All Americans

“With regard to local shoreline systems, where there is access, there are no ‘unfished’ systems,” said Mike Belchik, senior fisheries biologist from the Yurok Fisheries Program. “People have coexisted with these resources for many thousands of years; the appropriate conceptual organization foundation is that systems have been managed, and what is seen is the result of millennia of management.”

Tribal Science Challenges MLPA Initiative Assumptions

by Dan Bacher

State officials and proponents of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative have continually claimed in press releases and testimony before the Fish and Game Commission that the initiative is “science-based.”

However, the claims that that process is based on “science” ring hollow when one considers that the scientific perspective of tribal biologists was never included in the MLPA process since the initiative was privatized in 2004.

Empathy-challenged (war criminal) Obama is pretending he cares about military suicides.

I waited a few days to write this to see if my intensely bitter reaction to Obama's last week’s press conference would subside. It has not. In fact reading about the pride some progressives feel about Obama’s shamelessly hypocritical grandstanding sickens me even further.

One of the reasons slot machines in Vegas have so much power to keep you engaged is that just when you’re ready to surrender to the reality of your no-win misery a few coins drop down the slot and you unwisely stay engaged rather than cut your losses and leave.

I hope Obama’s reversal of the longstanding policy not to send condolence letters to families of those in the military who have committed suicide is not one of those “trust me for my humanity” moments to keep his “he’s the lesser of two evils” team Dem apologists inspired and ladling out the thin gruel of “the Democratic Party is for the non-elites” propaganda. Such moments of faux-empathy as we approach election 2012 is to encourage all of us of the bipartisanly abused citizenry to get lost amidst the trees of Obama’s slick faux-humane rhetoric and not see the cold-blooded big picture of what his administration (just like Bush’s before it) is actually doing to destroy human life and/or welfare GLOBALLY.

A week ago Wednesday, golden tongued Obama said:

Wow. Just. Wow. This has to be a joke

Miss Vermont is the only one with a brain in her head

Quirkiest Space Shuttle Science

The four astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis will not be alone when they blast into space today (assuming the launch proceeds as scheduled). The last shuttle mission will also carry 30 mice that are part of an experiment to better understand why astronauts lose bone mass when they hang out in low-Earth orbit.

Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers examines the deteriorating and increasingly corrupt state of affairs that our government has devolved into and the accompanying divisiveness sweeping the country. Is there hope for things to improve? For the first time in his life, Moyers isn't optimistic.
Source: An Afternoon with Bill Moyers

Tavis Smiley speaks with William Cohan

Award-winning investigative reporter and former investment banker assesses the impact of S&P's downgrading its credit outlook for the U.S. and the taxpayer's subsidy of Goldman Sachs.
Source: Writer William Cohan

Music includes Charlie Parker - Relaxin' At Camarillo, Earth Anthem, Stand By Your Man, Black Sabbath - War Pigs, Freedom Isn't Free Tonight, Kenny Rogers - Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town, Red House, The Fool on the Hill

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Here's how I began a post six years ago

There are many reasons that hundreds of thousands if not millions of Europeans immigrated to the United States after it was discovered and before it became a country; some of which were economic, religious, or political, everyone of those people had a story.

This, is one of those stories. And from this one, independence was born.

Related: 24 Stats Explaining Why Neo-liberal (Reaganomics) Policies have Destroyed America as We've Known It. And how about this, Dan Lungren is a lying two-faced hypocrite, which you already knew ... but here's proof. Or Clueless

From today’s radio address:
Government has to start living within its means, just like families do. We have to cut the spending we can’t afford so we can put the economy on sounder footing, and give our businesses the confidence they need to grow and create jobs.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/02/barack-herbert-hoover-obama/

I want to acknowledge Peter Falk’s passing this past week in light of his Columbo TV character’s being a POPULIST icon.

I celebrate him for Columbo, relentless nemesis to the Gucci’d “above the law” types who tried to use power and money to cavalierly escape responsibility for profound crimes against humankind.

I celebrate the Columbo series’ enactments of takedowns of the down and dirty high and mighties, since we are now seriously in the Season or maybe we should call it Age of the “High Functioning Sociopath” (so defiantly in your face in Bushworld and, alas, even more in your face in Obamaworld -- Dems as amoral as Repubs, duh), with our economy captured by them, our quality of life and that of our children and their children, etc., drastically diminished by them, and the massive gratuitous violence (with millions of innocent victims killed, maimed or displaced) perpetrated by them -- with NO risk to them, by the way, except their immortal souls. (I find myself praying more and more for an especially horrendous hell for this wealthy criminal ruling class.)

We desperately need populist heroes, in real life and in art! We need them, past, present and future.

On 45th Anniversary, Medicare Under Siege
By Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Rep. Doris Matsui

Forty-five years ago today, Medicare began operation and senior citizens started to use their brand new Medicare cards to obtain medical care. As President Lyndon B. Johnson stated, older Americans began to receive guaranteed access to care "not as an act of charity, but as the insured right of a senior citizen. July 1, 1966 marks a new day of freedom for our people."

Many of us cannot imagine what it was like before Medicare, but back then, the need was clear. Before July 1, 1966, 51 percent of senior citizens were uninsured - unable to find coverage from private insurers who didn't want to cover them. Without health insurance, getting sick or injured could mean going bankrupt, going without needed care or even dying needlessly.

President Johnson knew the value of Medicare, but he also knew we would need to work to protect it. "This program is not just a blessing for older Americans," he said. "It is a test for all Americans - a test of our willingness to work together. In the past, we have always passed that test. I have no doubt about the future."

Great interview and great music. The soundtrack of the movie "The Fog of War" features the life of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. He served under President Kennedy and Johnson. He reflects on his part in the bombing of Tokyo, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War.

This film could have been titled "The Evil That Men Do". McNamara talks about war crimes he and others have committed. He observes the failures of government officials at the highest level to understand the basis of the wars they direct. I have to ask, can we learn from history?
Source: The Fog of War Movie. Most of the book can be found at The Fog of War Book

Music includes War What Is It Good For, Earth Anthem, I Just Can't Wait to Be King, We'll Meet Again

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King George III Won: Happy Fourth of July!
By David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/node/58333

The Declaration of Independence is best remembered as a declaration of war, a war declared on the grounds that we wanted our own flag. The sheer stupidity and anachronism of the idea serves to discourage any thoughts about why Canada didn't need a bloody war, whether the U.S. war benefitted people outside the new aristocracy to whom power was transferred, what bothered Frederick Douglas so much about a day celebrating "independence," or what the Declaration of Independence actually said.

When you read the Declaration of Independence, it turns out to be an indictment of King George III for various abuses of power. And those abuses of power look fairly similar to abuses of power we happily permit U.S. presidents to engage in today, either as regards the people of this nation or the people of territories and nations that our military occupies today in a manner uncomfortably resembling Britain's rule over the 13 colonies.

Or perhaps I should say, a large portion of us take turns being happy or outraged depending on the political party with which the current president is identified.

HYPOCRITES: Obama Administration Pushes Internet Freedom Abroad While Urging Crack-Down At Home
Left-leaning Demand Progress calls administration to task for Internet censorship policies

Washington, DC -- The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. The United States this month signed on to a statement praising a pro-Internet freedom report by the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, even as the U.S. pushes new domestic laws and regulations to censor the Internet, restrict users' Internet access, and criminalize more online activities.

Those efforts, pushed by the Obama Administration, its Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel, and certain members of Congress include:

1) Senate Bill 978 -- the "Ten Strikes Bill" -- would make unlicensed online streaming a felony -- punishable by 5 years in prison.

2) Senate Bill 968 -- the PROTECT IP Act or "Internet Blacklist Bill" -- would give the government the power to force Internet service providers, search engines, and other "information location tools" to block users' access to sites that have been accused of copyright infringement -- the initiation of a China-style censorship regime here in the United States.

3) It was reported last week that the Obama administration is facilitating a "three strikes" style deal between Internet Service Providers and intellectual property rights holders to reduce bandwidth and restrict web access to certain sites for users who have been accused of copyright infringement. As CNET reported:

The gray bars represent the US GDP. The blue jagged line is corporate profits. Related: Our Largest Corporations Made $170B During Great Recession; Paid NO Taxes, and Why Tax-On-Millionaires Is a Slam Dunk

Financial Profits Reduce Economic Prosperity

Don’t Believe the Hype About U.S. Debt

The following email came from NY Green Party’s Howie Hawkins:

Green Alert: Tell Congress to Vote No on Military Budget

The US conference of Mayors is expected to pass a resolution today calling on Congress to cut $127 billion from the Defense Budget by ending the wars in the Middle East and redirecting the funding towards Domestic Needs.

Unfortunately, Congress is headed in the other direction. The Obama administration has proposed the largest defense budget ever, over $700 billion, as much as the rest of the world combined and double the military budget of a decade ago.

Congress, especially in the House, have voted to slash anti-hunger programs such as WIC and food stamps and many other low-income programs in order to continue to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and unsustainable and unneeded military spending.

Message to Congress: Please vote no on the Defense Appropriations bill and redirect military spending to rebuilding America, creating jobs, and strengthening hunger, housing, education and other human service programs.

Congressional switchboard 877-762-8762 or 202-224-3121