ColbyDog's Blog

"Slacktivism" (alternative spelling "slactivism") is a fusion of the words "slacker" and "activism," and UrbanDicationary.com defines it as "the act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem." 

It refers to ersatz acts that people perform that they have somehow come to believe are full of meaning, like slapping a magnetic ribbon on your car to "support the troops," wearing a colored rubber wristband to "fight cancer," or refusing to buy gasoline on a certain day to protest high gas prices, instead of, say, actually changing your lifestyle to use less gas.  

Are you a Slacktivist?

10 minutes, five days www.democracynow.org 
speak truth to power Bash... post your views...
I'll listen courteously and respond honestly.

What is your perception of this independent media 's headline selection and news coverage?

They stream an hour long broadcast M-F at 10a central if you have a player...  If you don't, they have transcripts and downloadable mp3 files...check it out. The first ten minutes are headlines followed by fifty minutes of featured stories... I think its what journalism and news is supposed to be... with interviews of the actual newsmakers... not spin-zone liars and talking heads with opinions... sure its left of the dial... and needs to be taken with a grain of objectivity... but in my opinion, I learn more truth in ten minutes than in a week of Mainstream Media.... 

see what you think and tell me. 8^)

NYTimes headlines today uncover a disturbing trend in the judicial branch of our government.
Since Bush assumed power and placed corporate justices throughout the system,
there has been a measured shift in how justice us served in America.

In a major shift of policy, the Justice Department,
once known for taking down giant corporations,
including the accounting firm Arthur Andersen,
has put off prosecuting more than 50 companies
suspected of wrongdoing over the last three years.

Instead, many companies, from boutique outfits
to immense corporations like American Express,
can avoid costs and "bad press" going to court
to fight criminal charges by instead taking a
deferred prosecution agreement,

This new facet of Bush Justice allows the justices to impose a fine (bribe)
and appoint an outside monitor (private contractor) to "oversee" collection
and any reforms - without going through a public trial.

In many cases, the name of the contractor and the details of the agreement are kept secret.
Most real American citizens will still have their day in court,
and have to follow those pesky laws and public scrutiny.

But the new Bush Judicial Branch can legislate from the bench with activist judgements!

Hey is'n't that bush-speak for what the democrats were gonna do?

Well as the Bush Administration leaves office and faces dozens of investigations into corruption...
and the nation faces serious economic challenges with the sub-prime mortgage industry...
and our nation begins to awaken to the corrupt business practices that have destroyed our health,
wealth, environment and status abroad...GOPers are busy stuffing envelops with $100 bills
in preparation for their day in -- er -- or not in court!

Bush buddy John Ashcroft says bribes are a good idea because they "avoid destroying entire corporations".
He's been busy since going private... serving up justice to the Supreme Court as his new company has been
getting those "monitoring" jobs and now... instead of corporations facing public scrutiny and potentially large fines...
they just pay the former head of justice - Ashcroft a few bucks, and carry on!



... gee, and here I was always taught that the bad guys go to jail.

Not so in the new world order... justice is served
with a side order of retroactive immunity
and a generous helping of "states secret".



and a no-bid private contract ...
would you like yours, shaken, stirred?
or just water-boarded!



...perhaps a side of detention and police state?


Is this the kind of justice you GOP fiscal conservatives call honest?

Justice for citizens (and thats very debatable)
Meaningless fines and business as usual for Corporations

Lifetime appointments shifting control of the Supreme Court...
that shakeup of Justices and Attys General scandal...
all those new bankruptcy laws and corporate shelters...
the privatizing of everything from soldiers to road workers...
makes you wonder why we say they stole the elections...

Before you run to FOX and CNN for talking points
perhaps its time to finally admit there might have been an agenda
that Cheney had in mind when he anointed himself VP in 2000.

Right wingers always cry conspiracy... paying your buddies $51 million dollars
to collect small fines and see to it that Monsanto, Merrill Lynch, Halliburton and Pfizer
"clean up their acts" for criminal actions that cost citizens billions and cause untold additional damage
then keeping it all a secret to the public and "safe from damaging Corporations"... may seem like GOP justice,
but it looks like a crime to me.

Many smart HONEST people, are saying it will actually encourage corporations to violate MORE laws...
Because its cheaper and more confidential to just get caught and pay fines than to be honest and law abiding....
Ashcroft and friends will be busy making millions, while the Judicial Branch withers,
and taxpayers foot the bills.

Are you sorry you voted for these thieves yet? There is still time for Impeachment.
Every day we say no... they move one step closer to their new world empire
and America moves closer to economic collapse.

Ask yourself, when Bush and Cheney say they support American Citizens
Just which Americans do they mean? Corporate Citizens? Cuz ain't you and me...

The Brass Monkey and Lyin Crock-o shiite took to the hill to spin more yarn about our war of terror in Iraq.



Sung to the Thin Lizzy tune...

Guess who went in front of Congress today?
Those two-faced boys that had been away
Haven't changed much of what they say
like man, those cats are crazy

They were being asked to expound
How Iraq was, whether WMDs could be found
They told us it were safe, living downtown
dodgin all those mortars in the green zone town

The brass are back in town, the brass are back in town

You know that schtick about success
Spewing lies for the corporate press
Man when I tell you they was cool, they was red hot
I mean tellin lies as truth-they was a spinnin'

That day on Capitol Hill, on cspan and the pundit circuit
Well this congress chick got up and she yelled in Patraeus' face
Man the media all went to commercial break
If the media don't want us to know, we'll forget her

Tuesday morn they'll be dressed to kill
duded up with their suits, shiny stars and frill
The lies will flow about the blood they spill
Cuz these boys want to fight, and congress' gonna let em

The brass are back in town, the brass are back in town

They'll tell us the surge, it worked great-
ignore the mortar fire blowin up all over the place
Increase our troop strength, it won't be long
It won't be long till they'll do the same in Iran
Now that the Brass is here again

The brass are back in town.
their lies, the media expounds

Will justice ever be found?

the brass is back

.....  the brass is back

China's Olympic Logo Contest was won by the national policy enforcement squad

Heres a look at the "Making of an Olympic Logo!

enjoy!

Surprise Surprise...
Yesterday the White House admitted it destroyed all the hard drives
that contained White House E-mails from 2003-2005.
We will likely never know of all the criminal activity
perpetraited by these crooks in office
and their corporate henchmen.

What should be done to a group of politicians and corporate lobbyists
who have constantly been accused of illegal activities that clearly border on being treason....
who've now destroyed the evidence?

According to the people who committed the crimes,
who are now newscasters on television every day,
we should do nothing... Surprise!

What about their television audience...
the ones who still defend these traitors as heroes ...
will they continue to defend their right to ignorance?

Will they say if there ain't no email- then there ain't no crime...
when do the obvious "coincidences" finally add up to the crime
that everyone else on earth knows exists?

or do we even care?... we will soon... when the going gets tuff
but will it be too late?

what do you think?

FOXviews this morning "broke" the story that Venezuela's Chavez is seeking Uranium for a Dirty Bomb!!!  ARE THEY INSANE? or are their viewers so gullible they'll actually BELIEVE this?
  
Why aren't citizens of America demanding we arrest these liars, crooks and terrorists rather than allowing them to become TV SPOKESPEOPLE?
 
Its beyond surreal to watch the "news" and see Tom Delay, Karl Rove, Bill Kristol, Frank Luntz join such criminals as Oliver "drugs for hostages" North and the paid stoolies like Ann Coulter, Rush Limpbaugh, Bill OReally and Sean Hannity who dare to speak the words "fair and balanced! "

- If anyone deserves a secret detention and a kangaroo court with death sentences, its this crowd and those left in the whitehouse... not the six "terrorists" who after five years of torture in Guantanimo are being executed before Bush leaves office. 
anybody watching here? anybody care?

The Bush Administration is Shutting Down a Major Website that Tracks U.S. Economic Indicators to Keep Citizens Ignorant of the Disaster Ahead!

The U.S. economy is failing. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has exploded. So the Bush Administration and its GOP henchmen are attempting to draw attention away from the upcoming crisis, by blaming the media's negative coverage and STILL insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what most every economist is predicting.

The Bush administration's latest move is to simply hide the data. Even as Forbes Magazine awarded EconomicIndicators.gov one of its "Best of the Web" awards, explaining the government site provides an invaluable service to the public for accessing U.S. economic data:

This site is maintained by the Economics and Statistics Administration combining data collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, like GDP and net imports and exports, and the Census Bureau, like retail sales and durable goods shipments. The site simply links the data of relevant departmental websites. While this might not seem like a big deal, try "doing it yourself "- Try to find retail sales data on the Census Bureau's site and tie it into the GDP figures, it will convince you why this website is so valuable and important.

Yet the Bush administration has the audacity to claim "Budgetary Constraints" have forced them to shut down the site March 1st ! It's a bit more than ironic that the Economic and Statistics Administration is facing such constraints considering Bush just submitted a record $3.1 trillion budget to Congress for FY ‘09.

The site's Economic Indicators were automatically tabulated from several sources and emailed to anyone who signed up. People received a free email as soon as new economic data from government agencies became available. While the data will still be available online at various federal websites, it will now be the users responsibility to ferret out the information buried deep in dozens of government websites. It will be much less readily accessible to the general public.

In its e-mail announcement on the closing of Economic Indicators, the Department of Commerce acknowledged the "inconvenience" and offered a "free" quarterly subscription to STAT-USA/Internet instead. BUT once this temporary subscription runs out, the public will be forced to pay a fee.

So not only will economic data be more secret, it will now also cost money just to see it.

The Bush Administration is so certain that the economy is collapsing, it plans to hide the indicators from the already distracted and despondent consumer masses. It might be smart to take your "economic stimulus rebate" and start buying Silver friends.

(story gleened in part by a post from Amanda at thinkprogress.org)

Gee, the poor oil companies really need our government to help bail em out...
they can't afford to build refineries and can't afford to pay their taxes
so Ole George 'Oilcan' Bush got em all exempt and subsidized.

We're facing tuff times friends... the economic downturn has hurt us all...
and the price of a barrel keeps going up... heh heh

Why these poor oil folk gotta feed their children just like the rest of us...


this graph shows the top five oil company profits since oilcan Bush assumed the throne.


Since theres no global warming or peak oil shortage... 

why are we helping them at all?

and can I get some of this help too?

I could use a few billion... heck at this point
I'd settle for a few hundred thousand 

8^)

Tuff Talk on Earmarks but what about signing statements

pResident Bush delivered his final State of the Union address on Monday and even before the champagne corks went popping in the GOP section, Bush's Tuff Talk was spun into more lies and deception.

In what can only be described as calculated distain for the nation he serves, an arrogant pResident triumphantly stood before a nation of people who's economic prospects stand in ruins but for those who chose to ignore the basic tenants of our Constitution, human rights and divine doctrine to join in his world-wide pillage. Ever jubilant, this cheerleader/actor delivered the opening monologue to this, hopefully the final act in the saga "Death of a Nation". With but 355 days of this tragedy left, Bush and his corporate sponsors have quite the finale yet to perform.

Not wasting a moment, even his SOU was filled with lies and deception. As he smugly twisted fact to fiction, he sounded almost like a good President. By his account, he has worked hard to create a peaceful middle east, his policies have strengthened our economy, schools and environment. As he spoke it seemed even he enjoyed reading his script and who could blame him, for his entire cast of players were assembled before him, except for those who were spirited away in the previous scenes. And though half the room was scripted to sit somberly though his monologue, he seemed eager for an oscar performance.

As he spoke about all his accomplishments and visions, he sternly spoke of a need for this Congress to step up for the economy. He demanded they pass his stimulus package as-is; that they support his Defense Act with no addendums, earmarks or loopholes. Tuff Talk from our 'Uniter' pResident indeed!

But as he continued, with fools-grin, demanding Congress agree to stop adding pork to all the important bills yet to come in his final days, he quietly and confidently, knew of a loophole with the power of Kryptonite to Superman, that he was prepared to use-again (more than any President in history) were they to not heed his demands. A loophole granting him absolute power and eviscerating the three branches of government... his Executive Signing Statement.

The next day, following his rejecting Congress' first version because it could have "opened the Iraqi government to pursue expensive lawsuits against US Corporations", he decided to sign the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act into law... even with sections he did not approve. Because he would simply add a Signing Statement to waive the parts he didn't want.

One such provision sets up a commission to probe contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another expands protections for whistle-blowers who work for government contractors. A third requires that U.S. intelligence agencies promptly respond to congressional requests for documents. And a fourth bars funding for permanent bases in Iraq and for any action that exercises U.S. control over Iraq's oil money.

In his Statement, his "Memorandum of Justification" for the waiver, Bush cited his Nov. 26 "Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship" between Iraq and the United States as justification to ignore these provisions.

Oddly though, the "Liberal" Mainstream Media... has done little to report his grievous dereliction of duty- which certainly was worth a headline if not a front page intro. No, even though his Declaration of Principles has been aggressively opposed by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress as not-only unprecedented, but also potentially unconstitutional because it was enacted without the agreement of the legislation branch, the media remains conspicuously silent.

What gives?

Throughout his presidency, Bush has issued more than 151 signing statements challenging 1149 provisions of laws.

How is it that this lying deceiver can again get away with hood-winking the American Public with Tuff Talk and not less than 24 hours later, go back on his own stern words... without so much as a peep from the press???

We read the law is passed that says no permanent bases, mandatory legislative branch oversight, speedy responses from Bush Administrators to congressional document requests and protection of whistle-blowers... and he eviscerates it all with an Executive Statement... and then to boot... he adds he will not tolerate any legislature that seeks to control how the oil money is controlled!

And are we really to believe that if Congress denies his "Retroactive Immunity" requests for Telcoms and all Bush Administration Personnel effective 9/11/2001... he won't just issue another Signing Statement that the MSM will conveniently forget to report?
Liberal-bias my arse!

The Center for Public Integrity just released a scathing database study listing all the times a Bush administration officials made false statements about the threat from Iraq, WMDs and AlQaeda connections, leading up to the Bush-bred invasion. There are 935 entries immediately available for the public to search and scrutinize. The CPI chairman Charles Lewis said the project took nearly a year to complete, and was systematic in its construction.



He stated "We took a two-year period, from September 11th forward, and tracked eight officials, including two White House press secretaries, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, the pResident and the Vice President, looking at all their statements, and interlaced with various fine journalistic accounts, like Bob Drogin’s and others. We looked at government reports, Senate Intelligence Committee reports, the Duelfer Report—you name it, we have all those reports in there. We have whistleblower accounts, the most credible ones, Richard Clarke, of course, and many others. And we wove that into the chronology, so you know what they’re saying at the time, and you know what they are actually discussing privately, hearing and thinking behind the scenes. And it’s very useful, because then you get to put it all in context. "

This database is likely become the "deep throat" of the Bush Administration...
only ironically it comes from the crooks themselves this time.

Already news agencies and governmental offices and the international community are connecting the dots- when things were said and how they became embroidered into consensus. Its going to become quite clear exactly who manufactured the charge for war and how they duped Congress, the Press, our allies and citizens into believing their lies.



As Lewis said "the public has never really seen all this woven together. Most people don’t connect the dots. We felt it was useful for the public to know. "

Dozens of White House coverups and scandals continue to unfold. Last week officials admitted deleting more than 5 million emails and deliberately erasing backup and archive tapes. Karl Rove and his second laptop which he used while acting as King George's "Merlin", magically lost all its eMails too when commanded by court and congress to testify. Yes even ex-Press Secretary Scott McClellon's book comes out stating Cheney told him to lie about the WMD intelligence. Overseas, the UK press is clamoring about a document it wants declassified that too shows the evidence of WMDs was contrived and in that case, the author was found dead days after news was disclosed.



While it seems all the rats are abandoning ship, there's still one "fluffing" Bush, his pinup girl, press secretary Dana Perino, who's been giving blondes a bad name with her "blond-ness" shining through in her press conference as she tries to do damage control only to be "punked" by CPI Chief Charlie Lewis- boooyaah!!!

look at this video!

The right-wing chickenhawk pundits, liars and GOP Congressmen might be fluffing their feathers today...
but lets see who's flapping in a couple weeks!

Today an interesting chart was released showing the state of the union today compared to when Bush took office in 2001. Yes its one perspective... but several statistics are hard to fudge and given the collapsing economic news throughout the globe, its gonna be hard to "spin" this on in favor of the GOP.


sorry, I don't have access to the footnotes and sources-but show us otherwise.

Today more allegations that the Bush administration has lost or deleted millions of classified emails were leveled. For years, the Bush administration alleges it relied on an inadequate archiving system for storing the millions of e-mails sent through White House servers, but newly uncovered facts say the White House scrapped the custom archiving system that was ordered by federal court during the Clinton administration. Also,from 2001 to 2003, the Bush White House recorded over computer backup tapes erasing the last line of defense for preserving e-mails, even though a similar practice landed the Clinton administration in legal trouble.

As a result, several years' worth of electronic communication have been lost, including e-mails documenting administration actions in the run-up to the Iraq war, the Valerie Plame incident, both election fraud debacles, the ENRON case, Abermof and the whole special prosecutor scandal to name a few...

As usual, White House officials said last week that they have "no reason to believe" that any e-mails were deliberately destroyed or are missing. But over the past year, they have acknowledged problems with archiving, saving and finding e-mails dating from early in the administration until at least 2005.

The administration's e-mail policies have been repeatedly challenged by lawmakers and open-government groups, in congressional hearings and in court. Two groups, the National Security Archive and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, have accused the White House in lawsuits of violating the Federal Records Act because of what they say is its failure to preserve millions of e-mails, a charge the White House rejects.

Controversy surrounding the Bush administration's policies intensified on Thursday, when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released details of a briefing by White House special counsel Emmet T. Flood, in which he disclosed that a 2005 White House study had identified 473 separate days in which no electronic messages were stored for one or more component offices.

In the presidential offices, for example, not a single e-mail was archived on Dec. 17, 20 or 21 in 2003 -- the week after the capture of Saddam Hussein. According to the study summary that the committee released, e-mails were not archived for Vice President Cheney's office on four days in early October 2003, coinciding with the start of a Justice Department probe into the leak of a CIA officer's identity, which later led to criminal charges against Cheney's chief of staff.

This e-mail controversy echoes the GOP-led witch-hunt that rocked the Clinton administration a decade ago, when GOP-led congressional probes found that thousands of White House e-mails had been lost, spending nearly $12 million to retrieve missing e-mails for congressional investigators from backup tapes.

The GAO report concluded that Gore's office "did not implement adequate records management practices to ensure that all e-mail records generated or received were preserved in accordance with applicable law and best practices."

By the end of Bill Clinton's presidency, White House officials said the problem had been solved. But shortly after Bush took office, his administration began taking steps to phase out the system. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel would not comment on why the back-up/archival system was eliminated.

In April, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino referenced the e-mail software change in answering a reporter's question about millions of lost e-mails alleged by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive. "I wouldn't rule out that there were a potential 5 million e-mails lost," she said. "There was no intent to have lost them."

Now, true to form, the White House appears to have changed its stance-again. "We have no reason to believe that any e-mails, at all, are missing," spokesman Tony Fratto said Thursday, before declining to answer further questions Friday.

move along, nothing to look at here, just your typical Bushdespot in action
- step lively -next on our tour- the ancient artifacts we formerly cared about: the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Welcome the new "Information Gas" Station

Last week, Time Warner confirmed its plans to test a new Internet pricing system that would charge a "pay-as-you-go" rate for high-bandwidth consumers. Perhaps you wondered why Time Warner was "giving" away access to their services the past year? How the company could offer such affordable pricing for their combination voice/data/tv packages and stay competitive was certainly a question I asked myself. But one look at the fine print and it became obvious- "Introductory pricing subject to change at any time without prior notice". The media giant could tighten its profit margins for a a year in order to squash the competition. Their gamble worked for millions opted for the convenient combined services and "up-front" savings. Now that most smaller providers have either closed their doors or been gobbled up by big media, Time Warner's "real features" are being rolled out...

Democracy only works when the masses are able to access information, review it and make informed decisions about their government's policy, authority and laws. When access to, or presentation of this information is restricted, denied, or filtered, democracy is dead. Of course the other part of the equation is that the society must seek to maintain a literate and educated citizenry to be able to accurately question authority, but thats a topic for another post.

Now that Time Warner, along with its four other corporate media companions, has sequestered an overwhelming market share, it announced that it will explore charging by the megabyte for broadband... like Gasoline- pay-as-you-go.




Now we citizens will be "charged by the gallon" to access information on our own public airwaves! Just like oil that comes from under our public lands is sold back to us at ridiculously profitable rates, so too will access to our own information now become the next oil boom for a precious few mega-corporations.

Before we go and blame the greedy Time-Warner we really need to examine how such policy could be permitted. The Federal Government is in charge of the internet and has final say on content and delivery through the FCC. But don't shoot the messenger for delivering the message... its not the FCC in masse thats to blame, but its Kevin Martin and his Bush appointed majority commission who's dismal record of protecting our nation's airwaves and content from abuse.

Even then its hard to ferret truth from fiction when you listen to Big Media sing the blues. Cable companies claim to have limitations on how much traffic they can support. Some Internet service providers have claimed that the only way to manage their networks is to disconnect customers when they cross a mysterious line of ‘overuse’ or by secretly blocking applications like BitTorrent which directly crosses the line of stifling competition.

Time Warner will chill innovation in cutting-edge applications because consumers won't pay extra to use them. Viewed in the context of our long-term national goals for a world-class broadband infrastructure, telling consumers they must choose between blocking and metered pricing is a worrying development. But why are these the only choices?

Why not use public policy and market forces to improve the quality of our networks? The best answer to any capacity crunch is to build the kind of high-capacity networks available in the world’s leading broadband nations. If smart, open access policies and genuine competition are working in Asia and Scandinavia, why not in America?



Because Kevin Martin is running the FCC and he's a big friend of corporate media...surprise!... so not-only is he giving away our airwaves and allowing unprecedented consolidation of radio, tv, internet and telecommunications, but his organization hasn't conducted any oversight or posted any statistics alerting the public to how ridiculous the claims by cable companies are. The US has fallen to nearly the bottom of the world's developed nations for internet speed, while costs are the highest.... yep, the very nation that invented the internet, is now one of the worst places to manage it.

Listen to the cable giants, they'll say "filler-up and get your complimentary content filter".

Besides- who's gonna report the facts-the corporate news?

Once again the Bush Administration shows those watching... that they could care less about our planet and the things that live on it... Except for THEIR interests and need for "national security". Bush policy has long been suspected of having ulterior motivation - either that or they are the most incompetent and inept group of businessmen to ever steal their way into power and bankrupt the most technologically advanced culture in modern history...

Today yet another example of how the neo-con need for funding its defense contractor buddies outstrips any care for citizens, animals, nature or protection of the planet's resources. How far is Cheney willing to go ignoring environmental law when it comes to his personal piggy bank, the principal shareholders of the multinational energy, defense, monetary and chemical corporations?

In today's resource-righteous right-wing reality, fear trumps sanity, and protection from fear- permits atrocity.

Yesterday in an all-to-typical split decision of the 9th circuit appeals court, right-wing judges placed by this administration and its predecessors, decided to overthrow a lower court's decision to uphold the ban on the military using a new sonar device in its submarines that is so powerfully loud, that it has clearly been proven to harm undersea life! -Its also the first presidential override honored since a 1972 law gave states the right to review federal activities that affect their coastal resources.- but clearly no legislating from the bench here.... just acting out marching orders.



One can only assume that the Bush administration's "intelligence" fears AlQaeda is plotting an attack underwater... Presumably Cheney's intel-experts have "undeniable proof" that Bin-Laden has been building " a new breed of silent-running submarines" in mountain caves of Tora Bora... Maybe using that yellow-cake that Valerie Plame's husband "discovered". Or maybe that earthworm gear thingy from that Clancy novel starring Shaun Connery...



They must have classified satellite imagery of these submarines being transported by sherpas down the mountainsides, hundreds of miles across the desert to the Straits of Hormuz where they are no-doubt being deployed to attack our fleets- but of course they can't actually SHOW US them cuz it risks national security and all!

So of course, we must take action... and rather than using all the unbelievably superior surveillance equipment we (as the most technologically advanced nation on earth, who spends more on defense in a year than the entire planet does in three) must utilize an experimental -and no-doubt expensive- killer sonar, regardless of the fact that the blasts emitted from it can kill sea life because of its "sophisticated" technology.

Well I for one am not ashamed to say these TERRORIST EXTREMISTS in office are neither sophisticated nor honest. They have motives that again clearly show they don't care about anything but taking taxpayer money from the middle class, since they exclude wealthy and corporate citizens, and giving it to themselves via their corporate defense contracts.

Nevermind that polar bears have trouble swimming in oils slicks and really need that ice-cap to live on. Nevermind that whales, who's TRUELY sophisticated sonar has allowed them to talk to eachother across thousands of miles underwater for millions of years... No, Cheyenne wants to use some neanderthal sonic club to boom out an image so his undersea mercenary soldiers can spot the terrorists so bent on killing americans that they'd rather build sophisticated submarines than create electricity or running water where they live.... AND WE BUY THESE LIES!

Never have so many been so stupid for so long... but its not for the ruling elite not trying... this brilliant stupidization of the voter public, this consumerization of the citizenry of our nation has been long in making and vast in its execution... why even radical changes in planetary weather and plague-like disfunctions of insects, plants and sea creatures have not swayed the spell cast upon us. Vast exposés of their criminal antics are turned into conspiracy theories and the whistle-blowers have their character assassinated and are put to shame...

So on we go... now killing ever-more animals in our NEED for more advanced weaponry...

Like old W coulda said,

"ya never know how they'r gonna hit cha... hee hee
so ya gotta git-r-done up right - in advance... see...
cuz thats the a-mar-i-kan way .... see... wooohah! ... heh heh"

alright I took liberty to poke fun at our foolish nation and its ridiculous ways... so sue me.