"Nothing demonstrates the bankruptcy of the current ruling elites than the use of torture and assassination. The fight against torture must mean a full political assault against the legitimacy of a state apparatus and its defenders, who use such horrific means as torture ,as a bulwark against those who they fear challenge their rule and privileges. It must also involve the full use of the social power of civil society (unions, churches, professional organizations), which, thus far, have remained wedded to leaderships, that will not challenge the electoral mastery of a morally and politically bankrupt two-party system..."
(-Jeff Kaye)

"The Wisconsin State Capitol has erupted in a torrent of lawlessness this week that schoolchildren will be reading about for years. No, I don't mean rowdy protests resulting in mass arrests ... no arrests have been reported. I mean the convulsion of lawlessness that has seized Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republican leadership – a track record that would make Richard Nixon proud."
(-Mary Bottari, Wisconsin's Center for Media and Democracy)

"He remained in his cell, naked, for the next seven hours. At 5:00 a.m. ... PFC Manning was forced to stand naked at the front of his cell ... PFC Manning has been told that the same thing will happen to him again tonight. No other detainee at the Brig is forced to endure this type of isolation and humiliation."
(-David Coombs, Manning's lawyer)

"And here's the big gap between the people and the politicians. The public wants to raise more money by cutting the military and by taxing the wealthy, taxing wealthy estates, taxing corporations, taxing alcohol, taxing soft drinks, taxing hedge fund managers' income, and by charging a crisis fee to large banks. A plurality of 49% of the public also wants to tax carbon dioxide emissions. A strong majority does not want a sales tax. The White House and Congress, in contrast, prefer a combination of going into debt and slashing basic services. The public reduces the deficit dramatically. The President increases it, and Congress leaves it about where it was before."
(-David Swanson)

"Today, we see the Obama administration continuing the legacy Nixon started: by declaring whistleblowers as enemies of the state. It is a sad and dangerous day for transparency advocates everywhere."
(-David House)

"I am hugely grateful for the widespread condemnation of the brutal treatment I encountered, two weeks ago, for exercising my First Amendment rights. It strikes me as an empowering example of what we can do, together, in standing for Justice and against the violence of war. If Defense Secretary Robert Gates is spared arrest when he acknowledges the folly of committing U.S. troops to a land war in Asia, we too should be spared arrest and brutality at the hands of those for whom the Constitution is merely a piece of paper."
(-Ray McGovern)

"We will not stop the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, we will not end this slaughter of innocents, unless we are willing to rise up as have state workers in Wisconsin and citizens on the streets of Arab capitals. Repeated and sustained acts of civil disobedience are the only weapons that remain to us. Our political system is as broken and dysfunctional as that once presided over in Egypt by Hosni Mubarak. We must be willing to accept personal discomfort, to put our bodies in the way of the machine, if we hope to expose the lies of war and blunt the abuse by corporate profiteers. To do nothing, to refuse to act, to be passive, is to be an agent of injustice and to be complicit in murder. The U.N. report estimates that during the two-year period it studied almost 1,800 children were killed or injured in conflict-related violence, but numbers can never transmit the reality of such suffering."
(-Chris Hedges)

"With the U.S. economy in the tank, and governments, at all levels, facing massive budget shortfalls, politicians left and right, are seeking ways to curb spending. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants to eliminate collective bargaining rights, and the decent pay, that goes with them. President Barack Obama's budget includes, halving the home-heating oil subsidy poor households depend on. As Republicans and Democrats propose cuts in programs that actually benefit their increasingly impoverished constituents, though, they agree there's one area of the budget that's not to be touched: the annual $3 billion subsidy U.S. taxpayers provide to the Israeli military."
(-Medea Benjamin; Code Pink For Peace)

"The question shall arise in your day: which shall rule, wealth or man? Which shall lead, money or intellect; who shall fill public stations – educated and patriotic free men or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?"
(– Edward Ryan, Chief Justice of Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1873)

“Many people don’t understand our country’s problem of concentration of income and wealth, because they don’t see it. People just don’t understand how much wealth there is at the top, now. The wealth at the top is so extreme, that it is beyond most people’s ability to comprehend. If people understood just how concentrated wealth has become, in our country, and the effect it has on our politics, our democracy, and our people, they would demand our politicians do something about it…. Top 1% owns more than 90% of us combined…. 400 people have as much wealth as half of our population.”
(-Dave Johnson)

Few TV watching, U.S. tax-payers seem to realize that this authoritarian, Koch-slut, Gov. Wanker, from Wisconsin, has purposefully engineered a phony budget crisis, specifically to bust-up the unions, on behalf of his fascist, campaign-funding, bosses, the owners of Koch Industries. The ultra-conservative, censor-happy, rightwing, Palin stronghold, of Ohio, seems to be passing some corporatist, anti-union measures, too. That's the state that helped rig the second Bush selection. Most all of these conveniently cooked-up, financial-issues of various state governments, could easily, be assuaged, simply, by ending the war in Afghanistan, that two-thirds of Americans oppose, in spite of all the pro-surge misinformation; and/or, by simply, making the uber-wealthy, Wall Street, monopoly-owners pay a fair share in taxes. Duh. It's the same old "Shock Doctrine" that Naomi Klein's been clearly identifying, for a decade. Obama seems more and more like a seat-warming empty suit, maintaining seamless continuity, with the Bush/Cheney agenda. Incarcerate the poor, spread endless war, justify torture, with a shrug. Dick Nixon may have hated the whistle-blowers of his era, but even notorious crook, Tricky Dick, never had Dan Ellsberg held in solitary for nine months, humiliated daily, facing the death penalty, and forced to stand naked for hours, at a time, like Obama's appointee, Gates, is currently doing to Bradley Manning, who is accused of embarrassing the U.S. war-machine, by leaking footage of U.S. forces unapologetically slaughtering reporters, children, and civilians, video game style, in the "Collateral Murder" video you've all seen on Youtube. He's not been tried, but under Obama's renewed Patriot Act, the U.S. government asserts it will hold anyone, anywhere, for anything, indefinitely, that human beings have no rights. War criminals are protected and promoted. Truth tellers may be tortured, at will. Many Americans still think he closed Guatanamo, and ended the war in Iraq, but, sadly, no.

The past decade has seen "Brave New World"-style martial law, taking steady grip of this country, in slow increments. Hence, the eternal "boiling frog analogy". The USA's steady march towards totalitarianism--the warrantless wire-taps, pissing in cups for minimum wage jobs, being sexually molested in our airports, cops tasering citizens, taxation without true representation, etc., has been expanded under the Wall Street Gang currently occupying the White House. The Congress is owned and operated by a small handful of share-holding, lobbyist-employing, campaign-financing, trillionaires, corporations, big polluters, and shadow elites. Misinforming, to divide and conquer, is their primary tool of oppression. Fool the slaves into fighting amongst themselves: house slaves versus field slaves. The power-elite are experts at this. It's all become child's play. Left versus right, red versus blue, pay no attention to Mister Burns, behind the curtain. Control the Media, fool all the people, all the time. The corporate propaganda and big-media cover-up's not only trick these misguided middle-class rubes, racists, and blue-collar conservatives-but even former liberals, old punks, and ex-hippies, have stopped asking critical questions, as well. They've pulled popular-opinion so far to the extreme right, that Nixon would seem liberal, today. Information's been so tightly restricted, guarded, revised, photo-shopped, and manipulated since corporatist Bill Clinton's 1996 Telecommunications Act/NAFTA one-two-blow to democracy, that even self-proclaimed liberals now spew rightwing jargon. The big-media is permanently embedded with their weapons of war-manufacturing parent companies. So what we are told is lies, hoopla, balderdash, bullshite. Day-in, and day-out: Like the rumored existence of a so-called, "liberal-media".

They intentionally keep us diverted, and in the dark, only vaguely, aware that some real bad shit's been going down. The economy is not screwed-up because the bleeding-heart, philanthropic, Congress spent too much money, helping poor people-but that's the bullshit narrative, jack-hammered into our brains, each day, by Talk-radio jackasses, and corporate news-whores. Distract the masses with plastic, gutless, Aspartame-laced music; string 'em all out, on insurance company/big pharma prescription-drugs with numerous side-effects. Program generations to unknowingly train for war with murder-glamorizing, violent movies, and video games, capitalizing on religious and racial prejudices. Cultivate an atmosphere of wanton credit-card debt, foster needless competition, induce senseless desire, and craven consumerism, with non-stop commercials and marketing everywhere we look, branding, selling war, selling tyranny on monopolized radio and cable TV propaganda. Decades of gradually dumbed down, prime-time "adult-cartoons", voyeuristic policestate- normalizing shows, like, "Cops", and "Bounty Hunters", and endless pro-war programming shows like, the torture-glorifying, "Twenty-Four". Distract the nation with electronic gadgets, "Dancing With The Stars", "Overhauling" (orgasm-inducing Oprah giveaways for dudes) and "American Idol". Slander public figures who speak out against torture, or the war, or TSA gropings-persecute them, prosecute them, vilify them in the mass-media, convict them in the court of popular opinion. Abuse their names constantly, on all big-media outlets. (Hi Sean Penn! Hi Charlie Sheen! Hello, Dixie Chicks! What's happening, Oliver Stone?) Spy on all electronic communications, purchases, medical records, income-streams, social networking sites, and all the books people read. Defund schools, libraries, voter registration groups. Systematically, disenroll, and defund, all government-assistance programs for the poor and disenfranchised. Brainwash the dwindling middle-class to blame the poor, by always implying taxes are used, predominately, to care for the poor, perpetuate the ever-popular "welfare mother in the Cadillac" stereotype, made so sexy by Bush Senior, insisting to baby-booming home-owners, college graduates, and small business-owners, that all their hard-won tax money's going to aid deadbeats, loafers, slackers, students, immigrants, illegal drug-users, and minorities, and not to the multiple, big-oil occupations, kickbacks and tax-breaks to our common oppressors, and to the gargantuan, top-secret, "Homeland" police-state apparatus. Attack all unions, advocates for the poor, enviornmental groups, civil-rights groups, Millions Against Monsanto, and women's rights organizations. Throw the book at activists. Incarcerate non-violent, drug-offenders, by the millions. Privatize prisons, ratcheting-up paranoia and fear of immigrants. Outjail China. Outspend China, many, many times over in limitless military waste. Expand preposterous drug war, until every last person of color is imprisoned, and laboring for free, out of the view of the public. Occupy Muslim nations. Claim the war is over, while continuing to wage war, daily, on the people of Iraq, at a cost of six million bucks, a day. Carefully control the big-media. Fire all anti-establishment, anti-war voices. 'Bye Phil. See ya, Keith. Make an example of truth tellers, like Ray McGovern, and the "Don't taser me, bro" honor-student, who received no apology from anyone, after being savagely roughed-up, for asking billionaire, Senator John Kerry, some hard questions. Control debate on colleges. Put R.O.T.C. back on campuses, allow military recruiters to target kids. Infiltrate the liberal party, take-over the air-waves, demonize traditional, moral, progressive, humane, and religious values. Manufacture content, and consent...redefine "unions", "peace activists", "liberal", "green", and "progressive" in the corporate media, instilling negative connotations, through round the clock repetition. Outlaw dissent, intimidate and spy on peace activists, entrapping Muslims, fondling travelers, zapping them with dental x-ray radiation levels, keep people's DNA, file naked body imaging scanners photographs. Do away with the Geneva Convention, the Hague war-crimes court, and the Bill Of Rights. Legalize torture. Torture and degrade whistle-blowers for leaking human rights crimes. Justify assassination of civilians. Allow mercenary-contractors and cops to kill, and brutalize, indiscriminately, with zero repercussions, except, occasional paid-leave, pending internal investigations=vacations. Use high-tech/secret/military weaponry on the domestic population. Renew all the big contracts with Blackwater and Halliburton, allowing them to just play shell-games with ownership, and chronic rebranding/name changes. Allow the military and KBR employees to rape, freely. Give huge tax cuts to the super-rich, while Palin and Beck babble on about "shared sacrifice", rewarding the exact same people who manufactured the Wall Street Crisis, and received billion dollar bail-outs, bonuses, and golden parachutes, while the vast majority struggles just to barely get by, helpless, criminalized, serfs, in desperate servitude. No Wall Street prosecutions, no investigations of the Bush bunch, B.P., or white collar banksters="turning the page". Unleash attack dog, fake, liberal pundits to mock and discredit anyone who questions the official stories. Use electronic voting machines to control the elections. Plant radical right wingers on the Supreme Court. Have the military's psy-op's experts bullshit members of Congress. Forbid third parties from participating in electoral debates, having access to the big-media, or appearing on ballots. Dislocate millions through foreclosures, predator lending schemes, mass lay-offs, and constant urban/suburban development, jacking up rents, demolishing all affordable housing, replacing it with impossibly upscale condos. Uh-huh...It's gotten mighty grim, Jim.