Hugo Chavez Warns Banks

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that he would seize private banks if they didn't comply with the law. He said he was doing this "because the banks don't want to extend credit to the poor."

"To all the country's private bankers ... (I'm saying) he who slips up loses; I'll take over the bank, whatever its size," said President Chavez.

This is no bluff on Chavez's part. He has nationalized a large portion of the Venezuelan economy during his reign. These warnings have come after Chavez threatened to nationalize Spanish banks in Venezuela.

Chavez threatened Spain's banks, saying he would nationalize them unless the Spanish king apologized for telling him to "shut up" in the November of 2007 when Chavez called an ex-Prime Minister of Spain a fascist. It would make sense that Spain would have fascistic prime ministers, after all Spain was a fascist country under Franco.

The only Spanish bank Chavez has ever nationalized was Spain's Banco Santander unit Banco de Venezuela. It was purchased by Venezuela for $1.05 billion. Chavez seized four small banks on November 20.

The Venezuelan banking sector is controlled by 10 private firms who control 70% of the total funds.

President Chavez also criticized excessive spending by state entities in the private medical sector.

"We have made a gift of millions and millions of bolivares this year to the bourgeoisie, which owns the private clinics, the great insurance companies," he said. "Enough already."

Chavez stated that he thinks the money should go to the people.

I think a somewhat revolutionary regime like Venezuela should nationalize first-world banks. Not only would the money they get help out a lot of poor people, but it would weaken the imperialist countries that have historically and continuously oppressed, and interevened in the affairs of, Latin America.

Continued Use of Mercenaries Smashes Dreams of Hope and Change

An investigation done by The Nation magazine has found that US President Barack Obama is using an elite division of Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater, to carry out military operations inside of Pakistan. They are supposedly carrying out assassinations against suspected "terrorists." The military contractors are denying these accusations.

Among the things Blackwater/Xe denies are accusations of carrying out drone attacks and intelligence gathering in Pakistan. The typical secret government death-squad always denies accusations that make it look bad. Blackwater/Xe is trying to rent compounds in Pakistani cities like Islamabad. A joint special-operations command that involves the soldiers of fortune is being set up in Karachi, Pakistan. The Xe mercenaries have even recruited local people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. This should be enough proof that Blackwater/Xe is operating all over the Middle East.

Many of the current, high-ranking Xe officials played important roles in the George W. Bush Administrations' imperialist war-machine.

The number of private military-contractors operating in Pakistan has increased dramatically over the past few months. More contractors are waiting to enter the country, and they are coming from places like Thailand, the Philippines, Britain, and the US.

It seems that the Obama Administration is continuing to carry out and expand the fascist and hellish plans of the Bush and Cheney "War on Terror." It also seems that Obama has absolutely no intention of discontinuing the White House's use of Blackwater/Xe Services. How ironic is it that Obama has won a Peace Prize? I must say, sarcastically, thanks for the hope and change Obama!

Obama Attacks Education

Obama is destroying public education. The Maoist Rebel News reports and gives criticism of Obama, the great deceiver.

Leon Trotsky: A Biography

The following is the text to the YouTube video called "Leon Trotsky: A Biography." You don't need to see the video to understand the points being made, so I recommend you read this.

Trotsky’s Early Years

On October 26, 1879, Lev Bronstein was born. This child would later adopt the name Leon Trotsky. As a young man, Trotsky was influenced by populism. Populism is something that many Marxists spoke out against. Trotsky became a Marxist after reading the works of Lenin during his first time in a Czarist prison.

Days in the RSDLP: Mensheviks and Bolsheviks

“Trotsky behaves like a despicable careerist and factionalist.” - Lenin

Trotsky originally sided with the Mensheviks, who opposed the Bolsheviks’ plans and methods. In 1907, Trotsky denied the serious differences between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Trotsky claimed that he adopted the attitude of a peace-maker. Then, in a hypocritical turn of events, Trotsky sided with the Mensheviks in their attack on Lenin over his use of guerrilla commandos. Later on, Trotsky called for the destruction of factions within the RSDLP (the party from which the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks split), but he later supported allowing factions in the CPSU in his book The Revolution Betrayed which we’ll talk more about later.

Not long before the revolution began, an arrest warrant was put out for Lenin. Trotsky demanded that Lenin surrender to the police. About one month before the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Party planned to prepare for an insurrection, but Trotsky opposed this. In his book The History of the Russian Revolution Trotsky didn’t include those facts.

The Russian Revolution and Civil War

“Trotsky’s theses, whatever his intentions, do not tend to play up the best, but the worst in military experience.” - Lenin

Trotsky and his supporters are always saying that he played some sort of special role in the October uprising of 1917. Trotsky did not play any special role in the October uprising, nor could he do so; being chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, he merely carried out the will of the appropriate Party bodies, which directed every step that Trotsky took.

The practical centre that was elected to lead and organize the October uprising didn’t even include Trotsky. This was probably because Trotsky was still pretty new to the Bolshevik Party at the time.

During what is often called “the period of Brest,” when German imperialism was advancing on Russia and the revolution, Trotsky didn’t fight very well. He didn’t show courage and began to panic.

The Central Committee often argued with Trotsky over his plans and mistakes during the Civil War. Trotsky even tried to resign from his duties during the war once. The Central Committee had to remove Trotsky from the Eastern and Southern Fronts during the Civil War.

An example of his bad military performance is when, on the Eastern Front, Trotsky proposed the Red Army stop advancing on enemy leader Kolchak in 1919. If Trotsky had gotten his way, then the factories and railroads in the Urals would have been left in the hands of Admiral Kolchak to be used to recuperate his White forces.

During the revolution, Trotsky said that the Bolsheviks had no use for “Kantian-clerical, vegetarian Quaker chatter about the sanctity of human life.” He would also threaten to arrest, and even execute, the families of former Red Army officers in order to prevent defection. This contradicted Marxism because F. Engels said the revolutionaries must not stoop to the level of the bourgeoisie by using such murderous and repressive methods.

During the period of the Brest-Litovsk, when the Czarist Russian Army had basically disappeared, all the Germans had to do was simply go into the territories they wanted. There was nobody around who was able to stop them. Lenin realized this, and he knew that they would take Russia and smash the Bolsheviks if he didn’t agree to their new peace terms. Trotsky, on the other hand, disregarded reality and stuck to his principles. He refused to support signing the Germans’ terms. He did not realize what Lenin did.

After the Revolution
“[Trotsky is] Unquestionably…of outstanding ability, but shows too much zeal for administrating and the administrative side of work to be relied on in a serious political situation.” - Lenin’s “Testament”

In 1921, Lenin accused Trotsky of “bureaucratic project-hatching” due to his misbehavior in the party. Some people even went as far as to describe Trotsky as the “patriarch of the bureaucrats.”

After Lenin died Trotsky lost influence in the party because of his arrogance and argumentative personality. He was always arguing with someone and barely worked well with others. This is proven by the fact that Trotsky didn’t allow any of his followers to disagree with him and his theories. This contradicts Marxism-Leninism because Lenin put emphasis on criticism and self-criticism. Even Karl Marx once said to criticize and question everything.

Trotsky became so unpopular that his supporters from outside of the USSR broke off from the other communist parties and formed small sects. Due to Trotsky’s increasing unpopularity, these sects ended up being so small that they posed no threat to the local communist parties.

Eventually, Leon Trotsky was expelled from the CPSU for committing habitual acts of factionalism. His soon-to-be ally Bukharin wanted him expelled earlier for this very reason.

While living in Mexico, Leon Trotsky gave information to the FBI about communists in Mexico.

The Permanent Revolution

“Comrade Trotsky’s ‘theses’ are politically harmful.” - Lenin

To develop and defend his theory of Permanent Revolution, Trotsky had to use the theories of Lassalle, who was a long time rival of Karl Marx.

Lenin said that Trotsky’s theory of “Permanent Revolution” skipped the peasantry, the main ally of the proletariat. That isn’t the only mistake Trotsky made with this theory.

Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution theory assumed that the dictatorship of the proletariat alone had been established in 1917, but this was wrong. In 1917 the proletariat held power only to a certain extent. It had to coexist with Kerensky and the bourgeoisie for a short period of time. After the revolution, Lenin said that the dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry had been established and still existed. So Trotsky was wrong, and he had to continuously rewrite his theory of Permanent Revolution many times over the course of his life because reality continued to prove him to be wrong.

The Revolution Betrayed

Trotsky frequently misused the term “Bonapartism” throughout The Revolution Betrayed. He accused Stalin of being a Bonapartist, even though Bonapartism only applies to bourgeois revolutions.

Trotsky spread lies about the Soviet Union in his book The Revolution Betrayed.

For example, Trotsky claimed that the factory/industrial products being produced in the Soviet Union were of low quality because the bureaucracy, which he claimed ran the country, kept doing things wrong. However, Soviet-made products were of high quality, and even high-ranking Nazi military officials recognized this. German Colonel von Bulow, for example, praised the technical quality of Soviet aircraft, and German General Guderian noted the superiority of Soviet tanks and tractors.

Another example of one of Trotsky’s lies in The Revolution Betrayed is when he claimed Stalin wasn’t arming the workers. Stalin really did arm the workers, which is why the Nazis had serious problems with pro-Soviet guerrillas in their rear when they invaded the USSR. Under Stalin, tractor factories were made to be easily converted into tank factories. The “Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Air Force and Chemical Defense” did a lot of military training work with the civilians. It carried out military training among all sections of the Soviet population, particularly among youth. Instruction was provided by army reserve officers and included marksmanship, horse cavalry skills, aviation, parachuting, skiing, and other military sports. In 1938, six million adults and millions more youth had won riflery badges. Every farm had its civil defense group which had learned sharp shooting and had weapons.

In 1940, Trotsky’s life came to an end when he was assassinated with an icepick.

“Trotsky was fundamentally wrong…Trotskyists ultimately failed because their methods are bad.” - Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Book Sources:
“Faces of a Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union 1917-1991” by Theodore H. Von Laue and Angela Von Laue
“Stalin” by Walter Laqueur
“On Trotskyism: Problems of Theory and History” by Kostas Mavrakis (A recommended read)
“For A Harvest of Dragons” by Bob Avakian
“The Revolution Betrayed” by Leon Trotsky

Website Sources:
http://www.plp.org/communist/stalinssuccesses.pdf
http://marx2mao.com/Stalin/TL24.html
http://www.marxists.org/archive/rothstein-andrew/1933/12/x01.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/ferdinand-lassalle
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Leon_Trotsky#The_Civil_War_.281918-1920.29
http://www.plp.org/communist/trotskyismisreactionary.pdf

Signs of Indian Invasion of Nepal

Signs of a future Indian military intervention in Nepal were sent on Monday the 23rd when India reportedly flew its supersonic fighter jets over Nepali territory. According to eyewitness accounts, the Indian fighter planes were spotted over Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan and Darchula. These areas are strongholds of the UCPN (Maoist). It has also been reported that India sent its planes into Nepal on the 21st of this month as well.

The current Nepali government has expressed its ignorance of this event. Local intelligence sources, however, also claim that Indian jets were spotted over Nepal. Civilians feel very threatened by the presence of the Indian military in the sky.

The UCPN (Maoist) has accused the current UML-run government of being puppets for the Indian expansionists and the United States. The government's ignorance of these violations of Nepali territorial integrity is proof that the accusations made by the UCPN against the UML government (and other coalition parties) are correct.

Funny BNP Video

Some humor for our British friends.

Americans are Overpaid

According to an article on breakingviews.com and CNN Money, global economic imbalance can only be ended by shrinking the pay gap between Americans and the rest of the world.

The article states that American workers are overpaid when compared to equally productive foreign workers doing the same job.

What kind of country, besides an imperialist country that super-exploits the third world, can afford to pay its workers more than all other countries pay their workers? Within the confines of the current global order, the answer is none. Therefore, America is an imperialist country that is filled with labor aristocrats.

Only Maoism can shrink the pay gaps in the world and bring acceptable living conditions to all of humanity.

Maoists Give Nepali Government a Deadline

Unified CPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Friday gave one week deadline to the 22-party the ruling coalition to find solution to current political deadlock.

Addressing a mass meeting at the end of the second-phase stir for restoration of ‘civilian supremacy’ in the capital Friday afternoon, Dahal said his party will begin third phase of protests if the coalition government failed to address the demands by November 20.

He said that Nepali people have given mandate to the Maoist party to conclude the peace process and write new constitution for the country and that his party is committed to fulfill the duties entrusted by the people.

Dahal said since the current government is operated through ‘remote control’ by imperialist powers, it cannot lead the peace process. He accused Nepali Congress of trying to suspend the constituent assembly and impose presidential rule.

Maoist vice chairman and coordinator for second phase stir Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai said his party is ready to end the House deadlock if other parties accept parliamentary discussion on the unconstitutional step taken by the president to reinstate the sacked Chief of Army Staff.

Before converging into a mass gathering, the party had picketed Singh Durbar, the government’s main seat, from early morning today restricting government officials and ministers entering inside.

Originally posted at: http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/nepal-november-20th-consensus-or-upsurge/

Maoists Continue Seizing Land

KAPILVASTU, NOV 14 – UCPN (Maoist) activists have intensified their land seizure drive in Kapilvastu district lately.

The Maoist cadres captured more than 100 hectares of land in the district within past two days.

On Friday, Maoist-affiliated All Nepal Peasants’ Association-Revolutionary captured nearly 34 hectares of land at Karma of Banskhor VDC-5 in the district amid a function. The arable land belong to Abdul Salam Musalman, Jiyau Rahaman and Hitiz Rahaman of Abhirab VDC.

A group of Maoist activists gathered at the field and announced its seizure by fixing party flags. They also took the paddy planted in the field under their control.

Maoist district committee member Narayan Khanal admitted the land seizure. He said that the party captured the land as it was purchased recently with the amount donated to a Muslim social organization, Muslim Jamiya Phukaniya Study Centre. “They registered the land in their names though it was bought with the organisation’s budget,” he claimed.

Similarly, Maoist activists captured about 70 hectares of cultivable land belonging to Prabhatraj Pandey, Pratapraj Pandey, Pradipraj Pandey and Jabbar Musalman of Nandanagar VDC and Dhanendra Karki of Jahadi VDC in the district.

District chairman of the association Chhabilal Bhushal said that the party seized the land as the landowners refused to register the land to the local farmers even after they sold the land.

Originally posted at: http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/nepal-maoists-continue-seizing-land-redistribution-now/

Conservative Heroes

Introduction

I originally planned on making this as a YouTube video with clips from the talk shows of Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, but I was worried YouTube would remove and block it because of copyright violations. So I just turned it into a blog entry. Please share this with your friends, including your conservative friends.

This blog post is divided into sections. Each conservative "hero" will get his own section. Sources are put at the end of each section. This shouldn't be considered a defense of the Democrats by any means. One day I plan on posting another entry with the same concept, only this one will attack bourgeois liberal "heroes."

Please read this part. When I call someone “uneducated” and criticize someone for having no higher education, I’m *not* saying "uneducated" people are stupid. I’m *not* saying people who didn’t go to a university are stupid. Right-wingers always attack the credibility of people they disagree with by bringing up education. Conservatives usually claim that they know more than someone else (and are more credible and knowledgeable on certain subjects) because they have a higher level of education. By exposing the following right-wing heroes’ education backgrounds I am exposing the hypocrisy of right-wing logic. I’m saying it is hypocritical for right-wingers to take that elitist stance and then turn around and get their information from an “uneducated” person.

I know that some idiot will come along and skip the above paragraph, misunderstand what I'm saying, and accuse me of being an elitist. I'm going to put emphasis on reading the introduction throughout the rest of this post. That way the idiots will not misunderstand me.

Sean Hannity

Sean Hannity only has a high school diploma. He is basically uneducated, and therefore cannot deliver a well-researched, educated opinion on any political or economic matter according to right-wing logic (see introduction for further clarification). He barely knows what he is talking about according to Republican and Libertarian logic. Since right-wingers always claim they have more knowledge and credibility due to their education, they are hypocritical for getting information from an “uneducated” man.

Furthermore, Sean Hannity claims that the government has ruined America’s health care system, but at the same time he says America has the greatest health care in the world! Sean, make up your mind. Is it ruined or great?

Hannity also claims the government ruined the education system. However, Gallup polls show seventy-five percent of Americans are "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their children's school. So what the hell is Hannity talking about? I know the American education system has its flaws, and it isn’t the best by far, but Hannity is over-exaggerating, as well as telling lies, to scare you into being a conservative.

Let’s not forget that Hannity is, or was, close friends with neo-Nazi Hal Turner. He even gave Turner a special guest call-in number so his calls to Hannity’s show on WABC would always get on the air. Sean Hannity, palling around with a potential terrorist.

Sean Hannity once said this:

“Did you notice, in the speech that he gave in Cairo -- now for those that don't know, Hamas, a terrorist organization that has in their charter, you know, a pledge for the destruction of Israel -- that he says Hamas can play a role in the future of the Palestinian people.”

Hannity, outraged, said that on his show a day after Obama’s speech in Cairo. He took the entire section about Hamas in Obama’s speech out of context. What Obama really said was:

“To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist.”

Either Hannity screwed that up on purpose for propaganda purposes or he is too lazy to pay attention to news and speeches and shouldn’t be talking politics on TV because of that. Either those two things, or he is just stupid.

And then there was that one time Hannity insisted that Obama took over Fannie and Freddie. Anybody with a memory can tell you the Bush Administration took them over, not Obama.

“(The Obama administration was) actually bragging,” Hannity once said. “They said, 'Well, we created 150,000 new jobs.' I was like 'Where did you go to school? You must have been to a government school,'” Hannity continued. Keep in mind that this asshole always rambles on about evil elitists, and then he goes and insults people who can’t afford private school. He just called millions of regular people stupid. That hypocrite, that elitist Sean Hannity.

And let’s not forget the episode of Hannity and Colmes from September 10, 2008. Keep in mind that the American economic troubles were a hot news topic around that time. This took place around the time of the government bailouts, when everyone knew the American economy was in trouble. So, in this video, Hannity is denying that the US economy is in trouble when it clearly is. Here is the address to a page with the video:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/11/hannity-meltdown/

Hannity Section Sources:
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_10071568
Kurtz, Howard (January 14, 2002). "Radio's New Right-Fielder". Washington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/23/sean-hannity-confronted-o_n_92961.html
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/11/hannity-meltdown/
http://ihatehannity.com/latest/hannity-steyn-misrepresent-obamas-comments-on-hamas.html
http://ihatehannity.com/latest/hannitys-new-false-talking-point-obama-decided-to-take-over-fannie-take-over-freddie.html
http://ihatehannity.com/latest/regular-guy-hannity-smears-public-school-students-again.html

Rush Limbaugh

“Most of us here in the media are what I consider infotainers.... Rush Limbaugh is what I call a disinfotainer. He entertains by spreading disinformation.”

--Al Franken at the White House Correspondents' Dinner (4/23/94)

Rush Limbaugh, like Sean Hannity, only has a high school diploma. Therefore, he is just a loudmouth and not an expert. Again, I’m not saying “uneducated” people are stupid. Conservatives think higher education makes you more credible and knowledgeable, and always say something stupid like, "Oh, I'm right because I'm more educated than you," but they hypocritically take "uneducated" Limbaugh seriously! (See introduction for further details.)

As Limbaugh complained about how the laws against drug abuse weren’t harsh enough, he completely ignored his own addiction to pain killers, Oxycontin in particular. Oxycontin has negative psychological effects, so we must wonder what kind of state his mind was in when he said a lot of the things conservatives know and love him for.

"…. yet Mount Pinatubo has put 570 times the amount of chlorine into the atmosphere in one eruption than all of man-made chlorofluorocarbons in one year.” - Rush Limbaugh

We should also take note that in one of the books Limbaugh wrote, he said Mt. Pinatubo put 1,000 times the amount of man-made CFC’s in the air. In the quote I just showed, which is from Nightline, he said only 570. I guess Limbaugh lies so much he can’t even keep up with his own fairy-tales. Rush said all of that when he was arguing against liberals about man-made pollution in the ozone. Unfortunately for Limbaugh, he is wrong.

"Chlorine from natural sources is soluble, and so it gets rained out of the lower atmosphere," the journal called Science explained.

Limbaugh doesn’t rely on actual scientists and updated/new research for his information on pollution, global warming, etc, but rather on only one old book from Dixy Lee Ray. It’s some research, but not enough to take him seriously.

This is funny. Limbaugh actually said this.

"The poorest people in America are better off than the mainstream families of Europe."

Again, he is telling lies. The average cash income of the poorest 20 % of Americans is $5,226. The average cash income of four major European nations--Germany, France, United Kingdom and Italy--is $19,708.

Limbaugh also said, "It has not been proven that nicotine is addictive.”

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's 1988 report on nicotine addiction left the public with no doubts that it was addictive. Nicotine addiction has been reported in medical journals and studies since the turn of the century.

Here is a big one though. Rush said, "Women were doing quite well in this country before feminism came along."

Women couldn’t even vote before feminism came along. I knew it, Limbaugh doesn’t want certain people to vote. He wants a far right-wing dictatorship!

A spokesman for the Marathon County GOP was fired from his position for criticizing Limbaugh. So Limbaugh is now, either directly or indirectly, causing people to be purged from the Republican party. Let’s see, who else got people purged from their party? Hitler did!



Sources for Limbaugh Section:
"Rush is Always Right." USA Weekend, 24-January 26, 1992, p. 7
http://www.bradleyreport.net/commentary/StonedRush.htm
http://www.womenstreatmentprogram.com/oxycontin-addiction.php
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1895
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#31073627



Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck also has only a high school diploma. He took some university classes, but he dropped out. That lazy quitter! (See introduction for further details on how education relates to right-wing stupidity.)

Glenn Beck once said, “because if you’re an ugly woman, you’re probably a progressive as well.” Great. Beck just stereotyped all supposedly ugly women and all progressives. That is kind of sexist, and definitely closed minded. Besides, there isn’t one set definition of beauty. It’s just an opinion, and Glenn Beck’s opinion is obviously very messed up.

Glenn Beck once told a 7 year-old black girl that he’d buy her a plane ticket to Africa if she promised to never come back! Why would you say such a racist thing to a small child?

On a show called “The View,” Glenn Beck basically admitted that he never checks his facts before speaking on his show.

Glenn Beck once criticized the president for using a teleprompter, but Glenn Beck himself uses a teleprompter! Ironic? No, just hypocritical!

Glenn Beck once said that professional wrestling was bad, immoral, and tasteless programming due to all of the violence and mature material it contains. Glenn Beck obviously likes horror and monster movies because he once compared fighting with liberals to fighting a vampire in a horror movie. He went into graphic detail about driving a stake into the vampire's heart. Vampire and monster movies are on TV almost as much as wrestling, and they are just as violent, adult, and immoral. Glenn Beck hates wrestling but likes something just as violent and mature?! How hypocritical.

Beck also once mocked Obama's aunt because she had a limp and uses a cane.

Glenn Beck Section sources:
http://thecurvature.com/2008/02/16/offensive-remark-of-the-week-glenn-beck-thinks-he-can-call-other-people-ugly-edition/
http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_5845&pageNum=6
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/20/whoopi-goldberg-calls-gle_n_205845.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#30732866

Ron Paul

Let’s face it, he is over 70 years old and he will never be president. He has been running for a long, long time and still hasn’t gotten anywhere. He might die in office if he ever becomes president.

Ron Paul doesn’t have any form of education in economics, but Paul and his loyal supporters are always going on about capitalism. Now I’m not saying people who lack a glorified scrap of toiletpaper, I mean degree, aren’t knowledgeable about certain subjects. But according to supporters of the status-quo, a degree is everything only when it is convenient to them. So going by their elitist standards, Ron Paul is qualified to be my doctor but neither my president nor my economics teacher. (See introduction for further details.)

Paul opposed giving medals to Rosa Parks and other individuals because it would cost the taxpayers too much money, but he wanted to give medals to all the veterans who fought in the Cold War. This would cost at least $240 million according to the Department of Defense. Medals for all the Cold War veterans would cost a lot more than medals for individuals. So he doesn’t want to spend some of your money on medals, he wants to spend a lot! If he was a real libertarian wouldn’t he just say the “free market” could come up with a way of providing these medals?

Ron Paul voted to exclude the internet as a form of public communication. He doesn’t understand the issue of net neutrality, and he voted against it. He voted on something he doesn’t understand! When you don’t understand something, you should abstain. He just blindly hopes that the free market can solve the issue. He wants to gamble with your right to use the internet, which is your portal to information that might be limited elsewhere.

Ron Paul supports the old, worthless policy of isolationism (non-interventionism as some call it) that the US once had. Isolationism never worked, just look at American history during it‘s isolationist years. WW1, WW2, come on, don’t be stupid. Isolationism doesn’t work. You’ll always get sucked into something stupid, isolationist or not. Hell, even during those isolationist years America was waging illegal wars. It took over the Philippines, it intervened in Panama, etc. Don’t be stupid, isolationism is a lie and it would never work.

I'm not saying the US should intervene in, or invade, other countries either. I'm just pointing out Ron Paul's idiocy.

Ron Paul Section Sources:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_513029.html
http://www.theseminal.com/2007/12/30/ron-paul-lets-spend-240-million-on-commemorative-medals/
http://peterepublic.org/archives/2007/11/ron_paul_on_net_neutrality_internet_taxing_and_video_games.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/deba-j07.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_non-interventionism

Fort Hood Shooting

The video below is a news report on the Fort Hood shooting in Texas.

Goldman Sachs Bonuses Double

Last month, Goldman Sachs announced its bonus payments for 2009. Experts say it is $23 billion! That is double the amount from 2008.

“The absolute size of compensation payouts will rise significantly,” Keith Horowitz, a Citigroup analyst, said.

That amount of money is enough to send 460,000 full paying students to Harvard University for one year, or 115,000 for four years. Imagine how many people $23 billion can send to a university that is cheaper! That is enough to pay the yearly health insurance premium for 1.7 million average American families.

Goldman Sachs pays very little in taxes worldwide. This year it only paid $14 million, that is less than the cost of a government bailout! The firm's corporate tax rate is only 1 percent.

“Now there’s talk inside Goldman that it is considering making a huge charitable donation — perhaps more than $1 billion — as a way to help deflect the criticism,” said Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times. He means the CEO is giving out all of these extra bonuses in order to avoid getting in trouble with his fellow higher-ups in the company.

That money obviously doesn't belong to the people who are getting it at Goldman Sachs. If anything, it belongs to the shareholders and lower employees, but that isn't who is going to get it. Imagine all of the good things that could be done for the world if all of that money, that $23 billion, was taken from the rich and invested in the poor!

UN Panel Finds Israel Guilty of War Crimes

A UN panel has concluded that Israel is guilty of war crimes in Gaza. The Panel's investigation found that Israel broke several Nuremberg Principles as well as some from the Geneva Convention when carrying out Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in the December of 2008 through the January of 2009.

For those of you who fail to see the irony in this, let me explain. The Nuremberg Principles are a set of rules originally established after WWII to punish Nazi Party members. They have established what constitutes a war crime.

The IDF violated Nuremberg Principle number one by using lethal force against unarmed civilians.

"From the facts ascertained in all the above cases, the Mission finds that the conduct of the Israeli armed forces constitutes grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of willful killings and willfully causing great suffering to protected persons and, as such, give rise to individual criminal responsibility. It also finds that the direct targeting and arbitrary killing of Palestinian civilians is a violation of the right to life,” The UN report said.

Nuremberg Principle number 6 prohibits the, “plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.” The UN reported that Israel destroyed civilian infrastructure, food production facilities, sewage treatment buildings, water installations, and housing in Gaza. For example, the el-Bader flour mill, formerly the only working flour mill in Gaza, was destroyed by the IDF.

The recent UN report on Israeli crimes in Gaza says, “the Mission finds that there has been a violation of the grave breaches provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Unlawful and wanton destruction which is not justified by military necessity amounts to a war crime. The Mission also finds that the destruction of the mill was carried out to deny sustenance to the civilian population, which is a violation of customary international law and may constitute a war crime. The strike on the flour mill furthermore constitutes a violation of the right to adequate food and means of subsistence.”

The UN Mission investigated four cases in which Israeli soldiers forced Palestinian civilians at gunpoint to take part in house searches. This is obviously wreckless endangerment of civilians' lives.

According to Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, 773 Gazan civilians were killed during Operation Cast Lead, as opposed to only 330 combatants.

The Israeli government, sadly, has refused to put any of their officials or military personnel on trial. If Israel has nothing to hide, and is so innocent, then why is it running from international law? Why will it not allow its war-time leaders to be put on trial for war crimes? As the old saying goes, "if you've done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to worry about." Obviously the Israelis have a lot to worry about and aren't innocent at all.

I know that many right-wingers out there are thinking, "That is war, civilians have to die sometimes." Why is it that when a group like Al-Qaeda declares war on the US (or one of its allies) and kills American civilians it is called "terrorism" or a tragedy, but when the US or Israel kills civilians it's "just how war is"? The logic that right-wingers use when judging war is flawed and hypocritical.

Philippine Soldier Captured

The following is a new press release from the Philippine New People's Army (NPA), a Maoist rebel group. It was originally posted on www.Philippinerevolution.net.

The 4th Pulang Bagani Company of the New People's Army in Southern Mindanao announces that captured 72nd Infantry Battalion detachment commander Cpl. Dominador Alegre is being held as a Prisoner of War by the NPA and is currently undergoing investigation while in custody.

The taking of prisoners of war is a legitimate act of the NPA being a revolutionary armed forces engaged in a civil war against the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and its reactionary armed forces.

In strict accordance with the NPA's Rules of Discipline and with provisions of International Humanitarian Law pertaining to captured enemy personnel, the NPA guarantees Cpl.Dominador Alegre full respect and protection of his rights as a prisoner of war. As the track record of the NPA eloquently shows, the NPA firmly upholds the policy of humane and lenient treatment of its POWs.

In this regard, we assure his family that he is well and is being taken cared of under the prevailing guerrilla conditions of the people's army and the people's war.

While the investigation for Cpl. Alegre's possible commission of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law is proceeding, we call on the 10th Infantry Division-AFP not to put in jeopardy the POW's safety and well-being. Any military operation will only succeed in delaying the investigation process and exacerbate the conditions of his custodial detention.

Communist Interview With Russia Today

Recently, top Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP, USA) member Carl Dix did an interview with Russia Today news about the economic crisis, Obama, and the wars in the Middle East. Below is obviously the video of the interview.