Oct 31, 2004
Halloween
| I can't believe that it's halloween already. Tough to think how much has happened over the past year: Christmas with the Scharfs and up at Grandma Lazzaro's... new year's eve with Ellen... Cancun over spring break... (notice how school is being left out)... lots of boring college related paperwork... blah blah blah blah... good times working at McD's (not really, fun people though)... wasting days away on the bass... going to watch Mac's little league games... Toronto for the 1st time... Graduation... the days at Zogby... hanging with my boy Tom... beating Matt in just about every video game we played... chillin with Mike and Jay, K-Rockathon with Mike & Jay & Timmy... gearing up for Fredonia... Toronto for the 2nd time!!! and now we're back here already... been a fun year... just overlook the little shit that gets in the way... and you'll realize how great your life is... l8r.
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Oct 30, 2004
Brand Today Gone Tomorrow
| American society wasn’t always the way it is today; back in the earliest days of the Union we based life around our own property and trying to survive on the resources that they could muster from that land. Up until the turn of the 19th century things were decentralized, people lived lives with no worry about pension funds, dental plans, or about shopping. The event that changed the economy, landscapes, and lives of every American was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the development of cities. This new age of invention of the steel mills, factories, and the genius of Henry Ford’s assembly lines. Now everyone thinks that this was the start of the great and glorious new era, well it was the start of a new age, but it is in no way glorious.
If you look at the early 20th century and politics, when the oil barons like Rockefeller and the steel kings like Bessemer took over the Congress and foiled the political process forever. Politics shape our lives, every aspect of it, even if we try not to think so. But what was started as the production and manufacturing of goods, is now gone. The United States is a service and information society. The only bad thing about this transition is that we’re losing the majority of our jobs to poorer countries who can get citizens to work for almost free. Naomi Klein sees the shifting of jobs and the unfair treatment of these third world employees are dealing with. But still these multi-billion dollar corporations keep insisting: Increasingly, brand-name multinationals - Levi’s, Nike, Champion, Wal-Mart, Reebok, the Gap, IBM and General Motors - insist that they are just like any one of us: bargain hunters in search of the best deal in the global mall. They are very picky customers, with specific instructions about made-to-order design, materials, delivery dates and, most important, the need for rock- bottom prices. But what they are not interested in is the burdensome logistics of how those prices fall so low; building factories, buying machinery and budgeting for labor have all been lobbed squarely into somebody else’s court. (202) Everyone in America finds it appalling how these people are exploited and are used for these manufacturing jobs, yet no one seems to feel guilty about going out shopping and spending $200 at a time on school clothes and shoes and whatever else we think is dire to our way of life. It wasn’t always like this. Jobs were once in the States, but we don’t want ourselves having these low paying jobs, so they’ve been shipped overseas. This production reduction is a direct result of the unionizing of workers in the early and mid points of the century. The unification of the workforce caused the management and owners to start paying better wages and start offering benefits with less stress and work hours. Collective bargaining was the main tool of these two opposing forces. What this did was compel corporations into hiring “scabs” or replacements. This is the ongoing theme of we want more vs. you’re not getting anything else. The problem was solved when the United States signed free trade agreements and corporations were able to open factories for cheaper overseas. So what is the new idea emerging from this cheaper production costs? Branding is the answer. “Ever since mass production created the need for branding in the first place, its role has slowly been expanding in importance until, more than a century and a half later after the Industrial Revolution, it occurred to these companies that maybe branding could replace production entirely (Klein, 197).” Make consumers want the company’s product not just a product. A t-shirt is a t-shirt until Hanes decides to throw their sticker onto the tag. With that sticker the retail value of that shirt is higher than it was without the tag. With the new idea of wanting brand names makes competition skyrocket. Competition results in lower prices and lower prices means the product has to be produced for less. Companies want to make the biggest profit possible, contracting outside help would assist these companies in reducing production costs and eliminates ethics problems, then increase the money needed to go into advertising. “Hector Liang, former chairman of United Biscuits, has explained: ‘Machines wear out. Cars rust. People die. But what lives on are the brands’ (196).” This attitude has led to the ruthlessness of companies and their pursuit of profits. Paying off politicians is just one of the many tactics used to get bills passed and get government support on issues that may arise when the public find out about the ethics laws being bent. Politicians shape our lives with their policies, the war in Iraq is just one of the problems facing this nation today. Why are we invading and occupying other countries when we were totally against communism? Oil. Is oil branded? Do you prefer Shell gasoline over Mobil or Sunoco? No matter what way you look at the current war, somebody is getting rich. It’s not the Iraqi citizens who have to face car bombings everyday and its not the soldiers risking their lives over in that country. It’s the already rich politicians and corporate gurus raking in all of the profits to be made. George H.W. Bush is making money, Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton (oil producer), and both have ties to the Carlyle Group. “as the Carlyle investors watched the World Trade towers go down, the group's prospects went up. In running what its own marketing literature spookily calls ‘a vast, interlocking, global network of businesses and investment professionals’ that operates within the so-called iron triangle of industry, government, and the military, the Carlyle Group leaves itself open to any number of conflicts of interest and stunning ironies. For example, it is hard to ignore the fact that Osama bin Laden's family members, who renounced their son ten years ago, stood to gain financially from the war being waged against him until late October, when public criticism of the relationship forced them to liquidate their holdings in the firm. Or consider that U.S. president George W. Bush is in a position to make budgetary decisions that could pad his father's bank account (Briody).” The problem isn’t just the fact that politicians are making money, its that the C.E.O.’s and C.O.O.’s of countless food and clothing lines are making money when they don’t deserve to. The hardest working people in the companies are the middlemen and the people pushing themselves to the brink. Tom Iwashita was once on the path of being a corporate puppet, but had a revelation that changed his life for the better, “Overtiredness and overwork leave you little energy to analyze or criticize your situation.” This is the only part of the brainwashing process; Tom also states that isolation and all free time that an employee can muster is spent with fellow co-workers. Politicians are elected by the people in our best interests, unfortunately, politicians are being bought by big business. Look at our two presidential candidates: John Kerry married into the Heinz Ketchup commonwealth and current president George W. Bush, the family is knee deep in oil companies. A change of scenery is needed; electing someone without these big corporate ties is virtually impossible. Considering that in order to run a successful campaign you need millions of dollars worth of corporate endorsements, a.k.a. legal bribery. Corporations need to be made to bring manufacturing back into the USA and they also need to be forced to limit the amount of money put into advertising; sort of like a salary cap. The United States also needs to pull out of its occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, this is to make sure that there are plenty of troops to enforce new regulations. Because there is no way that these branding geniuses will willingly change their policies. Sometimes it’s not pretty, but it has to be done for the good of everyone in the nation, unemployment needs to be scratched back down to two or three percent. No-Town Choir The groan lifts Like Yankees greeting Pickett Eerily pronounced and wavering Up along the cement tree trunks Through the windows of capitalist Princesses Buried in ears pasted on balloon-heads Name branded, copy written This fortress of our fathers impenetrable Defends the deaf |
Oct 28, 2004
Ladies & Gentlemen... Hell HAS INDEED Frozen Over... The Boston Red Sox have not reversed the Curse... they merely have relieved themselves of the embarassment. We will meet again next season... In the ALCS if we must... Fight another day my Yankees... Let the Red Sox bask in their victory... After all... They've finally earned it.
 |
June
| Thinks far with vision. Easily influenced by kindness. Polite andsoft-spoken. Having lots of ideas. Sensitive. Active mind. Hesitating, tends to delay. Choosy and always wants the best. Temperamental. Funny and humorous. Loves to joke. Good debating skills. Talkative. Daydreamer. Friendly. Knows how to make friends. Abiding. Able to show character. Easilyhurt. Prone to getting colds. Loves to dress up. Easily bored. Fussy. Seldom shows emotions. Takes time to recover when hurt. Brand conscious. Executive. Stubborn.
what does your month mean? http://www.zenhex.com/quiz.php?id=1988 |
Oct 27, 2004
9/11 Still Lingers...
Mom: An Open Letter to George W. Bush t r u t h o u t Letter By Donna Marsh O’Connor, Liverpool, NY, Mother of Vanessa Lang Langer, WTC Tower II, 93rd floor Friday 22 October 2004 On the Thirty-third Anniversary of My Daughter’s Birth cc: Senator John Kerry Sometimes, Mr. Bush, it’s the smallest of details that makes everything click. The smallest of details. Right now, Mr. Bush, I am looking at your watch. It’s an item of clothing accessory and, unlike your other costumes, it is one that is particularly revealing. On Halloween my daughter would be thirty-three years old. Her child would be almost three. Seven weeks before her twenty-ninth birthday, Vanessa, four months pregnant, ran from the falling towers of the World Trade Center. She did not make it. Her body, and in it the small body of her unborn child, was pulled from the rubble of the fallen towers on September 24th, just ten feet from an alley between towers IV and V. It is important for me to tell you that she was on the phone to her uptown office five minutes after the first plane hit tower I, explaining how she and others in tower II were "safe." Here is what you did regarding specifically the events of that morning: You vacationed before, during and after August 6th, the day you were handed the presidential daily briefing that said very clearly Vanessa Lang Langer and many other Americans were not safe. After the first plane hit tower I, the fact of the PDB did not click in your mind, did not cause you to act, to turn on a television, to contact the Pentagon. You sat so that you did not frighten a group of children. You did not worry about Vanessa’s brothers, or the young children who would certainly be directly affected by that event. You did not, like her fourteen year-old brother, rush from your seat and head for a phone, desperately trying to reach out, to fix, to save. You sat. You said, two weeks to the day before the general election of 2004, that you would protect Americans; that is, according to you, your primary responsibility as Commander-in Chief; no terrorists would get us, no terrorists would attack us (you said this with your arm extended), and I you said and I quote, on your watch. You said this with no sense of irony, no sense, no indication of how that text would sound to those you failed miserably to protect. You never notified officially the airlines, flight schools, persons who lived or worked in our tallest structures. You failed in your watch and on it. Help me to understand this, because I was looking so closely at your watch. Five minutes, Mr. Bush. Five minutes. In that five minute space my sons lost a best friend, a future that included a loving sister and her future family. And my daughter lost the only thing in life I ever knew she really wanted. In fact, you stood on September 13th, on the rubble that covered my child’s bones and you began your move to have the war you had been planning since the beginning of your term in office. You, Mr. Bush, used my daughter’s murder to perpetrate the most hideous example of racism with the direst of consequences and you did it standing literally on her bones. I am going to be very honest with you, Mr. Bush. I suspect that your culpability does not begin with your failures that day. It may be imprudent to mention this now because evidence is difficult to produce, but I am one of those pragmatists that rely on some basic fundamentals in crime solving. So let me say, when a crime is committed we are to find suspects by exploring motive, by looking at who had most to gain. You did, Mr. Bush, you and your friends at Halliburton and your friends in Saudi Arabia. And you have never answered for this. Don’t you think with all that has happened it would be in order for you to explain all you have come to gain, now and in the future, in terms of both money and power? On September 11th, I was in Canada. When I heard the news I was walking in the street, enjoying what was to be the last of the purely beautiful sunny mornings of my life. My cell phone rang. And every second after that call was a mix of panic, dread, calm because this couldn’t be happening, and utter, absolute need to touch my daughter. What would you have done, Mr. Bush? What would your instincts have been? As a parent? I ask this because Senator Kerry during the second debate mentioned you are a “good father.” Are you? Have you made Americans, including your own daughters safer? Let me tell you what I wanted that morning. I wanted to fly to New York, to put my feet on my home soil as fast as humanly possible. I wanted to get to an airport and get home. Not an option for me, Mr. Bush. My husband and I just made it over the border before it closed. And on that morning, when no American citizen was allowed to fly in our airspace, on that morning and the mornings to follow, Americans were grounded. But bin Laden’s family flew. They flew home to Saudi Arabia. Before they were vetted by the F.B.I., by the C.I.A. And worst of all, you never were made to tell the truth about why that was so. I’m sorry, Mr. Bush. I will never understand this. Never. But still: your responsibility was then and is now to explain it. And to explain while that watch of yours leading up to the election is still ticking. Right now there is a report from the C.I.A. that names explicitly your administration’s culpability regarding those events. Bipartisan leaders have requested, even demanded that those reports be turned over now to congress. You, according to reports, have refused to allow the C.I.A. to release them, just as you refused to testify under oath before the 9/11 commission. Now, Mr. Bush, release them. Before the election... see the rest at http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/102304Y.shtml This is my dilemma, vote for this man, the man that doomed our country because of personal gain. Or vote for Johnathan Kerry, a man that married into countless corporate billions. I don't see any good coming out of this election. I'm at a stalemate. The man who said what he was going to do, and is doing it. Or than man that is saying that the wrong choice was made. I agree with both instances. It was the wrong choice, but it's about time someone went through with what they said. GODDAM politicians. Can't trust any of these rich bastards... |
Oct 26, 2004
TIMMY!!!
Tim Britt playing at Club Amnesia.
Tim, a great musician by himself, will be opening for another great musician: Ryan Montebleau. Check out his website at www.ryanmontebleau.com. November 19th at The Electric Company. If you're into the likes of Dave Matthews and John Mayer, you'll love this show. So if you're in the Utica, NY area save up $6 and go see the show! Be 21 or get yourself a fake ID... but you didn't hear that part from me... |
Oct 25, 2004
HAHA!!!!
This is how I feel about all politicians, ESPECIALLY Hilary. |
Bad ass bass playing chick right here...
Melissa Auf der Maur is her name. Former bass player for COLD in the 90's. She quit that to go solo up in Canada... Check out her website, and her music, don't be fooled either. It's hardcore. www.aufdermaur.com |
This reminds me of a certain individual running... *dan* cough *greenwell* cough |
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need I say anything about this one? |
Oct 24, 2004
Kool Haus
| THE GREATEST CONCERT EVER!!!!
that's all that I can say about it. the unknown opening act, Limblifter, is awesome! I met the whole band, a chick plays Bass!!! Damn good at that! Meegee is her name... and I'm in love with her! :-D http://www.limblifter.com/ Melissa Auf der Maur played second. Another chick playing bass and lead singer! She's Alanis Morissette combined with Metallica. Awesome combo. http://www.aufdermaur.com/ "we did not authorize..." the many infringements of peace and our rights as well as the rights of others were listed. From habeus corpus to the amendments... THEN... OF COURSE... the man himself! Matthew FR Good. Came out on stage... did his first acoustic of "Apparitions". The rest of the band emerged from the smoke and they started ripping it up with the likes of "WEAPON" then "HELLO TIMEBOMB" and "Avalanche" he took his first break and started talking about http://www.ceasefire.ca/ and our great leader John Ashcroft... the next song was for him... it was for John. "Alert Status Red" followed by "Empty Road" followed by his second intermission speach: of how he hasn't been feeling well since last wednesday... since myself and countless others e-mailed him about how his song was played during Fox's broadcast of NLCS game 5. Kind of redundant, since Fox is for everything Matt is against. "The Future Is X-Rated" followed the speach then straight to "PUT OUT YOUR LIGHTS" and "POOR MAN'S GREY". Break three, he talked about something that he hasn't talked about at all. The Audio of Being. He played "The Rat Who Would Be King"!!! then he continued with "It's Been A While Since I Was Your Man" and "Buffalo Seven". Then he went with another personal favorite of mine "Load Me Up". In which, Rich Priske kept playing the same damn note for 3 minutes until Matt came back to the microphone. HEY HEY CARMELINA! another track off of The Audio of Being!!! Then he went with "Blue Skies Over Bad Lands" and then they left... or did they? Again, the entire crowd started cheering "K-I-C-K-A-S-S, THAT'S THE WAY WE SPELL SUCCESS!" he came back out and played a brand new tune... in which i haven't heard... damn I was confused. They had a couple more songs to play. "In Love With A Bad Idea" and finally "Going All The Way". Mod Club was a great time, very educational, very personal and great time. But Limblifter and Auf der Maur made the night so great. ...and the Paramedics saved my life this morning! |
Oct 17, 2004
The End
| I'm done with it.
No more Blog. No more caring, no more giving a shit. I'm me, I'm not who I want to be. We all dream of growing up and becoming a fireman, or a cop, even a famous sports star. Me. I grew up without wanting to be anything, now I'm here. I got what I wanted, I'm nothing. Nothing doesn't get a person very far. I'm giving up. I'm conceding myself. I don't want to live this way. I can't stand the fights, I can't stand the lies, I can't stand the deceit. I don't want your alibis. I don't' want your excuses, I don't want to know why, I don't care why it is. I know how this came to be. It starts with you and me, I'm stopping the hurt, I'm relieving the tension, I'm saying goodbye, to you, the love of my life. I said I'd always be a friend. I wish it was as easy as it sounds, I coped and I smiled, I nodded and I laughed, I'm through with the act, I'm done with this game, I want you to know, you're my everything. I'm sorry for saying the cruel things I did, you're still perfect. I hate just sitting here, as everyone just wants to protect you, almost as much as I want you to see the world the way it really is. Everyone reminds you of all the things that go wrong, all the people who want to hurt. But nobody remembers that everyone falls in love, and that somethings are good in this world. Things worth fighting for, things worth dieing for. Things worth crying for. I've lost sight of what those things are, I've fought and cried and died inside. I'm nothing useful to anyone, I'm selfless and selfish at the same time, I'm a bad person, you say you don't see it. I say, you just see what you want to see. The bad in the world but the good in me, I was hoping that you would see things things in another way. The good in the world and the bad in me. The happiness of the married man and the sad in me. The great things people have done, all that I've done for you. All that I've sacrificed, everything that I've left behind, to make you smile. To make me smile with you. that is my last b-log journal entry I will ever make, I'm through with caring, I'm through with being good at the things I don't care about. just give me back the happiness that I had. I'm unable to find it in anything. I just don't think that I was meant to go on without you. |
Oct 16, 2004
AH HA... there is a good note about this week.
| Vanessa needed help with her computer... so as payback... I GOTS THE NEW gOOd cHARLOTTe cd! tHE cHRONICLES oF lIFE aND dEATH [life version].
Sarah asked me to go to dinner today too... made me feel special!!!!! then she tells me that i can't go out to a party with her 2nite b/c its not a good idea...??? OOK that just negated everything good about going to dinner. so... the only good thing... to happen... is a new CD. WOW, how pathetic is that. |
Going to California... In My Mind
| I'm tired of all the stress... I need a vacation, away from the goddamn drama. I'm so sick of hearing everone's problems and stupid ass stories. I just want to live a simpler life. What happened to simple?
What happened to the old days where you could just stroll down the sidewalk and not catch glares and stares. It's just the facts: life-fun-innocence=growning up Not a happy week, by any means. Nothing good has come out of this week. NOTHING. Which is tough because usually there's something kind of good that I can say about the last seven days. But lets recap: sob story bass presentation sob story argue with mom scholarship bullshit essay another essay Haven't talked to my dad for 2 weeks revise the first essay get an interview topic blow off another interview revise the 2nd essay hand in the 1st essay do two projects in one day: mass media & public speaking BREAK MY BASS find out more bad shit about Toronto... making me not want to go but have to b/c I've just paid out the ass. Find out my grades so far... are ummm... borderline expulsion... If anyone thinks of something good that came out of this week... let me know... B/C i'm all out of memories of the week. " I have been Searching for Traces of What we were A ghost of you is all that I have left is all that I have left of you to hold I wake in the night to find there's no one there but me and nothing of what we were at all So here I am pacing around this house again With pictures of us living on these walls I see my breathe in the cold of the air that I breathe and I'm wondering I'm wondering if its you that I feel if its you that I feel haunting me forever..." |
Oct 13, 2004
I Love Canada! (10/23)
| I've just had the best conversation ever:
Wilson: i'm not gonna get you drunk Me: i almost feel special Me: lol Me: well then i guess u'll never kno Wilson: that would be bad Me: ???wat would??? Wilson: gettin u drunk Me: ... Me: not really Me: lol Me: ;-) Wilson: i wouldnt' want you to pass out Wilson: lol Me: o yes u would Me: ;-) Me: lol Me: ;-);-);-);-);-);-) Wilson: no, i'm not that kinda girl Me: wat kinda girl is that? Wilson: the kind that would want you to pass out Me: lol Me: ;-) Wilson: i would want u to be aware of what is goin on Wilson: lol thank you god... |
Oct 11, 2004
FUCKED UP WOMEN!
| Dance4fun1986: so all together both of us r having crappy days
Nolimit4Sk8r: yep Nolimit4Sk8r: damn u women and ur estrogen issues Dance4fun1986: ur telling me nothing is left to be said... |
Oct 10, 2004
Good God... it's midterm time...
| Yeah, the title says it all. So how's everyone's college experience going? Bet its not as boring as mine. Haven't been to a party in 2 weeks, haven't gone out to Sunny's at all, I've been sitting here all alone. Wallowing, in my own disaster. Still don't know if I'm getting credit for my Musics of the World class... been there once in the past week. *Not a good thing* I'm beginning to think that maybe I'm not cut out for the whole wake up early thing, hahahaha, I've never thought that I could wake up early. Now its just so much worse, no more 9am classes for me, from now on, 10am and later thank you. Have to do an interview for my Musics class... don't know what it's about or who I'm interviewing, anyone into music that checks this one out... let me talk to you... School sucks, so does a crappy ass roomate. Which, to the congregation of the entire suite, I have the worst one...
Spent over $300 in about 30 minutes... I feel proud... although about half of it isn't going to be for my use... {cough cough} DEENA {cough cough}. Matt Good up in Toronto on October 23rd. YEAAYYAA. Legal drinking age is 19... damn I'm still 18 but I'm not going to be drinking anyways... Yankees once again going to play the Red Sux in the ALCS... and once again are going to make it to the World Series. Giants are 4-1... W~boro is still undefeated... way to go guys... Too bad sports aren't enough to keep me content. SO UNTIL NEXT TIME... You stay classy... umm... wherever you are... idk... |
Oct 7, 2004
Tide With Speech
| Wash this filthy world one stone at a time
Put back mountains, forests, presence Bathe ineptitude virgin white See these hands rebuilt Not towns or outposts or mammoths Taken up residence in the second bedroom of the world A whole generation of rocks skipping on water |
No-Town Choir
| The groan lifts
Like Yankees greeting Pickett Eerily pronounced and wavering Up along the cement tree trunks Through the windows of capitalist Princesses Buried in ears pasted on balloon-heads Name branded, copy written This fortress of our fathers impenetrable Defends the deaf |
Oct 6, 2004
The Ultimate Outlook On Life
| [as taken from allison dawn's profile]
Life sucks, always. So make the most of it. Do what you know is right for yourself, and you will have done everybody else as much good as you are obligated. Doing what's best for you is, in the long run, doing what's best for those you influence. You are not everybody else. If you try to be everybody else, you will end up still being yourself and wishing more than ever that you weren't. The Universe is in a constant state of almost making sense. If you try to make total sense of it and fail, you will just end up frustrated, confused, and with less time on your hands than you had when you started. If you succeed, you're God. If the Universe made total sense, it would get boring very, very quickly. Generally pissing people off is dumb. Pissing off small groups of people who could honestly use a good pissing-off and receiving a genuine sense of satisfaction from this act is pretty cool. Anything which is absolutely impossible to credibly argue against by its very nature is by its very nature bullshit. Don't do anything that you wouldn't do, and furthermore don’t take anything seriously. Quote of the day (also from allison): I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken -- and I'd rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived. |
Oct 4, 2004
Certainty in uncertain times
| Less than a month remains to the election of the two presidential candidates. [Sorry Nader]. But I think that there is a problem with this 2 party system that seems to be ruling this nation. We are given only two choices. Kerry, senator ketchup, has a plan for everything it seems... funny, I seem to remember 4 years back that George Bush said the same thing. I believe in voting, because maybe we can make a difference in shaping our world. But we dont elect our president. A panel of voted in officials makes this call. Well they're voted in so they must be in the publics best interests, NO, we don't vote these officials in. Congress does. So who makes the biggest difference in the electoral process? We still do. We directly elect Senators and Reps; so we need to remind ourselves that our vote in November won't have much of an effect, except to let our candidates know that they're both profitiering assholes. I agree that Saddam Hussein was a threat to peace everywhere... but now I'm starting to think that motivations for this war is unjust:
Death Profiteers Former President George Bush Sr. is the only US President to have ever been the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. As an ex-President he has the option to receive daily intelligence briefings, an option that he exercises, though one which is commonly not.I mention this because George Bush Sr. sits on the board of one of the world’s largest armament companies that has directly profited from the war on terror and the war in Iraq. From The Portugal News, April 2003… Directors of one of the world’s largest armament companies are planning on meeting in Lisbon in three weeks time. The American based Carlyle Group is heavily involved in supplying arms to the Coalition forces fighting in the Iraqi war.It also holds a majority of shares in the Seven Up company and Federal Data Corporation, supplier of air traffic control surveillance systems to the US Federal Aviation Authority. The 12 billion dollar company has recently signed contracts with United Defense Industries to equip the Turkish and Saudi Arabian armies with aviation Defense systems.Top of the meeting’s agenda is expected to be the company’s involvement in the rebuilding of Baghdad’s infrastructure after the cessation of current hostilities. Along with several other US companies, the Carlyle Group is expected to be awarded a billion dollar contract by the US Government to help in the redevelopment of airfields and urban areas destroyed by Coalition aerial bombardments.The Group is managed by a team of former US Government personnel including its president Frank Carlucci, former deputy director of the CIA before becoming Defense Secretary. His deputy is James Baker II, who was Secretary of State under George Bush senior. Several high profile former politicians are employed to represent the company overseas, among them John Major, former British Prime Minister, along with George Bush senior, one time CIA director before becoming US President.The financial assets of the Saudi Binladen Corporation (SBC) are also managed by the Carlyle Group. The SBC is headed up by members of Osama bin Laden’s family, who played a principle role in helping George W. Bush win petroleum concessions from Bahrain when he was head of the Texan oil company, Harken Energy Corporation - a deal that was to make the Bush family millions of dollars. Salem, Osama bin Laden’s brother, was represented on Harken’s board of directors by his American agent, James R. Bath.The connection between the Bush and bin Laden families can also be traced to the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in the 1990s. Members of the Anglo Pakistani bank’s board of directors included Richard Helms and William Casey, business partners of George Bush senior and former CIA agents. During their time at BCCI both Helms and Casey worked alongside fellow director, Adnan Khasshoggi, who also represented the bin Laden family’s interests in the US.Let’s stop and take stock…A former President of the United States who has access to daily intelligence briefings is actively involved with one of the world’s largest armament companies, one which stands to make billions from the war in Iraq. And, as a convenient aside, his son is the current President of the United States. How, exactly, is that not a conflict of interest? Forget that Vice President Cheney was once one of the overlords of Halliburton, who were themselves awarded billions in contracts by the current administration. Also toss aside the fact that, mere days after 9/11, the Bin Laden family sold their stock in Carlyle to help tame scrutiny concerning the relationship between the Bin Laden family, the Carlyle Group, and the Bush’s. Toss all of that aside for the time being and focus on one thing:A man who receives daily US intelligence briefings, who can then apply such information to his business, is making massive sums of money off of the war on terror and the war in Iraq.What is death to people whose sole aim is to profit from it? How can anyone honestly believe George W. Bush when he stands at a podium and states that the loss of life in Iraq and Afghanistan is tragic when his own father directly profits from it? Of course, he will more than likely follow in his father’s footsteps and have the same access to intelligence during future administrations.If you’d like to learn more about the Carlyle Group, try these links: Meet The Carlyle Group (includes a variety of links). The Carlyle Group - Official Website. The Carlyle Group – Disinfopedia. The Carlyle Group.net. Bush Watch. Spectrezine. Republican-controlled Carlyle Group poses serious Ethical Questions for Bush Presidents. Infowars. Corporate Criminal of the Week: The Carlyle Group. Unjust or not... people are still dieing. American or not, it doesn't matter, the enemy has lives too. Try not to think of them as evil, think of them as equals fighting for the cause they believe in. That is the most commendable of all characteristic traits. Too bad that we're not all fighting for the same thing... "See faces that you were sold as murderers But just like you they’re only lonely boys and girls Like all over the world... What do you say to your enemies When you don’t know what it is that could have been between you?..." Matt Good "Blue Skies Over Bad Lands |