A Tattered Cloak

Buffett to Profit from the Bailout(s)

2008-10-02T16:42:00.000-07:00

Eight days ago, on Sept, 24, 2008, the NY Times announced that Warren Buffett would buy a $5 billion stake in Goldman Sachs, the financial firm that Henry Paulson ran before becoming Secretary of the Treasury, the financial firm that was saved by Paulson when he decided to bail out AIG which owed Goldman Sachs $20 billion and to let Goldman's main competitor, Lehman Brothers, go under. Yesterday, the NY Times annnounced that Warren Buffett would make a $3 billion investment in GE, primarily a financial services firm, at an extraordinary discount. Today, CNN is featuring Buffett pronouncing certain knowledge that the currently proposed bailout must be passed and that more heaps of money will have to be given to these firms in future bailouts.

We all know Buffett is an astute investor and that he knew full well what he was getting into by investing in these firms. What we only suspected before this was that the bailout was a corrupt scheme to give away hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to the Bush Administration and its cronies, but Buffett knew it, that's why he took these positions and then started shilling for the bailout(s).

Buffett knew the fix was in and with no risk and very little effort he would realize 500-1000%, maybe more, on his money in six months or less. So to anyone who tells you that the crisis is real and the bailout necessary just point to Warren Buffett and his involvement. Warren Buffett is going to profit in the tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars, from the unnecessary and corrupt bailout(s). Count on it.

And Then There Were Three

2008-09-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

Has anyone noticed that these corporate rescues of failing financial institutions leaves the US with only three major corporate financial institutions: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup? How long will it be before we are told that we will have to give them trillions because "they are too big to be allowed to fail?"

A Majority of the House Stands Up

2008-09-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

The U.S. House of Representatives defeated Paulson's graymail attempt to provide $700 billion in windfall profits to his friends and/or the financial industry (it's hard to know if they're different). In doing so, these folks finally rejected the absolutely corrupt leadership of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Boehner and Roy Blunt. Good for them! We need to see more of that.

If the rule of law is reestablished several sectors of the economy should grow: demand for prosecutors and defense attorneys as well as prison construction to house all of the convicted Republicans and a few Democrats.

We Are To Be Pissed On Once Again

2008-09-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

The Senate and House members negotiating the windfall profit gifts to Wall Street corporations are saying that Main Street doesn't need specific benefits in the legislation because anything given to corporations will "trickle down" to Main Street.

And they wonder why they have such low approval ratings? Do you think repeatedly saying "we're gonna piss on the average American" has anything to do with it?

Suze Orman is a Dangerous Quack

2008-09-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

A few minutes ago, I watched Suze Orman respond to this question on CNN: In light of the current financial crisis, should I take my money out of the bank? Orman's response? No because you might be robbed or your house might burn down and you would lose your money. Anyone taking advice from this woman should probably be institutionalized as a danger to him/herself and others.

The correct answer to the question is: No, because if everyone tried to remove their money from their banks today, the vast majority would not get their money and the entire system would collapse. Banks do not have all of our money locked away in a vault. Think about it, how would they pay their people and their bills if they just took our money and locked it up for safekeeping? Right, couldn't happen. Banks make their money by loaning depositors money to others at interest or by investing it in other financial instruments *shudders* like home mortgages. Except for a reserve required by law to maintain their ability to allow some depositors to make withdrawals, the money you deposit is not in the bank very long before it is loaned out. So everyone can't just go to the bank and get their deposits in the same short period of time.

One wonders why PBS continues to expose their viewers to Suze Orman. Probably the same reason McCain chose Palin: Pretty trumps competent every time in our culture.

Sarah Palin Calls Herself a Pitbull With Lipstick

2008-09-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

Why? Why would someone running for Vice President of the United States describe herself as a breed of dog that is responsible for more vicious attacks than any other breed, killing more than 100 and maiming more than 600 innocent children and adults in the U.S. and Canada between 1982 and 2006.

Describing herself as a female dog and a vicious, murdering breed of dog at that makes Sarah Palin appear to be sociopathic at best, but what she is really laying claim to being in short is a tenacious, vicious, murderous bitch. No one, no one else in public life would have dared to call her that. Twas kind of her to out her real feelings about herself.

Sarah Palin, Keep Your Hands Off My Kids' Education

2008-09-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, has a daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and unwed. Now that wouldn't be worth talking about except that Palin is adamant that kids' sex education consist only of abstinence. So, Sarah! How's that working out for your family? Keep your hands off my kids' education. Asshole!

Fascist Police in Minnesota Raid Homes of Potential Protesters

2008-08-31T06:29:00.000-07:00

Glenn Greenwald covers the story here. Don't look for it in the mainstream media. Apparently, as with many of the Bush Administration's criminal acts, they have just decided to ignore another major violation of federal law and/or people's civil rights. Please, spread the word and write to your local newspaper asking them why they are not covering this story. Remember, it will be your home they are raiding next if you have the temerity to think out loud about protesting the behavior of our criminal political parties and government.

This is not what we think of when we see the American flag. This is not what we claim America is and stands for, but it is what America has become: home for many deeply evil, powerful monsters.

Bush to Putin: Only I Can Do That!

2008-08-16T14:49:00.001-07:00

As the premier monster on the planet, George W. Bush had the unmitigated hypocritical gall to tell Putin that "bullying and intimidation" were not acceptable ways of doing foreign policy. Nevermind that is exactly how he has conducted foreign policy for almost eight years and continues to do so today.

Representing this deeply evil administration, Sleazy Rice was pushed forward to condemn and threaten the Russians for invading Georgia, a sovereign nation. Would that these monsters were so concerned for the national sovereignty of Afghanistan and Iraq which they invaded and for Iran and others which they have threatened to invade and/or bomb into oblivion. Deeply evil hypocritical monsters they are.

One can only marvel, too, at the complete lack of interest shown by almost all media in pointing out the immense hypocrisy and evil of this American junta.

Coca Cola Turns Basic Economics On Its Head

2008-07-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

I'm still chewing over Coca Cola's announcement that in the face of declining sales, they will raise prices to their remaining customers. Sounds as though Coca Cola is a repository or source for Bush Republicans. Everyone even barely familiar with economic principles knows that if you raise the price, other things being equal, you will sell less. So, Coca Cola management is trying to break their business or, perhaps, they have a secret deal with Republicans for a taxpayer financed bailout while they are circling the bowl. It just never ends with these people, does it?

Presidential Election 2008 - Monster vs. Maybe-Monster

2008-07-14T05:22:00.001-07:00

There is no doubt: John McCain, the Republican nominee, is like his fellow Republicans, a monster. A corrupt, criminal, murderous, callous son-of-a-bitch who will continue the Republican destruction and sell-off of America while murdering people the world around to enrich themselves. So, most thinking, caring human beings will not vote for him. Of course, 40% of the American public does not fit that description, so he will get at least that percentage of American votes.

Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, is not a known monster, but that's hardly a reason to vote for him. Since winning the Democratic nomination, he has begun to back away from many of the positions he took when people were voting for him. He is now taking Republican positions on issues like Iraq, the economy, and healthcare, in effect, betraying the people who voted for him in the primaries. He is certainly beginning to look like a monster, call him a maybe-monster.

To the diligent observer it seems that the appearance that there are two major political parties in America is just that, appearance only. The monsters are everywhere.

McCain Is A Survivor

2008-07-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

Piloting five planes into the ground only one of which was hit by enemy fire does not make you a hero. Living through horrific torture and imprisonment does not make you a hero. It makes you a survivor, plain and simple. It may also leave you with horrific psychological scars which cause you to explode at your family, friends, and colleagues as well as opponents or to gleefully sing about killing hundreds of thousands of people by bombing their country without provocation. It may, in other words, make you psychologically and morally unfit to wield the awesome power that is entrusted to the President of the United States. It may, and in McCain's case it surely does.

Wesley Clark Didn't Disparage McCain's Service Record

2008-07-04T15:47:00.000-07:00

Paul Krugman does a good job of covering the brouhaha over and about what Clark never said here. Unfortunately, at the end of the piece he trips over the reality of the economic policies he calls failed, but which he still supports as he cheers for the Fed's continuing corrupt bailout and criminal support of the wealthy, a group to which Krugman apparently belongs. Good he got one right, horrible he continues to have so much trouble with the Bush economic policies that he continues to criticize and support.

Jesse Helms Dead at 86

2008-07-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

Unlike many of his victims, this evil, corrupt, racist, criminal Republican slug died today of natural causes. The world is a better place.

Obama = McCain Lite

2008-07-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

Read Obama's disturbing flip on telco immunity for their role in Bush's illegal wiretapping here. Now, recognize that he may well flip on everything else he has said which leaves us with nothing but McCain Lite. That sums up everything that is wrong with the American political system. When you get down to the final vote you will only have a choice between criminal Republican policies and criminal Republican policies. The Democratic Party is incapable of offering anything but a scumbag Republican as their candidate.

Professor of a Big Lie

2008-07-01T05:15:00.000-07:00

"There’s no comparable problem with commodities like wheat or oil, where the price changes minute by minute, and goes down as easily as it goes up."

Paul Krugman writes that bizarre statement here. I don't know if he is just in denial or has an agenda, but he is wrong, wrong, WRONG, and most people paying attention know it. The price of oil does not and will not go down easily. It will never go down significantly and the prices of everything else will continue to rise as oil prices rise. That will be disastrous for the United States.

RIP George

2008-06-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

George Carlin died at 71 on Sunday. I'll miss him. The world was a better place knowing he was in it. He taught me early that the words that most people objected to were nowhere near as bad as "kill" which they like to do a lot of. Profanity is not dangerous. It has its place and good use. Peace be with you, George. I'll miss you.

Shit, piss, cunt, prick, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits.

Organized Crime Owns U.S. Federal Government

2008-06-20T09:55:00.001-07:00

Glenn Greenwald has it right, here. Organized crime not only owns the Republican Party but the Democratic leadership as well. May they all rot in ...

It is all over. There is no hope. The Constitution will be shredded bit by bit as the corporate criminal organization swallows more and more.

Up to the Minute Facts or Conflicting Facts by the Minute?

2008-05-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in my local McDonald's this morning reading and sipping coffee when I looked up to see a CNN report: the government was reporting the unemployment rate rose from 5.1% to 5.25% and the economy lost 70,000 jobs. These were all worse than economists predicted, they informed us. I filed that and went back to my coffee and I Don't Believe in Atheists.

Just minutes later, I looked up to see "THIS JUST IN": the government reports unemployment dropped from 5.1% to 5% and the economy lost 20,000 jobs-- all better than economists predicted.

What was that? What was/is the truth? If the numbers in the second report are correct, where did the first numbers come from?

Costello: Sex, Torture... All the Same

2008-04-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

I signed a petition this morning urging my Senators and Representative to support impeachment of Bush and Cheney for torture, mass murder, and war crimes. I received a response from Jerry F. Costello (D- Illinois) this afternoon. Here is the salient part:

"I voted against impeaching President Clinton because the charges against him did not meet the high standards of impeachment under the Constitution. Similarly, the charges against President Bush do not meet these standards."

Since Costello thinks that torture, mass murder, and war crimes belong in the same category with consensual sex and lies about consensual sex, I don't think he is morally fit to hold the office of U.S. Representative. I won't be voting for him until he publicly disavows his current immoral stance and would urge everyone else to think about this and spread the word.

Is there really a difference between Democrats like Costello and Pelosi and Republicans like Bush and Cheney? In name only!

Forerunner of the Republican Plan for America

2008-03-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

"Clashes have been breaking out among Egyptians waiting in long lines for subsidized bread and the president has ordered the army to start baking more to contain a political crisis."

Of course, our President would order the army to bomb and shoot, rather than bake.

The New Attorney General: More of the Same

2008-03-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

The new Attorney General is typical of the Bush Administration appointees: an incompetent twit as this CNN piece makes clear:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey has been taken aback by the scope and variety of potential terrorism threats facing the United States, he told reporters Friday at an informal meeting in his office.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey receives terrorism updates during national security briefings.

"I'm surprised by how surprised I am," said Mukasey, who as a federal judge presided over terrorism-related trials in New York.
"It's surprising how varied [the threat] is, how many directions it comes from, how geographically spread out it is," he said.

Oh, golly, gee whiz , he's just so surprised. Twit! Must have had his head in a Bible for the last ten years, but, especially, the last five while Americans have been killing and/or torturing lots of innocent Muslims along with the occasional guilty one. You know... creating asymmetrical warriors... err... terrorists.

Saudi Government Will Retrain 40,000 Clerics

2008-03-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

According to the BBC, here, the Saudi government has assigned the ministry of religious affairs to retrain 40,000 imams to reduce the growing extremism in their society.

So maybe when they're done we could hire them to do something with the Southern Baptists, Pat Robertson, Jeremiah Wright, et. al.?

Three Cheers for Ralph

2008-03-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

Chris Hedges says, "...leave Nader alone. If honesty, vision and integrity were qualities that mattered in a national election, Nader would be president."

And a better world it would be.

Dirty, Rotten, No Good ABCNews

2008-03-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

Fire Brian Ross and anyone else who had anything to do with putting this in print. If you'd rather not look: Hillary is pictured with Monica and the blue dress. The words "inform" us that Hillary was, maybe, in the White House while Monica was doing Bill.

This might even be beneath the National Enquirer's "standards".

Thin-skinned Krugman Defends NYT Censorship

2008-03-04T07:03:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, New York Times columnist and blogger, Paul Krugman, played cheerleader for Benny the Wanker's corrupt actions in continuing to reduce interest rates (see post below.) Krugman's post was picked up by the Economics Blog at the Wall Street Journal where a commenter called Krugman's opinion a "typical jew response to monetary policy."

Krugman edited his post to include a link to the origin of this comment and opined , "Now you see why comments on this blog have to be moderated."

Umm... no, I don't, Paul. While the comment may be offensive to you and doesn't add rationally to the discussion, it does not justify censorship, which is what "moderation" means at the New York Times blogs. Censorship by a publisher implies that the publisher is not to be trusted to present the whole range of opinion and since Krugman supports that it is reasonable to be suspicious of his opinions.

Because Paul Krugman gets paid very well for allowing businesses to publish his opinions publicly, one would be justified in thinking that he would he would have a greater respect for free speech and the First Amendment and develop a reasonably thicker skin to boorish opinions opposed to his. I am rapidly losing respect for him, which is important because he is one of the few voices who usually argues effectively against elitist economics and its false propaganda.

Nothing Liberal About This

2008-03-03T07:14:00.000-08:00

Today on his blog ,"The Conscience of a Liberal", Paul Krugman cheers Benny the Wanker and the Feddies for slashing interest rates and emphatically recommends more. Low interest rates didn't get us into this mess and they are completely appropriate to get us out Krugman opines. I say opines because he makes no argument. He sets up a strawman and knocks it down. He is most certainly not a liberal in this stance. He is quite simply a supporter of the "criminal" behavior which got us here.

Interest rates are ridiculously low if the lender is forced to lend money at a rate which does not include adequate return for risk of default and for inflation. At 1%, a rate which Krugman cheers, there is neither. The lender is swindled here, forced to lend its deposits as quickly as possible to generate sufficient income to pay its bills regardless of risk. Twice threatened the lender must make poorly qualified loans and perhaps go out of business when the loans are defaulted on, or hold its money and go out of business because it cannot generate enough income to pay its bills.

Faced with this situation, lenders created the "criminal" loan-bundling vehicles, the creators of the sub-prime crisis, in order to survive by passing the "criminally" mandated, uncompensated risk on to others.

Krugman thinks this is just wonderful. I think Krugman is more than just wrong. I think he is intellectually dishonest here. He knows better.

By the way, don't look for cogent comments to his blog entry. The people that control those censor and/or delay comment until it is no longer useful.

Making Promises He Can't Keep

2008-02-12T06:46:00.000-08:00

U. S. Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff promises that the Guantanamo prisoners charged in connection with the 9/11 bombings will receive fair trials and full due process. That's nice. It brought to mind Bush saying that Saddam Hussein would be given a fair trial and then hanged, but there was something else here that struck me as just plain wrong: these people will be tried by military tribunal. The U.S. military reports to the President through the Secretary of Defense not the Secretary of Homeland Security. So, Chertoff, who has no authority in the matter, has no right to promise anything in connection with it. He is, in fact, just advancing Bush Administration propaganda which is meant to take the edge off the arguments against this new surge to murder.

Anyone who has become even lightly acquainted with U.S. military justice through experience or study knows that there is little to no fairness in it and little to no justice. Military courts are more susceptible than any other U.S. court to producing the results desired by those in power.

Trials?

2008-02-11T11:16:00.000-08:00

Some prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are to be tried by the Pentagon on charges of "Conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism". Aside from having these murderers tried by our murderers in one of our least free, just, and accountable institutions, there is the problem that the charges listed above sound an awful lot like what the Bush Administration has been doing for at least the past 4-5 years. So when will all of our lying, murdering slugs be tried?

Benny the Wanker III

2008-01-22T06:48:00.001-08:00

An unscheduled, huge (three-quarter point) cut in interest rates? With inflation running high and trending upward these nasty beasts are fueling it while trying to save their corporate masters by giving them time to sell off their stocks at propped up rates. Propped up by crushing any incentive to save, invest or spend. Saving at low rates with much greater risk is just plain stupid as is investing when the risk of failure is so high and the return so small. Spend, spend, spend when the near-term future is most certainly black? We're not that stupid. Coffee cans tucked to the back of shelves will be filling up in hopes that there will be enough for food and shelter.

So what's it all about? Free or nearly free money is what it's about. Got to create another huge bubble. The thieves and con men deserve another helping. Benny's masters will raid the banks one last time before America groans and falls to its knees, victim of the Republican criminal empire which of course includes those disguised as Democrats like Clinton and Obama.

U.S. Bank: Zero Star Service

2008-01-15T11:19:00.001-08:00

My wife and I have been trying to end our business with this criminal corporation for years. It only took hours of sitting and waiting to close checking accounts, but it took a few years to consolidate our IRA accounts so that we could transfer them without incurring separate exhorbitant fees for the transfer. Today was to be the day. I had all the information for the other bank to whom the money was to be transferred, but U.S. Bank was there to make it as tough as possible. They refused to fill out the transfer papers insisting that the other bank must initiate the transfer. The branch manager was adamant. Well, that was contrary to all our prior experience and we had been warned by people at the other bank that they were having trouble getting transfers from this branch in that way. Seems the transfer requests kept getting "lost" in the mail or arriving a day late. U.S. Bank renewed the cd's at a much lower rate and held the owner's money captive. They told us to have U.S. Bank initiate the transfer to be safe.

U.S. Bank advertises "5 star service guaranteed". I understand what that means after years of dealing with them at the Nameoki Branch in Granite City, Illinois. It means come on in and bend over a desk, we'll service you at our pleasure. Grrrrr....

Benny the Wanker II

2008-01-14T14:28:00.001-08:00

It seems leading economists have extremely short memories or immunity to facts as they fail to call out Benny for his intention to lower interest rates, yet again. It was the extremely low interest rates along with a never-ending supply of corrupt financial industry folks that gave us the housing bubble, the mal-mortgage market, and the foreclosures, bankruptcies and the tanking of the American economy. Benny's solution to these problems is to recreate the exact conditions that created them: low interest rates, cheap money. I guess, there must be more money for the financial criminal class to skim off before America goes under. Shame on you, Benny, charlatan, facilitator of thieves.

Benny the Wanker Continues to Spit in the Face of Inflation (and you and me)

2008-01-10T14:02:00.000-08:00

Benny the Wanker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is saying once again he doesn't care how much low income people are hurt by high inflation in the necessities and small luxuries of life, he is here to prop up stock prices for the wealthy and provide cheap money to corporations. He will he indicates cut interest rates again when he should be raising them.

It is clear that Benny is a transparent corporate shill where Greenspan was a bit opaque. Greenspan was never so bold as to say, I'm here to game things for the wealthy; screw those little people if they have to choose between putting gas in their cars and eating; hey want a cheap mortgage?

It is way past time that people began to call this corrupt slug out for exactly what he is.

Bipartisanship?

2008-01-08T08:11:00.000-08:00

According to Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary this is bipartisanship:

"of, relating to, or involving members of two parties; specifically : marked by or involving cooperation, agreement, and compromise between two major political parties"

Well, what that comes down to is one party rule here in America because only one of these qualities holds any hope for the middle class and that is compromise because Republicans and enough traitorous Democrats will never agree or cooperate to do something for the middle class or lower. They will only agree to and cooperate in enriching the rich and giving corporate donors what they want. So what does compromise mean? Giving the Republicans only 75% of what they want?

Bipartisanship in America is a deeply distorted idea. What honest, compassionate people and deeply evil people hear in the word bipartisanship is: everyone will agree on what I think is right and just.

Kucinich Shows His True Colors: Red and Red

2008-01-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

Kucinich Names Obama the Best of the Rest

Okay, I said I was going to hold my nose and vote for Kucinich in spite of his criminal support for illegal immigrants and immigration, but now he's let me off the hook both ways. First, I don't have to vote for him and, second, I will never take him seriously again. No reasonable Democrat would support the past-moderate-and-heading-further-right positions of Obama. If I wanted to vote Republican I'd pick one who admitted to being one, not just another slug like Lieberman which is exactly what Obama is.

Bidding for Rove's Mein Kampf Languishes

2007-12-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

Can a book be be remaindered before it's published? The bidding for Rove's proposed tome is less than spirited.

Willard Romney, The Decider!

2007-12-17T08:10:00.000-08:00

Watch Romney here on Meet the Press deciding who has been insulted by whom and what the second party owes to the first. Authoritarian, arrogant prick!

(Warning, you must watch an ad to get to the actual video.)

They Must Corrupt All Legal Process

2007-12-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

The Bush Administration continues it's efforts to corrupt every system in the country.

Big Tech, Big Brother

2007-12-15T06:11:00.001-08:00

The person who structured this conference understood the word "orwellian".

They Eat Their Young

2007-11-06T15:56:00.000-08:00

Surprise! Conservative publisher cheats its conservative authors.

Still, I'm not sure why they are complaining. They do, after all, have the same (im)moral code.

These Hypocrites Still Have No Shame

2007-11-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

From today's Washington Post:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, traveling in Turkey, said the United States had "made clear it does not support extra-constitutional measures because those measures take Pakistan away from the path of democracy and civilian rule."
"Whatever happens we will be urging a quick return to civilian rule," she said, and a "return to constitutional order and the commitment to free and fair elections."

That's right, these slugs will criticize Musharraf for suspending Pakistan's constitution while continuing to ignore the United States Constitution which they are sworn to uphold. The Democrats continue to suborn the Republicans in Congress and this Administration in the most egregious violations of law in our nation's history. They should all be ashamed of themselves. Deeply ashamed. But then again, we all know that shame is not characteristic of either sociopathic or psychopathic personalities.

Another Stupid Media Feeding Frenzy

2007-08-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

For CNN, especially, and the major network news, the only one truly newsworthy event occurred in the world yesterday evening in Minneapolis and has been rehashed endlessly since. Wall-to-wall coverage of nothing new and black and white file footage of every bridge collapse or wild swaying since film was invented.

Even our local news is covering it, as panicked political officials close, willy-nilly, local bridges in a lovely effort to shut our barn door after our neighbor's horse has run away.

I am sympathetic to all of the people affected by this bridge collapse. Now, what else is happening in the world?

NIE: al Qaeda Stronger, Wants to Strike U.S.

2007-07-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

So, the most recent National Intelligence Estimate says al Qaeda is stronger than ever and determined to strike in America. The head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, says his "gut" tells us we'll be hit again soon. Well, why haven't we secured our borders and our ports? Why are we still in Iraq? Bush is destroying the American military through attrition just as it appears it will be direly needed to prevent extremist, murdering Muslims from retaking Afghanistan and toppling the military government of Pakistan thereby coming into possession of a large stock of nuclear weapons.

This is to say nothing of the Muslim government of Iran, so threatened by this arrogant, financially and morally irresponsible, eavesdroppping, warrantless-wiretapping, criminal, murdering, torturing, slug of a U.S. President, that it cannot feel at all safe without a nuclear capability of its own. And, of course, they're right because without WMD you either surrender or get murdered whenever someone like Bush decides he wants to invade your country to control its resources.

He must be impeached and handed over to the World Court along with every member of his Administration shown to be complicit in his crimes against humanity starting most especially with his deeply evil Vice President, Dick Cheney.

Kucinich Favors Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants

2007-07-05T08:04:00.001-07:00

It is the one issue on which I think he and most of the Democrats are dead wrong and it is why I believe those in the middle class and below are being and will be damaged deeply no matter which of the two parties has power. If the Republicans are in power every form of criminal behavior by the rich and therefore powerful will be either tolerated or legalized except illegal immigration, their one spoken concession to the rule of law. If the Democrats take power, they will legalize the invasion of the U.S. by millions of people, mostly through our southern border, people who are responsible in part for depressing the wages of all working class Americans and some of whom are, no doubt, terrorists.

False Religion, Mitt Romney, and George W. Bush

2007-07-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

In discussing Mitt Romney's religion (Mormonism) and whether or not voters have a right to or should make it part of their consideration before they vote Richard John Neuhaus says:

I believe that many Mormons are Christians as broadly defined by historic markers of Christian faith. That does not mean that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christian. It is indisputably derived from Christianity and variations on Christianity, but its distinctive and constituting doctrines are irreconcilable with even a very liberal construal of biblical Christianity. It is, as Rodney Stark and many others have argued, a new religion and, by the lights of historic Christianity, a false religion. It is true that there are Mormon scholars who are working mightily to reconcile the LDS with Christianity, and one wishes them well, but they have their work cut out for them.

I wonder if he has considered that all of the Christians who voted for Bush because of his professed deep faith in Christian values and Jesus, his favorite philosopher, might be feeling the slightest bit betrayed to discover they helped to elect a torturing, mass-murdering, corrupt, lying criminal to the presidency of the United States. I wonder...

I also wonder how anyone can rationally describe one religion as false and another as true. Religions are man-made and man-used, and, often, contrary to their most fervent professions, for the most deeply evil ends.

I use the word religion here to mean "an institutionalized system of attitudes, beliefs, and practices relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity*" with heavy emphasis on the word "institutionalized." These are structures dedicated to creating and exercising power through force.

*The definition is cobbled together from two entries in the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition.

Dennis Kucinich!

2007-07-05T07:01:00.001-07:00

Okay! I'm over it! I'll close my eyes and vote for Dennis. 'Tis better than holding my nose and voting for Hillary. Obama reminds me a lot of a large freshwater fish: when you draw it to the boat and pick it up to get a look at it, it wriggles, slips from your hands, and disappears back into the water.

Yeah, yeah, I know you have to close your eyes and listen to Kucinich, but I'm gonna do it. I am!

Mitt Romney

2007-07-05T06:58:00.001-07:00

A man who not only sees the many sides to each issue, but has taken them.

"Skooter skates" (sic) Pelosi Whines Ingenuously

2007-07-02T17:15:00.000-07:00

That's the headline at cnn.com after Bush commuted Libby's prison sentence. I expected nothing less from the criminal scumbag occupying our White House. We all know this administration has committed numerous criminal acts and dared the Democrats to call them on it, maintaining that they are the law, above any other law. And the Democratic failure to call them on it is nothing short of obstruction of justice. Whether they have the votes for impeachment or not they must try or they are complicit.

Listen to the Speaker of the House on Bush's corrupt gift to Libby(from CNN):

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California
“The President’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence does not serve justice, condones criminal conduct, and is a betrayal of trust of the American people. The President said he would hold accountable anyone involved in the Valerie Plame leak case. By his action today, the President shows his word is not to be believed. He has abandoned all sense of fairness when it comes to justice, he has failed to uphold the rule of law, and he has failed to hold his Administration accountable.”

Umm, dear Madam Speaker, it is your job to hold his administration accountable, not his. He and his are the criminals you have failed to hold accountable. You committed a criminal act when you said there was to be no impeachment, that it was off the table. You no longer have the right to complain: Impeach or shut the fuck up!

America's Last Chance

2007-06-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

In his June 12, 2007 column, Rich Lowry, speaking of the Bush Administration and the most recent Congresses, says: "A government can't ignore its own laws without creating deep suspicions about its motives." I don't think suspicion is the appropriate response. A government can't ignore its own laws and also maintain its legitimacy. The Bush Administration and the Republicans in the present and last Congress have treated the law of the land as something only to be applied to their opponents and enemies. They have violated the Constitution and/or their oaths to support and defend it. The Bush Administration has violated the Constitution, federal and international law. They are lawless.

The U. S. government in its current behavior is illegitimate. Listen, please, to the words from our Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government... "

We don't need a new Constitution, we need to remove the criminals from office immediately that they violate the law of the land along with all of those in government who obstruct the justice due these people. Ah, but you see, as long as Republicans control or can block the law enforcement mechanisms of the government there will be no justice from within the system.

If Americans do not vote almost all Republicans from office, America will continue to be a criminal enterprise controlled by that party. Electing Democrats and holding them to the same standard is the only possible step before legitimate revolution.

The Criminal Party Has Its Way Again

2007-06-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

The Senate was unable to vote no-confidence in the corrupt, warrantless-wiretapping, torturing Attorney General, Alberto "Abu" Gonzales, because all but seven of the Republican Senators said that disapproving of this Administration's behavior as exemplified by Gonzales was just a political stunt. The bottom line is that the Republican Party is mostly an organized criminal gang.

Sam Harris: Strange Sociology, Strangled Truth

2007-06-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

As I was reading Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation , I came to a dead stop on page ninety when I read this: "There is, after all, nothing more natural than rape." Now, there is much in Harris' sophomoric, hyperbolic style, which often masquerades as logical argument that I can overlook, the source considered, but this I cannot. If you were going to argue this, you'd have to argue that this act is more natural even than breathing, eating or sleeping. But, of course, Harris doesn't argue this. He asserts it to be true. Which on the most cursory examination, it isn't.

Granted Americans and the world need people willing to confront and dispute the irrational and sometimes lethal beliefs and hypocrisy of fundamentalist Christians, but what they don't need is more lies or more irrational propaganda. That is, they don't need Sam Harris.

Bush Fears For America's Soul; Me Too

2007-05-31T11:54:00.000-07:00

In this piece Bush is quoted as saying, "I'm deeply concerned about America losing its soul." Me, too, because electing this deeply evil man twice to the Presidency of the United States and supporting his screw the poor policies, his murderous invasion and occupation of Iraq, and his appointment of profit-first corporatists to gut every federal agency charged with protecting the American people and the land that sustains them says loud and clear that America's soul is dying, murdered by the Republican Party in general and George W. Bush in particular.

I can almost hear the slug laughing in the Oval Office at his genius for saying evil is good and good evil, getting a majority of Americans to believe it or claim they do because by doing so they profit. Yes, America is losing its soul by failing to oppose and defeat first George W. Bush, the Republican Party and then the Democratic Party, which while protesting, (far too much), has caved in and thus supported every deeply evil policy they were elected to oppose.

Ledbetter vs. Goodyear- Reorganizing the Supreme Court

2007-05-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

It is clear following the decision in this case, which made it legal for employers to discriminate in employee pay based on gender provided they were able to keep their discrimination secret for 180 days, that the Supreme Court now consists of only four Associate Justices. Other members of the Court are Chief Injustice John G. Roberts, Associate Injustice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Injustice Antonin G. Scalia, Associate Injustice Clarence Thomas, and Associate Injustice Anthony M. Kennedy.

What most Americans who work or have worked know is that employers almost always forbid them under penalty of discharge to discuss their pay levels, thus making it a ho-hummer for the employer to discriminate on any basis it wishes to with little or no fear that the employee will discover the discrimination within 180 days if ever. It means that the Injustices applaud the employer's ability to obstruct justice and reward it. May the five of them rot in hell for at least 180 days for justice denied.

Talking Points Memo, Just That

2007-05-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

So, I'm a dolt. I didn't realize until today that Talking Points Memo is just that, talking points, propaganda and opinions of the left that are not to be commented on or disputed, just regurgitated by the party faithful.

What brought this to my attention was this piece whining about a Washington Post editorial that compared Jack Murtha to Tom DeLay after Murtha threatened to block any and all future earmarks Republican Mike Rogers might ask for because Rogers had the temerity to criticize and attempt to block a $23 million dollar earmark Murtha wanted for his district.

The comparison was apt. Murtha's screaming corruption was apparent and much like DeLay's. To attempt to whitewash this is hypocritical and corrupt in its own right. What the American people need is honesty not propaganda and partisanship. When the Democrats act like corrupt Republicans they should be called out and tarred with the same brush.

What's particularly aggravating about Talking Points Memo is that contrary to the norm of allowing readers to comment and dispute with the authors publicly, Talking Points Memo does not have a comment facility. Open discussion is apparently not one of their values. Slugs.

When Will Someone in the MSM Confront the Jerk?

2007-05-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

Bush continues to make stupid assertions about the war in Iraq and al Qaeda. Stupid assertions like: if we leave Iraq before we finish the mission, they'll follow us home. And no one I've seen in the mainstream media bothers to confront him.

Follow us home? I guess he believes the only nineteen al Qaeda terrorists who knew where the United States is died on September 11, 2001? The rest of these people will have to wait for our military to leave a trail for them to follow in order to strike on our soil again. Ridiculous!

Or maybe, they just can't spare another nineteen or even five to cross our borders or enter our ports that Bush has left defenseless because they need every one of them to ... to do what? Fight our military in Iraq? Right, like bin Laden and his cronies are so stupid they'd rather commit all of their people to fight and die in skirmishes against our best killers in Iraq instead of killing hundreds or thousands of innocent American civilians going about their daily lives as they have done before. Yeah, right. Isn't it a lot more likely that some of bin Laden's people are teaching Iraqi terrorists, born of Bush, to kill civilians and Iraqi and American military personnel, while others are free to be trained for and assigned to other nefarious tasks?

It's about time people in the mainstream media began to confront Bush when he makes such patently stupid statements because it implies that they believe him, that he has credence. It also makes it easier for others to believe him.

Cowards or Criminal Frauds?

2007-05-24T05:05:00.000-07:00

The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate have decided to cave in to the demands of the felon in the White House for more money and no end to the criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq along with all of its criminal consequences not the least of which is the corrupt and criminal expenditure of the money appropriated. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are either cowards or criminals. They are either afraid to do the right thing despite the backing of two thirds of the American people or they are truly in support of the criminal acts of the Bush Administration and all of their handwringing and whining over giving in to him is just to create an air of plausible deniability. That air stinks obscenely of fear and/or corruption.

Spineless or corrupt, Pelosi, Reid and all of their supporters need to be removed from office along with the criminals they support.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

2007-05-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

I stopped by my local Subway to Eat Fresh! this evening. I asked the sandwich chef for a Subway Club on wheat. She responded, "Do ya want the roast beef on that, because if you do it'll take about five minutes for me to thaw it out."

Gingrich Creates a New Group to Fear and Hate

2007-05-20T08:39:00.001-07:00

According to Bob Lewis' piece, in his eulogy of Jerry Falwell, Newt Gingrich continued Falwell's practice of hate-mongering by creating a new threat, a new group of people so threatening that they are creating a culture, a culture that "declares that the nation cannot profess the truths on which it was founded." These are people, Gingrich tells us, who are hostile to American history. These are he tells us the "radical secularists."

Oh, gosh, I'm just quaking in my boots. Afraid. Afraid that Gingrich won't follow Falwell soon enough into silence.

(Can you imagine being such a slug in life that Newt Gingrich is your eulogist?)

Jerry Falwell Dead at 73

2007-05-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

I won't miss him.

His spokesman said Falwell died in "the mansion at Liberty University." I guess he didn't understand the irony of that statement.

Jesus...

Why Expensive Haircut Stories Are Important

2007-05-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

It seems fashionable to say that the avalanche of stories about John Edwards' $400 haircut are about painting him as effeminate, or unmanly. They aren't. These $400 haircut stories are about telling a huge share of potential Democratic voters that Edwards is not like them and will not represent them well. Most of these people would like to be paid $400 a week and would never think of spending it on a haircut. They are rightly suspicious that someone who would spend $400 on a haircut might not understand and, perhaps, should not be trusted to represent, their interests.

This story and other similar ones, always about Democrats, are designed to say: these are rich people, who do not understand average families and by their actions as seen here would not represent their interests. A large number of potential Democratic voters can be wedged away by the beliefs these stories evoke to Republicans, who claim, quite falsely, to represent families and family values.

Impeachment is Absolutely Essential

2007-05-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

Why? If the Democrats fail to impeach Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Gonzales, it is a clear statement that America is no longer a nation of laws and that no one is above the law. It means simply that the Democrats are in league with the Republicans in ruling America as a criminal empire.

We Are Better Than You

2007-05-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

"Wolfowitz Vows to Fight Back" screamed the headline, and you can hear him telling anyone who will listen, "I did nothing wrong." In his mind, a mind similar to all the Bushpeople, he believes he did nothing wrong, for he firmly believes like Bush, that he can do no wrong because the laws and rules do not apply to him or the rest of them. Lies, corruption, bribery, theft, mass-murdering invasion of a sovereign nation, none of it is wrong because they chose to do it. They are the law; they are the rules. They are gods and goddesses, better than all other humans, worth more than the rest of us who should bow and obey.

This looks like the end of everything America was supposed to stand for, destroyed by a deeply evil group of rich, privileged adolescents.

George Tenet: Just Another Criminal

2007-04-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

Thirty minutes of George Tenet on 60 Minutes was more than enough for me. We learned from Tenet that honesty and truth have little place in his world, only trust and honor do. Sounds like a member of organized crime doesn't it?

What else did we learn from Tenet? The American government in general and CIA in particular does not "torture"; we use "enhanced interrogation techniques." Lying, torturing, murdering, scumbag.

As far as helping to sell the war on Iraq by supporting his bosses' desire to claim that Iraq possessed all sorts of weapons of mass destruction? Tenet's explanation is faith-based intelligence: we believed it. Did they have evidence that would have stood up in criminal court? Nope, maybe, civil court, which means we had some data which we could make look good enough to fool many people. Nevermind that it would be used to murder hundreds of thousands of people.

Tenet's real anger is saved for those in his bosses' inner circle who threw him to the public as the guy who used the phrase "it's a slam dunk" to put together the case for Hussein's possession of WMD. It's not that it was a lie that bothers Tenet, it's that his bosses used it to paint him as the reason they invaded Iraq. They blamed him publicly and in doing so showed Tenet that in this gang of criminals there is no honor, and trust in criminals is for for suckers. Tenet got suckered by his criminal cohorts; George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, and Andrew Card.

Tough luck, George. They have no honor and neither do you.

We Believe These People?

2007-04-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Last night on the NBC Nightly News, a talking head made my head clank when he said the speed of light was "186,000 miles per hour." That would be per second unless light had slowed down a great deal and I had missed the reports. I might not have blogged that fact except that less than an hour later, another talking head on a local news spot informed me that the device I was looking at which showed temperature and humidity was "a sling spectrometer." Clank again! A spectrometer is an optical instrument. A sling psychrometer is used to measure and/or calculate very local relative humidity and temperature.

Well, maybe, time had passed me by, but a Google search yielded only a single hit for sling spectrometer and that was in a list of things a college science class would be doing: "calculate relative humidity using a sling spectrometer; calculate the relative humidity in the classroom using data from a sling psychrometer." Most tellingly, at least for me, was: no one in the links provided had a sling spectrometer for sale.

These two items clanked in my mind with what I knew. One of them was definitely false, the other probably false. So, I was left wondering, what about all of the other "facts" these people report for which I have no framework, nothing for these to clank against?

Why do we believe these people? Why do we trust them?

I Won't Miss Don Imus

2007-04-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

Shock jock this, shock jock that. Just another euphemism meant to cover something contemptible: shock jock equals professional hate-monger.

One down. Dozens to go.

They Model the Behavior They See That Gets What They Want

2007-03-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

Friday, Eric Alterman posted this:

"I was playing foosball with an 8-year-old the other day, and the score miraculously changed while I was answering the phone. We had a talk about cheating and how the reputation of being one can ruin a person's life, and she replied: 'But what about George Bush? Everyone knows he's a liar and a cheater and he has a great life.'"

My eighteen year-old learned a great deal from high school debate and Ann Coulter's books. It isn't about facts and truth, Dad, it's about winning and destroying your opponent in the process. I love it when I can make my opponent cry. This kid lies constantly about things important and unimportant. No amount of discussion or loss of privileges has changed that behavior. Why? "Because I win lots more than I lose."

My kid idolizes Republicans and their spokespeople. Why? "Because they're winners, Dad. They may not have hearts or souls, but they've got everything. They've got it all. I want it all and I want it now."

My wife and I model empathic, responsible, and only moderately materialist behavior. Our behavior has no effect. We are losers.

No More Actors, Please!

2007-03-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

As I watched Fred Thompson, Law and Order's former District Attorney and Tennessee's former U.S. Senator, announce that he was considering a run for the Presidency in 2008, a dull ache invaded my abdomen. Ronald Reagan, Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fred Thompson.

In Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision, George Lakoff asserts that while issues are important, issues are not the reason voters choose one candidate over another. People choose to vote for someone because they appear to represent their values, appear to connect with them, appear, therefore, trustworthy, appear authentic. Yes, it's all about appearances and trust.

So, tell me why you would even consider trusting the appearance of someone whose profession, whose most outstanding skill, is making people believe they are someone they aren't? Isn't there something fundamentally stupid about that?

Poor Scooter?

2007-03-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

Folks who served on the Scooter Libby jury as well as others whose opinions have been broadcast by the media say they feel sorry for Scooter because he was just a fall guy for those higher up in the Bush Administration. What kind of misguided sympathy is that? Do you really think Libby didn't know what was going on, didn't use the same tactics with those under him somewhere along the line? Do you really think he isn't going to profit from this? If you do, you aren't thinking and you aren't paying attention. It's that simple.

Quiznos, Treat Me Right

2007-03-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

You've seen the ad; I've seen it far too many times: if you are not completely satisfied with your Quiznos sub, you'll get a free sub.

Why would I want more of what was unsatisfactory to begin with? Give me my money back and let me go somewhere else. Treat me right, maybe I'll give you another chance.

Pelosi Backs Bush and Iraq War

2007-02-16T06:57:00.000-08:00

Contrary to what you've been hearing Nancy Pelosi actually backs the Bush war on and occupation of Iraq. Here is what she is quoted as saying in the Washington Post:

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) yesterday linked her support for President Bush's war-funding request to strict standards of resting, training and equipping combat forces, a move that could curtail troop deployments and alter the course of U.S. involvement in Iraq."

"'If we are going to support our troops, we should respect what is considered reasonable for them: their training, their equipment and their time at home,' Pelosi said in an interview with a small group of reporters. 'What we're trying to say to the president is, you can't send people in who are not trained for urban warfare . . . who are not prepared to contend with an insurgency.'"

So... the invasion and occupation are fine, she just wants the troops to get more rest, training, and equipment. I guess we aren't going to see any real changes with a Democratically-controlled House. What does that say for the future America?

Howard Kurtz Needs a Fact and Spell-Checker

2007-02-13T13:11:00.000-08:00

In this piece from today's Washington Post, Howard Kurtz refers to the Catholic League's President, William Donohue, as Donohoe, not once, but at least five times. The only place the man's name is spelled correctly is in a quote attributed to Amanda Marcotte, the person whom Kurtz maligns in the piece along with her former employer, the John Edwards' campaign. Kurtz features Donohue's assertions along with support from those other bastions of critical thought, Bill O'Reilly and Michelle Malkin, while "balancing" these with one not-quite-on-point quote from someone who supposedly represents the left on the issue. In the supposed Marcotte quotes one finds "calvacade" instead of "cavalcade" and in the supposed-supporter's quote "though" instead of "through." Were these truly their errors or more of Kurtz's shoddy, slanted stuff (journalism, it's not.)

After this piece, I have come to agree with Roger Ailes: Kurtz is a slug.

Safe from Terrorists? I-Conn?

2007-02-13T12:39:00.000-08:00

"In 2004, the Senate endorsed the idea of a strong privacy and civil liberties watchdog to keep vigil as the government launched a full-bore effort to make the nation safe from terrorists," said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.)" quoted in a piece in the Washington Post today.

"Full-bore effort to make the nation safe from terrorists"? If that were truly the goal, the first thing they would have done was secure our borders and ports. That still hasn't been done, not because it isn't necessary, but because it conflicts with their masters' desire for cheap labor. Why else tolerate the illegal entry, nay, invasion of our country by more than ten million illegal aliens?

And while we're here, I was just wondering, I-Conn? Israeli from Connecticut? Yeah, yeah, I know, but I can't stand Lieberman. He was never a Democrat. He represents Israel's interests, the interests of the rich, and of corporations.

Secret Frank and Open Discussions??!!

2007-02-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

In an AP piece published on Yahoo, we can read about Bush speaking at a House Democratic retreat. We read that:

"After Bush's remarks, reporters were ushered out of the room while lawmakers asked the president a few questions. ... White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the question portion of Bush's appearance was closed to be consistent with his appearances at gatherings of congressional Republicans. At those events, Bush spoke in public but the questioning was closed "to provide frank and open discussion," Stanzel said."

Now, I'm troubled by that. Why is the press, the only possible, though not necessarily good, representative of the citizens of the U. S. excluded "to provide frank and open discussion?" The criminality of this government will not cease as long as we are excluded from the frank and open discussions. I said government because it is quite obvious that the House and Senate are obstructing justice by not bringing actions against this Administration. All we can expect from the secret "frank and open discussions" is that our representatives will seek to maneuver to their own advantage and interests, the Constitution and interests of the vast majority of citizens of the U. S. be damned.

The Ministry of Truth: Bush and the AEI

2007-02-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI), stuffed with Bush supporters and funded by ExxonMobil, has sent out letters to scientists offering $10,000 and more, if they will write essays critical of the new U.N. report on global climate change, according to a piece in today's Guardian.

I wonder why anyone who would accept one of these bribes should be rightly called a scientist.

I also wonder why The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer has slugs from AEI as commentators on their program so frequently and I wonder why they are not identified as paid shills for ExxonMobil and the Bush Administration masquerading as people of character.

If That's Logical Then...

2007-01-28T11:50:00.000-08:00

I heard Dick Cheney tell Wolf Blitzer that since there had not been another terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11/2001, their Administration must be doing one heckuva job. If that's logical, then they are the only Administration ever to have failed to prevent a terrorist attack on American soil.

What a major-league slug the Vice President is.

Words Matter - The Weather is Misbehaving

2007-01-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

After informing us that the temperature reached a high of sixty degrees Fahrenheit here today, one of our tv meteorologists cheerfully added, "That's twenty-one degrees more than it should be!" Should be? The weather has "should's" to which it is expected to conform?

Bad weather! Bad, bad weather!

*grins* Actually, it was comfortable...

Health Insurance Proposals: Another Cruel Shell Game

2007-01-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

The evil ones are rushing to propose health insurance reform before the honest and decent ones get a chance. Here's one example from today's Kansas City Star: "The proposal by the Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured, composed of 16 national groups, includes initiatives to expand children’s coverage and Medicaid eligibility and provide health insurance tax credits for low-income people."

Health insurance tax credits for low-income people? Low-income people cannot use tax credits. They don't have enough income to pay Federal Income tax and they damn sure don't have enough money to buy health insurance. Things haven't changed. The evil ones are still running the same old shell game. There's no pea under any of the shells and no affordable healthcare for the increasing number of uninsured and mostly poor Americans.

The current boss of bosses for the evil ones will propose a similar abomination in his State of the Union speech this week. The shells will be moving faster in this game and the chatter will be distracting, but the goal will be the same: those most in need will, under the slug's proposal, get no help while those who are well off will get a tax credit greater than what they will be made to pay. The difference will just be added to the Federal debt.

Cowards of the Senate

2007-01-17T16:25:00.000-08:00

There they were, Biden (D-Delaware), Hagel (R-Nebraska), and Levin (D-Michigan), all seriously announcing and supporting a cowardly and corrupt non-binding resolution telling the President that he was terribly wrong in his latest strategy for Iraq, but hey, they'd pay for it.

Predictably and quite reasonably the Administration laughed up their collective sleeve saying this meant nothing, would have no effect on them.

Shame on all of them.

New Scumbags, Much Like the Old Scumbags

2007-01-15T13:09:00.000-08:00

I almost boiled over as I heard and saw Carl Levin (D-Michigan), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, say on CNN, while he opposed Bush's latest policy in Iraq, he was not in favor of using the power of the purse to stop it as it might send the wrong message to the troops. Umm... so the message is: I will not taken action to stop the implementation of a policy that I know is sure to kill many more of you as well as many more Iraqi's because I don't want to send you the wrong message. The message I'm sending is: I don't give a rat's ass about you or the Iraqi's; I'm covering my position, hedging my bets.

While he's bent over covering his bets, he ought to be kicked clear over the horizon. Dirty rotten no-good cowardly scumbag. Dirty rotten...

Is this what we are going to get for voting these slugs a majority of both houses of Congress? Dirty rotten no good scumbags. Dirty rotten...

Vietnamization?

2007-01-12T09:09:00.000-08:00

So, it seems that the Bush Administration has harkened back to the Nixon Administration for advice on what to do when you find yourself in an unwinnable guerilla/civil war in a land far from the U.S.. No, it's not just that Henry Kissinger has been resurrected by the media to tell us what to do, it's the eerie echoes of failed policies in Bush's latest "strategy."

Pacification. Kill lots more people indiscriminately. Maybe, begin mass-murdering, call a temporary halt, if the people left are on your side, too terrified to fight back, or simply of numbers so small that a police force can handle them, then stop, else resume slaughtering.

Widen the war. Blame neighbors and begin bombing them. Laos and Cambodia are now Syria and Iran.

These people must be stopped!

Have the Criminals Won?

2007-01-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

In a piece published on Huffington Post yesterday, Gary Hart says, justice for Bush and his criminal accomplices in the Congress will be left to histories written by U.S. Constitutional scholars. If that is true, then those scholars will be like scholars of Plato and Aristotle: scholars of antiquities. For surely, if we cannot try these people for the crimes they have committed under our current constitutional system, then the criminals have won, for the U. S. Constitutional system is no longer capable of fulfilling it's promise to provide a framework for a system of democracy and justice. Americans will live in a tyranny, then, as we do today, while Bush remains in office violating the Constitution he swore to protect and defend with the compliance of a criminally negligent Republican- and now Democratically-controlled Congress.

And just as other societies have succumbed to authoritarian personalities such as Stalin, Hussein, Hitler, et. al., so has the United States of America.

Want to Go to MIT? Free?

2007-01-04T15:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, you don't really go to MIT and you don't have access to their faculty, or get a degree or certificate, but a vast array of MIT course materials is available free online that will enable you to pursue independent studies in most any field you wish.

ExxonMobil Pays for Lies About Global Warming

2007-01-04T12:31:00.000-08:00

The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report yesterday showing how ExxonMobil has been paying to support groups and individuals who deny global warming in order to stir up confusion so that humanity will delay making changes which would improve its and other species' chances for survival.

U.S. citizens could be really angry that their government gives tax breaks to these slugs who are willing to harm all life on earth for their short-term profits.

Justice Delayed or No Justice Period?

2007-01-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

After listening to Nancy Pelosi carefully, I am beginning to think that nothing is about to change in Washington except the record that says: now, there has been a female Speaker of the House. I am deeply troubled at her pronouncement, "impeachment is off the table." So, George W. Bush is above the law per Nancy Pelosi? Americans will have seen their civil liberties, international law and the U.S. Constitution violated with impunity by Bush, Cheney, et. al., and now the party elected to power to bring them to justice will not? Because Nancy Pelosi says so?

Rule changes to improve ethics? The House already has plenty of rules which they ignore. What Pelosi is about to give us is more rules that she knows will be ignored while blatantly refusing to pursue the serious violations of our laws that she is charged to enforce.

Are we to trade our country's reputation, Constitution, and international law for the long overdue and just raising of the minimum wage? Too steep the price. Pelosi should not be allowed to condone the Bush Administration's criminal behavior. I suggest we give her 100 hours to begin the impeachment process or lobby to have her removed from her Speakership and investigated for possible charges of obstruction of justice.

Definitely Too Serious a Matter

2007-01-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

From The Portable Hannah Arendt:

"Now, the existence of a nation is definitely too serious a matter to leave to wealthy men."

Make that wealthy people and you've got it.

Similarities

2007-01-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

At Huffington Post, Bill Katovsky wrote:

"It's just that dictators like Saddam Hussein believe that they live and breathe as demi-gods who will never expire, immune to the laws of mortality and morality. They rule as arbitrary dispensers of who gets to live and who gets to die. "

Couldn't something similar have been written about George W. Bush? Something like:

It's just that tyrants like George W. Bush believe that they live and breathe as instruments of God's Will, will be celebrated throughout eternity, immune to the laws of the land, beloved by God. They rule to dispense this God's arbitrary desires for who gets to live and who gets to die.

What remains nauseating to me is that more than 30% of Americans still support this evil slug and whatever atrocities he wishes to commit, but it is a lesson explaining Germany in the first half of the 20th century.

Doing the Macabre Math

2006-12-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

According to the U.S. government, about 290,000 Iraqi bodies have been discovered in mass graves, their deaths attributed to decisions of Saddam Hussein. That's deeply evil, but consider that Hussein ruled Iraq for about twenty-four years (not more than thirty as alleged in the San Francisco Chronicle) before the U.S. military, under Bush's orders, bombed and invaded Iraq, deposing the government, thereby taking responsibility for Iraqi lives. In the three and three quarter years of the Bush invasion and occupation more than 600,000 Iraqi's have been murdered.

So Hussein was responsible for about 14,500 Iraqi murders per year while Bush is responsible for 160,000 Iraqi murders per year. Who really needs to be brought to justice, now?

Justice?

2006-12-30T17:24:00.000-08:00

The show trial and pretend appeal are over and Saddam Hussein has been executed by the Bush-backed government of Iraq. A Washington Post report gave us a closer look at the fairness of the Iraqi justice system: Taha Yassin Ramadan, one of Hussein's co-defendants, appealed his life sentence. Showing that fine sense of justice for which American service people are fighting and dying, the Iraqi court "upgraded" Ramadan's life sentence to death.

Apparently the court was in a good mood during Hussein's appeal. They could, afterall, have ordered him to be hung and hung and hung again. Fine court, that.

I won't miss Saddam Hussein, but I would have preferred that he wasn't murdered. It is time for the Bush Administration to be brought to justice: impeached and handed over to a world court for bringing about the death and/or maiming of hundreds of thousands of people by an illegal invasion of a sovereign country. I'm sure they would get a much fairer trial than Hussein and that would be justice.

Words Matter. Truth Matters.

2006-12-29T10:57:00.000-08:00

These items landed in my inbox this morning. The first is from the Encyclopedia Brittanica's "On This Day..." Newsletter. The second is from the Act for Change Newsletter.

"1890: U.S. troops under Colonel James W. Forsyth massacred more than 200 Sioux Indians in the Battle of Wounded Knee."

EB correctly calls what happened at Wounded Knee a massacre, then calls it a battle. It was a massacre. You can't have it both ways.

"Judicial appointments -- Despite repeat attempts, four of President Bush's unqualified and ideologically-extreme nominees (Myers (sic), Haynes, Wallace and Boyle) were never confirmed for lifetime appointments to the federal bench. "

Act for Change identifies Harriet Miers as an unqualified and ideologically-extreme Bush nominee for the Supreme Court. She may or may not have been qualified. She was at least as qualified as Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas, faint praise though that be, and she was not ideologically-extreme, as far as anyone knew. In fact, that's the main reason why her nomination sank so quickly. She was not known to be extreme enough to satisfy Bush's base. Bush's opponents rejected Ms. Miers because he nominated her. Lacking support from either side, her nomination was scuttled.

Words matter. Truth matters.

John Edwards Announces in Louisiana?!

2006-12-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

Today, the former U.S. Senator from North Carolina announced his candidacy for President in the 2008 election. As a backdrop for his announcement, Edwards chose an area of New Orleans' Ninth Ward, which was hit hard by Katrina and its aftermath. He gestured to a group of young people standing nearby, indicating that he had worked with them the previous day, because, he said, you not only have to understand problems, but work to solve them.

So, why am I troubled by this? Edwards had no reason for being in Louisiana other than to use it for a scripted moment, a staged image, he wanted associated with his candidacy. What troubles me is the moment, the words, the image were so terribly Bush.

Do Not Believe

2006-12-27T11:30:00.001-08:00

Do not believe what you have heard.
Do not believe in tradition because it has been handed down many generations.
Do not believe in anything that has been spoken of many times.
Do not believe because the written statements come from some old sage.
Do not believe in conjecture.
Do not believe in authority or teachers or elders.

But after careful observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason, and will benefit one and all, then accept it and live by it.

--- Buddha

Gerald Ford and James Brown

2006-12-27T11:03:00.000-08:00

I won't miss either of them. My condolences to those who will for I do know what it is like to lose and miss someone.