ALTERNATIVE THOUGHTS
You won't necessarily read these ideas and opinions in the mainstream media or even with intellectual fringe outlets. As always, what I write here is not necessarily something I adhere to or believe strongly. I am not a member of any political party, and I do not codify my life or my thoughts. New information may have me re-consider my opinion. Repeat: I try not to codify my life any more than is absolutely necessary. That includes a regiman about foods, religion, music, politics, economics, social mores, etc.
"She fears another attack. Neither she nor her daughters had ever heard of the 9/11 attack on the U.S.....Above all they want to live without the constant fear of war." -activist Kathy Kelly about an Afghanistan woman, October, 2010
"The world says they are helping us ...How? By dropping bombs?" "War destroys people....It destroys our livelihood. It damages out minds." -what some Afghan men told Kathy Kelly, speaking through a translator, October, 2010
"The war's only purpose has been to perpetuate the occupation, install military bases and safeguard the takeover of a region that has substantial natural resources. Obama is just like Bush, if not worse, because he is escalating the war and bringing it to Pakistan. The American government is maintaining a dangerous situation in order to stay as long as possible in Afghanistan so it can more easily watch over neighboring countries like Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan." -Malalai Joya, interview "Malalai Joya is an Angry Woman," L'Humanite in English, February 28, 2010
"The only people for whom Egyptian neo-liberalism worked 'by the book' were the most vulnerable members of society, and their experience with neo-liberalism was not a pretty picture. Organised labor was fiercely suppressed. The public education and the health care systems were gutted by a combination of neglect and privatization. Much of the population suffered stagnant or falling wages relative to inflation. Official unemployment was estimated at approximately 9.4% last year (and much higher for the youth who spearheaded the January 25th Revolution)...
"For the wealthy, the rules were very different. Egypt did not so much shrink its public sector, as neoliberal doctrine would have it, as it reallocated public resources for the benefit of a small and already affluent elite." -Abu Atris (pseudonym for an Egyptian writer), Opinion piece, " A Revolution Against Neo-Liberalism," Al Jazeera, February 24, 2011
"The super-rich earn their fortunes with overseas labor, selling to overseas consumers and managing financial transactions that have little to do with the rest of America, while relying entirely or almost entirely on immigrant servants at one of several homes around the country." -Bill Moyers, "The Progressive," February, 2011
"Under tight security and intense secrecy, the billionaire Koch brothers, who have largely financed the growth of the Tea Party movement, gathered about 200 of the nation's wealthiest on Sunday in Rancho Mirage, California, to continue their planning on how to fight climate control, health care for average Americans, increased regulations over finance and industry and how to oust President Obama from office. But unlike past events organized by the Kochs, this event was met with protests, demonstrations and increased media attention of their covert efforts to usurp our democratic process." -veracitystew.com, a watchdog site, which follows the Koch Brothers who recently opened a lobbying office in Wisconsin, February, 2011
"Cantor [Eric Cantor, House Majority Leadr] said that Social Security had to be cut to balance the budget. But here's the thing: Social Security does not and never has added a single dime to the federal deficit... Social Security is paid for through the payroll tax. Currently, the payroll tax raises way more money than Social Security pays out and things are projected to keep going this way for another couple of decades. Bailing out Mr. Cantor's friends on Wall Street when they make a bunch of shady deals, cause a financial crisis and almost ruin the world economy? That adds a lot to the deficit." -Arshad Hasan, "Democracy for America"
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