You are right, it is much more than just oil, but your argument also assumes that this is costing the oil industry anything or that it's done for our benefit. Our tax money is being used to do this, not theirs. We don't benefit from it, they do.
But if you want to see who else is going to profit from all of this just read the Wall Street Journal to see which corporations are lining up for contracts to "rebuild" Iraq. Each one of them has intimate relations with Bush's cabinet and advisors. They are very large campaign donors. They are going to be given our tax money to rebuild Iraq.
So not only was our money given to defense contractors for weapons and equipment to attack Iraq, not only is the oil industry going to be given contracts to sell Iraq's oil in Iraq's people's best interest, but the profits from that money that actually reaches the Iraqi people will then be given to contractors such as Halliburton to rebuild what we destroyed.
It's easy to see what shapes Bush's foreign policy.
Saddam was more dangerous when he had U.S. support
on
Strike on Iraq
·
· Score: 1
We need to understand the situation for what it is. Bush has tried to link Al Qaida unsuccessfully with Iraq so that he can take his war on terrorism to Iraq and get his friends some cheap oil. The world laughed in his face because he had no evidence of any Iraq-Al Qaida ties. Bush was caught spying on the UN offices to coerce the security council to vote with his desired war. They saw through him and rejected him. Saddam is contained and the world agrees the inspections were working. Now that there is going to be chaos in Iraq who knows where those weapons will finally end up.
Yes, Saddam kills and oppresses his own people, but he was doing that much more and with a larger army back in the 1980s with U.S. support. Now we are going to go kill tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians in order to "liberate" them.
Bush is a liar, and a tyrant. He is using our troops to further his corporate and imperialist agenda. Robin Cook, the UK version of Colin Powell, quit Blair's government in protest of the intended atrocities. It's unfortunate that we don't have anybody brave enough in our government to take such a stand.
Get away from your CNN and FOX News and get the whole picture.
Or we could understand the situation for what it is. Bush has tried to link Al Qaida unsuccessfully with Iraq so that he can take his war on terrorism to Iraq and get his friends some cheap oil.
Yes, Saddam kills and oppresses his own people, but he was doing that much more and with a larger army back in the 1980s with U.S. support. Now we are going to go kill tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians in order to "liberate" them.
Bush is a liar, and a tyrant. He is using our troops to further his corporate and imperialist agenda. Robin Cook, the UK version of Colin Powell, quit Blair's government in protest of the intended atrocities. It's unfortunate that we don't have anybody brave enough in our government to take such a stand.
Get away from your CNN and FOX News and get the whole picture.
Re:Socialism is all that works for information
on
Want Freedom?
·
· Score: 1
"...taxation for military and law enforcement do not make the system socialist because they are not economic in nature; they are part of the basic function of government."
Your statement ignores that the defense industry is one of the largest profit making industries in the U.S. Eisenhower said something to the effect that the defense industry was more worrisome than the communists.
The defense industry employs many people. Many towns and large corporations would not survive without fat government defense contracts. There is an obvious correlation to Bush's use of defense industry heavyweights and his policies. The revolving door will increase the wealth of these individuals greatly.
Ads don't create jobs for people. Technically capital doesn't even create jobs for people. Need and ability creates jobs. The idea that a system that perverts labor and content so that those in control can benefit as parasites is needed for jobs to be created is an oft repeated fallacy.
There are already plenty of things in the world that need to be done without ads creating illusory need and demand. Even after all our needs and luxuries are met, the idea that there isn't enough work for everyone is ridiculous and dangerous. Rather than people working 50 hour weeks people could work 32 hour weeks and let the unemployed and underemployed take up the rest of the slack. This way, they can contribute to society, and the rest of us can spend more time with our families and enjoying life.
There is no natural law that says that people need to work 40-60 work weeks. It's detrimental to our society but it benefits the corporate class. By having a sizable unemployed and underemployed population they create enough competition among workers to keep wages stagnant and benefits slim. Wages, adjusted for inflation, have not risen since 1970, while many in the corporate class have gone on to become millionaires and billionaires.
The flaw with this argument, although I support the spirit of it, is that these policies are not created by individuals. There is a whole system to create candidates from both of the major parties who are almost exactly identical after the elections. If we want to avoid having the corporation led government completely corrupt the law and communications systems we need to act at a much more fundamental level.
By not voting for the incumbent you risk the chance of voting for the lesser of 2 evils, or the most evil of 2 evils. It's continuous spiral downward.
I think that something along the lines of a national write-in campaign or a similar movement to completely reform the elections system. Ignore the candidates altogether.
We need public financing of elections. We need instant run-off elections so those that want to vote for 3rd or 4th party candidates don't have to feel like their wasting their votes. We need to abolish the electoral college. In other words we need to take the election process from top to bottom out of the hands of the rich and corporate "elite".
Sites that bring you news and let you act on it
on
On Hacktivism
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Check out sites like weseeyou.org. Great info and it lets you act on the news you read. It's now my homepage. I'm tired of standing quietly by while Republicans and Democrats let corporations dictate U.S. policy.
I no longer watch tv. I get 99% of my news from the Web (http://weseeyou.org and http://alternet.org) and am much more informed because of it. I also send out links to interesting news articles in IM all day. This is definitely a good step in creating a society of an informed electorate.
What most sites lack is an immediate method for taking action regarding the news they've just read. weseeyou.org is great because it gives you an easy way to contact your representatives about the issues that you just read in an article. But it doesn't have a message board or chat for everyone to post on the site. So it appears that while it's good, there doesn't seem to be one place that does it all.
Slashdot Mirror
"A media consulting firm called OMD did a study..."
Ochestral Manoeuvres in the Dark have come quite a long way
You are right, it is much more than just oil, but your argument also assumes that this is costing the oil industry anything or that it's done for our benefit. Our tax money is being used to do this, not theirs. We don't benefit from it, they do.
But if you want to see who else is going to profit from all of this just read the Wall Street Journal to see which corporations are lining up for contracts to "rebuild" Iraq. Each one of them has intimate relations with Bush's cabinet and advisors. They are very large campaign donors. They are going to be given our tax money to rebuild Iraq.
So not only was our money given to defense contractors for weapons and equipment to attack Iraq, not only is the oil industry going to be given contracts to sell Iraq's oil in Iraq's people's best interest, but the profits from that money that actually reaches the Iraqi people will then be given to contractors such as Halliburton to rebuild what we destroyed.
It's easy to see what shapes Bush's foreign policy.
We need to understand the situation for what it is. Bush has tried to link Al Qaida unsuccessfully with Iraq so that he can take his war on terrorism to Iraq and get his friends some cheap oil. The world laughed in his face because he had no evidence of any Iraq-Al Qaida ties. Bush was caught spying on the UN offices to coerce the security council to vote with his desired war. They saw through him and rejected him. Saddam is contained and the world agrees the inspections were working. Now that there is going to be chaos in Iraq who knows where those weapons will finally end up.
Yes, Saddam kills and oppresses his own people, but he was doing that much more and with a larger army back in the 1980s with U.S. support. Now we are going to go kill tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians in order to "liberate" them.
Bush is a liar, and a tyrant. He is using our troops to further his corporate and imperialist agenda. Robin Cook, the UK version of Colin Powell, quit Blair's government in protest of the intended atrocities. It's unfortunate that we don't have anybody brave enough in our government to take such a stand.
Get away from your CNN and FOX News and get the whole picture.
Or we could understand the situation for what it is. Bush has tried to link Al Qaida unsuccessfully with Iraq so that he can take his war on terrorism to Iraq and get his friends some cheap oil.
Yes, Saddam kills and oppresses his own people, but he was doing that much more and with a larger army back in the 1980s with U.S. support. Now we are going to go kill tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians in order to "liberate" them.
Bush is a liar, and a tyrant. He is using our troops to further his corporate and imperialist agenda. Robin Cook, the UK version of Colin Powell, quit Blair's government in protest of the intended atrocities. It's unfortunate that we don't have anybody brave enough in our government to take such a stand.
Get away from your CNN and FOX News and get the whole picture.
good, but no tabbed browsing.
"...taxation for military and law enforcement do not make the system socialist because they are not economic in nature; they are part of the basic function of government."
Your statement ignores that the defense industry is one of the largest profit making industries in the U.S. Eisenhower said something to the effect that the defense industry was more worrisome than the communists.
The defense industry employs many people. Many towns and large corporations would not survive without fat government defense contracts. There is an obvious correlation to Bush's use of defense industry heavyweights and his policies. The revolving door will increase the wealth of these individuals greatly.
Ads don't create jobs for people. Technically capital doesn't even create jobs for people. Need and ability creates jobs. The idea that a system that perverts labor and content so that those in control can benefit as parasites is needed for jobs to be created is an oft repeated fallacy.
There are already plenty of things in the world that need to be done without ads creating illusory need and demand. Even after all our needs and luxuries are met, the idea that there isn't enough work for everyone is ridiculous and dangerous. Rather than people working 50 hour weeks people could work 32 hour weeks and let the unemployed and underemployed take up the rest of the slack. This way, they can contribute to society, and the rest of us can spend more time with our families and enjoying life.
There is no natural law that says that people need to work 40-60 work weeks. It's detrimental to our society but it benefits the corporate class. By having a sizable unemployed and underemployed population they create enough competition among workers to keep wages stagnant and benefits slim. Wages, adjusted for inflation, have not risen since 1970, while many in the corporate class have gone on to become millionaires and billionaires.
The flaw with this argument, although I support the spirit of it, is that these policies are not created by individuals. There is a whole system to create candidates from both of the major parties who are almost exactly identical after the elections. If we want to avoid having the corporation led government completely corrupt the law and communications systems we need to act at a much more fundamental level.
By not voting for the incumbent you risk the chance of voting for the lesser of 2 evils, or the most evil of 2 evils. It's continuous spiral downward.
I think that something along the lines of a national write-in campaign or a similar movement to completely reform the elections system. Ignore the candidates altogether.
We need public financing of elections. We need instant run-off elections so those that want to vote for 3rd or 4th party candidates don't have to feel like their wasting their votes. We need to abolish the electoral college. In other words we need to take the election process from top to bottom out of the hands of the rich and corporate "elite".
Check out sites like weseeyou.org. Great info and it lets you act on the news you read. It's now my homepage. I'm tired of standing quietly by while Republicans and Democrats let corporations dictate U.S. policy.
I no longer watch tv. I get 99% of my news from the Web (http://weseeyou.org and http://alternet.org) and am much more informed because of it. I also send out links to interesting news articles in IM all day. This is definitely a good step in creating a society of an informed electorate.
What most sites lack is an immediate method for taking action regarding the news they've just read. weseeyou.org is great because it gives you an easy way to contact your representatives about the issues that you just read in an article. But it doesn't have a message board or chat for everyone to post on the site. So it appears that while it's good, there doesn't seem to be one place that does it all.