If you’re a man, this will render you chemically impotent, so you’ll need Viagra to get it up. Meanwhile, your steady diet of trans-fat-laden food is guaranteed to give you high cholesterol, so you’ll get a prescription for Lipitor. Finally, at the end of the day, you’ll lay awake at night worrying about losing your health plan, so you’ll need Lunesta to go to sleep.

With a diet guaranteed to make you sick and a health system designed to make sure you stay that way, what you really need is a long vacation somewhere. Unfortunately, you probably can’t take one. I’ll let you in on little secret: if you go to the beaches of Thailand, the mountains of Nepal, or the coral reefs of Australia, you’ll probably be the only American in sight. And you’ll be surrounded crowds of happy Germans, French, Italians, Israelis, Scandinavians and wealthy Asians. Why? Because they’re paid well enough to afford to visit these places AND they can take vacations long enough to do so. Even if you could scrape together enough money to go to one of these incredible places, by the time you recovered from your jetlag, it would time to get on a plane and rush back to your job.

If you think I’m making this up, check the stats on average annual vacation days by country:

Finland: 44

Italy: 42

France: 39

Germany: 35

UK: 25

Japan: 18

USA: 12

The fact is, they work you like dogs in the United States. This should come as no surprise: the United States never got away from the plantation/sweat shop labor model and any real labor movement was brutally suppressed. Unless you happen to be a member of the ownership class, your options are pretty much limited to barely surviving on service-sector wages or playing musical chairs for a spot in a cubicle (a spot that will be outsourced to India next week anyway). The very best you can hope for is to get a professional degree and then milk the system for a slice of the middle-class pie. And even those who claw their way into the middle class are but one illness or job loss away from poverty. Your jobs aren’t secure. Your company has no loyalty to you. They’ll play you off against your coworkers for as long as it suits them, then they’ll get rid of you.

Of course, you don’t have any choice in the matter: the system is designed this way. In most countries in the developed world, higher education is either free or heavily subsidized; in the United States, a university degree can set you back over US$100,000. Thus, you enter the working world with a crushing debt. Forget about taking a year off to travel the world and find yourself – you’ve got to start working or watch your credit rating plummet.

If you’re “lucky,” you might even land a job good enough to qualify you for a home loan. And then you’ll spend half your working life just paying the interest on the loan – welcome to the world of American debt slavery. America has the illusion of great wealth because there’s a lot of “stuff” around, but who really owns it? In real terms, the average American is poorer than the poorest ghetto dweller in Manila, because at least they have no debts. If they want to pack up and leave, they can; if you want to leave, you can’t, because you’ve got debts to pay.

All this begs the question: Why would anyone put up with this? Ask any American and you’ll get the same answer: because America is the freest country on earth. If you believe this, I’ve got some more bad news for you: America is actually among the least free countries on earth. Your piss is tested, your emails and phone calls are monitored, your medical records are gathered, and you are never more than one stray comment away from writhing on the ground with two Taser prongs in your ass.

And that’s just physical freedom. Mentally, you are truly imprisoned. You don’t even know the degree to which you are tormented by fears of medical bankruptcy, job loss, homelessness and violent crime because you’ve never lived in a country where there is no need to worry about such things.

But it goes much deeper than mere surveillance and anxiety. The fact is, you are not free because your country has been taken over and occupied by another government. Fully 70% of your tax dollars go to the Pentagon, and the Pentagon is the real government of the United States. You are required under pain of death to pay taxes to this occupying government. If you’re from the less fortunate classes, you are also required to serve and die in their endless wars, or send your sons and daughters to do so. You have no choice in the matter: there is a socioeconomic draft system in the United States that provides a steady stream of cannon fodder for the military.

If you call a life of surveillance, anxiety and ceaseless toil in the service of a government you didn’t elect “freedom,” then you and I have a very different idea of what that word means.

If there was some chance that the country could be changed, there might be reason for hope. But can you honestly look around and conclude that anything is going to change? Where would the change come from? The people? Take a good look at your compatriots: the working class in the United States has been brutally propagandized by jackals like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. Members of the working class have been taught to lick the boots of their masters and then bend over for another kick in the ass. They’ve got these people so well trained that they’ll take up arms against the other half of the working class as soon as their masters give the word.

If the people cannot make a change, how about the media? Not a chance. From Fox News to the New York Times, the mass media in the United States is nothing but the public relations wing of the corporatocracy, primarily the military industrial complex. At least the citizens of the former Soviet Union knew that their news was bullshit. In America, you grow up thinking you’ve got a free media, which makes the propaganda doubly effective. If you don’t think American media is mere corporate propaganda, ask yourself the following question: have you ever heard a major American news outlet suggest that the country could fund a single-payer health system by cutting military spending?

If change can’t come from the people or the media, the only other potential source of change would be the politicians. Unfortunately, the American political process is among the most corrupt in the world. In every country on earth, one expects politicians to take bribes from the rich. But this generally happens in secret, behind the closed doors of their elite clubs. In the United States, this sort of political corruption is done in broad daylight, as part of legal, accepted, standard operating procedure. In the United States, they merely call these bribes campaign donations, political action committees and lobbyists. One can no more expect the politicians to change this system than one can expect a man to take an axe and chop his own legs out from underneath him.

No, the United States of America is not going to change for the better. The only change will be for the worse. And when I say worse, I mean much worse. As we speak, the economic system that sustained the country during the post-war years is collapsing. The United States maxed out its “credit card” sometime in 2008 and now its lenders, starting with China, are in the process of laying the foundations for a new monetary system to replace the Anglo-American “petro-dollar” system. As soon as there is a viable alternative to the US dollar, the greenback will sink like a stone.

While the United States was running up crushing levels of debt, it was also busy shipping its manufacturing jobs and white-collar jobs overseas, and letting its infrastructure fall to pieces. Meanwhile, Asian and European countries were investing in education, infrastructure and raw materials. Even if the United States tried to rebuild a real economy (as opposed to a service/financial economy) do think American workers would ever be able to compete with the workers of China or Europe? Have you ever seen a Japanese or German factory? Have you ever met a Singaporean or Chinese worker?

There are only two possible futures facing the United States, and neither one is pretty. The best case is a slow but orderly decline – essentially a continuation of what’s been happening for the last two decades. Wages will drop, unemployment will rise, Medicare and Social Security benefits will be slashed, the currency will decline in value, and the disparity of wealth will spiral out of control until the United States starts to resemble Mexico or the Philippines – tiny islands of wealth surrounded by great poverty (the country is already halfway there).

Equally likely is a sudden collapse, perhaps brought about by a rapid flight from the US dollar by creditor nations like China, Japan, Korea and the OPEC nations. A related possibility would be a default by the United States government on its vast debt. One look at the financial balance sheet of the US government should convince you how likely this is: governmental spending is skyrocketing and tax receipts are plummeting – something has to give. If either of these scenarios plays out, the resulting depression will make the present recession look like a walk in the park.

Whether the collapse is gradual or gut-wrenchingly sudden, the results will be chaos, civil strife and fascism. Let’s face it: the United States is like the former Yugoslavia – a collection of mutually antagonistic cultures united in name only. You’ve got your own version of the Taliban: right-wing Christian fundamentalists who actively loathe the idea of secular Constitutional government. You’ve got a vast intellectual underclass that has spent the last few decades soaking up Fox News and talk radio propaganda, eager to blame the collapse on Democrats, gays and immigrants. You’ve got a ruthless ownership class that will use all the means at its disposal to protect its wealth from the starving masses.

On top of all that you’ve got vast factory farms, sprawling suburbs and a truck-based shipping system, all of it entirely dependent on oil that is about to become completely unaffordable. And you’ve got guns. Lots of guns. In short: the United States is about to become a very unwholesome place to be.

Right now, the government is building fences and walls along its northern and southern borders. Right now, the government is working on a national ID system (soon to be fitted with biometric features). Right now, the government is building a surveillance state so extensive that they will be able to follow your every move, online, in the street and across borders. If you think this is just to protect you from “terrorists,” then you’re sadly mistaken. Once the shit really hits the fan, do you really think you’ll just be able to jump into the old station wagon, drive across the Canadian border and spend the rest of your days fishing and drinking Molson? No, the government is going to lock the place down. They don’t want their tax base escaping. They don’t want their “recruits” escaping. They don’t want YOU escaping.

I am not writing this to scare you. I write this to you as a friend. If you are able to read and understand what I’ve written here, then you are a member of a small minority in the United States. You are a minority in a country that has no place for you.

So what should you do?

You should leave the United States of America.

If you’re young, you’ve got plenty of choices: you can teach English in the Middle East, Asia or Europe. Or you can go to university or graduate school abroad and start building skills that will qualify you for a work visa. If you’ve already got some real work skills, you can apply to emigrate to any number of countries as a skilled immigrant. If you are older and you’ve got some savings, you can retire to a place like Costa Rica or the Philippines. If you can’t qualify for a work, student or retirement visa, don’t let that stop you – travel on a tourist visa to a country that appeals to you and talk to the expats you meet there. Whatever you do, go speak to an immigration lawyer as soon as you can. Find out exactly how to get on a path that will lead to permanent residence and eventually citizenship in the country of your choice.

You will not be alone. There are millions of Americans just like me living outside the United States. Living lives much more fulfilling, peaceful, free and abundant than we ever could have attained back home. Some of us happened upon these lives by accident – we tried a year abroad and found that we liked it – others made a conscious decision to pack up and leave for good. You’ll find us in Canada, all over Europe, in many parts of Asia, in Australia and New Zealand, and in most other countries of the globe. Do we miss our friends and family? Yes. Do we occasionally miss aspects of our former country? Yes. Do we plan on ever living again in the United States? Never. And those of us with permanent residence or citizenship can sponsor family members from back home for long-term visas in our adopted countries.

In closing, I want to remind you of something: unless you are an American Indian or a descendant of slaves, at some point your ancestors chose to leave their homeland in search of a better life. They weren’t traitors and they weren’t bad people, they just wanted a better life for themselves and their families. Isn’t it time that you continue their journey?

An Open Letter to Democratic Leadership and Elected Officials (particularly in the places where we lost)

Dear Gentlemen and Ladies:

Three days ago, we all watched in horror as our party went down in flames.  Today, my mother Edna Garren, a life long Democrat, would have been 98 years old.  So I am writing this in her memory, and offering some insights she passed on to me.

My mother Edna (at age 92) with U.S. Senator Robert Graham (D) (retired) from Florida

a long time family friend 

You folks dropped the ball.  You didn’t just fumble, you stopped and held it out for the Republicans and the Tea Party to take from you.  I want to offer you some insight, from the street, as to how you did it, and what you need to do to get it back.

The first thing is, STOP RUNNING SCARED.  Take a lesson from your peers who stuck to their values and are still in office.  Stop trying to compromise and make deals.  The deals never work, and you betray your base.  The deal making is how you got suckered into a bogus war for oil profits, a failed Wall Street bailout that you (and the president) then got blamed for, and the loss of the Public Option in health care reform, and the continued shipment of jobs out of the country.

A lot of you are too young to remember the legacy of FDR.  This from a friend of mine, who also had polio, and met him (as a child) at Warm Springs, about being disappointed:

“He (Obama) came into office with such power and esteem and yes he was handed the financial debacle but he had 18 months in which to do some talking to the American people - to wave a big stick and ask for their help and he would have gotten it.

Thomas, my grandson, voted for Obama - his first vote with the same hope I had that Obama would be a president ready to grab the reins of power - do what he needed to do and speak his mind.

That’s where people feel let down.  He didn’t really speak of the horrors of unemployment, he’s considering Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,  he let the Republicans frame the message and damn all of his wonderful advisors.  Once again, they know how to win but not how to govern.

I really thought he had FDR or Harry Truman in him with a bit of John Kennedy - but he held back and he’s so smart that it makes it worse.  I wish I had voted for Hillary.

Kerry let the Reps. muddy him, Dukakas and Carter - where the hell are our leaders.  Why are they so afraid to speak out why must they be so goody goody?

Where are the Churchill’s - my heart is broken because of the huge lost opportunity and by God what the monsters on the other side are going to do to our country - but our guys are not innocent - no way.”

The reason why we lost this election is that too many of you are more concerned with remaining “collegiate” with your Republican peers in government.  While our government needs professionalism in order to operate, you seem to have lost sight of how effectively the Republican corporate wealth machine has bullied most working Americans past the breaking point.  While you’re out there making deals, people are losing their jobs, their homes, their dignity in record numbers.  We are counting on you to fight for us, not sell us out one more time.

One more example from my friend:  “Obama could have stopped foreclosures the minute there was a hint that they were illegal - he could have just done so much with his voice.”   

Most of you appear to have forgotten the basic underpinnings of our party, that we are the party of people who are not from wealth, or management.  We are the party of people who work for a living.  What have you done to protect us from the rampant bullying in virtually every aspect of the workplace, financial institutions, health care, public education, etc?

And in the face of a massive propaganda machine, what have you done to fight back?  This election, we finally saw some commercials that had backbone.  But what about in between?  You had the opportunity over the Public Option to create massive media by letting the Republicans filibuster, and make lots of news that would show them to be who they really are?  Instead, you made yet one more back room deal and betrayed the base that elected you to make REAL change.  And by making that deal, you continued the confusion of the average voter, who basically says, “They’re all rich, none of them care about me, so why should I vote at all?”

Then, demonstrating how out of touch you really are, you were genuinely surprised when the millions of young people who swept us to power two years ago, didn’t bother to show up again.  What have you done to educate them about how government works and who is really fighting for their future?  Instead, you’re “making deals” and politely letting the bullies make you look like fools as you sell out the people who put their trust in you.

My mother passed on some basic truths about how politics affects our lives, and why she voted for Democrats most of her life, particularly in later years:

“Every time I ever voted Republican, I came to regret it later on. 

They always do the same thing.  They tell you what you want to hear to get elected, and it sounds so good.  Once they get power, they forget what they promised, they pay off their rich friends with tax cuts and stick working people with all the bills. 

I‘m not wealthy enough to be a Republican, or vote for one either. 

Politics is a dirty business, and most politicians are crooks.  But at least the Democrats are OUR crooks.”

So, while your scratching your heads and wondering what happened, consider the words of Janet Jackson, “What have you done for me lately?”

If you want to return to power, then you need to fight, and fight hard.  The soul of the country is at stake, and not only are we all watching, but you can count on Fox News to continue to crank out propaganda and lies against all of you.  Consider that the “deal” will just come back later and bite you in the behind.

You can’t win a deal with the devil, and the corporations that own the Republican party (and are trying to buy too many of you) ARE the devil.

Americans HATE cowards.  We love scrappy underdogs, people who fight for what they believe in.  If you want to win back the soul and votes of the American people, start fighting, and like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., make news so that people can see you fighting on their behalf.

Stop running scared, stop making deals, show your backbone, fight back.   The country and the planet you save, is ours, and there is nowhere else to go.

In celebration of the memory of my mother, Edna V. Garren.

From my brother Gene, who is a retired Sgt. Mjr. United States Army, who gave this country 28 years of his life, along with his left hip, right knee, and the discs in his lower back.  Gene walks with two crutches because of “foot flop” in his left leg, a result of a screw in his back impinging on his spinal cord.

During his Army career, he watched the climate change in and near the arctic circle (while on winter warfare maneuvers).  He lives in the mountains of western North Carolina, where this summer, all records for high temperatures were broken, including 100 degrees in Burnsville NC, which has never happened before.

Anyone who thinks climate change is a myth, simply has to spend some time watching the Weather Channel, we passed a CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) “tipping point” a little over a year ago, and look at last winter, last summer, and all of the records broken and bizzare/extreme weather that occurred in the last 12 months.

If people take the time to “follow the money” they will discover that most of this neo-conservative movement is funded by the energy and health care industries.  All these promises of “Jobs” and budget cuts will really translate into maintaining and extending tax cuts for the wealthy, and not much else.  There won’t be any good paying jobs in this country until we start making things that the rest of the world wants to buy, and these are the same people who passed all the laws that encouraged the wholesale dismantling of American Industry and moving it to China and other poor nations.

I will only add that we forget that Hitler and the Nazi’s took over Germany in a legal election.  I listen to the extreme positions espoused by the Tea Party, their thinly veiled racism, their not so thinly veiled homophobia, their not at all veiled disdain for anyone who disagrees with them, and it scares the hell out of me.

Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin are the “poster couple” for bullying in America.

We have become a very mean and intolerant nation.  God help us all if we don’t wake up soon.

Regards,  Edward “Ed” Garren

Begin forwarded message:

From: Gene Garren <GeneGarren@aol.com>

Date: November 3, 2010 6:08:05 AM PDT

To: Garren E G <ed@edgarren.us>

Subject: Yesterdays vote

 

Hello.

Well I am very sorry to see what happened, but not surprised.

It was not as bad as I thought it might be, but it is part of my learning experience since retiring.  Far too many Americans simply do not have a grasp on important issues, nor do they fully understand how government works, nor do they have patience.

To expect President Obama to “fix” everything in actually less than 2 years is a pipe dream and is sadly a demonstration of ignorance.

Now with more Republicans, most whom do not support significant veterans (issues or benefits), climate change, and affordable heath care legislation, means that it is going to be even harder to get things done.  Sadly, even with more Democrats before yesterday in Congress we did not have enough to pass the caping of greenhouse gas emissions in the last climate legislation vote.  This was due to several reasons.  One, there were some Democrats who failed to support the majority of Democrats and President Obama.  Second of course most Republicans voted against it as usual.  So now it looks even less likely.

We have a great President, but ignorance, massive lying propaganda, have now given him even a less chance to get things done.  I think we will sadly be moving into 4 years of gridlock.  There are only 2 things left that could spell hope.  One the Democrats still control the Senate, but it was the Senate that failed to pass the climate legislation last time, and we had more Democrats then than now.  Second there is always the next Congressional election in I assume 4 years that would give President Obama 2 years to try to get some good things done providing we get a lot more Democrats elected.

I sent more letters to friends, spent more money on contributions than I ever have in my life.  Sadly we lost more Democratic seats so now I am not too hopeful of anything getting done now that is going to do a lot of good.  Hopefully my efforts and others did prevent more Republicans taking over.  While there are a small amount of Republicans who do vote for climate change legislation, they are sadly a very small group.

I worry about Michael’s future as to Climate Change, Social Security, Medicare, affordable health care, and housing in his future as I do other young people and of course the even younger ones.Bottom line our voting and elections system can only work if voters are truly informed and also if they get out and vote.  It seems the massive propaganda and impatience for “instant results” won over common sense and reason.Again the facts on climate change have long ago passed the debate.  One only has to access the non-political scientific organization in the USA and abroad who are experts on climate.

Yet almost half of Americans are still not convinced.  This is due of course to the massive propaganda machine of Fox News and others.  Our climate record is a national disgrace.  The ice melt is not going to wait while we as Americans fiddle de de around getting our act together.  In the opinion of most scientists we are moving toward a very much hotter and drier world.  The lose of ice, glaciers, snow pack, means less fresh drinking water and other negative issues.

Since retiring I have found this is the most disappointing issue I have learned about the USA.

Greed seems to be the bottom line major power today in our great nation.

We have always been told that we must Vote.  I fully agree.  However people who vote based on propaganda, anger, prejudice, lies, should have stayed at home.  I know sadly that many went to the polls yesterday who were highly misinformed and really don’t want to know the truth.

A misinformed and propaganda filled voter is our worst enemy. I have long ago learned that these kind of people are simply so programed so well that even showing the truth and the reputable source of that truth will not move them to look at a different point of view with an open mind.

The real tragedy is that most of these folks are basically wonderful people and good citizens.

God Bless and keep standing up for what you believe to be right no matter how many misinformed people try to get you to think like them.

Gene

 News update:  Check out this story on the Muslim Prayer Room that was in the World Trade Center.

New York Times Article about Muslim Prayer Room in World Trade Center

For any of you who claim to be “Christian”, then you know that Jesus said we would be judged on our ability to forgive and love the people who have hurt us the most deeply.   He also said, it’s easy to be nice to the people who are nice to you, even the Gentiles do that.

So,  I hope you’ll read this letter, from a fellow Christian, about why neither of us want to live in a country that reacts to the most intolerant and hateful instincts in human nature, an America where our basic values of “fairness” and “equality under the law” can be erased by political whim and a group of so called “patriots” who use fear and loathing to further their Fascist political agenda.

And that’s what it is, a Fascist Political Agenda.

If you’re not sure about this, read the definition of “Fascism” here, then decide for yourself if it fits the current “Patriot” and “Tea Party” agenda:  “Fascism”

Ed Garren

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If That ‘Mosque’ ISN’T Built, This Is No Longer America

OpenMike 9/11/10Michael Moore’s daily blog

I am opposed to the building of the “mosque” two blocks from Ground Zero.

I want it built on Ground Zero.

Why? Because I believe in an America that protects those who are the victims of hate and prejudice. I believe in an America that says you have the right to worship whatever God you have, wherever you want to worship. And I believe in an America that says to the world that we are a loving and generous people and if a bunch of murderers steal your religion from you and use it as their excuse to kill 3,000 souls, then I want to help you get your religion back. And I want to put it at the spot where it was stolen from you.

There’s been so much that’s been said about this manufactured controversy, I really don’t want to waste any time on this day of remembrance talking about it. But I hate bigotry and I hate liars, and so in case you missed any of the truth that’s been lost in this, let me point out a few facts:

1. I love the Burlington Coat Factory. I’ve gotten some great winter coats there at a very reasonable price. Muslims have been holding their daily prayers there since 2009. No one ever complained about that. This is not going to be a “mosque,” it’s going to be a community center. It will have the same prayer room in it that’s already there. But to even have to assure people that “it’s not going to be mosque” is so offensive, I now wish they would just build a 111-story mosque there. That would be better than the lame and disgusting way the developer has left Ground Zero an empty hole until recently. The remains of over 1,100 people still haven’t been found. That site is a sacred graveyard, and to be building another monument to commerce on it is a sacrilege. Why wasn’t the entire site turned into a memorial peace park? People died there, and many of their remains are still strewn about, all these years later.

2. Guess who has helped the Muslims organize their plans for this community center? The JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER of Manhattan! Their rabbi has been advising them since the beginning. It’s been a picture-perfect example of the kind of world we all want to live in. Peter Stuyvessant, New York’s “founder,” tried to expel the first Jews who arrived in Manhattan. Then the Dutch said, no, that’s a bit much. So then Stuyvessant said ok, you can stay, but you cannot build a synagogue anywhere in Manhattan. Do your stupid Friday night thing at home. The first Jewish temple was not allowed to be built until 1730. Then there was a revolution, and the founding fathers said this country has to be secular — no religious nuts or state religions. George Washington (inaugurated around the corner from Ground Zero) wanted to make a statement about this his very first year in office, and wrote this to American Jews:

“The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy — a policy worthy of imitation. …

“It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens …

“May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

3. The Imam in charge of this project is the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet. Read about his past here.

4. Around five dozen Muslims died at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Hundreds of members of their families still grieve and suffer. The 19 killers did not care what religion anyone belonged to when they took those lives.

5. I’ve never read a sadder headline in the New York Times than the one on the front page this past Monday: “American Muslims Ask, Will We Ever Belong?” That should make all of us so ashamed that even a single one of our fellow citizens should ever have to worry about if they “belong” here.

6. There is a McDonald’s two blocks from Ground Zero. Trust me, McDonald’s has killed far more people than the terrorists.

7. During an economic depression or a time of war, fascists are extremely skilled at whipping up fear and hate and getting the working class to blame “the other” for their troubles. Lincoln’s enemies told poor Southern whites that he was “a Catholic.” FDR’s opponents said he was Jewish and called him “Jewsevelt.” One in five Americans now believe Obama is a Muslim and 41% of Republicans don’t believe he was born here.

8. Blaming a whole group for the actions of just one of that group is anti-American. Timothy McVeigh was Catholic. Should Oklahoma City prohibit the building of a Catholic Church near the site of the former federal building that McVeigh blew up?

9. Let’s face it, all religions have their whackos. Catholics have O’Reilly, Gingrich, Hannity and Clarence Thomas (in fact all five conservatives who dominate the Supreme Court are Catholic). Protestants have Pat Robertson and too many to list here. The Mormons have Glenn Beck. Jews have Crazy Eddie. But we don’t judge whole religions on just the actions of their whackos. Unless they’re Methodists.

10. If I should ever, God forbid, perish in a terrorist incident, and you or some nutty group uses my death as your justification to attack or discriminate against anyone in my name, I will come back and haunt you worse than Linda Blair marrying Freddy Krueger and moving into your bedroom to spawn Chucky. John Lennon was right when he asked us to imagine a world with “nothing to kill or die for and no religion, too.” I heard Deepak Chopra this week say that “God gave humans the truth, and the devil came and he said, ‘Let’s give it a name and call it religion.’ ” But John Adams said it best when he wrote a sort of letter to the future (which he called “Posterity”): “Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.” I’m guessing ol’ John Adams is up there repenting nonstop right now.

Friends, we all have a responsibility NOW to make sure that Muslim community center gets built. Once again, 70% of the country (the same number that initially supported the Iraq War) is on the wrong side and want the “mosque” moved. Enormous pressure has been put on the Imam to stop his project. We have to turn this thing around. Are we going to let the bullies and thugs win another one? Aren’t you fed up by now? When would be a good time to take our country back from the haters?

I say right now. Let’s each of us make a statement by donating to the building of this community center! It’s a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization and you can donate a dollar or ten dollars (or more) right now through a secure pay pal account by clicking here. I will personally match the first $10,000 raised (forward your PayPal receipt to webguy@michaelmoore.com). If each one of you reading this blog/email donated just a couple of dollars, that would give the center over $6 million, more than what Donald Trump has offered to buy the Imam out. C’mon everyone, let’s pitch in and help those who are being debased for simply wanting to do something good. We could all make a huge statement of love on this solemn day.

I lost a co-worker on 9/11. I write this today in his memory.

“The man who speaks of the enemy / Is the enemy himself.”

                                                                        – Bertolt Brecht

A friend sent me an editorial, published in the Wall Street Journal (of all places, but remember it’s now owned by Rupert Murdoch who also owns Fox News) about so-called “reverse racism.”  The author, Democratic U.S. Senator Jim Webb of Virginia basically argues that anti-discriminatory laws should be abolished because white people also experience discrimination because of those laws.  He says that white people don’t have “privilege.”

 A link to the text is below, a well as my own thoughts about this issue, and the rise of overt racism and other divisive tactics by “conservative leadership.”I hope you enjoy them.

 Ed

  Senator Webb’s Editorial in the Wall Street Journal

First off, “privilege” isn’t about wealth per se, it’s about living without fear.  Most white people never experience that fear, unless they are in the minority (like if your car breaks down in a “non white” neighborhood, particularly after dark).  People of color live with that fear 24/7 in most of this country.

 On the plantation, and in the post civil war era that leads up to today, the game has been the same, pit one group/race against another, “Massah” always wins.  This goes all the way back to plantations having white overseers, who were usually Irish, also brought in as “indentured servants.”  Their descendants would swell the ranks of the KKK and other “White Supremacy” groups later on.

 I agree with many of the statistical comments made by senator Webb.  He misses a larger point, Scotch-Irish (Southern White) culture has always eschewed “book learning” and discouraged it’s children from seeking higher education.  In my own family, my mother, who was reared by a sharecropping single mother, was the only one of her six siblings to get more than a 3rd grade education.  My mother finished high school (on scholarship at a boarding school operated by the Georgia Federation of Women’s Clubs) and her mother disowned her for leaving home at 15 to do so.  I am the first and only to finish college of my siblings.

 My aunt Velma, her daughter’s father in law,   my maternal grandmother Nancy Garner, and my aunt Frances.

  In Southern culture, devotion to “family” and “staying close to home” conspire with the values which say that “bettering one’s self” equals “social climbing” and “putting on airs” that keeps most poor southern whites from completing college, or remaining “ignorant” even if one finishes college.

 I have cousins who completed higher degrees, one has a Master’s in philosophy from Harvard, who all still talk very “country” and who prefer their slow and narrow way of thinking and living.  I don’t begrudge them this, but I learned early in my life that I had to accept my father’s half-Jewish genetics and that included a highly inquisitive mind for which slow and narrow would assure boredom and depression.  In other words, I made peace with my inner “New Yorker.”

My father’s birth certificate.  He changed his name to his step father’s last name “Garren” when he was five because “Edward V. Garren” sounded more “American.” 

It is a fear of expanding, of anything new or from “outside.”  It is formed and nurtured by the Southern Baptist Church (and it’s evangelically related cousins).  It is a spiritual way of life that has a clear pecking order, that says that only “people like us” are safe, and the rest are not deserving of God’s grace, kindness, or generosity, and it is killing our country. 

To take this even further, senator Webb misses an even bigger point, we don’t really value education in this country.  If we did, our funding for education wouldn’t be at the lowest point in decades.  40 years ago, when I was in college, most of the cost was paid by the federal government.  I graduated with less than $4,000 in debt.

 Now, a student can spend twenty times that just completing a Bachelors degree, because the government doesn’t want our kids to complete college.  It’s easier to manipulate ignorant people.

 ALL of this recent chatter is part of the larger smoke screen that obscures the largest military industry and war spending in the history of the world.  Doesn’t anyone notice that this stuff always “drops” just when they need to distract the public away from something else?  The FACT that the Democrats passed an extension for unemployment was lost in the media with all of the drama about Ms. Sherrod, the tea party and the NAACP.  They ALWAYS do this folks !!!  Wake up and smell the coffee!!!  It’s the oldest game in the business.   Make a distraction at one end of the store, while someone else raids the cash register.

 The Republicans have been doing this since 9/11 and the “War on Terror.”  In case no one noticed, the Obama administration and congress announced that it did not intend to extend the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans either.  All of this hoopla over Ms. Sherrod has kept that story out of the news too.  You can bet that any opportunity for the Obama administration to get some GOOD press will be quickly distracted by their gigantic “spin” machine.

 Frank Rich put it best in a recent column: ”None of this legacy, much of it accessible to anyone who wanted to look (or ask), prevented the tarring of Shirley Sherrod last week. And it all unfolded while the country was ostentatiously marking the 50th anniversary of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

 If we are to learn anything from this travesty, it might help to retrace the racial soap opera that immediately preceded and provoked it. That story began on July 13, when the N.A.A.C.P. passed a resolution calling on the Tea Party to expel “racist elements” in its ranks. No sooner had Tea Party adherents and defenders angrily denied that such elements amounted to anything more than a few fringe nuts than Mark Williams, the spokesman and past chairman of the Tea Party Express, piped up. He slapped a “parody” on the Web — a letter from “colored people” to Abraham Lincoln berating him as “the greatest racist ever” and complaining about “that whole emancipation thing” because “freedom means having to work for real.”

 Williams had hurled similar slurs for months, but now that the N.A.A.C.P. had cast a spotlight on the Tea Party’s racist elements, he was belatedly excommunicated by the leader of another Tea Party organization. In truth, it’s not clear that any group in this scattered movement has authority over any other. But one thing was certain: the N.A.A.C.P. was wrong to demand that the Tea Party disown its racist fringe. It should have made that demand of the G.O.P. instead.

 The Tea Party Express fronted by Williams is an indisputable Republican subsidiary. It was created by prominent G.O.P. political consultants in California and raises money for G.O.P. candidates, including Sharron Angle, Harry Reid’s Senate opponent in Nevada. But Republican leaders, presiding over a Congressional delegation with no blacks and a party that nearly mirrors it, remain in hiding whenever racial controversies break out under their tent. “I am not interested in getting into that debate,” said Mitch McConnell last week.

 Once Williams was disowned by other Tea Partiers, Breitbart posted the bogus Sherrod video as revenge under the headline “Video Proof: The NAACP Awards Racism.” To portray whites as the victims of racist blacks has been a weapon of the right from the moment desegregation started to empower previously subjugated minorities in the 1960s. But its deployment has accelerated with the ascent of a black president. The pace is set by right-wing stars like Glenn Beck, who on Fox branded Barack Obama a racist with “a deep-seated hatred for white people,” and the ever-opportunistic Newt Gingrich, who on Twitter maligned Sonia Sotomayor as a “Latina woman racist.”

 The worst part of all this is that “we Democrats” confuse the ability to engage in academic “debate” with real wisdom, intelligence or action.  We think that because we are “on top of an issue” in terms of “talk forums” or other media chatter, that we are in the stronger position.  That’s not how life works.  The reality is that whoever wins, wins.  And while it’s important to “play the game”, it’s also important to win, particularly when you’re facing up to a bully, which is what the Republican leadership has become, lying bullies who stop at nothing until they win.  We have decades of this in our recent history (since 1980), yet we continue to hide behind academic debate, and hope the rest of the country is listening.

 Well, it isn’t listening.  The rest of the country has been systematically reduced to sound bytes, a fifth or sixth grade reading level, and a greater appreciation for the Super Bowl than the State of the Union.  The Republicans have figured that out, what’s our problem?  We need a lot more of our folks to take lessons from Congressman Alan Grayson (the guy from Florida who did the “Republican Health Care Plan, “Don’t get sick, and if you do, just die”). All this “Bi-partisanship” is the legislative equivalent of date rape.  We have the botched “health care reform” without a public option to demonstrate that.

 Instead of compromising on the Public Option, we should have kept it, let the Republicans in the senate filibuster, and show the public just who they really are, privileged WASP men and women who benefit from the old social order.  But as usual, instead of taking the courageous stand on behalf of the American people, we caved in.  And we wonder WHY the electorate has no respect for us (Democrats)?

 When we “compromise” on important things, we prove the Republicans right, that government doesn’t work, and that it doesn’t matter who you vote for.

 We should be talking about how the Republicans in the senate were willing to throw millions of people to the wolves by denying them unemployment benefits (extension), but never object to increased war spending.  We should be talking about how under Bush, the very wealthy in this country have not paid their “fair share” of taxes to support a war they are making money off of.

 We also need to educate people that politics is not about morality, it’s about power.  My 97 year old mother said it best decades ago, “Politics is a dirty business, and most politicians are crooks.  But at least the Democrats are OUR crooks.”

My mother, Lois Edna Verner Ramsay-Garren, at 95.

She lived through the 20s, the Great Depression, WWII and like most of her generation, valued the “New Deal” politics that re-aligned wealth in this country by making sure that “working people” got a fair wage, decent benefits, Social Security, their children got a GOOD public education, and that the money they put into savings wasn’t squandered away by some stock deal gone mad.  Her other favorite quote, “I’m not wealthy enough to vote Republican.”

 The Reagan/Bush/Gingrich/Bush decades have systematically dismantled the “New Deal” which is why the economics in this country recently looked a lot like 1928 until it all came crashing down, and now the economy looks too much like 1931.

 For the sake of the future of not just the country, but the planet, we Democrats need to get our act together or we are going to remain part of the problem, not the solution.

 Edward “Ed” Garren, MA, LMFT

Psychotherapist 

Some “back story” for those of you who may not have heard about the attempt of CRC to exclude as much public testimony as possible.

I arrived at the Port Building around 8:35 AM with Pam Naugle, a neighbor.  The sign in sheets and table were already in place, we both signed in.  Marcela Alcantar was also signing in.

The young man who was staffing the table asked us if we were going to testify, and we all said “Yes” and took the small testimony slips to fill out.  While doing so, we mentioned that we had come early to make sure that we would be first on the list to testify because we knew time would be limited.

The staffer, Dennis Sandstrom explained that there would be no order for testifying, “We’re going to put them all in this box, shuffle them around and then pick folks at random” was the explanation we were offered.  He went on to explain that the reason this method had been chosen was “It’s more democratic.”

I explained that I had a leadership position with the project (Co-Chair of the Hayden Island Plan Steering Committee, member of the Community & Environmental Justice Group) and he said that wouldn’t matter, that a decision had been made.   Several other persons were told this as well, all the way up to just before the meeting.

I called Mayor Adams and left a message for him, informing him of this issue, and also made a statement to the Channel 6.

When  the room opened up, the I heard CRC staff try to tell Channel 6 that they were not allowed to bring their cameras into the room.  I confirmed this with the cameraman on our way in, the news teams just ignored this “request” by CRC staff and went in to film anyway.

In addition, Sharon Nasset made an announcement in the room just before the meeting started, that our public testimony was being picked at random by the project

Because of the pressure exerted by all of us, and the presence of the media, the process was changed, and everyone got one minute to testify.  A staff person came to me and asked me to fill out a second slip, apparently the first one I filled out could not be found.

My name was called a second time at the very end of the testimony, but I had already spoken.  Ms. Nagle and Alcantar, the first two people to arrive, were among the last five to speak.

I share all of this because of the blatant attempt to manipulate public comment, circumvent democratic processes, and exclude the press from the meeting.  This is one more example of how CRC continues to circumvent democratic public processes in order to push through their agenda.

In the face of this, they wonder why increasing numbers of people have lost trust in the project, and are so angry about the process.

I hope that an investigation can be done to find out who at CRC ordered this protocol for the meeting, and that person can be censured in an appropriate manner, including prosecution of any laws that were broken. I am not a lawyer, but this could be considered “Conspiracy to obstruct Justice” or some other violation of public meeting laws.  Whoever ordered staff to do this needs to be held accountable, even if is just some time off without pay.

I am calling on our elected leaders to not just let this sweep under the rug, and let it go.  No matter what one’s position on the CRC, the decisions should not be made in an illegal manner, or one that specifically attempts to exclude public concern and testimony.

Regards,  Ed Garren, MA, LMFT

Candidate for Portland City Commission, seat #3

www.EdForPDX.com

503-922-0338

If only we could pass on wisdom as effectively as we pass on pathology.

The biggest challenge for a person or a society is to move from where we are,

to where we have never been.

ed@edgarren.us

www.edgarren.us

If only we could pass on wisdom as effectively as we pass on pathology.

The biggest challenge for a person or a society is to move from where we are,

to w

ed@edgarren.us

www.edgarren.us

If only we could pass on wisdom as effectively as we pass on pathology.

The biggest challenge for a person or a society is to move from where we are,

to where we have never been.

ed@edgarren.us

www.edgarren.us

If only we could pass on wisdom as effectively as we pass on pathology.

The biggest challenge for a person or a society is to move from where we are,

to where we have never been.

ed@edgarren.us

www.edgarren.us

For those of you who don’t know, my older brother “Gene” is a 28 years of service Army veteran.  He is a retired Sgt. Mjr. the highest enlisted (E-9), was in Special Forces for 17 of those years, did covert military operations for 13 of those 17 years.  When he retired, he spent the last six months of service at Fr. Bragg writing technical manuals for the work that he did, which is still classified so I don’t know much about it.  His tours included Costa Rica, Pakistan, Alaska (north of Arctic Circle), east Africa, and numerous other “missions” that I am not aware of.

Gene is also very concerned about Global Warming/Climate Change.  He has seen the changes first hand during his career.   He has seen retreating glaciers, melting perma-frost, snow capped mountains losing their snow caps, and dwindling water supplies in many areas of the planet.  We have both seen the changes in climate both in our native Florida, and in the mountains of western North Carolina (where he now lives).  The summers in North Carolina are now much hotter than they were when we were children.  I remind him that three times as many people live on the earth as when we were kids, and all of them use fossil fuel, especially here in the United States.

Neither of us are fans of Fox News, but this latest round of lies coming from them has just about sent us both to the brink.  I’ve seen the documentary “Out Foxed” and understand that much of the “information” Fox provides is “spin” and commentary, not factual news.   The fear mongering over health care, climate change, and continuous spewing of lies into the living rooms of millions of viewers is irresponsible journalism at it’s worst.

My brother wrote this eMail to them recently, referring to them as the “Propaganda Network:

 Hello.  I am a 100% service connected disabled retired combat veteran.  Since President Obama began his campaign and has become President I can relate 3 issues that give favor to him as to Disabled Veterans.

1. President Obama supports full concurrent receipt of disabled military retirees military retirement and VA disability pay.  At present on those of us who are fully 100% or being paid at the 100% rate under the unemployable clause are getting full concurrent receipt.  The rest 50% or higher are still having it phased in while those below still have not such legislation.

2. President Obama supported what is now law on the New enhanced GI Bill brought forth by 2 tour combat Vietnam veteran Senator Jim Webb of Virginia.

3. President Obama has asked for a 16 billion increase in this years VA budget, the most in over 30 years.

Yet now that he tries to help the 40 million Americans who have not health insurance, all kinds of half truths, distortions, deception, and out and out lies are being told reference this.  I know many disabled combat veterans who are between   50 and 70 % disabled who simply cannot work no can they afford a supplement to their Medicare A&B. Therefore they really have nothing outside the VA which while doing all it can with the resources it has which is not always enough to meet the need.

Yet your so called “news” network allows Sean Hannity to have his own biased radio talk show and then present himself on Fox news as a radio reporter.  

This is wrong and I do not know why this is allowed.  In the days of Walter Cronkite, Charles Collingwood, David Brinkley, Chet Huntley, Edward R. Murrow, Qunten Renalds, and others this would not have been allowed.

In short your News network is only there to support greedy CEO’s and industries who have not the people’s best interests at heart, but increasing their greedy bank accounts such as Big Oil, Big Coal, Many in the Health Care industry, and others.

This shows that with enough money any large corporation can buy off many in Congress and also buy their own propaganda New network, radio shows, and internet web sites.Yet Fox news tries to put on a front that they stand behind the American working person.

This is totally false.  Your network is a total disgrace to all the American veterans who have given their lives in the service of their country.It is my sincere hope that someday you be uncovered for who you really are.  You stand against everything that makes and has made this country great and are a total disgrace to yourselves, your families, the United States of America, and mankind.

He added this in a note to me:  I am up to it with Fox News and all the others who keep sending me this bull s**t anti Obama and the health plan stuff.  One Congressman got up in the Congress and was lambasting it all and accused Obama’s administration of penalizing the 80% who have health insurance for the 40% who have not “EARNED” health insurance.  I guess some of my combat veteran friends who can’t afford health insurance didn’t earn it.  I think they earned it far more than that a** hole who I doubt ever was in service, must less combat. 

Fox News, is is owned by Rupert Murdoch, an ultra “right wing” Republican.  He has made Fox  network his personal mouthpiece for the agenda of greed, the fossil fuel cartel, make the United States into a third world country, destroy the middle class, etc.  These are the same people who gutted the treasury and the country for the last 8 years.  They are trying to stir up confusion and lies to defeat the “public OPTION” (not mandate) for health care that is now in congress.

Their motto “Fair and Balanced” is the first lie they perpetrate, they are neither.

You can add some comments to this if you like, just press the “Comments/No Comments” link at the bottom.

A friend sent him this link from the Sierra Club for a petition, you might want to sign it as well.

https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=2837&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr001=63ykz0n755.app224a