Drug dealers,
Sell,
Sell,
Sell,
New names with
SR, XR, LR,
Generic drugs repackaged,
With new patents,
New products with spurious results,
Feed on fear and suffering,
Like your neighborhood crack house
Showing posts with label Corruption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Corruption. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
UNITED STATES
"United" States,
An oxymoron,
Richest nation on earth,
Higher death rate than Canada, France, Denmark ...
Fancier medicines,
With bigger price tags,
Machines with pretty pictures that
Sing,
Dance,
Tell jokes,
Their construction resembles penile fixation,
The biggest and the best,
Where is the Health Care?
Where is the human touch?
In the unemployment lines
An oxymoron,
Richest nation on earth,
Higher death rate than Canada, France, Denmark ...
Fancier medicines,
With bigger price tags,
Machines with pretty pictures that
Sing,
Dance,
Tell jokes,
Their construction resembles penile fixation,
The biggest and the best,
Where is the Health Care?
Where is the human touch?
In the unemployment lines
Monday, August 15, 2011
GREED
Insurance Companies,
Organized crime,
Rape,
Pillage and
Fill politicians' pockets.
They don't cover most
Medicines,
Care or
Procedures.
Cheaper to let people die,
Top execs need
End-of-year bonuses,
Merry Christmas
Organized crime,
Rape,
Pillage and
Fill politicians' pockets.
They don't cover most
Medicines,
Care or
Procedures.
Cheaper to let people die,
Top execs need
End-of-year bonuses,
Merry Christmas
Sunday, April 3, 2011
GRAFT OR LOBBYING, IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE?
General Electric, the nation's largest corporation, has a "giant tax department" and employs former IRS and Treasury Department officials and former members of Congressional tax-writing committees. Of course, these "employees" have knowledge on many levels and very powerful political connections. Then you add to this mix, millions of dollars for "lobbying," and what do you have? Tax loopholes to G.E.'s advantage.(1)
Since 2002, G.E. has eliminated a fifth of its U.S. workforce and moved the jobs overseas. During that time, G.E.'s offshore profits have risen from $15 billion to $92 billion, with no tax paid on funds kept "offshore."(2)
In 2010, G.E. made $14.2 billion in world-wide profits, but its tax bill was zero. In fact, G.E. claimed $3.2 billion in tax credits, which leaves the average American worker to shoulder the nation's tax burden.(3)
With Wall Street's shenanigans and high U.S. unemployment over the last two years, Americans have lost jobs, homes, savings and sometimes their lives.
When a U.S. citizen purchases items in Target, Walmart, Hobby Lobby or any large U.S. corporate chain, over 90% of the goods are manufactured abroad, usually in Asia or the Middle East, occasionally in South America or Africa.
These manufactured goods are then shipped to the U.S., at an enormous environmental cost, and priced to undercut goods manufactured in the U.S. A hefty carbon tax on products manufactured abroad would help the environment, level the economic playing field and increase U.S.employment.
Eliminating tax loopholes for corporations, would enormously increase Federal tax revenues and fund education and other social services.
G.E. employs "former" political insiders of the IRS, Treasury Department and Congressional tax-writing committees and stacks the deck in its and other corporations favor. Then, you add millions in "lobbying." It sounds like graft to me.
Notes 1-3: New York Times, 3/25/11, A-1,A17.
Since 2002, G.E. has eliminated a fifth of its U.S. workforce and moved the jobs overseas. During that time, G.E.'s offshore profits have risen from $15 billion to $92 billion, with no tax paid on funds kept "offshore."(2)
In 2010, G.E. made $14.2 billion in world-wide profits, but its tax bill was zero. In fact, G.E. claimed $3.2 billion in tax credits, which leaves the average American worker to shoulder the nation's tax burden.(3)
With Wall Street's shenanigans and high U.S. unemployment over the last two years, Americans have lost jobs, homes, savings and sometimes their lives.
When a U.S. citizen purchases items in Target, Walmart, Hobby Lobby or any large U.S. corporate chain, over 90% of the goods are manufactured abroad, usually in Asia or the Middle East, occasionally in South America or Africa.
These manufactured goods are then shipped to the U.S., at an enormous environmental cost, and priced to undercut goods manufactured in the U.S. A hefty carbon tax on products manufactured abroad would help the environment, level the economic playing field and increase U.S.employment.
Eliminating tax loopholes for corporations, would enormously increase Federal tax revenues and fund education and other social services.
G.E. employs "former" political insiders of the IRS, Treasury Department and Congressional tax-writing committees and stacks the deck in its and other corporations favor. Then, you add millions in "lobbying." It sounds like graft to me.
Notes 1-3: New York Times, 3/25/11, A-1,A17.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
PLUTOCRACY
In the United States, we do not have a democracy. We have a plutocracy. Like marionettes, we are controlled by a few very wealthy families and the government officals they influence and/or purchase.
Individuals addicted to money and power have been labeled "triple-A self-aggrandizers" by archaeologist Brian Hayden. Hayden describes triple-As as arrogant, aggressive, acquisitive, alarming and ambitious about getting their way.1
A professor at British Columbia's Simon Fraser University, Hayden realized the rich and the powerful, the triple-As, bent laws, exploited neighbors and seized every little advantage.2
Hayden concluded that "triple-A self-agrandizers have created the world as we know it. But in their other lives as pirates, these same people have caused 90% of the world's problems." In their greed, they "ruin the lives of others, erode society and culture and degrade the environment."3
America's history is rife with triple-As. Economics professor, Robert Heilbroner, stated that America's 19th century robber barons used "deception, violence, kidnapping and extraordinary dishonesty to gain economic power and industrial supremacy. Robber barons bore such names as Astor, Carnegie, Ford, Morgan, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt.
Former President George W. Bush is fourth generation wealth created from the sale of munitions and oil dating back to World War I. As CIA director, vice president and president, one of George H.W. Bush's priorities was U.S. weapons trade and secret arms deals with Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the moujahedeen of Afghanistan. The Bushes' oil interests are heavily invested in the Middle East.
In 1991, as George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney orchestrated the bombing of Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. Many believe this action was aimed at securing U.S. oil interests in the Persian Gulf.
In 1995, Chaney became CEO of the Halliburton Company. After leaving that position, Cheney continued to own shares in the conglomerate and its financial interests in the Balkans, Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea.
In 2005, the U.S. Justice Department made allegations that Halliburton unlawfully received special treatment for work contracts, often no-bid contracts, in Iraq, Kuwait and the Balkans. An example of such favoritism includes Halliburton's $18 billion worth of contracts in Iraq, $7 billion of which went into the building of oil-infrastructures. I doubt that the run-of-the-mill American taxpayer received much benefit from the latter $7 billion.
In 2000, Cheney also sat on the board of Lockheed Martin, the world's largest military contractor and the world's largest arms exporter. No doubt, Cheney had less than altruistic motives for being on the Lockheed board.
No matter the cost in human lives and the viability of the environment and the planet, oil and war are big bucks for the world's triple-A self-aggrandizers.
We have seen the Democratic Clinton administration's federal surplus dissolve into the Republican George W. Bush administration's multi-trillion dollar deficits. To achieve this deficit, Bush gave himself and his cronies tax cuts, engaged the United States in two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, and deregulated banks, Wall Street and other businesses, which resulted in "The Recession" of 2008.
Now, with ultimate gall, these same Republicans, who supported George W. and Cheney, are bouncing up and down about our nation's debt, which they created, and are demanding huge cuts in the federal budget, especially targeting health care, education, Social Security, Medicare and the needs of lower income mothers and children.
On the state level, these Republicans are on a rampage to destroy the collective bargaining power of state unions and to squeeze the middle class into non-existence.
Where do these people get off? Do they have a conscience? Apparently, they do not. Such are the triple-As and the plutocratic governments they spawn.
1. Smithsonian, Blame the Rich, 12/07, 102-109.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
Individuals addicted to money and power have been labeled "triple-A self-aggrandizers" by archaeologist Brian Hayden. Hayden describes triple-As as arrogant, aggressive, acquisitive, alarming and ambitious about getting their way.1
A professor at British Columbia's Simon Fraser University, Hayden realized the rich and the powerful, the triple-As, bent laws, exploited neighbors and seized every little advantage.2
Hayden concluded that "triple-A self-agrandizers have created the world as we know it. But in their other lives as pirates, these same people have caused 90% of the world's problems." In their greed, they "ruin the lives of others, erode society and culture and degrade the environment."3
America's history is rife with triple-As. Economics professor, Robert Heilbroner, stated that America's 19th century robber barons used "deception, violence, kidnapping and extraordinary dishonesty to gain economic power and industrial supremacy. Robber barons bore such names as Astor, Carnegie, Ford, Morgan, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt.
Former President George W. Bush is fourth generation wealth created from the sale of munitions and oil dating back to World War I. As CIA director, vice president and president, one of George H.W. Bush's priorities was U.S. weapons trade and secret arms deals with Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the moujahedeen of Afghanistan. The Bushes' oil interests are heavily invested in the Middle East.
In 1991, as George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney orchestrated the bombing of Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. Many believe this action was aimed at securing U.S. oil interests in the Persian Gulf.
In 1995, Chaney became CEO of the Halliburton Company. After leaving that position, Cheney continued to own shares in the conglomerate and its financial interests in the Balkans, Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea.
In 2005, the U.S. Justice Department made allegations that Halliburton unlawfully received special treatment for work contracts, often no-bid contracts, in Iraq, Kuwait and the Balkans. An example of such favoritism includes Halliburton's $18 billion worth of contracts in Iraq, $7 billion of which went into the building of oil-infrastructures. I doubt that the run-of-the-mill American taxpayer received much benefit from the latter $7 billion.
In 2000, Cheney also sat on the board of Lockheed Martin, the world's largest military contractor and the world's largest arms exporter. No doubt, Cheney had less than altruistic motives for being on the Lockheed board.
No matter the cost in human lives and the viability of the environment and the planet, oil and war are big bucks for the world's triple-A self-aggrandizers.
We have seen the Democratic Clinton administration's federal surplus dissolve into the Republican George W. Bush administration's multi-trillion dollar deficits. To achieve this deficit, Bush gave himself and his cronies tax cuts, engaged the United States in two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, and deregulated banks, Wall Street and other businesses, which resulted in "The Recession" of 2008.
Now, with ultimate gall, these same Republicans, who supported George W. and Cheney, are bouncing up and down about our nation's debt, which they created, and are demanding huge cuts in the federal budget, especially targeting health care, education, Social Security, Medicare and the needs of lower income mothers and children.
On the state level, these Republicans are on a rampage to destroy the collective bargaining power of state unions and to squeeze the middle class into non-existence.
Where do these people get off? Do they have a conscience? Apparently, they do not. Such are the triple-As and the plutocratic governments they spawn.
1. Smithsonian, Blame the Rich, 12/07, 102-109.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
CONNECT THE DOTS
An infinite number of children's coloring books contain pages in which the child is challenged to connect the numbered dots, with a picture emerging. Unfortunately, the dots of America's coloring book aren't numbered.
Dot: On January 21st of 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, by a 5-4 majority, that corporations, unions and ideological groups could spend as much money as they liked on political advertisements.
Dot: With enormous amounts of money, pomp, pageantry and tea parties, the November 2010 elections ushered in a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and many new Republican governors.
Dot: In the waning days of 2010, Republicans, subsidized by the wealthiest of Americans, threatened to bring the U.S. Government to a halt, if the latter group did not receive a 2-year extension of their Bush tax cuts, which decreased the annual U.S. tax revenues by $130 billion.
Dot: Currently, the top 1% of all income receipients in the United States receive 23 1/2% of all income generated in the U.S., which is more than the total income of the bottom 50% of American wage earners. Also, the wealthiest 0.1% of U.S. citizens recieve 12 cents of every dollar of income generated in the U.S. In regard to this wealthiest 0.1-1%, I purposefully did not use the word "earn," which in my mind implies labor.
Dot: Today, the Republican-dominated Legislatures and the Republican governors of Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio are attempting to pass bills to eliminate the collective bargaining power of their state's unions.
Dot: Regarding the above legislation,, Steve Kriesberg, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a major public-sector union, said "This is about trying to abolish the unions, pure and simple."1
Dot: Thousands of pro-union protestors are marching on the respective capitols, of the above states. Labor experts say the bills are the largest assault on collective bargaining in "recent memory" and strike "at the very heart of an American labor movement that is already deeply atrophied."2 B. Patrick Bauer, the minority speaker of the Indiana House of Representative, said, "The union legislation ... has been one of many 'wrongful bills' that would 'rip the heart out of the middle class.'"3
I am beginning to see a picture. How about you?
1. The Economist, The Wisconsin Way, 2/19/11.
2. The New York Times, After Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana Face Union Fight, 2/23/11, A1,A2.
3. The New York Times, More Standoffs and Protests, Plus a Prank Call, 2/24/11, A20.
Dot: On January 21st of 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, by a 5-4 majority, that corporations, unions and ideological groups could spend as much money as they liked on political advertisements.
Dot: With enormous amounts of money, pomp, pageantry and tea parties, the November 2010 elections ushered in a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and many new Republican governors.
Dot: In the waning days of 2010, Republicans, subsidized by the wealthiest of Americans, threatened to bring the U.S. Government to a halt, if the latter group did not receive a 2-year extension of their Bush tax cuts, which decreased the annual U.S. tax revenues by $130 billion.
Dot: Currently, the top 1% of all income receipients in the United States receive 23 1/2% of all income generated in the U.S., which is more than the total income of the bottom 50% of American wage earners. Also, the wealthiest 0.1% of U.S. citizens recieve 12 cents of every dollar of income generated in the U.S. In regard to this wealthiest 0.1-1%, I purposefully did not use the word "earn," which in my mind implies labor.
Dot: Today, the Republican-dominated Legislatures and the Republican governors of Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio are attempting to pass bills to eliminate the collective bargaining power of their state's unions.
Dot: Regarding the above legislation,, Steve Kriesberg, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a major public-sector union, said "This is about trying to abolish the unions, pure and simple."1
Dot: Thousands of pro-union protestors are marching on the respective capitols, of the above states. Labor experts say the bills are the largest assault on collective bargaining in "recent memory" and strike "at the very heart of an American labor movement that is already deeply atrophied."2 B. Patrick Bauer, the minority speaker of the Indiana House of Representative, said, "The union legislation ... has been one of many 'wrongful bills' that would 'rip the heart out of the middle class.'"3
I am beginning to see a picture. How about you?
1. The Economist, The Wisconsin Way, 2/19/11.
2. The New York Times, After Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana Face Union Fight, 2/23/11, A1,A2.
3. The New York Times, More Standoffs and Protests, Plus a Prank Call, 2/24/11, A20.
Monday, July 6, 2009
EMBARRASSED AND DISAPPOINTED
I am embarrassed and disappointed by many of the citizens of my home state, Oklahoma. They continue to wrap themselves in the American flag and spout "American values," along with God, mom and apple pie. Of course those values do not include "freedom of religion," "liberty and justice for all" and "give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
Unfortunately, I recall, all too vividly, the recent presidential campaign's red-meat slinging, Christian right-winged speeches of Sarah Palin. To add insult to injury, 65 percent of our state voted for her and her side-kick, McCain. At least there was the 35 percent, myself included, who cast their votes for our intelligent, forward-thinking, current president, Barack Obama.
To top it off, our state's primary newspaper is a Republican propaganda rag, in all its ignorant and rabid glory. It rarely contains anything of positive merit on our current administration and its heroic efforts to retrieve our nation from the brink of economic disaster.
Instead, I was horrified to see on yesterday morning's front page that a city in our state is proudly hosting a visit by the disgraced, former president, George W. Bush. God help us. Send him back to Texas, with his chain saw in tow, and leave us alone. In eight years, he managed to dismantle our nation and drain its wealth into his and his cronies' pockets, that 0.1-to-1.0 percent of our nation's populace.
You might note, I did not say our "nation's elite." There is nothing elite about greed, corruption and theft. Those behaviors issue from the lowest of the low, the ever-present Robber Barons. Unlike Madoff, they have yet to receive their somewhat just due. (Madoff got off easy.) However, they have polluted and drained their pond so sufficiently that they are beginning to be exposed in all their devious machinations.
Despite my disappointment and embarrassment with the persistent behaviors and attitudes of many in my home state, I am now very proud to be an American. For the first time in my life, 62 years worth, I see hope for health, harmony, prosperity and peace for all the world's beautifully diverse peoples.
So, I will continue to recycle our state's newspaper, which I only receive for news of local events, and read more enlightened national publications, which I will also recycle. I will also work at changing my attitude toward my state's 65 percent. Because, bless their hearts, they don't know any better.
Unfortunately, I recall, all too vividly, the recent presidential campaign's red-meat slinging, Christian right-winged speeches of Sarah Palin. To add insult to injury, 65 percent of our state voted for her and her side-kick, McCain. At least there was the 35 percent, myself included, who cast their votes for our intelligent, forward-thinking, current president, Barack Obama.
To top it off, our state's primary newspaper is a Republican propaganda rag, in all its ignorant and rabid glory. It rarely contains anything of positive merit on our current administration and its heroic efforts to retrieve our nation from the brink of economic disaster.
Instead, I was horrified to see on yesterday morning's front page that a city in our state is proudly hosting a visit by the disgraced, former president, George W. Bush. God help us. Send him back to Texas, with his chain saw in tow, and leave us alone. In eight years, he managed to dismantle our nation and drain its wealth into his and his cronies' pockets, that 0.1-to-1.0 percent of our nation's populace.
You might note, I did not say our "nation's elite." There is nothing elite about greed, corruption and theft. Those behaviors issue from the lowest of the low, the ever-present Robber Barons. Unlike Madoff, they have yet to receive their somewhat just due. (Madoff got off easy.) However, they have polluted and drained their pond so sufficiently that they are beginning to be exposed in all their devious machinations.
Despite my disappointment and embarrassment with the persistent behaviors and attitudes of many in my home state, I am now very proud to be an American. For the first time in my life, 62 years worth, I see hope for health, harmony, prosperity and peace for all the world's beautifully diverse peoples.
So, I will continue to recycle our state's newspaper, which I only receive for news of local events, and read more enlightened national publications, which I will also recycle. I will also work at changing my attitude toward my state's 65 percent. Because, bless their hearts, they don't know any better.
Monday, April 13, 2009
PERFECT ORCHESTRATION
Bush's swan song of greed, corruption and deceit was perfectly orchestrated to usher in a new era of governmental and corporate transparency and accountability.
The dirty laundry of Madoff and others is hanging for public display, and the grass roots of America are rightfully enraged.
Bankers have been caught with their hands in the till, gorging themselves with bonuses as businesses go under and homes are foreclosed.
AIG perpetrated insurance fraud and proved what many have long thought, "Insurance is organized crime." Rather than insuring a business protection from themselves, the neighborhood thugs, they insure against the next roll of life's dice. However, if that roll isn't to their liking, they stamp it, "CLAIM DENIED."
Meanwhile, the "Big Three" American automobile companies, in bed with the oil companies, have ignored global warming and continued to perpetuate our dependence on foreign oil as they built more big-butted trucks, SUVs and consumerism's biggest rolling box, the Hummer. Only after being amputated from the governmental tit by the Obama administration are they becoming "enlightened or die" to the beauty of smaller electric or hybrid vehicle.
In the aftermath of unregulated capitalism and our country viewing reruns of the "Great Depression," only now is our Congress and its constituency willing to implement the long-needed retooling of America. What a perfectly orchestrated setting for an intelligent, socially-conscious individual of integrity, like President Barack Obama, to take the helm and steer our nation's passage into new and uncharted waters.
The dirty laundry of Madoff and others is hanging for public display, and the grass roots of America are rightfully enraged.
Bankers have been caught with their hands in the till, gorging themselves with bonuses as businesses go under and homes are foreclosed.
AIG perpetrated insurance fraud and proved what many have long thought, "Insurance is organized crime." Rather than insuring a business protection from themselves, the neighborhood thugs, they insure against the next roll of life's dice. However, if that roll isn't to their liking, they stamp it, "CLAIM DENIED."
Meanwhile, the "Big Three" American automobile companies, in bed with the oil companies, have ignored global warming and continued to perpetuate our dependence on foreign oil as they built more big-butted trucks, SUVs and consumerism's biggest rolling box, the Hummer. Only after being amputated from the governmental tit by the Obama administration are they becoming "enlightened or die" to the beauty of smaller electric or hybrid vehicle.
In the aftermath of unregulated capitalism and our country viewing reruns of the "Great Depression," only now is our Congress and its constituency willing to implement the long-needed retooling of America. What a perfectly orchestrated setting for an intelligent, socially-conscious individual of integrity, like President Barack Obama, to take the helm and steer our nation's passage into new and uncharted waters.
Monday, March 23, 2009
"YES, WE CAN."
With our nation war weary and nearing financial collapse, on November 4, 2008, I cast my vote, along with the grassroots of America, to make a change, and "Yes, we can," reverberated across this country. For the first time in decades, especially after the debacle of the Bush years, intelligence, ethics, responsibility and accountability arrived in Washington in the form of our new president, Barack Obama, his family, staff, advisers and cabinet members.
For years, the financially "elite," executives of banks, financial houses and many mega corporations, have bought media coverage to sell us goods, ideas and politicians that catered to their greed. Well, their laundry is now hanging on every economic page in America, and the investigators have yet to find their underwear.
In the 1990s, General Motors destroyed its fleet of all-electric EV1s, which were considered by many as the most efficient American car ever made. Were they destroyed because the automobile and oil industries were bedfellows and stood to lose too much money? With GM and oil prices in the toilet, their day of reckoning is at hand. "Restructuring" is a very polite word for what is about to happen.
Most often, war is based on greed. Bush, Cheney and crew sent another generation of Americans to be maimed and slaughtered for "God and Country." However, many believe our "leaders" sacrificed our nation and its young to protect and propagate the financial interests of people who, like themselves, are and were heavily vested in Middle Eastern oil and companies that contract military services and sell war weaponry.
But the tide has turned. The scrutiny of Obama and staff has turned to government contracts and their associated fraud, bribery, massive cost overruns and absence of oversight. Currently, over 140 investigations are ongoing regarding contracts associated with governmental activities in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
President Obama has also pledged to end all combat operations in Iraq by August 31, 2010 and begin a new era of diplomacy in the Mideast. What a concept - diplomacy, instead of the old John Wayne mentality, shoot and ask questions later.
What a welcome sight to see money being allocated for education, for environmental and human health and for rebuilding the infrastructure of our nation. In spite of this most recent Wall Street fiasco, we see attention being directed toward the inhabitants, jobs, homes and businesses of Main Street and Your Street.
For a change, we hear of plans for the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes. Warren Buffet recently commented that he should be taxed at a higher rate than his secretary. Currently, the converse is true.
Sweeping across our nation is the sound, "Yes, we can make a difference." "Yes, we can promote the health and higher good of all humankind." "Yes, we can, one person at a time, heal our planet."
For years, the financially "elite," executives of banks, financial houses and many mega corporations, have bought media coverage to sell us goods, ideas and politicians that catered to their greed. Well, their laundry is now hanging on every economic page in America, and the investigators have yet to find their underwear.
In the 1990s, General Motors destroyed its fleet of all-electric EV1s, which were considered by many as the most efficient American car ever made. Were they destroyed because the automobile and oil industries were bedfellows and stood to lose too much money? With GM and oil prices in the toilet, their day of reckoning is at hand. "Restructuring" is a very polite word for what is about to happen.
Most often, war is based on greed. Bush, Cheney and crew sent another generation of Americans to be maimed and slaughtered for "God and Country." However, many believe our "leaders" sacrificed our nation and its young to protect and propagate the financial interests of people who, like themselves, are and were heavily vested in Middle Eastern oil and companies that contract military services and sell war weaponry.
But the tide has turned. The scrutiny of Obama and staff has turned to government contracts and their associated fraud, bribery, massive cost overruns and absence of oversight. Currently, over 140 investigations are ongoing regarding contracts associated with governmental activities in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
President Obama has also pledged to end all combat operations in Iraq by August 31, 2010 and begin a new era of diplomacy in the Mideast. What a concept - diplomacy, instead of the old John Wayne mentality, shoot and ask questions later.
What a welcome sight to see money being allocated for education, for environmental and human health and for rebuilding the infrastructure of our nation. In spite of this most recent Wall Street fiasco, we see attention being directed toward the inhabitants, jobs, homes and businesses of Main Street and Your Street.
For a change, we hear of plans for the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes. Warren Buffet recently commented that he should be taxed at a higher rate than his secretary. Currently, the converse is true.
Sweeping across our nation is the sound, "Yes, we can make a difference." "Yes, we can promote the health and higher good of all humankind." "Yes, we can, one person at a time, heal our planet."
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