The United States Senate - The world’s most exclusive club

Sometimes described as “the world’s most exclusive club”, the United States Senate is perhaps one of the least known and understood institutions in the American government. A close examination of the composition and structure of the United States Senate helps explain how America has transformed from an agrarian republic envisioned by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, to a financial aristocracy favored by Alexander Hamilton.

For most Americans, the US Senate is seen as a branch of the US government where each state regardless of its size and population has an equal number of elected officials to represent its interests in the national government. This current arrangement of the US Senate, which is known as the Connecticut Compromise, was not how the founding fathers such as James Madison had envisioned the new American republic, and its flawed design has been one of the contributing factors why American democracy has evolved into a plutocracy ruled by the wealthy. The latest financial bailout of banking officials and the health care reform legislation failing to be passed in the US Senate are the most recent examples of how the US Senate has continually protected the interests of the wealthy in America, while disregarding the interests of the majority of the population.

Most Americans, fail to remember (or were never taught in school), that up until 1911 and the passing of the 17th Amendment, members of the United States Senate were appointed by state legislatures, rather than elected by the people. Kevin Phillips in his book, Wealth and Democracy, quotes the historians Samuel Eliot and Henry Steele Commanger who described United State Senators prior to the 17th Amendment as “Standard Oil Senators, sugar trust Senators, iron and steel Senators and railroad Senators, men known for the business affiliations rather than for their states”. As the recent government bailout of the financial industry and failure to reform health care showed, Senators like Max Baucus of Montana and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut should be known as the Health Insurance Senators, while Chris Dodd from Connecticut and Charles Schumer from New York should be known as the hedge fund and speculative finance Senators.

Prior to the 17th Amendment, state legislatures, who were infiltrated and controlled by large and wealthy corporations, railroads, and mining companies were able to get a lock on the U.S. Senate, which were chosen by the state legislatures. The power of these corporations, railroads, and mining companies was so powerful that Theodore Roosevelt described the Senate, “where every great fortune was incubated, every new commercial empire was sanctioned, every reform circumvented”. As Phillips notes in his book, “the Senate’s rise within the government structure and the parallel ascent of corporations with the U.S. economy was unmistakable. The two fed off of each other from the late 1860s to the early 1900”. Any person paying any reasonable amount of attention to the how the US Senate operates today it is clear the relationship between corporations, wealth, and US Senators is stronger than ever in American history.

The composition of millionaires in the United States Senate in 2010 is a staggering 66 percent, a dramatic 34 percent increase from ten years earlier. Thanks to the work by The Center for Responsive Politics and documented in a New York Times article, the wealthiest Senator is Herb Kohl, a Democrat from Wisconsin, with an estimated net worth of $214,570,011 in 2008. The average net worth across the Senate was $13,989,022.98.

Further giving credibility and weight to the statement that American democracy has evolved into a plutocracy ruled by the wealthy are to include the list of millionaires in the lower House of Representatives, where 240 legislators were worth at least $1 million. The richest representative was likely Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, who was worth an estimated $251,025,020 in 2008. The average net worth across the House was $4,670,831.

If American voters cast their votes in the 2010 Senate races based on their pocketbook and not based on their gun holster or union card, then and only then would you really see the interests of hard working American people be represented in Washington DC.

How America can develop its own high- speed train

It appears some staffer in the West Wing has been surfing the Internet and came across pinione.blogspot.com.

Thinking that the ideas expressed on pinione.blogspot.com were only being read by a small international audience and a core group of followers, it appears the blog postings that Opinione has been posting for the past 18 months about investing in high-speed rail projects to get the American economy moving again have been heard. As reported in a Yahoo news story a day before the State of the Union address, President Obama and Vive President Biden will put on a photo op in Tampa Florida at the site of a new high-speed project as evidence of their administration’s commitment to create new jobs for the millions of Americans out of work. While this is good news for some workers in Florida and is a positive development for the country, Opinione will be analyzing the speech written for President Obama to see if the speech discusses any of the strategic long-term benefits that national mass rail projects can have for a country. Long time blog readers will know that some of the longer strategic goals of mass rail include helping America become less dependant on foreign oil, creating white and blue-collar jobs in engineering and manufacturing, and creating more economic opportunities for small business owners.

Anticipating the comments from opponents of mass rail projects in America, it is almost assured that there will be comments in the weapons of mass distraction media that the trains operating on the new high-speed lines will be built by foreign companies. As a former military member, Opinione knows that a strong defense involves a good offense to answer the cynics of mass rail and light rail transportation systems.

Using the wealth of information from the posting about the “Golden Triangle” and the Military-Academic-Complex, any supporter of mass rail could easily win any debate with a mass rail cynic by injecting how many federal tax dollars engineering schools like The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, and John Hopkins University receive for Pentagon research and development.

The amount of money as documented by Nick Turse in his book, The Complex, totals more than $ 600 million dollars of DoD money for The Massachusetts of Technology alone. The failure to link the amount of government R&D money going to the military and the defense industry is perhaps one of the most obvious examples of the level of ignorance in America at the dangers of ever increasing defense spending. But with more people liscenting to Glenn Beck, the self described "recovering alcoholic rodeo clown with a limited education" it is no surprise why these people are so ignorant when it comes to politics and government.

Opinione thinks it is an insult to the spirit of America and the work ethic of the men and women in America, if no one believes that America can engineer and build a new high-speed train by the end of this decade.

If America was able to put a man on the moon in less than a decade, I am sure Americans can engineer and build a train. If Americans need further motivation, perhaps they should know that the French are laughing at us.

Follow the Money- A look at the political power of the Financial Industry

With millions of Americans out of work and the country suffering through a “Great Recession”, the Obama administration and the opposition Republican Party are busy playing politics in Washington DC. Not even capabale of working together and putting the interests of the American people before their own political careers, the Incumbent Party in Washington DC is proving yet again that they are more concerned about the interests from above, than they are about the average men and woman who make up America. The political establishment also known as the Incumbent Party, due to the power of the incumbent politician being re-elected, is one of the most fundamental reasons why there has been no substantial change in the direction America has been going for the last 20 years. It is time more Americans begin to realize once and for all that the politicians from both political parties do not care about them and begin to support a non Incumbent Party politician this coming election.

In the first of a three-part discussion, Opinione will discuss how the Incumbent Party in Washington is controlled by the special interests of the financial, defense, and health care industries.

Just as the military industrial complex, also known as the Iron Triangle due to the inability of outside forces to penetrate the strong bond between defense companies, politicians, and the military, Incumbent Party politicians are controlled by three very powerful interest groups that represent the most powerful segments of the American economy. These groups represent another Iron Triangle, which include the financial, health, and defense industries. Anyone following American politics since Obama was elected president will clearly see how these three sectors have received over a trillion dollars, while the average American struggles to meet rising health care costs, a damaged economy and a never ending war waged by incompetent and callous politicians in Washington DC.

Kevin Phillips, the well respected political analyst and author of several books on American politics over the last forty years, helps to pull away the curtain on the inner workings of Washington and explains how even the pro union Democratic Party is controlled by the FIRE industry. In his most recent book Bad Money, Phillips does not mince worlds when he writes that the “U.S. financial sector over the last 20 years has hijacked our economy and put America’s global future at risk”. Now comprising over 23 percent of the US economy, as Opinione discussed in a previous posting, the Financial, Insurance, and Real Estate (FIRE) industry has an enormous amount of political power in Washington DC. One of the most important factors contributing to Opinione not voting for Barack Obama or any Incumbent Party politician in 2008 was being aware of the amount of money the Obama campaign was receiving from the financial industry and extremely wealthy individuals like Chicago billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin of Citadel Investment Group. The relative small investment of less than a hundred million dollars by the FIRE industry to both political parties has been rewarded with nearly a trillion dollar return.

Just like the innocent civilians who do not stand a chance against the drone attacks on the Afghan-Pakistan border, the average American contributing 25 to 100 dollars to either political party do not stand a chance at having their interests being taken take of in Washington. While most Americans may think that the Republican Party is the party that represents the interests of the wealthy, democratic voters should remember that the northeast corridor between Boston and Virginia is a case study of the power that the FIRE industry has in Washington politics.

Although some democratic politicians have been forced out of office or have retired in the last few months, it is important to remember politicians like Christopher Dodd from the insurance capital of Hartford CT and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and Jon Corzine the former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs. Similar to Joe Schumer, the New York Democratic Party Senator who has represented the interests of Wall Street investment bankers, Chris Dodd has been well financed and supported by hedge fund managers and investment bankers from Greenwich Connecticut. As Phillips mentions in his book, former democratic Presidential candidate Chris Dodd received nearly half of his early funding from Greenwich-based SAC Capital Partners. Playing by the same playbook, candidate Obama was heavily funded by Chicago billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin of Citadel Investment Group.

With this additional information, it should help put into context why three “prominent” democrats, one of them Joe Lieberman from the insurance capital of Hartford Connecticut and the Wall Street suburb of Fairfield Connecticut is supporting a second term for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Turn off that TV and Read a Book

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to explain why America is in such a dismal state of affairs, is for each American to answer two simple questions:

When is the last time you read a non-partisan book related to Government and Politics?

When is the last time you watched television?

Answering these two simple questions, most Americans would realize how much they rely on entertainment conglomerates to get their news and information. This has allowed the corporate mass media to drive the political discourse in America, which has historically favored the rich in American society, while shortchanging the interests of every day hard working Americans. This over reliance on watching entertainment conglomerates for their political information has also resulted in an overall lowering of the national IQ of Americans on issues that directly influence their standard of living. Even Americans, who watch the more intellectual news programs on television like PBS News hour, still lack the ability to think of different opinions and have a broader range of ideas. This has allowed the wealthy in America to continue influencing and ultimately controlling the political rhetoric in America.

The duopoly political establishment in America has benefited immensely from entertainment conglomerates distracting American voters from the fact that they are essentially controlled by the wealthy in America. The longer an individual remains outside the sphere of influence from the corporate mass media and seeks to get their information from non partisan authors and non partisan news services such as the Associated Press and Reuters, the relationship between wealth, the media and political power becomes more evident.

So turn off the TV, and buy some books on the political issues that interest you.

Until more Americans realize the correlation between the mass media, wealth, and political power, the continued downward spiral of Americans standard of living will continue unabated.

Unlike the wealthy, who will be able to flee the country as they have done with their taxes in off shore tax havens, most hard working Americans will face the bitter consequences the Greek god of Nemesis has in store for America , due to the hubris of America’s political leaders.

The hypocritical and double standard prejudice of the American mass media

Silvio Berlusconi and the center right government in Italy were once again the beneficiary of the hypocritical and double standard prejudice of the American mass media, while countries that America is politically opposed to like China and Venezuela receive more negative media coverage. The uneven coverage by the mainstream mass media in America is hypocritical considering the importance Americans place on things such as freedom of speech and economic freedom.

Although significantly reporting on Sec of State Hillary Clinton recently challenging the Chinese government’s decision to censor the Internet and the hacking of Google websites, the United States government and the American corporate mass media has failed to adequately cover the news of Silvio Berlusconi and the Italian government’s latest attack on free speech and economic freedom in Italy. Unlike some American bloggers who live in Italy and who could be censored off the Internet one day by Italian authorities, Opinione will discuss the issue of Internet censorship and press freedom in Italy. In the process, Opinione will discuss how the long history of censorship and lower level of press freedom in Italy has resulted in this NATO member and founding member of the European Union to be the only western European country classified as a partly free country by Reporters without Borders.

This latest legislation, a non-democratic decree law, is targeting the new media rich content world of the Internet and the competitive advantage of Google and its subsidiary YouTube has on the Internet. The legislation proposed by the Berlusconi government in the 34-page decree which mandates the review of content harmful to minors such as pornography and excessive violence, is unnecessary considering the fact that Google already censors itself by prohibiting pornography in the video its users upload. Perhaps Mr. Berlusconi and the government should ban the excessive violence and sexual content on his own television stations and the stations owned and operated by the government.

See image below of screen shot from his Media 5 station.

Over the past year, this blog has detailed the numerous examples of how Silvio Berlusconi and his political allies over the years have forced people off of the television airwaves in Italy and attacked freedom of speech. Starting with the television comic Beppe Grillo in 1987, who was forced off the air when he made a joke about Berlusconi’s friend, former Prime Minister of Italy Benito Craxi, who later died in exile while in Tunisia while avoiding facing persecution for tax evasion and other crimes associated with his time in power in Italy, Berlusconi and his allies have continued to attack freedom of speech. In the process, this has reduced the public’s ability to get unbiased information on important matters ranging from matters such as the mafia in Italy to members of Italian political establishment who have criminal records and ties to the Mafia.

Emboldened by the establishment’s success in blacklisting Beppe Grillo from the public television airwaves, the political establishment later censored and later removed Daniele Luttazzi from the airwaves in 2001 when the late show comedian discussed rumors of Berlusconi’s connection to the mafia in Italy with the well-respected author Marco Travaglio. Later in 2003, the comedian Sabina Guzzanti and her political satire show RiaOt would also fall victim to the political censorship and the stifling of free speech by the Berlusconi government.

Just as the previous examples of censorship and suppressing freedom of speech were designed to protect the interests of the political establishment in Italy, like all the legislation Silvio Berlusconi has passed while in power in Italy, the latest actions by his government are designed to protect the economic interests of his media and financial empire. The importance of having the correct political connections in Italy rather than entrepreneurial skill is evident in the latest 2010 Index of Economic Freedom released by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. In the survey of 179 countries around the world, Italy ranks as the 74th country in the world for economic freedom and a regional rank of 35 out of 43. Countries that have a freer and open economy in Europe include Germany (23), Spain (36), Hungary (51), Greece (73), and even Albania (53).

It is very important to remember the role of politics has played in how Berlusconi has accumulated his wealth since his days as a construction tycoon in the 1960s, and how Berlusconi has long used politics to build and protect his media and financial empire over the last 40 years.

The new Internet regulation is the latest incarnation of the tactic long used by Silvio Berlusconi to stifle political opposition and freedom of speech. From the days of pressuring Italian newspaper editors to be less critical of his government, to owning television stations that report the “news” in Italy, the latest government regulation is a reaction to the political and social mobilization power of Beppe Grillo and his Five Star Movement.

In addition to political activist bloggers like Beppe Grillo, bloggers living in Italy who use Italian ISPs should be very concerned about the latest development. Perhaps this latest attack on freedom of expression and an attempt to control the Internet will force more bloggers living in Italy to focus more of their attention on the rights they have in Italy.

Wealth and Democracy in America- An analysis of the special election in Massachusetts

With the weapons of mass distraction mass media portraying the recent senate victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts as a referendum on President Obama and the Democratic Party, the more accurate analysis of the election cannot be broken down into a simple eight-second sound bite so favored by the corporate owned mass media and American politicians. Containing both elements of some recent decisions made by the democratic party leaders in Massachusetts as well as the long historical role of wealth and democracy in American politics, Opinione will help make sense of the recent election in Massachusetts. In the process, Opinione will prove yet again that the mass media in America breeds ignorance and is afraid to speak about the power of the rich in American politics.

Even though some analysts may try to explain the election victory of Mr. Brown as a win against the machine style politics typical of a senate seat held for over 46 years by Ted Kennedy, it is important to remember the historical role the rich have had in American democracy and the power of the incumbent. Log time readers of the blog will remember that incumbent politicians running for re-election in America have enjoyed a staggering 93 percent chance of winning. The confirmation of how strong an incumbent can hold onto a seat in the US Senate as Ted Kennedy has done over the last 46 years, even after his involvement in the death of a young girl in 1969, is the fact that the seat was only put into play after his death.

As Kevin Phillips masterfully documents in his 2002 book Wealth and Democracy, A Political History of the American Rich, the wealthy in America have always enjoyed a disproportionate share of representation and influence in American democracy. Beginning with the founding fathers of the Republic, who were the self appointed members of the only class of people that could vote in America (white, land owning men), to the Gilded Age of the late 1800s and early 1900s, to the 21st century, the rich have had a long history of corrupting the process of democracy in America.

For any American one who has even a fundamental understanding of their country’s history, the influence and control of the rich in America on the political establishment in Washington DC is nothing new. Most Americans however would be shocked to learn just how arrogant and conceited the upper class and now super class of Americans feel about democracy and minority rights, one of the most important principles of a liberal democracy. Some of the quotes that Kevin Phillips includes at the beginning of one of his chapters in his book, Wealth and Democracy, are worth publishing to highlight the collusion between the current duopoly in Washington and the need for more political parties to emerge in America.

The people who own the country ought to govern it.

John Jay- First Chief Justice of the United States, 1787.

Many of our rich men have not been content with equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of Congress.

Andrew Jackson, veto of Second Bank charter extension, 1832.

Corruption dominates the ballot box, the Legislatures, the Congress and touches even the ermine of the bench. The fruits of toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty.

National platform of the Populist Party, 1892

In addition to the aforementioned influence the rich have in American politics, the 2004 decision by national Democratic Party leaders to change the election law in Massachusetts, is another important factor that is being under reported if reported at all in the mainstream media.

Riding a wave of optimism in the spring of 2004 due to Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq that resulted in a bloody insurgent uprising, National Democrats believed that Massachusetts Senator John Kerry would win the 2004 Presidential election and his Senate seat would be filled by the republican Governor, Mitt Romney. Making the recent win by Mr. Brown even more ironic, is the fact that Ted Kennedy was instrumental in pushing Massachusetts Democratic Party leaders to change the existing state law allowing a governor to appoint someone to a vacant Senate seat and instead pass a new special election law.

Some political analysts, such as Opinione, consider this a very important factor in the recent special election in Massachusetts. If the law were not pushed by aristocrat Ted Kennedy in 2004, the current Democratic governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, would have appointed a Democratic to the seat. It should be noted that the seat held by Kennedy would not come into play until the election in 2012.

The military-academic complex

As American students return for another semester at universities around America, Opinione thought it would be an excellent time to discuss how the Pentagon’s influence in higher education has contributed to the militarization of American society and perpetual wars waged by a callous and inept political establishment. Although the average American is not even aware of the power and influence of the larger military industrial complex, most Americans would be shocked to learn how much money the Pentagon contributes to America’s research universities and Ivy League Schools. Known as the “Golden Triangle”, a group of military agencies, the high technology industry, and research universities, the military academic complex is influencing the bright young minds in America to develop the next generation aerial drone, stealth destroyer, and other items related to death and destruction.

In his book, The Complex- How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, Nick Turse devotes an entire chapter to the military-academic complex. In the book, Nick Turse explains how the origins of the military academic complex or the “Golden Triangle” as historian Stuart W. Leslie later identified it as, can be traced back to the 1940s when education institutions received the bulk of Pentagon funding for carrying out weapons development. Referencing the historian Roger Geiger, the author informs the reader that during the war years, the six largest Pentagon funded research programs were from academic institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, and John Hopkins University. All six of these academic institutions received an average of $ 10 million each. Twenty years after the end of World War II and a result of the arms race, MIT was ranked as the 54th among U.S. defense contractors and its prime military contracts totaled over $ 100 million. By 2005 that figure had grown to over $ 600 million dollars of DoD money, moving the Massachusetts of Technology to 44th place among defense contractors.

This monetary and politically influence of all that Pentagon money was not lost on the democratic senator J. William Fulbright from Arkansas, who was one of the first American politicians to bring public attention to the “Golden Triangle”. This insightful leader warned, that “in lending itself too much to the purposes to government, a university fails its higher purpose”. Even an MIT physicist Alvin Weinberg sarcastically commented, “that it was becoming difficult to figure if MIT was a university connected to a multitude of research laboratories, or a cluster of government research laboratories with a very good educational institution attached to it.”

As Nick Turse writes in his book,

“The Pentagon has both the money and the muscle to alter the landscape of higher education, manipulate research agendas, to change the course of curricula, and to force schools to play by its rules.”

This point is driven home when the author details the amount of DoD research money in certain academic fields and the amount of universities who conduct Pentagon funding research. Citing the Association of American Universities (AAU) 2002 report, nearly 350 American academic institutions conduct Pentagon funded research. This makes the Department of Defense the third largest contributor of federal money to American universities, preceded only by the National Institutes of Health and the National Sciences Foundation.

Further increasing the Pentagon’s influence in American higher education is the proportion of DoD money in certain academic fields. Electrical engineering for example gets over 60 percent of its funding from the Pentagon, while computer science gets 55 percent of its entire funding from the Pentagon. This allows the Pentagon to dictate what sort of research is conducted, as well as what types of research is not conducted.

Like a silent cancer ravaging the body, the little known financial influence of the Pentagon is influencing where Research and Development (R and D) resources are spent and destroying America from within. Instead of focusing the intellect of America’s world class universities towards developing innovative technologies that could help more Americans get back to work and have the country build things again, like non fossil fuel based mass transit systems, the Golden Triangle of the military-academic complex is only contributing to the continual decline of America.

Blowback in Afghanistan- The connection between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the CIA, and American Foreign Policy

Long forgotten by the American public and under reported in the mainstream mass media, the long unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears to have been a contributing factor in, a decision by a Jordanian national, Humam Klalil Abu-Malal al-Balawi, to blow himself up on a CIA outpost in Afghanistan. Motivated in part by America’s long time support for Israel, CIA drone attacks that sometimes kill innocent civilians, and the plight of millions of Palestinians in refugee camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the latest suicide bomber from Jordan joins a growing list of men from that country who have targeted American forces in the Middle East. Starting with the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq during the summer of 2004 and followed by the 2005 bombing of three hotels in Amman Jordan, the latest suicide bombing by a Palestinian is another example of the danger Americans face from the ever-growing concentration of American forces in the Middle East and its unfair support of Israel. The latest attack by a Jordanian national, proves yet again that the United States and the world community needs to first address the problem of the Palestinian people living in refugee camps, before it attempts to resolve the other issues motivating the Taliban in Afghanistan and recruiting militants from around the world to the al-Qaeda terrorist movement.

Helping to keep the American public ignorant of the connection between al-Qaeda and the Palestinian conflict is the lack of reporting by the corporate mass media on the level of democracy and press freedom in Jordan. Just as Bush Administration officials used the bait and switch tactic on the American people by deflecting attention away from the oppressive government in Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 terrorists from the September 11 terrorist attacks came from, the same political tactic is now being applied to the government in Jordan.

Ranked 117^th in the world for its level of democracy and classified as a repressive regime, the country of Jordan does not fare much better in the level of press freedom and the level of human rights it offers its citizens. According to the 2008 Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index, Jordan is ranked 128^th in the world for press freedom. Impacting both the ranking of its democracy and it ranking of human rights, the Jordanian government does not score well in issues such as arbitrary detention, torture, and freedom of expression and assemble.

Some examples of Jordan’s restrictive law on public gatherings, includes the right of local governors the right to ban any meeting or demonstration, without having to provide a reason. In July of 2008, for example, Amman’s deputy governor refused the `Afaf Society”, run by a former three-time president of parliament, permission to hold a conference entitled “The Family is the Nursery of Values and Identity.” In other examples, Amman’s governor in May of 2008 withheld permission for a rally that 28 opposition parties had planned to protest a new law on political parties. On several occasions, the Jordan government denied the student organization Dhabahtuna permission to demonstrate. The failure of the American mass media to report on these issues is part of the reason why Jordan is a repressive regime, which in turn allows the status quo political establishment in Washington DC to continue on its misguided Middle Eastern foreign policy.

Underscoring the connection of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict in the recent suicide bombing at the CIA base in Afghanistan is the death of the Jordanian intelligence agent who was handling the bomber, al-Balawi. In a recent posting on TomDispatch, Tom Englehardt and Nick Turse discuss how the Jordanian intelligence agent, caption Sharif Ali bin Zei, comes from the same intelligence service which held (and abused) torture suspects kidnapped and disappeared by the CIA in the years of George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror (GWOT).

The American public, easily distracted by the corporate mass media created drama story of Jay Leno and Conan Obrien, is not being reminded how important the Palestinian conflict has America’s overall strategic goals in the Persian Gulf area. Not considering the Palestinian issue and the links to the overall war on terror is one of the greatest achievements of the AIPAC influenced political leaders and mass media pundits who want the American people to forget about the plight of the Palestinian people. The lack of attention by the mass media that the Jordanian doctor who blew himself up at CIA Forward Operating Base Chapman, (named after the first Green Beret killed in the Af-Pak War) is one the earliest failures of the American press of 2010.

Until the United States and developed countries address the long standing economic and political issues affecting the Palestinian people, the NATO military operations against Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan and the long-term strategic goals of the United States in the region will be more difficult to achieve if not improbable.

A highly misinformed public and the connection it has to American politics

Notable Numbers

74 percent: Proportion of U.S. residents who get news from television*

44 percent: Proportion who get their news from newspapers

24 percent: Proportion who get news from the Internet

22 percent: Proportion who get news from radio

As American weapons of mass distraction media outlets were reporting on the announcements of three democratic senators who would not be running for election in the mid-term 2010 election, these same “news” outlets failed to adequately report on other important international news that are directly liked to why these wealthy and lobbyist controlled Washington DC politicians are not running for re-election. While some may argue that the lack of reporting on some issues may be a innocent causality of the 24 hour entertainment news environment, Opinione suspects that the lack of reporting and investigative journalism, is the result of the ever growing collusion between corporate owners of the mass media and the political establishment in Washington DC.

The ownership of news outlets by profit driven corporations like Disney, who owns ABC News, or General Electric which owns NBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, and CNBC, is one of the reasons why more Americans are not getting more investigative news stories and critical analysis of important geo-political issues. One of the reasons why most Americans were ignorant of the geo-political dangers gas guzzling SUVs would have on their standard of living, was the fear the main stream media had of upsetting the car manufactures who were advertising on their stations. The corporate handcuffing of investigative journalists in the mid 1990s in a drive to lower costs and increase profits has resulted in only 36 percent of Americans who now believe the news from the U.S. media.

The control and influence of the corporate mass media in America by the political establishment was evident when a University of Maryland poll in 2003 showed how highly the public was being misinformed. With the sole exception of PBS viewers and NPR listeners, all of the corporate mass media outlet viewers were highly misinformed. Opinione wanted to publish the University of Maryland poll that is in the book, What Every American should now about who’ really running the world by Melissa Rossi.

When asked whether a link was clearly established between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda:
67 percent of Fox viewers said yes
56 percent of CBS viewed said yes
49 percent of NBC viewers said yes
48 percent of CNN viewers said yes
45 percent of ABC viewers said yes
40 percent of those who rely on print media said yes
16 percent of PBS viewers and NPR listeners said yes

When asked if weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq during the 2003 war:
33 percent of Fox viewers said yes
23 percent of CBS viewed said yes
20 percent of NBC viewers said yes
20 percent of CNN viewers said yes
19 percent of ABC viewers said yes
17 percent of those who rely on print media said yes
11 percent of PBS viewers and NPR listeners said yes

When asked if the majority of the world supported the United States in the Iraq war:
35 percent of Fox viewers said yes
28 percent of CBS viewed said yes
27 percent of ABC viewers said yes
24 percent of CNN viewers said yes
20 percent of NBC viewers said yes
17 percent of those who rely on print media said yes
5 percent of PBS viewers and NPR listeners said yes

Of all the respondents, those who relied on Fox News for information showed the highest level of misperception: 80 percent of Fox News devotees believed at least one of the three non-truths was true. Those who turned to public media- PBS or NPR-for their news were most likely to have their facts straight: Only 23 percent had misperceptions on the three issues.

Until more main stream corporate mass media organizations begin to discuss and report on the need to have more political parties representing the diverse social segments and economic classes in America, Opinione will continue to get all of his news from the Internet, PBS, and NPR Radio. Unfortunately for America, only three percent of the public tunes into PBS and NPR for news sources.

* Figures add up to over 100 percent because respondents could mention two sources.

An Empire of Bases- A look at the military bases in Okinawa Japan

The Democratic Party was able to regain the majority in the House of Representatives in 2006 and re-capture the White House in the 2008 general election, due to the majority of American voters wishing to see a downsizing of US military operations in Iraq. In addition to the displeasure the American public had of President Bush’s handling of the military occupation of Iraq, the majority of American voters also wished to see a closing of the military prison in Guantomino Bay Cuba, and focus more attention on domestic priorities. As the Democratic Party enters its fourth year in political power, and the Obama administration marks its one-year anniversary, the power of the military industrial complex and the national security apparatus is clearly evident with the total disregard the Democratic Party has shown to the wishes of the majority of American voters. Most Americans however, do not see this, due to constant bombardment of the favorable slant the military receives by the weapons of mass distraction media. The lack of important information often omitted in many of its stories concerning military bases in foreign countries and the unpopular relationship the American military has with the population around American foreign military bases, is one of the reasons why most Americans are ignorant of the negative effects that militarism inflicts on their living standards back in America. A recent story concerning the closure and moving of one of the 73* military bases (military industrial complex) on the Japanese island of Okinawa is good starting point for this discussion and how difficult it is to close a foreign garrison of the US military.

Although some press coverage was devoted to the story of the Japanese people of Okinawa being unhappy about the American military bases in Japan, the coverage by the media was slanted towards framing the issue as a story about US-Japanese relations and the new center left government in Japan. All of the stories omitted important historical information of the political history of Okinawa and the way the people of Okinawa have been treated there by both the American and mainland Japanese governments over the last 60 years. Just like the past history of Iraq and Iran who were both former allies of America, is not reported in depth in the mainstream media and talked about by political leaders, the history in Okinawa is just as important. Understanding the post world war history of Okinawa helps to put in context why some Japanese people want the US military to leave Japan.

Chalmers Johnson, a leading American expert on Japan and the founder of The Japan Policy Research Institute (JPRI) in San Francisco, offers some valuable information in his book, Sorrows of Empire, as to some of the reasons why the people of Okinawa have reasons to dislike the US Military. Probably for most readers of the blog, the information will come as a shock to learn that the island of Okinawa was held onto by the United States as a colony and was directly governed by the Pentagon from 1945 to 1972.

As Johnson writes in his book,

“During this period over 1.3 million Okinawans became stateless, unrecognized as citizens of either Japan or the United States, and were governed by a American lieutenant General. They could not travel to Japan or anywhere else without special documents issued by American military authorities. Okinawa was closed to the outside world, a secret enclave of military airfields, submarine pens, intelligence facilities, and CIA safe houses. Some Okinawans who protested these conditions were declared probable Communists and hundreds of them were transported to Bolivia, where they were dumped in the remote countryside of the Amazon headwaters to fend for themselves. *

Although the Associated Press gave some background information on some of the previous incidents involving American service members against Japanese civilians such as the 1996 rape of a local schoolgirl by two Marines and a sailor, most of the other violent crimes committed by American service members were not reported. Some other criminal acts committed by American service members in Japan include, a service member exposing himself to a sixth-grade girl; four service members sentenced for raping a fourteen year old girl, another service member arrested for slashing the throat of a Japanese woman and stealing her purse, and two marines arrested for assaulting and robbing a 56-year old Japanese woman.* While many Americans are told by political leaders like Donald Rumsfeld that these criminal acts are conducted by a few bad apples, crime and racism are ubiquitous in the military.

The lack of reporting the historical facts of Okinawa such as the US military control of the island and the treatment of its people was not mentioned in any of the dozens of articles Opinione analyzed. Instead, the American and international media reported how the issue is impacting the domestic Japanese government coalition, and the danger the issue has of upsetting the current balance of power in Asia.

Just as the recent legal ruling in favor of Blackwater, for its role in killing 17 innocent civilians in Iraq will undermine American political objectives in Iraq, the refusal of the military to close one of its bases in Okinawa will have the same political fallout in Okinawa and mainland Japan. A recent report by the Associated Press of the Japanese leader wanting an equal and transparent relationship with the United States is an example of the harm the militarism based American foreign policy is having.

Supporters of a forwarded deployed American military fighting “terrorists” in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, etc., should consider the negative consequences the American garrisons around the world are having on American soft power influence. As China becomes the leading economic and military power in Asia and the world, the United States will not be able to finance these foreign garrisons when China will be able to economically blackmail America and cancel out her hard military power.

* - Sources

September 2009 Base Status Report. Department of Defense.

Kozy K. Amemiya, “The Bolivia Connection: U.S. Bases and Okinawan Emigration” in Chalmers Johnson, ed., Okinawa: Cold War Island (Cardiff, Calf.: Japan Policy Research Institute,1999), pp-53-59.

Johnson, Chalmers. The Sorrows of Empire. Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic. 2004. pp-198-200.

The Political Cartoons of Jib Jab

Thanks to Mikeb302000 for bringing a video by Jib Jab to Opinione's attention.

Over the years Jib Jab has produced some great political cartoon movies such as This Land and Big Box Mart. Although produced in 2005 three years before the financial meltdown in America, the Big Box Mart video is very insightful in how it references Americans living off of their credit cards.

The latest video by Job Jab video highlights the absurd expectations that supporters of Barack Obama placed upon him and how Obama is like all the other political leaders in Washington DC; more concerned about the interests of the rich and wealthy, as opposed to the interests of average hard working Americans.


Enjoy the video.

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The Price of War

While Opinione has previously talked about the contemporary civil-military relationship supported by the American political establishment and the American people, Opinione found it important to publish some photos which show the true face of war and the lasting impact it will have on the brave men and women who have answered the call for their country. The photos put a face to the immoral and morally corrosive relationship the American people and the political establishment in Washington DC have with the military.

Instead of playing golf like Obama did in Hawaii or spending time with their families, American political leaders who have sent these brave men an women to Iraq should be working to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

War is something that should be avoided at all costs. More Americans need to remember the ugliness and brutality of war and stop supporting war waged by callous and inept politicians in Washington DC.



SFC Michael A. Schlitz who has 85% burns across his body, lost fingers on his left hand and entire right hand, some vision loss and has limited range of motion.

CPT Samuel B. Brown (L), who had 3rd degree burns on 30% of his body sustained from combat injuries, poses with a fellow soldier during a recent return tour to Iraq.