Gary Patrick Garry

It is Independence Day and the good people of Stepford are celebrating their freedom, high on Prozac, bellies stuffed with nitrates, nitrites, animal antibiotics and steroids. Our troops are protecting us, somehow, 6,000 miles away in Iraq, so that we can be safe here at home, and doggone it, we are proud to be Americans. The sweet smell of spent gunpowder fills our nostrils, as the melodious sound of fireworks crackling massages our ears.

The fact is, the United States decided to fight for its independence because the people were being taxed, but their interests weren’t being represented in the British government. Even as we feel the warm breeze drying a sentimental tear or two from our cheeks while the flags wave to passersby, today, in America, in 2008, we live under a system that taxes us heavily, but offers us no representation in government.

The elected politicians have no idea who we are, and they don’t care how we live. They are beholden to corporations, foreign interests, and their lobbyists. Our money is backed by nothing, printed like pulp fiction, and converted to debt that is purchased by foreign countries and investors. Nobody wants oil companies to register record profits each quarter at the expense of their kids getting a new pair of shoes, but you don’t see the politicians doing a damned thing about it.

Most Americans want out of Iraq, but now even Obama is looking for wiggle room to stay. The fact that we have no choice, no representation in government is clearly demonstrated by the presidential race. Obama moves further to the right every day, so much so that it is becoming difficult to envision what would be different about an Obama presidency than a McCain administration. In the end, AIPAC and international corporate and banking interests will pull the strings, regardless of who their figurehead is in the White House.

I pay taxes, but I don’t have health insurance or the right to a cost-free education. My taxes are not used to subsidize my right to affordable food. My country doesn’t care if I starve. My taxes aren’t used to subsidize gasoline so that I can afford to get to work. My taxes aren’t used to subsidize heating fuel so that I don’t freeze to death. My taxes are given to corporations, war profiteers, and even those taxes aren’t enough. The politicians who represent the corporations actually borrow virtually unlimited sums beyond available tax revenue and give that to their masters as well.

I like my neighbors and the people who live with me here in this place that they call America. I love baseball, and apple pie ain’t bad either. Much of the land is inspiring and beautiful, until the politicians mine it, drill it, pollute it or develop it. But let’s face it, we are as free as our next paycheck, and we have no representation in the government.

The more you watch Obama’s histrionics and listen to his empty rhetoric, the more he comes across like a man who will do or say whatever it takes to win the election, but after all, that is the way of American politics.

The day that Obama made it clear to AIPAC that he was in their pocket was the day that it became clear that Senator Obama does not represent change at all. Being a man of color with the middle name of “Hussein” has forced him to overcompensate and bend over backward to make sure everybody knows that he is pro-Zionist and anti-Muslim. His campaign has even forbade American Muslim women supporters, clad in traditional garb, from sitting behind the candidate when he was making filmed speeches.

The Zionists want American troops in the Middle East, and you can rest assured that if elected, Mr. Obama will give them exactly what they want. His antiwar stance and withdrawal plans have grown ever less resolute as he has drawn nearer to the finish line. Make no mistake about it: Obama is as connected to the international cabal who pull the strings of the puppets in Washington as anyone.

In Iraq, one can say that “the surge has worked” and the violence has quelled, so for Obama to change course is adaptation to changing circumstances rather than pandering to AIPAC and the military industrial complex. In reality, “the surge” was not the tipping point. The fact is, in many Baghdad neighborhoods, the violence has lessened largely because, after the prolonged bloodbath, there is simply nobody left to kill. The anti al-Qaeda Sunni insurgency inflicted 4,000 fatal casualties on the U.S. in five years of fighting, but they steadily lost political control to the American-backed Shiites, allied with the Kurds. They couldn’t fight both fights and decided to form al-Sawha, with U.S. cooperation. Al-Sawha consists of 80,000 former Baathist Sunni military and security people and tribal leaders, a powerful and coordinated militia who are armed by the U.S. and paid with your tax dollars. These are the same men who killed most of the the Americans who have died in Iraq. They despise al-Maliki’s Shiite government. They chose alliance with the Americans over capitulation to the Shiites. I gathered the information above from a great article by Patrick Cockburn on Counterpunch titled “Why Iraq Could Blow Up In John McCain’s Face” and I heartily recommend that you read it.

Meanwhile, Moqtada al-Sadr’s militant Shiite Mahdi Army is still alive and well and picking their spots.

The point is that there is a seizing cauldron of ethnic hatred simmering just below the surface of the illusion of progress in Iraq. We stir the hornet’s nest of ancient feuds, arm all sides, and watch the money flow wherever the neocons want it to go via non-competitive bidding.

With so many covert operations taking place in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran by both independent government agencies and military intelligence there is no hope for true organic stabilization. The military industrial complex that Obama represents does not want peace. Did livery stables applaud the introduction of the automobile? Peace puts U.S.A. War, Inc. out of business. So I have no doubt that there will be covert operations that will keep the U.S. military in the region, whether they are carried out by the C.I.A., the JSOC, Mossad, or MI5.

If Obama is elected president, I predict that we will have no significant troop reduction in the Middle East. On other hand, if McCain is elected, I would anticipate World War III and the total collapse of the global economy. Neither candidate represents my own balanced and peaceful stance. As of today I will still vote for Obama, quite begrudgingly. Do what you have to do, but please, don’t gush over this pandering, spineless, classic definition of the word “politician.” Unlike Lloyd Bentsen, I didn’t know Jack Kennedy, and I didn’t know Bobby. But I do know this: Mr. Obama is no Robert Kennedy.

One of the problems with Western thought is that it doesn’t include the concepts of karma and reincarnation. I don’t think that we should necessarily take these concepts as being literally true, in the same manner that I’m not sure that we should take the stories of Moses or Jesus to be literally true. However, they are symbolic archetypes, myths that we have grown to live by, as Joseph Campbell would say.

The worst possible manifestation of the failure of humanity to embody any sense of the sacred is present in the approach that people like John McCain, George Bush, Newt Gingrich, and the Big Oil interests that they represent take toward the environment. As it becomes more and more apparent that their leadership has led us to the brink of extinction as a species, they use their own colossal failures as a springboard to take us deeper into the abyss. They use the economic desperation that they have caused through their unspeakable greed as a way to dig deeper and take still more from the earth that is sending sign after sign that she has had enough.

To me, money is paper. In fact, it is less paper and more digits on a computer screen. The economic system that we live under is quite flexible. We can change it at any time. I constantly read about the costs associated with greening the planet and responding to global warming and pollution in general as being prohibitive. People like Bush and McCain are quick to point out the economic impact of lessening consumption and embracing sustainability. They are right, a “growth economy” and a global culture of sustainable living are not compatible.

The economic system can be altered. It is malleable, even disposable if need be. Our ecosystem is not disposable. It is not optional. We seem to be proceeding from the standpoint that there is nothing that can be changed about the way that goods and services are exchanged, even if it causes the extinction of every species on earth. This is a paradigm that has to be transcended.

If the economic system that is destroying our habitat was providing us all with health, wealth, and prosperity, I can understand why it would be hard to shift out of it, though it would be just as necessary as it is today. However, half of the people on earth live on less than $2 a day. Even those among us who “have it pretty good” work and commute 40-60 hours a week doing something we probably don’t like to do for someone we probably can’t stand, with very little to show for it except basic survival. A shift in the economic paradigm would not only enable the healing of the earth, it would provide improved conditions for about 90% of the people on the planet.

I read yesterday that Americans are more supportive of drilling domestically for oil now that gas prices are over $4 a gallon. This is nauseating. People are willing to reward the politicians and their Big Oil masters for gouging them at the pumps by handing over the rights to our shared habitat so that they can rape it and pollute it just a little bit more? And the kicker is, domestic drilling will do nothing to lower the price of gas!

There are facts that support the reality that we cannot sustain continued environmental damage and expect to survive. But put the facts aside for a second. What about karma? At a time when the globe is warming and the environment is suffering in myriad ways, is it good karma for American politicians to push for the right to drill some more? The time to set aside long standing environmental regulations is when the health of the shared ecosystem is at its lowest ebb?

To be perfectly honest, I don’t think we have what it takes to survive as a species. We are not adapting to the reality of the environmental situation that the shortsightedness of the Oil Empire has wrought. If you support further drilling and environmental encroachment at this stage of the game, your karma and that of Chevron are one and the same.

What is the karmic price of the eradication of all of the species on a once beautiful and robust planet like ours? What is the economic system in eternity? You don’t have to answer right now. Give it some thought.

It has long been my contention that the majority of people everywhere are decent and fair. If the will of the people was in fact represented in the sham “democratic” governments of the world, we would live in a far more peaceful and equitable world.

I read a piece on Haaretz.com yesterday that made my chakras tingle, and it underscored my core belief in the basic goodness that lies at the heart of humanity. Harvard University’s Kennedy Law School conducted a poll in Israel, and asked respondents if they would like Israel to “be a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities.” 73% of Jews and 94% of Arabs said that yes, they would indeed like their society to be one of equal opportunity and shared respect for one another.

I emailed AIPAC a couple of weeks ago because I wanted to ask them some questions, rather than summarily assuming the worst of them. The first question that I wanted to ask was why they think that their agenda is necessarily consistent with the will of all or even most Jews, in Israel and around the world. They did not respond to my request, but this poll implies what I have suspected all along. There is adequate desire within both the Arab and Jewish communities in Israel for respectful and equitable coexistence. It is a powerful minority that prevents it, and AIPAC represents this minority here in America.

Two-thirds of Jews polled said that they agreed that “contributing to co-existence was a personal responsibility.” A similar number supported the teaching of conversational Arabic in Jewish schools to foster improved communication and a deeper sense of cross-cultural understanding.

The challenge inherent in the Israeli/Palestinian situation has always been clearly evident, but an enormous opportunity exists as well. If all of the people in Israel and Palestine can live together with equal opportunity and respect for one another, the rest of the world will see that where there is love and personal responsibility, a new paradigm of lasting peace is possible.

In order to understand why we need a new paradigm, you have to understand the present, or “old” one. I’m just a simple citizen like everyone else, but I want to be informed. It is our responsibility as Americans to educate ourselves, and I think that if everyone put forth sufficient effort to understand what is being done in our behalf, what is now considered to be “fringe thinking” would land firmly in the center.

I read on Friday that the Pentagon expects more attacks from the Taliban in Pakistan, who Time magazine suggests may be “making a comeback.” According to the AP, the Pentagon report says that we can expect the Taliban to “maintain or even increase the scope and pace of its terrorist attacks and bombings in 2008″ and that the Taliban has “coalesced into a resilient insurgency.”

Who the hell are the Taliban? They were created by the American C.I.A. via Operation Cyclone in the early ’80’s. It seems we secretly allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to recruit, train, bribe, arm and incite radical Muslims from across the Arab world into resisting the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Osama bin-Laden is said to have been one of the beneficiaries of Operation Cyclone.

So I originally thought I would write about the bizarre fact that we are in fact going backwards against the Taliban in Afghanistan after all of these years, all of those lives lost, and all of this money spent. But now I realize that we created, financed, armed, and trained the movement that we are fighting.

But it doesn’t end there. We are now doing the same thing in Iran, fueling the flames of an internal “resistance” by arming and bribing terrorist groups, including Sunni radicals with links to al-Qaeda.

Seymour Hersh asserts in his New Yorker piece entitled “Preparing The Battlefield” that the C.I.A and the Joint Special Operations Command have escalated covert operations in Iran. Bush issued a Presidential Finding asking Congress to approve $400 million to finance this covert maneuvering, ostensibly to facilitate regime change in Tehran. Of course, Bush immediately got what he wanted from the eight ranking members of the respective intelligence committees in the House and Senate who have a say, half of them Democrats.

Hersh reports that we seem willing to prop up groups that have been known to work against American interests in the past, like the Baluchis. Former C.I.A. clandestine officer Robert Baer said:

“The Baluchis are Sunni fundamentalists who hate the regime in Tehran, but you can also describe them as Al Qaeda. These are guys who cut off the heads of nonbelievers—in this case, it’s Shiite Iranians. The irony is that we’re once again working with Sunni fundamentalists, just as we did in Afghanistan in the nineteen-eighties.”

Hersh goes on to mention that Ramzi Yousef, who has been convicted for his role in the 911 bombings, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who helped plan the WTC attacks, are Baluchi Sunni fundamentalists.

I’m not going to reiterate the Hersh piece any further here, but please, take the time to read it yourself. The Baluchis are not the only extremist group that we are supporting, and the experts seem to feel as though the entire exercise will do more harm than good in the end, as assessment that comes as no surprise to me. Thanks to Seymour Hersh for shining some light where it is needed the most.

So this is what we do. We create terror. And then, later on, we fight our own creations. Direct diplomacy is the way to reach a lasting peace, not the supporting of clandestine murders. That stuff comes back to bite you, and you can’t tell the players without a scorecard.

There is no denying that there are well funded, lawless American entities teaming up covertly with some very bad men. Anyone who wonders whether it is possible that 911 was an inside job, well…I think you may want to stop wondering.

Anyone with a pulse knows that John McCain’s buddy, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, is more loyal to Israel than he is to the United States, but I have to highlight something that he said Sunday on CBS. If you read the previous post I ask that Americans come to grips with the fact that we are being lied to every day by our so-called “leaders” about the gravest of matters.

As we all know, there was no “al-Qaeda in Iraq” before our illegal invasion of that country. That kind of makes you wonder about who created them.

At this late stage of the game Lieberman is still at it, insulting the intelligence of the American people as our sons and daughters continue to die in Iraq. Says Liberman:

“If we had done what Sen. Obama asked us to do for the last couple of years (leave Iraq), today Iran and al-Qaeda would be in control of Iraq. It would be a terrible defeat for us and our allies in the Middle East and throughout the world.”

Personally, I think that al-Qaeda is indistinguishable from Mossad, MI5, and the CIA. However, even is we use the “Disney version” of reality, and assume that al-Qaeda is completely independent of these spooks, nobody thinks that al-Qaeda would be “in control of Iraq” if the U.S. was to do the right thing and pull out. Now Lieberman is linking Iran to al-Qaeda, today, and somehow the two are going to take over the world if we don’t continue our illegal occupation of Iraq, even though Iran is Shiite-controlled and al-Qaida is comprised of anti-Shiite Sunnis.

Treason

Pronunciation: \ˈtrē-z^ən\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English tresoun, from Anglo-French traisun, from Latin tradition-, traditio act of handing over, from tradere to hand over, betray — more at traitor

Date:13th century

Liberman’s remarks today are truly treasonous. He is attempting to spread disinformation that will lead to the continued death and personal injury of citizens of the sovereign United States of America who are serving in the military in Iraq. He is acting overtly every day via his position as an elected official to ignore the facts and keep American citizens in harm’s way. He is even using his influence to attempt to broaden the conflict by attacking Iran. Iran is no threat to the United States.

This is absolutely unacceptable behavior for anyone, but when you consider that Lieberman is a United States Senator it is jaw dropping. Is anybody in the mainstream media paying attention? Someone with access needs to ask Mr. Liberman how it is that al-Qaeda and Iran are going to team up and control the Middle East if America leaves Iraq. Liberman is not just some partisan yahoo spouting off at the club. He is an elected representative of the people of the United States of America and he has very real and serious responsibilities. He needs to be held accountable for these remarks.

As we all begin to collectively realize that the only hope that we have for survival as a species is the adoption of a new global political, social, and environmental paradigm, it becomes clear that we have to let go of the lies that we have been embracing as truth. These are many and varied, from scientists working from false premises to people thinking that myths are to be taken literally.

Why do I say say that our survival is at stake? Let me toss out several words: wars, nuclear wars, food shortages, climate change, disease epidemics, environmental upheaval and economic collapse. We need to change our priorities, not for the hell of it, and not to reach utopia. Our very survival depends on the introduction of a new paradigm.

There is a tipping point when it comes to morality, and I think that the Catholic Church provides us with a good example of it. It can be tough to gather up the courage to admit that you broke the cookie jar or smashed your neighbor’s window with an errant line drive, but anybody who has ever watched Leave It To Beaver knows that it’s the right thing to do. But when it comes to molesting children, well…that’s the morally unthinkable, and it’s a criminal offense that carries hard jail time along with it. You don’t admit to those types of things. You lie about them and take your lies to the grave, if you can, and those around you who know the truth will help you cover it up.

We live in a society that is ruled by people who have been doing the unthinkable, quite knowingly and intentionally, for a very long time. And they have led us to the brink of extinction. Global warming is a reality. If you think that it has not been influenced by man, you are in this state of denial that I am trying to shine a light on. But even if it is a cyclical warming that is being felt on Mars as well, the fact that humans have idiotically destroyed the health of the planet that gives us life is irrefutable, and the transgression is so egregious that frankly, if I was mankind’s lawyer, I’d have a tough time explaining why it is that we don’t deserve the death penalty. We have done so much harm to this planet and the other species upon it (those that are left) that the magnitude of the crime is impossible to overstate.

The only defense that I could present would be that the few have led the many into the abyss through economic control and the manipulation of information. Now, it is time for the many to take personal responsibility and obtain our own objective information. We have to jettison the old paradigm because it is nothing but a mishmash of lies, spin, obfuscation, denial, and the sidestepping of culpability for horrendous, unthinkable crimes.

One of these crimes is the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Plainly stated, the United States government and its military is responsible for a crime against humanity in Iraq that rivals any in history. There is no need to overcomplicate the situation. Iraq meant us no harm. They had been under economic sanctions for ten years prior to the illegal invasion. They were weak. They had no means of attacking the United States, and they had no particular will to do so. They had no weapons of mass destruction, and even if they did, Israel surely has them, and they threaten to attack their neighbors just about every day.

It is hard for us as a nation to step out of the vortex of denial, lies and spin that have become the collective American reality concerning the genocidal carnage that we have imposed upon the people of Iraq. We have gone past that tipping point and have swept the magnitude of our crimes under the rug. Part of the reason why we can’t accept what we have done is that our children, and our brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins and parents have done the killing. We want to see them as heroes, not killers. But they are not heroes. They are pawns who were sent to a foreign country that was no threat to their own, hell bent on seizing it by force and killing anyone who objects. And they continue to do so today, and they will do so tomorrow and the next day as well.

The government used mass psychological manipulation and outright lies to connect the genocide in Iraq with the events of 911 in the collective American consciousness. This is the truth, right? Who can deny it? Let’s climb out of the lies and face reality.

Let me say this one more time. Iraq belongs to the Iraqis. America has no right to it any way. Our invasion of Iraq was totally illegal. Our occupation of Iraq is morally reprehensible and indefensible in the face of whatever version of God you prefer to tap into on this early summer Sunday.

What America has done to Iraq is an unthinkable atrocity. Do you want to be a hero? Come to grips with the truth. It is a sad one indeed.

When you don’t have the means to engage an enemy in straightforward combat and beat them down with direct confrontation, the best thing that you could do would be to create circumstances that stretch their military thin, draw them into the range of urban guerrillas, and set about weakening their economy. You would also want to recruit people into the fold. Osama bin Laden has achieved all of these goals.

Presumably, Osama is still alive today. The United States is reviled around the world, and not just in Arab countries. People in Europe feel as though America’s occupation of Iraq is a bigger threat to world peace than Iran’s nuclear ambitions. About 90,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since we invaded Iraq. Israel continues to expand into the West Bank, and Bush has done everything that he can to antagonize Iran. The actions of the United States and Israel since 911 have been a recruiting bonanza for anyone who wants to try to convince Arab Muslims that America is a threat to them.

Our military men and women were relatively safe and sound before Bush chose to put them in harm’s way with orders to kill innocent people 6,000 miles from American shores. Even Iraqi fighters are innocent from my perspective because their country has been invaded and occupied. The most hawkish among us here in America would be the first to take up arms against an invading force, but we villainize the Iraqi resistance. Nobody in Iraq attacked America. That there would be people there with enough courage to try to defend their own soil is actually rather admirable. Now, over 4,000 American men and women are dead, needlessly, as the threat of terrorism has increased due to global anger over the carnage that we have wrought in Iraq.

We really have no moral authority to be in Iraq at all. Iraq has never threatened us. Bin Laden can incite would-be terrorists to acts of violence on American soil with the truth on his side.

With all of our troops surrounded by Arabs in the Middle East, we make a pretty tempting target if the Muslim world was to decide that all bets were off, perhaps in response to a strike on Iran.

Bin Laden manipulated our economy into ruin. Deficit spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the hefty price tag on “homeland security” (that provides an open border for 1500+ undocumented people daily) has eroded the value of the dollar. As a result, we are paying over $4.00 per gallon of gas. Chalk up another round to bin Laden.

In summary, bin Laden has drawn us into a costly and permanent war, stretched our military thin and placed them in the crosshairs of Muslim extremists, ruined our economy, and enticed us to tarnish our reputation around the world, putting us at further risk of a terrorist attack by people who may have taken no umbrage with us before our illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

If things are worse for Americans today than they were on September 10th, 2001, bin Laden won, and Bush failed the United States miserably.

Discussing religion and can get deep and complicated, but I am going to reduce it to its simplest form here and ask a couple of questions that I think are at the heart of humankind’s ills.

I think that the need for religion, or spirituality, in the human psyche is based on an understanding of right from wrong that comes from the ability that human beings have to use reason. I think that this foundational ability to use reason exists inside of each one of us, regardless of our ethnicity or cultural milieu as a kind of gnosis. It doesn’t need to be taught to you from outside of yourself. It is a self-knowing that we are all privy to. I think this sense of reason has a divine origin, but you don’t have to agree with that to concur with my premise.

It seems to me as though institutionalized religions have been usurped by those who have political aims, and they have been doing more harm than good for a very long time. Please don’t tell me about missionaries and charities; I am talking about the big picture. Our planet is morally bankrupt. Half the people in the world live on less than $2 a day. The history of humanity is one of war, slavery, greed, and environmental destruction. We are a species in crisis, whether you want to accept it or not. If the religions of the world have been our moral compass throughout time, they have failed us miserably.

Why don’t religious leaders around the world convene somewhere and forbid their adherents from killing one another?

Why don’t religious leaders around the world convene somewhere and forbid their adherents from taking advantage of others economically?

Those are the questions that I would like answered.

If they were to pass down these shared edicts, just about everyone who is holding a rifle and pointing it at another human being would have to lay it down, or openly declare themselves to be a Godless heretic, indeed, a murderer.

Were the religions of the world to denounce the intense and insatiable greed, held in place by central banking systems, that leads to gross economic inequality, mass starvation, and environmental devastation, we would see who was willing to heed the call, and who was not, and we would all know the source of the problems.

I have to wonder if the world’s religions are led in part by people who want to see eternal warfare as a means of controlling the masses by arming both sides and covertly fomenting violence, often times using religious zeal as the reason for the killing.

If I was the leader of a religion, I would be working tirelessly to bring peace to the world, and I would work with other leaders to get together and make a mutual peace pact among our collective adherents that transcended the political entities that control our respective countries.

If your religion is not working for peace, economic equality, and environmental healing, what is its purpose?

I was extremely hopeful and anxious back in 2006 when it looked like the Democrats were definitely going to win back a majority in the House and possibly take back a slight edge in the Senate. I thought that this would put the brakes on the unlimited war spending, limitless troop deployments, and things like secretive Bush administration domestic spying.

In fact, in direct defiance to the will of the People, Bush and Petraeus actually sent more troops into combat right after the election, and Congress has thrown hundreds of billions of dollars at the war as though it was nothing more than neocon confetti. No impeachment has been forthcoming; not even a censure. Bush, Cheney, and the dual Israeli/American citizens who surround them still call the shots. There is no “loyal opposition.” Clearly, both sides of the aisle serve the same masters, not the People. The notion of representative government in America is a tissue paper thin charade, an ever more transparent illusion.

The House passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act last Friday, and the Senate is set to pass it this week. FISA gives immunity to telecommunications companies against potential lawsuits filed by Americans whose communications have been made available to government spies. This bill also expands the government’s ability to keep Americans under surveillance, and to quote a Wired piece it “implicitly blesses his (Bush’s) five-year, secret end-run around the nation’s surveillance law.”

Senators Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd are said to be considering a filibuster of the bill. I guess they didn’t get the memo from upstairs. Obama is all for it, saying:

“Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program.”

Go try and arrange lunch with your senator to tell him, or her, that you are against FISA. You can even offer to pay the bill, maybe y’all can go down to the local Chili’s. It ain’t gonna happen. Your senator will be busy lunching with AIPAC, big oil, big pharma, or telecommunications lobbyists, without concern for his or her constituency.

What purpose do lobbyists serve? Politicians immediately go to work for firms who are involved in the lobbying process when they leave office. I was just reading in a Mother Jones piece titled “The John McCain School For Lobbyists” that since the Keating Five Scandal, no less than 20 members of McCain’s staff have either come to him from a “lobby shop,” or went to work for one when they left.

We are all aware of “old boy networks.” These people run the show. There are power brokers in every state who dictate who their representatives will be in Congress. In Arkansas, for example, you have Walmart and Tyson factory foods. They look for “their” candidate. Candidates don’t decide the fate of corporations; it’s the other way around. And that is why the Democrats and Republicans both vote against the interests of the People. They are all representatives of corporate interests from the get-go, and the interests of all corporations intersect in an era of no-competition and ubiquitous mergers. It’s also worthwhile to note that corporate decision makers are not exclusively American by a long shot.

This wiretapping bill is interesting when juxtaposed with the news yesterday that the Bush, um, Justice Department (how ironic, how Orwellian!) rejected fully qualified candidates from consideration for jobs if they detected that the candidate was perhaps a Democrat. By the way, doing that is illegal. Perhaps the Justice Department should look into it…uh…oh. Anyway, when you have the power to secretly spy on the populace, and you have a self serving agenda like the Bush administration has had as demonstrated by discriminatory hiring at Justice, you have a recipe for totalitarianism. The Democrats (excluding Feingold, Dodd, and a minority who oppose FISA) that we voted for to reign in this totalitarian vision are in fact fully supportive of it.

Let me add one last thing. When you know you are being spied on by a government with a paranoid, partisan, and secretive agenda, you may be less likely to exercise your right to free speech, right? This was always part of the plan, but clearly, it isn’t working very well at this point. Open communication critical of the government is vital if we are to maintain any semblance of a free society.

I suggest that we begin to look at the political machinations as a movie that We The People are watching as spectators. If you do, you will find it difficult to suspend your disbelief in the premise of the plot. The fact is, it is a really crummy movie. The storyline is unbelievable, it came in way over budget, and the acting sucks.