The Fed doesn't get it

The American Economy is crumbing. It is finally breaking from the stress of having become top heavy. The Fed once again has a solution to save it, CUT INTEREST RATES so people can get more credit. Ummmm HELLO! You guys are supposed to be economists, do you not see that the overabundance of credit has seriously fucked up this country already? Americans are working at Wal*Mart making 8 or 9 an hour and spending more than that to buy the cheap lead tainted shit imported from China on credit that makes huge profits for Citibank. This is the new versioni of scrip and the company store.

Standard logic would say that the best way to improve the state of the economy would be to CREATE JOBS that pay a living wage. When the economy took a major dump in the 1930s, President Franklin Delano Rosevelt established work programs that created what is to this day much of the backbone of the infrastructure of the US. That is what is needed today, a NEWER DEAL that gets people working at living wages. The corporations won't like that because the lower the unemployment rate the more they have to pay to get employees. They want you broke, and owing them money.

Rosevelt also did something that no one outside of Dennis Kucinich in the current crop of would be candidates has the balls to do, take on corporate power. To those who believe Sean Hannity's buillshit that Hillary Clinton is a communist, socialist, or even a true liberal, I feel sorry for your brain washing. She is bought and paid for by the same corporations that owned Bill. She may shift slightly to the left of the current administration which is about as far right as Moussolini's Italy, as they have ceded the power to the corporations.

But the fed will cut intrest rates, the stock market will go up, and the one percent that control 90 percent of the assets of this country will be happy. The rest of America will keep being pushed further towards the poverty line.

Operation Mindcrime has Returned

For various reasons, those of us here at Operation Mindcrime have been on a vacation, but now its time to come back and take a hard look at America and what has gone wrong with this country. More important than what is wrong is what we, the American Citizens, can do to fix it.

The Corporations have grabbed up far too much power, and have ruined the economy for those who are not wealthy like them. We are working harder for more hours and less money. There are less opportunities to get ahead, and its going to get worse.

Take the time and educate yourself. Don't be fooled the mainstream media does not have a 'liberal' bias as the windbags on the right claim. They have a distinct corporate bias. NBC is owned by General Electric which is a huge defense contractor. ABC is owned by Disney. CBS is owned by Viacom. Even the so called "Communist News Network" is owned by the AOL-Time Warner corporation. What is the goal of corporations? Anyone? Anyone? TO MAKE MONEY! The bias of those networks is towards anything that will improve their ratings and make their parent corporations richer.

We are on the leading edge of the next election cycle. It only seems like they have been running forever already, its still three months to the next primary. Notice how the media favors certain candidates from the beginning. Why? Because they want you to believe that only their chosen candidates have a chance of winning. They have already annoited Hillary Clinton the Democratic front runner based on fundraising and polls. OF COURSE SHE IS GOING TO POLL HIGH, everyone knows who she is. On the other hand, this is Dennis Kucinich's second presidential campaign and his name rarely gets mentioned. It is being treated as Clinton v Barrak Obama, forgetting that there are other candidates who as of now have exactly as many votes as Clinton.

Now is the time, educate yourself. Read as much as possible from as many sources as possible. I highly recommend the book Screwed:The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class by Thom Hartmann and America:What Went Wrong? by Donald L Barlett and James B Steele.

Fire Gonzales NOW!

The Bush Administration continues to show its blatant disregard for civil rights by standing up for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Under Gonzales's watch as the top law enforcement official in the United States, the FBI illegally used provisions of the patriot act to get private information on US citizens and fired several US Attorneys as political payback for not supporting the Republican Agenda. Oh yeah, he has also overseen a drastic rise in consenting adults looking at pictures and movies of other consenting adults in sexual situations.

Apparently in the eyes of Gonzales and the Bush administration that defends him its alright to violate the civil rights of American Citizens as long as you catch those who have an interest in pornography.

The good thing is that the US Congress is finally showing a backbone by preparing to issue subpoenas to Gonzales and his band of fascists including Karl Rove and Harriet Miers. Bush's response was to allow them to answer questions without being under oath of having transcripts made. That is a joke. Without transcripts or oaths it is worthless. Even if Karl Rove has an accident and tells something resembling the truth there would be no record of it.
Bush says that If the congress sticks to its guns and issues subpoenas then he will fight it in court. Well, Georgie, you don't have a congress in there that will be your boot licker any more, too bad so sad.

Frankly Gonzales needs to be fired. He has shown that he is more competent to run the local morality brigade than be the top law enforcement of the US. But, Bush doesn't want to sack one of his top stormtroopers, so I look forward to the battle ahead, and hope that the congress continues to have the sack to stand up to George.

Impoverished Americans in Record Numbers: The government says what we already know

Finally, there is a beginning of an acknowledgment that the United States of America is becoming increasingly an economically gentrified country. A report published by McClatchy Newspapers found that the number of people living in deep poverty is increasing at very alarming rates. Of course, this is not news to the majority of Americans who have seen the buying power of their wages erode over the years, but a corporation (McClatchy News) has actually noticed and done their job as the Third Estate and brought the dirty little secret to light.

If the McClatchy papers were to follow in the grand tradition of the Third Estate today's report would only be a beginning, and the story would gain momentum until those in power would have to notice and act. Alas, that is not likely to happen as the Third Estate has long since abandoned their social duties and focused on the profits to be had by publicizing the Anna Nicole Smith circus or Brittney Spears losing battle with hair clippers.

Normally, Operation:Mindcrime does not agree with the words of the Cato institute, but they spoke a deep dark truth by saying, "What appears to be taking place is that, over the long term, you have a significant permanent underclass that is not being impacted by anti-poverty policies" (emphasis added by author).

It is a sad turn of events that in the wealthiest nation in the history of this planet, there is rampant and increasing poverty. Nearly 16 million Americans live in deep poverty which is defined as less than 50% of the poverty level. (9,000/yr for a family or 5,000/yr for an individual) That is outrageous. These Americans combine for an income of only 144 billion (rounded off and assuming all make the highest level of 9k/yr.) That is less money that George W Bush wants to spend in Iraq in a year.

These numbers alone are disturbing, but they don't begin to tell the whole story. That number grew 26% between 2000 and 2005. During this time there has been a so-called economic recovery and expansion of the economy. This further shows that those who discuss the state of the economy live in an ivory tower and only look at the top strata.

"The plight of the severely poor is a distressing sidebar to an unusual economic expansion. Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind and the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries." This is the most damning statement on the state of the economy I have read since America:What Went Wrong? by Donald L Bartlet and James B Steele. In fact, if you extrapolate forward what Bartlet and Steele wrote forward from 1992 to 2005 this is the logical result of the trends referenced in their work.

In fact, let's break down the above quote one more time bit by bit, and I think that it shows the underlying culpability in the situation, and points to the nearly criminal attitudes of the corporate masters of this country.

*"The plight of the severely poor is a distressing sidebar to an unusual economic expansion." A rising group of impoverished people is referred to as a 'distressing sidebar' to an economic expansion? This sounds like classic Orwellian Doublespeak for "They don't match what we want to see, so we will brush them aside with false pity rather than look at their plight as truly part of the economic picture." Or more simply and even less Orwellian, "they don't count." How is it an 'economic expansion' when there are increasing numbers of people in poverty?

*"Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind..." In other words people are working harder to get more done, but they are getting less to show for it.

*" and the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries." I happen to think this speaks quite well for itself, in its damming of the handling of the economy.

This is a direct result of the corporate culture run amok. It is about maximizing profits at all costs, especially through sending their work overseas. It is because the industries that pay living wages are sending their work overseas, and the jobs that are growing are the retail and fast food sectors which pay poverty wages.

Sadly, unless this report wakes up those in power, which I happen to doubt even with the Democratic takeover of Congress, this is a trend that is going to continue. In fact, there is a report that Hershey is getting ready to trim 1,500 jobs by closing plants and moving operations to Mexico. (so much for the Great AMERICAN Chocolate Bar.)

RIP Molly Ivans

Wow, what a loss for the opposition in this country. Molly Ivans was a great voice against the Bush administration, who used wit an humour to keep the administration on its toes. It is sad to know that her effective voice has been silenced from the political chorus in this country.

In this age of the right wing hack in the mold of Sean Hannity & Rush Limbaugh it was refreshing to have Ms Ivans's humour skewering the venomous words of the loud mouths.

Rest in peace, Ms Ivans, you will be missed

The New Year Brings Fresh Fertilizer

A few randomme thoughts as 2007 begins.

The Democratic Congress is seeking to raise the minimum wage. Bush has said he would agree but only combined with 'help' for businesses.

Does the execution of Saddam Hussein make you feel any safer? Not me.

The 08 Presidential field is beginning to take shape. Right now, Mickey Mouse should be the front runner.

If the media keeps hyping a Hillary-- Obama ticket, you know that there has to be something wrong with both of them.

Christmas is over, did you spend the most important thing? TIME with your kids?

Something We never thought We would Do

For the first time in the short history of Operation:Mindcrime we are actually coming to the aid of a corporation. Blasphemy! You are thinking. It is not a decision that was undertaken lightly, but one that we stand firm on. We are doing this not to aid that corporation, as much as to fight the green and monopolistic goals of another.

Operation:Mindcrime is asking our supporters to sign this petition to oppose the take over of Delta by US Airways. Why is O:MC that defender of the American Worker against corporate malfeasance asking that we support one corporation over another? Well, it is this simple if US Airways is allowed to complete this hostile take over then many of Delta's union workers will be out of a job as US Airways "eliminates redundancies." Additionally, if this takeover is successful then the US Airways-Delta-America West Cartel can set their sights on other carriers, forcing American, United, etc to look for other carriers to absorb to maintain competition. In the end, you are looking at only 3 or 4 carriers which would be able to easily fix prices, and provide questionable service.

If you are still not convinced that this is not a sell out for cheap airline tickets, (O:MC has not been offered any incentives to adopt this position) I point towards the merger mania that engulfed the oil companies in the 80s and 90s and the effect that has had on gas prices. Do you really think that if there five times as many companies fighting for the same market share the prices would have risen as drastically?

Protect consumers and the Delta workers by supporting Delta as a stand alone carrier. If Delta enters into any talks of mergers with another carrier, Operation: Mindcrime will immediately withdraw its support.

The Myth of a Culture War

The whole red state v blue state is a recent construct from the media and the political elite to keep us divided. In fact, the entire idea of a culture war was borne of the divide and conquer idea. As long as m,embers of one of the main parties can point to the other and say "If you elect them there will be terrorists conducing gay marriages on every street corner." they have done their job. In fact, in Al Frankin's book The Truth (with Jokes) he points to the genesis of the whole gay marriage becoming a federal issue.

Frankly, many Americans have had their religion hijacked as the mega churches have morphed into right ring agenda cloning machines. Operation:Mindcrime is not against anyone's choice of faith, but O:MC is against anyone who is using their faith to further a political agenda. This site is a good beginning to counter the right wing extremism that is washing over this country from supposed Christians.

The whole thing is a crock of crap. Most Americans who have not been brainwashed by the Talibanesque efforts of the right wing political Christian movement realize that the government should stay out of our bedrooms. Its really that simple. I also defy any opponent of gay marriage to post in the comment section how two men down the street from you being married hurts YOUR marriage. I don't want anything vague from scripture. Answer the question: how does it hurt YOUR marriage? I'll even accept an answer to how does it affect you? Show me that I am wrong and you are more than a brainwashed automaton.

Stop and think people, all of these so called issues are to distract you from the reality that the government is screwing you to aid the wealthy. They want you to focus on all these other things rather than the truth. They are afraid that people will truly come together to force them to face their corporate masters, so they distract us by division.

Terre Haute, Indiana denies workers right to organize

It is insane. The maintenance workers in the Terre Haute parks department voted unanimously to join the Teamsters local, and the city is refusing to acknowledge the vote in what appears to be a flagrant violation of federal labor law. I urge the city workers to stand together and stand firm on this infringement of their right to organize.

"But Boyd said that nobody notified him as to why workers want to join a union. Parks Superintendent Greg Ruark said in October that no workers had given him reasons for their interest in regards to the election. "

Yo, Greg, the reason that the workers want to have a union is to insure that they receive fair pay and benefits, as well as protection. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Last I checked the workers do not have to tell the bosses why they are organizing. They organized as is their right, and like the bosses do you are stamping on their rights. If they had told you, you would have offered the usual false promises that union busters offer to keep the workers from standing as one.

It gives Operation: Mindcrime a warm feeling to see that even this day in age that workers are standing together as one to create a union shop despite the hostile conditions for organized labor. A great kudos goes out to the maintenance workers in the Terre Haute, Indiana for showing what workers can do by standing together. It is a shame that the city government of Terre Haute, Indiana have to be union busters. I urge the citizens of Terre Haute to make their voices heard so that their city knows that workers rights are important to the citizens.

By standing with the workers, you are taking a stand for your won workplace rights, by opposing them you are for further degradation of the American Worker such as yourself. Which side are you on?

The economy is screwed up

I read in the paper this morning that the fed was happy that wages rose less than expected. Ok, that just goes to show that the lower class is a target of class war. The head of the Federal Reserve is definitely on the other side. The interesting converse of this is that in order for the economy to be 'successful' people are expected to spend gratuitous amounts of money during the holiday season to line the pockets of Lee Scott and Bob Ulrich. It seems to me that rejoicing over a low growth in income would be counter productive to the goal of conspicuous holiday consumption. To a reasonable and rational person it would be. But we are not talking about reasonable and rational people, we are talking about a class of people out to rape and pillage the working class for all they can get. Less income and more spending equals more to exploit.

Enter the credit card companies. Visa and MasterCard want you to spend more than you have so that they can make their money off interest fees. They are the ones who benefit from the so called consumer confidence index. According to this theory the economy is healthy when people are willing to spend more than they have. That is something that again makes no sense. I would think that other than a house or a car, it would be a sign of a healthy economy that people used financial discipline and spent what they had. Of course I am not an economist, I am but a worker. It comes down to one key thing the worse the economy is for the workers, the better economy it creates for the top class. The less they pay us in wages the more of their profits they can keep in their world view. Its pretty sick if you think about it. Retail companies have gotten in on this exploitation bandwagon by not only issuing their own store cards as they ahve done for years, but offering their own branded Visa and MasterCards. That way they get to make money on both ends.

Of course the great beast Wal*Mart is having a tough time this holiday season, and that is a cause for some optimism. Their same store sales actually fell. (Same store sales are a key indicator of the health of a retail company that measures the sales at stores that have been open at least a year and compares this year to last year.) Yeah, I read the business section of the paper. In the words of Rage Against the Machine it pays to "Know your Enemy."

Response to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

President Ahmadinejad,

Thank you for your concern for the civil liberties of the American Public, those are concerns which I happen to share. I would however caution you against pointing fingers at the erosion of civil liberties in the US, when your country has much less freedom than this one. In the US all religions are respected, whereas in Iran people are persecuted for not following your particular branch of Islam. In fact, I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine of Iranian descent who came to America with his family precisely because his family was not allowed to be Christian in Iran. I am not well versed in the teachings of the Qur'an, but I do expect that it contains an admonition against duplicity as most all Holy Books do.

I am in agreement that it is not right that the US blindly sides with Israel. As with any conflict, there are three sides to every story: yours, mine and the truth. I don't believe that either side in that conflict has a monopoly on the truth or the moral high ground. I also disagree with your stated desire to wipe Israel off the map. The solution in this case is in the middle ground.

President Ahmadinejad, I would like to see better relations between our countries, but that is not possible as long as your country relegates women to second class citizens, is dedicated to eradicating another country from the map, and is unwilling to come to the table to seek common ground for the betterment of planet Earth.

Thank you,
Operation:Mindcrime

Some Muslims, Some Jews, and Some Christains

OK, now that sounds like a set up for a joke, right? It probably is, but in this case they all got together at Ronald Regan national airport to pray together to protest the recent harassing of a couple of Imams on a recent US Airways flight. The media beats us over the head constantly with how much Jews and Muslims supposedly hate each other (some of them apparently do) but here were some Imams and a Rabbi coming together with common cause. This is a small show of togetherness, but one that should be emulated on a much grander scale.

It was non-violent protests led by Mahatma Ghandi in India that brought the greatest empire in the world, the British Empire, to its knees. With his sheer force of spiritual faith he was able to get the people around him regardless of whether they were Hindu, Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist to work together for the common cause of Indian independence from England. That was no small feat. Since his death you can see the fragiminetation that has taken place between the Muslims and Hindus in India. (for further reading on that issue I recommend doing a google search for Kasmir.) Ghandi's model was used by Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and others here in the United States to bring an end to legalized segregation.

Imagine if you will for a moment, after the Muslim world was inflamed by the Pope's quoting of a 500 year old text, if instead of all the violence one or more of the Grand Imams had contacted the Pope with an offer of dialog and prayer. Many innocent lives would have been spared, and that so called divide between the Muslim world and the West would be slightly less.

Those in power want to keep us separated along the lines of race, religion and class so they can keep us controlled. When they have us controlled they have a docile work force upon the backs of which they can profiteer. When they have Americans distrusting of Muslims they can invade countries like Iraq and Iran, and the inhabitants of those countries have already been dehumanized. The leaders over there are doing the same thing, because by inciting hatred for America keeps their people under their control.

I recently flew across country, and had an enjoyable flight. There was a guy next to me who appeared to be of middle eastern descent. We had a bit of a pleasant chat as the plane taxied then climbed to 10,000 feet. At that time he opened his laptop and iPod and got to work. I lost myself in the music of Tool in my CD player and enjoyed the different perspective on the world from 37,000 feet.

Yeah, I know, it seems odd that Operation:Mindcrime is advocating non-violence and prayer. It comes down to this, where did violence get Nikki in the CD? It got him hard time and hell-bent on revenge. I am advocating real changes, and those are rarely accomplished from the barrel of a gun.

Black Friday is Coming!

Black Friday is coming. The Retail Corporations are bombarding us with ads on how great their lowest prices ever will be on that day. Come celebrate the Christmas holiday buy giving us your hard earned money. It works, sadly. Most stores do more that DAY than they do on an average two week span.

How did it come to be that the holiest day of Christianity has become an orgy of conspicuous consumption? I am not a Christian, but I do believe that Jesus was not a big fan of being showy with wealth. (Could that be why many stores have changed the title from Christmas to Holiday? nah more on that in a minute.)

These retail corporations are the modern sweatshops. They pay just above minimum wage and continually are looking for ways to keep "costs" (read payment to employees) down. The treatment of Wal*Mart workers is something that is well documented. The treatment of workers in the rival Target Corporation is not as well documented, but a quick scan of www.targetunion.org tells some interesting tales of workers who are underpaid and LOCKED IN when the store is closed.

This is the busy season for retail workers, and the front line employees are the ones who take the abuse from the customers while the CEO's count their profits and figure the next round of "Cost" cuts so they can get their bonus for scoring a win against the working people.

Retail workers unite! Stand together for better wages and working conditions!

Welcome to Operation Mindcrime

OK, so I stole my name from an awesome Queensryche CD from the late 80's, but now is the time. For years Washington has been tethered to their masters in the corporate world disregarding the needs of the people whom they claim to serve. As time has gone on they have become more blatant in their service to their corporate masters. If you think that it begins and ends with that schmuck Jack Abrahmoff think again. He was just careless enough to get caught. There IS a class war happening in the US. The conservative talking heads with simple minds like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly love to say that there isn't and chide any moderately liberal candidate who talks about the needs of the working calls as 'appealing to the class war sensibilities' while neglecting that there IS a class war and it is being waged by the upper class on the workers of the US. CEO's routinely get seven and eight figure bonuses for scoring victories against the working class by reducing pay and benefits. For the CEO to get the really big score he needs to get the knock out blow of eliminating jobs.

There are more of us than there are of them, and together we can take the power back.