PEACE WALK NEWS CLIP

UNITY IN UNITY

Rev. Kato leading the walk with nun Jun-san right behind him

We are taking a lunch break in a town called Unity, Maine. Soon we will leave for Bangor and when we arrive in that city local activists and media will meet us at a park and walk with us the last mile into the heart of the city and on to the offices of the Eastern Maine Peace & Justice Center where massage therapists will be waiting to work on our sore feet, legs and backs.

It's raining again today but the sun seems to be trying to peep through the clouds. Four new people joined us this morning for the day, it is always exciting to have new folks pop into the peace walk as they bring a new energy.

A young man named David is with us for the whole way. He is a recent college graduate who is currently attending the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland and has taken on the walk as his big writing project. He's been interviewing various walkers and is often bent over his notebook scribbling and scratching away. David has also been walking alot and had several blisters last night that more experienced walkers helped him deal with.

The Buddhists from Nipponzan Myohoji are veteran walkers and bring a strong sense of commitment, humor, and joy to the walking community. They also help us know how to deal with our aches and pains. Last night the Japanese nun Jun-san doctored a blister I had on one toe by burning some natural product over the sore spot and then rubbing the charcoal from the fire into the blister. So far today I am walking with no pain.

Carolyn Coe drove a long way from the Blue Hill area early this morning to reach the walk. She is recording interviews for WERU radio, a well-loved progressive station in this part of the state. Our message will go out to an even wider audience.

The thing I love most about walks is how close the people become with one another in a short period of time. A common purpose, and shared sore muscles, is a real bond in building community. Right now walker extraordinaire Betty is singing to us as she sweeps up after lunch. Other women are joining the song. It warms the heart.

Vanessa, a young black woman from Western Massachusetts (I call her V-V), is going around the room arranging nap space for people who want to lay down for awhile. We are being hosted for this lunch time in a community art gallery and theatre which is a lovely and stimulating space.

We got an email this morning from a woman who saw us walking on the first day.

She wrote:

I wanted to tell you how inspiriting it was to encounter the peace walk on my drive in to Farmington on Wednesday, a dismal day of election returns. I was driving in late with the dog, when I saw you all on Rt. 27 -- I'm not sure if it was appropriate to blow my horn, but I wanted to join in somehow. It really was the unexpected bright spot on the gray highway of the day for me. Thank you so much for all of your efforts!

Misty

CLOSER LOOK AT THE ELECTIONS

WET IN WATERVILLE

We had 40 people walk 14.4 miles yesterday and the weather was perfect. Cold and sunny, energizing walking weather. Today was another story.

Twenty of us left Showhegan this morning with threatening skies and after lunch the rain started coming down. We walked through a steady rain for the last three hours of the 18.4 mile walk that took us to Waterville.

Waterville is the town where Maine's new tea-party Republican governor hails from. Paul LePage has been the mayor of Waterville for some time and won the five-way race with 38% of the vote, just 1% more than the guy who came in second place. The Democratic Party candidate came in third place with a very poor showing and the Republicans won both the House and Senate in the Maine state legislature - the first time the Republicans have won the governor and legislature since the 1960's.

As we walked today, with me carrying my sign which was becoming limp from the rain, I was thinking of the right-wingers who would now and then blast by us in their super-duper pickup trucks. They liked to gun their engines, with loud mufflers, just as they were alongside us and the noise was their way of blasting us in a militaristic show of their contempt for our walk. I thought about how the election triumph of the Republicans will give these junior brownshirts even more of a feeling of power and license to kick some "liberal" ass.

The walk though also drew a steady, if not overwhelming, number of peace signs, honks, and waves. These folks were generally glad to see us and were often quite animated. They are likely relieved to see some determined peace walkers out on the road of an increasingly right-wing America.

I was reminded that this walk comes at just the right time for the public and for me personally. While I have to admit I miss not be home reading every last word about the electoral debacle across the nation, I am also fortunate to be out walking along the rural highways of our state making eye contact with literally thousands of people inside their cars.

If we are to survive this period then we must be out on the street and it must be done repeatedly in the near future. We must also be offering people a positive transformative vision for the future - bring our war $$ home, convert the military industrial complex, create jobs building public transit systems, weatherizing our homes, building a solar society and more.

Neither the Republicans nor the forlorn Democrats will be raising this agenda. They will be dueling over more tax cuts for the rich, maintaining the corporate insurance plan pushed through by Obama, and bickering over the level of escalation of the war in Afghanistan-Pakistan. It's fallen on us to offer the real solutions to America's economic troubles and collapsing military empire.

Doing so ain't gonna be easy. Right now my feet hurt, I am very tired, and in the morning we expect to be greeted by more rain. But I don't think there is any better way to reach the people than walking through their community - and so we will do it, blisters, sore muscles and all.

Note: All the photos above are from our first day of walking from Farmington to Skowhegan.

GREAT START IN FARMINGTON

More than 100 people turned up for the Maine peace walk pot luck supper tonight in Farmington, Maine - half of whom were college students. The students set up the tables and worked in the kitchen serving the food and cleaning up afterwards.

We arrived in Farmington early and went to a coffee shop so I could check my emails. While there we found the University of Maine-Farmington student newspaper with a full page front cover photo of Buddhist monk Brother Kato who will be leading the walk. Inside the paper were two stories about the walk, one about an 18 year old student named Alex who intends to walk the whole way to Portland. She has lined up other students to donate per mile with the proceeds going to their new student peace group called Paint - Peace activists in training.

We begin walking to Skowhegan (14.4 mile day) at 8:30 in the morning. Weather forecast is sunny but cold.

THE ENTHUSIASM GAP

VIEW OF EARTH FROM SPY PLANE

See the Lockheed Martin U-2 spy plane promo video.

The U-2 was built to go higher than any other aircraft. In fact today, more than 50 years since it went into production, the U-2 flies higher than any aircraft in the world with the exception of the space shuttle.

It is flying more missions and longer missions than ever before, nearly 70 missions a month over Iraq and Afghanistan.

I must acknowledge though that the pictures are beautiful of the sky and Earth below and remind me that we live on this tiny satellite zooming through space that has no real boundaries, borders, or walls to keep people away from one another.

It's just a damn shame that we have to get these pictures from a source like Lockheed Martin who makes a mint developing ways to kill one another.

Peace now!

MAINE PEACE WALK BEGINS IN FARMINGTON TUESDAY

Peace walkers last spring in Lewiston, Maine at the peace bridge named after Dr. Bernard Lown who grew up in that city

By Ann Bryant, Staff Writer
Lewiston Sun Journal
Nov 01, 2010

FARMINGTON — Maine Veterans for Peace will begin a 10-day peace walk in Farmington with a celebratory potluck meal and program at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Old South First Congregational Church. The public is welcome.

The Maine Walk for Peace, Human Needs and Veterans Care, starts Wednesday morning when a core group will head for Skowhegan then on to Waterville, Bangor, Belfast, Rockland, Bath, Freeport and Portland to join the Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11.

Because of the distances between, there will be a shuttle for part of each day, but an average of 18 miles or less will be walked each day, said Bruce Gagnon of Bath, a member of Maine Veterans for Peace.

People are welcome to join the walk for an hour, a day or the whole trip, he said. A core group of about 20 people intend to make the whole trek. Local groups in each town will host an evening potluck meal and program and provide housing and breakfast for those on the trek.

Tuesday's first meal in Farmington is a celebratory kickoff with a student peace group from the University of Maine at Farmington helping, he said. UMF President Theodora Kalikow will provide a welcome and Douglas Rawlings from UMF and a founding member of Maine Veterans for Peace, will say a few words. The Nipponzan Myohoji order of Buddhist monks and nuns with the Rev. Gyoway Kato will lead the 128-mile walk, Rawlings said.

The Buddhist monk order has participated in several walks and conferences around Maine, Gagnon said.

When the group reaches Skowhegan on Wednesday night, doctors, social workers and teachers will provide a presentation on what they are seeing in life, a decline of social progress, he said.

Each night's presentation will be different and is intended to start a conversation with community members on their reason for the walk.

Concerns about war, the cost of the war in Afghanistan and the cost to returning veterans whose rates of suicide and Post Traumatic Stress Disorders are high, were noted as motivators for the walk.

“Few people know that the cost of the war is more than $8 billion a month ... with the country spending that much money, there's no money available for much else,” Gagnon said. "We want to shine a light on these deep concerns and create a discussion as we go through."

Several towns on the route are college towns as the group wants to get students and young people involved. They want to start them talking about the future and the demise of social progress in America.

A new peace group started on the UMF campus this semester, Peace Activists in Training, or PAINT, is helping with the meal Tuesday, Rawlings said. He is an adviser for the group.

That the start of the peace walk falls on election night is partially intentional. No matter which party controls Congress, the war goes on, Gagnon said. With massive bases being built there, there's no intent to come home. The group hopes to garner more legislative attention and action.

Veterans for Peace is a national organization that started in Maine 25 years ago, Gagnon said. There are now 100 chapters comprised of veterans from all wars. This past summer the state group hosted the 25th national convention.

Veterans for Peace is committed to working on the cost of war and bringing attention to post traumatic stress disorder by offering conferences and education for not only soldiers but also their families, he said.

Notes and videotapes taken along the peace walk will be posted on its website.

The public is welcome to walk or attend the evening potlucks and programs. Information on the schedule is posted at www.vfpmaine.org/vfp.htm

SOUTH KOREAN GROUPS RALLY TO OPPOSE PARTICIPATION IN U.S. "MISSILE DEFENSE" PROGRAM

Thirty-seven organizations in South Korea (ROK) have issued a statement opposing their nation's participation in the U.S. "missile offense" program. Below is just the conclusion of the statement, see the full wording here

Immediately stop the examination on joining the MD that does more harm than good!

As above, South Korea’s participation in the US MD system does more harm than good, as it would bring nuclear war and nuclear arms sale, therefore would seriously threaten peace in the Korean peninsula & northeast Asia, aggravate her military subordination into the United States, and throw tremendous financial burden to her people. The United States is doing that to strengthen her military domination in the northeast Asia, positioning South Korea as her advanced base, while the Lee Myung-Bak government is enforcing that to secure its vested rights amidst the political situations in the inside and outside of the Korean peninsula, which are becoming disadvantageous to it hanging on the ROK-US alliance, and furthermore to drive the absorbing unification by force against North Korea.

We resolutely oppose South Korea’s joining the US MD system, which is really dangerous and unnecessary. We strongly demand the Lee Myung-Bak government to immediately stop the examination on the involvement in the US MD, and Kim Tae-Young, the Minister of National Defense, to promptly resign from his post. We will briskly struggle to prevent [South Korea’s] MD involvement, with our people who aspire complete non-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula, realization of the Peace agreement, and dissolution of the ROK-US alliance, the root of all kinds of subordination and peace-threat.

Oct. 25, 2010

Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea; Korean Confederation of Trade Unions; Democratic Labor Party; New Progressive Party; Socialist Party of Korea; Labor Front; People’s Solidarity for Social Progress; Revolution 4.19 Committee; Korea Alliance of Progressive Movements (Christian Social Mission Solidarity Council; Labor Human Rights Center; Farmers’ Pharmacy; Supporting Committee for Prisoners of Conscience; Korea Council for Democratic Martyr; Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities; Association of the Family Movements for Democracy Practice; Buddhism Peace Solidarity; Council for the Drive on Our Nation’s Unification through Federation System; Korean Peasants League; Pan Korean Bereaved Families’ Association for Nation and Democracy; Pan Korean Bereaved Families’ Association for Democracy Movement (Inc.); Pan Korean Poor People’s Association for Liberation; Korean Women Peasant Association; The Central Association for National Unification of Korea; Pan Korean Association for Reconciliation (Minhwaryon); Korean Democratic Workers’ Council; Solidarity for Democracy, Public-Welfare, Peace, Unification and Sovereignty; Pan Korean Women’s Solidarity; Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification of Korea, South Korea branch; Veterans for Peace, Corea; Unification Square; Korea Youth Solidarity; 21st Century Pan Korean University Students’ Association; June 15 Youth and Student’s Solidarity) Anti-War Peace Solidarity; All Together, Asian Wide Campaign (AWC), Korea Committee

NATO SUMMIT PROTESTS PLANNED

November 19-21 there will be protests against the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

Of particular importance at this summit will be the issue of "missile offense" spreading throughout Europe - especially expanding eastward to surround Russia. This move by the U.S., and its NATO lackies, is intended to box Russia in so the oil majors can control distribution of oil and natural gas in the years ahead. Russia sits on the world's biggest supply of natural gas and significant supplies of oil. In addition, the oil corporations don't want to see the Caspian Sea pipelines being routed through Russia.

Missile offense systems are key elements in U.S. first-strike attack planning. As they spread they are becoming triggers for war with Russia and China.

The man on the left in the video is Dave Webb who was recently elected national chair of the UK's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He is also the chair of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

TRICKS AND FEW TREATS

• It's Halloween and in anther two hours the kids in the neighborhood will be knocking on our door wanting candy. Last night housemate Amanda threw a party for her two children and their friends. So the place was decorated and quite lively. Most of the rest of us in the house went out to the movie and dinner during the party. We saw Social Network about the founder of Facebook and the lawsuits that resulted after he stole the idea for the online site from others and then tried to cheat his "friend" and cofounder out of the riches that followed after it took off and became a global phenomenon. A story about greed and betrayal.

• I saw yesterday that 47% of Democrats want someone to run against Obama in the Democratic presidential primaries before the 2012 election. It looks like his own party is now turning on him. Some of these folks are likely former supporters of Hillary Clinton but I would venture a guess that many are also people who feel Obama has betrayed his promises to fight for real hope and change.....

• The rally to "Restore Sanity" yesterday in Washington DC by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert drew a huge crowd. I've watched several videos and looked at hundreds of photos (on the Washington Post web site) but was not particularly impressed with what most of the sign holders had to say.

Stewart had some nice closing comments about how we should all get along, and respect diversity, but the fact that so many people can get together (CBS News reported 215,000) without mentioning two wars that are draining the national treasury speaks to the reality of how the American people have been depoliticized (politically neutered). A straw poll of rally goers by pollster Celinda Lake revealed: "86 percent of those surveyed plan on voting Democratic next week, another 8 percent said they are undecided with 1 percent planning to vote Republican." So clearly a crowd of Democrats and 13% of them told the pollsters that ending war was their top priority. The #1 concern of the assembled was jobs with 41%. How about connecting the dots between war spending and economic collapse?

At the end Stewart had crooner Tony Bennett sing "America the Beautiful" which was a nice touch, but I was disappointed that the crowd then took to chanting the right-wings favorite mantra: "USA, USA, USA......."

FORGOTTEN HAITI

Treatment centres are being prepared in Haiti to deal with the further possible spread of cholera. The outbreak is believed to have started ten days ago and has claimed over 330 lives. Aid agencies are also mobilising in case Tropical storm Tomas makes landfall. Al Jazeera's Craig Mauro reports on the attempts to contain the disease.

CLIMATE CHANGE WATCH: FLOODS DEVASTATE BENIN

West Africa is reeling from severe flooding following heavy rain. Hundreds of people are known to have died. Worst affected is the tiny nation of Benin, where the receding waters are revealing the true extent of the damage. Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull has our exclusive report.

Instead of increased global militarism we should be marshaling the world to deal with our real coming crisis - climate change.

WARS ON EARTH & IN SPACE

Participants at national conference October 9-10 in Nagpur, India - click on photo to see banners

• The photo above comes from Global Network board member J. Narayana Rao in Nagpur, India who recently hosted my speaking tour to his country. In spite of the fact that the Indian government would not allow us to hold our 18th annual space organizing conference there, this national confab was a great success. Students and activists came from around the country to attend the event. See Rao's report and Nagpur Declaration here

• The Obama administration has continued the long U.S. tradition of blocking any hope of creating new international law to protect space from the ravages of war. At the United Nations today the U.S. voted to abstain (and thus block) any real hopes to negotiate and pass the "Transparency and confidence-building measures in outer space activities". The vote was 167 in favor with the U.S. abstaining. (Without the U.S. genuinely involved nothing can happen.) Today's vote came just two days after the Obama administration had the U.S. torpedo the U.N.'s annual Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) treaty resolution supported by Russia and China. That vote: 170 in favour, 2 abstained (U.S. and Israel). Just who is pushing an arms race in space?

• I woke up at 5:00 am this morning with a check list of things on my mind for next week's peace walk. Early on I had a call from a reporter at a major Maine newspaper who is doing an advance story on the peace walk. She couldn't believe it when I told her that our country is spending $8 billion a month on the Afghanistan war. She asked me three times if I was sure. She had asked me why we were walking and I told her that one key reason was because the public knew nothing about how much these wars are costing us. Her response spoke to the truth of my point.

AFGHANISTAN: LOSING ON PURPOSE

Very interesting stories here from journalists Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley who have recently returned from Afghanistan.

It is increasingly clear to me that the U.S./NATO war is really about extending this deadly and expensive operation long into the future. They are slamming the door shut on every opportunity to negotiate with the "enemy". They are killing people who have gone over to the U.S. side thus making it clear to the people of Afghanistan that you either fight for your lives or die at the hands of the imperial occupiers.

This means permanent war in the region that is now costing us more than $8 billion per month.

PEACE WALK EVENING PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Below please find the full schedule of Maine Veterans for Peace potluck supper/program events during the November 2-11 Walk for Peace, Human Needs, and Veterans' Care.

Potluck supper/program schedule

* Farmington potluck supper/program on November 2 (Tuesday) to kick-off the peace walk at 6:00 pm
Old South First Congregational Church
227 Main St
Farmington
293-2580


* Skowhegan potluck supper/program on November 3 (Wednesday) at 6:00 pm
Skowhegan Community Center
39 Poulin Drive
Showhegan
643-2356


* Waterville potluck supper/program on November 4 (Thursday) at 6:00 pm
Pleasant Street UMC Church
61 Pleasant St
Waterville
643-2356


* Bangor potluck supper/program on November 5 (Friday) at 6:00 pm
St. Johns Episcopal Church
235 French St
Bangor
944-2609


* Belfast pot luck supper/program on November 6 (Saturday) at 6:00 pm
UU Church
37 Miller Street
Belfast
338-9509


* Rockland potluck supper/program on November 7 (Sunday) at 6:00 pm
Rockland UU Church
345 Broadway
Rockland
596-7784


* Bath potluck supper/program on November 8 (Monday) at 6:00 pm
Grace Episcopal Church
1100 Washington St
Bath
319-9188


* Freeport potluck supper/program on November 9 (Tuesday) at 6:00 pm
First Parish Congregational Church
40 Maine St
Freeport
865-0655


* Portland potluck supper/program on November 10 (Wednesday) at 6:00 pm
Sacred Heart/St. Dominic Church Hall
80 Sherman St at Mellen
Portland
773-6562

On November 11 (Thursday) walkers will participate in the Veterans Day parade in Portland and afterwards will join a potluck lunch and Draw-a-thon at Space Gallery (538 Congress St)

We would like for you to let us know if you plan to be with us for any part of this peace walk so we can more effectively make our logistical plans. Contact us at danellis@vfpmaine.org and let us know the date(s) you plan to walk with us, your name, and contact information for each person.

For full walk schedule, route maps, and registration information see http://vfpmaine.org/vfp.htm

Thanks for your support. See you on the road.

Maine Veterans for Peace
865-0655 or 443-9502
http://www.vfpmaine.org/

WHAT WE WON'T HEAR IN THIS ELECTION

The United States currently ranks 49th in the world in overall life expectancy, according to a study published in the academic journal Health Affairs, slipping dramatically during the last decade. The noteworthy decline is highlighted by the fact that in 1999, the World Health Organization ranked the US as 24th in the world in the same category, life expectancy.

HEDGES INTERVIEWED ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK

Author and Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges recently made an appearance on Canadian television’s “The Agenda With Steve Paikin” to make his case about how the American liberal class and its institutions have spectacularly failed those whom they supposedly aimed to serve, taking no prisoners (et tu, Bill Clinton) and hitting on the major themes of his new book, the aptly titled “The Death of the Liberal Class,” while he was at it.

DEMOCRATS GIVE WAY TO CORPORATE AGENDA AND LOSE THEIR BASE

It looks bad for the Democrats come election day. Here in Maine a right-wing tea-bagger is expected to be our next governor. He wants to privatize public eduction, doesn't believe in climate change, and wants to run welfare recipients out of the state. It's going to be rough.

All across the country similar stories are in the offing. Right-wing religious zealots are going to be elected to the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and to several other governorships. The tea-party, made up of angry white folks, are fired up and ready to start shooting if they don't win on November 2.

The Democrats have little energy these days. Obama is crossing the country fast and furious, replaying his worn out "progressive message" that worked well in the 2008 election, but is having little impact this time around. Large portions of the progressive community are virtually idle at this time - not able to stomach campaigning for a party that has betrayed its base on virtually every issue and then publicly smacked them down when they dared to express their disappointment.

Already Obama is sending messages via the media that he is eager to work with a right-wing controlled House of Representatives following the collapse of his party. It will make passing legislation to gut Social Security and the few remaining social programs that much easier. He will likely find strong "bi-partisan" support to continue to expand his war in Afghanistan-Pakistan and any talk of troops returning home in 2011 will be gone with the wind.

The Democrats are learning that their fall into the eager arms of corporate capital is having a direct result in them losing their activist base. Just two years ago pundits were predicting the demise of the Republican Party after the sound beating they took in the national elections following a strong vote for the Democrats who largely ran against Bush's costly wars. But once in power the Democrats turned on their base and sat on their hands as the wars expanded and further cutbacks in social progress were coupled with massive welfare checks for the banksters and insurance companies.

The truth is that real progressives have virtually no one representing them today and many will choose to either stay home on election day or pick and choose very carefully when they enter the voting booth.

An economically collapsing America, already dangerous to the world with its eager to kill military empire, will become even more of a threat following this election. Here at home civil liberties will be in even greater danger as the right-wing consolidates power and will embrace the worst elements of the corporate police state. The most we can hope for is that the confused middle class, who are now turning to the tea-party candidates in droves, will quickly learn that the new "rulers" have no intention of making life better for them as these politicians will eagerly give way to the demands of the corporate oligarchy who pumped big money into their campaigns.

For the rest of us it is not the time to cower and hide. The coming period will call upon us to display uncommon courage and determination to stand up for those who are being cast aside by the corporate agenda.

TRYING TO SCARE THE PANTS OFF YOU

Seymour Hersch has another big Pentagon story in The New Yorker, this time called The Online Threat: Should we be worried about a cyber war?

The Pentagon is working overtime to ensure that cyber war becomes the next great fear in the minds of the American people - coming after the Red scare of the Cold War and the present "terrorism" freak-out with the Muslim world. In the story Hersch casts doubt on the fear-mongering with this passage:

American intelligence and security officials for the most part agree that the Chinese military, or, for that matter, an independent hacker, is theoretically capable of creating a degree of chaos inside America. But I was told by military, technical, and intelligence experts that these fears have been exaggerated, and are based on a fundamental confusion between cyber espionage and cyber war. Cyber espionage is the science of covertly capturing e-mail traffic, text messages, other electronic communications, and corporate data for the purpose of gathering national-security or commercial intelligence. Cyber war involves the penetration of foreign networks for the purpose of disrupting or dismantling those networks, and making them inoperable. (Some of those I spoke to made the point that China had demonstrated its mastery of cyber espionage in the EP-3E incident, but it did not make overt use of it to wage cyber war.) Blurring the distinction between cyber war and cyber espionage has been profitable for defense contractors—and dispiriting for privacy advocates.

Hersch recalls the story about the U.S. Navy EP-3E spy plane that bumped up along the coastal border of China soon after George W. Bush came into office. The Chinese brought the plane down onto Hainan Island and proceeded to take it apart piece by piece. They learned alot about the U.S. electronic surveillance program in that incident and the Pentagon used it as an opportunity to start crying wolf - the Chinese are coming and are ready to cyber attack us here at home - NOTHING IS SAFE!

One has to wonder if the incident over Hainan Island was a fix. The plane, a slow lumbering propeller driven spy aircraft, was destined to be intercepted during such a mission. With present satellite technology available to the Pentagon today you have to wonder what the plane could do that military satellites aren't already capable of delivering.

The military industrial complex loves these kinds of scare scenarios.....how can anyone refute them? How can an inquiring mind or a skeptical public stand up against "the best and the brightest" inside the Pentagon? What they say is gospel, right?

So today we see massive amounts of your tax dollars being poured into the cyber war rat hole to "protect and defend" us against Chinese computer attack when in fact the cyber command is developing U.S. "offensive" cyber attack programs with these new infusions of cash.

So be careful not to fall for these mental tricks being pulled on the public. I know it is almost Halloween and scary things are standard operating procedure this time of year.

Just close the door on this one.