Vermont's governor is a classic Republican. He talks about job creation, yet the state has lost over 6,000 jobs since he took office. Instate he is known as Governor Scissorhands, because he cuts so many ribbons and seems to spend more time gaining public visibility than he does working in his office. Our state schools, offices and prisons do not give preference to purchasing and serving products from our struggling Vermont farmers.
This is what it feels like he has done to Vermont:
I was reading a local free newspaper, when this paragraph stopped me cold:
Army hospitals are struggling to stop overdoses by injured veterans of the Iraq war. Reportedly, vets are being drugged into a near-comatose state for much of their day, with a cocktail of up to 11 different medications. This is happening in what the Army calls “Warrior Transition Units.” One poor warrior at Fort Knox was left in his room for two days or more — unconscious — and was found dead when someone finally decided to check on him
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This reminded me of the tragic stories relayed in testvet6778's diary last December. I'm remembering them this Memorial Day.
What is the SPP? Sometimes called NAFTA-Plus, the SPP is a comprehensive plan for the economic and military integration of Mexico, the US and Canada to enhance continental security and global competitiveness. The official goal is to enable the “three governments to respond to a shared vision of a stronger, more secure and prosperous region.”
Obama advisors like Zbigniew Brzezinski give cause for concern. Brzezinski has been an eminence gris in US politics for almost half a century, beginning with the Kennedy administration. Brzezinski presently serves as an international advisor to several major US/global corporations, and is president of Z.B., Inc., a firm that advises corporations and financial institutions on international issues. Brzezinski was a co-founder of the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller to protect the interests of global capital.
Further, on domestic policy Obama advisor and globalist Austan Goolsbee says globalizationis responsible for only a "small fraction" of today's income disparities.
More on why I think the Obama campaign is tarnished by having the hawkish Brzezinski and the Yale Bonesman Goolsbee as policy advisors below...........
More and more financial institutions are recycling recession talk. When the white-glove investment banking firm Goldman Sachs joins mega-retailer Merrill Lynch in agreeing that the country is already plunged into a recession, it is time to pay heed.
The smooth, beautiful, and inspiring to some Mr. O has managed to impress the Powers That Be in New York's online gossip diary for the rich and socially connected (I'm decidedly not one, but there was a time when I worked with some of them and knew them well). The current diary issue opens:
Opening a new restaurant wine bar, fete-ing superachievers, and looking at the holidays from "old" Charleston; plus the Obama sensation ...
Despite Kucinich having achieved enough support to receive federal matching funds, ABC has cut Kucinich from the New Hampshire debate tonight. It seems that someone willing to take the difficult positions on getting us out of Iraq and fighting for single payer healthcare is someone to be blocked by MSM and their corporate croneys.
There is something you can do if you find this as maddening as I do.
For the holiday season, if you haven't seen this snarky video starring the Leader of the Free World, it pretty well summarizes my sentiments this year:
Americans want peace, her corporate leaders want war. What then can this beleagured nation do?
Beginning tomorrow, December 11, debate on the 2007 Farm Bill will resume in the Senate. This will be the last time we can influence what the Senate does to help hungry families and rural communities in this bill. With billions of dollars each year going to already rich farms under the commodity payment system, Congress has the resources available to make substantial investments in nutrition and rural development programs.
There is a current court case being heard in Vermont that could imperil our right to speak freely online. Vermont's Times-Argus ran an editorial today about an obscure case in progress that could have far-reaching implications on limiting our freedom of expression on the internet. Last year, Vermont's Republican Party carried a case on our state's campaign spending limits all the way to the Supreme Court, where our State Attorney General Bill Sorrell got shot down by the Scalito contingency. Sorrell may have another case to try before the Supremes if this case goes forward.
As the Times-Argus says, "A lawsuit against iBrattleboro.com has the potential to change the landscape of the Internet in significant ways."
In a YouTube video, a Saudi cleric instructs young Saudi males on the proper way and the right reasons for beating your wife.
It is clear that the Sauds have a very hierarchical attitude towards women and children. I also think the Sauds have a very hierarchical attitude towards us, with Bush as their proxy overseer.
From the Saudi's information website comes this insight (bold mine):
With a quarter of the world's proven oil reserves and some of the lowest production costs, Saudi Arabia is likely to remain the world's largest net oil exporter for the foreseeable future. For these and many other reasons, Saudi Arabia plays a pivotal role in the Middle East and is of major importance internationally.
Which brings to mind that famous pic: (more........)
Assembly began at 7AM, planting flags for the American dead in Iraq. The weather was somber, gray and snowy. The mood of the day reflected the weather, as a dozen or more of us quietly planted our little white flags in the snow.
My son noted that 17 American vets commit suicide every day. We were glad to have the company of others to commemorate the day calling for a moratorium in Iraq.
**DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS DIARY: RECOMMEND THE Mothership Diary by Miss Blue**
Our thoughts and prayers are with those in Southern California who are threatened by the fires. We're all dreaming of better days for California.
There are links below to information sites to be used by residents only, and links to donation sites to give some tangible aid to Californians and their animals.
Whether you find comfort in God, Dog, Muhammed, Yaweh, the Goddess, or none of the preceeding, please add your thoughts and prayers for the wellbing of those involved. This is another national tragedy.
I wish American politicians were of a mind with America's beer brewers. From the NYT today:
If we truly want to restore the vibrant beer culture that flourished in this country before Prohibition, craft brewers need to retain the values and goals — creating beers that are flavorful, interesting to drink and made from proper beer ingredients — that put us on the map in the first place. Let’s not undo American beer again.
I immediately thought that these brewers were on to many of the same thoughts and ideas we are concerned about here.
My cynicism had been mounting recently. All our candidates begin to smell like the guest on Day 5, exactly like rotting fish. There was something wrong with everybody, and I was getting grimmer and grimmer about it.
