LOUD whining

Jon Stewart says we're too loud & we should get a life. CODEPINK in particular was singled out, using a fairly well known image of bloody (painted) red hands confronting a lying war criminal in a congressional hearing. Click here to support getting Medea Benjamin invited on the Daily Show.

Then the vice president claimed today that people just need to stop whining. He followed it up with a whopper about how much the president has changed things since taking office. Or maybe he meant to say how much the president has changed since taking office. Oh, wait, he said only Democrats need to stop whining. Phew.

Minimizing the informed voice of concerned citizens is all in a day's work for these clowns.

Meanwhile Ethan McCord is in Europe answering journalists who wonder why no major news outlet in the U.S. interviewed him to corroborate the "Collateral Murder" leaked video. I've heard Ethan speak, and he speaks softly but with a powerful truth.

The mass media's job these days is to drown truth in a flood of meaningless information.

There are things to be very concerned about. Here is my LOUD WHINE list:

Israel has boarded yet another humanitarian ship bound for Gaza, the Irene, and confiscated relief materials carried by its international Jewish aid workers. The U.S. says and does nothing. Israel could board a ship in international waters and kill people, and taxpayers would continue sending them billions in credits to buy U.S. made weapons each year.

Drones continue bombing civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and are now patrolling the border of the U.S. & Mexico (and soon the Canadian border as well). My neighbors do not appear concerned about robot killers filling the skies at their expense.

There is no jobs program other than the military for low income youth. Immigrant youth are pressured into enlisting in order to earn a green card. Legislation to pour more billions into the war industry sails forward year after year, creating a sea of red ink for decades to come. The deficit, however, is blamed on programs like social security that fund themselves.

Public education is ever more unequal, underfunded, and under attack. Those in charge of dismantling local control of education demand more rigor while withholding more funds from schools in low income areas. For rigor read more standardized testing.

The FBI kicks down doors and confiscates digital resources from peace activists. The people in power make no mention of it, so it must be ok. Ditto the unlawful detention of Muslims on the grounds of crimes they might have commited, in special prisons where they are incommunicado.

Hate radio sounds more and more like Rwanda before the genocide. The concept of freedom of religion guaranteed by the 1st amendment to the Constitution is held especially cheap. Racism and sexism are rampant and unabashed. Death threats against “liberals” are commonplace and viewed as entertainment. Financiers and corporate interests fund media outlets that exploit the angry, broke, confused masses by deflecting their anger onto scapegoats.

Ok I am done whining. For the moment.