United States Should Boycott Olympics: Send Message to China and World

According the American Heritage dictionary, fascism is a system of government marked by 1) centralization of authority under a dictator, 2) stringent socioeconomic controls, 3) suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and 4) a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. The Chinese autocratic regime gleefully fulfills this definition. China’s forced occupation of Tibet has led to the deaths of an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans. Additionally China’s direct support of the Sudan genocide blatantly continues. Within China's borders, compulsory family “planning” and forced abortions are universal. China has hundreds of forced-labor prisons, which hold political and religious dissidents. There are firsthand reports of physical and psychological torture, confessions forced by torture, live organ harvesting, and other inconceivable atrocities within these prisons.

America should send a message to China: we do not support you; we will not attend the Olympics.

War for oil? No. Oil for war? Yes.

According to a MSNBC article from last year, the War in Iraq is costing the United States around $255 million per day. Iraq's sustainable oil production capacity is almost 3 million barrels per day. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Iraqi ground holds more than 112 billion barrels of oil—the world's second largest proven reserves— and unexplored regions could yield an additional 100 billion barrels. One million barrels of oil a day, is either 1/20 of the United States daily gas consumption or 100 Million dollars (calculated at $100 a barrel). America has liberated Iraqi’s from the torture chambers of Saddam, but in doing so we have gone billions of dollars further in debt.

The month that President Bush was sworn into office, gas was averaging $1.70 a gallon. Now, after five years of war in Iraq, gas is $3.60 a gallon. That is two dollars more to pay—because of the war on terror. Iraqi oil should be used to pay America back. It is a little known fact, but Kuwait (think Desert Storm) paid the United State $36 billion for its liberation. Iraq should do the same.

Jeff Merkley War In Iraq

Thanks Jeff.

20-ton cocaine bust biggest in Coast Guard's history

Just an interesting article I thought you all might enjoy.

Thank God for the Coast Guard.