Friday, December 12, 2008

Torture is something that one had not associated with the United States for the past forty or so years. Torture occurred in Vietnam if one is to accept the testimony given by Vietnam veterans. But since the seventies, America has been supposedly the beacon of human rights.

Since Abu Ghraib, that image no longer stands. American troops tortured prisoners repeatedly and regularly and in a number of documented cases, this led to the death of the prisoner. In many cases, the prisoner was not even guilty of a crime in any sense of the word. It has been a dark time for this country.

Just so that we don’t get yanked off track by strawmen arguments about defaming the troops, this is not about the troops. This is about the degradation of a nation that was once regarded as a voice of reason and a leader in the fight against the abuse of humans and their rights across the globe, to a country that incarcerated children and tortured juveniles. It is about the attempt to pervert what this country was purportedly about.

This story is the story of Donald Rumsfeld and many others in the Bush administration, who’s actions, deeds and words, led directly to the torture of young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other members of the Bush administration "conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees," claims a
Senate Armed Services Committee report issued Thursday.

According to the committee, prisoners were tortured in the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib, the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other US military installations. Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) were responsible for the content of the Senate's findings.

This article will illicit, I am sure, a response from the right. The very right that is alarmed by Barack Oabama’s past associations with people like Bill Ayers. People scared because they don’t know, or pretend not to know, who the real Obama is.

Where are their voices calling for Rumsfeld’s head? For Cheney to be indicted? For the responsible members of the Bush administration, who have brought shame onto this country to be held accountable? These are not tin-foil-hat ideas about affectations which may or may not have occurred decades ago. These are hard facts. These men and women in the Bush enclave, these supposed real American patriots, in fact not only dragged this country through the mud, but endangered it:

The report determined that placing the blame on "a few bad apples," as Bush administration officials attempted to do in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib scandal, is inappropriate.….


The report finally claims that Rumsfeld's torture policies "damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies and compromised our moral authority."

Where are you, you who are concerned that barrack Obama may be tainted by his former acquaintances, when you are faced with terrorism in your own party? Terrorism in the form of memos, meetings, nods and ultimately torture. Where are your cries of indignation?

But it’s remarkably still around them as far as these topics go.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Religion In Action

CNN reports that a sign criticizing religion that was installed next to a Nativity scene was stolen from the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington, on Friday. It was later found in a ditch.

Amongst other things, the sign read:

"Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds,"

The sign, which was at the Legislative Building at 6:30 a.m. PT, was gone by 7:30 a.m., Gaylor said.

It took some religious wingnut 60 minutes to break the Eighth Commandment.

There's irony for you.


http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/05/atheists.christmas/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

The Real America Arrives....

At the doors of the Supreme Court in order to pray that the Supreme Court would invalidate Obama's victory.

It's a tiny crowd. They're all wingbats. But they're the real thing.

I promise.

Reported By The Raw Story

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Here Comes Newt

Or, where did the GOP go?


The future of the Republican Party is shaping up in the shadows of the calamitous MCain and Palin campaign. Even before barrack Obama has been inaugurated, the remaining forces in the GOP are vying for power and attempting to define direction. Unfortunately for us, and unfortunately for them, they’ve taken McCain’s defeat as not having been too much of a thing but too little.

Even as we speak, George Bush is crafting “a right of conscience rule” which would give anyone the right to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable. The Hippocratic Oath would become a wishy-washy, worthless expression whilst doctors and nurses refuse to care for patients based on their own beliefs. Pharmacists, caretakers and even janitors could object to working or participating in any way in anything they personally might find objectionable even if they do not understand the facts or are not in a position to grasp the full meaning of a particular issue.

Sarah Palin is shifting to the right with her ramped up rhetoric that panders to the right wing, religious nutcases but that was almost to be expected.

But now here comes Gingrich. Newt Gingrich, that purported icon of forward thinking politicians. Newt has aligned himself with a new movement called The National Committee for Faith and Family. You all know where this is going right?

Gingrich, who almost certainly will run for the Presidency in 2012, appears in a trailer for a so-called documentary in which he says:

"There is no attack on American culture more destructive and more historically dishonest than the relentless effort to drive God out of America's public square,"

Oh really?

One of the movements main characters is David Barton who in the nineties, when Gingrich was trying to bankrupt the government in order to cripple the Clinton Presidency – remember – GOP before God and country, was allied with Christian Identity, a white supremacist group.

As Michelle Goldberg notes in The New Republic, visitors to Gingrich’s website are asked to sign a petition maligning the fact that there are too few references to God in the Capitol’s visitor centre.

This is where the GOP is headed and that is probably good, because with any luck, it’ll dig its own grave there.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Who'd a Thunk It?

Iran was deemed a nuclear threat after documents which were allegedly stolen from a laptop belonging to an Iranian nuclear physicist were handed over to the CIA.

Although the name 'curveball' had not yet faded from our memories, everyone lapped this information up as being de facto proof of the Iranian nuclear ambition.

Until...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has obtained evidence suggesting that documents which have been described as technical studies for a secret Iranian nuclear weapons-related research program may have been fabricated.

As reported by The Raw Story.

Another 'doh' moment for the Bush Administration brought to you by the movement: "Obama For Change."

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Congratulations America

You've risen from the ashes and proved once again that you are a great nation, a great people and a great country.

You've broken the shackles of the neocon machine and you've liberated yourselves from the most oppressive leadership this country has ever seen.

Time to clean up the mess left behind by eight years of Republican Presidency.

Thank you for electing Barack Hussein Obama to do the job.

He's an inspiration and the leader we all need right now.

Monday, November 3, 2008

What If Obama Wins?

Tomorrow's the day. At the end of it, this country will either have voted for at least another four years of Neocon rule, or taken the high road and placed a bet on a young, ingenious Senator. An African American Senator. That's important because there are several outcomes to this election depending on who wins.

If Mccain wins, middle class white America that is afraid of socialist ideals even though these are not upheld by Obama and even though the same white Americans don't know what socialism really means, will feel vindicated. The 'real America' will feel it has won and once again bludgeoned the evil black, muslim, communist snake to death.

The Democrats I think will be shocked and dissapointed. Many will be angry. Because leading up to this election everything points to an Obama victory, a clear victory and a defeat would again raise the spectre of voter fraud, ironically, the same spectre that McCain is wielding as he warns about ACORN. Black America will be insensed at having had this opportunity taken from them and who could blame them - so near and yet so far. But their anger will be tempered by the fact that McCain was not regarded as a specific threat to them. All this is fairly obvious.

What is not obvious is what will happen if Obama wins as anyone who has been following the media will expect him to. There will be of course a lot of rejoicing on the streets by anyone left of the Neocon machine. The Bush era will finally be over and we will be preparing the stage for what will be an historical presidency come what may. But the Neocons and their minions - their blind, uneducated ignorant followers who all shake in fear at the thought of 'their America' disolving into a new version of the Soviet Union, those impossibly dumb people who think that their taxes are going to be hiked even though they are in exactly the tax bracket that Obama intends to help - what of them? What of the incredibly obtuse white trash portion of the population who believe that a McCain, who would actually only pander to the super-rich, would be their candidate?

In several of the videos showing these supporters of the McCain/Palin ticket one can observe unveiled racism and unhidden declarations of a physical attack on Obama should he become President. In at least two of these videos, a man cocks his hand to mimic a pistol and pretends to fire it when asked what will happen if Obama is elected.

These people are nuts. They are dangerous as hell being both ignorant and angry. They are indicative of the shifting mood in the United States. They will be the ones to shift even more to the right when Obama is elected. They are Palin's future.

To understand this, one has to grasp the fact that the McCain campaign has turned into a fascist movement. I do not say this lightly but the facts support that statement. The central position of a fascist movement is to single out a group of people that are regarded as the enemy and are treated and referred to as an existential threat. This is the tool which the one side uses to fuse it's followers together. Single mindedly, with no individual thought, they attack their perceived enemies even before understanding them or wanting to understand them.

So a win by Obama will, in my opinion see a strong shift to the right by the right in this country. This won't change after they notice that, being a part of the middle class their lives get better and not worse under Obama. This will also not change when they notice the country becoming stronger under the new leader. Their point of view is set, their horizon fixed. Their hatred whipped up by a Palin rhetoric is potentially the most dangerous thing this country will have faced for decades. This will be compounded by an isolation of the Republican Senators who will increasingly look to a more extremist corner for support. All the evidence is there and I am concerned for the future of this country, not because Obama will not bring about a change for the better, but because the extreme religious right will destroy it rather than see their convictions go unfulfilled. Those convictions are that if a vaguely liberal minded person is elected president it will mean the end of America as we know it. Clinton and the Clinton years are forgotten. Only fear remains.

So it is with great urgency that I call upon those on the right who have a moral backbone, who have an understanding of the dynamics at play and understand the dangers of motivating large groups of intellectually challenged people using inflamatory rhetoric, to do everything in their power to stop radicalizing Barack Obama. Criticism of his ideas and plans is appropriate. Demonizing him into some sort of anti-christ is not. This should be obvious to McCain and vice presidential candidate Palin. An assasination of Obama is clearly possible and would plunge this country into chaos. It's in the hands of the right to do what they can NOW, to prevent such a disaster.

Barack Obama is no more a danger to the United States and for that matter Israel, than Bill Clinton was. Indeed, his election alone could transform this country. It could free it from the shackles of shame that slavery brought upon it. It could change the dynamic that has dictated hatred and racism, repression and prejudice on the United States for the past hundred years. It will do this even if it does not fulfill his promises. To that end, you too, those of you who don't wish to see him elected but who have the ability to understand the disaster that would ensure should he be brought down by an assassin, you too should do what you can to ensure that that at least does not happen. You should do your part to temper the extreme right.

You can do this by ceasing to spread hatred. You can do this by ceasing to spread fear. You can do this by accepting him as your new President.

Monday, October 27, 2008

The List

I just thought, you know, with the usual right wing clap-trap brigade all tying their underwear in knots in an attempt to discredit Obama SOMEHOW.....

His friends were terrorists

He's a Muslim
He was born in Kenya
No Fidji
No, The phillipinnes
Hawaii isn't really a state
He's a communist
A socialist
He's going to tax everyone to death

It was time just to put things in perspective. How often, in the past, have so many really crossed party lines to endorse a candidate. Here's a list of notable Republicans who have done just that:

Elected Officials:
Lincoln Chafee, a former Republican Senator from Rhode Island
Larry Pressler, Former Republican Senator from South Dakota
Phil Arthurhultz, a former Republican state senator from Whitehall
Lowell Weicker, Former Republican Governor and Senator from Connecticut
Jim Leach, Former Republican Congressman from Iowa
Wayne Gilchrest, Republican Congressman from Maryland
Richard Riordan, Former Republican Mayor of Los Angeles
Jim Whitaker, Fairbanks, Alaska - Republican Mayor
William Weld, Former Republican Governor of Massachusetts
Arne Carlson, Former Republican Governor of Minnesota
Linwood Holton, Former Republican Governor of Virginia

Government Officials:
Doug Kmiec a former constitutional legal counsel to two Republican presidents.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell
Charles Fried, Solicitor General of the United States under Reagan
Jackson M. Andrews, Republican Counsel to the U.S. Senate
Susan Eisenhower, Granddaughter of President Eisenhower & President of the Eisenhower Group Francis Fukuyama, Advisor to President Reagan
Rita Hauser, Former White House intelligence advisor under George W. Bush
Larry Hunter, Former President Reagan Policy Advisor
Scott McClellan, Former Press Secretary to President George W. Bush
Ken Adelman, served in the Ford administration
Lilibet Hagel, Wife of Republican Senator Chuck Hagel

Columnists and Academics:
Jeffrey Hart, National Review Senior Editor
Andrew Bacevich, Professor of International Relations at Boston University
David Friedman, Economist and son of Milton and Rose Friedman
Christopher Buckley, Son of National Review founder William F. Buckley & former NR columnist
Andrew Sullivan, Columnist for the Atlantic Monthly
Wick Alison, Former publisher of the National Review
Michael Smerconish, Columnist for the Philadelphia Enquirer
CC Goldwater, Granddaughter of Barry Goldwater

These are all, ALL, people the neocons respected for years - they've got the message:McCain and Palin are a train wreck waiting to happen - it's a critical time for this country which needs a strong, intelligent leader able to think on his feet, not a doddering old idiot who's main claim to fame is that he crashed about a billion dollars' worth of military equipment into the Vietnamese jungle and his partner, a shabby self-centred diva who is so addicted to feeling like a rock star that she uses inflammatory and blatantly slanderous language to incite hate and violence at her rallys.

One cannot simply dismiss the people listed above as being senile and cretinous. They are respected members of a community and they've made a choice and it is NOT for the person representing their party.That ought to tell the right wing pundits something.

To top it all, here are some memorable quotes:

"For conservatives, Obama represents a sliver of hope. McCain represents none at all. The choice turns out to be an easy one." -- Andrew Bacevich

"For me, the national interest comes before party concerns, particularly internationally. We do need a new direction in American policy, and Obama has a sense of that." -- Jim Leach

"I think we have in Barack Obama the clear possibility of a truly great president. I would contend that it's the most important election of my lifetime." -- Arne Carlson

"I'm still a Republican, but I still will always vote for the person who I think will do the best job." -- Richard Riordan

"Obama has a brain, and he isn't afraid to use it." -- Linwood Holton

"Barack Obama is a thoughtful visionary leader who as President will end the decline of American law, liberty, and fiscal responsibility that are the hallmarks of the extremist policies of the current Administration, now adopted by John McCain." -- Jackson M. Andrews

Another Republican goes Rogue

And McCain blathers on the Late Edition.

It must be wearying to be a hard core Neocon these days. Every week they have to make up new reasons why an until that day very respected Republican Senator, former Republican leaning general or former Republican representative is now just a left-leaning, pinko, commie SOB and why they were in fact never to be trusted in the first place.

The latest Republican who will be receiving these honours is Former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) as reported by Politico. Pressler was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the United States Senate and is the latest in along line of Republicans backing Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign

Pressler, who said that in addition to casting an absentee ballot for Obama he'd donated $500 to the Illinois senator's campaign, cited the Democrat's response to the financial crisis as the primary reason for his decision.

"I just got the feeling that Obama will be able to handle this financial crisis better, and I like his financial team of [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin and [former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul] Volcker better," he said. By contrast, John McCain's "handling of the financial crisis made me feel nervous."

How right you are Mr. Pressler. It might also be McCain’s increasing senility that is worrying people like Pressler. In an extraordinary statement on CNN’s Late Edition McCain said:

“I would have vetoed literally every spending bill, even those that I had voted for, if I were president of the United States…”

Huh?

If you would have vetoed the spending bills, why vote for them? I mean, was the option of voting against them not there?

It’s becoming increasingly clear that McCain’s aberrant behavior is worrying even the staunchest of Republicans, who are praying fervently that this demented old man doesn’t, by some fluke become president and even worse, die in office, so that the moose killing sycophant gets her shot at destroying this country.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Chicken or Shit?

How undecided can anyone be in this Mother Of All Elections I ask myself. How can anyone anywhere still be undecided ten days before election day? There is a chasm between the two candidates. Do you want to vote for the old angry white man who’s running mate is a moose killing, crooked governor with a record of cronyism as long as your arm, whose claim to fame is running a town so small it didn’t have a fire department or are you going to vote for the intelligent man with real answers and hope for the future?

David Sedaris of The New Yorker sums it up for us:

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

As he says, being undecided is saying: “hmmm…how is the chicken cooked?”

Saturday, October 25, 2008

McCain Camp Tied to Attack on Staffer

As reported by the Talking Points Memo, in an amazing but not altogether surprising twist, it would appear that a spokesperson for the McCain camp released inflammatory details of the faked attack on a Pennsylvania woman before they had been released by the police.

John McCain's Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established -- and even told reporters outright that the "B" carved into the victim's cheek stood for "Barack," according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

The implications of a McCain staffer telling reporters a much more embellished and explosive story than the available facts at the time would allow are obvious. In a nutshell, it is the same propagandist style which has been Palin’s approach these past weeks – to generate hatred against the opposition. The intention is to coerce Midwestern white America into believing, “If you vote for the Muslim Black Man who pals around with terrorists, this will happen to you.”

I can’t wait for November 4th - a farewell to John bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, McCain, a goodbye to the moose killing nutcase and a return to sanity for this country so we can start putting things right again.

Friday, October 24, 2008

For The Love Of Cows

So you thought it was funny that Sarah Palin said she was experienced in foreign issues because she could see Russia from her back yard? Wait till you hear this:


Palin’s cronyism in Alaska is legendary, having doled out over 25% of state positions to campaign contributors or their relatives, sometimes without apparent regard to qualifications, as reported by the LA Times.


The best one?


"Franci Havemeister, one of several of Palin's childhood friends tapped for leadership jobs, heads the state agriculture division. A former real estate agent, she was ridiculed in Alaska after it was reported that she had cited among her qualifications for the job a childhood love of cows."


You can't make this stuff up!



Thursday, October 23, 2008

Slap in The Face For Bush, McCain & Palin

So here we are arguing back and forth – pull out with a timetable, pull out without one. McCain, and Palin ridiculed Obama for wanting to set a timetable and said it showed his lack of experience in such matters and they endorsed Bush’s inane view that pulling out with a timetable was equal to defeat.

Defeat of what I ask? Because no one has won anything in Iraq and no one is likely to win anything in Iraq. Iraq is pretty much as it was except about a million more dead, a completely destroyed infrastructure and the loss of most of its academics. Other than that – yes, Saddam Hussein is no more, but what difference does that make in a country where people are still being blown to bits and tortured on a regular basis?

Setting a timetable for withdrawal is hardly likely to make things worse. But the Bush Administration won't have any of it because they still hope for some kind of miracle when they can pull out with clean hands and demonstrating strength and control.

So it’s slightly more than laughable, that the latest draft for the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces agreement on the U.S. military presence states unequivocally that US forces are to withdraw by the end of 2011 as reported by Gareth Porter of IPS. It is unambiguous and clear. What is also clear is that even a non-combat US presence in that country is not wanted and will not be tolerated.

I’m laughing my socks off because here’s McCain and his hound dog Palin pretending like they’re going to make the rules.In fact, the only thing standing in the way of this agreement being ratified, is that the Shiites under Moqtada El Sadr, remember him, are revolting against it because they consider the pullout date for US troops to be too late.

This development signifies the entire loss of not only bargaining power but also legitimacy of the Bush regime with regards to Iraq. Here they were pontificating about how they would decide when to pull out the troops when in fact, it had already been decided by the Iraqis:

When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Baghdad Aug. 21, the United States accepted for the first time a firm date of 2011 for complete withdrawal

The Oct. 13 final draft, a translation of which was posted by Raed Jarrar on his website Oct. 20, reveals that the Bush administration has been forced to give up its aims of softening the deadline for withdrawal and of a residual non-combat force in the country.

The collapse of the Bush administration's ambitious plan for a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq highlights the degree of unreality that has prevailed among top U.S. officials in both Washington and Baghdad on Iraqi politics. They continued to see the Maliki regime as a client which would cooperate with U.S. aims even after it was clear that Maliki's agenda was sharply at odds with that of the United States.

"The degree of unreality.....

"Vote for McCain if you want another four years of a few more degrees of unreality. Barack got it right again.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Who's Responsible For the Financial Crisis?

If you’re a right wing pundit, you’ll still be bleating that the market meltdown was the result of Wall Street pulling it’s money out of stocks in fear of an impending Obama Presidency.

Actually, what now surfaces as reported by Yahoo, is a GOP construction that is so stinky I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae allegedly paid DCI, a Republican Consulting firm more than $2 million in order to scuttle legislation that would have led to regulation of the mortgage markets and would, in retrospect, have prevented much of the housing and therefore, credit crisis.

Ironically, the bill that DCI was targeting was written by Chuck Hagel R-Nebraska. The Bill was preceded by a letter written by Chuck Hagel and 25 other senators; here is an excerpt:

"If effective regulatory reform legislation ... is not enacted this year, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole,"

Talk about foresight. To be fair to the Republicans, when the bill was sent to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, all Republican members of the committee voted for it, whilst the Democrats opposed it. That was back in 2005 and that was when FM and FM started using DCI’s services to target Republicans to oppose such legislation.

DCI's chief executive by the way is Doug Goodyear. John McCain's campaign later hired him to manage the GOP convention in September.

Why this is funny is because one of the illogical lies that McCain has been spreading about Obama is that the latter had taken advice from the heads of FM & FM. What McCain fails to tell his supporters is that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, or his lobbying firm has taken more than $2 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 2000. In December, Freddie Mac contributed $250,000 to last month's GOP convention.

In the end, the efforts to kill the bill were successful as nine of the targeted Republicans opposed it. Again to be fair, had the Democratic Senators backed it unanimously, it would have passed.

The amazing upshot of all this is that Freddie Mac CEO Richard and Daniel Mudd, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fannie Mae Syron pocketed nearly $19.8 million and $12.21 million in compensation last year respectively, whilst people lost their homes because of the deregulated market.

These are the people who pulled this scheme out of their butts out of sheer greed. The result of their actions are tens of thousands of destitute families across America – the very ones that the GOP is terrified Obama might want to try to help should he become President.

Friday, October 17, 2008

If All The World Could Vote....

Well now, in a way, it can:

http://www.iftheworldcouldvote.com/

Visit the site, vote and view results.

At the present time, obama is crushing McCain.

Rolling Stone Nails Palin

"Mad Dog Palin"
The scariest thing about John McCain's running mate isn't how unqualified she is - it's what her candidacy says about America
Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.
The Palin speech was a political masterpiece, one of the most ingenious pieces of electoral theater this country has ever seen. Never before has a single televised image turned a party's fortunes around faster.

Until the Alaska governor actually ascended to the podium that night, I was convinced that John McCain had made one of the all-time campaign-season blunders, that he had acted impulsively and out of utter desperation in choosing a cross-eyed political neophyte just two years removed from running a town smaller than the bleacher section at Fenway Park. It even crossed my mind that there was an element of weirdly self-destructive pique in McCain's decision to cave in to his party's right-wing base in this fashion, that perhaps he was responding to being ordered by party elders away from a tepid, ideologically promiscuous hack like Joe Lieberman — reportedly his real preference — by picking the most obviously unqualified, doomed-to-fail joke of a Bible-thumping buffoon. As in: You want me to rally the base? Fine, I'll rally the base. Here, I'll choose this rifle-toting, serially pregnant moose killer who thinks God lobbies for oil pipelines. Happy now?

But watching Palin's speech, I had no doubt that I was witnessing a historic, iconic performance. The candidate sauntered to the lectern with the assurance of a sleepwalker — and immediately launched into a symphony of snorting and sneering remarks, taking time out in between the superior invective to present herself as just a humble gal with a beefcake husband and a brood of healthy, combat-ready spawn who just happened to be the innocent targets of a communist and probably also homosexual media conspiracy. She appeared to be completely without shame and utterly full of shit, awing a room full of hardened reporters with her sickly-sweet line about the high-school-flame-turned-hubby who, "five children later," is "still my guy." It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag.

Within minutes, Palin had given TV audiences a character infinitely recognizable to virtually every American: the small-town girl with just enough looks and a defiantly incurious mind who thinks the PTA minutes are Holy Writ, and to whom injustice means the woman next door owning a slightly nicer set of drapes or flatware. Or the governorship, as it were.
Right-wingers of the Bush-Rove ilk have had a tough time finding a human face to put on their failed, inhuman, mean-as-hell policies. But it was hard not to recognize the genius of wedding that faltering brand of institutionalized greed to the image of the suburban-American supermom. It's the perfect cover, for there is almost nothing in the world meaner than this species of provincial tyrant.

Letterman Nails McCain

John McCain appeared on Letterman last night to make amends for his having skipped out on the TV showmaster a couple of weeks ago. Then, McCain had claimed that he was canceling the appearance because of the financial crisis. Letterman however showed footage of Mccain preparing for a Katie Couric interview instead.

All this is water under the bridge and the Letterman Show was as usual interesting but Letterman didn’t make it all fun and games. He pressed McCain on the latter’s association with Gordon Liddy. Letterman asked:

“Did you have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?” McCain appears confused and says:

“Uh ahh – I’ve met him…”

Letterman then asks:
“Did you attend a fundraiser at his house?”

MCain replies, “Gordon Liddy’s?” And looks lost.

After a commercial break, McCain then more confidently adds:

“"I know Gordon Liddy. He paid his debt, he went to prison.... I'm not in any was embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy."

Now that’s a fascinating reply. Here are two things that should now be taken into account:

The Republican Party made thousands of phone calls last night to potential swing voters informing them that Barack Obama "had worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.” The same Bill Ayers who was convicted for his role in the Weathermen, served his sentence and is now such a model citizen that Chicago named him their citizen of the year in 1997

Gordon Liddy is a convicted felon who has acknowledged preparing to kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in "if necessary"; plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a "gangland figure" to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting to kidnap "leftist guerillas" at the 1972 Republican National Convention -- a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed from the Nazis. Liddy also once famously gave his supporters advice on how best to kill federal officials (he recommended shooting them in the head because they might be wearing flak jackets). Liddy has also been unrepentant about his actions.

McCain, who seems too senile to appreciate the irony of the situation claimed during last night’s interview that he “was not in any way embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy.”

Of course not. The right wing is all about being against scumbags unless they’re in one’s own ranks, then they’re all for them.

McCain two faced? You betcha.

A Note To Mrs. Palin

From the Richmond County Daily Journal:

Note to Mrs. Palin and her supporters: Average Americans don't believe that the Earth was created 5,000 years ago. We don't ignore overwhelming scientific proof about global warming. We don't believe that the Iraq War is a call from God. We don't support states seceding from the country. We don't support banning books. We don't support using political power for personal gain. We do support sexual education that deals with STDs and contraceptives.

We do support alternate energy sources. We do want someone for our country who does not need to hire a city administrator to help with running a town of 6,000 and then put them in debt to the tune of $27 million. We don't believe that you can "pray away the gay." We do want leaders who (along with their families) practice what they preach.

We don't want a "Warrior For God" one heartbeat away from our nuclear arsenal. We do think that radical extreme Christianity is every bit as dangerous to us as a radical extreme of any religion. We do think unstable, belligerent religious extremists should be our enemies ... not our representatives.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Garrison Keillor on Sarah Palin

Garrison Keillor is one of my favourite writers and he's now penned a stupendous piece in the Chicago Tribune which I am reproducing in part.

It was dishonest, cynical men who put forward a clueless young woman for national office, hoping to juice up the ticket, hoping she could skate through two months of chaperoned campaigning, but the truth emerges: The lady is talking freely about matters she has never thought about. When she said, "One thing that Americans do at this time, also, though, is let's commit ourselves just every day, American people, Joe Six-Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say never again. Never will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money and loaning us these dollars," people smelled gas.

Some Republicans adore her because they are pranksters at heart and love the consternation of grown-ups. The ne'er-do-well son of the old Republican family as president, the idea that you increase government revenue by cutting taxes, the idea that you cut social services and thereby drive the needy into the middle class, the idea that you overthrow a dictator with a show of force and achieve democracy at no cost to yourself—one stink bomb after another, and now Gov. Sarah Palin.

She is a chatty sportscaster who lacks the guile to conceal her vacuity, and she was Sen. John McCain's first major decision as the Republican nominee for president. This troubles independent voters, and now she is a major drag on his candidacy. She will become a trivia question, "What politician claimed foreign-policy expertise based on being able to see Russia from her house?" And the rest of us will have to pull ourselves out of the swamp of Republican economics.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

GOP Caging of Voters Stopped

The GOP process of ‘caging’ voters has been declared illegal by a Michigan judge as reported by The Raw Story. The ACLU is applauding the decision which disenfranchised thousands of voters around the country and targeted low income individuals and students.

"You essentially send a first-class letter to a household where you suspect that that person no longer lives there but where they're still registered to vote,"
explained Allen Raymond, a convicted GOP elections fraudster who spent time in prison after the discovery of a phone-jamming scheme during the 2002 elections. "That letter comes back. ... Somebody [at the local polling place] then challenges that vote if that person comes in to vote."

The GOP in its present form is nothing but filth.

Monday, October 13, 2008

The 23% Ticket

ABC News reports thatBush’s approval rating has sunk to 23% which is below Nixon’s and just a point above Truman’s lowest. His disapproval rating is at an all time, record-whopping, 73%.

90% of those polled say the country is off on the wrong track which is the highest number ever recorded since that question started being asked in 1973.

The disturbing thing is that 23% of those polled still approve of the job he did despite the biggest economic meltdown of the past 50 years, a war in Iraq which yielded neither WMDs nor anything substantial and certainly not a democratic country with full support of the USA, an escaped Bin laden and a list of scandals that would have made the Bourbons proud.

Those 23% are the hope of John and Sarah, rolling up to promise another four years of the same. It’s hysterical. It’s Saturday Night Live, live! It's the 23% ticket.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Republicans Do Some Straight Talking

William Milliken is a man to be admired. That’s good, because Milliken is about as Republican as they come, having been a lifelong party member. But Milliken, who originally backed MCain, is now withdrawing his support as reported by The Grand Rapids Press:

"He is not the McCain I endorsed," said Milliken, reached at his Traverse City home Thursday. "He keeps saying, 'Who is Barack Obama?' I would ask the question, 'Who is John McCain?' because his campaign has become rather disappointing to me.”

Milliken, along with a number of notable Republicans are disgusted with the McCain/Palin campaign that has dissolved into a mudslinging campaign the likes of which have rarely seen before. Milliken continued:

"I'm disappointed in the tenor and the personal attacks on the part of the McCain campaign, when he ought to be talking about the issues."

Milliken is joined by the likes of Lincoln Chaffee, the former US Senator from Rhode Island who says he is voting for Obama and is encouraging other Republicans to do the same. Chaffee, who calls Sarah Palin “totally unqualified” for the post of Vice President says of McCain’s swing to the right:

"That's not my kind of Republicanism. I saw what Bush and Cheney did. They came in with a (budget) surplus and a stable world, and look what's happened now. In eight short years they've taken one peaceful and prosperous world, and they've torn it into tatters."

Other republicans have voiced their concerns as the McCain straight talk express derails and goes crashing into the side of the mountain that is the support that Obama now has across the country. Milliken also voices concerns with the choice of Palin as VP:

"I know John McCain is 72. In my book, that's quite young. But what if she were to become president of the United States? The idea, to me, is quite disturbing, if not appalling.”

McCain is toast.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

It's Alive And Well In America

Racism that is.

So often I read material by affronted white people who rant about people like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a vitriolic preacher who preaches, certainly angry words about white supremacists.

Obama is associated with this man in only the most loose of interpretations, but that doesn’t stop the right wing pundits from jumping on the bandwagon and claiming that Obama himself is by proxy a radical. Only one vital piece is missing from the equation: the hate and disrespect that so many, really so many white people still have for African Americans.

The Reverend Wright is certainly not a figure to be applauded for his rhetoric. Yet one has to understand, that the man preaches in a context, as reported by The Raw Story.

75-year-old Wade Williams, arrested Wednesday morning, was angry that he hadn't yet received his voter registration card. According to the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office, Williams threatened a state official over the phone that he would "empty his shotgun," stating an urgent need to vote to "keep the nigger out of office."

Wade Williams has spoken for millions of whites across this country. Not only for the radicals, but all those who won’t say the ‘N’ word, but will say “that one.” He speaks for millions of Republicans horrified by the thought that a black man might ascend to the most powerful post in this country.

This was yesterday. The same people, the Wade Williams of forty years ago, were lynching blacks across the South.

So to put it in context, very little has changed, and yet so much has changed. An African American will be the next President of the United States and those that want to keep “that one” out of office, will have lost their footing again.

The hate filled words that McCain spat at the crowd when he said “that one” will one day be a thing of the past. But for now, they are still present and the McCains and Williams of this world still believe in their own superiority because once, not so long ago, their forefathers bullied, coerced and tortured men, women and children of African descent onto ships and, with no regard for their well being, transported them over the ocean to serve at the whim of the white man, to be raped and beaten by the white man and to be degraded by the white man.

Come November, there will be a severe dent put into the belief that a black man is inferior to a white and there will be a tear in the fabric that supports men like McCain with his disguised racist slurs and maybe even the foundations upon which white supremacists built their castle of hate, will finally have cracked enough to bring the whole thing down.

Maybe.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

More cringing? No Thanks!

For eight years, anyone with any kind of education in the United States has cringed every time President Bush spoke publicly. Hell, even when he spoke privately it was a problem. His faux pas and repeated gaffes embarrassed members of his party as well as anyone who didn’t like his politics.

Are you ready to cringe for another four? Because right wing pundit Kathleen Parker of the National Review thinks that’s what Americans will have to do if Palin becomes VP. She’s openly asking Palin to step out of the race:

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Parker quotes palin twice to make her point:

Palin on hannity:
“Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”

and later, Palin to couric:

“What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”

Well, after Bush, one could say this form of garbled, meaningless miscommunication is Presidential, but parker tells Palin to step down.

"Do it for your country," Parker concludes.

I don’t imagine parker’s call will be heeded. It’s just that Republicans don’t ever really do much for their country. They think of themselves, Wall Street and their Big Business Buddies first.

Friday, September 19, 2008

The Sraight Talker

John ‘The Maverick’ McCain has been unequivocal in his denouncement of lobbyists and pork barrel senators and governors. He has also been touting the ‘outside of Washington’ approach that he wishes to adopt.

Why then would McCain take Sarah Pork-Barrel palin as his running mate?
Why would he employ 177 lobbyists in his campaign team, 85 of which work for the very industries that McCain has denounced as destroying America?
Why would he take William E. Timmons, Sr. as his senior advisor for his eventual transition team.

Time magazine wrote:

"By tapping Timmons, McCain has turned to one of Washington's steadiest and most senior inside players to guide him in the event of a victory--but also to someone who would represent the antithesis of the kind of outside-of-Washington change he has recently been promising."


The problem is that these glitches escape the voting masses. This fact, which proves beyond a doubt that Mccain has only one interest at heart and that is to become President no matter what, will be meaningless to most Republican voters.

This country is a country that has a tendency, especially amongst the Midwestern and southern states, to vote for someone because “one could imagine having a beer with that person” or because “she was once Ms. Alabama” or “He has great hair.”

It’s not really about voting for what’s best for the country otherwise W wouldn’t have been elected. There is a very real danger that McCain could succeed in November which would be catastrophic for this country, a country with a depleted military, an economy in tatters and a devaluating currency.

McCain won’t make a good President because he was once a POW.
Palin won’t make a good VP because she shoots animals.

He lies and she’s clueless. That’s really what the right has to understand.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Of Blood and Forgery

Just when one thinks one has plumbed the depths to which the Bush Administration would stoop to, to get their way, a new revelation shows us that we are no where near the bottom. Back then when George Bush was trying to find a way to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11, a letter turned up allegedly from the head of Iraq’s intelligence service to the former dictator linking Hussein to the ringleader of the hijackers that flew the planes into the World Trade Centre.

A new book by Ron Suskind, author of ‘The Price of Loyalty' now states that this letter, one of the mainstays of the allegations by Condoleeza Rice, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and George Bush that Saddam and Al Qaeda were inextricably mixed, was a forgery. Moreover, that this forgery was ordered by none other than George W. Bush himself, as The Raw Story reports.

“The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001,” Suskind writes. “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq – thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President’s Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link.”

The creation of a war of attrition under the falsest of pretenses. One can only read and weep. A million deaths based on a lie.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Ongoing Diebold Saga

There is fresh evidence that has come to light with regards to the rigging of Diebold voting machines. These machines, which are used nationwide have come to the attention of critics for the surprising results they yielded which contradicted in many cases, the polls held just a few weeks earlier.

A whistle blower has come forward with a claim that a patch was fitted to Diebold machines specifically in Georgia, where Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox requested information from Diebold about an ‘0808 patch’ that was installed on Diebold machines prior to voting in 2002.

Cox did not know that a patch had been installed and The Raw Story’s source says that Diebold workers were told to keep the information from Cox. The most astonishing thing:

What initially raised questions, according to the source, was the behavior of then-Diebold CEO, Bob Urosevich, who personally flew in from Texas and applied the patch in just two counties, DeKalb and Fulton, both Democratic strongholds.

For those who have forgotten the upsets in Georgia: Incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who was five percentage points ahead of Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss in polls taken only a week before the voting, lost 53 percent to 46 percent. Roy Barnes, the incumbent Democratic Governor, who had been leading challenger Sonny Perdue by a fairly wide margin of eleven points, lost 51 percent to 46 percent.

Voter Fraud by Republicans?

Yes Sir.

Monday, July 28, 2008

The Record Setter

He has set another new record: George W. Bush has obliterated past deficits, except his own personal best of 2004 which still stands at $512 billion. The budget deficit for 2009 will be a whopping $482 billion, dwarfing the records to date held by none other than Ronald Let’s-Spend-All-Our-Money-And-Only-Tax-The-Poor Reagan, which topped out at a paltry $116 billion in 2003.

Still, the Bushies are scrambling and say that in the overall scheme of things, Ronald is still king, having managed to overspend by a blistering 6.8% whilst Bush’s overdraft stands at only 3.3% of GDP.

Nevertheless, CNN reports that Dan Perino defends the stimulus package (or was it The Surge) which cost the government $170 billion and which the Democrats did blindly sign off on for fear of being hated.

"I remember that back when we were discussing the stimulus package, both parties recognized that the deficit would increase, and that would be the price that we pay in order to help improve the economy," Says Perino.

Improve the economy? Hello? Last time I was at Best Buy people were lined up virtually with their stimulus package checks in hand, waiting to buy the latest flat screen HD 50” Plasma TV from Toshiba, Sanyo, Sharp or Sony. A small percentage of that money may actually end up in the USA I agree. But most of it, designed to give Average Joe a small adrenal boost, a quick pecuniary handjob to make us feel better whilst the United States economy plunges downwards at an unstoppable rate, will travel overseas to feed the countries manufacturing the toys that people buy here as a temporary relief against the deppressing fact that this economy, our economy is in tatters.

Not satisfied with that of course, the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae $300 billion Social Help Package has been approved by Congress and will probably be signed off by Bush so that Freddie Mac Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Syron and Daniel Mudd, president and chief executive of Fannie Mae can continue to pocket their monstrous benefit bonus packages of $20 million and $13 million respectively.

Bush needs to get fired and the current Democratic leadership needs to be canned. This country is so ready for something new or it will go to the dogs. The existential threat the current Administration represents for this country far outweighs anthing any terrorist can think up.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Why I don't live in Oklahoma...

And why I dislike Republicans, version II.

I’d like to introduce you to Brent Rinehart who is running for reelection as Commissioner for Oklahoma City.

Brent’s campaign pivots on a simple fact that he has represented in cartoon form. The devil tries to lure young kids into becoming homosexual while Brent Rinehart and the right can stop from happening as The Raw Story reports..

When asked about the comic, Rinehart replied:“I believe the homosexual agenda is an issue in this campaign. ... I thought that it was a very good campaign piece.

"It’s 2008. It seems amazing to me that someone is still arguing about the normality of being gay.

The Compassionate Conservative

Or: why I hate republicans, version I.

Self-appointed "Compassionate-Conservative" radio host Michael savage grabbed my eye with this piece of wisdom as reported in Media Matters:

I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.' "

It's evident that Savage has no fucking idea what autism is, has probably never been in contact with an autistic kid and, if he met one, would probably think this kid was faking it. This is brought to you from the man that decided that asthma was a money-making scam by minority families:

"[W]hy was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], 'When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], "I don't know, the dust got me." ' See, everyone had asthma from the minority community."

If that's compassionate, I don't want to know what rates as hard core conservative.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Plumbing The Depths

One of the reasons I thought it would be good to have Hillary win the nomination is that she knows how to fight dirty. Dirty is how the Democrats are going to have to learn to fight to stoop to the incredible barrel scraping depths that Republicans are willing to crouch to.

With their latest effort, Florida Republicans are below sewer level – they are at the bottom of the cess pit. Their new poster, “Don’t vote for a Democrat” sports a picture of the twin towers burning with obvious implicative suggestion, as reported by The Raw Story.

The political scumbag party really has reached new depths in its effort to out-do itself in terms of bad taste and this one may take the biscuit. In a country where ignorance is rife, this poster just may have the desired effect with the desired people.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The End of Bushisms?

For those of you who are sad that 'Bushisms', those inane non-sensical utterances made by the Idiot in Chief, are soon coming to an end, there is hope yet.

John McCain, the 187 year-old presidential candidate could conceivably make it into the White House and his inane utterances are almost as funny as George's, as CNN reports:

For the second time in two days, John McCain has referred to current events in “Czechoslovakia” – a country that officially ceased to exist in January of 1993.

I keep reading posts of conservatives ragging on Obama but I wonder just how they actually manage to keep a straight face whilst rambling on about obscure Obama conspiracy theories, when their own candidate is mentally still living in 1990.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Torture Approver in Chief

A new book due to be released next week will publish findings of a Red Cross report that states categorically that the United States used and approved methods of interrogation that constitute torture. Full Stop.

I wrote ‘full stop’ because the idea has been disseminated by the Bush Administration that the methods used are in debate as to whether they constitute torture or not. The Bush Administration along with hacks like Supreme Court Justice Scalia have successfully infused the American public with the idea that waterboarding and other torture methods are “perhaps in some cases, but not necessarily always” torture.

This is wrong. The International Committee of The Red Cross is the world's pre-eminent institution on the subject and they leave no doubt as to the fact that the interrogation tactics used by the CIA in Guantanamo and elsewhere constitute torture.

The book entitled "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals," is written by Jane Meyer and cites sources which have read the report which was released last year. These sources say "that the abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecuted.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who called Bush a "torture-approver-in-chief who has yet to be held to account for anything" interviewed law expert Johnathan Turley about these developments. Turley replied: "I'd never thought I would say this, but I think it might in fact be time for the United States to be held internationally to a tribunal. I never thought in my lifetime I would say that," as The Raw Story reports where the accompanying video can be viewed.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Beyond All Reasonable Doubt



After spending 15 years in a jail cell, where he’d been incarcerated on a life sentence, Patrick Waller was freed. He was exonerated of the aggravated robbery and rape which he had been accused of and he became a free man as reported by CNN.

Why this is of special significance is obvious to anyone. But what makes Waller’s story even more special is that he was convicted by the Dallas District Court after being identified in a line up three times, including a live line up. He was identified by three separate people.

Waller, who had always maintained his innocence, requested DNA testing several times and it was denied on all previous occasions by the DA’s office. The judges and District Attorneys responsible for denying him DNA testing I am sure slept soundly in the comfy beds for the past fifteen years. I’m sure they ate well and I’m sure they tut-tutted about how terrible criminals are as they chomped on fois gras and sipped their Pinot Noir.

What makes this all the more special is that Waller was so definitely a criminal that no one thought it worthwhile to challenge his sentence despite him insisting he was not guilty. What makes this all the more special is that had one of the people in the robbery died, Waller would almost certainly have been charged with murder and would almost certainly have been put to death in the State that executes more people than any other. It is special because it is an absolute statement that the death penalty should be abolished because it deters no one and people make mistakes.

No one can give Waller back his life. The DA and the judges should serve at least a year just for being such pig-headed idiots, but they won’t. They will continue clinking their wine glasses, smiling and nodding at each other knowingly and believing themselves to be the ones that contribute to making this a free society.

Patrick Waller was the 19th person freed under the DNA programme since 1992. Collectively, the men who have been freed have served over 400 years of prison time without having done anything to deserve it.

How many have been put to death, we shall never know.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Of Ethics and Business Conduct

Who is DynCorp International? It's a valid question and if one were to look at their website, one would see that they are an upright company dealing amongst other things in 'law enforcement' and one of their many mottos is 'supporting U.S. interests worldwide.' If one delves deeper, one finds that DynCorp also has a 'code of ethics and business conduct.'

DynCorp International is repeatedly picked by the Pentagon to carry out everything from maintenance of its military equipment to supplying it with infrastructure. As an aside, but a funny one, is that one of DynCorp’s biggest investors and the head of DynCorp’s compensation committee is Herbert ‘Pug’ Winokur, who was also Chairman and CEO of DynCorp from 1988 to 1997.

Winokur…Winokur….Of course! None other than Pug, was ENRON’s Finance Committee Chairman. Boy do these fellas get around. It’s of course redundant to ask if he is a friend of the Bushies.

So here we have a great company doing great and ethical things for America. Or do we?

This morning’s story is brought to you by Muckraked:


“DynCorp’s site manager was involved in bringing prostitutes into hotels operated by DynCorp. A co-worker unrelated to the ring was killed when he was travelling in an unsecure car and shot performing a high-risk mission........At the time, the armored car that he would otherwise have been riding in was being used by the contractor’s manager to transport prostitutes from Kuwait to Baghdad.“

They might want to have another read of their 'code of ethics and business conduct' manifesto.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Protest

I haven't posted in a while for a couple of reasons. They are personal and do not figure necessarily on the scale of things, but because I have been asked by several people the reason for the hiatus, here it is.

First and foremost is that nothing of any particular note is happening. Iraq is disintegrating again as predicted and this time, probably noting is going to prevent it from sinking into total chaos.

The second is that the only news at the moment is about the primaries. Obama this, Clinton that, Obama said this, Clinton did the other. Here’s my take. I’m pretty much sick of the whole Democratic Primary debacle and I say this, in the context of the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been pulverized, to instigate a race which has simply taken on a distasteful and unpleasant odor.

If you’re an Obama fan, you might object at this point and indicate that it’s all Clinton’s fault. If you are a Clinton supporter, maybe you feel her aggressive attitude was justified and is what is needed in Washington. If you are a Mccain supporter, I feel sorry for your delusional state, but on the other hand, you are probably sitting smugly in a corner, sniggering at the Democrats making utter fools of themselves yet again.

Total receipts between Clinton and Obama now tally upwards of $440 million dollars. Receipts. That doesn’t include any money they’ve spent themselves. Four hundred and forty million dollars.

It’s utterly disgusting and contemptible. Here are two candidates speaking of doing good social deeds and are so at each other’s throats that they’ve totally lost sight of the wood for the trees. I dfind it utterly reprehensible. This isn’t even the campaign for the presidency. It’s the primaries. It’s disgusting. McCain’s $80 million pales in comparison but it isn’t as if he is any better. The Republicans would have easily, willingly even, spent ten times that amount if they deemed it necessary.

I am repulsed. That is why I have stopped posting.

In my opinion, each candidate should receive US$ 1 million at the start of the race and that should be it. Spend it as you like, but once it’s spent. You’re done with. Collectively, McCain, Clinton and Obama have destroyed half a billion dollars in their rabid attempt at getting into the White House.

Yes, I know, half a billon dollars is only two days in Iraq, but we never said that the Bush regime was anything one should try to measure down to.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

plus ça change

It’s been seven years since the Afghan campaign started. Seven years since we allegedly ‘freed’ Afghanistan. It was all going to be better.
Certainly some things are. And then other things just didn’t change. From today's
Wiredispatch:

Afghanistan's lower house of Parliament passed a resolution Monday seeking to bar television programs from showing dancing and other practices deemed un-Islamic.

Part of the reason for this is the devolvement of the power and influence of the Afghan government. It’s area of influence has shrunk so far as to barely make it viable. Poppy crops are breaking records, the Taliban are resurgent and the government, in a bid to keep the radicals happy, is toeing the line.

It’s fallout from the Iraq debacle. Had the US and the UK focused on maintaining a presence there, on actually getting aid to the country, instead of gallivanting about on the Euphrates, something may have truly changed in Afghanistan.

I wonder what a fraction of the money that’s been poured into Iraq would have accomplished in Afghanistan. As of today, even Kabul only has power in fits and starts, the majority of the Afghan population is still on the verge of starvation, it still ranks as one of the country’s with the highest infant mortality rate, still ranks as one of the world’s least developed.

The right would have us believe, that the mission to Afghanistan and Iraq were both altruistically motivated. Anyone with even a glimmer of intelligence will have realized that that is not the case. But as both Iraq and Afghanistan and Iraq regress into a fundamentalist framework, it becomes glaringly obvious that Western governments don’t give a hoot about the freedoms of the people there.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The One That Takes The Biscuit

Richard T. Race is the kind of guy you would hope was squeaky clean. He was after all George W. Bush’s specially appointed special Chief Investigator to the Pentagon’s Inspector General. His job description: “investigating fraud and official misconduct.”

Let’s hear that again: investigating fraud and official misconduct. Well, this is going to hurt: Richard T. Race has been arrested and charged with nothing less than fraud and attempting to violate the country’s banking regulations as Bloomberg reports:

Race, 61, admitted he made cash deposits at the Pentagon's credit union on three straight days in March 2007 that were designed to evade laws that track large currency transactions.

I know, the Democrats have these people too, what with William Jefferson and Eliot Spitzer. But I think Race is in fact the 58th Republican Bushie being nailed in a hypocritical scandal in the past 16 months if my memory serves me well. In fact, in 2007, there was a new Republican under investigation pretty much every single week of the year.

What makes it even more palatable is the fact that this is the man that George W. Bush personally chose to trust with the investigation of financial wrongdoing. A man who stoops so low as to try and hide a $20,000 transaction. It’s pathetic. Very, very funny, but pathetic all the same. It is the most succinct and condensed representation of Bush’s presidency I’ve seen so far.

Five Years

Five years ago, the order was given to start one of the most ignominious military campaigns in the history of human kind. It smacked of over-eager beavers sitting in Washington who could not wait to get the ball rolling and were worried every day, that a final discovery, that Iraq really did NOT have WMD would thwart their grubby little plans to invade a sovereign country under the guise of freedom, the tatty umbrella of the war against terrorism and the absurd notion of installing democracy as if it were a 50” plasma TV one could just set down and hook up.

Seldom has so much stupidity been collectively exercised by such a distinguished group of moronic mass murderers as in the lead up to this war.

George W. Bush
Dick Cheney
Paul Wolfowitz
Richard Perle
Doug Feith
Donald Rumsfeld
General Franks
Condoleeza Rice
Colin Powell
George Tenet

These are the criminals we have before us that set a charade in motion as see-through as Hitler’s attempt in 1939 to accuse Poland of having fired the first shots over the German border and starting the Blitzkrieg to flatten a country that fought his tanks with horses.

The shouts of bravado have grown quieter and the excited arm-chair would-be marines and weapons experts are no longer laughing at videos of American and British tanks destroying Iraqi houses, of planes dropping 500 lb bombs on people’s homes, of cruise missiles raining down on a populated city, at slogans like “Shock and Awe.”

Now, five years later, the Iraqi resistance is still giving pretty much as good as it gets. Faced with a 700 billion dollar war machine, they seem to be holding up pretty well with their sandals and scooters, their decade old Kalaschnikovs and their Chinese made RPGs. We have a David and we have a Goliath and David ain’t having any of it in this battle.

Today, on the fifth anniversary of the launch of the “days, maybe weeks, hardly months” long war, two thirds of Americans are opposed to the conflict and believe the cost in lives was not worth it. Cheney says “So?”

Now there’s a man either to be respected for being so headstrong that he doesn’t care what the people think because he’s forgotten that he’s in a democracy, or reviled because he doesn’t care what anyone thinks, he’s lined his pockets, thank you very much.

Five years after the launch of the barrage of bombs on Baghdad that signaled the start of the war, Bush will be defending his decision to go into Iraq despite the high cost saying that it:

"opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror, making Iraq a place where Arabs fight alongside Americans to drive Al-Qaeda out."

You want to tell him or shall I? No one really believes this clap trap anymore Mr. Bush. You engaged the United States military in an intractable conflict which your successor will have to deal with. You have created a situation of barely comprehendible chaos where stability was of utmost importance. You have kicked out a secular tyrant only to have him replaced by a religious fanatical group. In short, you have thrown Iraq to the dogs and don’t know what to do.

Five years on, nearly 4,000 US service men and women are pointing their fingers from the grave. You and your demented, lunatic Administration, your idiotic guesses as to the costs of the war, your ‘slam dunks’ and ‘cake walks’, your ‘bring it on,’ are a testimony to your complete misunderstanding of the responsibility you had and that you squandered for personal gain and agenda.

Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis rotting in the desert sands bear witness to a crime for which you and your war-criminal friends should rightfully be incarcerated for life. You have destroyed a country and destroyed its people and are just itching to get your grubby little hands on that country’s oil. Five years later, as Iraqi children sit without parents, by the lights of candles as they wait for a generator somewhere to get more gas so it can provide a couple more hours of light, as widows still weep over lost husbands, parents cry over lost children, you can observe your legacy in their stories of horror, death and poverty.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Loophole

Bezerkistan passed a new regulation compelling companies who observe fraud being perpetrated to report it to the authorities. This was to close a loophole that had existed for years which allowed companies to ignore fraud, a practice which cost their government billions of Bezerkistani Schlocks (1.22 BezSchlks to the US $).

However recently, His Royal Highness the President of Bezerkistan, snuck in a separate piece of legislation exempting companies from the new law if they discovered the fraud abroad. This was because many of Bezerkistan’s companies, who’s CEO’s were personal friends of His Royal Highness the President of Bezerkistan, had contracts that were abroad.

This would make an amusing read except for the fact that the country was not Bezerkistan but the United States of America and the President is unfortunately George Bush, who has again defeated logic in support of his buddies, and thwarted the law in favor of corporations.

The proposed rule, put forth by the White House Office of Management and Budget last year, exempts all companies who do work overseas from a new regulation requiring US contractors to report waste, fraud or abuse they encounter while doing work for the government.

The whole sordid affair can be read in The Raw Story.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

McCain With Parsley On The Side

Or Why McCain Won't Do Part II

"Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee what thou art."
- - Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616) Spanish novelist.

In our friend’s case it’s Televangelist Rod Parsley whom we are talking about, who’s endorsement of the Republican Presidential front-runner is valuable to McCain who, it has to be said, is not that picky. The trouble is that our Televangelist is one of those with a particular axe to grind. It isn’t enough for Rod Parsley to proclaim, quite falsely, but who cares at this late stage in the proceedings, that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is:

"In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."

Holy Mackerel! Say it like it is, Bob, But before that statement even has a hope of being asorbed by the surrounding audience it get’s worse. What? You think it can't get worse? Listen up!

Parsley is not shy about his desire to obliterate Islam. In Silent No More, he notes—approvingly—that Christopher Columbus shared the same goal: "It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492…Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America." He urges his readers to realize that a confrontation between Christianity and Islam is unavoidable

Christopher Columbus set out to defeat Islam? Holy Smokes! That's revisionist history if ever I heard it. Last I read, Columbus wanted to find India. But at the end of his chapter on Islam in which he invokes its destruction, Parsley asks:

"Are we a Christian nation? I say yes." Without actually specifying how Islam should be eradicated, he effectively calls for a new crusade. Parsley was eventually made to shut up but not before he had thoroughly discredited every Muslim in the world as an enemy of the United States.

The core of the matter however is this:

McCain's relationship with Parsley is politically significant. In 2004, Parsley's church was credited with driving Christian fundamentalist voters to the polls for George W. Bush. With Ohio expected to again be a decisive state in the presidential contest, Parsley's World Harvest Church and an affiliated entity called Reformation Ohio, which registers voters, could be important players within this battleground state.

In view of the fact that the Ohio Republican Party has been reduced to shreds by the myriad of scandals that have befallen it and that Ted Strickland, a popular Democrat, is now the state's Governor, McCain and the Republicans will need all the help they can get in the Buckeye State this fall. It's a real question: Can McCain win the presidency without Parsley?
And who is he, that he has to rely on a nutter to do so?

http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html

Monday, March 10, 2008

"War Is Inevitable"

As the Bush nightmare slowly draws to a close and everyone holds their breath that the idiot in the White House won’t start another war before he leaves office, former Bush loyalists are dropping out and trying to settle scores before the whole mucky neocon house of manure collapses.

Now it’s Doug Feith’s turn and in his new book, Doug doesn’t pull any punches. On his list of targets is Condoleeza Rice, Paul Bremer, General Tommy Franks and Colin Powell amongst others. The funny thing is, that every time one of these Neocons does his little semi-defection dance, all he or she does, is confirm what the left has been saying about the whole Iraq episode.

Feith confirms what Ron Suskind and Richard Clarke had already stated in their books The Price of Loyalty and Against All Enemies; namely that Bush had decided to go to war on Dec. 18, 2002, well before the UN inspectors were anywhere near done and well before all the seriously dodgy intelligence reports about WMDs were published. Feith states that Bush said on that day: “War is inevitable.”

The right however scoffed at Suskind who basically wrote on behalf of Paul H. O’Neill, probably one of the men with the highest integrity who ever served office and they scoffed at Clarke who himself had served under four Presidents, when he stated the same thing. How are the Neocons going to scoff at Douglas Feith, one of the leading architects of the Iraq war?

Feith joins a long line of ex-Bush Administration fatheads who led the country into war and are now backpedaling to save their future careers. What I find so funny though is how all these people are falling over themselves to blame everyone else.

McLellan blamed Cheney in What Happened, George Tenet blames everyone except the CIA, David Kuo blames the entire Rove apparatus and Doug Feith blames everyone except Rumsfeld but especially the CIA. It’s quite clear that everyone in the Bush Administration, without exception was to blame for the fiasco that Iraq has become although Feith concentrates on Tommy Franks who he criticizes for not having any interest whatsoever in any kind of postwar planning as well as the fact that Paul Bremer and the rest of the Bush Administration didn’t listen to him as The Washington Post reports:

The key mistake that the United States made in Iraq, Feith asserts, was "the mishandling of the political transition." The good that Bremer did, he concludes, "was outweighed by the harm caused by the fact of occupation."

I can only laugh as I watch this ship of inept fools implode and sink in the very quagmire that they created. These people are criminals, should be treated as criminals and should be made to pay as the criminals that they are – the whole pack of deceitful, pompous, self-righteous, arrogant boneheads that have been trying to steer this country and the rest of the world off a cliff for the past seven years.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Why McCain Won't Do.

In a symbolic gesture, G.W.Bush today, vetoed legislation passed by Congress that would have banned water boarding. Why symbolic? It’s a symptomatic demonstration that the pack of lying, deceitful, arrogant, pig-headed neocon barbarians running this country do not understand that if you do not uphold the values under which your country was founded, you no longer have a country worth defending.

Congress’ legislation to ban waterboarding as a means of interrogation by the CIA would not have been a revolutionary, nation-threatening move that would have fed the country to a radical Islamic wolf pack. The right wing cabal of fascists in the White House would have the country think so of course, but in fact, this legislation would have brought the CIA in line with the military with regards to the questioning of prisoners. The U.S. Army Field Manual expressly prohibits waterboarding along with several other techniques for extracting information from captives.

In the article run by The Raw Story, Bush cites National Security as a reason for his vote. The real humdinger though, is that the bill was passed along partisan lines – virtually all the Republican Congressmen voted against the measure restricting the methods of questioning to those within the bounds of the Geneva Convention.

If anything, this should be a final reminder to those Democrats irresponsible enough to consider for a minute voting for McCain should Obama lose the nomination. McCain, after his famous torture flip-flop a fortnight ago would certainly also veto such legislation. If you want to finally rid this country of the scourge of torture and the blight that the collective Republican body but in particular, the neocon criminals have instilled upon it, you have to vote a Democratic candidate into the White House.

You have to.