Musings from the Old Hippie
Just chillin' and bein' sexy!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
How much America do you want?
There's no doubt that the RNC, McCain/Palin and the corporate whores who support them that nothing is too far over the line to get what they want. Look at what's at stake. The same power structure that killed JFK is well-vested in the outcome of this election. I'm not a newbie to the political processes that have dominated this country since the early and late 60's. I've had to breathe tear gas and have suffered for my political beliefs in a myriad of ways. The future is up to us...those of us who still have a belief that our country is better than we've seen in the past 30+ years, backed by a philosophy begun over 200 years ago! I want to see a government of the People, for the People and by the People, prescribed by our Founding Fathers. Also prescribed by one of those, Thomas Jefferson, is the admonition: "When governments fear people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." By that standard, where are we now? Have we become so ingrained with our comfort that we no longer care what sort of tyranny we fall under? Do we trust our security to the corporate whim, along with that of our children and their progeny? Don't ever forget that this nation was founded by rich people who recognized a higher calling against an empire, risking their entire fortune for an idea of freedom for all people here! What are you willing to risk for true freedom? I personally identify with the William Ayers reasoning for doing what the Weather Underground was started to do. The rumors that they killed other Americans is wrong in the sense that innocent Americans were harmed. Several of the WU were killed building the explosive devices they were making to protest the most corrupt government of the time. They paid the ultimate price true freedom demands, no more, no less, yet they're vilified for going against the "accepted" constraints of a subservient society that a tyrannical government had dictated. It's a fairly accurate truism that we get the government we deserve. What do you deserve?buzz-it!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons NOW!
Is it acceptable by any human standard that we would permit one shell of depleted uranium to be manufactured, to be stored, to be used? No! Stop it now!
Depleted uranium is twice as heavy as lead. As a result, ammunition made from DU can pierce just about any armor. While it's an extremely effective an anti-tank weapon, DU does have a downside: It is radioactive and, in dust form, it can cause serious internal injuries. A waste product of nuclear weapon manufacturing and reactor use, depleted uranium is only about half as radioactive as natural uranium. When used in combat, the uranium in the bullet or round ignites upon impact and, when it combines with oxygen, forms a toxic cloud of uranium oxide dust. Solid uranium is not harmful; DU is toxic only if the dust is inhaled or ingested, or if DU-contaminated shrapnel enters the body. Once oxidized, the dust -- which remains toxic to those who may inhale or ingest it -- settles in the immediate area and is also dispersed by wind and rain.
During the [1991] Desert Storm campaign at least 944,000 rounds of DU ammo were fired from American A-10 Warthogs all over Iraq and Kuwait. The A-10 is an aircraft built around a 30mm, 7-barrel gattling gun that can spew 3900 rounds per minute. This doesn't take into account the missiles or artillery rounds used. The Dutch Laka Foundation estimates that the United States left behind 300-800 tons of radioactive waste from this [depleted uranium] ammunition all over Kuwait and Iraq — poisoning the air, the land, the water and the people everywhere. Depleted uranium has a half-life of more than 4 billion years, approximately the age of the Earth. Thousand of acres of land in the Balkans, Kuwait and southern Iraq have been contaminated forever. Geiger counter readings indicate that radiation exceeds the norm by 1,000/2,000 times in several spots in the center of Baghdad. If George Bush Sr., Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Bill Clinton are still casting about for a legacy, there's grim one that will stay around for an eternity.
What Government Documents Admit:
"If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences. The risks associated with DU in the body are both chemical and radiological."
"Personnel inside or near vehicles struck by DU penetrators could receive significant internal exposures."-From the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI), Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium Use in the U.S. Army, June 1995
"Inhaled insoluble oxides stay in the lungs longer and pose a potential cancer risk due to radiation. Ingested DU dust can also pose both a radioactive and a toxicity risk."-Operation Desert Storm: Army Not Adequately Prepared to Deal With Depleted Uranium Contamination, United States General Accounting Office
What the Government Is Telling Us:
"The Committee concludes that it is unlikely that health effects reports by Gulf War Veterans today are the result of exposure to depleted uranium during the Gulf war."-From the Final Report: Presidential Advisory Committee of Gulf War Veterans Illnesses, December 1996.
Small wonder the US Administration remains acutely anxious the total number of 30mm DU shells fired should remain `Classified'.
Depleted uranium is twice as heavy as lead. As a result, ammunition made from DU can pierce just about any armor. While it's an extremely effective an anti-tank weapon, DU does have a downside: It is radioactive and, in dust form, it can cause serious internal injuries. A waste product of nuclear weapon manufacturing and reactor use, depleted uranium is only about half as radioactive as natural uranium. When used in combat, the uranium in the bullet or round ignites upon impact and, when it combines with oxygen, forms a toxic cloud of uranium oxide dust. Solid uranium is not harmful; DU is toxic only if the dust is inhaled or ingested, or if DU-contaminated shrapnel enters the body. Once oxidized, the dust -- which remains toxic to those who may inhale or ingest it -- settles in the immediate area and is also dispersed by wind and rain.
During the [1991] Desert Storm campaign at least 944,000 rounds of DU ammo were fired from American A-10 Warthogs all over Iraq and Kuwait. The A-10 is an aircraft built around a 30mm, 7-barrel gattling gun that can spew 3900 rounds per minute. This doesn't take into account the missiles or artillery rounds used. The Dutch Laka Foundation estimates that the United States left behind 300-800 tons of radioactive waste from this [depleted uranium] ammunition all over Kuwait and Iraq — poisoning the air, the land, the water and the people everywhere. Depleted uranium has a half-life of more than 4 billion years, approximately the age of the Earth. Thousand of acres of land in the Balkans, Kuwait and southern Iraq have been contaminated forever. Geiger counter readings indicate that radiation exceeds the norm by 1,000/2,000 times in several spots in the center of Baghdad. If George Bush Sr., Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Bill Clinton are still casting about for a legacy, there's grim one that will stay around for an eternity.
What Government Documents Admit:
"If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences. The risks associated with DU in the body are both chemical and radiological."
"Personnel inside or near vehicles struck by DU penetrators could receive significant internal exposures."-From the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI), Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium Use in the U.S. Army, June 1995
"Inhaled insoluble oxides stay in the lungs longer and pose a potential cancer risk due to radiation. Ingested DU dust can also pose both a radioactive and a toxicity risk."-Operation Desert Storm: Army Not Adequately Prepared to Deal With Depleted Uranium Contamination, United States General Accounting Office
What the Government Is Telling Us:
"The Committee concludes that it is unlikely that health effects reports by Gulf War Veterans today are the result of exposure to depleted uranium during the Gulf war."-From the Final Report: Presidential Advisory Committee of Gulf War Veterans Illnesses, December 1996.
Small wonder the US Administration remains acutely anxious the total number of 30mm DU shells fired should remain `Classified'.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
What do WE want?
The last thing the government wants is a populace that thinks for itself or wants to self-medicate and make 'em lose a lot of $$$! The government, with a complicit media, won't allow us to truly become oil-independent, cure cancer, nor does it want to give up the obscene profitability of illegal drugs because it would put a goodly portion of law enforcement out of business! They wouldn't know what to do without all those whiz-bang toys and fun electronics they get to play with. at the expense of dope dealers they've busted! They'd have to go back to rousting drunks and actually do what cops are supposed to be doing!
Big Pharma doesn't want marijuana legalized because they can't patent Nature to make unwarranted profits! They don't even want it decriminalized! We can't even grow industrial hemp, which is nothing like medicinal pot, except as extract. We could become far less dependent on oil if hemp was grown and harvested for fuel, instead of corn or other food crops, which, as we have seen, just jacks up the price of food! The cure for some cancers have been seen in the use of certain hemp extracts. The Drug War is a sham! Why are so many pot smokers in prison with rapists, murderers and other violent offenders? The government doesn't count the crimes that law enforcement perpetrates every day in the name of "Drug Enforcement".
Even the CIA gets into the act by using cocaine, crack and powder, to spread it all over East L.A. so they could launder the Iran-Contra money that Reagan's buddies, including Ollie North, tried to get away with. Do you know that almost a third of Bush's most trusted advisors and Cabinet aides are supposed to be ineligible for government service because they were convicted of felonies while serving in Reagan's White House? We've been hijacked and made to follow the agenda of neo-con pirates who don't care whether we have rights or not, couldn't care less about the law or invading a sovereign country that posed no threat to us.
The entire Bush/Cheney criminal enterprise should be impeached, imprisoned for treason, fraud, threatening our national security and war profiteering, along with their cohorts at Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater and any other Defense Department cronies getting rich from the murders of our troops. Sorry y'all, one day I'll tell ya how I really feel! We need to start growing our own food, and taking our lives back at the grassroots level.
That's why I vicariously wished for the return of the Weathermen, who, during the 60's and early 70's, bombed and destroyed the property of Dow Chemical, the government, and a host of others who were making obscene profits from the war in Vietnam. The government labelled them as terrorists, though they were careful to avoid casualties by conducting their agenda at night or during times when they knew the buildings would be empty. The only civilian casualties were three of their own, killed when a device went off during its assembly. Ah well, maybe they'll all come to their senses and repent! Riiiiiiight!
Big Pharma doesn't want marijuana legalized because they can't patent Nature to make unwarranted profits! They don't even want it decriminalized! We can't even grow industrial hemp, which is nothing like medicinal pot, except as extract. We could become far less dependent on oil if hemp was grown and harvested for fuel, instead of corn or other food crops, which, as we have seen, just jacks up the price of food! The cure for some cancers have been seen in the use of certain hemp extracts. The Drug War is a sham! Why are so many pot smokers in prison with rapists, murderers and other violent offenders? The government doesn't count the crimes that law enforcement perpetrates every day in the name of "Drug Enforcement".
Even the CIA gets into the act by using cocaine, crack and powder, to spread it all over East L.A. so they could launder the Iran-Contra money that Reagan's buddies, including Ollie North, tried to get away with. Do you know that almost a third of Bush's most trusted advisors and Cabinet aides are supposed to be ineligible for government service because they were convicted of felonies while serving in Reagan's White House? We've been hijacked and made to follow the agenda of neo-con pirates who don't care whether we have rights or not, couldn't care less about the law or invading a sovereign country that posed no threat to us.
The entire Bush/Cheney criminal enterprise should be impeached, imprisoned for treason, fraud, threatening our national security and war profiteering, along with their cohorts at Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater and any other Defense Department cronies getting rich from the murders of our troops. Sorry y'all, one day I'll tell ya how I really feel! We need to start growing our own food, and taking our lives back at the grassroots level.
That's why I vicariously wished for the return of the Weathermen, who, during the 60's and early 70's, bombed and destroyed the property of Dow Chemical, the government, and a host of others who were making obscene profits from the war in Vietnam. The government labelled them as terrorists, though they were careful to avoid casualties by conducting their agenda at night or during times when they knew the buildings would be empty. The only civilian casualties were three of their own, killed when a device went off during its assembly. Ah well, maybe they'll all come to their senses and repent! Riiiiiiight!
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