Republicans like to do things for show.  They like to hold up little Constitutions, while they subsequently violate it with glee.  They like to wrap themselves in the flag, while they defecate on what it represents.  And they like to feign support for Veterans, while they slash their benefits and defund their programs.  Here’s a Vet that sees right through them.

While veterans stormed memorials yesterday with the help of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and former half-term governor, best-selling author and reality television star Sarah Palin, another veteran was on the airwaves hitting Republicans — and hitting them hard — for the government shutdown. Coming after the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll showing 70 percent of the nation thinks congressional Republicans like Cruz are putting their political interests ahead of the country, this has gotta hurt.

Redge Ranyard is featured in a powerful ad taking congressional Republicans to task for the shuttered government and its impact on veterans. The 90-year-old World War II Navy veteran was ticked off by a comment House Speaker John Boehner made nearly two weeks ago. According to the New York Times story that got Ranyard’s blood boiling, Boehner told his raucous caucus mere days after the start of the shutdown, “We are locked in an epic battle.” In his response on behalf of VoteVets.org, Ranyard doesn’t mince words…

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Here’s the video:

Kudos to this hero who speaks not just for veterans, but for us all.

The boo birds are at it again, saying that, since  Barack Obama says he will talk about anything with Republicans, after the Republican shutdown and threatened Republican default are resolved.  He must be about to cede major concessions, selling out Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid recipients.  There is more than one way that Obama has disappointed me, but after he realized what a big mistake he made in 2011, he has been a rock on the big three.  Obama knows how to offer Republicans what they want, and make them slither away from the table at the same time.

Be skeptical. Be very, very skeptical.

That was the reaction from nearly all corners to the talk of convening yet another round of bipartisan negotiations to reduce the nation’s long-term debt. The idea has resurfaced as a way of resolving the standoff between President Obama and the Republican-controlled House over reopening the government and increasing its legal borrowing limit, perhaps for months or even just weeks.

But even if the current talks soon resolve the immediate impasse, which did not look likely on Saturday, any renewal of negotiations for a long-term fiscal plan will run into the same underlying problem that has doomed efforts for the past three years.

Republicans refuse to raise additional tax revenue, and until they do, Mr. Obama will not support even his own tentative proposals for reducing spending on fast-growing social benefit programs, chiefly Medicare. During a White House meeting with Senate Republicans on Friday, he reiterated that the two go hand in hand, according to people who were there… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Obama knows that everything Republicans do relates to one of their two ultimate goals.  One is the establishment of a permanent, totalitarian Republican Reich in which elections exist for show, only.  Second is the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle classes to the very rich.  Every time Obama links cutting welfare for the rich with cutting benefits, Republicans slither away, reminding America yet again just whom it is that Republicans truly represent.

I’m the first to admit that, when it comes to the relative merits of GMOs in food,  I have about as much expertise as a Republican Congressperson has about the Constitution: none.  But even I know that Monsanto’s horrors extend well beyond GMOs, so when I came across an excellent article on that subject, I felt obligated to share it with you.

Marking World Food Day this year is a grassroots effort called March Against Monsanto with protests planned in more than 400 cities in over 50 nations. But who is Monsanto, and why should you know about them?

Monsanto has been around over a hundred years, and while it has a history of questionable ethics and practice—including helping to create and hide health risks associated with DDT and Agent Orange—its more recent trend toward pushing unregulated and unlabeled Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) into our food supply is what’s really alarming. For this Monsanto has earned the dubious distinction as the most “Evil Corporation of the Year” by NaturalNews readers.

The hardest thing about writing what’s wrong with Monsanto is knowing where to start. You may not think you are familiar with them, but you are. You probably eat Monsanto created GMOs every day. The company creates harsh pesticides that are designed to kill everything natural they touch, the most popular of which is called “Roundup.”  The company then creates GMOs that are unaffected by this specific poison (in the case of Roundup these are called “Roundup Ready”) so that farmers can blanket their fields and kill weeds, pests and everything else. The company has pushed hard to monopolize strategic markets and now controls 93% of the soybean, canola seed, and cotton crops, as well as 86% of corn crops. Monstanto has consolidated its position by creating ‘suicide seeds’ which do not reproduce and forces the farmers to return to Monsanto each year. The GMO suicide crops also cross pollinate with non GMO crops, forcing more farmers who may have initially held out to also rely on Monsanto.

What are the long term effects of consuming GMOs? Truthfully, no one knows. Monsanto created the first GMO in 1985 and only within the past few years has their use become widespread in our food supply. In essence we are all unwittingly participating in the trial of long-term health effects. Monsanto argues that because their GMO corn has been manufactured to have roughly the same amount of vitamins and minerals as natural corn then it must be safe. Meanwhile, scientific studies done over an entire lifespan of rats have shown that GMO corn causes tumors, organ failure, cancer and premature death. The widespread adoption of Monsanto’s products has also been linked with significant nitrogen run-off which is creating dead zones in the oceans and an alarming mass die off of bees… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

Is Monsanto the most dangerous corporation in the world?  I’ll leave that for you to decide, but it’s up there near the top.  At the very least, Monsanto must be stopped from achieving their goal of controlling the entire world’s seed supply and all foods containing GMOs must be labeled.