I could have added hyperlinks to every word in this missive to provide “authenticity” for the contents.  It would transform the reading of this brief lament into a three-day marathon.  There is so much fact out there to substantiate the message that it would take a book of footnotes.  Why bother?  Those of you who are aware of the truth are, well… aware of the truth!  Those who have chosen to be enablers of evil wouldn’t bother to use references anyway or, being true to their nature, would simply dismiss them as more left wing ranting.  If you really want to check something, you know how to use a search engine don’t you?

Compassion and Capitalism don't mix.

The Clinton campaign wants desperately to woo primary voters – and swing superdelegates – with the argument that wherever she has led in the "big states" when she matched against Barack Obama she will surely carry the day in November in a faceoff against Republican John McCain. Her strategists cling to that hoped for scenario in states like CALIFORNIA, NY, FLORIDA, OHIO, PENNSYLVANIA, and so on.

But the numbers that came out since mid-March, though overshadowed by Obama confronting the controversy of his pastor, expose the Clinton big-state falsehood. Obama bests her against McCain . . .

. . . in the very biggest states.

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal, as well as The Wild Wild Left, The Peace Tree, Independent Bloggers Alliance and Worldwide Sawdust.

Effective change agents and activists must blend their cognitive skills and passions with deep reservoirs of inner strength. It's a life path requiring self-sacrifice, discipline, a tough hide combined with empathy, idealism joined with pragmatism, a willingness to put ego aside, resiliency and a perspective beyond the moment of immediate conflict.

Alas, many of us dedicated to pursuing the cause of peace, justice and economic fairness are demoralized by setbacks and criticisms overtime. Personal lives are also easily consumed by the flames of devotion to causes larger than ourselves, such as reversing global warming or stopping genocide. It's so easy to lose our balance as we stand apart from professional colleagues, friends and relatives who don't share our passions or devotion to change the world for the better.

In 2000 Nader made a collossal mistake that cost Gore the election. Part of that mistake was what seemed an inexplicable statement that Gore and Bush were equivalent. I knew this was bullshit just like I knew it was bullshit when Gore, Cheney and Powell claimed Hussein was tied with al-Qaeda. And events since then have proven Nader was as "mistaken" as Bush, Cheney and Powell. The question always was: was Nader mistaken or lying? Either way, Nader only won 3% of the vote in 2000, not enough to do him any good, but enough, in key swing states, to help deliver the election to Bush.

I don't know about 2000, but by 2004 Nader was abandoning all pretense of values. Nader abandoned the Green Party, yet expected them to follow him blindly. They chose not to. In 2004 a large chunk of Nader's money and support came from Republicans. Among those Republican who went out on a limb for the self proclaimed messiah of the left was none other than John McCain, whose legal team did their best to get Nader on the ballot in Florida. As the Greens went their own way, Nader turned to Republicans, John McCain in particular, to save his campaign. The result? Nader got .3% of the vote...one tenth of what he got in 2000.

Now in 2008 Nader is running yet again. And John McCain seems to be behind his run, quite literally. Nader's website attacks Barack Obama. His website attacks Hillary Clinton. His website DOES NOT talk about John McCain, his former (and current?) patron.

"Of Mommies and Daddies Who Just Don't Give a Fuck"

By Jason Miller

Thomas Paine's Corner

Sorry kids, but you're just going to have to deal with the fact that we are greedy narcissists. We're dyed in the wool consumers, we worship Mammon, and eliminating the cancer of capitalism is simply out of the question.

GAO finds that DOD has stopped trying to find veterans used in Cold War experiments that used chemical weapons and biological weapons and drugs such as LSD and PCP. They basically just gave up in 2003 and have no plan to continue.

On Thursday the Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed what many of the veterans involved in the Cold War Experiments, known as Operation SHAD/112, Edgewood Arsenal's chemical weapon and drug tests 1955 - 1975 and the Fort Detrick  Biological Weapon tests from 1953 - 1972. There were thousands of soldiers used in these experiments, on ships, on the ground and in the air, they were exposed to many types of toxic materials and many of the programs have never conducted follow up medical studies.

A few of the programs have ran some studies but the way the Institute of Medicine (IOM) received the contracts from the DOD it was constructed to ignore much of the known research already done. This is a given there is not much in the way of living victims of chemical weapons and biological weapons attacks. The 1995 Tokyo Subway Sarin attack, the victims of Iran/Iraqs war in the 1980s, but we don't have much interchange with Iran.

How to Combat Terrorism

For the best and most enduring protection from every form of evil terrorism, the US should take these five steps.

I have reported many times about how the Republican Parties in Ohio, Missouri and Kentucky were about the most corrupt political establishments in America. One that I have been missing is the Alaska Republican Party. I think it is time I turn northward to discuss what is going on in Alaska.

At the epicenter of Alaska corruption seems to be the Alaska oil services company Veco Corp. Veco, until its recent buyout, was an oil pipeline service and construction company. Perhaps Veco would like to be best known for the fact that it carried out a great deal of the clean up efforts after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. But this is not the only thing they were known for. They were known for illegal influence on Republican politicians.

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal as well as The Wild Wild Left, the Independent Bloggers Alliance, The Peace Tree and Worldwide Sawdust.

Most Americans are eager to turn the page on the Bush years. Yet even as we elect a new president we're still coming to terms with an era that has both tarnished America's reputation and diminished its influence.

Fred Kaplan chronicles the folly of the Bush years in his new book, Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power (John Wiley & Sons).

Kaplan writes that,

"Nearly all of America's blunders in war and peace these past few years stem from a single grand misconception: that the world changed after 9/11, when in fact it didn't.

Certainly, things about the world changed, not least Americans' sudden awareness that they were vulnerable. But the way the world works - the nature of power, warfare, and politics among nations - remained essentially the same."

The American Congress needs to review PEFPAR before reauthorizing it

The President of the United States, George W Bush, is currently visiting Africa. This visit is taking him to five African countries- Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. Top in his agenda is the fight against HIV/AIDS. The president is using this opportunity to review the progress that has been made so far in the fight against the AIDS pandemic on the continent. The American government is funding the AIDS program with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEFPAR)

PEFPAR supports the treatment of millions of HIV infected persons in the region. It provides anti retroviral treatment to pregnant mothers to prevent mother to child transmission. The fund also goes into preventing new infections, and to caring for HIV/AIDS patients. According to President Bush "The pandemic of HIV/AIDS can be defeated...By working together we can give hope and comfort to millions"

The topic below was originally posted February 14th, on my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal and crossposted today at The Wild Wild Left, Independent Bloggers Alliance, The Peace Tree and Worldwide Sawdust.

American politics typically reflects our cultural ethos of the moment. Just consider these questions:

1. Has our culture promoted community or celebrated greed?

2. Is our foreign policy based upon cooperation with the community of nations or the imperatives of empire?

3. Can individuals live in dignity regardless of their profession, economic class, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation or is gentrified wealth valued above character?

Presented by Leo Igwe at the 11th International Conference of the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa Ouagadougou , Burkina Faso
February 03-07 2008

I want to thank the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA) for inviting me to speak at this 11th international conference taking place here in Ouagadougou , in Burkina Faso . The theme of this conference HIV/AIDS, Gender and Human Rights: Time for Action is very appropriate. It addresses the cogent issues at the heart of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa .
First of all let me convey the solidarity greetings from all African Humanists and from the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) to SWAA and to all of you, fellow participants who came from all over the world to attend this event.

(NOTE: The essay below was the first installment of my first article written for publication. Although originally drafted as one long piece in March 2005, this article remains relevant three years later. Both Parts One and Two previously appeared in the Ethical Spectacle (February and March 2006, at www.spectacle.org/0206/sout ar.html and www.spectacle.org/0306/sout ar2.html). The article provides a condensed summary of my beliefs about terrorism and how it should be addressed. Check back later for Part Two.)

January 30, 2008

By RB Scott
Boston, Massachusetts

Note:  RB Scott, a former staff writer and editor at Time, Life, People and Sports Illustrated, reports frequently on national politics.

As  the barrow pit alongside the campaign expressway collects more roadkill  (Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, Jim Gilmore, and Tommy Thompson; and last night Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards while Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul ran into heavy oncoming traffic), the grinding primary election process seems as determined to set a few new precedents as it is to extrude a very predictable result: another election and inauguration of the least objectionable.