TIRED OF CORPORATE WAR

• Stars & Stripes reports, "U.S. troops in Europe are now forbidden to wear their uniforms off post 'to the maximum extent possible,' including daily commutes to and from the office, as part of an effort to prevent service members from standing out in a crowd, according to U.S. European Command. The new policy, which comes three weeks after a deadly shooting outside Frankfurt Airport that left two Airmen dead and two badly wounded, takes effect immediately."

It appears that the "liberators" are wearing thin on the public in Europe as is the case with the rest of the world. I can't imagine though how dressing in civvies is going to make much of a difference. Still the expensive sneakers, flight sun glasses, cowboy belts, baseball caps, T-shirts with corporate logos, noticable paunch, and short haircuts just might be a dead give-away that these are still Yanks.

• I watched corporate CEO's crying poor mouth last night on the CBS TV program 60 Minutes. The head of CISCO said they had to move their operations to Ireland because of the 35% corporate tax rate in the U.S. In Ireland he said they only pay about 12% and hundreds of thousands of jobs have been moved there. The threat was clear. Either Congress lowers the corporate tax rate to virtually zero or CEO's will keep moving the jobs overseas. It's a global bidding war to the bottom of the barrel. "My investors demand this" was the refrain heard again and again from the big boys. Nothing but greed. General Electric, the world's biggest corporation, paid no taxes in the U.S. last year. In fact they got a $3.2 billion "tax benefit" in 2010.

• The big question on every one's mind now is will Obama send ground troops into Libya? I've seen Internet rumors flying around that 4,000 U.S. troops are already there but have not been able to confirm that. I can't imagine Obama and NATO just pulling out and leaving control of the oil fields to the Libyan people. Also another key issue right now is whether or not Depleted Uranium (DU) is being used by NATO. Again I've seen conflicting reports from good sources. I wouldn't doubt it though. You have to remember that the U.S. used DU weapons during the war against Yugoslavia and in Iraq and likely in Afghanistan as well. When you are trying to "clear out" a region so you can control their oil or lay pipelines the existence of people becomes a pesky problem. The use of DU allows over time a slow form of genocide that would ultimately clear the path for the oil corporations. Now I can hear you thinking - the U.S. would never do such a thing! Just remember though the U.S. Army handing out small pox laden blankets to the Native American people. It's called modus operandi - MO.

• I'm really tired of war and corporate control. My whole life has been one war after the other. My adulthood has been one long protest against U.S. wars. Can there be any doubt that America is one sick GD country? Addicted to war - addicted to violence - a killing culture - like a drunk at the bar, always needing another swig. I think the public is beginning to open their eyes but they are weary from it all. They are tired and I wonder if they have it in them to stand up to another Anschluss (Hitler's annexation of Austria). Got to keep moving forward......all of us. Got to make some demands on this corporate dominated system. It's a matter of survival now. We owe it to ourselves, to our past relations, and to the future generations.

• See an interesting new study called "The Partisan Dynamics of Contention: Demobilization of the Anti-War Movement in the U.S., 2007-2009" about how subservience to the Democratic party has drastically injured the peace movement.