But Bill Maher, who has NEVER counter-commented about the Iraq war, is a mealy-mouthed creep watching carefully what he says since one of the War Mongering Corporations may want to put some money into his show. Sure the whimpy American public are guilty as sin when a loud NO was and is needed.

Why are they so indifferent to the War? You tell me what a shouting public is going to achieve? They have no amplification like a TV station, a radio show, a newspaper chain...none of whom have said anything against this war. Cusack is right...use a good and critical movie or documentary to attack the whole concept of killing a nation by proxy for bucks...a lot of bucks!

Expose and shame and indict and repeat it over and over.

The instigators in this illegal, immoral war and its kill-by-proxy ideology will one day get theirs. None of us are ready to give up or cede the Constitution of the United States to this bunch of f---ing hoodlums.

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I do not want my grandchildren to grow up under an authoritarian government. I want them to enjoy the same freedoms I have enjoyed and in some cases helped fight for. That's why, even though on a limited income, I donate a few bucks here and there to grassroots progressive candidates, stand on street corners to protest the war and walk precincts. Maher may have a point, but some of us have wakened to the fact that we must always participate in our government in order to make it work for us. Since we no longer have an investigative independent mainstream media then we have to be ever more vigilant. Thank you Mr. Cusack for being involved and using your abilities to speak out against the theives in the WH.

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For years the pentagon has made it hard to vote against weapons bills by the simple tactic of making sure that everyone gets a little bit of the contract.

So isn't that also why there is so little complaining about this war? In every district, Joe and Jane Average are putting their kids through school by working at their defense jobs. It's not just Halliburton who is paid off, but all the employees who work for them rather than flip burgers.

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Your average Joe doesn't make much off the military industrial complex let alone the contrator "war for profit" debacle. It's about the influence these "special interests" have in the form of $$ with Congress (and this Veep & Pres).

Will it change with a democrat if office...well, it CERTAINLY won't stand a chance in hell of changing if John McCain is "selected".

Kudos to John Cusack for standing up for his prinicples (which I share) and using his talents and influence to continue to shed light on what many Americans either don't want to see or can't see.

It's been obvious since 9/12/01 that this is all about the almighty $$ for those who already have it and want more, no matter the cost in human lives - Iraqi, Afghani, or American. Privatizing war makes it, as John said, a "cost-plus" endeavor. What company wouldn't want to have no-bid, no-accountability contracts with complete legal immunity to make billions from the federal treasury?

Congress and the OMB (executive branch) are responsible for oversight...and have not performed their job - either unwilling, or in the case of Henry Waxman, unable, to penetrate the web of secrecy, lies, croinism and "entreprenurial spirit" that is pervasive in our government today. The best government that corporate money can buy.

Educate yourself, speak out, talk to other citizens about these important issues, vote and take back our constitution!

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Like the truth about 9/11, right Bill?

Denial can be really tough to get past, but when you do you feel truly free.

I think that Mr. Cusack knows exactly what happened on 9/11/01.

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

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Too many people in this country believe that if they look the other way and/or make believe that wrongdoing isn't occuring, that the bad things will go away.
The same Americans complain about members of Congress and the media but continue to vote for and support the same or type of politicans and media personalities who are driving this country into the gutter. The sad thing is that Americans ignored the warning signs of things to come, including the war, mortgage crisis, corporate welfare and greed, insurance protectionism, medical malpractice, workplace conditions, education, health care, many types of hatred and bigotry promoted by their favorite political. religous and social leaders, torture and all that comes with being part of a society supporting an autocratic form of government. They pretend to support and live in a country governed by democratic principles while blaming the wrong person or persons for what's wrong.

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Clear contrast of a man and a mouse

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The "war" was won when shithead stood on an aircraft carrier deck and declared mission accomplished. The only reason we're still in Iraq is that the real reason for invasion - stealing Iraq's oil - has not been accomplished. No occupier has ever "won". The US must exit Iraq as quickly as possible declaring the "war" won and the occupation ended.

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The only reason I have time to read Alternet is because I'm retired. What are you? Students? Most poor saps in this country are corporate slaves and you know it. Get up at the crack of dawn, commute too far for a boring job that doesn't pay enough to put food on the table, much less a roof, live 100 miles away so you can afford it, then spend 60-100 dollars to fill up your tank in some cheap, ugly car that gets the same mileage no matter where it was built, then come home after the family has finished some boxed dinner and you plop on the couch and watch 30 minutes of useless feel-good drivel called the news then 30 minutes of some stupid sitcom that might give you a laugh or two, then you collapse into bed so you can repeat the process until you die. I agree with Kusac but no one is in a position to psychoanalyze or cast blame on a burned out, despirited general public. We don't have public schools that work any more, we don't have time to think critically and we don't have access to the truth. Lawyers need to get off their fat asses and fix the media with class-action lawsuits and stand up to corporate polluters, workplace issues, lobbies, and non-living wages and find ways to represent the public without bilking them out of their life's savings. Politicians have done nothing to prevent the free-flow of money from corporations to politicians' pockets. As a result they will remain as fat and lazy as they can get away with. The system is not structured in a way that allows the public to vote its conscience, with the possible exception of sports figures and actors. The corporation has absolute power because our lives depend on them and they have no conscience. The media, free press and even Hollywood are our only hope for a voice of reason and their conscience has crumbled steadily since WW2.

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I like Maher, but a cheap shot at the average American from a well paid infotainer who fully understands that "the fourth estate" has done nothing to inform the American public is completely disingenuous. He suckles at the teat of packaged news, pseudo-news and outright fear mongers and conveniently skirts the acknowledgement that big media has lobbied at every opportunity to consolidate ownership in the hands of corporations that are deep into the military-complex economy and intentionally quash anything resembling the investigative reporting or education of the public. Where is the outrage or shots at the companies that put him on the air? Where is the unvarnished truth about himself, his peers and his industry that seeks to numb the general public to what is being done in our name? If he is not part of the solution, then he is part of the problem and a bit of a hypocrite.

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We the people accept the vilification of nonwhite populations all over the world. That makes it easier for multinational corporations, politicians, and the media to exploit public opinion, and to be suckered into hating, as reflex, themselves.
Haven't you noticed that "OUR" enemies are all brown or black or yellow, and have control of resources, or strategic geopolitical location?
We the people are never going to get a handle on our own excesses until we are willing to treat "OTHERS" as we want to be treated.
It is as simple as that.

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...but at the same time, profit-driven health insurers make our oil barons and military-industrial giants look like chump changers. The cost of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq is huge, but looks pint-sized when viewed next to the cost (in lives, dollars, lost moral high ground on world stage, etc.) of not fixing health insurance in America. 101,000 Americans will die unnecessary deaths (according to study in Health Affairs, not me) and $350 billion of OUR health care dollars wasted (savings we could achieve after every American is covered reliably and comprehensively from cradle to grave according to Physicians for a National Health Program, not me)...this year alone, and every year after year until and unless we expose the truth to the American public. That's not counting millions of Americans who have been and will continue to become unnecessarily disabled, bankrupted and terrorized by a profit-driven health insurance industry that has no mercy, and whose goals are perverse and contrary to ours. Please wake up, America.

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This whole avalanche of public, light-of-day corporate malfeasance really started with Enron when we found out how much money they had given the Bush campaign and that they let him fly about the country on their private jet. It had just come out that Enron deliberately created the California 'energy crisis' as a way of selling back their energy at a greatly increased rate. Besides helping to plunge the Golden State into bankruptcy, it created false blackouts and brownouts from which people DIED! (car accidents, seniors having heat strokes, etc.) Surprisingly, no class action suit - and once Bu$hCo was elected, the issue somehow was swept under the rug and many of the now richer 'good ol' boys' walked.

So, Bu$hCo realizes that no one's going to do anything about his corporate hookups, he starts laying the plans for the war profiteers to get rich off of our dime (the ONLY thing 'W' was ever good at pre-presidency was running companies into the ground while someone else profited from it). Big Dick made sure his Halliburton was first in line, and soon they all followed.....waiting for opportunity. Then, after a record-breaking amount of first year presidential vacations, 9/11 happened. Like the Gulf of Tonkin and Pearl Harbor before it, it was 'allowed' to happen - and this time in order to start the war profiteering machine rolling.

Anyone who doubts or even underestimates this shameless and unprecedented war profiteering should see "IRAQ FOR SALE: The War Profiteers" - you should take your favorite 'troop supporting' Neo-Con friend hostage and force him to watch it. If he isn't moved, he isn't human.

Personally, I was never so repulsed by this (p)resident (with so much to choose from) as when he stood atop the bodies of Americans at Ground Zero with his megaphone saying [sic] 'I hear you, and soon those responsible will hear from us all'. Sadly, we didn't actually go after 'those responsible', but instead made millionaires of those over at Blackwater, Halliburton/KBR, CACI and Titan - all drained from the blood of 3,000 9/11 victims, 4,000+ American soldiers, and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. Bush calls himself a Christian - I know he's not - but if he has any theological knowledge at all, he should know what special HELL awaits him for these shameless deeds!

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I find it painful to watch Bill Maher. He seems so careful, so measured, as if he's been to some Orwellian re-education camp, and is concerned about being sent back there. He used to be so wonderful. Even Republicans liked him because he was so funny with what he said. Now he looks like he wishes he could say the things Cusack is saying. Cusack is great though.

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Bush has already done did that, hell he didn't even need Congressional approval to war against Iraq. Doesn't this little fact make the Constitution more or less meaningless.

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I learned these first two not too long ago while watching a congressional hearing on C-SPAN regarding complaints of poor health care provided at Walter Reed VA Hospital. (Some of us are paying attention, we just don't know what to do about it.)

1. A private contract for managing Walter Reed was handed over to a subsidiary of Halliburton, at higher costs to "we the people".

2. At least one other contract was awarded to a private, profit-driven company run by Dan Quayle (again at higher costs) to manage another large VA medical facility in the midwest (and complaints started pouring in there too).

3. In 1996 under Clinton, all veterans finally attained the right to access at least some sort of health coverage through the VA. In 2003, George Bush reclassified all Level VIII veterans (those who earn too much and don't have service-related health problems) so they no longer qualified for access to VA health care, creating an estimated 1.7 million totally uninsured American veterans (with no access to VA care either). Last I knew the number had risen to well over 2 million.

Maher is absolutely right when he says neither Obama nor Clinton will do what needs to be done on Iraq, health care, NAFTA, the environment, etc. The Democrats will be just slightly less bad than Republicans, but they will still be awful. The reason why is because they have sold us out. Obama talks the best talk, but all three (McCain worst of all) are misleading us.

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For all of the what can we do and how on earth, in the grip of these wicked powerful corporate hoodlums, how can we get it done questioners - don't despsir.

Black America To The Rescue.

Wasn't it just a week or so ago that those of us who can read, write, reason and tie our shoes agreed to engage in an adult and civil conversation about race and racism in America? (Thank you president Obama.) Well, either we had better be ready to claim the attention span of a fruit fly or an extremely shallow moral and ethical level of commitment to principles and belief if we allow ourselves to allow Bill Mahr to read from Rush Limbaugh's script and take us completely off message regarding the election of the nation's 44th president.

We the people can "dictate" to "our" president when and how to exit Iraq and the Neocon-federate Atlanta Georgia sized Embassy that is the Green Zone, rather than continue to be dictated to by the Corporation's president (Dick Cheney) and his minions, GWB et al, if we the people finance and put "our" president in the White House.

What can we do? How can we do it?
Black America to the rescue.

The Loyal GO-TO Guys are still here.

Let's turn their negative portrayal into a positive that moves us from being stuck on stupid, as we cast the spirit of racism from our national soul.

Here's the deal.

Pretend that the Criminal Hoodlums and Gangsters that conned and strong armed America out of her government, pretend that they are all Black. Now we will be able to put them where Innocent Black Men have been kept in Solitary confinement for 38 years at Angola prison in Louisiana. Search around the nation and you can find enough equally heart and gut wrenching cases to trade places with every one of the real Political and Corporate criminals responsible for the current Fascist Culture of Death that's causing more devastation being wrought on Planet Earth than Hitler and Hirioto combined.

End Corporate Welfare as we know it. Pretend they are Black and poor.

Just Close your eyes. Now pretend they are all MSN evening News BLACK guys. Now go after their WHITE asses. indict, arrest, convict, sentence and throw away the key with a vengence. We have the police forces, judicial system, physical facilities in place and years of experience. We are without excuse.

None of our Black criminals conspired to victimize whole foreign nations and our great domestic homeland. We are in $$$ recession.

None of our Black felons have ever headed up the Federal Reserve or the World Bank.

We fear 70 year old Black male Social Security check recipients, and watch them more closely in the supermarket lest they might steal_________WHAT? Housing values? 4000 youthful American lives? Lost body and soul function of multiplied thousands more or a General Election? Why are Blacks so feared, hated and locked up? Why are Cheney, Bush, Clintons and others like them free to continue creating chaos and increase global suffering?

Keep Pretending and Imagine the possibilities.


Children are Watching.
Peace

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