Michael Collins

AP tells us that Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan is the pick for the Republican Vice President slot. AP August 10 (Image)

We know one thing for sure about Mitt Romney. He is not a big game player, you know those stars who always do their best in playoff or championship games. Faced with the most important choice of his sputtering campaign, Romney blew it. He chose a boring, rightist Congressman from the Milwaukee suburbs. Paul Ryan may look good to Romney but his supporters preferred another by far, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.

Ryan compensates for his boring demeanor with a truly mean spirited political program that threatens to deny medical care for many seniors if his budget is enacted. He swaps out government payments for vouchers in a system that will make medical care unaffordable to seniors. That should sell well among those seniors who prefer a premature, unnecessary death caused by a lack of medical care.

Nice work Mitt!

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By Michael Collins
Somebody released information concerning one of President Barack Obama's methods for fighting terrorism. (Image)

"Mr. Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret nominations process to designate terrorists for kill or capture. Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will, New York Times, May 29

Republicans are furious. Sen. John McCain says the White House intentionally leaked the story to make Obama look good.

"Regardless of how politically useful these leaks have been to the administration, they have to stop." John McCain, CBS News, June 6

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By Michael Collins

"After issuing just eight pardons in his first seven years, Barbour pardoned 208 convicts, 41 of them murderers, sex offenders or child molesters, during his last 48 hours in office." Time Jan 13

It's a big day for murderers in Mississippi, sex offenders and child molesters too! Just before leaving office, Republican Governor Haley Barbour pardoned 208 convicts in a stunning act of candor and honesty in behalf of the party and system he has served so well. (Image)

Tired of the same old script featuring religious values and law and order year in and year out by politicians you just know are lying? Your search for honesty is over. Haley Barbour is the poster boy for the culture of death that pervades the political leadership.

Why would Barbour do such a thing? In his own words, he told us: "I have no question in my mind that these men have repented, have been redeemed, have come back hard working to prepare themselves to go out into the world…" CNN Jan 13

Go out in the world and do what? Murder, maim, commit sexual assaults against children and adults?

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The UN said in its resolution said that they wanted to protect civilians. I am a civilian. I'm asking the United Nations and the National Transition Council for help for the citizens of Sirte. Ali Salah Arzaga, Sirte, Libya. (His home and business were destroyed in the final assault on his city.)

There are very public smoking guns that inculpate the rulers of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and others in war crimes in Libya.

The rationale for NATO's entry into the Libyan conflict was based on humanitarian principles, correctly noted by Mr. Arzaga. (left, text and image: VOA video). The United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1973 on March 17 and NATO followed up with actions that the alliance and its partner Qatar claimed conformed to the resolution. The sole purpose of NATO’s involvement was to "protect the Libyan population," we were told.

The outcome has been anything but humanitarian. Tens of thousands of Libyans are injured or dead. The nation's infrastructure is in tatters. One city, Sirte, was destroyed during the final push while another city, the non-Arab Black Libyan town of Tawergha, is absent its entire population, 25,000 residents. They were there just a few weeks ago.

To understand what was done by participating NATO nations and Qatar, which joined the effort, and answer questions about war crimes, consider the following: the United Nations authorization for NATO assistance, the NATO declarations of intent and actions, plus reports of behavior, and the Protocol 1 of the Geneva Convention, 1977. With this foundation, it will be possible to evaluate the behavior of NATO and Qatar.

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By Michael Collins

"It’s not acceptable to kill a person without trying him," said Louay Hussein, a Syrian opposition figure in Damascus. "I prefer to see the tyrant behind bars." New York Times, October 20

The New York Times reported that a NATO jet and drones disabled vehicles in a convoy carrying Muammar Gaddafi near the besieged town of Sirte on October 20. Loyalists in the remaining vehicles scattered becoming easy prey for the emboldened fighters of the new Libyan state.

Reuters expanded the narrative on the 21st by reporting that Gaddafi fled from his jeep, hid in a drainage pipe, and emerged with an automatic weapon and side arm. He was manhandled and slapped by the soldiers of the new Libya. He allegedly asked the crowd, "Don't you know right from wrong?" They took exception to the question and shot him twice in the head. He was transported to Misurata, scene of one of the few decisive victories by the former rebels. Gaddafi's corpse was placed on a bare mattress and put on display for the public on the 22nd. It remains there today, although it is now reportedly covered by a blanket (Reuters, October 23).

There's a new sheriff in town, NATO.

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By Michael Collins

Who knows if Casey Anthony is guilty or innocent? Even Casey might not know at this point. We do know one thing, without any doubt. As our economy and nation crumble around us, we're being amused to death by the corporate media. They've got good reason to keep the headlines on Casey. Absent a major distraction, there might be a focused look at the misrule and looting of this country for the past decades that has created the real threats to the health of children.

"Infant mortality is an important indicator of the health of a nation, and the recent stagnation (since 2000) in the U.S. infant mortality rate has generated concern among researchers and policy makers." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC, November 2009

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By Steven J. Goldberg

[The recent FBI raid of the home of Sharlotte Hydorn, age 91, has brought the controversy over "the right to die [with dignity]" to the front page of man's consciousness. Click here to read why Hydorn may have violated a law prohibiting the sale of adulterated and mishandled medical devices that are used to commit suicide.]

The Only Question that Matters

What am I doing here and where am I going (when it's over)?

My Dogs and wild animals don't worry about what they're doing or where they are going.

They are trying to survive and don't have much time to sit around and ponder their existence.

Monotheists (Jews, Christians and Muslims) think they have the answer: They are here to love God and accept the free gift of salvation and then it's off to heaven.

Our pets are sort of like Monotheists, they think we are some kind of God, so their purpose is to love us unconditionally and we in turn, take care of them.

And when our pets can no longer perform their "activities of daily living" (ADLs), the basic tasks of everyday life, such as eating, bathing, dressing, toileting and transferring (i.e., getting in and out of a bed or chair) we act compassionately.

Instead of making them suffer, we take them to the Vet where it's legal to play them soft music, hold them in our arms and watch them go peacefully to sleep.

Thanks to a twist of religious dogma in the Dark Ages, Homo Sap...iens are now the center of the earth and are so important, they have to suffer in old age until God decides it's time for them to leave the Earth.

OK, let's say for a minute you really believe that if you gesticulate once a week at a Mega Church, believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and therefore you have a free pass to heaven, my question
to you is:

What are you waiting for?

I would want to get there right away, because if there is a heaven it's got to be better than "this" and if I am wrong and go to the other place (without air conditioning) early, it's for eternity, so a few more years isn't going to matter.

Don't bother trying to argue suicide is murder or some kind of unforgiveable sin – it isn't. You can kill yourself any time you like and there is nothing in the Bible that says you aren't going to heaven.

The really inconvenient truth is that you are facing either:

• Being unable to perform your ADLs and you are wearing Depends
• Taking care of someone who is unable to perform their ADLs and wearing Depends
• Feeling guilty because you aren’t taking care of someone who is unable to perform their ADLs and wearing Depends

I know not what course others may take, but as for me if it's a choice between wearing a diaper, depending on someone because I am wearing a diaper or feeling guilty, give me Death.

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Steven J. Goldberg is a former employee at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and was wrongfully terminated by AIPAC after he was the subject of a federal investigation for the unlawful receipt and disclosure of classified information obtained from a former Pentagon official.

There is evidence that the receipt and distribution of confidential foreign policy information is a common practice for AlPAC.

Here was a new generation . . . grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.
– F Scott Fitzgerald

Baghdad falls to US forces.
– 2003 headline

By Brian Downing

When Saigon fell and the last Huey was pushed overboard into the sea, Americans looked back with dismay on their many foreign entanglements that had culminated in the recent calamity. Those who cared to look ahead saw little prospect of war. Surely, they thought, the nation had learned from a war that had brought so much turmoil, cost fifty-eight thousand lives, and ended in defeat.

But Americans settled into a period of inwardness and few saw the new way of war coming into being. The military rebuilt itself, largely independent of the breadth of society, and became the most fearsome army in the world. War-making, in astonishing contrast to post-Vietnam sensibilities, became a de facto presidential power, legitimized by invocation of national security arguments only desultorily debated. This power was ceded by congress and endorsed by a gratefully uninvolved nation.

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