Seemingly underestimated of their importance in our daily lives, truck drivers across Spain, who have been striking in protest over inflated gas prices, are wreaking havoc throughout the nation. They have blocked deliveries of food and fuel and supplies in general, and today all 18 of Spain’s auto factories will be forced to shut down due to lack of fuel and parts.

The people are becoming increasingly upset as they are being forced to stockpile food, are stuck in immense traffic-jams as the strikers are blocking roadways, and are being left without any way to fuel their vehicles. Yesterday the tensions between the truckers and the strike breakers grew violent and one of the strikers was killed, while another was believed to have been set on fire.

Click here to read why the only good thing to come out of the Middle East conflict is the realization that the people on our planet need an alternative to our fuel resources .

By Brian A. Burns

Hillary Clinton announced today that she will be slowing down enough to allow Barack Obama to take the checkered flag in the race for the Democratic presidential nominee. Although many believe it is high time for our nation to have a female president, and though most of us always believed the first would be Hillary, this may be the best move on her part for the betterment of our nation. At least at this point in time.

We have all come to learn what the game “presidential election” is all about. There are no rules it seems, and the populous generally votes for the candidate who “smears” the best. We have noticed over the past eight years that the Republicans have pitched most of their funds into the “smear” position, with the rest being poured into players who are experts in the “power hide” spot. They spit out their attacks, which mostly have nothing to do with a candidate’s qualifications, against issues like the clothes they once wore, the church they once attended, the food they prefer, or their hairstyle in the 70’s, while using legal loopholes to hide their candidate’s resume. If in fact they cannot hide it very well, and all types of faults are issued to the public through the press, they ramp up their personal attacks to the level of ‘ludicrous’, and hope their constituents will bite.

I’ve met many a Republican who have said the Democrats play dirty in election campaigns. These were not unintelligent people, but people who’ve fallen into the cell of misinformation. They’ve been told that every media outlet lies except for Fox News, and so they refuse to listen to anything else, and their views of the truth become awfully clouded. Because they’re headline junkies they’ve grown to believe in the slogan “fair and balanced” but have nothing to compare it to. They wouldn’t know how unfair and unbalanced the Fox televised tabloid truly is, because they’ve grown too lazy to research a potential president’s qualifications through any other network or source of information. Consequently, they’ve adapted well and they have no problem blocking out the trash-attacks coming from their candidate. It doesn’t matter to them because it must not be bad - “Republicans don’t play dirty.” They have grown a keen ear to what the Democrat is saying. Although what goes in one ear enters their mixer-minds, gets churned around, and comes out with a different meaning entirely. If they heard the Independent candidate say, “We have to fix the problems with this nation,” the Neo-Con spits back, “He hates America.”

With Barack Obama driving the Democratic car, the Republicans will have to dig far deeper to find trash to sling. And if priests and pastors would learn to mind their own business they would have even less to catapult. Perhaps the most ingenious move on Obama’s part was to publish the book about his life. In that simple move Obama threw his garbage onto the table for everyone to pick through. He basically said, “Here’s what I’ve done, go ahead and slam me if you want to. I’ve already acknowledged it, and have moved beyond it.” This gives him the opportunity to step away to watch Karl Rove and his band of thugs dive through the scant dump.

With Hillary Clinton’s dump already being mountain-sized, it would’ve been a nightmare of mud slinging. And since the Democrats have a problem with fighting fire with fire, there’s no doubt that she would pay closer attention to the mud-that-matters, as opposed to the mud-that-hurts. With either Democrat we would expect to see an election run where they point out John McCain’s support for failed ideas, and his willingness to continue sending our troops to die overseas in the Cheney/Bush oil war, and his inability to face domestic issues with any honesty or integrity. The Republican’s instead will lie and tell the population that Barack Obama is a Muslim - because that seems to work in frightening Christian and especially Jewish extremists. They’ll go back to the photo of Obama dressed in the traditional clothes of Kenya and lie about him wanting to dress in Muslim fashion. Of course, they’ll bring up his middle name and call him the enemy. Beyond the lies they’ll be relying on the racist redneck vote - those who are psychologically entrenched in the 1800’s.

For now, at least, we can sleep better knowing the Democratic candidate has packed lightly, and isn’t dragging along a mountain of trash that would be used against them. It’s a good thing for all of us that Hillary has run out of gas, especially for us who vote independently of party lines, because the last thing a swing-voter wants is the continuous ringing of the telephone with some person on the other end talking about how evil Hillary is for finding compassion enough to keep her marriage alive after her husband’s sexual misdemeanor.

By Brian A. Burns

In scrambling for every deal he could cut before being booted from the Vice Presidency, Dick Cheney yesterday scoffed at the idea of suspending the gas tax, calling it “a false notion”. Though many of us understand that the idea would do little in giving relief from the skyrocketed fuel prices, to say that it’s better to do nothing is only a tell-tale sign of how little he still seems to care about the welfare of the American population.

Billions of dollars from our earnings have gone into securing overseas contracts for Halliburton, which he chaired until only months before taking over the position of Vice President of the United States. Prior to that time, in 1998 when he was the acting CEO of Halliburton, he secured over 28 million dollars in business dealings with Saddam Hussein, and billions of dollars in government contracts and taxpayer-insured loans for his corporation. Once in office it took only two weeks for him to create the “Energy Task Force” - a group that met and discussed ways of securing oil contracts in countries throughout the world. It was a highly secretive operation which eventually led to a congressional investigation. From this it was uncovered that Cheney and his staff were creating documents, maps, and charts of oil fields, pipelines, refineries, tanker terminals and development projects in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The lists they created were titled, “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oil Contracts as of March 5, 2001.” There is no doubt that much of the meddling that went into gaining support for the Iraq invasion was directed by him. But, perhaps the most treasonous act came when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Then, Dick Cheney diverted relief efforts aimed at restoring power to hospitals to repair a broken oil pipeline running through Mississippi.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Dick Cheney used the Vice Presidency for only his own welfare, all the while promoting the Afghanistan and Iraqi invasions that have cost thousands of lives, and billions of dollars and that have also helped tank our nation’s economy. Trading lives for riches, why would he care when the people are mere strangers? Americans? Who cares. When you’re as high on the corporate pyramid as he was, and involved in the business of securing natural resources, you tend to have people all over the world to befriend and exploit - American or Iraqi, it makes no difference to Dick Cheney.

For Dick, George W. Bush’s legacy, which will be the knowledge that he was the worst president in the history of our nation, will not blemish the Cheney name whatsoever. Usually, the president takes the blame while their “right-hand man” disappears in between the lines of our history books. In this case Cheney is disappearing with fat pockets clinking with our money, and a whole lot of blood on his hands.

He is a man who at a different time in our nation’s history, might’ve been swinging from the gallows, and when one considers his acts against America’s best interests, his willingness to popularize a war in which our troops are dying for his profit, he should be dropped to hang. But he always had too many Americans backing him, whose pride and anti-progressive sentiments muffled their hearing when we ranted why he and his worthless cowboy-puppet shouldn’t be elected to ruin our nation. It’s a shame that “I told you so” has no medicinal quality for the eight years of suffering through heightened stress levels and heartburn. It’s a shame that if Cheney were to hang because of his treasonous acts, he is so coated in oil that his neck would most likely slip right through the noose.

Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd gained a few rungs on the “good guy” ladder when on Sunday he ordered his troops in Iraq to return home to their land down under. Leaving behind a small group of forces whose primary job will be security and surveillance, Rudd made good with his promise and reeled in about 500 of his troops - most of the remaining Australian military force who have been considered a top ally to the Bush Administration’s endeavors in the Middle-East. Whether it was a good idea to leave behind any of his military is up for discussion, and some might say they’re now “sitting ducks”. Nevertheless, the majority of Australians can sleep well tonight knowing their leader listened and responded favorably to their wishes.

Click here to read about one world leader who seems to understand the meaning of democracy.

One would think that John McCain must be seriously out of touch with more than just reality. It would appear that he has also strayed from the intentions of U.S officials in Iraq who state they have no intention on setting up any permanent presence in the war torn country. That is assuming that U.S. officials are being honest with the public, a laughable thought, as they have been working on a long term security deal that involves keeping our troops in Iraq beyond a U.N. mandate.

All the while those who Bush told us would greet us as liberators are protesting our presence with demonstrations, and roadside bombs. It makes one ponder how far away these people fall from the “real world” when hired into government positions.

Click here to read how willing our officials are to continue lying to us, believing we have no idea what is going on in the Middle-East.

It seems that the forfeiture of common sense is a prerequisite of employment within the United States federal government. Our country has wasted away billions of dollars on the “War on Drugs”, and no matter how many positive points one makes when arguing in defense of drug legalization, those in the untouchable “frat house” in Washington D.C. are too dumb to figure it out.

4 more bodies turned up along the Mexican-American border as a result of criminals wielding the power and absolute control of the drug biz. And though most of understand that legalizing drugs will help crush the criminals who are making millions dealing them, those we vote to control us are too tucked away in the sterility of a whitewashed haven to realize the necessity behind the notion.

Click here to read why wherever there’s a demand there is not only a supply, but there are also dead bodies.

The United States is currently detaining at least 59 people in Guantanamo Bay that intelligence officers have deemed to have never been of any threat to our security. Bakers, farmers, and a man called “half-head Bob” are some of those originally placed on “recommended for repatriation” lists prior to them being sent to the maximum-security prison camp on the southern shore of Cuba.

Click here to read why intelligence officers should not always take the blame for decisions made by the paranoid people running our country.

Piracy is not what Hollywood gives us with the likes of a weathered-skinned Jack Sparrow winning over the lady in distress. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, as many ship commanders that travel the high seas would attest to. We could actually learn a lot from reading maritime news, and realize that sometimes it’s best to avoid than it is to provoke. If we do that maybe the U.S. Military would learn to keep warships like the U.S.S. Cole away from the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean along the Somali coast.

Click here to read why the Sahel is not the only place in and around Africa to avoid.

A series of 7 bombs were detonated in the Indian city of Jaipur this evening. The death toll is starting at 50 and with 150 injured, but with the recent underestimations in death tolls we can estimate this number to be fairly low.

Click here to read why we can expect John McCain to promote bombing Pakistan while we invade Iran.