Tag: corruption

The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few, booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately by the grace of God.

Thomas Jefferson

America is a failed state. We mean by that, the Republican form of government has failed. Representative Democracy has failed. The People do not have the power of self-governance, by proxy, over their own affairs. People vote for representatives, but the representative represents the money power; the corporate monolith and aristocratic entrenchment. Politicians show how the system works, that they do represent their constituents, by bringing home some pork from the bacon trough, but nothing more.

So what do we do?

In our much-heralded two-party system which has been hyped as the engine of the Greatest Democracy in the History of the World (never mind we don’t have a democracy but a republic, because the common man can’t be trusted to self-govern without the checks and balances of an Aristocratic Elite,) both parties are wholly owned subsidiaries of a kleptomaniacal Corporatacracy. The People are but a society of suckers for hoodwinking at election time in a fool-me-again space-time continuum which makes déjà vu look like suspended animation.

Turns out that the Taliban isn’t getting all that much of its money from drugs.  Why get it from drugs when you can get it from Uncle Sam?

KABUL – It is the open secret no one wants to talk about, the unwelcome truth that most prefer to hide. In Afghanistan, one of the richest sources of Taliban funding is the foreign assistance coming into the country.

Virtually every major project includes a healthy cut for the insurgents. Call it protection money, call it extortion, or, as the Taliban themselves prefer to term it, “spoils of war,” the fact remains that international donors, primarily the United States, are to a large extent financing their own enemy.

“Everyone knows this is going on,” said one U.S. Embassy official, speaking privately.

It’s classic East Coast politics.  The Taliban are the mob, and they get their cut.  A big cut.  

Then they use the money, from us, to fight us.

And why shouldn’t they fight us?  WE’RE ATTACKING THEM.

What’s lost in most of these discussions is the obvious elephant in the room — the only reason the Taliban is fighting us is because we’re there attacking them.

Why are we there, spending $133 million a day?

I repeat, we are spending throwing away $133 million A DAY, five and a half million bucks AN HOUR fighting the natives who are using our own money to defend themselves.

And the generals admit we are losing there.

Five and a half MILLION DOLLARS AN HOUR fighting a “war” that we are losing.

Only to find out that a lot of our money is going to the same people we’re fighting.

Now, my absurdity meter has redlined quite a few times over the years, but I think this completely smashes it.  

Of course what those figures don’t tell you is how much of that $5.5 million bucks an hour is going directly to American corporations.   I mean, it’s not going to the soldiers.  Right?  It’s going to the corporations who supply the machinery, the gasoline and diesel fuel (ESPECIALLY them), the arms makers, the bootmakers, hell, there must be hundreds of big corporations for whom this is a BIG portion of their daily cash flow.

$5.5 million bucks an hour.  To fight an opponent that we are also funding.

That’s what America has turned into.

The dog has caught its own tail and is devouring it.

I’ve finally getting some late season head-way on my organic garden. I was pretty much out of it from the end of April to the beginning of July with pneumonia. Add in underlying lifelong asthma and it really slows you down. Today’s the 25th and I’ve had a full eighteen days in a row of health. It feels good.

The increased garden work has allowed me time to follow up on some blatant fraud being committed on me, Jordan Hospital (Plymouth, MA) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston). United Health Care is committing clear and open fraud in refusing to honor their contract with the hospitals and me and my wife’s employer (our health care insurance source).

A big H/T to D Wreck for the post a few days ago on UHC, the Heritage Foundation, the Lewin Group Study and Ingenix. I had no idea how incestuous the corruption circle can be. I’ve been on the phone to my congressman’s office four times this week wrt the Universal health Care bill. The following is a letter to William Delahunt (D-MA) with some short stories of my plight (only a very small part of it wrt UHC) and some observations from past managerial experience a IBM/Lotus and a look at the opportuinty cost to our national productivity and GDP that is lost to time spet dealing with these intentional fraud artists who claim to be honest corporations offering reasonable health care coverage at competitive prices.

The lies and corruption are beyond comprehension. The letter follows after the jump. Feel free to cut and paste from it, forward it or cross-post it. It is Now or NEVER. I hope you are all doing what you can this week before the bozos go home for vacation. Also, track down any pubic appearances they make in August and be sure to show up and let them know just how you feel. Call their local offices and ask for some face time. Remember, they work for you. They are the paid help. You are the boss. Don’t let them intimidate you.

Change harder! Yell louder! Get right up in their faces! Make it happen! Do not wait for someone else to do this for you! Get off your butts!

I am posting this article from the New England Journal of Medicine http://content.nejm.org/cgi/co… in full and admitting to all the laws and rules I have broken, so sue me. The article was written by Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) who was the ranking member of the committee on rules. I am doing this to inform those who need informing, you know who you are – hold up your hands, how K street, lobbyist, and corporate $ have taken our government and are in the process even as we speak of stealing from seniors and the disabled via plan D. I was caught in this and am still hot about it. This article shows the depth of corruption and how legislators operate with impunity, disregard of the law and, without fear of criticism from their ethics committee. We must keep hammering these guys and get more folk involved if we are to counter the big $. Article, written June1, 2006, begins:

“Most Americans agree that affordable drug coverage under Medicare has been needed for some time. But instead of a solution to a growing problem, Congress gave the country a prescription-drug plan that achieves few of its original goals. The current problems with Medicare Part D are largely the direct result of the undemocratic way in which the plan was authored and passed. The final legislation, heavily influenced by drug-company and health insurance lobbyists, focused mainly on the needs of those industries instead of those of the seniors it should serve.  

The question above is asked on the site of the Commission on Wartime Contracting as to their recently released report.

Remember the meme at the beginning of the War Drum Beating and the easy certain Corporate “No Bid Contracts” in support of the Wars and Occupations: “They’re the only ones in the World who can do the organizing and work needed in support of our Military and the Coalition of Willing!”

Never mind they were connected by the hips to those beating the drums, never mind they were only paper pushers tens of thousands of miles away and sub-contracting out all the work, never mind the many issues of lost billions, shoddy work, bonuses, waste and corruption that almost instantly started coming to light and even with that they were given more, not even handshakes, just here ya go Pallets with Shrink wrapped Blocks of Cash, Millions and Billions, freshly printed and minted!!

On a dark D.C. highway, cold wind in my hair,

Heavy smell of corruption, rising up through the air,

Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light . . .

My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim,

I had to stop for the night.

Pelosi stood in the doorway;

She didn’t look too well.

And I was thinking to myself,

This could be Heaven, but it’s always been Hell.

She lit a bailout candle, and she showed me the way,

Past the bankers in the corridor,

She knew what to say…

Welcome to the new Hotel Obama.

Such a lovely place,

Such a lovely face.

Plenty of change at the new Hotel Obama,

Any time of year,

You can find it here.

So you . . . thought you . . .

Might like to go to the show,

To feel the warm thrill of confusion,

That space cadet glow.

I’ve got some bad news for you, Sunshine,

Change isn’t well, it stayed back at the hotel,

And it sent us along, as a surrogate band,

We’re going to find out where you folks really stand.  

So far, it’s quite clear where ardent admirers of Obama stand . . .  

They stand for ardent admiration of Obama.

Can they support no torture prosecutions?

Can they support no investigations of BushCo’s 8 year crime rampage?

Can they support trillions of dollars for Wall Street criminals?

Can they support indefinite detentions, more government secrecy, and more NSA spying on Americans?  

Yes they can!

Meanwhile, as Obama’s ardent admirers clap louder for superficial change, the hard core RePug base is waiting for a great leader to emerge.  Someone who’ll wave the flag like it’s never been waved before, who’ll carry the cross into that bloody mess of a Holy Land, who’ll smite those heathen Muslims so Jews can live in peace until they die and burn in Hell for eternity, who’ll punish the enemies of Christianism and conservatism, who’ll boldly go where no RePug has ever gone before, even that halfwit wolf-killing governor of Alaska.  

They’re damn well not waiting quietly, they’re celebrating murder while they’re waiting, spewing racism while they’re waiting, inciting hatred while they’re waiting . . .

Waiting to cut out the deadwood.

Waiting to clean up the city.

Waiting to follow the worms.

Waiting to put on a black shirt.

Waiting to weed out the weaklings.

Waiting to smash in their windows

And kick in their doors.

Waiting for another 9/11.  It might not happen for 10 years.  Or it might happen tomorrow.  And then the shit will hit the fan like this country hasn’t seen since the Civil War.