Sometimes 'FAIR' and 'BALANCED'?

People filter information based on their own belief system. For example, people who watch Faux News on a regular basis tend to be more conservative in their political beliefs. No problem (it is what it is).

However, despite it's political flavor (along with the countless number of daily editorial decisions supporting a specific agenda), should a media corporation (radio, television or print) be allowed to make direct campaign contributions? Could this sea of corporate money interfere with the political process? Do unlimited 527 campaign donations to a specific candidate endanger the foundations of a Free Society? Do you ever ask yourself, "why do I believe what I believe?" And yes, Karl Rove is on the payroll of Faux News.

"My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference."
~ Harry S. Truman
Fox News Reporting: The Right, All Along. The Rise, Fall & Future of Conservatism (DVD)

‎...yesterday, today & tomorrow...

"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."
~ John F. Kennedy



Photo by Peter Rimar. Las Vegas, Nevada (December 2003).

Wife hits husband with SUV after fight over Wisconsin recall election?

Is Faux News inserting the quote 'crazy liberal nuts' into a story loosely related to Governor Scott Walker's recall election an example of 'mainstream media bias'? Read More...

In 2012, a Republican husband attempting to stop his Democratic wife from voting is normal? Is physically blocking a wife from exercising her rights under the 19th Amendment a 'conservative value'? Maybe it's just me, but in the view of this blogger, a husband attempting to restrain the movement of a wife is a 'big red flag' indicating a possible pattern of domestic abuse. 

Faux News now asking: Is the drop in gas prices a 'Bad Thing'?
Read More...

"Get a haircut and get a new job"?

The 19th Amendment?

IF this blogger hears another political pundit or radio talk show host mention the US Constitution without adding the line "AND the Bill of Rights", I'm going to start singing the theme song from the film Network.


The Bill of Rights were established as a checks and balances to protect an individual against government abuse and corruption.

In its original form, it was NOT a perfect document (see Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution). Read More...

It's rather aggravating hearing political pundits ranting about the Founding Fathers Fantasy Island era in U.S. History. In 1789, Senators were appointed, blacks were only considered 3/5 human and a woman's place was barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. The original BILL of RIGHTS gave our Constitution meaning and purpose. The roots of ALL real Democratic change and progress begins and ends with this document:

‎"A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference." ~ Thomas Jefferson

Suggested Reading:
Griswold v. Connecticut
Eisenstadt v. Baird

Battle for the Internet?

Google's Sergey Brin warns Web freedom faces greatest threat ever?
Read More...




Do you remember the first time you heard the phrase 'the internet'? For this blogger, it was in January 1994 while vacationing with the United Nations in Mogadishu, Somalia. A young American military officer, camping inside a bombed out building at the airport, had linked a computer via satellite to this digital highway called the World Wide Web.

Maybe it's just me, but on most days, it feels like this still adolescent, globally interconnected digital world is drowning in information but starved of knowledge. So, could someone please help me understand why Paris Hilton is famous?

[pseu·do·nym]

A fictitious name used by an author to conceal his or her identity.

"Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation—and their ideas from suppression—at the hand of an intolerant society. The right to remain anonymous may be abused when it shields fraudulent conduct. But political speech by its nature will sometimes have unpalatable consequences, and, in general, our society accords greater weight to the value of free speech than to the dangers of its misuse."
~ Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens
McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm’n 514 U.S. 334, 357 (1995)

How to Remove Your Google Search History Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect?
Read More...

Photo of peaceful government protest in Seoul, R.O.K. (July 2009).

#Occupy Wukan?

Violent political clashes in Egypt? London burning? A nuclear crisis in Japan? Military tanks crushing government protesters in Syria while American troops leave Iraq? The Libyan people rising up against Muammar Gaddafi? #Occupy Wall Street protests in every major American city? Russians marching again on the streets of Moscow?

And the year 2011 is not quite finished...


Analysis: Democracy is like a rice cooker. When too much pressure builds up inside, excess steam is released so the cooker (i.e. society) doesn't EXPLODE.
Read More...

Update:
Wukan protesters end action after Chinese government offers concessions
December 21, 2011
Read More...

Freedom? What's does it really mean?

This blogger discovered a long time ago, it sometimes depends on where a person is standing: Geography. IF you peel away the rhetorical onion, Freedom is the RIGHT to safely and peacefully live ones own life FREE from religious or political fear. Not the fear of the unknown, which will always be a part of our own humanity, but the RIGHT to search for & perhaps discover for ourselves our own individual truth.

FREE from the burden of fear.

This may be the reason why the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects freedom of expression, was 1st. From the seeds of this one simple idea, all the other freedoms enjoyed by Americans followed...

While the United States of America cannot solve all the world's problems, at the very least, as a country & as a people, we must never compromise our values & ideals for liberty & freedom.
It's from this light... 
all hope shines.

...perspective...

"As we debate how the United States can best influence the course of the Arab Spring, can’t we all agree that the most obvious thing we can do is stand as an example of a nation that holds an individual’s human rights as superior to the will of the majority or the wishes of government?" 
~ Senator John McCain
May 11, 2011
The Washington Post

Photo of Senator John McCain taken by Peter Rimar in San Antonio, Texas (January 2007).
The Fall of the Berlin Wall:
The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989 (Paperback)

On this day in history?

Sometimes, lost in all the polarized political debates going on in Washington D.C. and across this country, Americans seem to forget that the United States has been a country at war for over ten years. It remains to be seen how future scholars will judge this particular decade in World History.

"Unlike the old empires, we don't make these sacrifices for territory or for resources. We do it because it's right. There can be no fuller expression of America's support for self-determination then our leaving Iraq to its people. That's says something about who we are."
~ President Barack Obama
Fort Bragg, North Carolina
December 14, 2011
Read More...

Final Update?
December 18, 2011
The last convoy of American troops leave Iraq.
Read More...

Photos by Peter Rimar. Baghdad, Iraq (April 2005).

Top "YouTube" Political Video of 2011?

Oddball Iowa: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to visit Myanmar?

FACT: 14 countries physically border the People Republic of China.

Most Americans are unaware of China's unresolved border dispute with India and how this specific issue continues to impact the balance of power in Asia. Read More...

Additionally, in the view of this blogger (shared by an army of journalists and diplomats who actively pay attention to the extremely diverse regional dynamics of Asia), two of those countries, the DPRK (North Korea) and Myanmar are PROXY states of the CCP and the PLA. Any serious discussion or analysis regarding the economic or political future of Burma begins and ends within the gates of power in Beijing.
Read More...

While Clinton's upcoming diplomatic mission to this isolated state is a positive, regional development, folks need to remember that in 2000, then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright undertook a similar journey to Pyongyang. With that said, unlike the DPRK, the people of Burma actually hold a wild card in the geopolitical game. Her name is Aung San Suu Kyi.

‎"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."
~ Aung San Suu Kyi
Letters from Burma


State Visit Update:
(December 3, 2011)
Clinton allowed to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi
Read More...

...perspective...

Image from interview on CCTV 9 (September 2008).

Happy 125th B-Day Lady Liberty!

The New Colossus

by Emma Lazarus (1883)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Enlightening the World:
The Creation of the Statue of Liberty (Hardcover)

Tea party group to Bachmann:
Quit the presidential race?

Back in July if this year, this blogger wrote:
"IF you want to sell books, land a job on FauX News, go Dancing with the Stars, earn six figures on the talk show circuit, use PAC money to finance a family BUS vacation & STAR in your own Reality TV show, RUN for President."

Evidently, I'm not the only one who reached the political opinion that the Bachmann campaign is about the candidate's own financial, self-promotion.

In a written statement issued by American Majority President Ned Ryun, he questioned the motives of Bachmann's continued run for the White House:

"In Bachmann's case, it is clear that the campaign has become less about reform and more about her personal effort to stay relevant and sell books; a harsh commentary, but true," Ryun wrote. "While other campaigns are diving into the substance, the supposed tea party candidate Bachmann is sticking to thin talking points and hanging on for dear life."
Read More...

Breaking News: Moammar Gadhafi is Dead.

On CNN, the death of the former Libyan leader is the top news story. Wolf Blitzer just interviewed the Libyan Ambassador to the U.S. on his country's political future. On Faux News? Immigration Reform. See previous post for this blogger's military analysis regarding NATO's original No-Fly Zone mission over Libya.
Read More...

#Occupy Wall Street ~ Sgt. Shamar Thomas

When the movement itself began in New York City, two things immediately got my attention. First, I was amazed. Why did it take so long for folks to finally wake up and start voicing their outrage at the political and economic corruption eating away at our country. Second, but more importantly, I was alarmed at the extremely heavy handed response local officials have taken against the protesters:


Whether or not I agree with any or all of the issues being voiced by #Occupy is not important. When the police employed violence to suppress freedom of speech, I became an active supporter of the movement.

...Americana...

Trinity Site

October 2009

White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

#Occupy North Dakota

First Amendment to the United States Constitution



"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

“The Tea Party is very different. The Tea Party were individuals that were attempting to redress their grievances from the government that they elected. It’s not pitting one part of our country against another.”
~ House Majority Leader Eric Cantor

REALLY?

Bob, the man in the following video, attended a Tea Party Rally in Columbus, Ohio in 2010. He is 60 years old and was first diagnosed with Parkinsons 15 years ago. He has two masters degrees and a Ph.D. from Cornell. He taught at the University of Michigan and worked as a nuclear engineer:



“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” ~ Sinclair Lewis



Note to Reader: Judging this blogger's political views based on this specific POST is like reading a single page in the middle of a book. For the record, I'm an Independent. I believe the two-party system no longer serves the interests of a vast majority of Americans. Indeed, in my view, a candidate's political affiliation and party should be left off an election ballot.

Dear Mitt Romney

First, if you're going to use a visual prop to roll out a 59 point jobs plan, it's a good idea to think about where that product is actually made. Apple iPhones & iPads are assembled in the People's Republic of China via Foxcomm (a Taiwanese-based company).

Additionally, at the end of July, Apple ($76 billion) was sitting on more CASH than the U.S. Treasury ($74 billion). Which means the second largest American company in the world in market value (after Exxon-Mobil) has the financial means to help create new manufacturing jobs in this country. 

Why didn't you put Apple's feet to the fire for outsourcing American jobs?

But then again, why should a multi-national corporation pay health insurance, provide its workers with decent wages or adhere to basic environmental standards when the Chinese government is ready, willing and able to undercut the competition. America is getting its butt kicked in the global economy. There's an ARMY of migrant workers (somewhere between 170 to 200 million indentured men, women & children) who work 350 days a year for $150s a month (along with basic room & board). IF a Chinese worker complains about the health & safety in a factory, the CCP's Public Security Bureau offers that worker a FREE, all-expense paid vacation to a lovely re-education camp in Inner Mongolia.

While the Tea Party screams about the Federal Budget Deficit, I wonder why this conservative movement has avoided discussing this country's continued unbalanced trade relationship with the People's Republic of China. It's rather curious that a so-called grass roots movements (bankrolled by the Koch Brothers) advocates Free Trade instead of Fair Trade.
Read More...

Second, during this Press Conference, you discussed holding the Chinese government accountable for its unfair trade practices and manipulation of its currency.

"I will not stand by while China pursues an economic development policy that relies on the unfair treatment of U.S. companies and the theft of their intellectual property. I have no interest in starting a trade war with China, but I cannot accept our current trade surrender."

You're right. No debate. However, maintaining peace in Asia has reached a critical juncture. You need to understand that the DPRK is a proxy of the CCP and PLA. Period. Also, American corporations, which over the last ten years happily relocated part of this country's industrial-capacity to Asia, share some of the economic blame.

Could you please sit down and have a conversation with Jon Huntsman?

One problem the West has with dealing with the People's Republic of China involves how the Chinese people generally view their own society. The country's vast educational system feeds its students a steady diet of historic, foreign victimization (i.e. the Opium Wars). 

Unfortunately, its created an US vs. THEM mentality which borders on xenophobic cultural nationalism. It shares some of the same political characteristics of Islamic Fundamentalism without the theologically based underpinnings.


Instead of painting the Chinese people as the enemy, your campaign message should be BUY Made in the USA. How hard can it be to turn a negative message into a positive one? Once again, IF American consumers don't value the country of origin of a product or service, why should a corporation? IF you're elected President, you'll have to confront the Chinese government on Human Rights, state-sponsored cyber-attacks, the South China Sea, Taiwan, Rare Earth Minerals and the DPRK. The best way to keep the CCP off-balanced is to speak about freedom of expression and human rights.

"An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot."
~ Thomas Paine

Prior to 1979, the CCP spent 30 years trying to erase Chinese history & culture. Today, it's a different story. The only way to counter this political, social, economic and cultural linkage is to address the Chinese People and the Communist Party as separate institutions.

A global trade war targeting poor Chinese workers will only feed the Communist Party's vast propaganda machine. Many folks forget that during the Cold War, leaders in this country linked trade with the Soviet Union with the ideals of freedom of expression and a respect for human rights. It's a bit curious that today's crop of leaders don't hold foreign governments (along with American corporations) to ANY political, economic, social or environmental standards of conduct.

China Watch Update (September 27, 2011):
Taiwanese Officer arrested for spying for the CCP
Read More...


Power, Trade, and War (Paperback)

Romney Foreign Policy Update:
(October 7, 2011)
This blogger actually sat down and watched this candidate's televised speech from the Citadel. Afterwards, I questioned whether this man actually understood the global implications of his remarks. Evidently, I was not alone.
Read More...

Apple Update:
When I originally posted this commentary about this technology giant, it was to point out that if you're running for President (a.k.a. Mitt Romney), and you're agenda is to get the economy moving in a positive direction (i.e. 22-months of consecutive months of private sector job growth), Apple is the WRONG company to use as a Made in the USA economic model for creating new manufacturing jobs. This blogger actually lived in Shenzhen for six weeks in 2008. The information and analysis contained in the following CBS News report about Apple's manufacturing operations in China is both accurate and factual:


CBS News
The dark side of shiny Apple products
Read More...

...perspective...

Beijing, PRC (May 2008).

London's Calling?

Is it just me or does the world seem a bit CRAZY these days? After watching the scenes from the recent riots across the United Kingdom, I wonder what would have happened if the thousands of frustrated English youth had channeled their anger into something positive.
In Chile, a country which now protects Freedom of Expression, Chilean college students took to the streets to pressure the government to spend more money on education. However, instead of burning cars and buildings, the student protest on June 24th took a more peaceful, creative and just plain FUN approach to voicing their demands:


Lonely Planet Chile & Easter Island (Country Travel Guide)

What's the best flavor of YOGURT for a "culture war" food fight?

Normally, I attempt to refrain from voicing any serious political opinions in this specific forum. IMHO, politics is ONLY about two core ideas: Power & Money. It's not complicated. Indeed, Presidential elections are like watching dogs chasing their own tails.

This blogger enjoys having friends from ALL shades of the political spectrum. It keeps life interesting. With that said, when it comes to individual Freedom, NO ONE should ever LIVE IN FEAR of expressing a PEACEFUL IDEA which questions the existing status quo. Without Freedom of Expression, people would still believe the world is flat & the sun revolves around the earth. 

A Testament of Hope:
The Essential Writings & Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.