_____________________________________________________
Date Line December 20, 2008
In 2003, during their “Top of the World Tour” a statement was mad denouncing Bush’s war on Iraq and the lies he and his people were making about Saddam Hussein and his government. Bush, siding with Bin Laden and his terrorist Al-Qaeda organization, was determined to remove Hussein and plunge Iraq into disaster.
The statement was: “Just to let you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence. And we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”
For that that the Dixie Chicks were vilified by right wing idiots bent on the destruction of the United States. More idiots took up the challenge and destroyed their CD’s.
Well, I was one of the people denouncing the war, and the effect it would have on the nation and economy. I was doing this – in print – when Bush first started his lies, and continued throughout the Bush administration.
When the Dow was passing 12000 I warned of the need for an immediate correction ... and called for one ... when it did not happen, and the Dow went to 14000, I warned of disaster. Now we are in a recession. It is a Bush Recession. It is a Republican Recession.
It is a Recession which 33 percent of the states (based on Electoral College count) not only wanted, but wanted to see worsen. It is a Recession which 40 percent of the voters (those living in the Electoral College States) wants. It is what the Right-wing Christians and Republicans want and are fighting for.
The end of the United States is a real possibility ... not now ... not necessarily under Obama ... but it is something which they will fight for. It is something the Rush Limbaugh types want; it is what the ditto-heads want – they have no brains, just say ditto – It is what the Right-wing Christians and Republicans want .
Well ... they are not going to have it. The Dow will stabilize where it is ... there will be another small downturn ... not as bad as we have seen ... and then the markets will run. The economy will refocus – if we want it to run far – and we will see a boom in solar and wind power. We will see troops coming home. We will see a move toward balanced budgets and national health insurance – nobody can afford $500 a month coverage with 20 percent co-pay and a requirement for prior approal of emergency and necessary treatments. The nation cannot afford to pay double the real cost of medical treatment. The nation cannot afford to take money out of the economy to feed Insurance Company greed and dishonesty. More important, the nation cannot afford the cost of sick workers – made sicker by the obstacles placed before them by what amounts to high-school dropout insurance clerks.
YES ... four in ten of your neighbors want the nation gone, want you sick, and want your children hungry or dead. Four in ten hate you – they worship a divinity who hates you. They call upon that divity to interfere with your life and the lives of your children ...
Funny thing ... history tells us they will – eventually – win. Evil always does – especially when it invokes divine evil. Watch, learn, and be silent ... it will ensure their victory ... mostly be silent when people like Bush tell you to kill those who have done you no harm ... and, as Bush did with Bin Laden, declare those who have harmed you irrelevant.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Last Comment Before the VOTE
_____________________________________________________
Date Line October 24, 2008
The bailout was needed to provide "confidence" ... but it is short term ... the money will need to be paid via taxes.in the future. Ideally, inflation will give it less value. But the whole thing was a reward to scam artists who made the NINJA loans which had no honest expectation of being repaid and were unsecured.
On the good side ... the market has reached a support I called for, two years ago, in my newspaper column. The bottom is holding solid (as of noon Friday 24 October) if it breaks, the next support is a DOW 4000 and all the horrors that accompany such a further decline.
We are less than two weeks from ... our children and grandchildren have been saddled with a debt (their futures mortgaged) by poilicies which Greenspan now admits were wrong ... but which known wrong when he proclaimed reduced deficits and debt to be bad.
Greenspan now claims he thought banks would work in their self-interest. They did ... banks are people and people make money independent of the corporate employer ... GOLDEN PARACHUTE and retirement building were the order of the day for aging baby-boom chief executives. They functioned in their own self-interest withing the full knowledge that the corporate entity was expendable.
We have a warped and unrealistic mind-set which grants intellect to entities and ignores the people. IE – Government does not do anything ... the people in Government do the stuff ... they make the decisions and impose the constraints on freedoms, education and health. People, not entities, work in their own interest. Just as Nazi soldiers did what they were told because it meant their promotion, our Government employees and elected leaders do what is in their interest.
Note that the GOP pundits who challenged investigations into rising energy costs are now, like Rush Limbaugh on his radio show, loudly bemoaning the lack of investigation into falling costs. If they really understood economics – or were not really people who understood and lie about things – Limbaugh would be pointing out market forces at work and cheering the propriety of the GOP free market.
But the GOP Right-wing does not believe in market forces – at least not those forces which it can’t manipulate to defraud the public.
We are days from electing a new set of people. Or days from declaring we like people who have taken a growing economy with a budget surplus and reducing national debt and turning it into a society deep in debt. The GOP has built its whole policy structure on BORROW & SPEND ... BORROW & SPEND ... that’s a short term ripoff of people who must pay to fix – replace – that which was ripped off.
We need to reduce debt – if that means (as people understand it, “working more” and government sees as) increasing taxes, we need to do so. The only place to increase taxes is where the money is, and that means tax the wealthiest – those making four times the average family wage. Gee. Is it really that much of a hardship to make only three times the average wage and have a strong nation to protect your assets?
We need to rethink our past. We need to vote for the deeds and not the words. Granted, that is a very “Christian” viewpoint – for it was Christ himself who warned you would know them by their deeds. It is also a worldly realistic viewpoint. Words are meaningless unless backed by actions. The GOP has claimed fiscal responsibility with words, and spendthrift polices with actions.
If your labor is sick, hungry, or homeless, they leave for places where they can improve their lives. Note that immigrants come here from poorer nations – but also that they are choosing, in greater numbers, Europe over America. If you really want to do the lowest of basic jobs, keep attacking, as the GOP would have you attack, immigrants. Become a third world nation. Be worthy of naught but sending your children to die in foreign lands so the Sheiks and despots can live securely in their palaces.
We need to keep our children home and in school. We need to pay them to become the best of the brightest. We cannot keep turning to other nations for our doctors and engineers.
We need to pay for universal healthcare – we need healthy workers to pay the debts the GOP has amassed. To do less is to kill the goose which lays the golden eggs. Labor is, after all, the foundation upon which profits and wealth are built.
_____________________________________________________
Of course, the majority might decide race and gender trump the survival of America. In that case, let them have that which they wish for themselves and their posterity – they can begin by converting to Islam and then move on to learning to speak Chinese.
_____________________________________________________
Date Line October 24, 2008
The bailout was needed to provide "confidence" ... but it is short term ... the money will need to be paid via taxes.in the future. Ideally, inflation will give it less value. But the whole thing was a reward to scam artists who made the NINJA loans which had no honest expectation of being repaid and were unsecured.
On the good side ... the market has reached a support I called for, two years ago, in my newspaper column. The bottom is holding solid (as of noon Friday 24 October) if it breaks, the next support is a DOW 4000 and all the horrors that accompany such a further decline.
We are less than two weeks from ... our children and grandchildren have been saddled with a debt (their futures mortgaged) by poilicies which Greenspan now admits were wrong ... but which known wrong when he proclaimed reduced deficits and debt to be bad.
Greenspan now claims he thought banks would work in their self-interest. They did ... banks are people and people make money independent of the corporate employer ... GOLDEN PARACHUTE and retirement building were the order of the day for aging baby-boom chief executives. They functioned in their own self-interest withing the full knowledge that the corporate entity was expendable.
We have a warped and unrealistic mind-set which grants intellect to entities and ignores the people. IE – Government does not do anything ... the people in Government do the stuff ... they make the decisions and impose the constraints on freedoms, education and health. People, not entities, work in their own interest. Just as Nazi soldiers did what they were told because it meant their promotion, our Government employees and elected leaders do what is in their interest.
Note that the GOP pundits who challenged investigations into rising energy costs are now, like Rush Limbaugh on his radio show, loudly bemoaning the lack of investigation into falling costs. If they really understood economics – or were not really people who understood and lie about things – Limbaugh would be pointing out market forces at work and cheering the propriety of the GOP free market.
But the GOP Right-wing does not believe in market forces – at least not those forces which it can’t manipulate to defraud the public.
We are days from electing a new set of people. Or days from declaring we like people who have taken a growing economy with a budget surplus and reducing national debt and turning it into a society deep in debt. The GOP has built its whole policy structure on BORROW & SPEND ... BORROW & SPEND ... that’s a short term ripoff of people who must pay to fix – replace – that which was ripped off.
We need to reduce debt – if that means (as people understand it, “working more” and government sees as) increasing taxes, we need to do so. The only place to increase taxes is where the money is, and that means tax the wealthiest – those making four times the average family wage. Gee. Is it really that much of a hardship to make only three times the average wage and have a strong nation to protect your assets?
We need to rethink our past. We need to vote for the deeds and not the words. Granted, that is a very “Christian” viewpoint – for it was Christ himself who warned you would know them by their deeds. It is also a worldly realistic viewpoint. Words are meaningless unless backed by actions. The GOP has claimed fiscal responsibility with words, and spendthrift polices with actions.
If your labor is sick, hungry, or homeless, they leave for places where they can improve their lives. Note that immigrants come here from poorer nations – but also that they are choosing, in greater numbers, Europe over America. If you really want to do the lowest of basic jobs, keep attacking, as the GOP would have you attack, immigrants. Become a third world nation. Be worthy of naught but sending your children to die in foreign lands so the Sheiks and despots can live securely in their palaces.
We need to keep our children home and in school. We need to pay them to become the best of the brightest. We cannot keep turning to other nations for our doctors and engineers.
We need to pay for universal healthcare – we need healthy workers to pay the debts the GOP has amassed. To do less is to kill the goose which lays the golden eggs. Labor is, after all, the foundation upon which profits and wealth are built.
_____________________________________________________
Of course, the majority might decide race and gender trump the survival of America. In that case, let them have that which they wish for themselves and their posterity – they can begin by converting to Islam and then move on to learning to speak Chinese.
_____________________________________________________
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Windows VISTA
To digress ... just bought a new laptop ... with VISTA ... because they discontinued XP ... now I understand the negatives I've read for the past two years.
One would think a billion dollar company could overcome stupidity within its work force ... incompetence shall we call it? But that has been a hallmark of Microsoft from the start. They are noted for sloppy programming -- always have been. If they did tight programs, their software would use less memory. sigh ... but wealth gravitates to idiots ... if not so, Bush would not be President and McCain wouldn't even be deemed a competitor for the office.
Still ... VISTA is the subject.
Granted, it has some good features. But mostly overly complex navigational tools ... where is the old windows explorer? And what is this outdated BRIEFCASE garbage?
More interesting is the need to have the USB port in service when using Corel Quatropro ... why set the system to abuse standard software? Why weirdness?
Oh well the last thing I intend is to write an essay on programming. It's about time Gates learned how to do it right ... or, at the very least, how to supervise programmers.
One would think a billion dollar company could overcome stupidity within its work force ... incompetence shall we call it? But that has been a hallmark of Microsoft from the start. They are noted for sloppy programming -- always have been. If they did tight programs, their software would use less memory. sigh ... but wealth gravitates to idiots ... if not so, Bush would not be President and McCain wouldn't even be deemed a competitor for the office.
Still ... VISTA is the subject.
Granted, it has some good features. But mostly overly complex navigational tools ... where is the old windows explorer? And what is this outdated BRIEFCASE garbage?
More interesting is the need to have the USB port in service when using Corel Quatropro ... why set the system to abuse standard software? Why weirdness?
Oh well the last thing I intend is to write an essay on programming. It's about time Gates learned how to do it right ... or, at the very least, how to supervise programmers.
You were warned
A very comments from the news
1. “The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.”
2. "We’re in the middle of a financial crisis, but most economists say there is a broader economic crisis still to come. The unemployment rate will shoot upward. Companies will go bankrupt. Commercial real estate values will decline. Credit card defaults will rise. The nonprofit sector will be hammered.
"By the time the recession is in full force, Democrats will probably be running the government. Barack Obama will probably be in the White House. Democrats will have a comfortable majority in the House and will control between 56 and 60 seats in the Senate."
3. "For six years, Vice President Dick Cheney and other hard-liners managed to block any serious talks with North Korea. In that time, North Korea’s scientists produced enough plutonium for at least four more weapons — in addition to the one or two already believed to be in its arsenal — and tested a nuclear weapon. There is no way that strategy can be considered a success."
___________________________________
The above are associated with the New York Times of 14 October 2008.
Readers of my Downeast (Machias Valley News Observer) Column -- or this and related blogs -- know that I warned about Bush before his first election ... but wanted him elected so I could see if I was correct about the harm his administration would bring down upon us. I obviously was correct.
Readers are also aware that -- as the Dow Industrials passed 12000 and moved toward 14000 I warned that we needed to correct immediately ... or face a fall to 8000. Well, the markets continued up, reached their artificial peak and have been headed down ever since. The DOW bounced at 8300. Unless we get the game together, unless Obama wins a clear and decisive victory, expect the dow to see 4500 before it sees a new record high.
NATIONALIZATION ... SOCIALIZATION ... Bush, following the Reagan agenda, has said Social Security should be privatized -- your money should have been in the failed stock markets and not guaranteed by the Federal Government ... which now has the problem of guaranteeing the whole American Banking System -- and thus ensuring the soundness of the WORLD BANKING SYSTEM! Yep ... the system which could not be trusted to ensure your retirement is not ensuring the economy of the industrialized world.
We can socialize banks, but not medical care? We can reward those who lent money to those who had no jobs, income or assets -- the NINJA loan system. We can reward them by bailing them out without them feeling any of the pain they have caused us. That is, after all, the Republican way. It is the Fundamentalist Christian way ... no law, no regulation, just faith that the supreme powers which control all market forces, and all forces which affect our daily lives, will turn a blind eye to those who didn't care about their neighbor ... and ultimately punish those who obey the rules, place rules (build a wall around Torah) to ensure the rules are obeyed, and work to help their neighbors.
REALITY CHECK. We are withing weeks of the election and the decision as to the survival of the American Experiment. How will we vote? For or against our basic survival?
The clock is ticking.
1. “The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.”
2. "We’re in the middle of a financial crisis, but most economists say there is a broader economic crisis still to come. The unemployment rate will shoot upward. Companies will go bankrupt. Commercial real estate values will decline. Credit card defaults will rise. The nonprofit sector will be hammered.
"By the time the recession is in full force, Democrats will probably be running the government. Barack Obama will probably be in the White House. Democrats will have a comfortable majority in the House and will control between 56 and 60 seats in the Senate."
3. "For six years, Vice President Dick Cheney and other hard-liners managed to block any serious talks with North Korea. In that time, North Korea’s scientists produced enough plutonium for at least four more weapons — in addition to the one or two already believed to be in its arsenal — and tested a nuclear weapon. There is no way that strategy can be considered a success."
___________________________________
The above are associated with the New York Times of 14 October 2008.
Readers of my Downeast (Machias Valley News Observer) Column -- or this and related blogs -- know that I warned about Bush before his first election ... but wanted him elected so I could see if I was correct about the harm his administration would bring down upon us. I obviously was correct.
Readers are also aware that -- as the Dow Industrials passed 12000 and moved toward 14000 I warned that we needed to correct immediately ... or face a fall to 8000. Well, the markets continued up, reached their artificial peak and have been headed down ever since. The DOW bounced at 8300. Unless we get the game together, unless Obama wins a clear and decisive victory, expect the dow to see 4500 before it sees a new record high.
NATIONALIZATION ... SOCIALIZATION ... Bush, following the Reagan agenda, has said Social Security should be privatized -- your money should have been in the failed stock markets and not guaranteed by the Federal Government ... which now has the problem of guaranteeing the whole American Banking System -- and thus ensuring the soundness of the WORLD BANKING SYSTEM! Yep ... the system which could not be trusted to ensure your retirement is not ensuring the economy of the industrialized world.
We can socialize banks, but not medical care? We can reward those who lent money to those who had no jobs, income or assets -- the NINJA loan system. We can reward them by bailing them out without them feeling any of the pain they have caused us. That is, after all, the Republican way. It is the Fundamentalist Christian way ... no law, no regulation, just faith that the supreme powers which control all market forces, and all forces which affect our daily lives, will turn a blind eye to those who didn't care about their neighbor ... and ultimately punish those who obey the rules, place rules (build a wall around Torah) to ensure the rules are obeyed, and work to help their neighbors.
REALITY CHECK. We are withing weeks of the election and the decision as to the survival of the American Experiment. How will we vote? For or against our basic survival?
The clock is ticking.
Monday, October 6, 2008
“THE END IS AT HAND!”
TOTAL NATION DEBT, as of 6 October: $10.2 Trillion and growing at $3.2 Billion a day. FOUR BILLION due to Bush Administration which had entered office with a surplus budget which was reducing the debt. The estimated population of the United States is 305 million so each citizen's share of this debt is $33 thousand. Of that, $13.5 thousand is due to Bush/GOP economic policies. Note that this amount does not include the nearly three-quarters of a Trillion Dollars enacted on October 4th – about $2,300 more per-person debt (future tax) liability.
Jimmy Carter was the last post-war president to reduce debt accrued in World War II. While Clinton was saddled with paying off debt accrued by Reagan-Bush borrow and spend policies.
In the space of a mere twelve years, the Reagan-Bush VooDoo economic policies managed to fully reverse both the policy and rate of Federal Debt Reduction which had been in place for over thirty-five years (from Truman to Carter). For average Americans, those debt reduction policies defined created the most prosperous period in their history. Note that, for all the social turmoil a Nixon GOP administration produced, the Kennedy-Johnson Vietnam War era produced the steepest drops in National Debt and the greatest expansion of freedoms and personal security.
Let’s put that in perspective: In FY 2009, SSA will pay $683 billion in Federal benefits to nearly 56 million people. The fiscal meltdown resulting from GOP deregulation practices, begun by Reagan and promoted by both Bush presidents, last wee, cost more than the total projected Social Security payments for FY 2009.
Social Security payments, when represented as a percentage of National Debt, are six point three percent (6.3) – or roughly the debt service interest on the National Debt. Put another way, rather than debt interest, if we paid the Social Security, all funds received from payroll taxes could go to expanding the social safety net – without any effect on the economy or current tax structure. We could actually lower taxes for the average person without any detrimental effect on national security or government programs.
If we recall that Bush insisted the Social Security was going broke, and that your social security funds should go into the stock market – you realize that this Harvard and Yale traded executive, who made his millions by having his businesses go broke, who knew full well what was going to happen, wanted you to be in poverty. The GOP has been, since Reagan, seeking to bankrupt the average person – all the better to create a slave population.
In a few weeks you will have the opportunity to, and will, decide if you want more of these GOP policies. You will decide if you want a strong America, or a broken and destroyed one.
Remember, eight years ago you were warned what a Bush victory would bring. Now, based on all the (oft ignored) evidence out there, you are warned what a McCain-Palin, and general GOP, victory will ensure. This time around, the victory of any Republican, anywhere, will cast the seeds of national turmoil and destruction.
The famous sign carried by a street corner evangelical nutcase: “THE END IS NEAR!”
This is the year when we either endorse, or bring to an end, a twenty years pattern of borrow and spend Republican policies. This is when a GOP voter majority surrenders all hope of salvation for the generations to come. This is when voters decide they like impoverishing their child, and their children’s children by empowering McCain and, via mid-term succession, then Palin to take away their freedom, their liberty, and their wealth. “THE END IS NEAR” or not – voter choice.
Jimmy Carter was the last post-war president to reduce debt accrued in World War II. While Clinton was saddled with paying off debt accrued by Reagan-Bush borrow and spend policies.
In the space of a mere twelve years, the Reagan-Bush VooDoo economic policies managed to fully reverse both the policy and rate of Federal Debt Reduction which had been in place for over thirty-five years (from Truman to Carter). For average Americans, those debt reduction policies defined created the most prosperous period in their history. Note that, for all the social turmoil a Nixon GOP administration produced, the Kennedy-Johnson Vietnam War era produced the steepest drops in National Debt and the greatest expansion of freedoms and personal security.
Let’s put that in perspective: In FY 2009, SSA will pay $683 billion in Federal benefits to nearly 56 million people. The fiscal meltdown resulting from GOP deregulation practices, begun by Reagan and promoted by both Bush presidents, last wee, cost more than the total projected Social Security payments for FY 2009.
Social Security payments, when represented as a percentage of National Debt, are six point three percent (6.3) – or roughly the debt service interest on the National Debt. Put another way, rather than debt interest, if we paid the Social Security, all funds received from payroll taxes could go to expanding the social safety net – without any effect on the economy or current tax structure. We could actually lower taxes for the average person without any detrimental effect on national security or government programs.
If we recall that Bush insisted the Social Security was going broke, and that your social security funds should go into the stock market – you realize that this Harvard and Yale traded executive, who made his millions by having his businesses go broke, who knew full well what was going to happen, wanted you to be in poverty. The GOP has been, since Reagan, seeking to bankrupt the average person – all the better to create a slave population.
In a few weeks you will have the opportunity to, and will, decide if you want more of these GOP policies. You will decide if you want a strong America, or a broken and destroyed one.
Remember, eight years ago you were warned what a Bush victory would bring. Now, based on all the (oft ignored) evidence out there, you are warned what a McCain-Palin, and general GOP, victory will ensure. This time around, the victory of any Republican, anywhere, will cast the seeds of national turmoil and destruction.
The famous sign carried by a street corner evangelical nutcase: “THE END IS NEAR!”
This is the year when we either endorse, or bring to an end, a twenty years pattern of borrow and spend Republican policies. This is when a GOP voter majority surrenders all hope of salvation for the generations to come. This is when voters decide they like impoverishing their child, and their children’s children by empowering McCain and, via mid-term succession, then Palin to take away their freedom, their liberty, and their wealth. “THE END IS NEAR” or not – voter choice.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Crystal Night Redux
Well, we are off to the races presidential. Obama picks Joe Biden – a name and personality known to world leaders and all those who have not been in a cave for the past twenty years. That is, with the exception of Bin Laden – whose cave is probably better equipped than either most hospitals and/or the average Maine home.
In response to Obama acing out Clinton, McCain picks an unknown Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin – who happens to be a mother of five and five months pregnant with number six; as of this writing, no word on just how pregnant her unmarried seventeen year old daughter is. Of course the Gov is a Right-wing fundamentalists determined to ram her concept of morality down the throat of every woman in the nation – I guess that reduces to, “become, or raise, an underage unwed mother”. Naturally she is an advocate of gun ownership rights – how else could there be a shotgun wedding?
Good move for a party that touts it’s concept of morality in the context of a total absence of choice. And there’s more.
Shades of another GOP VP – Theodore Spiros Agnew – Governor Palin is has needed to hire a representation in the face of a range of possible ethical, or criminal, violations ... all committed in her brief two years as Alaskan chief executive. No matter.
Speaking of Agnew: One must recall that he was associated with Nixon; and Nixon was associated with the police brutality at the Chicago convention. Is it really six degrees of Presidential Convention contact? Hum. That was 1968, during the final days of an irrational and unpopular war, and here we are in 2008, with another unpopular and irrational war – one which now threatens to bankrupt America and reduce it to some level below “third world.”
Regardless. It seems St. Paul, Minnesota authorities decided the recent convention was to be preceded by “pre-emptive” police raid in which nationally known reports were handcuffed and – in violation of both the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions – their cameras confiscated. Other reporters were interfered with as they attempted to cover the breaking story.
As in 1968, those attacked by police were associated with the term “hippie” and represented individuals seeking to exercise their civil right to protest an illegal war based upon lies, deceit and the abuse of presidential war powers – not to mention actions which threaten total dissipation of the youth, wealth and honor of the Nation. Of course, no actual crimes had been committed. The basis of the pre-emptive strike was the possession of common household items – like kitchen knives and boy scout hatchets.
In view of the claims made by the law enforcement officials responsible, it strikes me that there is an alternative motive behind the GOP support and promotion of gun. If you own a gun, the government can, on a whim, break down your door and arrest you – as a pre-emptive act to stop you from using the gun to commit an undefined or determined crime. Given the current administration’s disregard for Civil, or Constitutional, Rights – and McCain’s support of the administration’s positions in that regard – it would appear that the government is testing alternative methodologies for the eventual abolition of the current government. Remember, though many forget, that things must be done legally – despite the 1938 KRISTALLNACHT, the night of the broken glass – even Hitler was elected in a democratic manner consistent with GOP politics.
As those familiar with my views might recall: Prior to Bush’s election I pondered if he would be as bad a president as I believed the record indicated. Then, eight years ago, I didn’t mind people voting for him – I wanted to see if my analysis was correct. I’m still waiting for the shoe to drop on Iran; but otherwise I seem to have underestimated the American willingness for, or drive toward, self-destruction. This election will most certainly establish the extremes we will go to in our desire to restore the age of kings and dictators, and so end this most “grand experiment.”
To close with a reminder of what McCain has promised: 1) we could stay involved in this ten billion dollar a month Middle Eastern debacle for one hundred years; 2) we can free ourselves from dependence on foreign fuels by depleting our own reserves – which are a third to a tenth of what Iraq, Iran, Saudis and Russians hold; 3) if we used our oil reserves to create a short-term reduction in energy prices, we could be dry before the next president leaves office; our military requires oil far more than private consumers – without secure domestic oil resources, our tanks and planes cease to function. Taken together, the GOP plan seems to be total and irrevokable unilateral disarmament concurrent with the bankruptcy of the nation.
That irrefutable reality indicates that, come November, the vote will be pro-America for Obama-Biden verses those who join the third of the population actively seeking to destroy this nation.
___________________________________________________________________
In response to Obama acing out Clinton, McCain picks an unknown Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin – who happens to be a mother of five and five months pregnant with number six; as of this writing, no word on just how pregnant her unmarried seventeen year old daughter is. Of course the Gov is a Right-wing fundamentalists determined to ram her concept of morality down the throat of every woman in the nation – I guess that reduces to, “become, or raise, an underage unwed mother”. Naturally she is an advocate of gun ownership rights – how else could there be a shotgun wedding?
Good move for a party that touts it’s concept of morality in the context of a total absence of choice. And there’s more.
Shades of another GOP VP – Theodore Spiros Agnew – Governor Palin is has needed to hire a representation in the face of a range of possible ethical, or criminal, violations ... all committed in her brief two years as Alaskan chief executive. No matter.
Speaking of Agnew: One must recall that he was associated with Nixon; and Nixon was associated with the police brutality at the Chicago convention. Is it really six degrees of Presidential Convention contact? Hum. That was 1968, during the final days of an irrational and unpopular war, and here we are in 2008, with another unpopular and irrational war – one which now threatens to bankrupt America and reduce it to some level below “third world.”
Regardless. It seems St. Paul, Minnesota authorities decided the recent convention was to be preceded by “pre-emptive” police raid in which nationally known reports were handcuffed and – in violation of both the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions – their cameras confiscated. Other reporters were interfered with as they attempted to cover the breaking story.
As in 1968, those attacked by police were associated with the term “hippie” and represented individuals seeking to exercise their civil right to protest an illegal war based upon lies, deceit and the abuse of presidential war powers – not to mention actions which threaten total dissipation of the youth, wealth and honor of the Nation. Of course, no actual crimes had been committed. The basis of the pre-emptive strike was the possession of common household items – like kitchen knives and boy scout hatchets.
In view of the claims made by the law enforcement officials responsible, it strikes me that there is an alternative motive behind the GOP support and promotion of gun. If you own a gun, the government can, on a whim, break down your door and arrest you – as a pre-emptive act to stop you from using the gun to commit an undefined or determined crime. Given the current administration’s disregard for Civil, or Constitutional, Rights – and McCain’s support of the administration’s positions in that regard – it would appear that the government is testing alternative methodologies for the eventual abolition of the current government. Remember, though many forget, that things must be done legally – despite the 1938 KRISTALLNACHT, the night of the broken glass – even Hitler was elected in a democratic manner consistent with GOP politics.
As those familiar with my views might recall: Prior to Bush’s election I pondered if he would be as bad a president as I believed the record indicated. Then, eight years ago, I didn’t mind people voting for him – I wanted to see if my analysis was correct. I’m still waiting for the shoe to drop on Iran; but otherwise I seem to have underestimated the American willingness for, or drive toward, self-destruction. This election will most certainly establish the extremes we will go to in our desire to restore the age of kings and dictators, and so end this most “grand experiment.”
To close with a reminder of what McCain has promised: 1) we could stay involved in this ten billion dollar a month Middle Eastern debacle for one hundred years; 2) we can free ourselves from dependence on foreign fuels by depleting our own reserves – which are a third to a tenth of what Iraq, Iran, Saudis and Russians hold; 3) if we used our oil reserves to create a short-term reduction in energy prices, we could be dry before the next president leaves office; our military requires oil far more than private consumers – without secure domestic oil resources, our tanks and planes cease to function. Taken together, the GOP plan seems to be total and irrevokable unilateral disarmament concurrent with the bankruptcy of the nation.
That irrefutable reality indicates that, come November, the vote will be pro-America for Obama-Biden verses those who join the third of the population actively seeking to destroy this nation.
___________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
"The full quiver theology" (Psalm 127: 3-5)
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Date Line July 9, 2008
"The full quiver theology" (Psalm 127: 3-5): "Children are a heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. As arrows in a soldier's hand, so are the sons of the young. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them."
This is the newest presentation of a theologian of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Included in this is the idea that beating women is the natural consequence of their lack of proper submission to their divine purpose – not the least of which is unlimited procreation.
Think of this theology – find it revolting? Is it as revolting as most fundamentalist doctrine – more or less so?
Think of this theology and place it in the context of military analogy and the one child policy of China – hardly a theocratic doctrine. Now think about the FORTY MILLION Chinese male surplus – the number of young men in excess of young women in today’s China – and in that context consider how many soldiers China can mobilize without disturbing its traditional family structures and values.
“As arrows in a soldier's hand.” As a military force at an aggressor’s command.
World oil. China’s economic and military might. How long will it take our Republican leadership to disarm America and open the door to our learning Chinese?
Don’t get it? America, the third largest oil producer, ranks twelfth in oil reserves. That seems to imply we are pumping out oil faster than nine of the eleven who have more oil than we do. Let’s say we all the other two pump the same percentage of their reserves – they deplete their oil at the same rate we do.
But to be a larger producer, when you have larger reserves, you only need to pump at a rate slightly higher than the next guy – and, because he’s pumping a higher percentage of his reserves, he delete them much faster.
Let’s say we pumped on par with the guys ahead of us – how many time longer could they pump after we went dry: Saudi Arabia 12.5; Canada 8.5; Iran 6.5; Iraq 5.5; Kuwait 4.8; United Arab Emirates 4.7; Russia 3.8; Venezuela 2.9; Libya 1.7; Nigeria 1.7; Kazakhstan 1.4.
George Bush and John McCain are saying – very loudly – that the answer to high energy costs is for America should pump more and deplete its reserves faster.
China has three quarters of our reserves. If they pumped at the rate we do, they would go dry long before us. ARE THEY? Or are they buying oil from other nations and holding their own in reserve?
The game is one of who goes dry first. Look at the list. Canada and Nigeria are the only two nations we have not angered, been in conflict with, or denounced the religion of. If you think the Saudis should have a third place on that list – keep this in mind: nineteen of the twenty involved in destroying the World Trade Center were Saudis and the attack was masterminded by a Saudi whose family is closely related to, and has the ear of, the Saudi Royal family.
When we go dry, who do we expect to buy from? Canada is now our largest supplier; followed by the Saudis and Mexico. We don’t want Mexicans here – the Republicans have built their immigration policy, one that has been successful with many voters, on that fact.
Consider our long-term national defense issues. If we have no oil we cannot power our military machines. If we go to nuclear – we have demonstrated we lack the resolve to dedicate the trillion dollars needed for permanent long-term waste storage and so would be creating more temporary storage facilities. Those cooling pools are exactly what a terrorist would want to target – not to mention a military power seeking to cause the most loss of life with the least long-term damage to infrastructure.
National security – close the oil fields until potential enemies are out of oil; produce electric with solar on every roof and windmills in every yard, on top of every mountain, and off every coast. Electric Vehicles must become the norm, and they must have skins made of solar cells.
We need to eliminated the need for oil and use bio-oil for lubrication – fossil oil must be reserved for future military needs. Or we learn top pray to Allah and speak Russian or Chinese.
_____________________________________________________
Date Line July 9, 2008
"The full quiver theology" (Psalm 127: 3-5): "Children are a heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. As arrows in a soldier's hand, so are the sons of the young. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them."
This is the newest presentation of a theologian of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Included in this is the idea that beating women is the natural consequence of their lack of proper submission to their divine purpose – not the least of which is unlimited procreation.
Think of this theology – find it revolting? Is it as revolting as most fundamentalist doctrine – more or less so?
Think of this theology and place it in the context of military analogy and the one child policy of China – hardly a theocratic doctrine. Now think about the FORTY MILLION Chinese male surplus – the number of young men in excess of young women in today’s China – and in that context consider how many soldiers China can mobilize without disturbing its traditional family structures and values.
“As arrows in a soldier's hand.” As a military force at an aggressor’s command.
World oil. China’s economic and military might. How long will it take our Republican leadership to disarm America and open the door to our learning Chinese?
Don’t get it? America, the third largest oil producer, ranks twelfth in oil reserves. That seems to imply we are pumping out oil faster than nine of the eleven who have more oil than we do. Let’s say we all the other two pump the same percentage of their reserves – they deplete their oil at the same rate we do.
But to be a larger producer, when you have larger reserves, you only need to pump at a rate slightly higher than the next guy – and, because he’s pumping a higher percentage of his reserves, he delete them much faster.
Let’s say we pumped on par with the guys ahead of us – how many time longer could they pump after we went dry: Saudi Arabia 12.5; Canada 8.5; Iran 6.5; Iraq 5.5; Kuwait 4.8; United Arab Emirates 4.7; Russia 3.8; Venezuela 2.9; Libya 1.7; Nigeria 1.7; Kazakhstan 1.4.
George Bush and John McCain are saying – very loudly – that the answer to high energy costs is for America should pump more and deplete its reserves faster.
China has three quarters of our reserves. If they pumped at the rate we do, they would go dry long before us. ARE THEY? Or are they buying oil from other nations and holding their own in reserve?
The game is one of who goes dry first. Look at the list. Canada and Nigeria are the only two nations we have not angered, been in conflict with, or denounced the religion of. If you think the Saudis should have a third place on that list – keep this in mind: nineteen of the twenty involved in destroying the World Trade Center were Saudis and the attack was masterminded by a Saudi whose family is closely related to, and has the ear of, the Saudi Royal family.
When we go dry, who do we expect to buy from? Canada is now our largest supplier; followed by the Saudis and Mexico. We don’t want Mexicans here – the Republicans have built their immigration policy, one that has been successful with many voters, on that fact.
Consider our long-term national defense issues. If we have no oil we cannot power our military machines. If we go to nuclear – we have demonstrated we lack the resolve to dedicate the trillion dollars needed for permanent long-term waste storage and so would be creating more temporary storage facilities. Those cooling pools are exactly what a terrorist would want to target – not to mention a military power seeking to cause the most loss of life with the least long-term damage to infrastructure.
National security – close the oil fields until potential enemies are out of oil; produce electric with solar on every roof and windmills in every yard, on top of every mountain, and off every coast. Electric Vehicles must become the norm, and they must have skins made of solar cells.
We need to eliminated the need for oil and use bio-oil for lubrication – fossil oil must be reserved for future military needs. Or we learn top pray to Allah and speak Russian or Chinese.
_____________________________________________________
President McCain’s Budget Plans
______________________________________________________________________
On March 5th , George W Bush used these words to endorse John McCain’s presidential replacement bid: "John showed incredible courage, strength of character and perseverance in order to get to this moment and that's exactly what we need in a president — somebody who can handle the tough decisions, somebody who won't flinch in the face of danger."
Of course, many of us recall Bush’s endorsement of the way the New Orleans crisis was being handled: “Brownie you’re doing a heck of a job.” Brownie was FEMA Director Michael DeWayne Brown, and the words were spoken on September 2nd 2005; within a month Brown had to resigned in disgrace over his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – for which the praise was given. We know from past experience, every time Bush has praised someone, or something, it has turned out to be a debacle of historic proportions. George W is a consistent cheerleader for losing teams; can we expect any more from his praise of John McCain? What does McCain now propose for America?
We know Bush has produced a record half trillion dollar Budget deficit and is single handedly responsible for one third of the current National Debt. But what could we expect from a President McCain? For that answer, we need only look at the McCain Health Care Proposal – which is, effectively, a universal tax cut for all Americans.
Specifically, McCain has proposed a refundable tax credit, $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families for everyone buying private health insurance. McCain would also treat company provided health insurance as payroll tax exempt employee income.
It all sounds good – until you look at real numbers. For example, a family earning $60,000 and a typical employer-provided insurance policy that costs $12,100. Under the McCain plan, the family receives an immediate $7,100 taxable income increase ($12,100 - $5,000) for an increase in taxable household income and a net decrease in disposable income with the accompanying economic suppression (reverse stimulus) effect. As the income paid would remain deductible to the company, they would experience the credit as both income and tax neutral.
Of the roughly 115 million American households, about 78 million are families; thus the refundable family credit would decrease federal revenues by $360 billion dollars, with the remaining individual households adding another $92.5 billion. Effectively, McCain has proposed a doubling of the current Federal Deficit without address the real Health care problem – it’s basic cost.
We have all heard of the cheap Canadian system. Some are aware that 2008 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. The most recent figures I could find have the Canadian system costing about $1,000 per individual, and the UK system equates to1,500 pounds ($2,990) for every man, woman and child in the UK for a program which includes, cradle-to-grave the UK system, which covers both medical and dental with no point of service charges. It should also be pointed out, that while the UK system costs more than the Canadian, it also provides emergency coverage for immigrants and tourists at no cost.
Here in America, 59 million people, either delayed or did without needed medical care last year because they could not afford it. Here, the average cost for medical treatment is about $7,500 per person – that’s $4,500 more than the UK. The difference is accounted for in several ways. 1) The UK does not cover elective treatments such as Botox and tummy tucks; 2) as there is no co-pay or point of service patient billing, that provider accounting cost is nonexistent; 3) as the coverage is universal and cradle to grave, there is no need for Medicaid or Medicare with its associated bureaucratic functionaries; and most important, 4) as the medical providers function under a contract, there is no insurance company, or governmental clerical bureaucracy whose sole apparent, or effective, purpose is to deny or dispute claims for treatment rendered.
Consistent with the Bush endorsement, the McCain Health Care Proposal is another GOP Budget busting boondoggle intended to hurt both the American citizenry and economy. Of course, like Bush, McCain functions on multiple disruptive fronts. Both men have promoted increased domestic oil production as a short-term solution to our reliance on foreign oil. In that regard, Newsweek (July 7-14, pp 44) illustrates why American doesn’t have any oil for that purpose. We are twelfth in the world with regard to reserves and consume in a single year an amount equal to our total know reserves.
The Bush-McCain “pump more” advocacy would render us 100% dependent on foreign oil before the end of a McCain presidential term. More important, once we are out of oil, our military becomes dependent upon foreign powers to function; all of our military trucks, tank, ships and planes become dependent upon the good graces of Venezuelan dictators, or the stability of Middle Eastern Islamic potentates. And that is regardless of the price they will exact to provide each barrel of crude.
Consider, this is only a sample of the McCain Budget and security plan for America.
______________________________________________________________________
On March 5th , George W Bush used these words to endorse John McCain’s presidential replacement bid: "John showed incredible courage, strength of character and perseverance in order to get to this moment and that's exactly what we need in a president — somebody who can handle the tough decisions, somebody who won't flinch in the face of danger."
Of course, many of us recall Bush’s endorsement of the way the New Orleans crisis was being handled: “Brownie you’re doing a heck of a job.” Brownie was FEMA Director Michael DeWayne Brown, and the words were spoken on September 2nd 2005; within a month Brown had to resigned in disgrace over his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – for which the praise was given. We know from past experience, every time Bush has praised someone, or something, it has turned out to be a debacle of historic proportions. George W is a consistent cheerleader for losing teams; can we expect any more from his praise of John McCain? What does McCain now propose for America?
We know Bush has produced a record half trillion dollar Budget deficit and is single handedly responsible for one third of the current National Debt. But what could we expect from a President McCain? For that answer, we need only look at the McCain Health Care Proposal – which is, effectively, a universal tax cut for all Americans.
Specifically, McCain has proposed a refundable tax credit, $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families for everyone buying private health insurance. McCain would also treat company provided health insurance as payroll tax exempt employee income.
It all sounds good – until you look at real numbers. For example, a family earning $60,000 and a typical employer-provided insurance policy that costs $12,100. Under the McCain plan, the family receives an immediate $7,100 taxable income increase ($12,100 - $5,000) for an increase in taxable household income and a net decrease in disposable income with the accompanying economic suppression (reverse stimulus) effect. As the income paid would remain deductible to the company, they would experience the credit as both income and tax neutral.
Of the roughly 115 million American households, about 78 million are families; thus the refundable family credit would decrease federal revenues by $360 billion dollars, with the remaining individual households adding another $92.5 billion. Effectively, McCain has proposed a doubling of the current Federal Deficit without address the real Health care problem – it’s basic cost.
We have all heard of the cheap Canadian system. Some are aware that 2008 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. The most recent figures I could find have the Canadian system costing about $1,000 per individual, and the UK system equates to1,500 pounds ($2,990) for every man, woman and child in the UK for a program which includes, cradle-to-grave the UK system, which covers both medical and dental with no point of service charges. It should also be pointed out, that while the UK system costs more than the Canadian, it also provides emergency coverage for immigrants and tourists at no cost.
Here in America, 59 million people, either delayed or did without needed medical care last year because they could not afford it. Here, the average cost for medical treatment is about $7,500 per person – that’s $4,500 more than the UK. The difference is accounted for in several ways. 1) The UK does not cover elective treatments such as Botox and tummy tucks; 2) as there is no co-pay or point of service patient billing, that provider accounting cost is nonexistent; 3) as the coverage is universal and cradle to grave, there is no need for Medicaid or Medicare with its associated bureaucratic functionaries; and most important, 4) as the medical providers function under a contract, there is no insurance company, or governmental clerical bureaucracy whose sole apparent, or effective, purpose is to deny or dispute claims for treatment rendered.
Consistent with the Bush endorsement, the McCain Health Care Proposal is another GOP Budget busting boondoggle intended to hurt both the American citizenry and economy. Of course, like Bush, McCain functions on multiple disruptive fronts. Both men have promoted increased domestic oil production as a short-term solution to our reliance on foreign oil. In that regard, Newsweek (July 7-14, pp 44) illustrates why American doesn’t have any oil for that purpose. We are twelfth in the world with regard to reserves and consume in a single year an amount equal to our total know reserves.
The Bush-McCain “pump more” advocacy would render us 100% dependent on foreign oil before the end of a McCain presidential term. More important, once we are out of oil, our military becomes dependent upon foreign powers to function; all of our military trucks, tank, ships and planes become dependent upon the good graces of Venezuelan dictators, or the stability of Middle Eastern Islamic potentates. And that is regardless of the price they will exact to provide each barrel of crude.
Consider, this is only a sample of the McCain Budget and security plan for America.
______________________________________________________________________
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Questions about McCain's Record
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Date Line June 29, 2008
Speaking of John McCain’s qualifications – or lack thereof – Gen. Wesley Clark, stated: “I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”
Simple reality. When it came to surviving combat, McCain was incompetent. Moreover, the only recommendation he can obtain – talk about swift boating with meaning – the only recommendation he received was from the Viet Cong warden of the prison camp.
Makes you wonder just what these guys talked about in their regular private meetings – private meetings in the commandant’s office ... makes one wonder about the officers kept in tiger cages while McCain was being entertained and what McCain did to warrant the routine meetings the commandant spoke of.
Think about McCain on REAL national defense and security: McCain want offshore drilling for the purpose of short term – penny ante – effects on oil prices. Why “Penny Ante”? Because the suppression of Irag and Iran oil from the world market does more to increase energy costs that the drilling of America’s small reserves would ever do.
Long-term, if we use the oil today, we do not have it tomorrow. Seems obvious, and basic. Seems so simple a thought concept that it should be on the tip of the tongue for anyone talking about energy and national security.
If we use our oil to power SUV’s today, whose oil will we use for our fighters, tanks, and trucks tomorrow? Whose oil will the military rely upon when some oil rich nation decides America is ripe for the picking?
OK, so Russia isn’t the boogeyman it was in Reagan’s time; in the days of MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction; in the days when threats of a World War Three were the width and breath American foreign policy. Now terrorism is the thing – there is one chance in TEN THOUSAND of being injured or killed by a terrorist; and there is a one in THREE chance of needing emergency medical care which the Republicans routinely deny us – saying we can buy it ourselves at twice the world cost.
Hum. Ever wonder whose side the GOP represents? Is it the one that believes in the destruction of America and causing The Most Harm to the Most people?
As the dollar falls, oil prices must rise – oil is denominated in dollars and oil producers must retain their global purchasing power ... even if the average America is being denied theirs.
According to the Neocons, the Evangelicals, the Right-wing GOP, and all those who support them – which apparently includes the terrorists – America should pay interest to the rest of the world. America should support, via interest on our mindlessly expanding national debt, the growth of economies which – for most of the past sixty years – have been deemed our enemies. Wonder what the GOP talks about over meetings with our creditors? Over meetings with Socialist and other dictatorial powers? What do they promise when they pledge our wealth, and very survival, for money to expend on preventing oil rich nations from producing oil?
Have you heard? A Terrorist attack on America would be the best thing for the GOP! Terrorists, al-Qaeda and its ilk, have the deciding vote in the outcome of our elections. They remain quiet and Obama wins, they attack and McCain wins. McCain wins and, like Bush, his actions will promote al-Qaeda expansion and increase in energy costs.
One would think, were al-Qaeda anything more than a group of petty murderers, they would jump at the chance to control our elections. But they can do nothing; they need not do anything; the Republican Party will do all it can to destroy this nation while al-Qaeda types fight for the oil which will power their weapons of mass destruction – the weapons they will build when we have depleted our reserves and are full dependent upon foreign oil – the same Iraqi and Iranian oil we are ensuring does not reach before our reserves are depleted.
Our enemies know their friends. Let the Republicans lose and let them advocate depletion of our reserves; let them gain Congress and oppose a Democratic President; talk of a terrorist attack benefitting the GOP in the presidential race ... distract the public from the lack of an attack giving the GOP victory everywhere else.
_____________________________________________________
Date Line June 29, 2008
Speaking of John McCain’s qualifications – or lack thereof – Gen. Wesley Clark, stated: “I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”
Simple reality. When it came to surviving combat, McCain was incompetent. Moreover, the only recommendation he can obtain – talk about swift boating with meaning – the only recommendation he received was from the Viet Cong warden of the prison camp.
Makes you wonder just what these guys talked about in their regular private meetings – private meetings in the commandant’s office ... makes one wonder about the officers kept in tiger cages while McCain was being entertained and what McCain did to warrant the routine meetings the commandant spoke of.
Think about McCain on REAL national defense and security: McCain want offshore drilling for the purpose of short term – penny ante – effects on oil prices. Why “Penny Ante”? Because the suppression of Irag and Iran oil from the world market does more to increase energy costs that the drilling of America’s small reserves would ever do.
Long-term, if we use the oil today, we do not have it tomorrow. Seems obvious, and basic. Seems so simple a thought concept that it should be on the tip of the tongue for anyone talking about energy and national security.
If we use our oil to power SUV’s today, whose oil will we use for our fighters, tanks, and trucks tomorrow? Whose oil will the military rely upon when some oil rich nation decides America is ripe for the picking?
OK, so Russia isn’t the boogeyman it was in Reagan’s time; in the days of MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction; in the days when threats of a World War Three were the width and breath American foreign policy. Now terrorism is the thing – there is one chance in TEN THOUSAND of being injured or killed by a terrorist; and there is a one in THREE chance of needing emergency medical care which the Republicans routinely deny us – saying we can buy it ourselves at twice the world cost.
Hum. Ever wonder whose side the GOP represents? Is it the one that believes in the destruction of America and causing The Most Harm to the Most people?
As the dollar falls, oil prices must rise – oil is denominated in dollars and oil producers must retain their global purchasing power ... even if the average America is being denied theirs.
According to the Neocons, the Evangelicals, the Right-wing GOP, and all those who support them – which apparently includes the terrorists – America should pay interest to the rest of the world. America should support, via interest on our mindlessly expanding national debt, the growth of economies which – for most of the past sixty years – have been deemed our enemies. Wonder what the GOP talks about over meetings with our creditors? Over meetings with Socialist and other dictatorial powers? What do they promise when they pledge our wealth, and very survival, for money to expend on preventing oil rich nations from producing oil?
Have you heard? A Terrorist attack on America would be the best thing for the GOP! Terrorists, al-Qaeda and its ilk, have the deciding vote in the outcome of our elections. They remain quiet and Obama wins, they attack and McCain wins. McCain wins and, like Bush, his actions will promote al-Qaeda expansion and increase in energy costs.
One would think, were al-Qaeda anything more than a group of petty murderers, they would jump at the chance to control our elections. But they can do nothing; they need not do anything; the Republican Party will do all it can to destroy this nation while al-Qaeda types fight for the oil which will power their weapons of mass destruction – the weapons they will build when we have depleted our reserves and are full dependent upon foreign oil – the same Iraqi and Iranian oil we are ensuring does not reach before our reserves are depleted.
Our enemies know their friends. Let the Republicans lose and let them advocate depletion of our reserves; let them gain Congress and oppose a Democratic President; talk of a terrorist attack benefitting the GOP in the presidential race ... distract the public from the lack of an attack giving the GOP victory everywhere else.
_____________________________________________________
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Stolen Quotes on Love
This is from VelvetDreams@Mindsay.com
I thought it was neat:
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?' The answers they got were more poignant than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:
* 'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love. Rebecca- age 8
* 'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth. Billy - age 4
* 'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other. Karl - age 5
* 'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs. Chrissy - age 6
* 'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired. Terri - age 4
* 'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK. Danny - age 7
* 'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss' Emily - age 8
* 'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen. Bobby - age 7 (Cool huh!)
* 'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,' Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)
* 'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday. Noelle - age 7
* 'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well. Tommy - age 6
* 'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore. Cindy - age 8
* 'My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night. Clare - age 6
* 'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken. Elaine-age 5
* 'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford. Chris - age 7
* 'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day. Mary Ann - age 4
* 'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones. Lauren - age 4
* 'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you. Karen - age 7
* 'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross. Mark - age 6
* 'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget. Jessica - age 8
* And the final one - The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry.'
I thought it was neat:
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?' The answers they got were more poignant than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:
* 'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love. Rebecca- age 8
* 'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth. Billy - age 4
* 'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other. Karl - age 5
* 'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs. Chrissy - age 6
* 'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired. Terri - age 4
* 'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK. Danny - age 7
* 'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss' Emily - age 8
* 'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen. Bobby - age 7 (Cool huh!)
* 'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,' Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)
* 'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday. Noelle - age 7
* 'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well. Tommy - age 6
* 'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore. Cindy - age 8
* 'My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night. Clare - age 6
* 'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken. Elaine-age 5
* 'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford. Chris - age 7
* 'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day. Mary Ann - age 4
* 'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones. Lauren - age 4
* 'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you. Karen - age 7
* 'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross. Mark - age 6
* 'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget. Jessica - age 8
* And the final one - The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry.'
Michelle Obama and scriptual warning
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Date Line June 21, 2008
Religious Right – have they ever read the Bible?
One must seriously question their Biblical Knowledge, or even their honesty. If we listen to their verbatim quotes we would assume they know what it says – which means they intentionally go against it.
Think about the silence there exists with regard to their mindless attacks on Michelle Obama. Think about Moses, Aaron and Miriam when Miriam badmouthed Moses’ black wife. Possibly the only time God personally appeared to Aaron and Miriam was to rebuke them for race based gossip and specifically for Miriam’s snide remarks about the wife of Moses.
Is Barack Obama the modern Moses? We’ll need to see if he can save us from the Bush/McCain style Pharaoh and point us to the promised land; but that possible future aside, let’s focus on how God viewed racism. He made his prophet, his seer, Miriam, a leper in punishment for her comments.
Think about the Bible Belt. Has it prospered by its post slavery racism? Or has it been the butt of many a joke – an intellectual leper, where it had been the home of one of our first major Universities and birthplace of some of our greatest minds (those who became our founding fathers). God does not suffer racists with grace – not even those he previously selected to be his earthly voice.
But then, there are those who do not tie a Bible to their had and speak in liars condensation to those who know what is moral and right. Of them we wonder where the feminist morality lies. Why do they seem to fear a strong, competent, educated wife, mother, and career woman?
Where are the Liberals and those who support equal rights for all? Why are they noticeably silent? Why when her campaign went the way I had said it would over a year ago, were those who supported Clinton so open in their statements of support for McCain? Does the race of a highly qualified candidate trump the good of the nation? Is their own self worth and the future of their children so meaningless that they would see all destroyed because the qualified candidate is married to a black woman?
This is not about the race of the candidate – his mom is white and he is a blood relation to both Dick Cheney and Harry Truman. Granted both those relatives were seen as unpopular, and Cheney is destined to keep that reputation while Truman surpassed his heritage to take a positive place in both American and World History.
Is Barack a part of our history? His family certainly is: Harry Truman, the president who brought World War Two to a victorious end; Christopher Clark, a decorated Union Officer. There was a probably false, certainly unestablished, connection to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy; but even if real, it would be another National Leader in his bloodline.
Consider Bush one and two, all they can lay claim to is Prescott Bush – an American Senator, a racist and anti-Semite who helped fund Hitler and the Nazi war effort. We can see that traitor, anti-American conduct, runs in the Bush bloodline. We can see leadership there which believes in weakening our military, and not only plunging the nation into debt, but doing so to a nation which the Republicans had routinely branded as anti-God, anti-democracy and an enemy. At least Bush is consistent to both his roots and his Right-wing supporters.
What of the Heir-apparent to the Bush legacy? John McCain, a man who seeks victory in a religious sectarian civil war where the victor can only be an outside faction whose agenda includes our destruction and whose leadership has declared, as a primary goal, our incurring a Trillion Dollar deficit. Those with the ears to hear and eyes to see have already learned that we are nearly half way there – having gone from a budget surplus to record deficits without any national benefit.
It is now June. In November we either seal our fate, or move toward achieving our historic promise. Which objective is best served by the attacks on Michelle?
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Date Line June 21, 2008
Religious Right – have they ever read the Bible?
One must seriously question their Biblical Knowledge, or even their honesty. If we listen to their verbatim quotes we would assume they know what it says – which means they intentionally go against it.
Think about the silence there exists with regard to their mindless attacks on Michelle Obama. Think about Moses, Aaron and Miriam when Miriam badmouthed Moses’ black wife. Possibly the only time God personally appeared to Aaron and Miriam was to rebuke them for race based gossip and specifically for Miriam’s snide remarks about the wife of Moses.
Is Barack Obama the modern Moses? We’ll need to see if he can save us from the Bush/McCain style Pharaoh and point us to the promised land; but that possible future aside, let’s focus on how God viewed racism. He made his prophet, his seer, Miriam, a leper in punishment for her comments.
Think about the Bible Belt. Has it prospered by its post slavery racism? Or has it been the butt of many a joke – an intellectual leper, where it had been the home of one of our first major Universities and birthplace of some of our greatest minds (those who became our founding fathers). God does not suffer racists with grace – not even those he previously selected to be his earthly voice.
But then, there are those who do not tie a Bible to their had and speak in liars condensation to those who know what is moral and right. Of them we wonder where the feminist morality lies. Why do they seem to fear a strong, competent, educated wife, mother, and career woman?
Where are the Liberals and those who support equal rights for all? Why are they noticeably silent? Why when her campaign went the way I had said it would over a year ago, were those who supported Clinton so open in their statements of support for McCain? Does the race of a highly qualified candidate trump the good of the nation? Is their own self worth and the future of their children so meaningless that they would see all destroyed because the qualified candidate is married to a black woman?
This is not about the race of the candidate – his mom is white and he is a blood relation to both Dick Cheney and Harry Truman. Granted both those relatives were seen as unpopular, and Cheney is destined to keep that reputation while Truman surpassed his heritage to take a positive place in both American and World History.
Is Barack a part of our history? His family certainly is: Harry Truman, the president who brought World War Two to a victorious end; Christopher Clark, a decorated Union Officer. There was a probably false, certainly unestablished, connection to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy; but even if real, it would be another National Leader in his bloodline.
Consider Bush one and two, all they can lay claim to is Prescott Bush – an American Senator, a racist and anti-Semite who helped fund Hitler and the Nazi war effort. We can see that traitor, anti-American conduct, runs in the Bush bloodline. We can see leadership there which believes in weakening our military, and not only plunging the nation into debt, but doing so to a nation which the Republicans had routinely branded as anti-God, anti-democracy and an enemy. At least Bush is consistent to both his roots and his Right-wing supporters.
What of the Heir-apparent to the Bush legacy? John McCain, a man who seeks victory in a religious sectarian civil war where the victor can only be an outside faction whose agenda includes our destruction and whose leadership has declared, as a primary goal, our incurring a Trillion Dollar deficit. Those with the ears to hear and eyes to see have already learned that we are nearly half way there – having gone from a budget surplus to record deficits without any national benefit.
It is now June. In November we either seal our fate, or move toward achieving our historic promise. Which objective is best served by the attacks on Michelle?
____________________________________________________
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Texas Polygamy
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Date Line May 22, 2008
The Texas Superior Court has reversed a lower court ruling and held that Texas Human Services had no right to remove some 440 children from the custody of their parents after the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, claimed they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs. Which they were – but who cares?
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ believes that the bible has significance in how they should run their lives – their bible, now the one everyone else uses; and certainly not the Koran.
The Judaeo-Christian types should – if they every read the bible – would know that girls can be married rather young, and that all the patriarchs had more than one wife. The exception being Jesus, who either violated Judean – hence God’s laws – law by being single, or was homosexual.
There is the third option, revealed in the Church suppressed Gospel of Peter, which has Mary as Jesus’s apparent wife, and certainly as his lover. But there in lies yet another hypocritical logic problem for the fundamentalist Catholics and Evangelicals – if Jesus was here to fulfil the law, he had to have been married in his twenties; it matters not what he did in his thirties, he had to marry in his twenties, and he had to have fathered children. The law demands, and demanded, it.
But back to Texas. Seems the Texan logic is that the residence of an individual is not relevant when the women of the various households have a common sexual partner. If the male is shared, the households are unified into a single legal unit – they are legally one under the law.
That is the core of the Texas Human Services, and Texas Attorney General’s, argument. And I cheer it. Hence forth, if they both appeal, and prevail in that appeal of, the Superior Court ruling, Texas will have established a single household is created whenever a man has multiple sexual partners. Possibly future rulings will require that the relationships be ongoing; but certainly, legal marriage will not be a factor in creation of a common household unit across divergent residence.
Every man who picks up a ditzy blond in a bar will automatically incorporate her into an extended household. Will that be sufficient for tax purposes? If it is the law, and the courts hold it is the law, than most certainly it will apply.
Hum, now how will that play in a nation which already accepts the concept of “palimony”? Would one woman be able to sue the others in the extended household? What claims could be made on property? The polygamist marriage are not recognized and so ... HOLD IT!
HOLD IT! That is exactly what the Texas Attorney General has effectively argued – any polygamist marriage in Texas is legal and forms the basis for the unification of the households for the purpose of applying laws governing the Texas Department of Human Services.
Texas has argued, or is in the process of setting the president for, declaring polygamy legal. California and Massachusetts have both declared same sex marriage legal; Texas is now working to introduce polygamy and over turn the idea of one-man-one-woman marriage.
YEA! Texas. Polygamy legal! That means divorce is no longer need marry that mistress – think of the savings in legal fees, think of the savings in family disruption, think of how nice it will be when Bush and his Saudi masters finally allow Islam to prevail.
OH... I need to apologize for a prior posting. I projected 2037 as the year oil will be gone. A recent IGA pre-report release has stated that the official estimate to be formalized by November will be 2030. It is therefore necessary to state that the Iraq nonsense will reduce that to 2026, and – should we attack Iran – 2020.
OK so we will be out of oil, the Islamic rulers will take over Iraq and Iran – hence controlling the only existing oil supply. Therefore, the Islamic prophecy of a world dominated by Islam will come to pass sometime in the presidency which begins in 2016 – at the end of the second term for the President elected this November. The Islamic overseers sent to govern America will therefore be legally allowed to bring all four of their wives.
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Date Line May 22, 2008
The Texas Superior Court has reversed a lower court ruling and held that Texas Human Services had no right to remove some 440 children from the custody of their parents after the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, claimed they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs. Which they were – but who cares?
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ believes that the bible has significance in how they should run their lives – their bible, now the one everyone else uses; and certainly not the Koran.
The Judaeo-Christian types should – if they every read the bible – would know that girls can be married rather young, and that all the patriarchs had more than one wife. The exception being Jesus, who either violated Judean – hence God’s laws – law by being single, or was homosexual.
There is the third option, revealed in the Church suppressed Gospel of Peter, which has Mary as Jesus’s apparent wife, and certainly as his lover. But there in lies yet another hypocritical logic problem for the fundamentalist Catholics and Evangelicals – if Jesus was here to fulfil the law, he had to have been married in his twenties; it matters not what he did in his thirties, he had to marry in his twenties, and he had to have fathered children. The law demands, and demanded, it.
But back to Texas. Seems the Texan logic is that the residence of an individual is not relevant when the women of the various households have a common sexual partner. If the male is shared, the households are unified into a single legal unit – they are legally one under the law.
That is the core of the Texas Human Services, and Texas Attorney General’s, argument. And I cheer it. Hence forth, if they both appeal, and prevail in that appeal of, the Superior Court ruling, Texas will have established a single household is created whenever a man has multiple sexual partners. Possibly future rulings will require that the relationships be ongoing; but certainly, legal marriage will not be a factor in creation of a common household unit across divergent residence.
Every man who picks up a ditzy blond in a bar will automatically incorporate her into an extended household. Will that be sufficient for tax purposes? If it is the law, and the courts hold it is the law, than most certainly it will apply.
Hum, now how will that play in a nation which already accepts the concept of “palimony”? Would one woman be able to sue the others in the extended household? What claims could be made on property? The polygamist marriage are not recognized and so ... HOLD IT!
HOLD IT! That is exactly what the Texas Attorney General has effectively argued – any polygamist marriage in Texas is legal and forms the basis for the unification of the households for the purpose of applying laws governing the Texas Department of Human Services.
Texas has argued, or is in the process of setting the president for, declaring polygamy legal. California and Massachusetts have both declared same sex marriage legal; Texas is now working to introduce polygamy and over turn the idea of one-man-one-woman marriage.
YEA! Texas. Polygamy legal! That means divorce is no longer need marry that mistress – think of the savings in legal fees, think of the savings in family disruption, think of how nice it will be when Bush and his Saudi masters finally allow Islam to prevail.
OH... I need to apologize for a prior posting. I projected 2037 as the year oil will be gone. A recent IGA pre-report release has stated that the official estimate to be formalized by November will be 2030. It is therefore necessary to state that the Iraq nonsense will reduce that to 2026, and – should we attack Iran – 2020.
OK so we will be out of oil, the Islamic rulers will take over Iraq and Iran – hence controlling the only existing oil supply. Therefore, the Islamic prophecy of a world dominated by Islam will come to pass sometime in the presidency which begins in 2016 – at the end of the second term for the President elected this November. The Islamic overseers sent to govern America will therefore be legally allowed to bring all four of their wives.
_____________________________________________________
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
‘Imbalances of Power
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Date Line May 21, 2008
In a May 21st Op-Ed piece (‘Imbalances of Power’), Thomas L Friedman wrote, “It baffles me that President Bush would rather go to Saudi Arabia twice in four months and beg the Saudi king for an oil price break than ask the American people to drive 55 miles an hour, buy more fuel-efficient cars or accept a carbon tax or gasoline tax that might actually help free us from what he called our ‘addiction to oil.’”
But is it baffling to you? After all, you have read my musings and are aware that the name of the game is to cause rapid consumption of oil. If Bush can get more pumped, without any cutbacks un consumption, there is a possibility that he can live to see the final war.
What “final war”? HEY! You read it in previous blogs – this is the war that will be won by the people who have the only remaining oil supplies. OK. We all know that the Bush regime and its Evangelical Right-wing Conservative backers do NOT want America to be the one with the last drops of oil.
We know that because Ronald Reagan demonstrated it when he removed the solar collectors from the Whitehouse. Thereafter, it was a Republican Right-wing Congress which played games with fuel consumption standards. Think about it! In Europe cars get 35mpg and have since the 1960's – think the Ford Cortina and BMW of that period; and yes, I said “Ford”, the American car company which seems to have so much trouble surviving its native market.
When the 1974 oil embargo caused fuel lines here, Ford had the best selling car in England – the GT luxury model was better than anything on the road, with the possible exception of the BMW. Aside from price (BMW was far more costly), the only difference between the two cars was the hood latch.
Consider how big auto has killed itself. At today’s oil prices, General Motors – once the controlling force in America (Think Little Abner’s General Bullmoose) can be bout with five days of OPEC production. The nation with the oil can, in fifteen years, buy the military might of America. The Saudis will be that power – if the kowtowing of the Bush family serves as a yardstick.
When has a president had to beg another country for resources? When did America become Nazi Germany scrounging for oil and gas in the burnt out vehicles of its enemies?
The answer is, of course, when the Right-wing managed to subvert all that was America and convert it into this preeminent self-destructive, apocalyptic era seeking, third rate power. And yes, we are now a third rate power – a nation dependent on the third world for all the trappings of our extravagant lifestyle.
It is time for serious change. We can expect an obstructionist Right-wing and Democratic fifth columnists to continue their work. But it is now or never. Now, the next three presidential terms, are the controlling force in where the world will be – or if the world will be – when our grandchildren should be reaching maturity.
_____________________________________________________
Date Line May 21, 2008
In a May 21st Op-Ed piece (‘Imbalances of Power’), Thomas L Friedman wrote, “It baffles me that President Bush would rather go to Saudi Arabia twice in four months and beg the Saudi king for an oil price break than ask the American people to drive 55 miles an hour, buy more fuel-efficient cars or accept a carbon tax or gasoline tax that might actually help free us from what he called our ‘addiction to oil.’”
But is it baffling to you? After all, you have read my musings and are aware that the name of the game is to cause rapid consumption of oil. If Bush can get more pumped, without any cutbacks un consumption, there is a possibility that he can live to see the final war.
What “final war”? HEY! You read it in previous blogs – this is the war that will be won by the people who have the only remaining oil supplies. OK. We all know that the Bush regime and its Evangelical Right-wing Conservative backers do NOT want America to be the one with the last drops of oil.
We know that because Ronald Reagan demonstrated it when he removed the solar collectors from the Whitehouse. Thereafter, it was a Republican Right-wing Congress which played games with fuel consumption standards. Think about it! In Europe cars get 35mpg and have since the 1960's – think the Ford Cortina and BMW of that period; and yes, I said “Ford”, the American car company which seems to have so much trouble surviving its native market.
When the 1974 oil embargo caused fuel lines here, Ford had the best selling car in England – the GT luxury model was better than anything on the road, with the possible exception of the BMW. Aside from price (BMW was far more costly), the only difference between the two cars was the hood latch.
Consider how big auto has killed itself. At today’s oil prices, General Motors – once the controlling force in America (Think Little Abner’s General Bullmoose) can be bout with five days of OPEC production. The nation with the oil can, in fifteen years, buy the military might of America. The Saudis will be that power – if the kowtowing of the Bush family serves as a yardstick.
When has a president had to beg another country for resources? When did America become Nazi Germany scrounging for oil and gas in the burnt out vehicles of its enemies?
The answer is, of course, when the Right-wing managed to subvert all that was America and convert it into this preeminent self-destructive, apocalyptic era seeking, third rate power. And yes, we are now a third rate power – a nation dependent on the third world for all the trappings of our extravagant lifestyle.
It is time for serious change. We can expect an obstructionist Right-wing and Democratic fifth columnists to continue their work. But it is now or never. Now, the next three presidential terms, are the controlling force in where the world will be – or if the world will be – when our grandchildren should be reaching maturity.
_____________________________________________________
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Iraq and Palistian forever and ever
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Date Line May 18, 2008
Mr. Bush, long hailed as a true friend of Israel, said all those things:
1. There has to be “an end” to the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank “that began in 1967.”
2. Any peace agreement “must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people.”
3. “The establishment of the state of Palestine is long overdue. The Palestinian people deserve it.”
Bush recently was taken back – or taken down by a sixteen year old Islamic girl – when his interest in Jewish boys and Islamic girls meeting and dating lead to the question of them meeting at dances. It would appear that this graduate of Harvard and Yale, with one of his degrees in history, could not connect the idea that girls, who cannot be out with any non-related males, would go somewhere where strangers of the male kind would have their arms around the girls waist.
Any wonder that he has so egregiously screwed up the Iraq invasion and subsequent occupation? This clown has no idea of how Islam works; or how it works to those he is personally addressing.
Obama has lived in an Islamic nation, his father has been both Islamic and Christian, it is doubtful that Obama would make such a mistake. It is also doubtful that Obama would call for the creation of an Islamic nation adjoining Israel – setting aside a reality which see sufficient of them – one would ask how peaceful such a state would be.
Consider: Where the Palestinian live together they riot and kill each other based upon whether their form of Islam is Shiite or Sunni. So would the “new” Palestinian State be Shiite or Sunni? And who would decide?
Which ever was the official Islam the “new” Palestinian State, it would have to be imposed by “Christian” nations and immediately anger the excluded sect and all those nations, or peoples, which support that sect and its beliefs.
Any attempt to declare a non-sectarian “new” Palestinian State would obviously also be a Christian imposition. Moreover, the Palestinians and Iraqis have demonstrated their love for killing each other based on this fourteen hundred year old division. It follows that any the “new” Palestinian State would immediately fall into the same style of civil war Bush and his idiot followers have been denying exists in Iraq.
We could elect John McCain – he says he can win this by 2013. This being the invasion and occupation of Iraq. So, McCain has publically declared he can bring an end to fourteen hundred years of sectarian hatred and murder. McCain has declared he can subdue Iraq – for one most subdue and enemy in order to have victory over them – and thus create what? What type of Nation State would he leave after his “victory?” Or would he leave? It is likely that McCain envisions permanent occupation of Iraq – that hundred years occupation he spoke of – and even making Iraq a fifty-first American State. Is that what McCain has in mind? Is that “victory” – to incorporate warring Shiite and Sunni into America? Hardly realistic; but no more fanciful than the idea of a victory by 2013.
Why 2013? Is it because that is a year after the next election, the year the second term of the next president would begin? Or, given McCain’s advanced age, dose he expect to be dead? Hence the problem, the broken promise, would be his vice-president’s broken promise – a promise to be renounced as belonging to an old prisoner of war suffering from PTSD and given to irrational outbursts of anger.
Isn’t it nice. We have a choice between someone with real world experience with the Arab and Islamic world, and someone suffering from PTSD with delusions of a military victory which his people could not achieve against exactly the same type of enemy – the same in terms of motivation to evict an invading army which was intent on denying the people the government they were promised and choose.
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Date Line May 18, 2008
Mr. Bush, long hailed as a true friend of Israel, said all those things:
1. There has to be “an end” to the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank “that began in 1967.”
2. Any peace agreement “must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people.”
3. “The establishment of the state of Palestine is long overdue. The Palestinian people deserve it.”
Bush recently was taken back – or taken down by a sixteen year old Islamic girl – when his interest in Jewish boys and Islamic girls meeting and dating lead to the question of them meeting at dances. It would appear that this graduate of Harvard and Yale, with one of his degrees in history, could not connect the idea that girls, who cannot be out with any non-related males, would go somewhere where strangers of the male kind would have their arms around the girls waist.
Any wonder that he has so egregiously screwed up the Iraq invasion and subsequent occupation? This clown has no idea of how Islam works; or how it works to those he is personally addressing.
Obama has lived in an Islamic nation, his father has been both Islamic and Christian, it is doubtful that Obama would make such a mistake. It is also doubtful that Obama would call for the creation of an Islamic nation adjoining Israel – setting aside a reality which see sufficient of them – one would ask how peaceful such a state would be.
Consider: Where the Palestinian live together they riot and kill each other based upon whether their form of Islam is Shiite or Sunni. So would the “new” Palestinian State be Shiite or Sunni? And who would decide?
Which ever was the official Islam the “new” Palestinian State, it would have to be imposed by “Christian” nations and immediately anger the excluded sect and all those nations, or peoples, which support that sect and its beliefs.
Any attempt to declare a non-sectarian “new” Palestinian State would obviously also be a Christian imposition. Moreover, the Palestinians and Iraqis have demonstrated their love for killing each other based on this fourteen hundred year old division. It follows that any the “new” Palestinian State would immediately fall into the same style of civil war Bush and his idiot followers have been denying exists in Iraq.
We could elect John McCain – he says he can win this by 2013. This being the invasion and occupation of Iraq. So, McCain has publically declared he can bring an end to fourteen hundred years of sectarian hatred and murder. McCain has declared he can subdue Iraq – for one most subdue and enemy in order to have victory over them – and thus create what? What type of Nation State would he leave after his “victory?” Or would he leave? It is likely that McCain envisions permanent occupation of Iraq – that hundred years occupation he spoke of – and even making Iraq a fifty-first American State. Is that what McCain has in mind? Is that “victory” – to incorporate warring Shiite and Sunni into America? Hardly realistic; but no more fanciful than the idea of a victory by 2013.
Why 2013? Is it because that is a year after the next election, the year the second term of the next president would begin? Or, given McCain’s advanced age, dose he expect to be dead? Hence the problem, the broken promise, would be his vice-president’s broken promise – a promise to be renounced as belonging to an old prisoner of war suffering from PTSD and given to irrational outbursts of anger.
Isn’t it nice. We have a choice between someone with real world experience with the Arab and Islamic world, and someone suffering from PTSD with delusions of a military victory which his people could not achieve against exactly the same type of enemy – the same in terms of motivation to evict an invading army which was intent on denying the people the government they were promised and choose.
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Thursday, May 8, 2008
Why only Obama can win in November
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Date Line May 8, 2008
OK, I will be the first to say it – in print. There are limited possibilities as an outcome of the November election.
Obama will be nominated and elected President. Hillary will have several choices:
1. She can be Vice-President. That is, assuming her petty nonsense has not lead to Obama, possibly wisely, not wanting to be associated with her. Of course, Obama might decide he wants a popular attack dog on the ticket – in which case Hilary has it locked.
2. Hilary can assume she will run in 2012. But that assumes one of two things: a) that Obama will fail, and that the people will break with the tradition of granting the Oval Office to the party whose leadership did not fail; or b) that Obama dies in office – in which case the office will probably go to his Vice President in 2012 and 2016. If (a) it is clear that Hilary will never achieve the Oval Office, and her failure to be on an Obama ticket reflects that she was never serious in her quest; if (b) Hilary will be 74 years old.
3. Hilary can expect to gain the 2016 nomination from an incumbent Vice President when she is 70.
Clearly, Hilary is either going to be Vice President in the Obama administration, or she is out of the game and must admit – or let history deduce – her political ambitions were, in reality, a myth and hoax. Senator Clinton is likely the new Senator Kennedy, having symbolically, driven herself off that bridge.
As for McCain? The race he is going to run will be about his Vice President, and the views or positions of that Vice President. The election will not be about a man from a career military family. It might be about a possibly unstable personality – an individual who is possibly suffering from PTSD as a result of six years in a Vietnam tiger cage. It certainly will be about a man who wishes to condemn tens of thousands of America’s youth to disabilities; a man who wishes to spend the next hundred years wasting the wealth and talent of America; a man who clearly is willing to continue the deficit – debt supported – extravagances associated with Reagan, Bush and Bush.
But more import, it will be about the Vice President. It will be about America electing a man whose age – regardless of the longevity of his mother – implies, almost dictates, that he will die in office before his first term is completed.
Of course, it is possible that Hilary is betting on a McCain victory. It is possible that she assumes he will complete his first term – and that it will be marked by deficits and economic collapse – thus she may well be assuming that she will be the one to lead the other party which succeeds to replace a failed administration. But here too, she assumes that Obama will lose by such an extraordinary margin that any hope of a rerun will be crushed. A lot of assumptions.
We have a reality. The Democrats will take the Whitehouse because the American people, for all the right-wing rhetoric, really do want this nation to survive. The American people – at least a majority of those who will vote – really want an end to GOP Borrow and Spend voodoo economics. The American people do not wish to see their lifestyles reduced to third world status; and they do not wish to see their children maimed, or killed, in the crossfire associated with fourteen hundred years of Shiite-Sunni hostilities over whose line is heir to the Prophet.
More important, there are Americans – possibly an electoral majority – who want America to have safe and clean energy; a majority which understand that oil is running out and that protecting what little we have is a matter of national defense. A majority who know that those who have oil can maintain a modern army and air force; a majority which understand that we cannot buy from the enemy – no mare than Hitler could buy fuel when those he attacked decided to turn off the pumps.
November will be interesting. The issues will be interesting. And the biggest issue – that which will determine the continuation of this nation – will be whether or not the media can ask more probative questions that “why don’t you wear a flag on your lapel”, or “why don’t you challenge the rhetoric of a preacher, when your opponent is so quiet about his significantly more inflammatory “white” preacher?”
Yep – the future of the nation rests on the color of a necktie, or the type of jewelry worn, or not warn. It rests on the ability of people to misrepresent the words of a scripture that they willfully, and proudly, violate while they make a living out of killing others.
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Of course, the majority might decide race and gender trump the survival of America. In that case, let them have that which they wish for themselves and their posterity – they can begin by converting to Islam and then move on to learning to speak Chinese.
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Date Line May 8, 2008
OK, I will be the first to say it – in print. There are limited possibilities as an outcome of the November election.
Obama will be nominated and elected President. Hillary will have several choices:
1. She can be Vice-President. That is, assuming her petty nonsense has not lead to Obama, possibly wisely, not wanting to be associated with her. Of course, Obama might decide he wants a popular attack dog on the ticket – in which case Hilary has it locked.
2. Hilary can assume she will run in 2012. But that assumes one of two things: a) that Obama will fail, and that the people will break with the tradition of granting the Oval Office to the party whose leadership did not fail; or b) that Obama dies in office – in which case the office will probably go to his Vice President in 2012 and 2016. If (a) it is clear that Hilary will never achieve the Oval Office, and her failure to be on an Obama ticket reflects that she was never serious in her quest; if (b) Hilary will be 74 years old.
3. Hilary can expect to gain the 2016 nomination from an incumbent Vice President when she is 70.
Clearly, Hilary is either going to be Vice President in the Obama administration, or she is out of the game and must admit – or let history deduce – her political ambitions were, in reality, a myth and hoax. Senator Clinton is likely the new Senator Kennedy, having symbolically, driven herself off that bridge.
As for McCain? The race he is going to run will be about his Vice President, and the views or positions of that Vice President. The election will not be about a man from a career military family. It might be about a possibly unstable personality – an individual who is possibly suffering from PTSD as a result of six years in a Vietnam tiger cage. It certainly will be about a man who wishes to condemn tens of thousands of America’s youth to disabilities; a man who wishes to spend the next hundred years wasting the wealth and talent of America; a man who clearly is willing to continue the deficit – debt supported – extravagances associated with Reagan, Bush and Bush.
But more import, it will be about the Vice President. It will be about America electing a man whose age – regardless of the longevity of his mother – implies, almost dictates, that he will die in office before his first term is completed.
Of course, it is possible that Hilary is betting on a McCain victory. It is possible that she assumes he will complete his first term – and that it will be marked by deficits and economic collapse – thus she may well be assuming that she will be the one to lead the other party which succeeds to replace a failed administration. But here too, she assumes that Obama will lose by such an extraordinary margin that any hope of a rerun will be crushed. A lot of assumptions.
We have a reality. The Democrats will take the Whitehouse because the American people, for all the right-wing rhetoric, really do want this nation to survive. The American people – at least a majority of those who will vote – really want an end to GOP Borrow and Spend voodoo economics. The American people do not wish to see their lifestyles reduced to third world status; and they do not wish to see their children maimed, or killed, in the crossfire associated with fourteen hundred years of Shiite-Sunni hostilities over whose line is heir to the Prophet.
More important, there are Americans – possibly an electoral majority – who want America to have safe and clean energy; a majority which understand that oil is running out and that protecting what little we have is a matter of national defense. A majority who know that those who have oil can maintain a modern army and air force; a majority which understand that we cannot buy from the enemy – no mare than Hitler could buy fuel when those he attacked decided to turn off the pumps.
November will be interesting. The issues will be interesting. And the biggest issue – that which will determine the continuation of this nation – will be whether or not the media can ask more probative questions that “why don’t you wear a flag on your lapel”, or “why don’t you challenge the rhetoric of a preacher, when your opponent is so quiet about his significantly more inflammatory “white” preacher?”
Yep – the future of the nation rests on the color of a necktie, or the type of jewelry worn, or not warn. It rests on the ability of people to misrepresent the words of a scripture that they willfully, and proudly, violate while they make a living out of killing others.
_____________________________________________________
Of course, the majority might decide race and gender trump the survival of America. In that case, let them have that which they wish for themselves and their posterity – they can begin by converting to Islam and then move on to learning to speak Chinese.
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Monday, March 24, 2008
Kill an Islamist -- Vote McCain
_____________________________________________________
Date Line March 24, 2008
OK STILL PISSED!
Bush has the gall to deny wounded soldiers their healthcare, families of the killed their benefits and still claim "every single loss is tragic."
Come on kids! This crook lied and lied again – and continues to lie – about the basis for this invasion and the murder of nearly one million Iraqis. YES! The number of innocent Iraq’s citizens who have died is quickly approaching one million! Not that anyone in America really cares. After all, it is the “right to life” group who is cheerleading this right to kill, the right to MURDER those who do not follow a hypocritical path behind Christ.
Why hypocritical? For starters, Christ said that prisoners should be treated with respect. It was a major point of his in scripture. Yet here we see those who claim to be his followers – but clearly are not, but are those he said he would not know – swear allegiance and support to those who advocate torture, and block the moral among congressional leaders from passing a clear law against torture.
To commemorate their admission that the fourth thousand soldier has died – while systemically denying benefits to the families, or making them wait years in poverty before granting entitled benefits – Bush has proclaimed: "Our strategy going forward will be aimed at making sure that we achieve victory and, therefore, America becomes more secure" ...
DUH! Murdering fathers and mothers and leaving Iraqi children to hate America is into going to make us more secure.
Worse, this is not a war! And worse still – there is no basis, there is no condition, under which the end to this murder spree can be called a victory within any context the Administration or the neo-cons would be able to reasonably and logically define. There is no force on earth who can say to America, “enough, we surrender.”
We entered Iraq and gave al-Qaeda a training and recruiting ground. Al-Qaeda has attacked in Yemen. Are we in Yemen opposing them? Al-Qaeda has attacked in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia – can we stop them? Can we give them a reason to proclaim “Hold! Enough!”?
Or will al-Qaeda just restructure and expand? Will the name of Bin Laden be raised to the stature of an Islamic deity, and his legions become historic forces throughout the coming centuries?
What is to stop it? Who will put an end to hatred which grows with every innocent who dies? Will the Iraqi people cheer a century without power, without basic comforts they had known under Saddam?
The evils of Saddam, whatever they were – and we supported many of the to the point of selling, or giving, him the tools – will those actions that were approved of by as many of the Iraqi as were subject to their effect prove to be as well remembered as the running water and reliable electric? Will it be as well remembered as the religious freedom? Will it be as well remembered as the deceased and longed for family member killed by American soldiers having fun taking pot-shots at eighty year old ladies driving their car home? What will be remembered when the father sees his young son bleeding in the street?
What will be remembered when the young boy see his father killed when he runs to the side of the son bleeding in the street? ONE MILLION DEAD shall leave many millions to hate. The hate will be toward those who invaded and destabilized their nation. The hate will be toward those who allowed al-Qaeda entry into their nation; and they will remember that it was al-Qaeda which proclaimed the desire to see Saddam dead; and it was America that answered the al-Qaeda call.
Tell me how we can have ‘Victory”. PLEASE! Tell me how victory can be gained by staying longer and killing more of their children. Is there a victory to be gained in the death of more of our children? Is there victory in spending $5,000 a second to murder civilians? We most certainly are not murdering Bin Laden or the al-Qaeda leadership ... they aren’t even where are military are. They are safe, sound and, in the case of Bin Laden himself, receiving better medical care than Bush will allow those are fighting, are doing, or instigating, the murders he is cheerleading.
_____________________________________________________
KILL A MILLION MORE - vote McCain or Clinton
_____________________________________________________
Date Line March 24, 2008
OK STILL PISSED!
Bush has the gall to deny wounded soldiers their healthcare, families of the killed their benefits and still claim "every single loss is tragic."
Come on kids! This crook lied and lied again – and continues to lie – about the basis for this invasion and the murder of nearly one million Iraqis. YES! The number of innocent Iraq’s citizens who have died is quickly approaching one million! Not that anyone in America really cares. After all, it is the “right to life” group who is cheerleading this right to kill, the right to MURDER those who do not follow a hypocritical path behind Christ.
Why hypocritical? For starters, Christ said that prisoners should be treated with respect. It was a major point of his in scripture. Yet here we see those who claim to be his followers – but clearly are not, but are those he said he would not know – swear allegiance and support to those who advocate torture, and block the moral among congressional leaders from passing a clear law against torture.
To commemorate their admission that the fourth thousand soldier has died – while systemically denying benefits to the families, or making them wait years in poverty before granting entitled benefits – Bush has proclaimed: "Our strategy going forward will be aimed at making sure that we achieve victory and, therefore, America becomes more secure" ...
DUH! Murdering fathers and mothers and leaving Iraqi children to hate America is into going to make us more secure.
Worse, this is not a war! And worse still – there is no basis, there is no condition, under which the end to this murder spree can be called a victory within any context the Administration or the neo-cons would be able to reasonably and logically define. There is no force on earth who can say to America, “enough, we surrender.”
We entered Iraq and gave al-Qaeda a training and recruiting ground. Al-Qaeda has attacked in Yemen. Are we in Yemen opposing them? Al-Qaeda has attacked in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia – can we stop them? Can we give them a reason to proclaim “Hold! Enough!”?
Or will al-Qaeda just restructure and expand? Will the name of Bin Laden be raised to the stature of an Islamic deity, and his legions become historic forces throughout the coming centuries?
What is to stop it? Who will put an end to hatred which grows with every innocent who dies? Will the Iraqi people cheer a century without power, without basic comforts they had known under Saddam?
The evils of Saddam, whatever they were – and we supported many of the to the point of selling, or giving, him the tools – will those actions that were approved of by as many of the Iraqi as were subject to their effect prove to be as well remembered as the running water and reliable electric? Will it be as well remembered as the religious freedom? Will it be as well remembered as the deceased and longed for family member killed by American soldiers having fun taking pot-shots at eighty year old ladies driving their car home? What will be remembered when the father sees his young son bleeding in the street?
What will be remembered when the young boy see his father killed when he runs to the side of the son bleeding in the street? ONE MILLION DEAD shall leave many millions to hate. The hate will be toward those who invaded and destabilized their nation. The hate will be toward those who allowed al-Qaeda entry into their nation; and they will remember that it was al-Qaeda which proclaimed the desire to see Saddam dead; and it was America that answered the al-Qaeda call.
Tell me how we can have ‘Victory”. PLEASE! Tell me how victory can be gained by staying longer and killing more of their children. Is there a victory to be gained in the death of more of our children? Is there victory in spending $5,000 a second to murder civilians? We most certainly are not murdering Bin Laden or the al-Qaeda leadership ... they aren’t even where are military are. They are safe, sound and, in the case of Bin Laden himself, receiving better medical care than Bush will allow those are fighting, are doing, or instigating, the murders he is cheerleading.
_____________________________________________________
KILL A MILLION MORE - vote McCain or Clinton
_____________________________________________________
Friday, March 7, 2008
PLEASE define WAR
Date Line March 7, 2008
OK, so I am avoiding working on the book by writing blogs. OK, I admit it; but I’m really pissed at the WAR thing.
We are NOT AT WAR – a war requires that we have an identified enemy; and that they be capable of being defeated. Defeat is signified either by their annihilation (genocide), or their ability to sign a truce, armistice, or surrender.
If Al-Qaeda were to be destroyed, would that mean there would be a cessation of Islamic terrorist activities? Would that put an end to groups like Hamas? Or any of the other terrorist organizations around the world?
If Al-Qaeda were to cease activities and its membership reform under other names; or if Bin Laden would succumb to the medical problems which require him to receive dialysis, would we have won the “war”?
Since we are in Iraq, and Bin Laden is in Pakistan, can we even hope to capture him, or end his organization? And since, allegedly, the government of Pakistan is our friend, and since Bin Laden is in need of higher sophisticated medical care – requiring vast amounts of power, sterile conditions, specialized medical equipment, and the care or supervision of skilled professionals – how come we cannot find him? We cannot find a hospital in a primitive village? We cannot find a reliable power source in a region devoid of reliable power?
Exactly how incompetent are or spies, satellites, and military? It is very apparent that the evidence points to them being useless. They cannot identify and follow sophisticated medical products or personnel to a remote cave in an effectively unpopulated region? Just how stupid are these people and why are we paying them? OR, are they under orders from the Whitehouse NOT to find Bin Laden?
In any event – how can we win a war which is not a war; a war in which there is no opposing force for our military to attack? Do we hope to out wait them? Terrorism has always been the action of malcontents or ideologues – a hundred years ago they were called anarchists.
Their name has changed, but not their function or the reality of their existence. How do we win this non-war war? John McCain wants to exit with honor. Is there honor in defeat? Is there honor in the stupidity of destroying ones own nation so as not to look bad to oneself? We already look bad to anyone with even half a brain. (And if you don’t get it, if you don’t see it, you are brainless).
We are the Light Brigade, the 600 attacking canon through a valley too narrow for the opponent to miss us. The problem, our “opponent” has simply said what they want to do – figuratively kill the Light Brigade – and, in absolute obedience, the Light Brigade Generals turned the own canons upon themselves and their own troops.
Oh that someone will see the courage and write a poem.
_____________________________________________________
OK, so I am avoiding working on the book by writing blogs. OK, I admit it; but I’m really pissed at the WAR thing.
We are NOT AT WAR – a war requires that we have an identified enemy; and that they be capable of being defeated. Defeat is signified either by their annihilation (genocide), or their ability to sign a truce, armistice, or surrender.
If Al-Qaeda were to be destroyed, would that mean there would be a cessation of Islamic terrorist activities? Would that put an end to groups like Hamas? Or any of the other terrorist organizations around the world?
If Al-Qaeda were to cease activities and its membership reform under other names; or if Bin Laden would succumb to the medical problems which require him to receive dialysis, would we have won the “war”?
Since we are in Iraq, and Bin Laden is in Pakistan, can we even hope to capture him, or end his organization? And since, allegedly, the government of Pakistan is our friend, and since Bin Laden is in need of higher sophisticated medical care – requiring vast amounts of power, sterile conditions, specialized medical equipment, and the care or supervision of skilled professionals – how come we cannot find him? We cannot find a hospital in a primitive village? We cannot find a reliable power source in a region devoid of reliable power?
Exactly how incompetent are or spies, satellites, and military? It is very apparent that the evidence points to them being useless. They cannot identify and follow sophisticated medical products or personnel to a remote cave in an effectively unpopulated region? Just how stupid are these people and why are we paying them? OR, are they under orders from the Whitehouse NOT to find Bin Laden?
In any event – how can we win a war which is not a war; a war in which there is no opposing force for our military to attack? Do we hope to out wait them? Terrorism has always been the action of malcontents or ideologues – a hundred years ago they were called anarchists.
Their name has changed, but not their function or the reality of their existence. How do we win this non-war war? John McCain wants to exit with honor. Is there honor in defeat? Is there honor in the stupidity of destroying ones own nation so as not to look bad to oneself? We already look bad to anyone with even half a brain. (And if you don’t get it, if you don’t see it, you are brainless).
We are the Light Brigade, the 600 attacking canon through a valley too narrow for the opponent to miss us. The problem, our “opponent” has simply said what they want to do – figuratively kill the Light Brigade – and, in absolute obedience, the Light Brigade Generals turned the own canons upon themselves and their own troops.
Oh that someone will see the courage and write a poem.
_____________________________________________________
Thursday, January 31, 2008
As the 2008 Election Now Stands
_____________________________________________________
Date Line January 31, 2008
I am a World War Two baby, which means I have seen the history of the Korean Police action, Vietnam and all the “regime change” military adventurism which has marked the anti-Communist, and post Cold War ears. I existed during the Normandy landing, and the Battle of the Bulge; as my mom loved to tell the story, my first expressive words – my first words with historic value – were “Atom Bomb”; which I said a “ammon bomb.”
The year which stretched from 1944 into 1945 was a year for the history books; 2008 shall be another.
Listen to the debates, Huckabee – who will not survive the nomination process – speaks of leaving Iraq in terms of “Victory and Honor”; and he insists the discussion should be about “winning.” How does an invader win, and still exit? Our side won World War II, and sixty years later our troops are still in Europe. We have yet to exit after that clear and undisputed victory; how will we win and exit from a conflict, a sectarian civil war, we started? The Republican debate of 31 January spoke of our presence in Iraq lasting a hundred years.
The Republicans are invoking Ronald Reagan and what he would want to do now. Have they no historic knowledge? Ronald Reagan ran the largest deficits in American history; at least they were the largest until the current GOP administration decided to abandon budget surpluses and borrow from China to finance the invasion of Iraq.
I knew Ronald Reagan, it is a matter of historic record that my dad helped establish the Reagan machine in New York State; as I type this, on the wall, over my right shoulder, is a commemorative plaque which Regan sent from the Whitehouse when my father died. It is a basic historic reality that the mantel of Reagan is one of fiscal irresponsibility and war mongering.
The Reagan mantel has been taken up is clear from the echoes of “victory with honor” which were the hallmark of the Republicans – and their hard hat followers – during Vietnam. The goal is to bankrupt America, and send more of our children to die – or facilitate al-Qaeda killing Iraqis – so that we can acquire honor from a dishonorable action.
The price to be paid is selling our future wealth to China, devaluating our dollar and thus increasing our cost of living, and ignoring the needs of our citizens in favor of – as one GOP candidate phrased it – blowing up bridges in Iraq and then rebuilding them, while bridges in America are falling down.
It is now clear that John McCain will likely be the Republican nominee. We Bush first ran, I published that I was opposed to him, and stated that I would not counsel against voting for him; I would not do so because I wanted to see if he would be as disastrous a president as I was projecting – Bush only need initiate an Iranian War to complete the package; and Bush still has ten months to have our troops in Iran for, at least, a month when the new president takes office. John McCain will, in his own way, out-Bush Bush. As the people of Washington County seem to enjoy their poverty, obviously supporting McCain is exactly the correct thing for them – we need a new Great Depression.
On the Democratic side, it’s been a year since I stated, though desiring the Whitehouse, Hillary had decided to not be a serious Democratic candidate – she is now the candidate the Republicans wish they had. Hillary wishes to prove she can out fight, out cajole, out macho, the image which Bush has unsuccessfully sought to achieve. As a President, it is likely that she would be little better than McCain and far worse than what our nation now needs. McCain-v-Clinton would be a historic race; possible one which would also revise the Gore-v-Bush delegate imbalance between Electoral College and Popular votes – with nation losing regardless of which count prevails.
As a matter of legislative record, and consensus building, Obama leads the opposition. Not that you will hear much about his actual record; or even garner why he emerged as the “fair-haired-boy” at the National Convention four years ago. Obama seems to offer the possibility of returning this nation to the fiscal or social conservatism to which other candidates hypocritically pay so much lip-service.
Will Obama obtain the nomination? Most probably. Were the Clintons as politically astute as they have been portrayed, they would have reached out to Obama to join forces – they might still. A Clinton-Obama, or an Obama-Clinton, ticket would clearly win against someone those who invoke Vietnam and the “Victory with Honor” rhetoric which caused the death of roughly sixty thousand of our best and brightest.
_____________________________________________________
Date Line January 31, 2008
I am a World War Two baby, which means I have seen the history of the Korean Police action, Vietnam and all the “regime change” military adventurism which has marked the anti-Communist, and post Cold War ears. I existed during the Normandy landing, and the Battle of the Bulge; as my mom loved to tell the story, my first expressive words – my first words with historic value – were “Atom Bomb”; which I said a “ammon bomb.”
The year which stretched from 1944 into 1945 was a year for the history books; 2008 shall be another.
Listen to the debates, Huckabee – who will not survive the nomination process – speaks of leaving Iraq in terms of “Victory and Honor”; and he insists the discussion should be about “winning.” How does an invader win, and still exit? Our side won World War II, and sixty years later our troops are still in Europe. We have yet to exit after that clear and undisputed victory; how will we win and exit from a conflict, a sectarian civil war, we started? The Republican debate of 31 January spoke of our presence in Iraq lasting a hundred years.
The Republicans are invoking Ronald Reagan and what he would want to do now. Have they no historic knowledge? Ronald Reagan ran the largest deficits in American history; at least they were the largest until the current GOP administration decided to abandon budget surpluses and borrow from China to finance the invasion of Iraq.
I knew Ronald Reagan, it is a matter of historic record that my dad helped establish the Reagan machine in New York State; as I type this, on the wall, over my right shoulder, is a commemorative plaque which Regan sent from the Whitehouse when my father died. It is a basic historic reality that the mantel of Reagan is one of fiscal irresponsibility and war mongering.
The Reagan mantel has been taken up is clear from the echoes of “victory with honor” which were the hallmark of the Republicans – and their hard hat followers – during Vietnam. The goal is to bankrupt America, and send more of our children to die – or facilitate al-Qaeda killing Iraqis – so that we can acquire honor from a dishonorable action.
The price to be paid is selling our future wealth to China, devaluating our dollar and thus increasing our cost of living, and ignoring the needs of our citizens in favor of – as one GOP candidate phrased it – blowing up bridges in Iraq and then rebuilding them, while bridges in America are falling down.
It is now clear that John McCain will likely be the Republican nominee. We Bush first ran, I published that I was opposed to him, and stated that I would not counsel against voting for him; I would not do so because I wanted to see if he would be as disastrous a president as I was projecting – Bush only need initiate an Iranian War to complete the package; and Bush still has ten months to have our troops in Iran for, at least, a month when the new president takes office. John McCain will, in his own way, out-Bush Bush. As the people of Washington County seem to enjoy their poverty, obviously supporting McCain is exactly the correct thing for them – we need a new Great Depression.
On the Democratic side, it’s been a year since I stated, though desiring the Whitehouse, Hillary had decided to not be a serious Democratic candidate – she is now the candidate the Republicans wish they had. Hillary wishes to prove she can out fight, out cajole, out macho, the image which Bush has unsuccessfully sought to achieve. As a President, it is likely that she would be little better than McCain and far worse than what our nation now needs. McCain-v-Clinton would be a historic race; possible one which would also revise the Gore-v-Bush delegate imbalance between Electoral College and Popular votes – with nation losing regardless of which count prevails.
As a matter of legislative record, and consensus building, Obama leads the opposition. Not that you will hear much about his actual record; or even garner why he emerged as the “fair-haired-boy” at the National Convention four years ago. Obama seems to offer the possibility of returning this nation to the fiscal or social conservatism to which other candidates hypocritically pay so much lip-service.
Will Obama obtain the nomination? Most probably. Were the Clintons as politically astute as they have been portrayed, they would have reached out to Obama to join forces – they might still. A Clinton-Obama, or an Obama-Clinton, ticket would clearly win against someone those who invoke Vietnam and the “Victory with Honor” rhetoric which caused the death of roughly sixty thousand of our best and brightest.
_____________________________________________________
Friday, January 18, 2008
Bobby Fischer - Robert James Fischer
_____________________________________________________
Date Line January 18, 2008
Being ancient is not all it is cracked up to be.
I was born at the dawn of time. I have traveled the evolutionary pathways and seen that which was to be seen. My ancestry is ancient and – though it has made few marks which the texts recount, yet all texts recount its passage – important in the annals of history.
My ego though as great as the universe which tries to contain it, is as small as, smaller than, the most insignificant microbe.
I have seen the passage of people who have crossed my path.
Today the news tells of one who I met more than forty years ago. He was but approaching twenty-two, I only about twenty. He was known, and I – as now – unknown on the edge of knowing. He had been taught, I had learned, as I have throughout the ages, by watching.
Though we spent our high school years a few blocks apart, he attended Erasmus Hall High School, I attended Brooklyn Tech. He dropped out at 16, I graduated at 17 – given that reality, the mere nineteen months which marked our separate entry into this historic age was enough to ensure we would not have met anywhere but across a chessboard.
We finally met at Lisa Lane’s “Queens Pawn” where, while Lisa traveled Chess Tour circuit and I attended NYU, I served as manager of her Chess Emporium – playing notable regulars and the occasional visitor such as he.
He was a true chauvinist and a Master above Masters on the sixty-four squares. We played several games – and none would doubt I lost them all quickly and decisively. But, at least, I can say I played him one-on-one in an environment which offered no showmanship excuse, no exhibition, no purpose other than to play the game and occasionally talk.
At the height of the Cold War, he defeated the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky to become America's first and only world chess champion. To that day, and since, the Soviets, the Russians, held the game to be their national pass time, their source of international pride, and the world championship was their personal property – this young man took it from them, without breaking a sweat.
He was a national treasure which our national leaders scorned and sent into exile. In retaliation, he denounced the nation and, interviewed on a Philippine radio station, praised the al-Qaeda strike on the World Trade Center while expressing his desire to see America "wiped out."
As we now know, the sitting president took this call to heart and has since been doing all he can to destroy the nation over which he rules. We watch as Bush bankrupts America, going deeply into debt to Communist China, and allowing China to use our children as dumping grounds for toxic waste they would never consider sending to Europe.
He was, this master, a boy from Brooklyn who, a true intellectual and genius who, it is said, had a "running battle with the rest of the human race." I can and do relate to that idea.
Robert James Fischer, International Grand Master, born March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois to Jewish parents (or certainly a German Jewish mother who had escaped the Holocaust); died January 17, 2008 in, and as a citizen of, Reykjavik, Iceland. An American Jew driven to become both anti-American and anti-Semitic in an age when both groups are being attacked from within by the national leadership and its supporters.
It was time for him to exit leaving a seven year old Filipina daughter, Jinky Ong Fischer. Having produced her, he then connected with a Japanese. Fame and a lack of fame, how much paths do seem to cross or resonate. Sigh ... a new age is approaching. Are you ready?
_____________________________________________________
Date Line January 18, 2008
Being ancient is not all it is cracked up to be.
I was born at the dawn of time. I have traveled the evolutionary pathways and seen that which was to be seen. My ancestry is ancient and – though it has made few marks which the texts recount, yet all texts recount its passage – important in the annals of history.
My ego though as great as the universe which tries to contain it, is as small as, smaller than, the most insignificant microbe.
I have seen the passage of people who have crossed my path.
Today the news tells of one who I met more than forty years ago. He was but approaching twenty-two, I only about twenty. He was known, and I – as now – unknown on the edge of knowing. He had been taught, I had learned, as I have throughout the ages, by watching.
Though we spent our high school years a few blocks apart, he attended Erasmus Hall High School, I attended Brooklyn Tech. He dropped out at 16, I graduated at 17 – given that reality, the mere nineteen months which marked our separate entry into this historic age was enough to ensure we would not have met anywhere but across a chessboard.
We finally met at Lisa Lane’s “Queens Pawn” where, while Lisa traveled Chess Tour circuit and I attended NYU, I served as manager of her Chess Emporium – playing notable regulars and the occasional visitor such as he.
He was a true chauvinist and a Master above Masters on the sixty-four squares. We played several games – and none would doubt I lost them all quickly and decisively. But, at least, I can say I played him one-on-one in an environment which offered no showmanship excuse, no exhibition, no purpose other than to play the game and occasionally talk.
At the height of the Cold War, he defeated the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky to become America's first and only world chess champion. To that day, and since, the Soviets, the Russians, held the game to be their national pass time, their source of international pride, and the world championship was their personal property – this young man took it from them, without breaking a sweat.
He was a national treasure which our national leaders scorned and sent into exile. In retaliation, he denounced the nation and, interviewed on a Philippine radio station, praised the al-Qaeda strike on the World Trade Center while expressing his desire to see America "wiped out."
As we now know, the sitting president took this call to heart and has since been doing all he can to destroy the nation over which he rules. We watch as Bush bankrupts America, going deeply into debt to Communist China, and allowing China to use our children as dumping grounds for toxic waste they would never consider sending to Europe.
He was, this master, a boy from Brooklyn who, a true intellectual and genius who, it is said, had a "running battle with the rest of the human race." I can and do relate to that idea.
Robert James Fischer, International Grand Master, born March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois to Jewish parents (or certainly a German Jewish mother who had escaped the Holocaust); died January 17, 2008 in, and as a citizen of, Reykjavik, Iceland. An American Jew driven to become both anti-American and anti-Semitic in an age when both groups are being attacked from within by the national leadership and its supporters.
It was time for him to exit leaving a seven year old Filipina daughter, Jinky Ong Fischer. Having produced her, he then connected with a Japanese. Fame and a lack of fame, how much paths do seem to cross or resonate. Sigh ... a new age is approaching. Are you ready?
_____________________________________________________
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