The only war left in Afghanistan is a CIVIL WAR between the Taliban and the Afghan government. The USA cannot and should not get involved in a civil war in Afghanistan.

The Taliban is a militia that has been thrown out of Pakistan. They have no place to go and they like being a militia rather than ridding themselves of weapons and going home to farm.

The reason the Taliban doesn't simply give up and go home is because the USA never rid the region of the poppy culture. The only sane time that exists in Afghanistan is the winter. It is too cold and miserable to carry out the drug war between the Taliban and the Haqquani network.

The other reason it is going to settle down in Afghanistan is because the USA won't be there to restock the munitions that is used to rob banks and set prisoners loose.

The place will go back to being a desolate country with wrecked military vehicles used as a playground. Sad, but, true.

Then some day one of the militia groups will become convinced they can invade Turkmenistan and they'll be sorry they crossed the boarder. Because Russia will go back to bombing the living hell out of the region. And it will be like old times before the Taliban and Russia paused long enough for the USA to attempt to tame them.

TROOPS OUT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, yeah. Be sure the USA military transports their war machines and munitions out of the country to a place like Turkey that will appreciate them and use them appropriately.

Nation Building doesn't work.

Oh, one other thing.

Since the USA found the poppy culture important to Afghanistan it might be a good idea to legalize things like heroine under the direction of doctors and health clinics that will attempt to treat the addicts. But, if the USA has QUALITY CONTROL over the drugs from Afghanistan maybe less people will die of drug overdoses in the USA. Oh, Methadone clinics? Most heroine addicts find methadone worse than heroine. The reason methadone is accepted for treatment is because the doctors and clinics have control over the quality.

If the drug cartels of Afghanistan and other places like Columbia now have legitimate control over the production of drugs, the people of the USA would be safer.

Just sayin.

The importance of the House Committee meeting today is that it has proven to be a political witch hunt.

There is no doubt about the sleazy priorities of the Republicans.

Jason Chaffetz 

To begin with he lied. He said, "I pulled this graph out of the information you provided to me." 

Lied. That is number one offense.

Then a very astute lawyer pointed out to Ms. Richards where the source of the graph came from.

The source is "Americans United for Life." That was the second lie. Jason Chaffetz never bothered to apologize to Ms. Richards about the fact this did not come out of the information she had sent him.

It became all too obvious this committee was called to meet for political purposes. Jason Chaffetz not only used the US Treasury for his political priorities, he LIED for the record.

The US House has a problem. Decent people are leaving to golf courses and family. The CROOKS in the Republican Party are staying. The committee record from today needs to be submitted for ethics review and corrective action and testimony to clear up the lies spun by Jason Chaffetz.

September 29, 2015
By Zachary Roth

During her testimony (click here) before a congressional committee Tuesday, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards called out Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz for displaying a slide that showed a graph created by an anti-abortion group, rather than a neutral source. Richards had good reason to be skeptical of the image, which turns out to be stunningly misleading.
As part of a contentious back-and-forth in which Chaffetz repeatedly cut off Richards, the congressman displayed a slide with a graph that looked like this:...

Ms. Richards' reputation needs to be returned to her and made whole ON THE CONGRESSIONAL record so this doesn't become a snowball today or in the future!

What is really disturbing is the problems that have been made obvious by the resignation of Speaker John Boehner. He stated on news programs there are people within the House that simply stir the pot to create dissonance rather than carrying out the business of the people.

John Boehner is too much of a decent man to continue to be the Republican pinata.

It was easy to tell he was in conflict with his own values from the beginning of his Speakership. I felt bad for him, but, I didn't feel that bad I would allow his inability to call out the ethics violations of his own members that I would simply 'go along to get along.' There was always too much on the line including the country's first African American president and the work he needed to do. 

The US House has a problem and it is currently their Republican leadership. That leadership needs to be dissolved so the country can get things done. This problem is bigger than House leadership, it is the Republican party that lacks a moral center. Anything goes. Just get elected.

The Republican values they were elected on are extreme and ridiculous. The GOP needs to find some morality and loyalty to the country. There are many things that need to be done and NONE of them have to do with Planned Parenthood. 

I wish John Boehner great happiness. 

What is going on with farmland value?

September 28, 2015
By Jim Offner

A swooning agriculture sector (click here) has taken numerous swipes at Iowa’s economy in the last year — the layoffs at John Deere among them.

But, last week, farmers across Iowa — but especially in the northeastern quadrant of the state — took a shot that hit closer to home than any others: land prices.
According to the September 2015 Iowa Chapter of Realtors Land Institute’s Land Trends and Values Survey that came out Tuesday, cropland values fell 3.7 percent statewide in the last six months and 11.3 percent since the September 2014 report.

Northeast Iowa values fell harder than those in any other region in the last year — 15.1 percent on average for all tillable land....

...Factors contributing to current farmland values include: lower commodity prices, increasing interest rates, lack of stable alternative investments, cash on hand and a limited amount of land on the market, said Kyle Hansen, an auctioneer with Nevada-based Hertz Farm Management, which has nine offices, including one in Waterloo.

“Land values are closely tied to the net revenue generated by what is able to be produced; Commodity prices are still the highest factor in establishing land values,” said Hansen, chairman of the survey committee. “The farmland market has continued its downtrend since the spring of 2013, when corn and soybean prices peaked. And although farmers represent nearly 80 percent of the land buyers, the reduced land values are creating purchasing interest from non-operating landowners and investment buyers.”...

Factors contributing to current farmland values include: lower commodity prices, increasing interest rates, lack of stable alternative investments, cash on hand and a limited amount of land on the market, said Kyle Hansen, an auctioneer with Nevada-based Hertz Farm Management, which has nine offices, including one in Waterloo.
“Land values are closely tied to the net revenue generated by what is able to be produced; Commodity prices are still the highest factor in establishing land values,” said Hansen, chairman of the survey committee. “The farmland market has continued its downtrend since the spring of 2013, when corn and soybean prices peaked. And although farmers represent nearly 80 percent of the land buyers, the reduced land values are creating purchasing interest from non-operating landowners and investment buyers.”
- See more at: http://amestrib.com/news/farm-economy-takes-toll-iowa-land-values#sthash.M4GQBqOy.dpuf

A swooning agriculture sector has taken numerous swipes at Iowa’s economy in the last year — the layoffs at John Deere among them.
But, last week, farmers across Iowa — but especially in the northeastern quadrant of the state — took a shot that hit closer to home than any others: land prices.
According to the September 2015 Iowa Chapter of Realtors Land Institute’s Land Trends and Values Survey that came out Tuesday, cropland values fell 3.7 percent statewide in the last six months and 11.3 percent since the September 2014 report.
Northeast Iowa values fell harder than those in any other region in the last year — 15.1 percent on average for all tillable land.
- See more at: http://amestrib.com/news/farm-economy-takes-toll-iowa-land-values#sthash.M4GQBqOy.dpuf

Canada's farmers are very worried. We need farmers with productive land to maintain their farms. Climate alone demands that.

Quebec dairy farmer Rene Buhlmann takes part in a protest Tuesday on Parliament Hill over possible concessions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations. (CBC)

September 29, 2015
By CBC News

...Tomorrow, (click here) International Trade Minister Ed Fast will join the Canadian delegation in Atlanta for two days of talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Conservatives hope to close the deal that would establish the world's biggest free-trade zone just weeks before the Oct. 19 federal election....

...CBC News reported Friday that Canadian negotiators are prepared to concede a share of Canada's domestic dairy market to reach an agreement. American negotiators have demanded 10 per cent access to Canada's dairy markets under the TPP, but Canada rejected that proposal during talks in Hawaii in July.
Farmers brought placards, cattle and tractors to Parliament Hill Tuesday to protest any changes that could harm their industry....

No one will find this, the TPP, on the American media, but, you can always find the culture of fear and worry about Islamic extremists.

September 27, 2015
By Michael McCarthy

...Evidently (click here) the buildings were originally built for offices and light manufacturing, supporting tens of thousands of well-paying blue-collar jobs. In the 1970s President Richard Nixon, scraping the bottom of the polls, decided to reinvent himself as a global statesman. He signed a trade deal with a formerly hated enemy, the Communist People’s Republic of China. Immediately U.S. corporations rushed to “offshore” jobs to China where labour costs were minimal. Factory gulags sprung up like mushrooms.

The AFL-CIO estimates that repression of labour rights in China by the Communist government lowered US manufacturing costs up to 86 per cent as part of this deal. According to the Economic Policy Institute, since 2001 when China entered the World Trade Organization, the trade deal with China has cost the U.S. 3.2 million jobs, and three quarters of those jobs were in light manufacturing. Another report by Working America shows manufacturing employment collapsed from a high of 19.5 million workers in June 1979 to 11.5 workers in December 2009, a drop of 8 million workers over 30 years. Between August 2000 and February 2004, American manufacturing jobs were lost to China for 43 consecutive months, the longest such stretch since the Great Depression.

Everything you buy now is marked “made in China.” China has become rich and American corporations have thrived from lower expenses and higher profits, but the average working stiff has not. You can see thousands of these stiffs, now old and decrepit, wandering the streets of downtown L.A., wondering what happened.

U.S. 3.2 million jobs gone. Puff and it was all over. Then people wonder what happened to the USA economy. Well, dah. How is your neighbor doing? What are your house values like? How are those two extra houses you bought during the years of Bush turned out? Make you a millionaire yet?

There are very few allies, if any, that are happy about this TPP mess.

September 29, 2015
By Patricia Ranaid

Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Ministers' (click here) talks between the US, Australia, Japan and nine other Pacific Rim countries are set to resume on September 30 in Atlanta, Georgia in a final attempt to complete the deal before the Canadian elections in mid-October and the intensification of the US presidential race. The TPP is so unpopular that these governments want it signed before elections take place, without further public debate.

The last TPP Ministerial talks collapsed at the end of July, because the US and Japan could not agree about market access to their own agricultural and vehicle markets, and so could not make market access offers to others. Market access talks between the US, Japan, Mexico and Canada, and between those countries, Australia and others have continued. Trade Ministers will meet to seal the deal with final trade-offs only if market access issues are resolved.

The TPP is promoted as a huge trade deal covering 40 per cent of the global economy. Australia has little to gain because it already has free trade agreements with nine of the 12 countries, but could lose much. The US is driving the agenda on behalf of its pharmaceutical, media and tobacco industries, which want rules which suit their needs, but would tie the hands of future governments....

I've always said, what the world needs is the export of lung cancer. I mean it. It is perfect. Export lung cancer and call in Big Pharma, what could be better?

Wikileaks - TPP (click here) 

Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) Treaty (click here) : State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Issues for Ministerial Guidance

Salt Lake Extracts (click here)

Don't forget to put a few dollars in the Wikileaks donation box, okay? 

TPP Pharmaceutical annex (click here)

TPP Investment Chapter (click here)  

September 27, 2015
A secret letter leaked by WikiLeaks (click here) on Wednesday reveals that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Canada Post could be sold under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, being negotiated by Canada and 11 other countries this week in Maui, Hawaii 

Are there any real human beings interested in the TPP? It sure doesn't look like it to me. How do all these companies have these countries by the balls? For real. Since when do the companies on Earth wage the dog? People are just throwing their hands up in the air and feel helpless and hopeless?

Sometimes I think an investigation to the down turn of union viability should be investigated.

September 29, 2015
By Tim Jones

CHICAGO — Unions might never recover (click here) the strength they had decades ago, but recent signs suggest renewed support for labor, or at least an end to its run as a Republican bogeyman.
After building a campaign around his battle with government workers, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker abruptly ended his presidential campaign Sept. 21. His decision came a month after a Gallup Poll found that support for unions jumped 5 percentage points in the past year to its highest level nationwide since 2008.
"People are waking up and realizing that unions are important to establishing balance in our economy," said Stephanie Bloomingdale, secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. "People are very anxious about what's happening to the American middle class. And income inequality is at an all-time high."...

Unions are a vital part of the Middle Class. Organizing is guaranteed to the unions. Those two truths should register with legislators at the state and federal level that something is wrong and the working poor is the evidence. 

It doesn't make sense. We know the unions are important to upward movement in the USA. The promise of Americans birth right is backed by the organization of unions to value labor. Yet, where did the unions go? 

There is something wrong here and there needs to be an investigation to the collapse of unions in the USA. After all, TPP is a full frontal assault on unions and the security Americans find in support of their local economies. Why wait for it to happen?

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2015/09/29/6439710/political-appeal-of-bashing-american.html#storylink=cpy

Senator Rand Paul knows Donald Trump is a serious contender. There is no doubt. I don't know why that lie is necessary. 

September 29, 2015
By Michael Addady

Forbes’ Randall Lane (click here) interviewed upwards of 80 sources to determine that Donald Trump’s net worth is $4.5 billion, Business Insider reports.
Trump, who has repeatedly claimed a net worth of over $10 billion, doesn’t agree.
He accused Forbes of trying to make him look bad, calling the publication “bankrupt” and “incompetent,” adding in an interview with Lane that a “respected magazine that’s coming out” will value him at $11.5 billion.
The argumentative Republican presidential candidate told Forbes: “I think you’re trying to make me as poor as possible.”...

I suppose in finance reputation means something, but, mostly it's the balance sheets that count. 

In politics it is different. If Donald Trump can be proved a liar his 'brand' will lose it's momentum and reputation.

I am sure Donald Trump has little use for unions, but, the facts are plain. The article in the entry before this cited a 'poison article' to eliminate unions as a detriment to the USA middle class. So, given the character illustrated in Forbes' hatred of unions and the USA middle class, I'd say the magazine has a long way to go in it's accuracy in standing in opposition to the value placed on Mr. Trumps brand.

There is new demonizing of the country's unions. Basically, Forbes wants to put the final nail in the coffin.

This article is pure propaganda. Forbes hasn't heard of the Middle Class. 

I suppose Forbes never saw or heard of the direct correlation between the middle class and unions. 

Yesterday, I wrote a thank to Senator Warren. This article is proof of the viscous intent of Wall Street. It is hatred plain and simple. Since when does any USA opportunity to be part of a union mean people sink into poverty?

This money grab since 2008 is a power grab as well. We know the syndrome and have witnessed it elsewhere. South Africa won it's' representation in the legislature and they put Nelson Mandella in the presidency. He healed the country, but, he also stated he was never able to bring comfort or opportunity to the Blacks in South Africa. The mines were owned by The West, specifically Europe. So while governing was a stepping stone to freedom, it lacked opportunity completely. We have seen this before!!

September 29, 2015
By Carrie Sheffield

We all want to help society’s most disadvantaged. (click here) Yet there’s a persistent myth in America that today’s labor unions just fight for the little guy, the lunch pail-toting everyman. However true that may have been a generation ago, today’s face of organized labor is drastically different.
Unions of yesteryear were predominantly in the private sector. But since 2009, government union membership surpassed private membership, and their membership looks very different from when it comprised Joe Sixpack and his pals. Government unions, on average, represent skilled, white-collar workers who enjoy generous benefits, sans accountability, courtesy of the hardworking taxpayer.
This has profound implications for the upward mobility and fiscal solvency of future generations. It also presents troubling challenges to democracy and sovereignty at all levels of government....

We all know the story of the Sharpeville massacre, but, the Marikana massacre of 2012 has mostly been ignored. 

19 May 2015
By Nick Davies

In 2012 a strike at the Marikana platinum mine (click here) in South Africa ended when police opened fire, killing 34 miners. Investigations have revealed one rebel leader died trying to broker a peaceful solution. Nick Davies uncovers his story.... 

...Mbulelo recalled that Mambush nearly missed the strike. The two of them were there as it was launched, on Thursday 9 August 2012, when hundreds of rock-drill operators gathered on the parched grass of the Wonderkop football stadium, which stands near the administrative buildings at the centre of the mine complex. They had heard that the rock-drill operators at the Impala platinum mine, 30 miles away near the town of Rustenburg, had emerged from a long and sometimes violent strike with new pay rates, while they remained on 4,000-5,000 rand a month (£215-270), and they were angry. They demanded 12,500 rand (£670) and agreed they would not turn up for work the next day....

The bottom line is that unions are always demonized, but, Forbes tops the list of deceptive and angry. 

Senator Warren. We need you. We need you to stand up for the Middle Class, upward movement and the status of unions. It looks as though even South Africa needs you.

The USA has very little regard for life unless it serves it's politics.

Just look toward the frivilous use of it's invasions and the deaths of innocent people as well as USA soldiers. In Vietnam it is estimated to have at least one million civilians dead.

During WWII there were equal numbers of dead and perhaps greater. But, it was the Third Reich that carried out the atrocities of WWII. The Third Reich was defeated so it could never happen again. There were trials for those that were killed. There are commemorations of the dead soldiers from WWII where those deaths occurred.

But, the problem with the USA is that it's mythology about the purpose of it's military allows it to embark on completely fabricated wars. Vietnam and Iraq were both fabricated, yet, the USA is allowed to continue these atrocities.

The deaths of soldiers and innocent people in war is okay, but, somehow this one death of a woman best defines the USA penal system. Iconic killing of people. Make no doubt about it, these are iconic. When those that support the death penalty ask why it is still practiced, the first excuse is "It is a deterrent." 

So, these Death Row Inmates are iconic and their deaths carried out as an example to the people of the USA. Then there is the families of the murdered that believe they have closure because of the execution. Nothing it going to bring their loved ones back. I find it difficult to believe the execution ends the pain of loss. It don't think there is sincere closure.

Ready for this? She didn't commit the murder. She did not carry out the crime or supplying the means to kill her husband. She had a alibi to her activities the night of her spouse's death.

Gissendaner was convicted in 1998 (click here) of recruiting her lover to kill her husband, Doug Gissendaner, 30. Her boyfriend, Gregory Owen, testified against her as part of a plea bargain that landed him a life sentence but spared him from the death penalty.

According to the testimony of a man that would face the death penalty, she helped burn her spouse in the car.

Prosecutors said Gissendaner, a mother of three from Auburn, wanted her husband dead so she could profit from two $10,000 life insurance policies and the couple's $84,000 house.

That was the motive that was worse than the motive of her boyfriend.
  
She dropped off Owen at her Auburn house before going out with friends on Feb. 7, 1997. Owen surprised 30-year-old Doug Gissendaner and forced him at knifepoint to drive to a remote area in eastern Gwinnett near the Walton County line.
  
Owen forced the victim to walk 100 yards into the woods and get down on his knees. He beat him in the head with a nightstick, stabbed him in the neck and back several times and left. The wife later helped her boyfriend set the car on fire to destroy evidence. 

The Georgia Supreme Court upheld Gissendaner's murder conviction and death sentence in July 2000.

She was working to help support her family.

...Ms. Gissendaner (click here) was in a relationship with Gregory Bruce Owen and at one point stated to a co-worker that she was unhappy with her husband and in love with Owen....

$20,000 is not that much money. Leaving her husband wasn't that difficult. She had left once before and then they reconciled and remarried. The entire circumstances surrounding her prosecution is very questionable.

29 September 2015
By Guardian staff and agencies

The Georgia board of pardons and paroles (click here) has denied clemency for the lone woman on the state’s death row after hearing requests to spare her life from her children and from Pope Francis.
Kelly Renee Gissendaner is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7pm at the state prison in Jackson. Gissendaner, 47, was convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her husband. She conspired with her lover, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death.
The board, which is the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence, met on Tuesday to hear from her oldest son, Brandon, who had remained silent when his two siblings addressed the board earlier this year. The board released a statement saying it was standing by its February decision denying clemency and did not give any reason....

These statistics of unwanted pregnancies are from the Guttmacher Institute.

The Guttmacher Institute (click here) is an international organization concerned with the health of women. Their statistics are real women with real problems in their lives that prevent her from giving birth. We well know abortion is a socio-economic problem. 

September 28, 2015 
By Joerd Dreweke

 A number of women (click here) —often those who are poor or otherwise disadvantaged—have been prosecuted in the United States for self-inducing abortion under a variety of state statutes, ranging from fetal homicide to failure to report an abortion to the coroner. Recently, the issue has gained greater attention because of several well-publicized cases in which women were prosecuted and imprisoned for self-inducing an abortion or being suspected of doing so. 

WHO HAS ABORTIONS? (click here)
 
• Eighteen percent (18%) of U.S. women obtaining abortions are teenagers; those aged 15–17 obtain 6% of all abortions, 18–19-year-olds obtain 11%, and teens younger than 15 obtain 0.4%.

Women in their 20s account for more than half (50%) of all abortions: Women aged 20–24 obtain 33% of all abortions, and women aged 25–29 obtain 24%.

• Non-Hispanic white women account for 36% of abortions, non-Hispanic black women for 30%, Hispanic women for 25% and women of other races for 9%.

The statistics here are in percentages, but, it would be more interesting if it were "per thousand women." It would reveal more of the impoverishment of women. Hispanic women are stated to be 25 percent of those seeking an abortion along with Caucasian women for 36 percent of women. When realizing Hispanic women are minorities, the numbers per thousand women really go up. 25 percent of minority populations per 1000 illustrates the socioeconomic condition of the women involved and as a minority the lack of control over their circumstances, especially the Undocumented.

• Thirty-seven percent of women obtaining abortions identify as Protestant and 28% identify as Catholic

• Women who have never married and are not cohabiting account for 45% of all abortions.

• About 61% of abortions are obtained by women who have one or more children.

• Forty-two percent of women obtaining abortions have incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level ($10,830 for a single woman with no children).

• Twenty-seven percent of women obtaining abortions have incomes between 100–199% of the federal poverty level.

• The reasons women give for having an abortion underscore their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

The majority of these women are not ready to be parents. It is just that simple. They don't want the pregnancy for legitimate reasons. The USA cannot proudly proclaim it is an a capitalist economy and then expect the dynamics of poverty and the cost of raising a child to simply go away. It is the same thing with couples postponing marriage and a family. It is based in economic decisions. Capitalism has not served the people of the USA well.

• Fifty-one percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method in the month they got pregnant, most commonly condoms (27%) or a hormonal method (17%)

I have stated over and over the primary women seeking abortions are in their early weeks of pregnancy. Other abortions are under a medical doctor's direction to do so.

In 2011, unmarried women accounted for 85.5% of all abortions (CDC).

Among women who obtained abortions in 2011, 39.9% had no prior live births; 46.1% had one or two prior live births, and 13.9% had three or more prior live births (CDC)

The abortion rate of women with Medicaid coverage is three times as high as that of other women (NAF).

89-92% of all abortions happen during the first trimester, prior to the 13th week of gestation (AGI/CDC).

In 2011, 7.3% of all abortions occurred between 14-20 weeks' gestation; 1.4% occurred ≥21 weeks' gestation (CDC).











Stop hurting women and provide for better pay and benefits. Life is difficult enough for these women and their government victimizes them. The government victimizes them and does not provide for any understanding of the support for their children.

Ms. Richards can declare 5th amendment protections with rude and difficult Congressman that demand for her to compromise herself against the advice of her lawyer.

This is a witch hunt by Congress. Ms. Richards does not have to compromise her constitutional rights because of Congressional harassment. 
 

This is nothing more than political hubris at the cost of the American people in calling a committee hearing. There is no question about the legal standing of Planned Parenthood.

Ms. Richards is being handled by the House Committee. She is a threat to Carly Fiorina. This is a joke.

Planned Parenthood Action Committee (click here)

The photo and video content are priceless for Fiornia's politics. 

Hello? This isn't much of a PAC. 

Total Receipts $202,003. (click here) 

I think I know why Planned Parenthood keeps getting beat up politically. I mean gosh Planned Parenthood doesn't have a chance against billionaires. 

That is typical. Women are second class citizens and this confirms it. Women are not billionaires that can come forward an support a political movement that protects women's health. This is depressing. 

When is the House Committee going to call the people responsible for the videos? I want their email server, too. 

I want all the records including any and all communications regarding any of the videos, even the stuff that was eliminated in making the film. The American people want to know the efficacy of these videos! 

I dare Ms. Richards to find a woman billionaire that will provide half a chance for Planned Parenthood to survive. Ms. Richards should seek such help without shame or remorse. The Republicans do it all the time. 

Ms. Richards deserves her salary and more. She is 'on call' for Planned Parenthood 24/7. It has been interesting how willing she is to contribute to the national dialogue on women's health. Never a second thought and willing to witness on news programs at the drop of a hat. She is very dedicated and a lovely lady. She deserves that salary and more. Women are indebted to her for the dedication she carries to their health care. Women are alive today because Ms. Richards is a leader to their protections.

Fiorina is not lawyer. She says outrageous things she believes occurred that is criminal. My understanding of the women making testimony about the baby in question is that it occurred during a miscarriage. If a fetus is aborted and it is alive, I would expect the staff say, "Keep it alive for it's brain." That is exactly correct. A very small window exists to save any life during an episode of lack of oxygen. So, realizing these videos are heavily edited, there is a real question in my mind what exactly this is all about.

Well, of course, Ms. Fiorina is having problems with success as an American; she wasn't even educated here. I think she has English as a second language actually. She went to an all girls school in London and she moved around a lot even in Ghana. That had to be rough for her as a child.

Why did she move around so much? Her father worked in the USA. So what is this? Why did she go to school overseas and get bumped around the world? I find that odd. Everyone knows she was actually born in the USA, right? I mean she could be considered an American because of her parents, but, was she really born in the USA? Maybe her father did something to change the legal records. He was a lawyer that ended up as a deputy AG to the Ninth Circuit. How come she was raised without her parents outside of the country? I think is very odd.

She may have latent anger toward women that abandon a pregnancy.

I have some real concerns about her level of anger as a candidate. 

Why is she irrationally angry with an organization that provides vital and EXCELLENT women's health care. That is completely unwarranted and foolish to consider the number of women that would be abandoned if Planned Parenthood didn't receive REIMBURSEMENT for services.

I am confident Saudi Arabia will address these losses.

It would be good if the USA could act as an ambassador to the talks Saudi Arabia needs to have with countries with losses of their people. Saudi Arabia is a good friend to the USA. It should hardly face this reality alone. It is a painful time and friends should be welcome. I don't recall any losses by the USA. 

Perhaps this can be avoided in the future. For some reason these stampedes happen when pilgrimages take place. It would be best to find solutions to their occurrence.  

24 September 2015

TEHRAN, Sep. 24 (MNA) – Leader of the Islamic Revolution (click here) has declared three days of national mourning following the Hajj incident in Mina.
Following the stampede tragedy in Mina, near Mecca, on Thursday in which at least 1200 Hajj pilgrims were killed and more than 1500 were injured, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei issued a significant message calling on Saudis to shoulder responsibility of the catastrophe.
Here is the full text of the message:
In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
Indeed we belong to Allah, and to Him do we indeed return
The catastrophic tragedy which happened today in Mina which claimed lives of large number of God’s gusts and the God-seeking faithful from different countries, caused a great agony for the world of Islam and turned the Eid into sorrow. In our dear country also tens of families enthusiastically waiting their beloveds paying pilgrimage in Hajj, are now mournful for their losses....

The real Syrian effect.

The real advance regrading Syria for the USA is the lack of false information to Americans. There is a reality within the politics of the right wing in that the USA can do anything, including instilling a democracy. That political rant is now a myth.

The days of Bush/Cheney/McCain/Graham are gone. The stark reality of the abandoned Iraq by it's own military and the rise of the murderous Ba'athists during the years of US occupation of Iraq is a lesson well learned. 

The USA has to find it's place in global security. The silliness of the culture of fear that fueled the country that entered into Iraq illegitimately is now measurable. It is unfortunate President Obama had to inherit two extremely protracted wars from the Republican administration preceding him. 

The USA's military is a defense force. It has many layers of conventional and nuclear capacity. Over the decades it has been used by the private sector to suck money from the USA Treasury, ie: F35. The USA needs a real defense and not one imagined by 'Let's Pretend." 

Let's pretend Iraq and Iran are a real threat to the USA. Let's pretend the deaths of Nuclear scientists in Iran is all part of the USA's national defense. Let's pretend that Tora Bora was not a legitimate battlefield insufficiently fought that allowed Osama bin Laden to escape to Pakistan for his leisurely life within reach of the military educational institute. 

Let's pretend the invasion into Vietnam was a mirror image of the invasion of Iraq. Let's pretend the deaths of our sons and daughters actually served our national defense. 

Let's pretend Russia at times is not a vital ally. I just love the way the USA waxes and wanes it's affiliation with Russia. Let's pretend the USA can bomb it's way into eliminating communism. Let's pretend the USA military muscle is not the most misdirected military on the planet. It has been refreshing to have a President that actually adheres to treaties and agreements.  

The rise of the Ba'athists in Syria is directly related to the Iraq invasion. We caused that militia and then in complete ignorance we armed them through the deaths of the trillion dollar US trained Iraq military.  

It is interesting to reflect on the fact the USA holds countries to their human rights abuse record while it used that specific capacity to torture people believed to actually have data to defeat al Qaeda. Gitmo needs to be closed as well. The CIA black sites are real black eyes on the USA. 

The American people are becoming aware more and more of the misdirection of the military of the USA. It is realizing the intelligence provided to presidents are disregarded when it doesn't 'fit the political picture' or actually insufficient to reality. The American people have to decide how effective USA intelligence actually is to the balance of power, rather than believing the worst that guarantees disastrous outcomes. 

The USA doesn't belong in Syria.

It never did!

Indonesia has to stop burning it's rainforests.

Tuesday, September 29: Hanging in the Haze

Cable cars moving towards the island resort of Sentosa are shrouded by haze in Singapore on Sept. 29, 2015. Slash-and-burn agriculture in neighboring Indonesia has blanketed Singapore in a choking haze for weeks.

OMG, homosexuality is contagious.

This is outrageous behavior by a church.

September 29, 2015
By Breanna Edwards

A five-year-old San Diego, Calif. girl is at home, (click here) instead of starting off kindergarten with her friends, because her school, the Mt. Erie Christian Academy, refused to welcome her any longer because she has two moms, KGTV reports. 

The child, who had attended Mt. Erie for pre-school and summer school was abruptly cut off when her parents were called in on the Friday before Labor Day, just before school started, where the pastor broke the news. 
"It was heartbreaking,” Sheena, who didn't want her last name to be used, told the news station. “I didn't finish the conversation with them when they took us in the room because I just, I didn't want to look at them any longer.  I just couldn't believe that they did that." 
"They told us, ‘oh this is not about your child,’ but it is about my child," the stay-at-home mom added. ...

How is it George Zimmerman has a picture of Trayvon Martin?

The picture is after the police arrived. I wish someone would help George Zimmerman get a life.
 
September 28, 2015
By Adam Carlson

George Zimmerman (click here) continued to send Twitter messages Monday, in the wake of intense backlash after reportedly sharing and then removing an image of Trayvon Martin's corpse on his account recently.
Zimmerman, who was found not guilty of murder in Martin's 2012 death and who has maintained it was self-defense, tweeted Monday, "As much as I love owning all you trolls I have to work . . . On my tan! Tell 'Karma' she's worthless, God protects me." — along with a photo that appeared to show him on a beach....

George Zimmerman needs to realize he is in a self-defeating life. He needs to be in counseling to find a resolve to the life he has lived compared to the life he should be planning on living.

I hope he is no longer living in the neighborhood where Trayvon was killed. It wasn't enough to kill one innocent young man? It wasn't enough to realize how he puts foolish priorities ahead of his own life. He has to admit to himself he was wrong. He has to come to terms with the facts. Trayvon was an innocent young man who was visiting his father and was walking back to his father's town house when his life ended. His life ended for no reason. 

George Zimmerman needs to move on with his life. But, he needs to reflect on what happened and never repeat it again.  

February 18, 2014
By Pamela Engel

In light of the recent trial of Michael Dunn, (click here) Reuters has published a graphic showing a dramatic spike in Florida murders by firearm after the "stand your ground" law was enacted in 2005.
Dunn is a white man who shot at a car full of black teenagers during an argument over loud music in that state.
While the law wasn't invoked specifically in his trial, critics of "stand your ground" say it increases violence in public places because it justifies "deadly force" and doesn't require people to run away if they think they're in danger....

...Then, in 2005, when the stand your ground law was enacted, murders involving firearms spiked by more than 200 in two years....

There are too many guns on the street and laws that don't demand responsible ownership.

Thank you, Senator Warren for making the speech on "Black Lives Matter." As I listen to you speak I can't help but look at the entire life experience of our minorities. 

When African Americans live their lives they begin with genetic problems that lead to hypertension more often than their Caucasian brothers and sisters. Add to that the fact there is usually a struggle to achieve better standards of living. We know African Americans are challenged to move into wealth and security. 

So, even if the threat of police acting aggressively against black men and women were nothing more than a myth, their lives are loaded with stress that other American citizens don't have. 

Then walk a mile in the shoes of Mothers and Fathers with young black men in the family. It's tough enough keeping up with the mischief that occurs in the lives of teens and young Americans, but, add to that a reality of danger by the very authority that is suppose to protect them. When my children were still home and vulnerable to influence I know how I had to stay one step ahead of my young people; be they my own or their friends; I can't imagine the stress of handling more than that.

Being a minority in the USA should be a privilege and not a burden. Americans and America should be sensitive to the fact a minority in a country like the USA is difficult. There needs to be a status change in the way African Americans are valued in our society. Their lives should be easier than that of the majority ethnicity. We know for a fact the visual aspect of life does cause problems for those different than the Caucasian majority. I imagine as the population shifts and majorities become more diversified that will change, unless, the power structure doesn't shift with them. 

Senator Warren you know better than anyone how the wealth of the people of the USA is maintained in the hands of fewer and fewer people. It could be that this hoarding of US cash to the 0.1 percent could continue to result in a new majority facing the same problems forever. The lack of wealth in our minorities is racism. 

What concerns me is the fact politics demands control in unfair and victimizing ways. Currently Voter IDs are working against the American minorities and we all know where the Voting Rights Act went.  

Senator Warren as years pass and the majority of the USA is more and more diverse, the wealth and influence is sequestered into the hands of a few. The entire power paradigm of the voters is being eliminated and in my opinion with racist undertones illustrated by racist oppression we witness today. The church massacre is more an illustration of that fact.

Making an important speech is appreciated. Taking action as everyone knows you will is needed. But, Senator Warren, there are profound problems we are facing and it is racism; there is no doubt in my mind. Unless we get this taken care of the USA will not be able to carry out it's promise to it's citizens anymore.