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POPSWhy is the U.S. Military Preparing for Civil Disorder?
They are anticipating riots in the streets over the economy. But it could be because or freedoms are beginning to be restricted. Now there is news that Homeland Security plans to start monitoring blogs and message boards all over the United States for any signs of suspicious activity. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-12-23-terrorblogs_N.htm?csp=34 Does that include criticizing the government? We have a long history of voicing our opinion against our government officials, and we are not going to give that up that right without a fight. The prospect of military roaming our streets as they do in our airports is distasteful and it will trigger even more protest. Civil disobedience may have been instrumental in formally creating America but it is the people who use civil disobedience as a cover to loot stores and homes that worry me just as much as my fellow Americans pointing their military issue weapons at me for protesting what they are doing.
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POPSWere you born before 1980? We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS! Ah, the good ole days.
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POPSHershey's is going cheap and hoping you won't notice The FDA, in it's attempt to protect us from deceptive advertising practices, has forced Hershey's to admit they no longer use cocoa butter in their products. However, FDA ruling will not prevent Hershey from practicing deception. The packaging looks exactly the same. They are selling an inferior product and they’re not even telling anyone. Do you feel betrayed yet? In a statement, Hershey’s told TODAY that consumers love its products and all its candies are clearly labeled. It still offers real milk chocolate in Hershey’s Kisses, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and its classic chocolate bar. Most corporations deal with increasing cost by raising their prices, Hershey's substituted inferior ingredients and tried to slip it past us. Buyer beware!
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POPSMcCain Lied about William Ayers I posted a clip earlier about how Sarah Palin will grasp at any opportunity to lie about Obama. McCain is doing the same thing, despite proof to the contrary. I have never understood how anyone can be stupid enough to lie about something that can so easily be proven. America cannot afford to have people of this low character to represent us. Contiued embarrassment.
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POPS5 Myths About Our Health-Care System The U.S. is #1 in the amount we spend for health care, but lag far behind Japan, France, Italy, Sweden and Canada. These country's governments pay for the lion's share of health care. We have the best emergency care system in the world. We're doing a better job than most on reducing smoking rates, but our obesity epidemic is out of control, our death rate from prostate cancer is only slightly lower than the United Kingdom's, and in at least one study, American heart attack patients did no better than Swedish patients, even though the Americans got twice as many high-tech treatments. One major part of the problem is that America has the highest level of poverty and income inequality among all rich nations, and poverty affects one's health much more than the limited ministration of a formal health care system. Some very intersting stats about how we compare to other nations can be found at http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-healthcare.htm.
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POPSMarijuana could be the answer Would this be a sound ecological/financial answer to both questions? Of course, we would put a whole government bureacracy out of business and a lot of law enforcement types out of work, but hey, they could always become farmers. Talk about turning swords into plow shares.
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POPSRussia is buying off our closest neighbors The U.S. move to place missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic is being viewed as antagonistic by Russia. Their answer is to sell military weaponry to U.S. neighbors. Latin America and South American countries are being used as pawns in a new form of arms-race. Venezuela and Bolivia, have expelled their U.S. ambassadors. The geo-political map is changing and the U.S. is losing ground. This is yet another foreign relations failure that can only be blamed on the Bush administration. The next administration needs to do some old-fashioned diplomatic manuvering to prevent another Cuban missile crisis. I hope they are up for it.
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POPSU.S. Corporations are Ugly Americans American corporations pay foreign countries for rights to extract oil, gas, and minerals from within their borders. Those governments have done nothing to regulate oil company practices that pollute the environment and otherwise endanger the lives of local residents. The Bush administration, in their typically arrogant, misguided, neocon, "corporations-can-do-no-wrong" attitude, have turned a blind eye to how U.S. corporations (as representatives of our country) have done little to provide for the locals needs and security. The security for these U.S. corporations are local military who use villagers as forced laborers and freely rape local women and children. U.S. corporations, stalwarts of democracy and human rights that they are, also turn a blind eye as long as they can keep their bottom line healthy.
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POPSU.S. Supports use of Cluster Munitions Cluster munitions are large weapons that release up to hundreds of smaller submunitions. "Air-dropped or ground-launched, they cause two major humanitarian problems and risks to civilians," writes the Cluster Munition Coalition. 1-their widespread dispersal means they cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians so the humanitarian impact can be extreme, 2-many submunitions fail to detonate on impact and become de facto antipersonnel mines killing and maiming people long after the conflict has ended Why does the U.S. want to continue the use of these inaccurate, indiscriminate, and unreliable bombs? We have 'smart' bombs and we use 'surgical strike' technology. Why do we insist on employing such barbaric weaponry? For a country that prides itself as a democratic and humanitarian state, how can the U.S. ignore the overwhelming mandate of such a large number of nations?
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POPSUrban Farming School Takes Root Learn how to grow food in your own backyard. More and more people are doing this and rightfully so. Food security has become a huge issue due to ecoli outbreaks. And transporting food to your local supermarket adds to the cost of food and adds pollution to out environment. We just need to learn to farm intensively without the over-use of chemicals, it can be done. Canning and/or freezing your produce at the end of the season can provide for nutritious meals throughout the non-growing season. I would like to see more of this throughout America.
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POPSFood lessons from the Great Depression When is the last time you had a truly sweet crispy apple? How about homemade soup that actually satisfied your appetite? Fast food holds no comparison to the taste, the health benefits or the satisfaction gained from making it yourself. If you have the space to start a garden, do so, if not for the money saved (after the initial setup costs) then do it for the health of it (both in eating real food and in the exercise you get from actually gardening) and for the shear enjoyment of tasting what food is supposed to taste like. I have been growing my own vegetables and fruits for several years now and supermarket food cannot come close to matching the flavor my family gets from our fresh picked produce. Bonus, you might even get to know your neighbors or become the neighborhood guru on growing your own food.
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POPSDo you know where your seeds come from? Americans dislike corporate monopolies. Monsanto has stealthily become just such a monopoly. But they are carrying their game of ‘world domination’ to another level. They are genetically modifying our food stuffs in such a way that will guarantee their position in the food and home gardening industry. They currently control 85%-90% of the U.S. nursery market. Their ‘close relationship’ with government has made it almost impossible to save seeds from plants you grow on your own land. And just to ensure their position at the top of the heap they are genetically modifying every plant they control so that any seed produced is infertile. If your crops experience some sort of disease, Monsanto will sell you the chemical that will turn on the disease fighting gene in that plant. The only way, for now, that we can fight this Franken-monster company is to buy heirloom seeds. Heirloom seeds do not have patents but I imagine Monsanto is working to ‘correct’ this condition.
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POPSCircuit City, I Won’t Miss You I was at a Circuit City last year attempting to buy a keyboard and was told they couldn’t make the sale because their computers were down. I asked if they could just give me a hand written receipt and the cashier refused. I pointed out that a handheld calculator could figure the tax on the clearly marked price of the item and still she would not budge. So, they lost the sale and a customer Have we really gotten so dependent on computers that a business will lose money when they go down? This same thing happened at a different another store (not Circuit City) a couple of years ago and the cashier did indeed make the sale because he actually used the calculator to total it all up. Computers are our future but you still should be able to at least use a calculator.
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POPSCouric Hides Embarrassing Palin Tape CBS is getting a little too cozy with Republican candidates in exchange for exclusivity. This goes against journalistic ethics and just plain good common sense. There have been several other signs of favoritism by Couric and CBS towards the McCain campaign which smacks of CBS becoming a media machine for the Republican party. Palin is reported to be unable to name another Supreme Court ruling aside from Roe v Wade; and she floundered on simple American political history questions taught to middle school students. The fact that Palin somehow graduated from University of Idaho with a minor in political science makes these flounderings and blunders unacceptable as a Vice Presidential candidate. The Republican Party should hang its head in shame. I wonder how she would do on the TV show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?"
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POPSFight for Human Rights Continues in Burma This monk has dedicated his life to attaining something we in America take for granted: Democracy and basic human rights. The U.S. claims to be a stalwart of human rights and yet allows human rights atrocities to continue in Burma, Zimbabwe, Tibet, etc. and even writes its laws to allow a U.S.-based corporation to profit from it. Chevron, based in California, has been making huge profits in Burma as part owner of a natural gas project. U.S. sanctions prevent most U.S. companies from working in Burma, but Chevron's investment there existed before the sanctions were imposed and continues under a grandfather clause. This man, and many others, is willing to die to gain freedom for his fellow countrymen. Chevron and the U.S. is willing to let him die at the hands of a tortuous dictatorial regime in order to make a profit. How is this any different than the terrorism the U.S. is creating in Iraq and Afghanistan?
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POPSThe arrests begin at DNC So, not giving their names is considered a minor infraction and yet they were arrested for it. Denver Joint Information Center would not give out information, shouldn't they be arrested under the same rule?
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POPSMan arrested for wearing 'POLICE' t-shirt Our police-state is getting touchy. After writing a non-traffic complaint, Vernatti let Weinstein go, first telling him how lucky he was not to be charged with a felony and to be placed in jail. Eventually, Belleville's prosecuting attorney dropped the case. In the five-count suit, Weinstein is seeking actual damages in excess of $250,000, punitive damages in excess of $200,000, plus attorney's fees, costs and other relief the court deems just.
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POPSRussia Moving into U.S. Backyard Thanks to the arrogance of the Bush/Cheney foreign policy with Venezuela, we now have talk of nuclear reactors being built in Venezuela with Russia's assistance. Relations between U.S. and Venezuela have been deteriorating for years and as a result Russia is extending its reach around the world. If we had maintained better relations with Russia, this would not cause Americans much concern. But the reality is that we now have two oil rich nations trading nuclear technology and weapons that are not motivated to work with the U.S.
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POPSDozens killed in US attack on Afghan wedding party What the hell is going on with our military? The U.S. does not have a reputation for murdering civilians. And yet lately many civilians have lost their lives at our hands. Are we becoming careless? In this age of advanced technology why are we not able to be more precise in selecting our targets instead of just killing everyone and hoping to get the right one. Are we being played by erroneously intelligence for the purpose of making us look like murderous fools? This trend is very disturbing.
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POPSParents Legally Abandon Their Children My initial reaction to this story was repulsion, first towards the parents for giving up all rights to their children. Fortunately they didn't just walk away and leave the children to fend for themselves. Secondly, the article states the original intention of the Safe Haven Law was to "protect newborn children, if a parent is overwhelmed." If this was the case, then why didn't lawmakers write the law to state exactly this? Lawmakers need to be held responsible for the way in which they write laws. When we elect officials to write laws we assume they are articulate enough and educated enough to actually write laws that spell out exactly what is intended instead of leaving it open to other interpretations. Now these children have become an additional burden on taxpayers and the parents are free to continue their irresponsible procreation which will produce even more of a drain on society. These people need to have vasectomies and tubal ligation.
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POPSAre We Civilized Enough to Prosecute Our Leaders with War Crimes? Are we going to condone torture? The one thing that has held us apart from other nations, and one of the last vestiges of a civilized society, is that we do not torture our prisoners. Why have we begun to do so? If we Americans believe that torture is wrong then we should hold those who authorize it to be held accountable, especially if the offending person is our president. What does it say about us if we are to allow Bush and his cronies to get away with such a despicable war crime? Once we begin the practice of torture against prisoners of war, it won’t belong before it will be used in civil prisons.
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POPSObama tells Muslims ‘’Americans are not your enemy’ How about we invite them all over for pot roast and beer, that ought to win them over. We can play one of our favorite party games, we’ll be the cowboys and you guys can be the Indians. Does anyone remember the movie Mars Attacks? The naivete of that president nearly killed us all. Guess I’m feeling a tad bit cynical this morning. Seriously, I hope it works but I won’t hold my breath.
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POPSIraqi Official Disputes Palin Lie Sarah Palin is grasping at every opportunity to stretch the truth but her opponent. This very much defines her character. How can anyone still believe she is a viable candidate to represent the American people? She is an embarrassment.
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POPSAt Home with Nature I had to clip this because Amanda puts it into words so well. Perhaps more of us need to get into the back country and re-learn our appreciation of nature and what to offer and how our lives affect it.
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POPSBoy, 5, made to walk two-and-a-half hours to school Now this is down-right good parenting. It is good to see a parent taking proper control of the situation instead of suing the school system for making 'poor Jack' the victim. Dad looks like he could benefit from this walk too.
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POPSLame you can believe in Few voters know that Obama would cut taxes of the vast majority of Americans by far more than McCain would. Few know Obama would guarantee everyone access to health care or that McCain’s health plan might endanger coverage many already have. Few know that Obama has a coherent program to create new jobs through public investment in roads, bridges, transit and green technologies. Few know that McCain’s economic plan is worse than President Bush’s. McCain would add $8.5 trillion in new debt over the next 10 years. Political campaigns are supposed to be an opportunity to tell the public what you are about, it should not be used as an opportunity to attack the other party. To both candidates: Get your message out, make us 'feel' we have to vote for you and not against the other guy. Let the American public decide which one is good or bad for us. Stop the manipulation and the attack politics.
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