Quote of the day

"I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center."

--President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dwight_d_eisenhower.html#EQdeettu2JEmCjIV.99

Our national priorities

If you don't know or recognize that we, the United States, are the world's warmonger, you're mistaken.

And to be clear, I do support the troops. I just don't support this perpetual war machine and the "military-industrial complex" we've created that former President Eisenhower warned us of so long ago.

We aren't that bright.

We need to take our government back from the corporations of all kinds.

We need to kill "campaign contributions."

Quote of the day

"A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations."

--President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Quote of the day

‎"All people of all countries want peace, only their government wants war." --Former President and military General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Quote of the day

"I have come to hate war. War settles nothing." President and former General Dwight D. Eisenhower

An important video most Americans should see---but won't

The best 1 hour, 35 minutes and 42 seconds Americans will ever not see, possibly.

We got and will get the government we deserve.

Quote of the day

If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power." ~Dwight D Eisenhower, Remarks at the forth annual Republican Women's National Conference (6 March 1956)

We think of ourselves as "a peace-loving people"

Indeed, I think we Americans think of ourselves as peace-lovers and beneficent and a peace-loving people, yet, according to author John Pilger, "Since the Second World War the US has 1) Attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, most of them democratically-elected; ) Attempted to suppress a populist or national movement in 20 countries; ) Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries; 4) Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries and, finally, at least here, 5) Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders." And that's just SOME of what we've done, as a nation. We need to make it clear to all of our national leaders that this is beyond unacceptable and demand that our country stop its militarism completely and as soon as possible. It's absurd. It's obscene. The only thing it's doing is supporting the "military-industrial complex" President Eisenhower warned us of. Face it, folks, for the last 50 years, we have been the warmonger of the world. It needs to stop and the only way it will is if we demand it. Links: http://www.newstatesman.com/global-issues/2012/01/pilger-obama-war-britain; https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-War-You-Dont-See-a-Film-by-John-Pilger/164138183607202

US Priorities

Those are some sick, very misplaced priorities.

Supporting America's military-industrial complex

A good, brief and important video on America's corporations love of war--and the war dollars: We need to cut defense spending. And badly.

The anniversary of Ike's warning to us all

From The Huffington Post today: "Fifty-one years ago today, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued his final, prescient warning about the rising power of the military industrial complex. More than half a century later, we find ourselves in a political system which has ignored Eisenhower's sound advice as the influence of the war industry on our society reaches a crescendo. Nowhere is this "disastrous rise of misplaced power" more apparent than in the debate about the Pentagon budget taking place in Washington, D.C." President Eisenhower's warning, in part, to the nation: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist...Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. ...We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat." Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derrick-crowe/military-industrial-complex_b_1211388.html

We need to educate ourselves on war

Quote of the day--on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom." --Martin Luther King, Jr. Link: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr.html

Imagine that--a president, speaking on peace

We need presidents that give speeches like this, on peace and intelligence, like JFK gave and like President Eisenhower's final "military-industrial complex" speech. We are the one nation in the world that is fueling more war than any other, honestly, yet we think of ourselves as "peace-loving." We need to defuse that "military-industrial complex" and wean ourselves off the defense spending we are told we need so badly. It must end and it should end as soon as possible for our nation's sake and for the world's, as well.

Conservative, Republican Ike on Labor Unions

Eh, Scott Walker?

Andy Rooney on war

Rest in peace, Andy Rooney.

What is it good for?

Links: https://www.facebook.com/WarCosts#!/WarCosts; http://www.bravenewfoundation.org/2011/10/blog/the-myth-of-military-contracting/

The insanity of running a nation's economy on war

Put another way, why we shouldn't let the "military-industrial complex"--as President Eisenhower rightly and wisely warned us--run our government and country. "Military spending generates an industrial brain drain that consumes engineers and scientists into a black hole of manufactured explosions and destruction. Manufacturing jobs, so sorely needed for economic prosperity, are withering on the vine as war contractors throw money down failed projects, or in Pentagon-speak, research and development initiatives. In the meantime, entire constructive industries are left stagnant or unimagined." Link: http://www.bravenewfoundation.org/2011/10/blog/the-myth-of-military-contracting/

Unending War---Is this who we've become?

We won't get out until we--the people--demand it. Side note: I miss the old, intelligent Republican Party that was for a strong and bright America and that was less polarized.

Quote of the day

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group that believes you can do these things. Among them are.. a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." - President Eisenhower, in a letter, 1954. (I wonder if this still holds true.)