CITIZEN ALERT v1.249SUNGLASSES

Man, if this is not a subtle sign of the depleting ozone and global warming, I don't know what is. Warning signs are this small and this insignificant. It's not til years down the road that you realize what you were seeing at the time.

FROM MSNBC:

Australian school makes sunglasses compulsory for pupils

There was a time when wearing sunglasses would have been seen as too cool for school, but for pupils at a pioneering primary in Australia they are now a compulsory part of the uniform.

The move is aimed at protecting young eyes from the sun's dangerous ultraviolet rays, and education authorities say they are considering adopting the plan at all state schools.

The headmaster of Sydney's Arncliffe Public School, where sunglasses are now compulsory for children from kindergarten through Year 6, said they had no problems wearing the glasses in the playground.

The "sunnies" as they are called in Australia, would soon become "routine" for the pupils, Stephan Vrachas told commercial radio.

The education minister of New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital, said the government would consider making sunglasses compulsory in all public school playgrounds.

"It is conceivable that in certain environments it might be appropriate to wear sunglasses when they are playing in the sun," John Della Bosca told reporters.

Excessive exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays, already blamed for skin cancers, can also lead to cataracts, experts say.

A specialist at Sydney Eye Hospital told the national AAP news agency that wraparound glasses were the best for eye protection and children should be encouraged to wear them from the age of three or four.

Sunglasses were particularly important in summer, when ultraviolet exposure was up to five times higher than in winter, said Con Petsoglou.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.248HEALTHCARE HYPOCRISY

You know, I'm tired of hearing the REPUBS trying to frighten the elderly in this country away from Universal Healthcare by stating that they'll end up with no choices of who treats them and the government will decide what care they get. Golly, you certainly don't want the federal government deciding for you what care is best do you? They're not doctors.

Now, REPUBS uphold this propaganda because they believe there should be a smaller federal government. When they're hit with gay marriage rights, people like Cheney will weasel out of it by saying that matters like that should be left up to the state.

Well, explain this. In 1996, the STATE of California voted to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients. So, why has the Bush administration allowed the DEA to override those doctors orders by raiding 10 marijuana clinics this past Wednesday? Is that keeping your federal government out of healthcare?

I think if Californians really want their medical marijuana then it will have to be taken out of private hands, and regulated by our state government. Let's see the DEA bust into a clinic run by the State of California that has a couple of National Guardsmen in the lobby. Now, THAT would be a cock fight.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.247JAMES COMEY

THIS IS REQUIRED VIEWING!! YOU MUST WATCH THE ENTIRE VIDEO OR LISTEN TO IT IN THE BACKGROUND WHILE YOU ARE WORKING.

One of the most dramatic events in American History to me. The program Comey is describing is the NSA's domestic surveillance aka the wiretapping and spying on Americans program.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.246XAVIER BECCERA

This morning I went to a town hall meeting with my representative Xavier Becerra at the Dahlia Heights Elementary School in Eagle Rock. I would urge everyone to attend your own representative's town hall meeting in order to hear their views in person. You get a better sense of who that person is and what they believe when they're standing up there having to explain it to a roomful of really pissed off people.

Once the questioning began the word IMPEACHMENT was almost immediately shouted across the floor to thunderous applause from us all. And I can tell you from that meeting, being that Beccera is Nancy Pelosi's assistant, they are in NO WAY looking to impeach either Bush or Cheney. He explained it over and over again to the dismay of everyone, that while they "support" impeaching the administration and they are as frustrated as we are, an impeachment, in their minds, would take at least 2 years. They have 18 months. An impeachment would take their focus away from bringing our troops home from Iraq. He went on to say that the congress can focus on only so much at a time and right now it is working on Iraq.

I believe he was sincere in his frustration, but still disagree with him on the DEMS methods. He brought up procedures and laws over and over, but look, this administration has no respect for procedure or laws, so if you think you're going to win by following them to make yourself look more noble then you are fooling yourself. If the REPUBS want to take it into the gutter then the DEMS need to fight it out in the gutter.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.245JOURNEY TO AWARENESS

CITIZEN ALERT v1.244WHAT'S HE UP TO?

Well, a lot is being said this week about what to do with the Bush admin and what to do in Iraq. The National Intelligence Estimate has come out with a new report as Bush's surge is still not working but in the background as reported this weekend, the Airforce is "quietly" building up its numbers in Iraq and increasing bombing runs.

I really need a weekend to go over all this and then regenerate it back into a CITIZEN ALERT for you guys to digest, but here's a quick version. For those up to speed, I don't mean that you wouldn't get it unless I told you, just keep in mind that I do CITIZEN ALERT for younger America - younger Bobot Adrenaline fans - who don't keep up with global politics as much but want to learn or just want to know what everyone is talking about on the news from time to time. About 50% of CA is aimed at them.

So, what is Bush up to? The big teacher parent meeting is coming up in September where the Congress unless they cut it off now, will take a look at how his surge worked or didn't and decide whether to give him anymore money to continue the war in Iraq. The House controls the budget; they can stop the war in second if they had the guts to do it.

Bush is 1) having another group come up with a separate report that leans more in his favor which I'm sure he'll be waving in the air. This is basically like turning your F into a B on your report card with a pencil. 2) The Airforce is increasing in Iraq - more bombing runs. The US is very effective when we launch an air campaign. We don't do it all the way all the time because of a couple reason, one being civilian casualties, the other intelligence. But again, the bombings have increased and I see this as either a) Bush sort of cheating the numbers on his surge or b) he's planning ahead to a perimeter campaign because he knows the money is getting cut off.

Let's watch and see this week if the DEMS can remember why we elected them in the first place.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.243JAPAN QUAKE

Also for today, there was a 6.7 quake in Japan killing 7 and causing damage across the country. But check this out. Water containing radioactive material leaked from one of their plants that was closed for repairs. Now, it was only 1.5 liters, not a lot, BUT LOOK WHAT THEY DID WITH IT!!

The contaminated water was released into the ocean and had had no effect on the environment, TEPCO said in a statement. The company had previously said there had been no radiation leaks at the plant, where reactors automatically shut down for checks.

Released into the ocean but had no effect on environment?! Now, I know 1.5 liters is less than a 2 liter bottle of Coca Cola, but if they think that has no effect, then what else has no effect to them?? Geez.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.242HOYER ON D.C.

WASHINGTON, DC - House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer released the following statement today commemorating the establishment of Washington, DC, in 1790:

"Two hundred and seventeen years ago today, the Residence Act of 1790 was signed into law, designating 10 square miles along the Potomac River as the permanent capital city of the federal government. Maryland and Virginia ceded land to create Washington, DC, but their generous gift had an unintended side effect for their residents: everyone living within the new District lost voting representation in Congress. This injustice has been allowed to continue for far too long.

"In honor of Washington, DC's birthday, there is no more appropriate thing we can do than finally grant its citizens a voting representative in the House of Representatives. I hope the Senate will quickly follow the House's lead in passing legislation that will end more than 200 years of disenfranchisement for the nearly 600,000 residents of the District."

CITIZEN ALERT v1.241AL-MALIKI

MSNBC is reporting that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that with some more weapons the Iraqi security forces can take over securing the country whenever US troops want to leave.

President Bush was often fond of telling DEMS that he didn't run the war by listening to Congress, but by listening to his Generals. Problem is that whenever his Generals told him something he didn't like, he switched Generals. I seem to remember him also saying that we are "staying the course" because the Iraqi government wants us there and we'll stay as long as we're needed.

Now, let's see if he switches Prime Ministers.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.240THE BAD REPORT CARD

Read the full NSN report here that got everybody jumping on President Bush's case this past week. It details how the Iraqi government is not hitting their benchmarks for securing the country.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.239FOX NETWORK ATTACKS

CITIZEN ALERT v1.238CINDY THROWS DOWN

Cindy Sheehan a few weeks back announced she was stepping back from the anti-war movement in order to restrategize a whole new way to attack Bush's Iraq War. She didn't stay retired for long! Sunday she announced she would run for Nancy Pelosi's congressional seat if the Speaker of the House didn't "seek to impeach" the president by July 23rd!

Wow! Cindy came back packing heat!

CITIZEN ALERT v1.237SARA TAYLOR

I like how the Bush administration has redefined obstruction of justice as executive privilege. If ex-Bush aide Sara Taylor wishes to testify in the attorney firings, then she should be able to exercise her First Amendment rights and do so without fear of the President issuing a gag order on her.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.236PARDON PRIMER

There's gonna be a lot of heat from the Grand Old Party of Excuses as they try to deflect criticism away from President Bush and try a brand new tact of saying "BUT LOOK WHAT CLINTON DID!" Oh wait, that's not brand new, they do that every five minutes.

LEWIS LIBBY - Convicted of 4 felonies. 2 perjury, 1 making false statements, and 1 obstruction of justice. Obstruction is HUGE in the legal system. And to repeat - CONVICTED.

GEORGE W. BUSH - Says he will not get involved or even comment on a case while it is on going, until this week when he stepped in before Libby had even made his appeal and he commutated his sentence, meaning he doesn't have to go to jail, but he still has to pay a fine of $250,000. Luckily his REPUB friends have raised like $5 million dollars for him. Tough life.

BILL CLINTON - Impeached on perjury and obstruction of justice. I would wager 99% of Americans don't even really know what the word impeach means. It means to ACCUSE a public official of misconduct or to BRING CHARGES. It doesn't mean you're guilty, like a conviction does. How impeachment works is that the House of Representatives brings charges or makes the accusations or as they say IMPEACHES the President, then it goes to the SENATE where they hold the trial. In Clinton's case, he was acquitted by the Senate. That means found NOT GUILTY as in the opposite of CONVICTED. So, when you hear someone say, "Well, Clinton was IMPEACHED!" They are basically saying "Well Clinton was accused of stuff". If they say he was "Successfully impeached", just tell them they are idiots.

Now, what did Clinton get in trouble for? In a completely separate matter regarding the Paula Jones case he was cited with contempt of court for failing to testify truthfully. He later worked out an agreement to cut the whole thing short basically plea bargaining and he accepted his law license being suspended and he resigned from the bar. Done.

Keep in mind the country was BEHIND Clinton during all this. Bush's approval ratings are like in the high 20s or low 30s now. During Clinton's impeachment, he was around 66%. You could add up Cheney AND Bush's approval ratings and they wouldn't get to 66. Clinton even left office with a 60% approval.


MARC RICH - A guy indicted on tax evasion who fled to Switzerland before his court appearance. Clinton pardoned this guy because THESE GUYS a Harvard Law prof and Georgetown Law prof showed that his company did not evade taxes. Unlike Bush, Clinton sought bi-partisan consultation before the pardon from three Republican lawyers, one being Marc Rich's own lawyer one: LEWIS LIBBY. Yep! Kinda hilarious huh?

ROGER CLINTON - Clinton's half brother who Clinton pardoned of drug possession charges. The difference between this and Libby? Roger had already served his prison time a decade earlier. THAT'S really how a pardon is supposed to work.

147 PARDONS - Clinton pardoned about 450 people during his presidency, 147 on his last day. If you want to read about the people and why he did then READ THIS. It explains a lot of it. Reagan pardoned about 400. Carter like 500 I think and Nixon over 900. George W. doesn't give them out too much at all; he's at like 76. I guess he just saves them for his buddies.

PATRICK FITZGERALD - The lawyer investigating who outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. He knew it led back to the Vice President but because Lewis Libby lied and "couldn't remember" this and that, he was unable to get to the Vice President, but since he caught Libby lying while covering for his boss, he charged him with perjury and obstruction of justice.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.235MARC RICH

Here's some trivia for you REPUBS out there.

Name one person who advocated Clinton pardoning Marc Rich.

Answer: LEWIS LIBBY!!

CITIZEN ALERT v1.234CALM DOWN

And on the Fourth day of July, Pepper rested. I hope I haven't been bugging everybody too much with my rants and posts over these past couple of days. I had a long 5 day weekend from work and the mood of it was sufficiently ruined by the news.

I'm calming down now. I've been doing a lot of reading and research and for now I think I'll take a pause and come back on the 5th. I've learned some interesting stuff, and have a perspective on a few things that I didn't quite have a handle on before.

I'll share later. So for now, enjoy your 4th of July and if you're in Los Angeles, come see Bobot Adrenaline play at El Cid for the Kiss or Kill BBQ.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.233TONY SNOW BEAT DOWN

For those that think the American media is just a pawn of the government I ask you to read the transcript of today's press briefing with White House Press Sec. Tony Snow at the White House. The reporters rip him a new one as he stutters and bumbles his way through trying to explain the President was right in commuting Libby's sentence. Nice try Tony.

Here's a preview of a reporter asking a pointed question and then Snow going off on some bizarre - I don't know what he's talking about:

Q Why didn't he consult with Justice Department officials? Officials in his own Justice Department say normally someone would at least serve some jail time before a sentence is actually commuted. Why didn't he consult with his own Justice Department?

MR. SNOW: Well, a couple of things. First, quite often when you're dealing with sentences of this sort, they also have to deal with, as you point out, sentences that are ongoing or sometimes cases that have gotten a bit stale and people are trying to refresh their memories about the particulars of the case. The same would be true of the prosecutor, because they're quite often consulted for the same reason. Here you have a case that's still ongoing in the court system. It's not like people's memories are fuzzy about the details or the circumstances. The Attorney General, himself, was recused, as you know, in this case.

But the answer, Ed, is that it is certainly -- in some cases, people do such consultations. In this case -- and they do it for the reasons I've just cited. These tend to be, can you go back and fill me in on what happened in that case. If you take a look at the rash of pardons and commutations at the end of the Clinton era, a lot of that was people running around trying to find paperwork to figure out what the facts were. So let me just --

Q Well, why no jail time, though?

MR. SNOW: I'm sorry, what?

READ THE FULL BEAT DOWN HERE

CITIZEN ALERT v1.232CALL BUSH AND TELL HIM HE SUCKS!

Welcome to another edition of CITIZEN RED ALERT!!!

CALL THE WHITE HOUSE NOW!!!!

Flood the White House with phone calls over this blatant disregard for the rule of law.

202-456-1414

9am-5pm EST

Remind him of what he said January of 2001:

"[We] must remember the high standards that come with high office. This begins with careful adherence to the rules. I expect every member of this administration to stay well within the boundaries that define legal and ethical conduct. This means avoiding even the appearance of problems. This means checking and, if need be, double- checking that the rules have been obeyed. This means never compromising those rules. No one in the White House should be afraid to confront the people they work for, for ethical concerns, and no one should hesitate to confront me as well. We are all accountable to one another. And above all, we are all accountable to the law and to the American people."

If you want to pardon someone or commute them then the PROPER guidelines are to wait til all appeals have been exhausted and the person has STARTED serving their time. Bush didn't wait for either. All you ever hear from the Bush administration is that they will not even comment on a case or get involved in ANYTHING while the case is on going or until the appeals process is done. Today, he suddenly changed his mind and jumped in the middle of the whole deal because this time it was someone in HIS administration convicted of 4 felonies.

It doesn't matter that he's within his power to commute someone's sentence; he's had his whole term to make pardons, and he's made fewer than anyone until today when he picked someone in his own administration. He just sent a message to everyone in the world that their circle of friends are above every law in America. Nothing in the Constitution applies to them. They can do no wrong.

They should be in jail for the rest of their natural lives. All of them. Clinton had sex and lied about it to a grand jury, but he was never a traitor to his country, he never did anything treasonous. Bush just pardoned a guy who helped cover up the fact that they outted one of our covert agents because her husband called them out on one their lies to get us into a war.

Traitors every last one of them.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.231BUSH COMMUTES LIBBY'S SENTENCE

Just breaking now.

President "Me and Dick are Above the Law" Bush has commuted Libby's sentence. These people have no souls whatsoever. All this talk about it being too harsh on Libby, but I don't see anybody from the Bush administration apologizing to Plame for outting her in the first place. They're all excuses on that end.

The spin doctoring has already started on the news and of course they're all starting up with "Clinton pardoned all these other people".

Cheney is apparently no longer part of the Executive branch and now the President is part of the Judicial branch. It makes it very confusing, doesn't it? IMPEACH THEM ALL!!


C O R R U P T I O N

CITIZEN ALERT v1.230MORE ON SiCKO

Another thing about SiCKO that I think was important was Moore's trip to Cuba with the 9/11 rescue workers. The reception they had is what I would expect from people of any country practically toward people of another country in a one on one situation and that is warm, understanding, inviting, etc. One has to remember that it's usually governments that are at war with one another not their people.

The other important thing I found interesting was the comment from one gentleman who said that the reason things were the way they were in Europe was because the government was AFRAID of the people, and in America its the other way around. It's true, look how crazy France got during those recent protests, look what happened with the election in Spain after that bombing. Look at how Tony Blair or any PM has to debate in British parliament. It's a real fight.

It made me think that unlike old Europe maybe the reason our government isn't afraid of the American people is because no standing President has been dragged out of the White House and had his head chopped off by an angry mob. Think about it. I'm of course not advocating this behavior, but European history can get pretty down right ugly at times. America just hasn't had that kind of revolt by its people yet to scare the government on the straight and narrower.

CITIZEN ALERT v1.229SiCKO REVIEW

I went and saw SiCKO yesterday with my friend Scott. I think its Michael Moore's most accessible film to date. The Bush bashing is kept to a minimum and he actually clobbers Hillary Clinton as much as he clobbers Nixon whom he places the blame on starting the for-profit HMO "movement". Some could argue though that the for-profit HMOs developed later in the 80s out of Nixons HMO Act as a sort of "mutation", but you guys can argue that.

He mainly attacks health care in America as this ideal of discompassion toward our fellow man. That's really the over all theme in SiCKO is that we are here to take care of one another. It's a motto I personally relish myself in my own life. You can see it on my personal MySpace page - "EVERYONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYONE ELSE". I like to keep things simple. Apply that to anything you run across in your every day routine and see how your affected by it.

Overall I liked SiCKO, it showed other countries' health care systems as they should be - an after thought. It was THE ONE LESS THING I'm always hoping for. ONE LESS THING to worry about. Can we have just ONE LESS THING to occupy our time so we can concentrate on other things? Health care seems a perfect choice. People in the UK, Canada, France, Cuba - it's the ONE LESS THING they have to be bothered with and they think it quite odd that we still have to worry about it.

As the SiCKO box office revenue grows, more and more anti-Moore, anti-socialized medicine blogs and interviews you are likely to see. Let me dispel one for you right now. You're probably eventually going to have someone send this to you or run across it on the internet, a short film by Stuart Browning telling you how much Canada sucks:

This was posted on moorewatch.com - an anti-moore site - and it is to counter all those crazy Canadians that Michael Moore interviews in SiCKO. Now, I know that Moore is by nature going to slant things in his favor, but don't think that the other side will not slant things in theirs with their own agenda. But in the film above you'll notice they present ONE case and it's not even a correctly constructed argument. They are comparing a health care system to someone laying down cash on the table. No one gets what they want more than someone who plunks down cash for something, so I think you are comparing apples and oranges on that one.

Now, let's look at their agenda. Go and Google Stuart Browning and you will find he is a film maker and an advocate of free market health care. His partner in promoting free market healthcare is physician David Gratzer. Then, Google David Gratzer, and you will find that one of his buddies is none other than Milton FREAKING Friedman. If the neo cons every replaced God with anyone sometime down the road it would be Milton FREAKING Friedman. Milt wrote the foreword to Gratzer's book The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care. Nice title. It was put out by Encounter Books. Google that. This took me all of 60 seconds to find out all this by the way. Google Encounter and you find:

Encounter Books is an American conservative book publisher. It is an activity of Encounter for Culture and Education, Inc.

Encounter Books publishes serious non-fiction books, with a scholarly leaning, in the areas of history, religion, biography, education, public policy, current affairs, social sciences, and politics.

Ah, the Conservative infrastructure is alive and well. See what I mean? Everyone slants.

Now, back to the short film; here's a comment left by a CANADIAN on the moorewatch.com site after viewing the short film.

As a Canadian I have to comment on this one…

First my disclaimer: I love assault rifles and am pro-death penalty, and very much a supporter of Canada’s war effort in Afghanistan. Technically that makes me a right-leaning Canadian.

But I just HAVE to point out that the dreadful little film on Youtube about that unfortunate man is FAR from the norm in the Canadian health care system. It uses the same careful omission of a few critical details that Moore uses in his films.

It is extreme case of a person who slipped through the cracks in our system. They show up every few years and make headlines across the country. For a week or so after people rally for privatized health care, then the fervor fades away as the details of the case unfold.

The majority of these cases are the result of misdiagnoses by the attending physician. Malpractice happens everywhere, since doctors are human. That is why people get second opinions.

A doctor in Canada, particularly a specialist, has the the power to order an immediate MRI or CT scan if they truly believe there is something to be discovered. People with trivial issues can be bumped on a moments notice. READ THE REST HERE

More on SiCKO tomorrow...