End Times Propaganda and a Voice of Sanity

Recently I heard a radio news report that CNN ran a serious news report asking if we are in the "End Times." I found it rather odd that a mainstream media outlet would devote serious resources to covering conjecture and fringe pseudo religious prophetic movements.

Therefore, I decided to do a bit of research to sample how wide-spread the "End Times" movement is. A Google search of "End Times" yielded 4,370,000 results. What many of these sites have in common is a conviction that the end of the world is near and Christ will soon be returning to raise up the "true believers" via the "Rapture" (11,900,000 Google results).

There may be something comforting in believing that the end of the world is near and only people "like me" (or people who think like me) will be saved. It frees one from critically thinking about the right and wrong in the world and in our government’s policies, actions, and inactions. After all, if God and Jesus are going to take care of me and the coming Apocalypse is being driven by divine guidance, why should one fight for peace? We might as well just let the Jews and Muslims pound each other and ignite WWIII.

I personally find this all very disturbing, particularly when one considers that our Evangelical in Chief helped orchestrate an elective war in the heart of the Middle East. Are the "End Timers" in seats of power intending to do what they can to bring about Armageddon in the near future? Are they actually working out a self-fulfilling prophecy? If so, I suspect Hell has a special room reserved for what the band Black Sabbath called the "War Pigs."

During these times of trial and tribulation, I heard an inspirational voice of sanity call out from the wilderness.

"The United States spends nearly $30 billion annually on nuclear deterrence, including strategic and tactical nuclear weapons and missile defense systems. That's about the same amount we spent, on average, during the Cold War that ended sixteen years ago.

Our nuclear stockpile today includes nearly 10,000 warheads. Their destructive force would stack up against 150,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.

Meanwhile, according to the experts, as much as $13 billion could be cut from U.S. nuclear spending each year without compromising our national security or our standing as the world's strongest nuclear power.

We think those funds would be better invested in programs that benefit America's children.

Just $1 billion a year would be enough to fully immunize every two-year old who has not already been vaccinated against preventable childhood disease.

$2 billion annually could provide health insurance for 1 million of America's 9 million uninsured children.

$5 billion a year would allow us to cover Head Start for every eligible child not currently enrolled in the program.

It's as easy as pie to visualize the possibilities...

We believe there's ample opportunity in the Federal budget to do what's right for America's kids.

Don't you?" - Ben Cohen

Will we choose to fight for peace? Will we choose to work hard to leave the world better than we found it? Or will we give into the dark temptation to let the world go to hell? The choice is ours.

Will America Lead?

America Needs Leaders with Focus

Tony Trupiano is the Democratic challenger to Thadeous McCotter in Michigan's 11th Congressional District. Tony is an outsider working very hard to unseat an incumbent who has consistently voted with George W. Bush.

Tony Trupiano is dedicated to fight for the great American middle-class. He believes it is time that "We the People" have leaders who honor and value the working people of America.

Here is Tony's plan for National Security:

1 - "Fix the Iraq Mess - We must fix the mess in Iraq so we can get back to fighting the war on terrorism - specifically finding Osama bin Laden and destroying Al Qaeda."

2 - "Fix the American Mess - hurricane Katrina showed that the federal govt. is not prepared for another natural disaster or terrorist attack no matter what the politicians say."

3 - "Fight for our Military - We owe it to those putting their lives on the line to give them armor and resources they deserve."

America, the choice is ours, we can have business as usual, or people working and fighting with a logical plan to keep America safe!

Will America Lead?

"I thought you were going to ask about the pig."

This evening I was watching "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. Jon was covering the President's European press conference. In comic coverage, America's Commander In Chief managed to use the word pig in response to three different questions..

In his "thank you for inviting me to Germany" intro GWB mentioned how much he looks forward to his promised pig meat. "I've been told I might even get to cut the pig." The second went something like, "I'm looking forward to that pig."

I was sitting on my couch watching these clips and I began to wonder if this leader of the most powerful nation in the history of the world knew that Muslims and Jews do not eat pig. This is one of the few items they both agree on. I soon realized that Bush has topped himself. He managed to piss off fundamentalist Jews and Muslims in the same press conference.

That said, Bush's third response takes the cake. In answering a pointed question about his take on the Isreali, Palestinian, Lebanon sitation our Supreme Leader stated, "I thought you were going to ask about the pig." With a stand-up routine like that, it appears our leader is auditioning for a comedy career. But, his jokes seem to be lost on the europeans. Not to worry. The hometown press usually laughs along with his "jokes." As Mel Brooks said, "Its good to be the king!"

Will America Lead?

Antitrust?

I was recently reading a bit of American history and have become more convinced that American politics is cyclical. We are over-do for a shift in the political landscape. As Bob Dylan sang. "The times they are 'a chang'in."

Periods such as today remind one of the robber-barons era of the late 1800s. Back in the day, Teddy Roosevelt carried his famous "big stick" and busted up the trusts. Later, with the government acting as an honest broker, organized labor helped to raise the standard of livings of millions of workers.

It has been demonstrated time and again that periods of ever increasing concentrations of wealth and the political control of the many by the few lead to widespread disenchantment with the status quo. Often, this disenchantment leads to political action to break up the massive conglomerates that are choking the American dream.

Thankfully, antitrust laws still exist. Today, enforcement of antitrust, worker protection, and whistleblower laws is minimal. In addition,Bush's tax cuts for the richest and massive mergers and acquisitions in the financial, defense/homeland security, energy, and communications industries all point to a dangerous concentration of power in a very few hands.

Bush's FCC has been especially lax in providing oversight of the communications industry. The Bush FCC has encouraged massive mergers and acquisitions, and basically rubber-stamped all deals. Texas based AT&T is just one very large example.

The recent WoldCom and Enron demises points to a need for greater government oversight over industry, not less. Instead, we get massive corporations in strategic industries. This is not a capitalistic free market. It is an oligarchy/monopolistically structured economy. The corporate control of the economy does much to stifle true competition and discourage entrepreneurship.

Hopefully, enough Americans are searching for a better way. If so, I trust we are about to witness a concerted attempt to bring some measure of accountability and transparency back to Washington DC. Will the 21st Century Teddy Roosevelt please stand up?

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I Think Somebody’s Watching Me

I tried something new this evening. I tried the “Google Maps” search and got some interesting results. I recommend you try some key word searches.

I searched under “QuestionItNow” and was a bit disappointed that there were only five hits. Very interesting, all five were linked to QuestionItNow comments at ConyersBlog.US. Of all the links, I found the Republican State Committee of Washington to be most helpful. They linked to one of my favorites.

Thank you Washington Republicans!

Comment #2: REB 84
said on 11/4/05 @ 4:38pm ET...
Dear Congressman Conyers,

It is about time more Democrats joined you to stand up and said enough is enough. The only way to defeat lies and misinformation is by speaking the truth and demandin g straight answers from those in power.

Once again, when confronted with uncomfortable truths, the neo-con establishment is attempting to deflect attention from the real issue. The outing of Valerie Plame was a criminal act that has made America less safe!

Valerie Plame-Wilson was involved in helping to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of America's enemies.

Instead of focusing on uncovering and prosecuting traitors within our government, the right-wing talkers have begun to attack the prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald by asserting - unchallenged by many so-called news people - that he and his grand jury are engaging in the "criminalization of politics."

When politicians commit crimes isn't politics criminalized by their actions? This is the real criminalization of politics. Aren't all Americans victims of this crime against national security?

Keep fighting to keep America safe and strong!

REB 84
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