The Prince Of Peace In His Bomber Jacket

THE PRINCE OF PEACE IN HIS BOMBER JACKET


The prince of peace, Barack Obama poses in occupied Afghanistan for his obligatory warrior photo ~ dressed in his bomber jacket which fully reveals the hypocrisy of his recent and deeply tainted Nobel Peace prize : Allen L Roland

As Holy Week unfolds in 2010 ~ we have the twin spectacles of the Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict XVI, deservedly under attack for obstruction of justice while the Prince of Peace, Nobel Peace prize winner President Barack Obama, visiting illegally occupied Afghanistan in the dead of night for an on the run Photo Op with the troops ~ while posing in his macho bomber jacket. In essence, it was a six hour pro-war pep rally !

All we need is a Mission Accomplished Banner behind Obama to replicate the hypocrisy of the GW Bush Photo Op on May 1, 2003 on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln where Bush declared that the Iraq war, which was also an illegal occupation, was over.

This Obama photo is a statement to America, and the world, that Obama is a war president and you better get used to it. Obama sold out to the Military / Industrial complex a long time ago ~ and, as a result, we'll be in Afghanistan for many years to come.

Those were Obama's exact words by the way ~ He assured his listeners, and most assuredly Americans at home, that we will “finish the job” and made another promise as well: “I’m looking forward,” he told the troops, “to returning to Afghanistan many times in the years to come.”

Machiavelli, The Prince, ch. IX, fully describes our current Prince Obama ~ " For in every city these two opposite parties [people vs aristocracy] are to be found, arising from the desire of the populace to avoid oppression of the great, and the desire of the great to command and oppress the people....For when the nobility see that they are unable to resist the people, they unite in exalting one of their number and creating him prince, so as to be able to carry out their own designs under the shadow of his authority."

As Norman Soloman writes in Common Dreams " President Obama has taken a further plunge into the kind of war abyss that consumed predecessors named Johnson, Nixon and Bush. "

The Afghanistan and Iraq wars ($1 trillion so far), will cost $200-250 billion more this year, including hidden and indirect expenses. Obama’s Afghan “surge” of 30,000 new troops will cost an additional $33 billion ~ which is more than Germany’s total defense budget.

Commander in Chief Obama is paying for America’s wars through supplemental authorizations ­by utilizing America's maxed-out credit card. Future generations will be stuck with this bill to the tune of what is now over $30,000 dollars per American.

In other words, If Americans actually had to pay for these wars and occupations through a war tax ~ and not on credit ~ both of these conflicts would now be over.

As Daniel Ellsberg said ~ "The only way the Vietnam War could have been ended was by Congress cutting off the money " and he was absolutely correct !

President Obama now has HIS war in Afghanistan and his Bomber Jacket ~ but we can stop this War President nonsense by defunding these senseless occupations and make it our peace cry for the midterm elections in November, 2010.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/prince-of-peace-in-his-bomber-jacket.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

What Is The Pope Hiding ?

WHAT IS THE POPE HIDING ?

Amid fresh revelations of obstruction of justice ~ barely one in six Germans have confidence in the Catholic Church. People are leaving the dioceses in record numbers and Papal infallibility has become rightfully laughable. What is the Pope hiding ~ and what is behind the great Catholic cover-up ? : Allen L Roland

Palm Sunday commemorates Christ's triumpant entry into Jerusalem and is the official start of Holy Week ~ which includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. But this year, the Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict XVI, enters Holy Week badly discolored by a clerical abuse scandal that has spread across Europe and even to the Pope's native Germany.

Amid fresh revelations that Pope Benedict XVI mishandled the case of a paedophile priest in his former archdiocese of Munich as well as accusations by Hans Kueng, the dissident Catholic theologian from Switzerland, that Pope Benedict XVI played a key role since 2001 in keeping sex-abuse claims against priests out of the public eye ~ it appears that the Pope is not only fallible but that he is consciously hiding many unpleasant crimes regarding the Catholic church.

As Mike Whitney writes today in ICH ~ " This is obstruction of justice, pure and simple. Benedict better hire a good attorney or he'll wind up in leg-irons. No man is above the law; not even the pope. Religious freedom isn't license to inflict suffering on others."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25101.htm

Slate's Christopher Hitchens calls it The Great Catholic Cover- Up and pulls no punches when he writes that "The pope's entire career has the stench of evil about it."

Excerpt: " Very much more serious is the role of Joseph Ratzinger, before the church decided to make him supreme leader, in obstructing justice on a global scale. After his promotion to cardinal, he was put in charge of the so-called "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" (formerly known as the Inquisition). In 2001, Pope John Paul II placed this department in charge of the investigation of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. In May of that year, Ratzinger issued a confidential letter to every bishop. In it, he reminded them of the extreme gravity of a certain crime. But that crime was the reporting of the rape and torture. The accusations, intoned Ratzinger, were only treatable within the church's own exclusive jurisdiction. Any sharing of the evidence with legal authorities or the press was utterly forbidden. Charges were to be investigated "in the most secretive way ... restrained by a perpetual silence ... and everyone ... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office … under the penalty of excommunication." Nobody has yet been excommunicated for the rape and torture of children, but exposing the offense could get you into serious trouble. And this is the church that warns us against moral relativism! (See, for more on this appalling document, two reports in the London Observer of April 24, 2005, by Jamie Doward.)" http://www.slate.com/id/2247861/

The Pope can't hide behind his 'Divine' office much longer and what better time than Easter week for us to face the uncomfortable reality, as Hitchens writes ~ " that the Roman Catholic Church is headed by a mediocre Bavarian bureaucrat once tasked with the concealment of the foulest iniquity, whose ineptitude in that job now shows him to us as a man personally and professionally responsible for enabling a filthy wave of crime."

The truth has a way of eventually bringing down the self righteous, exposing evil and leveling the playing field of humankind and, in that regard, the Catholic Church has long been ripe for plucking.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-is-pope-hiding.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Health Care reform Bill Smells Rotten

HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL SMELLS ROTTEN

President Obama's Health Care Reform Bill smells rotten. A thorough reading of its massive political trade offs and sweetheart deals with Big Pharma with no public option explain the smell of this false promise of reform: Allen L Roland

President Obama on Thursday began an aggressive White House public relations blitz to sell his newly-signed health care overhaul to a skeptical and sometimes confused public, calling the measure “pro-jobs” and “pro-business” and taunting Republicans who are vowing to repeal it.

Well, it's certainly " pro-business " in regards to Wall Street, the Healthcare Industry and Big Pharma to the tune of well over 90 billion dollars ~ but is it pro-Main Street ? That remains to be seen.

What it appears to be is legalized Corporate Welfare for the health Insurance Industry. Single pay remains the best solution and the most politically ignored solution ~ because Obama traded that option away many months ago to the health Insurance Lobby

I've waited until the dust settles to really weigh in on President Obama's Health Care Reform Bill but now that it's passed ~ I find myself in agreement with the physicians for a national health program who agree that there's a strange smell about this bill that reeks of sweetheart deals with Big Pharma as well as expanded health care costs.

Physicians for a National Health Program ( PNHP.ORG ) is a non-profit research and education organization of 17,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance ~ which I, as a doctor, also support.

The following statement was released Wednesday by the leaders of Physicians for a National Health Program. Their signatures appear below and they represent the 70% of Americans who support a single payer system and the 59% of physicians who also support government action to establish national health insurance.

A false promise of reform

" As much as we would like to join the celebration of the House's passage of the health bill last night, in good conscience we cannot. We take no comfort in seeing aspirin dispensed for the treatment of cancer.

Instead of eliminating the root of the problem - the profit-driven, private health insurance industry - this costly new legislation will enrich and further entrench these firms. The bill would require millions of Americans to buy private insurers' defective products, and turn over to them vast amounts of public money.

The hype surrounding the new health bill is belied by the facts:

About 23 million people will remain uninsured nine years out. That figure translates into an estimated 23,000 unnecessary deaths annually and an incalculable toll of suffering.

Millions of middle-income people will be pressured to buy commercial health insurance policies costing up to 9.5 percent of their income but covering an average of only 70 percent of their medical expenses, potentially leaving them vulnerable to financial ruin if they become seriously ill. Many will find such policies too expensive to afford or, if they do buy them, too expensive to use because of the high co-pays and deductibles.

Insurance firms will be handed at least $447 billion in taxpayer money to subsidize the purchase of their shoddy products. This money will enhance their financial and political power, and with it their ability to block future reform.

The bill will drain about $40 billion from Medicare payments to safety-net hospitals, threatening the care of the tens of millions who will remain uninsured.

People with employer-based coverage will be locked into their plan's limited network of providers, face ever-rising costs and erosion of their health benefits. Many, even most, will eventually face steep taxes on their benefits as the cost of insurance grows.

Health care costs will continue to skyrocket, as the experience with the Massachusetts plan (after which this bill is patterned) amply demonstrates.

The much-vaunted insurance regulations - e.g. ending denials on the basis of pre-existing conditions - are riddled with loopholes, thanks to the central role that insurers played in crafting the legislation. Older people can be charged up to three times more than their younger counterparts, and large companies with a predominantly female workforce can be charged higher gender-based rates at least until 2017.

Women's reproductive rights will be further eroded, thanks to the burdensome segregation of insurance funds for abortion and for all other medical services.
It didn't have to be like this. Whatever salutary measures are contained in this bill, e.g. additional funding for community health centers, could have been enacted on a stand-alone basis.

Similarly, the expansion of Medicaid - a woefully under funded program that provides substandard care for the poor - could have been done separately, along with an increase in federal appropriations to upgrade its quality.

But instead the Congress and the Obama administration have saddled Americans with an expensive package of onerous individual mandates, new taxes on workers' health plans, countless sweetheart deals with the insurers and Big Pharma, and a perpetuation of the fragmented, dysfunctional, and unsustainable system that is taking such a heavy toll on our health and economy today.

This bill's passage reflects political considerations, not sound health policy. As physicians, we cannot accept this inversion of priorities. We seek evidence-based remedies that will truly help our patients, not placebos.

A genuine remedy is in plain sight. Sooner rather than later, our nation will have to adopt a single-payer national health insurance program, an improved Medicare for all. Only a single-payer plan can assure truly universal, comprehensive and affordable care to all.

By replacing the private insurers with a streamlined system of public financing, our nation could save $400 billion annually in unnecessary, wasteful administrative costs. That's enough to cover all the uninsured and to upgrade everyone else's coverage without having to increase overall U.S. health spending by one penny.

Moreover, only a single-payer system offers effective tools for cost control like bulk purchasing, negotiated fees, global hospital budgeting and capital planning.

Polls show nearly two-thirds of the public supports such an approach, and a recent survey shows 59 percent of U.S. physicians support government action to establish national health insurance. All that is required to achieve it is the political will.

The major provisions of the present bill do not go into effect until 2014. Although we will be counseled to "wait and see" how this reform plays out, we cannot wait, nor can our patients. The stakes are too high.

We pledge to continue our work for the only equitable, financially responsible and humane remedy for our health care mess: single-payer national health insurance, an expanded and improved Medicare for All. "
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2010/march/pro-single-payer-doctors-health-bill-leaves-23-million-uninsured

Oliver Fein, M.D.
President

Garrett Adams, M.D.
President-elect

Claudia Fegan, M.D.
Past President

Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Congressional Fellow

David Himmelstein, M.D.
Co-founder

Steffie Woolhandler, M.D.
Co-founder

Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator

Contact: Mark Almberg, PNHP, (312) 782-6006, mark@pnhp.org

Allen L Roland, Ph.D
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/health-care-reform-bill-smells-rotten.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com)

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Northern Iowa Steals NCAA Spotlight

NORTHERN IOWA STEALS NCAA SPOTLIGHT

The Northern Iowa Panthers have rightfully stolen the NCAA spotlight by slaying number one seed Kansas 69 - 67 and set the stage for more heroics against Michigan State on Friday as America's latest homegrown no-name gritty, intentioned and unlikely heroes: Allen L Roland

OK, the healthcare Bill passed but let's be honest ~ it won't become fully implemented until 2014 and at its worse it was a bailout of the Drug and Health Insurance Industry ( note how their stocks have soared recently ) with no promised public option.

Once again, Wall Street gets a gift and Main Street gets a work in progress. For example, the bill includes a provision that gives drug makers a 12 year period of exclusivity on expensive medicines before generic alternatives may enter the market ~ and many of those drugs, including cancer treatments, cost tens of thousands of dollars a year.

And let's be even more honest in that despite all the political posturing in Washington, DC ~ a far more dramatic David versus Goliath scenario is playing itself out at the NCAA basketball playoffs which has captured the attention of most of the nation's sports fans ~ much as George Mason did in 2006.

I vividly remember the national excitement as George Mason, with its similar no-name homegrown cast, slayed Goliath after Goliath on its way to the final four. That included number one seed Connecticut and even Michigan State ~ which the Northern Iowa Panthers face Friday night.

Make no mistake about it ~ the Panthers are for real as any one who watched the last few minutes of the Kansas game, as I most certainly did, will attest. They are talented, gritty, determined and confident ~ even under relentless pressure. Watch Senior guard Ali Farokhmanesh calmly fire the three pointer that was the dagger in the heart of a frantic Kansas rally ~ the shot that felled goliath.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_IBgtYWGVk&feature=related

"If anybody's going to shoot that shot, I want it to be Ali," Northern Iowa's Jake Koch said after the game.

The Panthers are no fluke ~ as reported by Detroit News.com ; " Kansas coach Bill Self said it'd be a mistake to label UNI "Cinderella." After his team's loss to the Panthers , he told the Kansas City Star UNI was the first team he noticed when the brackets were released. UNI senior forward Adam Koch was named MVP of the Missouri Valley Conference despite not finishing in the top 10 in the conference in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals or blocks. Koch does everything well and nothing spectacular, which epitomizes the team he plays on. Koch is complemented by 7-foot senior center Jordan Eglseder (12 ppg, 7.3 rpg), junior point guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe (10.6 ppg) and Farokhmanesh, who's led Northern Iowa in scoring in each of its Tournament victories while shooting 9-of-19 from 3-point range."
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100323/SPORTS0202/3230329/Bracket-buster-Northern-Iowa-enjoys-Sweet-16-spotlight

This year's NCAA tournament has been defined by its upsets. Eight double-digit seeds moved through the bracket in the first round. No. 10 Saint Mary's beat Villanova on Saturday and No. 11 Washington shoved aside New Mexico while No. 12 Cornell dismantled Wisconsin ~ but Northern Iowa's victory was without a doubt the biggest shocker of them all.

Here are my bracket picks for the upcoming greatest sports weekend in college Sports when, within two days, the Sweet Sixteen is shrunk to the Elite Eight ~ Northern Iowa, Tennessee, Butler, Kansas State, Kentucky, Washington, Duke and Baylor which will then become the final four on Sunday ~ Northern Iowa, Kansas State, Kentucky and Baylor.

It doesn't get much better than this !

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/northern-iowa-steals-ncaa-spotlight.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net


Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com)

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

America / An Empire On The Ropes

AMERICA / AN EMPIRE ON THE ROPES

America's Armies are stretched to the point that more US military personnel have committed suicide than died in action ~ the Empire is on the ropes and the knockout punch will be moral and financial bankruptcy: Allen L Roland

This is the seventh anniversary of George W Bush's FOLLY ~ the blatant illegal attack and occupation of Iraq ~ which to date has resulted in the following staggering statistics:

Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,366,350" www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America's War On Iraq: 4,703
Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 1,692 http://icasualties.org/oef/

But here is a shocking statistic that you won't hear in most western news media: over the past nine years, more US military personnel have taken their own lives than have died in action in either the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. These are official figures from the US Department of Defense, yet somehow they have not been deemed newsworthy to report. Last year alone, more than 330 serving members of the US armed forces committed suicide - more than the 320 killed in Afghanistan and the 150 who fell in Iraq (see wsws.org).

Since 2001, when Washington launched its “war on terror”, there has been a dramatic yearly increase in US military suicides, particularly in the army, which has borne the brunt of fighting abroad. Last year saw the highest total number since such records began in 1980. Prior to 2001, the suicide rate in the US military was lower than that for the general US population; now, it is nearly double the national average.

Why ? These soldiers have been little more than political pawns for White house Middle East power games and financial maneuvering and they know it. As Finian Cunningham writes in Global Research " In their guts, these US soldiers must know ~ as many other ordinary people around the world do ~ that these wars are nothing but a desperate, pathological bid by a dying power to salvage its crumbling empire ~ an empire that enriches a tiny elite and impoverishes the majority. Is it any wonder that many of them simply lose the will to live? "
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16916

What is even more disturbing , as Cunningham points out, is that the official figures only count victims of suicide among serving personnel. " Not included are the many more veterans ~ officially classed a civilians ~ who take their own lives. "

The US Department of Veteran Affairs calculates that over 6,000 former service personnel commit suicide every year. I work with Veterans with PTSD and every one of them has, at one time or another, contemplated suicide. Almost everyone has commented that the only thing that kept them alive, in that moment of aloneness and inner isolation, was the love for a partner, child or friend which served as a life preserver on a choppy dangerous dark sea with a powerful and deep undertow.

Love joins even the most wounded heart, to not only what is deepest within themselves, but to another life fulfilling choice versus self sabotage or destruction ~ for without love true healing cannot occur.

As such, by treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a Post Traumatic Heart Disorder ~ self healing occurs as rapidly as the client takes responsibility for love and when that occurs ~ the healing is always permanent. See FRANK'S STORY / A PTSD SURVIVOR CONQUERS UNWORTHINESS
http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2008/03/31.html

As a concerned Veteran, I feel our growing military and veteran suicide rate is an obvious symptom that our Empire is on the ropes and just one punch away from being down for the count ~ with that punch being moral and financial bankruptcy.

We can no longer use force to get our way in the world for our world is already interconnected and the strong innate evolutionary tide of mutual cooperation is increasingly making its presence felt.

Orwell sums up our dilemma ~ "A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial, that is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud."

Force is all we have left but it has been so greatly diminished by fraud that we now have become a staggering modern day Don Quixote flailing away at the windmills of the evil world that we ourselves helped to create.

Thanks to Bush and Cheney, the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq has been a massive waste of human life and treasure. We cannot let the Obama administration make this same mistake again in Afghanistan ~ which they apparently are.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

March Madness / I'm Infected, Incurable and Contagious

MARCH MADNESS / I'M INFECTED, INCURABLE AND CONTAGIOUS

Oh my God ! NCAA March Madness is here and I'm infected. Nothing, no nothing can beat the pure exhilaration and joy of college sports most honest competition ~ where David often beats Goliath and 50% of the country is in a bracket pool: Allen L Roland

Of course, the Obama health care bill is really a thinly disguised bailout of the Medical-Industrial complex and Goldman Sachs has long been counseling the health Insurance Industry against any meaningful reform ~ particularly a true public option. It is, in essence, another Wall Street bailout with Main Street footing the bill and ultimately paying the consequences.

Of course, Obama made a deal last year with the for-profit hospital lobby that there would be no national public option in turn for their support for Obama care ~ which amounts to at least 90 billion extra dollars in their pockets.

Of course, Wall Street is now a corrupt and rigged craps game and an unaudited Federal Reserve is free to float this on going ponzi scheme with an unlimited and unaccounted for flow of dollars.

Of course, the country is morally and financially bankrupt while financing two illegal wars and occupations to the tune of 10 to 20 billion dollars a month while Main street suffers an unrelenting depression.

Of course, things look bleak but it's also March and the greatest spectacle of college sports is under way ~ the NCAA National Basketball Championship. The Big Dance is just that ~ 64 college teams seeded from one to sixteen in four regional divisions ~ all with an equal chance to make the Sweet Sixteen, The Elite Eight and just maybe the Final Four.

Half the country is in a bracket pool, as I most certainly am, and right now I'm looking pretty good after the first round. Eleven of my sixteen picks are still alive with four of them high ( 9 -16 ) seeds and one of them #14 seed Ohio shocked mighty #3 seed Georgetown 97- 83. This is truly David slaying Goliath but it's the magic of March Madness and as I said ~ I'm infected ,incurable and contagious.

Here's where I am after the first round ~ Kansas #1 Kansas State #2 Baylor #3 Maryland #4 Butler #5 Tennessee #6 Gonzaga #8 N.Iowa # 9 Georgia Tech #10 Washington #11 and Ohio #14.

My final four prediction #1 Kansas #2 Kansas State #1 Duke or #3 Baylor and #1 Kentucky
My dark horse possibility ~ Baylor #3 beating Duke #1 in the South regional Final which will be held in Houston,Texas.

Final two Kansas vs. Kentucky with Kansas prevailing 68 - 65.

As for politics and world issues ~ they'll still be there after two weeks but right now I'm infected and not curable until after April 5th.

GO BEARS !

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Goldman Rules / Obama Obeys

GOLDMAN RULES/ OBAMA OBEYS

Goldman Sachs rules Wall Street, its alumni permeate the Obama administration, its derivative liability equals over 33% of its assets and Obama continues to subsidize it with zero interest fed loans with no real reform in sight: Allen L Roland

The latest data on derivatives is truly impressive ~ JPMorgan Chase, for example, held derivatives worth 6,072 percent of its assets at the peak of the bubble in 2007. The other two giants, Citigroup and Bank of America, although still far behind Chase, had 2,022 percent and 2,486 percent respectively. Goldman Sachs, the other giant, had an astonishing amount of derivatives on its balance sheets: 25,284 percent of assets in 2008 and 33,823 percent as of June 2009. Citigroup and BOA now have more of this risk on their books than before the crisis (FDIC SDI database).
"This simply adds to the point that despite all the histrionics and efforts in Washington, nothing has been learned and the American Banking system is now at least at as much risk now as in 2007, pre crash." http://thebankwatch.com/2010/03/11/goldman-sachs-derivative-liability-33823-of-assets/

Obviously, Goldman Sachs still rules Wall Street with what Michael Lewis calls 'An elegant form of theft ' while being subsidized by the Fed with zero percent interest loans despite the fact that Wall Street is still sitting on over 1.5 trillion dollars in junk sub prime loans. Goldman was also the number one financial contributor to the Obama presidential run and his administration is stocked with Goldman alumni ~ so when Goldman speaks, Obama indeed listens and obeys. But we are talking about potential criminal violations regarding Goldman which cannot be ignored or swept under the rug. Senator Ted Kaufman appears to be hot on the trail of Goldman and rightfully says ' that Fraud is still at the heart of Wall Street.'

Baseline Scenario's Simon Johnson sees Sen. Ted Kaufman pursuit of criminal violations more promising than Dodd bill: "...he actually lays out the parameters of what should be, if our legal institutions still functioned, a compelling case against Goldman ... This sounds like a potential violation of Rule 10b-5 - you are simply not allowed to sell securities in the United States while withholding material adverse information ... [Kaufman] he is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and we are discussing here potential crimes..."
http://baselinescenario.com/2010/03/15/senator-kaufman-fraud-still-at-the-heart-of-wall-street/

If you didn't watch the Steve Croft 60 minutes interview of Michael Lewis, author of the Big Short, on Sunday night ~ here it is. Lewis explains how the big banks rule the rating agencies and how Goldman is the biggest ruler of them all ~ bullying AIG to insure billions of dollars of worthless sub prime mortgages which they obviously knew were junk and then cashing in when they collapsed in 2007 and then collecting again when AIG repaid them again with billions of TARP bailout money.

It's a big casino game, folks and we're not in it ~ but we are most certainly paying for this continuing financial time bomb with no real reform in sight.

Michael Lewis / The Big Short / 60 minutes interview http://blogs.reuters.com/rolfe-winkler/2010/03/15/lewis-on-his-book-on-60-minutes/

Here's the full Goldman story with its glittering cast of characters in this illuminating ( 10 minute video )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SFywA_LQuU&feature=player_embedded

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.comHe also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Jarret Plays And Roland Sings Danny Boy

JARRET PLAYS AND ROLAND SINGS DANNY BOY

What would St Patrick's day be without Danny Boy being sung or played while touching and awakening the Irish in all of us: Allen L Roland

Here is Keith Jarret's solo version of "Danny Boy," which was originally an Irish folk song written in 1910. This is a song which has always touched myself and millions of people throughout the world and Jarret and myself movingly do it justice.

Jarret performs it live in Tokyo, 2002. http://www.jazzonthetube.com/videos/keith-jarrett/danny-boy.html

Allen L Roland records " Danny Boy " in Marin Country ( accompanied by Scott Deturk with Mel Martin on Saxophone / Clarinet ) also in 2002. I dedicate this song to the child within myself who always wanted to sing this song to the world ~ as well as the lost child within others who yearn to express their gift with the world. Click on and enjoy ~

Danny Boy

Allen L Roland http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Freelance Online columnist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews and speaking engagements ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

HR 645 / U.S. Preparing For Civil Unrest

HR 645 / U.S. PREPARING FOR CIVIL UNREST

In their quest for the truth ~ over 60,000 infuriated Greek citizens take to the streets in central Athens because the cash strapped government faces a financial reckoning. The Obama administration has prepared itself for eventually the same demands for the truth with HR 645 which is, in essence, militarized FEMA internment camps: Allen L Roland

Recently, street clashes broke out on March11th between rioting youths and police in central Athens as tens of thousands demonstrated during a nationwide strike against the cash-strapped government. Hundreds of masked and hooded youths punched and kicked motorcycle police, knocking several off their bikes, as police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1257243/Greek-riots-Up-60-000-people-streets-protest-government.html

It's only a matter of time before the American people take to the streets particularly when they realize the full extent of cash strapped America's indebtedness as well as the financial backlash of Wall Street's ponzi scheme of offshore derivatives which has also brought Greece to its knees. We are talking trillions of dollars here. Meanwhile the U.S. Defense budget for 2011 will go up 7.1% .

Robert Reich, RobertReich.org, writes of the present sham recovery ~ "Are we finally in a recovery? Who's 'we,' kemosabe? Big global companies, Wall Street, and high-income Americans who hold their savings in financial instruments are clearly doing better. As to the rest of us – small businesses along Main Streets, and middle and lower-income Americans ~ forget it."
http://www.truthout.org/the-sham-recovery57638

Since the Obama administration is just as committed as the Bush administration to shielding the American public from honestly disclosing the full extent of its indebtedness ~ relying instead on a bank bailout buoyed mini recovery with the hopes of re-inflating the same debt bubble that just burst ~ it's just a matter of time before infuriated American citizens realize what has really happened and take to the streets.

Michel Chossudovsky spelled it out the consequences on March 18, 2009 Global Research , in an article entitled Preparing for Civil Unrest in America Legislation to Establish Internment Camps on US Military Bases

Excerpt: " A bill entitled the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act (HR 645) was introduced in the US Congress in January. It calls for the establishment of six national emergency centers in major regions in the US to be located on existing military installations. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-645

The stated purpose of the "national emergency centers" is to provide "temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster." In actuality, what we are dealing with are FEMA internment camps. HR 645 states that the camps can be used to "meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security."

There has been virtually no press coverage of HR 645.
These "civilian facilities" on US military bases are to be established in cooperation with the US Military. Modeled on Guantanamo, what we are dealing with is the militarization of FEMA internment facilities.

Once a person is arrested and interned in a FEMA camp located on a military base, that person would in all likelihood, under a national emergency, fall under the de facto jurisdiction of the Military: civilian justice and law enforcement including habeas corpus would no longer apply.

HR 645 bears a direct relationship to the economic crisis and the likelihood of mass protests across America. It constitutes a further move to militarize civilian law enforcement, repealing the Posse Comitatus Act. "

Theodore Roosevelt once said that Honesty is the prerequisite for a strong and healthy Republic and our government, in that sense, obviously does not trust the people it represents with the truth ~ "We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure. Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity.": Theodore Roosevelt - (1858-1919) 26th US President

We are no longer a Republic, we are now a Oligarchy where corporations now have tremendous financial and political leverage and their deepest fear is an informed, angry and rebellious public seeking the truth.

Take to the streets but be forewarned ~ the chips are increasingly being stacked against us.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Contagious Love Experiment / Vets Turn To Love

CONTAGIOUS LOVE EXPERIMENT / VETS TURN TO LOVE

As veterans we were programed to kill but as children we were wired to love. The dilemma of PTSD is that fear and hate short circuit our original wiring and we no longer can accept or give love and trust virtually no one. By taking responsibility for love we can, in essence, restore our original wiring and become fully functioning and loving human beings again: Allen L Roland

Many veterans with PTSD cannot accept love for they feel they do not deserve love and they continually sabotage their joy for the same reason ~ their hearts have closed and they live in the Gray Zone where no light can penetrate and no one dare enter.

As a therapist and group leader working with veterans with PTSD ~ I find that unworthiness is the common deep seeded characteristic of veterans who have been short circuited from love by fear, self hatred and anger. The only antidote for unworthiness is gratefulness which begins with the people who have always loved us and ends with ourselves as well as compassion for our own quest to reunite with our original wiring of joy, intention and purpose.

Which leads me to the Contagious Love Experiment where two Iraq Vets also found out that love conquers fear and hate ~ they then began to spread it by journeying across the country with their message of love and peace.

On February 28, 2010 ~ Nadya Williams wrote an article in Truthout entitled Turning Point: When Soldiers Have Had Enough in which she wrote of these two young veterans of the Iraq War, Josh Stieber and Conor Curran, during part of their six months of walking and biking from the East Coast to the West to engage in dialogue about war and to become involved in community service along the way.

Excerpt: " Neither young man spoke of killing anyone, and no one from the audience asked. But each spoke of turning points when they decided they could not continue as soldiers. For Josh this was a gradual process, but for Conor it came during his second tour while conducting random searches with his squad for weapons caches in Ramadi, without adequate intelligence. They set upon a home with an exceptionally beautiful garden and proceeded to tear it apart and dig it up. "Then the man of the house came out with a tray and served us all tea!" said Conor. "He spoke English and wanted to be our friend. He showed love to us and we were terrorizing him " Thus the seed for "The Contagious Love Experiment" was planted.... Conor and Josh had many encounters along the roads of America since the spring, but the one that stood out for them was meeting a Vietnam War veteran who told them, "Instead of uniting against a common enemy, we should unite for a common goal ~ peace."
http://www.truthout.org/turning-point-when-soldiers-have-had-enough57257

Josh and Conor are perfect examples of what happens to veterans who emerge from the Grey Zone of unworthiness into the light of gratefulness along with the need to be in service from a place of love and celebration.

And the reason love can indeed become contagious is because it resides deepest within each one of us and is not only the driving force of evolution but connects us all through a Unified Field of love and soul consciousness ~ whose principle property is the universal urge to unite.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

War Crimes Trial Of The Century

WAR CRIMES TRIAL OF THE CENTURY

The war crimes trial of the century will be the World Court versus George W Bush and Dick Cheney. It will be instigated when the shocking details of the 9/11 conspiracy are finally fully brought to light ~ thus validating countless members of the 9/11 truth movement who always knew the official story was full of holes: Allen L Roland

The day is drawing closer ~ the day that George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and Condi Rice take their place in the dock for the War Crimes Trial of the Century. It will be an international trial for it involves the tragic deaths of 2750 innocent people from nations all over the world.

The rest of the world already knows the official 9/11 report is a hoax but America's main stream press stubbornly holds on to the great lie ~ rightfully afraid of the repercussions once the truth is revealed.

Jeremy R. Hammond , ICH, reports on an editorial in the Washington Post yesterday which slammed Japanese member of parliament Yukihisa Fujita because he "seems to think that America's rendering of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, is a gigantic hoax." His "ideas" about the terrorist attacks "are too bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus to merit serious discussion."

The post rant continues ~ " Among Fujita's "bizarre" views are "that shadowy forces with advance knowledge of the plot played the stock market to profit from it", "the fantastic idea that eight of the 19 hijackers are alive and well", and "that controlled demolition rather than fire or debris may be a more likely explanation for at least the collapse of the building at 7 World Trade Center ".

Hammonds carefully explains that Fujita's so called bizarre views are indeed credible and that it is the Washington Post itself that appears to be 'Fact-Adverse'.

THE WASHINGTON POST ON ' LUNATIC ' 9/11 ' CONSPIRACY THEORISTS '

Excerpts: " It happens to be an uncontroversial fact that in the days just prior to the attacks, there was a dramatic increase in trade on put options, and what made this unusual spike even more mysterious was that it was observed only in relation to companies directly affected by the attacks, including United Airlines, American Airlines, and Morgan Stanely Dean Witter & Co. (which occupied 22 floors of 2 World Trade Center). "

"The "fantastic" idea that the identity of the hijackers named by the FBI is in question is an interesting case. At the time, the Washington Post had also subscribed to this "half-baked" notion. On September 20, 2001, under the headline "Some Hijackers' Identities Uncertain", the Post reported, "FBI officials said yesterday that some of the 19 terrorists who carried out last week's assault on New York and Washington may have stolen the identities of other people, and their real names may remain unknown."

( ALR Note: Recent Hamas leader assassination in Dubai supposedly by Israel's Mossad carrying stolen identities )

" The Washington Post was not the only mainstream media outlet to report on the uncertainty over the hijacker's identities. It was widely reported elsewhere, both in the U.S. and international media. The U.K.'s Guardian, for instance, reported on September 21 under the headline "False identities mislead FBI" that "The FBI acknowledged yesterday that some of the terrorists involved in the attacks last week were using false identities", with regard to Al-Hazmi and Al-Omari. "

" Yet, despite these facts, neither the Washington Post nor any other mainstream media outlet has ever offered any follow-up reports explaining whether and how this uncertainty was finally resolved. The FBI has never clarified this matter to the public. The 9/11 Commission didn't so much as even address the question, even to attempt to clear up the matter ."

Finally, there is the matter of the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings ~ " For starters, the evidence from the crime scene in the form of the remains of the three buildings was removed and immediately destroyed. Destruction of evidence is itself a crime, and yet that is what happened. Other standard procedures were also ignored, such as testing for any kinds of accelerants that may have been responsible for the building failures.... The similarities to videos of building "implosions" under controlled demolition are astonishing. Yet NIST dismisses the possibility that charges could have been used largely on the basis that, if this had been the case, there would have been eyewitness reports of the explosions. The problem with this is that there were in fact a great many eyewitness reports of explosions, both prior to and during the collapse ... Independent scientific inquiries into the collapse have led to the discovery of "distinctive red/gray chips in all of the samples" that, when studied, all showed "marked similarities" and were "found to be an unreacted thermitic material". These findings were included in a report entitled, "Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe" that was published last year in The Open Chemical Physics Journal... Though this report was widely circulated on the internet and among alternative media sources, the Washington Post never bothered to report these findings published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24952.htm


Do not fear the path of the truth because of the lack of people walking on it ~ for the truth always goes through three stages; First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed and Finally, it is accepted as self-evident .

It is now increasingly self-evident that the 9/11 cover-up is the big lie which will eventually be exposed and lead to the War Crimes trial of the century.

Allen L Roland http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

On Being A Rebel

ON BEING A REBEL

I've always been a rebel in that I impeccably trust myself and my truth. Even when things look politically grim, my heart is open and I share my truth from a place of inner validation while articulating my constitutional right to dissent ~ regardless of the consequences: Allen L Roland

Chris Hedges wrote a timely and most interesting article on March 8th on Truthdig entitled, Calling All Rebels where he concluded " Those who do not rebel in our age of totalitarian capitalism and who convince themselves that there is no alternative to collaboration are complicit in their own enslavement. They commit spiritual and moral suicide."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/08-2

Hedges uses the French moral philosopher Albert Camus to justify his point that we need rebels to halt America's slide into totalitarian capitalism. Camus wrote ~ " But if he dies in refusing to be enslaved, he reaffirms the existence of another kind of human nature which refuses to be classified as an object."

I would argue that other kind of human nature is a strong moral force which can never be extinguished ~ particularly among the oppressed and impoverished of the world. Vaclav Havel referred to this moral force when he fought against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia ~ " The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He is not seeking power. He has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He does not attempt to charm the public. He offers nothing and promises nothing. He can offer, if anything, only his own skin ~ and he offers it solely because he has no other way of affirming the truth he stands for. His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost."

The ongoing illegal and brutal military occupations of both Iraq and Afghanistan are inflicting serious financial, political and moral damage to America and they demand a moral response.

Never underestimate the moral power of love, mutual cooperation and altruism for it is also the driving force of nature, evolution and a Unified Field. We all have a part to play in this constantly evolving loving plan ~ and I most certainly am playing mine through my work and writings.

It is William James who eloquently speaks to the power of moral forces ~ " I am done with great things and big things and great institutions and big successes, and I am for those tiny invisible moral forces that work from individual to individual, creeping though the crannies of the world like so many rootlets or like the capillary oozing water, yet which, if you give them time , will bend the hardest monuments of human pride."

We can all be part of a powerful moral force, as Martin Luther King Jr most certainly was, that will eventually dismantle the Corpocracy and restore our crumbling Republic.
Forty three years ago, our ultimate rebel, King preached in Riverside Church in New York City that “a time comes when silence is betrayal.” He went on to condemn the Vietnam War and the system which created it as well as other apparent injustices ~ which still remain today “ We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing oriented” society to a “person oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

As such, we must now all become rebels or dissidents in demanding the leaders, the government and the moral values we deserve.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Deer Isle, Maine Speaks / Stop Funding Wars

DEER ISLE, MAINE SPEAKS / STOP FUNDING WARS

Change happens slowly but it always needs an impetus or impulse to trigger a reaction that leads to other like actions. Deer Isle, Maine has done just that by voting in their town meeting to instruct their congressman to not fund the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan: Allen L Roland

I grew up in a small picturesque seaside town in New England, much like Deer Isle, Maine. I remember well the Nahant town wharf piled high with lobster traps but I also fondly remember the town meetings where grassroots CITIZENS argued the burning issues of the day.

This is bottom up Democracy in action. Two thirds of the town's 2400 voters made a statement on Deer Isle Town Meeting Day on March 1, 2010 voting to approve an article on the town warrant " calling on Congressman Mike Michaud not to fund the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan and to take a lead in demanding the same principled position of his colleagues. Thanks in large part to impassioned statements made in support of the article (No one spoke in opposition.) Deer Isle may boast of playing a lead in Maine’s prerogative, showing the country the way."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/05-1

The state motto of Maine is Dirigo ( I lead ) and perhaps Maine is doing just that by taking a stand on an issue that the majority of Americans would enthusiastically endorse.

As Dud Hendrick reports in Common Dreams ~ " On the weekend of April 10 and 11, supporters of the campaign weary of good-money-after-bad rationale, and unwilling to support one more appropriations bill will fan out in many towns across the state to place notices on residential doors which remind us that the average Maine family has paid $10,000 for warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan."

A congressional report estimated that both wars would cost $3.5 trillion between 2003 and 2017. Under that scenario, it would cost a family of four $46,400, the report said.

Let's stop this nonsense and join the proud people of Maine by placing notices on our neighbors doors reminding them of the obscene costs of these illegal occupations ~ which enrich only the military/Industrial Industry and corpocracy.

At the end of the day on Deer Isle, the Town Moderator quoted Thomas Jefferson, “The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first priority.”

As Hendrick wrote ~ "It was an eloquent testimonial to that cherished keystone of democracy in New England ~ the Town Meeting."

But we have another cherished cornerstone of Democracy in Washington, D.C. ~ the house of Representatives. Next week, Dennis Kucinich will offer a priviledged resolution on the house floor demanding a vote on the continued funding of the war in Afghanistan. Representative Kucinich reached an agreement with other Democrats in the House to introduce the privileged resolution on March 4th ~ at which time it was assigned a number ~ and a wait through the weekend before it goes in front of the rules committee on Monday, March 8th. On Tuesday, March 9th, the resolution will come before the House. Representative Kucinich calls on PDA members and others to get the word out for everyone to contact their representatives and let them know the urgency of this resolution and request their support. Remember, it's an election year so let your Congressperson know where you stand on this incredibly important issue. Let's take names on who wants to continue to fund these illegal occupations that are draining our economy.

The first step towards bringing our troops home is for members of Congress to hear from their constituents and that means you. Click here to tell your Representative what Deer Isle told theirs ~ Stop Funding These Wars !
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1439/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2438

And sign a Petition Requesting the U.S. Congress to Stop Funding Additional Troops in Afghanistan. http://kucinich.us/afghanistan/

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY