By Timothy V. Gatto

Many things are vying for our attention. Our fiscal health is in critical condition. Bernanke went on TV today and had a press conference. In back of him was the Department of the Federal Reserve flag as if the Federal Reserve was actually part of the Federal government instead of a private group of bankers that are allowed to print U.S. currency and loan it to the Federal government at interest.

I don’t want to shake anyone’s tree, but what’s with Bahrain? Isn’t that where we moor our 5th Fleet? Why are we supporting a monarchy that is arresting people, torturing them and then killing them? Besides turning a blind eye to what’s going on there we gave Saudi Arabia (a recipient of US military aid) a nod and a wink so they sent their army to fight the protestors (which aren’t fighting back, by the way) alongside the Bahrain Police and the Bahrain Defense Forces. (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/liberalpro.rss)

What really ticks me off is the lame stream media that hardly mentions what is happening in that country. Isn’t that enough proof to make some of you believe that our news is censored? Some that do report on the developments in Bahrain say it’s an ethnic struggle which is hogwash, both Sunni’s And Shia are protesting.

We are bombing Libya and threatening sanctions on Syria. The U.S. has spent almost a billion dollars to unseat Gadhafi in order to place (someone) into power. The majority of people in this country are against further U.S. involvement in the Middle East. That doesn’t seem to faze our government that has risen to the challenge to be the “Policeman of the World”.

I’m utterly amazed at how fast the Left has come around in the United States. Almost everything I have written about in the last seven years has been accepted and understood. Sometimes I hesitate to put words on paper because I’m “preaching to the choir”. I realize that I am just one of many that have written to expose the militaristic goals of the American nation and the hypocrisy of the Democrats’.

The time has come to broaden our base. It is no longer enough to write for liberal/left websites and news outlets. The audiences of these outlets already know what the score is. I can’t picture myself writing another “Obama has stabbed the Left in the back” article. I think most of us on the Left have that issue down pat. No, it’s time to start talking to the real liberal Democrats that are probably wondering where the hell their party is taking them. The Democrats have co-opted the Right, and the Republicans have co-opted the “crazy zone”.

Most of us realize what is driving the economy. We currently spend over 50% of our budget for “defense” (in reality it is “offense” but let’s not be picky). That includes the military and that little cash cow for the Military Industrial Complex; Homeland Security. employ thousands of people to make sure nobody steals another airliner while over 95% of the cargo containers that are imported into America don’t go through any inspection at all. Maybe, and I’m just thinking out loud here, just maybe all of those thousands of soldiers and contractors in Afghanistan might be doing a better job checking some of those cargo containers. It would be a bit prudent when you consider that the Federal government has already remarked that a nuclear weapon delivered by terrorists to a major American city is imminent. They have told us, it is not a matter of “if”, but of “when”. (http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending#InContextUSMilitarySpendingVersusRestoftheWorld )

There is really only one logical solution to fix what is currently broken in Washington. Besides passing a Constitutional amendment that would eliminate “corporate personhood” and all the money corporations spend to influence the government, an easier way to end corporate rule in the U.S. would be to elect people for office outside of the corrupted two-party system. The time to start planning for this was yesterday. 2012 is not far away, and the truth is that this nation probably won’t survive four more years of corporate rule. We can only guess where the next draconian cuts will come from. The GOP (with a wink and a nod from the Democrats) is already planning to kill off Medicare.

To all of you self-described “liberals”, don’t expect to hear the truth about what’s happening on MSNBC. It should have dawned on you a long time ago that they aren’t the voice of the left or even the liberal wing of the Democrats; they are the attack vehicle for the DNC. All you really need to know about MSNBC is that they only exist to defame the GOP. The GOP has FOX, the Dems have MSNBC. Don’t expect to hear about the real issues by watching either network.

There are many Americans that are shamefully ignorant about what is really going on in Washington. It’s hard to keep up when you are working two part-time jobs to keep up with your mortgage and pay for your children’s higher education, while you desperately try to come up with the money to pay your health care premiums. In reality, that’s all you really need to know.

That well-paying full time job with benefits that you used to have, before they downsized your company and sent half of it to India is part and parcel of this “new economy”. The Tap and Pell grants that your son/daughter used to receive before they cut the funding for education is too. Think about it. That huge bail-out that the Democrats/GOP gave to the bankers to save them from their own misdeeds didn’t help you to stay above water. Especially when 47% of that money went to foreign banks! Not to say that our government did anything wrong. The top executives in the financial industry managed to gain 18% on their salaries while receiving billions in bonuses. See? That’s all you really need to know.

A troubling aspect of this whole situation is that the politicians in the White House and on Capitol Hill honestly believe that you don’t have a clue. What’s worse than that is that they are probably right. They play this game of blaming each other for the mess we find ourselves in and getting the people to buy into it. This is the game the politicians have been playing for centuries. It’s called divide and conquer. This is the bread and butter of the networks like Fox and MSNBC.

When Ron Paul announced that he was forming an exploratory committee for the nomination in 2012, I watched as CNN derided the announcement. They claimed that while Paul was good at raising money, he really wasn’t a mainstream contender and that no one should take him seriously, that he was a “fringe” candidate. Are you getting this? I would like to ask these pundits one simple question. That question is this; who gave you the authority to represent the American people?

The worm is turning. It may be an oversimplification, but I believe the political momentum is in favor of the American Left. People are tired of corporate welfare. Watching Bank of America and GE make huge profits while paying no income tax is incredibly galling to the people that are breaking their backs to stay afloat. BOA received 47 Billion in bail-out money but paid no income taxes. The oil companies made historic profits while receiving over 4 Billion in Federal subsidies. How can anyone justify this?

Meanwhile the Democrats and Republicans in Washington try to decide how much money they can cut in entitlements so that they can reduce our deficit, cuts that will be paid for on the backs of the American workers. Not only did they bail out Wall Street with taxpayer money, now they want the taxpayers to pay themselves back! Does this make any sense? Why hasn’t anyone on Wall Street been indicted for fraud? These are the questions we should be asking.

We may ask these questions, but don’t expect any answers. The political elite don’t buy into anything that remotely smacks of accountability. We received proof this week from Wikileaks that the U.S. invaded Iraq for oil. Will Bush and Co. be held accountable for the lives lost in that ill-fated war? Don’t hold your breath. Still, we must continue to demand accountability. Even Obama succumbed to pressure and released his birth certificate. On it, his father is described as coming from Kenya. That is just a little bit odd as Kenya didn’t exist until two years after Obama was born. No matter, that is a detail that will be explained away. Not the most pressing of our worries, just something to keep us all distracted while they plan their next military campaign for resources or come up with new ways to fleece the American worker.

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By Timothy V. Gatto timgatto@hotmail.com Read Tim's Book "Complicity to Contempt" and his Novel "Kimchee Days or Stoned Cold Warriors From Oliver Arts and Open Press and available on Amazon and all other online bookstores.