Coast Guard to review exercise after Potomac security scare

Security incident on Potomac River prompted by “training exercise,” two police sources say Coast Guard told them.

With the nation already on edge and somewhat paranoid on September 11 each year, what is the LAST thing you want to do?  Hold a training exercise and fire shots for an audience of passersby, near one of the casualties of the real 9/11 sites.  CNN:

• Story Highlights
• Obama reportedly left Pentagon about the time incident began
• Coast Guard tries to prevent boat from entering Potomac River secure zone
• Incident occurs near Pentagon, where president was observing 9/11 anniversary
• Coast Guard fires 10 shots, unconfirmed reports say

This distraction would have been a great opportunity for a real terrorist with a real target to go unchallenged.  Interesting that CNN was the only network on top of the story while it was breaking news.

CONGRESSMAN BACHUS STATEMENT ON PRESIDENT OBAMA’S HEALTH CARE ADDRESS

Fines proposed for going without health insurance

WASHINGTON – Americans would be fined up to $3,800 for failing to buy health insurance under a plan that circulated in Congress on Tuesday as divisions among Democrats undercut President Barack Obama‘s effort to regain traction on his health care overhaul.

Just as auto coverage is now mandatory in nearly all states, Baucus would require that all Americans get health insurance once the system is overhauled. Penalties for failing to do so would start at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families. Households making more than three times the federal poverty level — about $66,000 for a family of four — would face the maximum fines. For families, it would be $3,800, and for individuals, $950.

Baucus would offer tax credits to help pay premiums for households making up to three times the poverty level, and for small employers paying about average middle-class wages. People working for companies that offer coverage could avoid the fines by signing up.

The fines pose a dilemma for Obama. As a candidate, the president campaigned hard against making health insurance a requirement, and fining people for not getting it.

Is Spencer Bachus a “birther”?

As Obama talked strategy with Democratic leaders at the White House, the one idea that most appeals to his party’s liberal base lost ground in Congress. Prospects for a government-run plan to compete with private insurers sank as a leading moderate Democrat said he could no longer support the idea.

The fast-moving developments put Obama in a box. As a candidate, he opposed fines to force individuals to buy health insurance, and he supported setting up a public insurance plan. On Tuesday, fellow Democrats publicly begged to differ on both ideas.

Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama) predicts that the Social Security Trust Fund could be running a deficit as early as next year.

“[This development comes] at a time when…the federal government is having to constantly increase spending for [Medicare]; when we’ve expanded SCHIP, which is a children’s healthcare program; when we’ve added new healthcare benefits for the unemployed, all of which jeopardize those who are paying into Medicare and their benefits,” he points out.

Myths and Falsehoods About Health Care Reform

Five myths about health care around the world

Mandatory Health Insurance

The individual mandate is a requirement that all Massachusetts residents over the age of 18, for whom available health insurance is affordable, obtain and maintain health insurance that meets minimum coverage requirements beginning July 1, 2007.

Individuals who cannot show proof of health insurance coverage by Dec. 31, 2007, will lose their personal income tax exemption when filing their 2007 income taxes.   The 2006 personal exemption is $3,850 for an individual, which translates into a tax savings of approximately $204 for an individual (5.3 percent of $3,850).

Failure to meet the requirement in 2008 will result in a fine for each month the individual does not have coverage. The fine will equal 50 percent of the least costly, available insurance premium that meets the standard for creditable coverage.

As long as the hatred of Obama drives the Republican Party, critical issues will never be given a serious debate or consideration.  The hate mongers, so popular during the Bush era, are flailing their arms and blowing fire at real governance.  They shout socialism and communism accusations to blow life back into the embers of the cold war, hoping to  rekindle their own credibility.  They are no longer credible.  Time has passed their relevancy by.  The new terror is the misinformation and disinformaton they spew to plant doubt onto truth.  Truth is always ellusive, but dissing it before it can be vetted is just like the mis informed comment most often told is that in 1899 the head of the U.S. Patent Office sent his resignation to President McKinley urging the closing of the office because “everything that could be invented has been invented.” It’s been told and retold so often that even President Reagan used it in a speech. US patent office closing rumour was a hoax at best and misquote at worst. But as an urban legend it was a hit.  Republicans love to invent legends and claim they are true.  This is what they are doing right now to “get rid of Obama”.  Republicans have put their craziest, most radical, most hateful foot forward again.  Regardless who suffers the most, they just want the “old days” back where whites were supreme and entitled to more than anyone else.  To hell with the rest of us.

Rumor had it that, back in 1899, U.S. Commissioner of Patents Charles H. Duell declared that everything that could be invented had been invented. In actuality, Duell’s supposed comment and his recommendation that the Patent Office be closed down proved an urban myth. Of course, that didn’t prevent the metaphor from being abused by pundits or by presidential speechwriters.

Photos courtesy of LA Times photo slide show.

Photos courtesy of LA Times photo slide show.

The Ayatollah who thinks he’s Allah has visions of grandeur.  If Khamenei has received a “divine message”, one would wonder if he heard it right.  Khamenei behaves as though he is infallible, is he guilty of pride and arrogance? Hadith Qudsi, Allah says: “Greatness and Pride is my cloak (My qualities) whoever claims to have these, I will enter him into the fire of hell”.  How long can Khamenei get away with mutating Islam to his own benefit?  He appears to interpret a very narrow, self serving view of the words Muhammad brought from Angel Gabriel.  Why are there so many clerics in Iran who have taken on the cloak of arrogance without regard to the clear, UNEDITED words Muhammad spoke. Khamenei thinks no one can see through his con?  He deludes himself that his personal gratification is holy and cannot be questioned.  Allah gave his words to his prophet Muhammad, showing great disdain for pride and arrogance.  Khamenei rules for himself and not the words Allah gave to the Prophet.

The children of Abraham all have disdain for the sin of pride and arrogance as written in the Quran, Torah and Bible

“God elevate s a person who is humble for the sake of God, but whoever tries to exalt himself, God humiliates him”. In addition, we are told by Allah (swa) Himself that He “does not love the arrogant”.

Allaah, Almighty, Says (what means): “I will turn away from My Ayaat (verses of the Quran) those who behave arrogantly on the earth, without a right, and (even) if they see all the Ayaat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons signs, revelations, etc.), they will not believe in them…” [Quran; 7:146] and (what means) “… truly He likes not the proud.” [Quran; 16:23]

Photos courtesy of LA Times photo slide show.

The Prophet also said: “The Fire complained saying: ‘I am the dwelling of the arrogant and the tyrants’.” [Al-Bukhaari and Muslim]

Al-Bukhaari and Muslim also reported that the Prophet said: “Allaah will not look on the Day of Judgment at him who drags his robe (behind him) out of pride.”

Then, Abu Bakr said: “O Messenger of Allaah, one side of my robe slacks down but I am very cautious about it (i.e. I raise it).” Thereupon, the Messenger of Allaah said: “But you do not do that out of pride”

Pride is an inner bad moral that makes the afflicted with it see himself “above” the others due to the perfect qualities and attributes that he “believes” to have.

This is a very dangerous flaw that afflicts so many people, even some ascetics, scholars, and worshipers of Allaah. Surely it is so dangerous because the Prophet stated that he who has in his heart the weight of an atom of pride will not enter Paradise.

Pride deprives the prideful person from Paradise because it prevents him from acquiring the qualities of the believers, for he cannot like for the believers that which he likes for himself, nor can he be humble, or avoid animosity, envy, or wrath, or restrain his anger, or accept good advice, or refrain from despising and backbiting people. In short, he is subject to all blameworthy morals.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen during his meeting with Iranian lawmakers today.

Photos courtesy of LA Times photo slide show.

And (what means): “They said: Shall we believe in two men like ourselves…?” [Quran; 23:47]

On Pride, Arrogance And The Superiority Complex

Arrogance. The daddy of all sins, the characteristic found in history’s most villainous beings, the reason behind the downfall of Satan and the root of all spiritual sicknesses. It is also the most despicable trait found in man. No one likes an arrogant person. We dislike those individuals who look down at others, those who think they are superior to others in terms of looks, intelligence, status or piety, those who are convinced that they are right whilst everyone else is wrong, those who can not speak without praising themselves, those who belittle or talk down to others and have huge egos. Since we strongly detest this trait, it makes sense that we scrutinize our own characters and check whether or not we possess the very same thing that we can’t stand in others.

Iran arrests 70 professors after meeting with opposition leader

Mashallah, protesters!

The son of the bigot who stormed the U.S. Holocaust Museum issued an apology yesterday to the family of slain guard Stephen Johns – and he called his father’s actions “unforgivable.”

Erik von Brunn said father James von Brunn‘s racist and anti-Semitic views had tormented his family.

“His views consumed him, and in doing so, not only destroyed his life, but destroyed our family and ruined our lives as well,” he wrote in a statement obtained by ABC News.

“For a long time, I believed this was our family’s cross to bear. Now, it is not only my families’ lives that are in shambles, but those who were directly affected by his actions, especially the family of Mr. Johns, who bravely sacrificed his life to stop my father.”

The son had a message for those who sympathize with his dad: “What he did was an act of cowardice.”

“To physically force your beliefs onto others with violence is not brave, but bullying. Doing so only serves to prove how weak those beliefs are. It is simply desperation, reminiscent of a temper tantrum when a child cannot get his way.”

Simmering beneath the surface of social conduct is a cancer that permeates personal and often, public decisions.  Targeting a segment of society to take the brunt of personal frustrations is classic Scapegoat behavior.  Scapegoating is a tool in the hands of political and public conflict.  It is easy to unite any group when you can target a specific group to be cause of distress, then label them as the enemy. PublicEye.org offers an in depth, well researched definition of this social condition.

The ritualized transference and expulsion of evil is a familiar theme across centuries and cultures.⁴ In western culture the term “scapegoat” can be traced to an early Judaic ritual described in the book of Leviticus in the Bible. As Gordon W. Allport explains:

The term scapegoat, however, has evolved to mean “anyone who must bear the responsibility symbolically or concretely for the sins of others,” Richard Landes explains. “Psychologically, the tendency to find scapegoats is a result of the common defense mechanism of denial through projection.”⁶ This mechanism is a powerful and effective psychic defense despite its destructive effects on a society.⁷

Scapegoating has two main versions:

personal misconduct ==> guilt ==> displacement toward scapegoat

frustration ==> aggression ==> displacement toward scapegoat⁸

The actual process is complex.⁹ Frustration does not always lead to aggression, and the aggression can be directed in a rational way towards constructively overcoming the obstacle creating the frustration.¹⁰

One cannot, however, take the psychological model and directly apply it to a sociological model.¹¹ As psychiatrist Susan Fisher explains, the mechanism of scapegoating within a family-a well-studied phenomena-does not necessarily work the same way as the scapegoating of groups on a societal level where “the scapegoated group serves more as a metaphor,”¹² Scapegoating by large groups and social movements is not an indication of mass mental dysfunction, even though there may be psychological issues involved, and even though some of the individuals involved may suffer from a variety of psychological problems.¹³ Recent research on the subject suggests the phenomena is more complicated than commonly pictured, involving several personality types and multiple psychological processes.¹⁴

Herman Sinaiko observes that “The most decent and modest communities have people in their midst who are prone to scapegoating and who see the world as run by conspiracies. A healthy community is organized in a way that controls them and suppresses their tendencies. When a community is in crisis, the standards and control mechanisms are weakened, and these people step forward and find their voice and an audience.”¹⁵

We witness scapegoating every day.  People find it easy to lay blame for their personal problems on:  immigrants, gays, blacks, whites, Hispanics, males, females, children, elderly, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Chinese, Russians, Democrats, Republicans, the rich, the poor, liberals, conservatives … the list is endless.  Today’s economic condition breeds more extremist behavior.  There must be retaliation against perceived causes for frustration and anxiety.  Whether it is assassination of figureheads, like Dr. Tiller or general lashing out at iconic symbols like the Holocaust Museum, extremists justify their violence by scapegoating.  To take revenge on a symbol is a form of Attribution Theory.  Bigotry is a form of tribalism that has long outlived its usefulness. This planet has few places left designed to support tribal philosophy.  Fantasy drives idealism!  Idealism of shaping the world and its occupants to your own liking is a child’s fantasy.  Domination of nature has resulted in today’s environmental crisis that threatens to starve the world.  Domination of nature has been condoned and encouraged by most religions, especially the founding patriarch of middle eastern religions, Abraham.  The following links contain psychological definitions for symptoms describing the pandemic of mental illness, threatening the fabric of society today, called terrorism.  The pandemic of hate group, terrorist mentality is a global event that threatens the sanity and survival of humans everywhere.  Terrorists are the ultimate symptom of devolution, or backward evolution, into revenge solution mentality… “Blame The secret of success is knowing who to blame for failures – Demotivator“.

A question of race

Stereotypes

Ultimate Attribution Error

Dilution Effect

Out-Group Homogeneity

Contact Hypothesis

Schema

Three Dimensions of Power

Psychoanalytic theory holds that unwanted thoughts and feelings can be unconsciously projected onto another who becomes a scapegoat for one’s own problems. This concept can be extended to projection by groups. In this case the chosen individual, or group, becomes the scapegoat for the group’s problems. In psychopathology, projection is an especially commonly used defense mechanism in people with certain personality disorders.

If you educate yourself to the symptoms surrounding the condition that causes hate group behavior, you will contribute to a healthier society.  If you can influence those who surround you to see their situation in a more practical, productive way, you may diffuse one extremist at a time.  The mental illness pandemic is a daunting “group think” condition that threatens all of us.  Any one of us can become someone’s scapegoat for any reason.  Adhering to the “I am right and the world is wrong” attitude nurtures the mental illness of hate.  Hate is the blindness that can destroy civilization.  The source of hate must be the focus of treatment for the mental illness pandemic that is spreading among us.  Do not confuse hate with healthy, constructive opposition that actually promotes progress.

Anti-Burma government demonstrators gather for a protest outside the embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, May 19, 2009. (AP / Sakchai Lalit)

The world is clamoring for the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi as she faces a mockery of a trial in Rangoon’s infamous Insein Prison. But Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the man at the helm of the Burmese junta, remains unmoved. And so it seems increasingly certain that Suu Kyi will be spending the next three to five years behind bars—world opinion be damned.

FACTBOX: Key facts on Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi

ASEAN says Suu Kyi trial a “grave concern”

Myanmar looms over Europe-Asia meeting

South Africa concerned over Suu Kyi’s arrest, urges her release

NYT  Editorial:  Myanmar’s Cowardly Generals

Pro-Democracy Leader Goes on Trial in Myanmar

Six days to Free Aung San Suu Kyi

The hypocrisy of ‘being concerned’

Excerpt from commentary: I am concerned because I don’t think the plethora of “concern” that is being echoed around the world will achieve anything meaningful for the lady in concern.

I am also concerned about the usually vocal members of the foreign press corps. Has one standard dropped and another popped up without us noticing? Their silence on the matter has been deafening.

This is a democratically elected leader of a severely oppressed country whose people have long suffered under the heavy boots of the military junta. A leader who was not only robbed of her election victory but of her basic human rights for decades, who is now facing a real threat of being tried unfairly and put away in jail for five more years. Where is the outcry from the foreign media? Where are the articles and high-minded opinion pieces condemning the undemocratic elements? Where are the lectures and derision?

The truth is that democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi should never have been placed under house arrest and no country should be “working” with the military junta that took power by force, save to make them relinquish their grip. It is quite puzzling how the world press is ready to heap scorn and pressure on a half-baked democracy like Thailand’s and refrain from applying the same kind of heat to a fully-fledged dictatorship like Burma’s. Maybe they think it is an exercise in futility because the Burmese generals won’t care. But that would then be an act of hypocrisy.

And the Burmese people can’t afford any more hypocrisy from a world that preaches democracy and human rights protection. The country and people have been made to put up with too much for too long. The Lady has been fighting a lonely battle for nearly two decades. She is 63 years old now. She won’t be there as the best, brightest and most inspiring symbol of democracy in this wretched country forever. Her unjust and unjustified trial which will probably end in her renewed incarceration is the best chance for the democracy-loving international community to act on what they preach. China, in particular, can use the occasion to redeem itself from the bloody Tiananmen crackdown.

Free Aung San Suu Kyi!

Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is seriously ill, locked up by the brutal Burmese regime on new trumped up charges.

This cruel maneuver comes days before her 13 years of detention expires and will keep her jailed until after the 2010 elections. The only ‘crime’ she committed was to peacefully call for democracy.

Burma’s brave democracy activists are calling on UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to secure all 2,100 political prisoners release — he can make this a condition of any renewed international engagement. We have just six days to get Ban Ki Moon’s attention — the petition will be presented on May 26th. Sign the petition below and forward the email. [CLICK HERE]

Suu Kyi’s trial may end sooner than expected

• Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on trial with American John Yettaw
• Yettaw is charged with violating the conditions of Suu Kyi’s house arrest
• Suu Kyi’s supporters say charges are an excuse to extend her house arrest
• 9 Nobel peace prize recipients call on U.N. chief to take the issue to Security Council

The world has shamefully watched the injustice perpetrated upon an icon of Democracy for over 13 years.  The world has been criminally complacent over the hijacking of a whole country that elected a democratic government in 1990. WTF!  Where are all those noisy democratic advocates?  Where is America, the Grand Democracy Evangelist?!  Burma is a police state run by the equivalent of what GWB would call an “evil dictatorship”.  The world watched Burma/Myanmar totally screw up one of the biggest natural disasters in recent history.  What did the world do?  It moaned and groaned and complained.  A smattering of tiny sabre rattling took place, then faded out.  The world has demonstrated that it just does NOT care.  The middle east crusade is the game of the day. The promise of a democratic society was totally ignored and tossed in favor of more profitable engagements … like oil.  Who really profits from Myanmar’s corrupt dictatorship …. China?

Aung San Suu Kyi: Myanmar’s democracy face

• Aung San Suu Kyi arrested and charged with government subversion
• The charges come after American John Yettaw allegedly tried to reach her house
• Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years
• Daughter of Myanmar’s first PM, she founded democracy movement in 1988

World Agenda: sad truth is nothing much has helped in Burma

Burma on Trial:  It is not Aung San Suu Kyi who is in the dock, but the junta

The neighbours have at last spoken out. The Association of South-East Asian Nations yesterday expressed “grave concern” at Burma’s treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi and warned the junta that the “honour and credibility” of the Burmese Government were at stake. Such criticism of a fellow Asean member is rare from a body notoriously mealy-mouthed and happy to turn a blind eye to the frequent human rights violations committed by most of its members. The suspicion must be that Asean was tired of being lectured by the West and angry that the trial of Ms Suu Kyi has again underlined Burma’s total indifference to the opinion or goodwill of its partners and allies.

The words may be welcome, but they express only a fraction of the outrage felt around the world at the cynicism, mendacity and brutality of the generals determined to silence the potent voice of democracy until well after the sham elections due next year to confirm their hold on power. Governments, statesmen, writers, public figures and ordinary people have been moved by the courage and tenacity of the isolated, vulnerable woman who has stood up to years of bullying intimidation without wavering or compromise.

Why do we see the best coverage for the plight of this shameful treatment of a Democratic Icon in editorials around the world, instead of headlins on front pages?  Where is the “Righteous Indignation”  that prompts ACTION?  This is a huge blemish on the pockmarked face of today’s world.  The few brave journalists who struggle to report accurate news are faced with a terrified population that knows they can be jailed, or worse, for speaking out.  The world’s media needs to be spanked for not making this a headline issue for countries to act upon!  Has China got the cat’s tongue? Is news media allowed to breach it’s ethics again?  For the United States, the hypocracy is glaring … eager to prop up sleazy dictators to do its bidding but slow to respond to a Democratic Leader in distress! ?

The people of Burma welcome strong words from world leaders and other prominent figures, including Suu Kyi’s fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates. But what they really want to see is action—action that will set the stage for real change, and not merely perpetuate the status quo. Action that can only come from the United Nations.   On Friday, the UN Security Council finally issued a statement expressing “concern” about the political impact of recent developments relating to Suu Kyi. The statement stressed the “importance of the release of all political prisoners” and the “need for the Government of Myanmar to create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue” with the democratic opposition.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assailed the military junta during a Senate budget hearing, charging it was “outrageous that they are trying her, and that they continue to hold her because of her political popularity. “

Is the Real Target Hamas Rule?

The likelier result of a destruction of the Hamas infrastructure, then, would be chaos, anathema not only to the people of Gaza but also to those hoping for peace in southern Israel.

Al Jazeera: Gaza In Depth

Tel Aviv rally decries Gaza assault

America’s Hidden Role in Hamas’s Rise to Power

Stephen Zunes, AlterNet - ForeignPolicy: No one in the mainstream media or government is willing to acknowledge America’s sordid role interfering in Palestinian politics.

Hamas in the eyes of an expert

Hanan Ashrawi, the prominent Palestinian politician, is cautiously optimistic about the impact Barack Obama, the US president-elect, and his administration will have on the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

“We have a disastrous situation of a leadership that doesn’t know the meaning of a graceful exit,” Ashrawi said.

“… I must caution against any type of unrealistic optimism … right now the Israeli public is moving to the right.

Palestinian peace negotiator Hanan Ashrawi said that she does not accept Israel’s argument that it is acting in self-defense.  “Israel is an occupying power,” Ashwari said in another interview with CNN on Monday.
“In Gaza, they’ve been under siege for months now, deprived of the most basic needs. … And now Israel has decided that if the victims do not lie down and die quietly, it’s going to shell them relentlessly from the air,” she added.

UN Secretary General calls for immediate stop of Gaza operation

EU Officials to Head to Mideast Amid Israeli Ground Offensive

Arab and International Efforts Needed to Save Israel and Hamas from Their Predicament

Raghida Dergham – Israel and Hamas have set traps for themselves and for each other; these traps will bring about dangerous repercussions as the escalation in Gaza lacks a clear-cut objective and an exit strategy. Both sides need help to escape this predicament.

Israel’s Insane War in Gaza

Patrick Seale – Israel’s war in Gaza is an act of political insanity. It is the product of a deeply disturbed society, able neither to curb its military arrogance nor calm its profound paranoia. The consequences are likely to be painful for Israel’s long-term prospects.

The never ending conflict and war over Gaza, the Palestinians and who is responsible for what, has ruined a whole people.  The land was what it was about at first.  Now it is the principle.  People just get in  the way.  After Israel’s party is over, what has been accomplished?  Hamas, on a good day may be defeated, or castrated.  But, in its place will be another angry mob with another name, with the same objective.  What is the objective, after all?  Well, there was this fairy land called Palestine … people were fairly comfortable with their hard won status.

Palestine Before WWI

The anti-Semitic climate in Europe in the 19th century had much to do with the influx of Jews into Palestine, a situation that was largely responsible for the beginning of civil and religious unrest there and the subsequent involvement of some of the world’s most powerful nations. During the early to mid 1800’s, Palestine was held by the Ottoman regime and while the elements of interaction between the Palestinians and the Ottomans were tense, this period served to develop for the Palestinians a number of survival strategies that were built around the Ottoman system of political and economic power.

By 1840 major changes on the civil level were already underway in Palestine.  The Palestinians themselves were becoming more comfortable with state institutions and the burgeoning economy that was created by Muhammad ‘Ali’s influence also created new opportunities for the Arabs. Both the 19th century and 20th century colonization of Palestine introduced and generated the development of capitalism and ultimately Palestine’s position of political and economic significance to other countries.  By the time the British took Palestine in 1918, they had already been formulating its purpose as a stepping stone to gaining other regions as well as a Zionist outpost.  At the very same time that it was playing Zionism against the Arabs, The British were utilizing Arab nationalism against Turkey.  In order to elicit the help of the Palestinian Arabs against the Turks, the British promised their independence after World War I.  To gain the assistance of the Jews, the British promised them a national home.

It is very interesting to see the twists and turns of Foreign Policies as nations change their minds.  Palestine is but one example of how manipulation, betrayal and changing alliances can damage credibility.  Credibility is too soft, hypocrisy is better.  Recent headlines reveal how modern media can totally ignore how this disaster came to be.  Conveniently ignored is also the mental deterioration of a nation.  From sympathetic holocaust victims to followers of a pathetic policy of holocaust, starting with creation of the Palestinian Ghetto,  Israelis are acting out their personal vision of the cleansing their homeland of undesirable people, because they are in the way of Zion and they fight back.

Israelis need a country.  Palestinians need a country.  The never ending tug of war morphs with new reasons for violence.  Each appear to consider that there is not enough land or property to accommodate both peoples.  The historical play book illustrates how genocide solves problems.  So!  What will be the outcome.  The 1950s, B-Movie nature of this conflict is that an unlikely hero will emerge to slay the monster …  Oh my!  Who is the monster?  The ones who started it all back at the turn of the century, or the ones who are living it now?  What makes this a world problem is the Arab World could take sides and inspire Israel to push that button we deny they have.  Iran stays eerily silent …

Depleted uranium found in Gaza victims

60,000 Jordanians march for Gaza

Muslim states cold on Gaza talks

Iran: Gaza will become Zionist cemetery

Iran questions Western human rights talk

Gaza and the rise of the Fourth Reich

America’s number one waste is War and Occupation.

America’s number two waste is War on Drugs.

Media loves scandal.  Americans have a morbid fascination with the weaker side of human nature.  America enacts laws, mandates  and Constitutional Amendments to remind Americans what is right and what is wrong in civilized society.  Bibles, Korans (Qurans) and Torahs lay out specific guidelines for righteous behavior.  Even though many Holy Books contain passages that are vague and contradicting, they are used as torchlights,  justifying “righteous” human behavior.  Laws do not forgive human weakness, but many Holy Books do.  If a perpetrator finally “sees the light” or shows convincing remorse they are forgiven.  Laws, both civil and religious, are meant to make social interaction tolerable.  Humans are social beings by nature.  Restrictions, whether real or imagined, whether social or personal, sometimes go against primal human impulse.  Most of these restrictions target the three components that scandals are made of. Money, Sex or Abuse of Power are the ingredients for Scandal!  Both religions and media use these ingredients to rivet the attention of their audiences, obviously for Money.

Today, amid the exhausting trashfest of political campaigning, audiences are still blasted with examples of primal human nature, that cannot be extinguished, in spite of redundant civil and holy laws.

All this build up intends to illustrate my original point, addressing America’s Second wasted effort, the War on Drugs.  This war represents a giant contradiction within the realm of Civil Laws.  Enforcing a law against the most basic human endeavor to assuage mind-body conflict, is wasted effort.  From the beginning of human time, people have used mental or physical altering substances for medicine or recreation.  Right or wrong, if those substances don’t effect the welfare of their social unit, they only impact the user.

The acceptance of capitalism has intruded on many primal needs and replaced them with wants, courtesy of corporate or political marketing.  Money is now the object of the game.  Corporations cannot make money by appealing to needs that don’t include buying product.  Underground capitalism fills primal needs for mind or body altering substances.  The CEOs of underground capitalism provide products that are banned by laws intended to control primal needs, they are the Drug Lords.  Prohibition failed because the wasted effort to control desired substances was too costly.  American capitalism has not learned its lesson.  Alcohol is the most popular mind-body altering substance in America, and much of the world.  Alcohol manufacturers are now among the elite of American corporations.  Their products provide acceptable solice for anything desired … relief from a hard day at work or play, social events, you name it and there is an excuse to drink alcohol.  There are now studies that confirm alcohol products have medicinal properties.

Cannabis is a similar substance to alcohol, with multiple manufacturing uses besides recreation and medicine.  America’s War on Drugs is BIG BUSINESS!  Whole political, industrial and medical programs revolve around fighting import, sale and use of cannabis.  The cost for this effort far exceeds the war on alcohol from 1920 to 1933.  Twelve years of alcohol prohibition allowed America to rely on “law breaking” capitalists, we now call them Racketeers, Mafiosos or Bootleggers who profited from providing consumers what they desired. These ‘underground capitalists’ made the fortunes that would have helped the US Government and Americans, if alcohol had stayed legal.  Prohibition forced the ‘underground economy’ to flourish for 13 years.

Wiki: Many social problems have been attributed to the Prohibition era. A profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol flourished. Racketeering happened when powerful gangs corrupted law enforcement agencies. Stronger liquor surged in popularity because its potency made it more profitable to smuggle. The cost of enforcing Prohibition was high, and the lack of tax revenues on alcohol (some $500 million annually nationwide) affected government coffers. When repeal of Prohibition occurred in 1933, organized crime lost nearly all of its black market alcohol profits in most states (states still had the right to enforce their own laws concerning alcohol consumption), because of competition with low-priced alcohol sales at legal liquor stores.

The same condition applies today concerning cannabis, pot, marijuana.

The U.S. federal government spent over $19 billion dollars in 2003 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second. The budget has since been increased by over a billion dollars.

Today’s American economy is in dire peril.  Wasting billions of dollars on fighting Cannabis usage is just plain stupid when looking at the BIG picture.  Drunk drivers cost Americans billions of dollars in life and property loss, but, this fact is treated with less importance than catching someone with a baggie of “weed”.

At the end of Prohibition some supporters openly admitted its failure. A quote from a letter, written in 1932 by wealthy industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., states:

When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.^[14]

Some historians have commented that the alcohol industry accepted stronger regulation of alcohol in the decades after repeal, as a way to reduce the chance that Prohibition would return.^[15]

Many Americans, today, are complacent about Cannabis use.  It the acceptable alternative to alcohol.  Some Americans even flaunt their ability to use cannabis in public without incident.  Politicians, celebrities and ordinary Americans use it for recreation or medication.  Law enforcement often make arrests improve their statistics … the “weekly roundup of users” can make them look good in the media.  This is not to be confused with manufacturers of Methamphetamines and other exotic chemicals to addict and “waste” their consumers. This is not to be confused with Heroin, however, heroin also has medicinal properties that can be regulated for public funds if categorized as a pharmaceutical.

Cannabis as medication has been tested over and over by factions both for and against its use.  American pharmaceutical industry only approves its use if THEY can profit from it, likewise for States.  The Federal Government has a lot of money at stake from enforcement to industry.  Politicians use War on Drugs as a tried and true campaign platform.  Ever wonder who really profits from this expensive war?  Drug Lords, themselves, have invested in this industry to legitimize their operations, just like Bootleggers had ties to the same law enforcement commited to arrest them.

Controversy will abound until the US Government re-evaluates it’s investment in their self propagating, wasteful efforts, aimed at the Marijuana Industry version of Underground Capitalism.  It is time to re-think America’s strategy.

..

Attacking Alzheimer’s with Red Wine and Marijuana

The American Alliance For Medical Cannabis

MedicalCannabis

Medical Marijuana ProCon

The American Medical Marijuana Association

Medical Marijuana Research

SIMM

Drug War Facts

NORML

Bush touts successes in fight against drugs

This is nothing new ..

As of this morning, It is difficult to identify who the Global role model really is. Global opinions about the USA are collected by Pew  Research Center, and we should not be surprised to find out.  As hard as Bush and his religious base tried to make the USA a theocracy, at the exclusion of a great percentage of the population,  they failed.  Bush tried and failed to show the world a morally superior nation, instead, he showed the world what hypocritical horse’s asses we really are. America is demonstrating the symptoms of marketing influence and profiteering infection.  Since the 1950s the US took a huge plunge into an abyss of greed, taking the common citizen with it. In the past this greedy condition was expected of the lords of industry.  But, now Americans are hopelessly infected by the same greed, thanks to marketing, profiteering , ‘grab it all’ mentality.  This mentality has roots in American’s history of turn of the century business magnates, sometimes referred to as a moguls, tycoons, barons, or industrialists.  Robber baron is a term that revived in the 19th century in the United States as a reference to businessmen and bankers who dominated their respective industries and amassed huge personal fortunes, typically as a direct result of pursuing various anti-competitive or unfair business practices.

Americans have become scavengers.  Grab it when you see it.  The carrot dangling in front of the mule was WalMart marketing for profit showed its customers.  All customers saw was the carrot, the conditioned programming of the American public responded like hungry animals.  Trample any obstacles in your way.  There is a pattern here, why Americans stand in line for hours or days to get a ticket to an event, be first through the door for a sale or buy scalped tickets.  American behavior has been programmed by mind controllers calling themselves advertisers and marketing agencies.  These agencies are mind controllers hired by corporations to hypnotize consumers and cause mob thinking to buy.  Programed customers MUST HAVE their product, at any price.

The consequences of this programming becomes the face of America to the world.  The American sees themselves as moral role models full of Christian love and generosity,  but, like Pavlov’s Dog when the trigger is pulled, starts to salivate.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov won a Nobel prize for his work studying the laws on the formation of conditioned reflexes, a topic on which he worked until his death in 1936. His discoveries in this field paved the way for an objective science of behavior.

Pavlov became interested in studying reflexes when he saw that the dogs drooled without the proper stimulus. Although no food was in sight, their saliva still dribbled. Pavlov’s discovery was that environmental events that previously had no relation to a given reflex (such as a bell sound) could, through experience, trigger a reflex (salivation). This kind of learnt response is called conditioned reflex, and the process whereby dogs or humans learn to connect a stimulus to a reflex is called conditioning.

Classical Conditioning (also Pavlovian or Respondent Conditioning) is a form of associative learning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov^[1] . The typical procedure for inducing classical conditioning involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance. The neutral stimulus could be any event that does not result in an overt behavioral response from the organism under investigation. Pavlov referred to this as a Conditioned Stimulus (CS). Conversely, presentation of the significant stimulus necessarily evokes an innate, often reflexive, response. …

Most Americans haven’t a clue they are nothing more than programmed experiments. Inundated every day by ‘Mind Controlling’ stimulus called ‘commercials’ Americans are just experimental subjects.

The world sees this and no longer tolerates the consequences.  The American experiment has failed the world, as demonstrated by recent history..

Wal-Mart Worker Dies When Shoppers Break Down Doors

Victim’s family awarded $36 million in Walmart shooting

Accident waiting to happen

Worried About Big Retailers Ruining Christmas?…Stop Worrying, They’re Too Late!

Deadly Consumerism

Experts say fear a factor in competitive shopping mentality

Shopping gone out of control

Image of the United States

Image of the American People

Americans’ greedy lifestyles a debt to society

america the greedy

Millions of Americans live in a non-reality-based belief system informed by childish cliches – they can barely differentiate between lies and truth.

We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system. This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and cliches. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection. This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban, believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into radically distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities. [See Entire Article Here]

Although, there are some areas where we part ways, the article, as a whole, does illustrate the education disparity created in today’s America.  For instance, Hedges comes down pretty hard on the illiterate, but does not explain exactly why they remain that way.  I truly see a pattern where the best interest of corporate marketers is maintaining a less literate consumer base.  Obviously, the less literate, the easier the sales pitch. Big business prefers not to account for it’s products or profits to the general public.  Less educated, less literate consumers are big money, less work.  Why not?  Bait and switch for fun and profit is the new capitalism.  If this sounds conspiratorial, well maybe it is.  When corporate America feels threatened or under pressure, it relies on typical scare tactics.  Best recent examples, America’s Auto Industry and Banking Industry.  The airlines got away with it.  Poor Silicon Valley fell on it’s face, but they did not market public sympathy as well.  Don’t forget who pays for our political sector.  Don’t forget who pays for all those television and radio shows that mold how you think and when to think it.

Let’s call it AD-Vantage.  American viewers, listeners and readers are pummeled with someone’s message.  Someone who will profit from convincing you to buy something they have.  Someone who will profit from ‘enhancing’ your ‘desire’ to look good, feel good, be irresistible and using that ‘painless plastic’ to buy their product.  Someone who profits from your hypochondria, insomnia and E.D..

The economy morphed from a simple supply and demand system to a speculation system based on brainwashing consumers into easily manipulated robots.  Supply and demand, alone, became insufficient for the big boys.  They needed to create a market demand where there was none.  They invented and inflated American desires by tampering with education.  From infancy to adulthood, America is NOT taught life skills.  It is taught just to want.  America’s self image advertisement is slammed into our faces everywhere we go.  It penetrates our eyes and ears with what we are supposed to desire and cannot live without.  Even necessities like toilet paper are marketed for special qualities that put comfortable smiles of relief on our faces.

Was all this deliberate?  Most likely.  Take a closer look at the marketing boom that followed WWII.  You will see the science and sophistication of public mind control reach a new level.  You will see the quality of American education fall.  Life skills appears to be the last priority on the educational agenda.  This is the deliberate dumbing down of America.  What you DON’T KNOW does hurt you and me.  In today’s interconnected world, what Americans don’t know also hurts people around the globe.

This is illustrated best by looking closely ate America’s past eight years.  These same marketing gurus are used too well by politicians who play the same mind control game that corporations have perfected.  Americans are programmed!

Yes, reading, writing and math must top our educational list.  We have robbed a whole generation of basic social skills that can be used to mediate conflicts, produce healthy living skills, and reinforce critical thinking abilities.  Our education institutions fail to emphasize cause and effect, accountability and consequences and plain old virtue.  Virtue is NOT the sole product of religion.  Ethics was taught long before many religions were born … why is the rise in religious consciousness and fall of ethics simultaneous?  Because, the feeling of privilege, pounded into congregations, trumps accountability to the general population … “God’s Laws trump Man’s Laws”.  The PT Barnum treatment of the people has invaded churches, mosques and synagogues.

In many of my articles I have complained that America’s consumer, materialistic society is a creation of marketing gurus.  Maybe so.  But the whole story is still unfolding.

Truth is too expensive because it puts corporation and politicians at risk of being seen for what they have become.  They are a tight little club who answer to each other. They protect each other and wash each other’s dirty hands.  When things get dicey, they sacrifice one of their own.  A politician falls, a corporation drops market share or goes belly up.  The cost of education has risen to elite levels to prevent the general public from catching on.  Education loans haunt students for a good part of their lives.  Fewer students can meet the demands of college cost and living costs.  Many students have to juggle families at the same time.  Some spouses must support the household while the other spouse gets an education.  The divorce rate from this arrangement is very high.  The monetary and emotional expense of higher education is out of control … it has become a luxury for most.  Today, luxuries are the first to go.  This educational arrangement has crippled America.  We no longer have tools to make educated decisions.  What we think is common sense, is really dictated by the media.  It is time to rethink the whole system!  Primary and secondary education does not prepare us for today’s challenges anymore.  There is no excuse.  We must not be programmable robots anymore.

BossKitty’s related articles concerning education:

Political And Religious Mind Control - OpEd

The Nature Of Our Beast Is Greed – Oversight Crisis

Poor Education Produces Consumer Robots Who Vote

America in the Time of Empire

Election Outlook For The Children

BossKitty’s related articles concerning consumerism:

what to do when you lose your job

US Market Driven Economy Hits Tree - UPDATE

US Economy Under Global Microscope Sees FUZZY MATH

Conyers, Keeps Digging And Finding Gold

Purses Tighten, Small Business Suffers, Families Budget

$200 OIL The Final Straw – Dust Off Your Bicycle

Socialized Medicine, No Medicine or Someone Else’s Medicine

Environment + Food Crisis + Profiteering = Bleak Future

Planet of Cannibals – State of the World OpEd

Political And Religious Mind Control - OpEd

The swearing-in of the President of the United States occurs upon the commencement of a new term of a President of the United States. The United States Constitution mandates that the President make the following oath or affirmation before he or she can “enter on the Execution” of the office of the presidency:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” -

- Article II, Section 1, clause 8 – U.S. Constitution

Islam and Christian extremists consider themselves “above” secular law.  They insist that God’s Law is their only guide.  OK!  That just fine.  At least until their interpretation of “God’s Law” encroaches or breaks US Law.  This makes them criminals and potential terrorists, especially when they try to infiltrate a secular system and fashion it into their narrow dogma.  Religious Extremists justify committing murder, mayhem, torture and intimidation, because “it is God’s Will”.

Recently, there have been lawmakers in many conservative states that have managed to inject their “God” dogma.  In a theocracy, all citizens must comply with someone elses interpretation of a Supreme Being and their rules.

Dominionism and Dominion Theology are not denominations or faith groups. Rather, they are interrelated beliefs which are followed by members of a wide range of Christian denominations.

US Conservatives, historically, have been the party of fiscal responsibility.  The past decade has witnessed the morphing of conservatism into a theocratic bandstand.  These new conservatives are robotic soldiers of charismatic shamans who use excerpts from the Christian Bible to justify enslaving “non-believers”.  Convinced they are “saving lost souls”, these brainwashed Dominionists and Christian Reconstructionists impose restrictions on a whole population.

Theonomy is the next step in Dominion Theology, because it would “reinstate the Old Testament civil code, including the penal code. (Most theonomists believe the method of punishment should be adapted to the times, however. So homosexuals and gluttons would die in the electric chair rather than by stoning. What a relief!)” [1]

A militant form of Theonomy is Christian Recontructionism.

Chip Berlet argued in 1996: “Reconstructionism is a theology that argues that only Christian men should rule civil society. It has a softer related theology called dominionism. … ‘Dominionism’ in general threatens the Church/State separation so vital to our democracy as a pluralist society. Groups such as the Christian Coalition really have adopted many of the tenets of Dominionism, and some key Christian right leaders are close to Reconstructionism, which thinks that the U.S. Constitution is a sub-document overruled by Old Testament Biblical Laws.”

We have witnessed, in horror, the results of religious extremists acting out what they believe is the “will of god”.  America’s christians are being hi-jacked by the same kind of narrow interpretation of “god’s will”.  This world was created without the help of human hands.  Humans have become so self important that they actually think that they are better and wiser than their creator.  That is arrogance!

This past decade has seen …

Why don’t the media use the term “terrorist” to describe Christian extremist groups who bomb clinics, shoot doctors, and use guerrilla tactics to scare women?

When supposedly mainstream Christians like James Dobson complain that adding protection for women to the Federal hate crimes statute will curtail religious freedom, do they define religious freedom as the right to bomb women, or the right to incite people to bomb women as the person in the above photo would seem to be doing?

:  Religious Terror
A Poem by: George Feigley,

One of the first truths that the Christian church learned was the value of terror. Make the suckers afraid. Convince them that some boogyman will get them. Tell them that they need the Christian mythology to protect them from the danger. Presto, the sucker buys into the lie, pays his money and surrenders his freedom to the all-knowing church.

Terror has proven to be the best way to get people to give up their liberties and independence. The Republicans learned from Christian mythology. They invent devils and then present themselves as the only effective protection from the supposed threat. The classic example was the “Red Menace.”

The Republican fanatic, Joe McCarthy, preached that the dread Communists had infiltrated the government. If Americans didn’t look out, the Reds would steal our minds, our souls, our American way of life. It was all lies, of course. Republicans rely on dishonesty. ["Oh, look, they have weapons of mass destructions just like us. We'll have to kill them!"]

The Republicans especially hated the Communists because, in theory at least, the Reds promised to share the wealth with ordinary persons. Republicans are the wealthy, big business, big oil, military martinets. The last thing that bunched wanted, or wants today, is for ordinary people to share their billions or share the power that money buys.

Republicans have effectively used terror since Lincoln precipitated the unnecessary Civil War. They’ve invented a string of demons for us to fear and for them to save us from. Without bad guys, why would we give away our freedoms?

The Christian mythology stared by preaching fear of Romans. Quickly they graduated to fear of spooks, ghosts, devils and science. The most effective terror tactics proved to be fear of sex (the great majority of Christians were/are frigid women) and fear of death.

Following the same strategy, the Republicans graduated from terror of the Reds to fear of illegal aliens, Arabs, Moslems and a big one is “socialized healthcare,” drugs from Canada and airplanes.

The real risk to you of being hurt or killed by a “terrorist” (whatever that may mean) is miniscule, about the same as being struck by lightning.

America is illegal aliens! The old ones simply want to keep everything for themselves by making you afraid of the new ones.

When a Republican politician tells you how much danger you’re in, don’t you believe it! As front for right-wing extremists, the bigot channel, Fox “News,” has proven effective in two areas. It preaches fear and hate, the Christian staples. They are an effective smoke screen hiding the real problems of the country: social injustice and inequity. They want you to worry about a slut drown in Aruba or a child murdered in Idaho. While such things are terrible tragedies, they are extremely rare. You’ll win the lottery three times before it happens to you.

Be afraid, VERY afraid. Be afraid of the Christian crazies and of the Republicans and their Christian agenda. Otherwise, I extol FDR’s axiom of freedom from fear.

The Voice of the Imprisoned

A terrorist is a terrorist no matter who your daddy was, no matter who your god is or who your savior, prophet or messiah is.  Terrorism inflicts pain to make a point.  Terrorism seeks to intimidate or destroy non-followers.  No one is so privileged to get a free pass to hurt others.  Christians, Muslims and militant cults are all the same … The INQUISITION is history’s lesson for future generations, have we all forgotten?  The CRUSADES justified genocide, the victims still remember. The “Christian Warriors” miss their free pass on terrorism .

In desperate times, scammers pounce

A brief guide to busts, manias and greed

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, French head of IMF, in sex scandal

A one-night stand has endangered the stellar career of the French head of the International Monetary Fund and dismayed President Sarkozy as he seeks to put a French stamp on a new world financial order.

The news that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 59, is being investigated in Washington over a fling with a former subordinate has unsettled Mr Sarkozy because he has mounted an effective double act with him in the effort to manage the financial crisis.

Paris had been hoping that no news would break until Mr Strauss-Kahn had been cleared later this month and the matter would disappear in the din of the US presidential election.

Risk management: Hunt is stepped up for the rogue traders

In January, Société Générale revealed that unauthorised dealing by Jérôme Kerviel, a futures trader in Paris, had resulted in losses of €4.9bn ($6.6bn) for the French bank, the biggest rogue trading scandal in history.

… however, even the best risk management practices may not stop a rogue trader.

“Someone with fraud on their mind can find ways to get around any system,” says Ms Downs.

“And sometimes systems fail, no matter how much you think they can’t … We need to be looking at what

can slip through the cracks.”

Cisneros helped build flawed American dream

Henry Cisneros

After a sex scandal destroyed his promising political career and he left Washington, he eventually reinvented himself as a well-regarded advocate and builder of urban, working-class homes. He has financed the construction of more than 7,000 houses.

For the three years he was a director at KB Home, Cisneros received at least $70,000 in pay and more than $100,000 worth of stock. He also received $1.14 million in directors’ fees and stock grants during the six years he was a director at Countrywide. He made more than $5 million from Countrywide stock options, money he says he plowed into his company.

Not much is new in world of scandal

Although the sex scandals are entertaining, they are signs of deeper disorders.  Power, Money and Sex are hopelessly intertwined.  The ego drives each one.  They are a natural combination, but, they often evolve into a PT Barnum attitude.  “I am smarter, sexier and more worthy that the general public … a new sucker is born every day”.  My personal needs and urges trump virtue, so I can screw you with immunity.  I am special … you are my sport …

The fallout from today’s global economic crisis is multi-faceted and very dangerous.  Opportunity for bold cons, scams and exploitation is ripe.  Internet hackers are targeting banks, bank accounts and personal information.  Phishing is rampant.  Your emails are filled with enticing offers and alerts and promises of unexpected windfalls.  Anyone using their computer for online banking is a target.  Phishing attacks have increased on individuals.  Banks are under seige every day by hackers.  The vigilant among us will be tested.  There are multiple resources available on the web to arm you with scam protection, but some of these are also suspect.  Personally, I would reduce online private transactions altogether. But if you don’t or can’t do that, here are some resources.

Banking Scam Revealed

Warning over UK’s overseas bribes culture

How to Report and Identify Phishing, E-mail Scams and Bogus IRS Web Sites

Inside Identity Theft Info

Identity Theft and Your Tax Records

Identity Theft And Your Social Security Number

Welcome to the Bureau of Consumer Protection