The Cliff

When I discuss, or rather attempt to discuss, political things with some folks, I am often surprised at the level of ignorance that otherwise reasonable people seem to be supporting. There is a belief in the nonexistant that is being purposefully fostered by some of the folks who own the American media. For example, George Bush was pinned down and forced to admit that he did in fact know that Saddam Hussein had absolutely nothing to do with 9-11. (The majority of the attackers were Saudis, as is Osama Bin Laden.) And yet a majority of Americans recently said they believed Saddam was involved.( Polls of FOX News watchers prove they are overwhelmingly ignorant of anything except Right Wing talking points. )

This brings me to ask several questions:

1. Is it good for America that a news organization is allowed to mislead us on purpose?

2. Was this what was intended by the Constitution?

3. Why are we allowing this to continue?

4. Is it going to get better?

The answers are 1,no; 2,no; 3,since we are being fed misinformation we cannot make a good decision, and finally; 4, Not anytime soon.

Currently the FCC is controlled by Republicans. This will be the case until Republicans no longer control the Whitehouse. The FCC is about to decide if the Internet has had such a terrible effect on the traditional media that ownership rules, the few that are still in place, should be abolished.

Think about it. Only five corporations control most of the media outlets now. You information is fed to you by a corporation in most cases. Corporations have no morals. The bigger they are the more they are driven by profit... and also by profit. Well profit and the personal motives of those that control them. history has shown that this is not good for the vast majority of citizens. If the Citizens are mislead by a corporation intent on serving its profit margin, they may not ever hear that essentially all of the reasons for going to war in, say Iraq, have no basis in fact until years later, say after the next election cycle.

And the corporation may look at its revenue fron other corporations, like say Exxon/Mobile, and not tell you that your government's spokesman is lying to you about global warming until years later, say after the next epection cycle.

And the owners of the corporate media, who always want to control more and more so that no one can disagree with them when they lie, may look at the last remaining free news outlets and want to control them too, so that is why they bought the satellite system, and that is why the Canadian news Corporation is gone from the satellite, and so is the BBC, and some others.

And that is why we have people, prominent people, who can go before this nation and make the most incredibly stupid and transparently wrong statements without anyone pointing out how incredibly stupid and transparently wrong these statements are.

Here is one of those statements:

"The Iraq War is not about oil."

and another:

"We cannot let the Insurgents win!"

People, we are not fighting a government or a country...We are fighting a people who are fighting themselves. The Iraq war should be thought of as a cliff.

"We cannot let the Cliff win," said the President. "We must send more troops over the edge of the Cliff. The only way the Cliff can win is if we stop sending more troops over the Cliff."

"To stop sending troops over the edge of the cliff now is to surrender."

"If we retreat from sending troops over the edge of the cliff, it will mean defeat. Those troops we have already sent over the edge of the cliff will have died in vain. More troops must therefore be sent over the Edge of the CLIFF."

We are stupid as a Nation and you know why. The current leadership must be removed from power as soon as possible. Every day that the Bush Administration is in power makes our National Cliff higher and more people are thorwn off of it.

Peace Now,

Steve

American Hero

Molly Ivins may be on the home stretch, but she defines the American ideal of Truth, Justice, and the American Way:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070126/ap_on_re_us/ivins_cancer

I'm pulling for Molly in a huge way...America needs its heros!

Steve

Milestone for America

The big sports story in the mainstream media has faded away from David Beckham's $250 million dollar soccer contract and has shifted to the fact that both coaches of the Superbowl teams are black. It is the first time in history that one black person has coached a team in the Superbowl, let alone two.

I notice something else about these coaches that I find even more amazing. Neither Tony Dungee nor Lovie Smith raise their voices at their players. They are positive, instructive, and encouraging in their manner and their teams have defeated all sorts of "In your face" coaches on the way to the big game.

I have been told by coach after coach that "You have to get 'em fired up. You gotta make 'em mad." I had always been told that this is what it takes in football because after all..."Football is the controlled application of violence."

I had always thought that was the definition of WAR, not a game for kids...silly me.

When my wife told me that our oldest son was going to start playing soccer, my reaction was, "Huh?" Today, 16 teams and two wonderful soccer careers later, I am a huge fan of the game... And mostly of the coaches who never seem to yell at their players. When they do raise their voices, it is on the order of an instruction or tactic and never ever the old football standby of, "What's the matter with you?" The one question to which no child ever has an answer, except for, "I am a failure, coach."

I would love to see that question banned from this planet.

Every sport has its culture. It is rewarding for me to see American Football catching up to the rest of the world.

Go Colts!

Peace,

Steve

Other Views

One of the funniest things on TV is watching the various spinners discuss the same event. A couple of republican senators I watched this morning said thingsT "The President gave a good performance," and "the President came across as sincere."

A couple of Republican Senators said, "The President asked for patience...The American people are out of patience with the Iraq War," and "We will support the President if he lays out a plan for winning...So far we have not seen such a plan."

That was the Republican side. The Democratic side was mostly uncontrolled laughter.

Just to let everybody know that this Republican President is still on the side of Mega Corporations, Bush introduced his plan to reduce the cost of Health Care by eliminating Health Care for poor people. I'm serious. he proposes to TAX your health insurance thereby encouraging corporations to stop providing your health care so you'll have to buy your own, but you'll get a tax deduction for a part of it which will save rich people a bunch of money, but basically screw everybody who makes less than $80,000 a year.

And in other news, Dick Cheney was identified as evil personified by two different Attorneys in the Scooter Libbey obstruction of justice trial yeasterday...The two attorneys were the Federal Prosecutor and the Attorney for the Defense. After listening to a list of Federal crimes (like obstruction of justice, lying to investigators, destruction of evidence) committed by Vice President Dick Cheney, I figure Cheney has one defense left open to him...

Die as soon as possible!

Peace,

Steve


And then there's this.

An excerpt from live blogging the speech, Washington insider gossip version:

9:13 — A rare bit of class from Bush’s speechwriters, noting the first
“Madame Speaker.” Cheney doesn’t look quite so pleased. Of course, if Tim
Johnson doesn’t have a “speedy recovery,” Cheney will be very pleased,
indeed.

9:17 — Actually, wages for the vast majority of Americans have been
stagnant for the entire six years Bush has been president.

9:18 — Ohhhh, now he wants to balance the budget.

9:18 — “Without raising taxes” … what about the taxes on health care?

9:19 — Well, five years ago we didn’t even have a federal deficit.

9:20 — Time to refill the three glasses on this editor’s desk.

9:21 — WALNUTS just hopped up like the red-faced comb-over psychotic weirdo
he is … Ted Kennedy is either suffering a helluva headache or is listening to a
really sad Kate Bush song on his iPod.

9:25 — Hey, that’s what Hillary said about health care in 1993!

State of the Union, The blogospere version. (parental discretion)

The Truth, The whole Truth...

The alternate title I came up with was:

His Lips are Moving


State of the Union 2003

From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several
mobile biological weapons labs.

The British government has learned
that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant
quantities of uranium from Africa.

Evidence from intelligence
sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal
that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda.

State of the Union January 20, 2004)

Already, the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the
United Nations.

State of the Union Feb. 2, 2005

"Our generational commitment to the advance of freedom,
especially in the Middle East, is now being tested and honored in Iraq. That
country is a vital front in the war on
terror, which is why the terrorists have chosen
to make a stand there. Our men and women in uniform are fighting terrorists in
Iraq, so we do not have to face them here at home. "

State of the Union January 31, 2006:

"We're on the offensive in Iraq, with a clear plan for victory..."

"...Fellow
citizens, we are in this fight to win, and we are winning."

State of the Union January 23, 2007:

I'll be at a basketball game...I'll learn more than if I watched Bush's speech.

And I'll know for sure whether we're winning or not.

Peace,

Steve

Quotes via:

KOS

SOTU stands for...

Tonight is George W. Bush's State of the Union speech, and I can't wait.

Bush left us hanging last year and Americans have been waitng this entire time and are hoping to be updated on the battle against the most fearsome threat to face this country since.. the last most fearsome threat to face this country, whatever that was.

Here's a ittle bet that Osama Bin Laden will not be mentioned.

But you guys remember, I'm sure, Bush looking all sincere and everything, right into the camera, and warning all of America about this:

"Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: ... creating ... experiments, creating human-animal hybrids..."

Yes, Patriots, President Bush was obviously talking about

... the Skunk Ape! Be afraid! Be very afraid!

Yeah, I know, the Saudi's are dumping billions of dollars of U.S. Treasury notes and the dollar is following the same graph line as Bush's approval rating, but we need to never forget that the Skunk Ape threatens everything vital and dear to Americans...And that's why President Bush placed a man who doesn't believe in Family Planning in charge of America's Family Planning...Do away with birth control, Bush is thinking, and people will have tons of illegitimate babies to adopt and they'll stop cloning and in-vitreo fertilization and those evil scientists won't have stem cells to work with to say they're going to cure all sorts of diseases but we really know they are trying to create more skunk apes and they have to be stopped.

George W. Bush wants the skunk ape to be eliminated from reality and only exist in the mythologies of the conservative american mind and that's why we have to stop stem cell research.

The safety of our children depends on it. Thank you, President Bush!

I'll be at the high school basketball game tonight waiting to hear about your latest idiotic lie for the good of America.

Peace,

Steve


SOTU: Skunk ape Obliterates The Usa

So in addition to not having enough armor for the troops who are being "surged" into Iraq, Bush is laying off the workers who help them once they get blown up and the pieces get shipped back home:


"Defense Department officials have laid off most of their case workers who help severely injured service members, sources said."

Einstein said it:

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”


Hey here's a question...Can anybody here tell me exactly what they plan to do with the extra troops? What's different this time? All I hear is "Surge" and no plan. Kinda like the same insanity that got us in this situation in the first place.

Now ask yourself if the situation would be handled differently if the Bush twins were in uniform and stationed in Iraq?


Via Atrios:

Imus: "Well, anyway, what happens when it doesn't work?"

Sen. Joe Lieberman:

"Yeah, well, you know, we will then look at the situation and decide what we can
do, and the alternatives are limited here. The other alternatives–the main
alternative that the opponents of what the President has done are offering is to
simply begin to withdraw. And the theory there is that somehow if you with– I
mean some people want to withdraw because they just want to get out. They think
the thing–They want to give up. They think the thing is not winnable. I'm afraid
they don't agree with me that the consequences of pulling out would be a
disaster for everybody, including most important, us. But some say if you begin
to withdraw, then Maliki and the other Iraqis will say 'Oh, my God, they're
leaving. We got to get our act together. I don't think so. I think what is more
likely is that the Iraqi politicians will begin to hedge their bets, and the
militias and the Al Qaeda terrorists will just hold back until the day we're
gone, and then chaos will break out, and unfortunately as McCain says, we'll
probably be back there in a larger war, you know, two, three, four, five years
from now. I think this is our chance, so I'd guess I'd say to you in war–There's
a famous old saying that war is a series of catastrophes that ends up in victory
for one side, and right now I'd say this plan is the best next step we've got.
Let's hope it works, pray it works, and if it doesn't, then we'll figure out
what we're gonna do then."

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 20 American service personnel were killed in military operations Saturday in one of the deadliest days for U.S. forces since theIraq war began, and authorities also announced two U.S. combat deaths from the previous day.



Hey here's a question...Can anybody here tell me exactly what they plan to do with the extra troops? What's different this time? All I hear is "Surge" and no plan. Kinda like the same insanity that got us in this situation in the first place.

Now ask yourself if the situation would be handled differently if the Bush twins were in uniform and stationed in Iraq?

Now ask yourself this question...They don't have a plan for the troops when they get there and they don't have a plan for the next step is the surge doesn't work. .. What the Hell are they doing?

Peace,

Steve

From Bill Moyers

"...The independent press is under sustained attack, with a few corporations
conspiring with political leaders to create an Orwellian world in which language
conceals reality, and the pursuit of personal gain and partisan power are
wrapped in rhetoric that turns truth to lies and lies to truth."

That's from Saint Bill at the Memphis, Tennessee conference on Media Reform. Yes, I did say "Memphis, Tenneessee. here's another quote from Mr. Moyers:

“This is the moment freedom begins, the moment you realize someone else has been
writing your story, and it’s time you took the pen from his hand and started
writing it yourself.”

We have been writing it ourselves, Mr. Bill. And we'll write louder in the future.

Peace,

Steve


It's a Brave New Media:

More

Here's More on the Bush DA firings

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/16/215554/886

The Story I'm Following

"What's the difference between Hitler and George W. Bush?

Hitler was elected."

That joke is emanating from Texas as this story is playing out in our country.

I suggest you read the comments. There is much wisdom there, and also some buffoonery.

It is time (no, Past time) for the Patriot act to be repealed. Calling it the "Patriot Act" is a lie, anyway...it should be called "The Fascist Act"...

Peace,

Steve

Tomorrow

Sometimes words can tell a particular story but it would be tough to do it elegantly. That's when I turn to one of my favorite political cartoonists.

The Village Voice dropped Tom Tomorrow...Are they crazy? We can see his work a mere one day late at Working for Change. They publish TT on Tuesdays. Today we get to see one of the best.

What else could I possibly add?

Peace,

Steve

Surge me baby, All night long

George Gonna Surge, Baby!

Let's see...He's sending either 15,000 or 20,000 troops to "Secure Bagdad".

There's about 135,000 there now so that would SURGE it up to say, 155,000 if we use the big number. That would be, oh, only 10,000 fewer than we had about 18 months ago when the plan was...

"Secure Bagdad!"

Now, normally, when you come out with a new plan, you tell everybody what you're gonna do, and then, after a little planning, you announce how you're gonna do it. A month ago, the President let the world know he was gonna SURGE!

And it only took a month to figure out what plan this surging thing was supposed to accomplish. Bush went on TV and announced that since the USA had totally screwed up those Iraqi's country from top to bottom, it was going to be their fault is they didn't get it fixed ASAP, or we were going to bring our troops home and keep their oil, on top of it.

Just so you'll know, those troops who are being surged over to Iraq won't have the proper body armor either. Or the helmet liners, or a freakin plan, either, but by golly they're gonna SURGE all over the place.

Probably with big old bull's eyes painted on their Humvees.

The reaction all over America has been a resounding...

"Huh? Bush is gonna what? Geez, what a moron."

Peace,

Steve


Molly Ivins:

"Anyone who wants to talk knowledgably about our Iraq misadventure should
pick up Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's
Green Zone." It’s like reading a horror novel. You just want to put your face
down and moan: How could we have let this happen? How could we have been so
stupid?

As The Washington Post's review notes, Chandrasekaran's book
"methodically documents the baffling ineptitude that dominated U.S.
attempts..."

*****

There was much speculation that the reason Saddam was executed so quickly was so he could not be asked about the genocide of the Jurds with poison gas. The gas precursors were sold to him by American companies with whom Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld were associated.

Originally, the court said that the investigations would proceed without Saddam, however....


“Well, today, an Iraqi judge officially dropped all remaining charges against Saddam Hussein. That’s nice. You don’t want to leave a guy hanging.” - Jay Leno

Prey on the American People

How do these people keep their tax exempt status?


Exerpts from their prayer:


...The new year brings with it the Democrat Party takeover of the reins of leadership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. President Bush’s constitutional role of commander in chief in a time of war will be challenged by a Congress eager to make its mark as a lead-up to the next presidential election cycle. ..


...There will be the lure of expounding the most clever, hard-hitting sound bite so as to assure an appearance on the nightly news...

...Ask our Heavenly Father to walk alongside President Bush as he lays out the stark, scary realities of the enemy we face -- an enemy in no uniform, with no respect for innocent life...


Are these people for real? Better question: Are they completely freaking NUTS?

Respect for innocent life?

With legitimate reports of over a half a million civilian deaths in Iraq as a result of the Bush/Republican war, where do these creeps get off praying that god will make the Democrats support George Bush's War?

And when, Gary Bauer, did hipocrisy become an Ameircan Value?

Speeches

Here are two excerpts from two wartime speeches:

A time of testing--yes. And a time of transition. The transition is sometimes
slow; sometimes unpopular; almost always very painful; and often quite
dangerous. But we have lived with danger for a long time before, and we shall
live with it for a long time yet to come. We know that "man is born unto
trouble." We also know that this Nation was not forged and did not survive and
grow and prosper without a great deal of sacrifice from a great many men.

And this:

A democratic Iraq will not be perfect. But it will be a country that fights
terrorists instead of harboring them – and it will help bring a future of peace
and security for our children and grandchildren.

I gues it is pretty obvious that that last one is from last night's speech, and of course there is the obligatory justification for Bush's war in the first place, and of course, the only terrorists in Iraq when we attacked it were in the U.S. protected 'no fly zone" where Saddam couldn't get at them, and of course, Bush didn't really take the blame for the disaster although he uttered words that seemed like it to those who don't pay attention.

The first speech was from January 10, 1967 by President Johnson. At the time there were over 6000 American casualties. Using that speech to justify more troops, eventually 60,000 would die. Many times that would carry wounds for the rest of their lives...wounds of all sorts.

In Bush's war, over 3000 American troops are dead so far and tens of thousands are wounded. Thinking about the wounded, Republicans have cut funds to the Veteran's Administration, by the way. Nice guys.

Here's what one of them said after last night's speech:

“All of us want to see a stable Iraq. All of us want to see our men and woman in
uniform come home as soon as possible. We all know that something different
needs to occur. It is important that the Iraqi government is making a stronger
commitment: with military and security forces, a commitment to spend $10 billion
in a rebuilding and jobs creation program, to move more quickly to an oil
revenue sharing agreement for Iraqi citizens, and by creating political reforms.
....”

That would be Bob Corker... "Sponge Bob"? Tennessee's new Republican Senator... Always with his eye on the "revenue". It is very nice of us to "share" the revenue from the Iraqi oil with the Iraqis, particularly after we negotiated a contract that gives American oil companies 70% of the oil. We have this contract with the existing puppet government we set up over there. If that government fails, the oil contracts are worthless, and we cannot have those 3000 troops dying in vain when the oil money must be protected.

Here's another excerpt from a Bush speech from about 90 days ago...

"Of course we're winning!"

Peace,

Steve

Mind Wander on a Blustery Day

Every culture names the pieces of its world. The words that are the names of things may mean different things to people, such as "soil". Soil is a problem if you are about to wash close but it is a crucial element if you are about to plant corn.

Soil, dirt, earth, dust, clay, mud, whatever. In my local world we have lots of dirt that has different names. I'm a big fan of dirt and consider it my friend. The folks who have to put up with me on a day to day basis know that I wear a fair amount of dirt as part of my wardrobe. I can put on fresh clean clothes right out of the dryer and in a few minutes, with no trouble at all, I will have decorated them with dirt. Me and dirt go way back.

Some time ago, I picked up a handfull of garden dirt and showed it to my very young son. I told him things as we looked at the dirt. There are millions of tiny living things in there...And minerals, chemicals, tiny rocks, pieces of dead plants, and all sorts of things we may not even know about. There are plants and animals and the things that plants and animals are made of that are too small to see. Nematodes and protazoa, fungi and bacteria, and other things that are almost plants and animals that I forget the name of. Those things are made up of more, smaller things that are too small to see. And those smaller things in turn are made up of even smaller things that are too small to see. At some point as we think about even smaller things, we get to the things that are so small that not only can we not see them but we can not even know about them.

Later I put some dirt in a jar with a little water and the next day we looked at the little beasties cruising around in it through a microscope. It didn't kick off his career as a great scientist but he quit eating dirt.

There are a lot of things in dirt. It is full of wonder. And it is full of information. There is far more information in a handfull of dirt than in all the books of mankind. And I think it would be far better for mankind if the information in dirt were paid more attention.

We have all those names for the kinds of dirt because our world is mostly dirt, just like Eskimos have names for the kinds of snow because their world is made up of so much snow, or used to be before we started screwing the atmosphere up for fun and profit. Wintertine in the South is rarely about snow but about the interface or mixture of dirt and snow. It's been snowing the last day or so and that's what got me going on the names of things. We Southerners have a few snow names of our own. Dry snow, we've heard of that, slush, which is what we mostly get, sleet, ice, powder, only in the ads for ski resorts, and then there's "hominy."

Hominy is what grits are made of. Everybody knows that, right? You soak corn in lye, it swells up, you dry it out and grind it and that's a grit. Hominy is kinda big looking corn, all puffed up and roundish. I have no idea why humans decided to make it and less about why they decided to eat it. If you have to use that much butter and salt why not just skip all those steps and eat dirt?

Anyway, in hill country there's such a thing as the locals call "hominy snow" and it's been falling around here lately. It's like someone took all the snowflakes and rolled them up in little balls. There's never much of it and I never saw it until I moved to the mountains, so I think it occurs when the temperatures waffle around freezing and the air is very turbulent. Hominy snow usually occurs when we have flurries, which are all just a big tease.

The one Indian tale I read about hominy snow didn't make much sense to me. It was supposed to be about Winter trying to delay Spring but Spring came anyway. I think the talker had been testing mushrooms from the weird stuff in the story.

Anyway, I'm glad there are different kinds of snow and that they fall on me.

Peace,

Steve

Conversation

Yesterday, a friend of mine told me that he was listening to Neil Boortz on the radio. Boortz was going off on the Democratic takeover because they would put an end to the 700 mile long fence on the Mexican border.

"It's gonna be bad with those people in charge," he said.

In my normal kind concerned and amazingly diplomatic manner, I laughed at him and said, "Let's put aside the question of which one is the bigger dumbass, Boortz for saying that or you for listening to him. How exactly is a 10 foot high fence gonna stop anybody? Would it stop you?"

"No, way."

"The border is a few thousand miles longer than the fence, does that make sense?"

"Uh..."

"The farmers whose land it would be built on don't want it. You think we should force them to let us build this monstrosity on their private land?"

"Why, no."

"Do you think you should listen to somebody else sometimes besides a man who is getting paid to confuse you and make you stupid?"

"I'm not stupid."

...

Peace,

Steve

*****

Now from the folks at Buzzflash, an interesting point by point examination of fascism and the Bushistas:

"...Hitler committed suicide. Mussolini was executed and hung on a meat
hook in a town square. Suharto avoided prosecution and has kept the billions
he's accused of embezzling from Indonesia.

What will be the fate of Bush & Co.?

In 2003, Laurence Britt crystallized 14 points of fascism from regimes
including those of Hitler, Mussolini and Suharto, then suggested similarities
under Bush."

This three-part series, entitled "Bush and the F-Word," has applied Britt's fascism framework to the Bush administration's record in 2006. Today's Part III finishes up Britt's final two points, makes predictions for 2007 and discusses how to fight back.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/693

Hey, Babe! Wanna Boogie?

Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh
Hey babe ya wanna boogie?
Boogie woogie woogie with me
Hey babe ya wanna boogie?
Boogie woogie woogie with me
We can boogie over here
We can boogie over there
Come on baby we can boogie everywhere
Hey babe ya wanna boogie?
Boogie woogie woogie with me

....John Hartford

It's better on the record.

President Bush is entering the final stage of his Presidency...The Bunker stage.


George W. Bush's lawyer, Whitehouse Counsel Harriet Myers, has cut and run. Bush is looking for a new lawyer to stall, delay, confuse, and obstruct every investigation into his impeachable actions until he can sing his own verse of the Cut and Run Boogie. He'll be gone in less than two years and bets are on as to whether he'll make it to the end of his term.

I figure it's even money until the investigations get going. After that? Who knows. Harriet, one of W's biggest suck ups, won't be there.



In related news, the White House visitor records have disappeared. You know the ones that show when Jeff Gannon spent the night? Male prostitute Jeff Gannon? Fake news reporter? With whitehouse credentials? Whose real name isn't even Jeff Gannon?

Well those particular records are copied but the Bush Whitehouse has made the visitor records disappear, saying they don't belong to the Secret Service anymore.

Democrats are trying to un-disappear them.

This should be fun. Except that America will be totally distracted by Iraq and may not even notice it when Bush gets impeached, tried, convicted, and turned over to an inner city streetgang for processing late one Friday afternoon.

We can watch it all later on the cell phone video.

Peace,

Steve



Molly Ivins:

The president of the United States does not have the sense God gave a duck
-- so it's up to us. You and me, Bubba.

I don't know why Bush is just standing there like a frozen rabbit, but
it's time we found out. The fact is WE have to do something about it. This
country is being torn apart by an evil and unnecessary war, and it has to be
stopped NOW.

The Village Voice has dropped on of the great political cartoonists of today. As a public service I present it here:

Tom Tomorrow archives.

A Broken Heart

"You can fool some of the people, all of the time...And those are the ones you should concentrate on."

...George W. Bush

Who are these people?

11% of Americans support sending more troops to Iraq.


From her historic speech before Congress as she assumed the Speakership...

"The election of 2006 was a call to change, not merely to change the control of
Congress but for a new direction for our country. Nowhere were the American
people more clear about the need for a new direction than in the war in
Iraq.
The American people rejected an open-ended obligation to a war without
end..."

...Nancy Pelosi


A very good friend, one of my "arguing" buddies, came over to me last night and said he was working the counter of a local convenience store when a teenaged girl came in, went to the newspaper rack, and walked up to the counter with ten Knoxville News Sentinels in her hands. She placed them on the counter and looked at my friend.

"That's my brother," she said pointing to the official photograph of the Marine in full dress uniform on the front page.

"She just lost it," he said..."She just broke down bawling."

"For the next hour after she left, it was all I could do to keep from crying"... Me too, last night, as he told me the story. We looked away from each other for a second or two and changed the subject.

I think our whole country is on its way to a broken heart...The folks that don't already have one, that is.

Peace,

Steve

Same Jail, Second Verse

So...Is it legal to call for the assassination of members of congress?

"ANY MEMBER OF CONGRESS WHO INTRODUCES, CO-SPONSORS OR VOTES IN FAVOR OF ANY SUCH AMNESTY WILL BE DECLARED A DOMESTIC ENEMY AND WILL BE CONSIDERED A LEGITIMATE TARGET FOR ASSASSINATION,"

That's the American way, right? This is a kind of person that supports Republicans:

That piece of excrement is posted on the website of Right Wing talk show host, Hal Turner. These are the same people that think that God fixed the election for George W. Bush. I guess God thought it was too hard to give Bush the intelligence, fortitude, and character so he would deserve the election...it was much easier to fix the machines.

And by the way, the first person to advocate, introduce, and sign amnesty laws for illegal aliens was the patron saint of the right wing himself....

President Ronald Reagan

These people are disgusting.

****
Well, today's the day we will see the first female Speaker of the House in American history. The Dems hav a lot of work to do but they have solid public support for their agenda of the first 100 hours. Oddly, the only things the public questions is for the plan to reduce tax subsidies for the Oil industry and most of all the proposal to limit spending to things we can pay for.

Here's a ten point plan the Dems should consider.

*****

Now, back here at home, our Roane County fathers (our only Mother retired last term) have decided to waddle on down the path of spending three or four times as much money as they should on a new jail. Before the election we heard a different tune than the one playing now in commission chambers, or more appropriately, back rooms.

Does anybody, besides me, wonder why have to have a new jail because the maintenance Department can't fix the bathroom drain in the current jail?

Does anybody, besides me, wonder why we have to build a bigger jail when we don't follow the state law about who should be incarcerated because they can't raise their bond?

Does anybody, besides me, wonder why our schools are more overcrowded than our jails and need tens of millions of dollars in maintenance but we're charging headlong into building a new jail first?

Actually, I think they do. Watch out, Roane County commissioners...Your constituents are getting angry...Again!

Peace,

Steve

All My Fault

If anyone is wondering why there is no snow at any of the ski resorts, it is not because of global warming. It's because of us.

We gave young son a snowboard for xmas and booked a ski trip.

The resort, of course, charged us to go see their snow and then when they didn't have any, they charged us anyway. The resort board of directors must be made up of defense contractors. You know...the ones who made the big bucks as we roared off to stop terrorism and destroy weapons of mass destruction in a country that didn't have any of either.

But we still got the bill...It'll push a trillion dollars before we're done. We're already halfway there.

*****

Saw where George W. Bush is calling for bipartisanship in the new congress. Amazing. He's also using his "Uniter, not a divider" skills to unite Iraq. It's actually working...Both sides are shooting at Americans.

I call upon Democrats to be every bit as bipartisan as Republicans have been.

*****

Anyone who believes anything conservatives ever say should have ther voter registration card taken away until they take and pass a course on applied critical thinking.

Rude wisdom is often the most plainly stated.

*****

And from Justin A. Frank, M.D. we have the book, "Bush on the Couch" in which Dr. Frank makes the case that we have a sociopath for a president. Dr. Frank does a fine job of telling us that W has destroyed this country as a by product of getting back at his father.

Well, that's great, Dr. Frank. I can hear the readers of this humble blog all sighing a collective, "Well, Duh!"

Here's an interview with the good Doc that's an interesting read.

*****

Also...Small business owners create more jobs and are the source of more innovation than any other segment in our society. Unfortunately, they tend to vote Republican, which is obviously not in the best interest of SMALL business....mega Corporations, sure, but the actual driving force behind American job creation should be voting Democratic and here's why.

Peace,

Steve

Sacrifice

President Bush will go on TV soon and read, with deep conviction, a speech from his teleprompter. He will call for sacrifice by everyone in America except himself, jenna, and that other one, who are busy getting kicked out of South American bars. (I mean, dang, couldn't he at least send them on a USO tour or something? Jenna could do her butt dance and make out with whoever it is she's making out with at the moment, and that other twin could..uh...collect pennies for Unicef in a trick or treat can like she did in Paraguay?)

Bush announced that he was gonna "Surge" in Iraq. "Surge" is another word for "Escalate" which means "We're already over the 3000 dead Americans mark so what' s a few more gonna hurt?"

He made his announcement in order to make some noise and try and drown out the report from the almost bi-partisan Iraq Study Group, which pretty much said Bush was a moron, uh, fine and dedicated person who had brought to the Iraq war the same piercing focus and successful vision he had shared with his former business partner, Salem Bin Laden, while looking for oil in the Texas desert.

So...Bush made this announcement about his plan, which he hadn't come up with yet, to "win" the Iraq war. It involves sending more targets to Iraq. Yep! clever, that bush kid. That's what he's gonna do, send more American troops to Iraq...It's just that he doesn't know why, yet. he was gonna tell us in a day or two, only it has taken a lot longer than that to figure out some way to defend what may be the stupidest move yet by an American president. Bush announced that he was sending more troops to Iraq, in spite of the fact that there weren't any more troops to send and there wasn't anything for them to do once they got there except get shot at.

"I may be a moron," says our President, "But I'm willing to sacrifice other people's children for my war anyway. It's like that plastic turkey I always hold up at Christmas, like I'm giving the troops something special. You see...it's like this...You can fool some of the people all of the time...And those are the ones you want to concentrate on."

(That's an actual Bush Quote, folks.)

Peace,

Steve


More on the lynching of Saddam debacle:

It's a sorry picture. US Army officers trying to force some adherence to the rule of law in the execution of the former head of state. The current head of government -- Maliki -- demanding an immediate execution, then finding a series of 'workarounds' to sidestep to apparently clear laws blocking an immediate execution. And then getting final go-ahead from a group of clerics. Is that what 3,000 Americans died for?

Josh Marshall

*****

Even Roger Ailes thinks Glen Reynolds is a moron:

John Edwards hasn't yet hired me as a consultant or even added me to his One America Blogroll. It's never too late to make the best decision of your political life, John.
At least lose Instapundit: He's a Republican, his wife's nuttier than he is and he isn't even a real lawyer.

My New Year

During my first cup of coffee this morning an immature red tail hawk flew by the breakfast nook with a crow in hot pursuit. The big bird appeared to simply ignore the crow and glide away across the gorge. Crows were once fairly uncommon birds but with the coming of the Europeans, highways and roadkill, they are present in numbers well beyond what the native ecosystems were interested in.

We took advantage of the rains and kayaked Whites Creek during what was supposed to be the warm part of the day but we never saw the sun. When we got home and crawled in the hot tub, our fingers and feet stung and itched from being so cold. 'Twas painful and exquisite relief.

During our paddle we disturbed a pair of red tail adults who whistled at us from the rare air at the rim of the gorge. I almost want to learn to hang glide when I watch the soaring predators hanging around in the lifting currents.

Almost...

So far, I have gone whitewater kayaking every day this year.

Peace,

Steve

2006

As he pardoned Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford said, ,"Our long national nightmare is over."

Ford pardoned Nixon for exactly the wrong reason and did not want anyone to know about it until after his death. Those were his orders. Ford gave little thought to what would actually be best for America, it turns out. Jerry Ford pardoned Nixon because... "He was my friend."

So Richard Nixon, who felt that the president was above the law, had exactly two friends on earth...One was the criminal, Bebe Rebozo, and the other was Jerry Ford.

But there is a problem with nightmares...America went back to sleep and found that nightmares, like evil regimes, can repeat themselves.

The Viet Nam War killed part of the soul of America in addition to the 60,000 actual dead and 300,000 wounded American troops. Every person in America lost something in that war, whether it was a personal friend or the personal trust in our government. Most of us lost both.

Now, as we toss in our sleep and the year 2006 extinguishes itself, we watch ourselves twisting in the horror of our new "National Nightmare"...Only there is a difference...a tragic difference. In the first one, Richard Nixon was our President. He was very intelligent, thoughtful, and thoroughly disliked and deeply evil.

Today we have a worse war with less purpose and greater and more tragic consequences in the long run for America... and in George W, Bush, we have a President much like Richard Nixon...but with none of Nixon's good qualities.

Peace and Happy New Year!

Steve


*****

Saddam is Dead:

Riverbend

New Year's resolutions?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122901238_pf.html

Myths of the Iraq War

President Bush says that "clearing brush and riding his mountain bike" helps him "clear his mind"...The obvious question is...."Of what?"

The most telling indictment of the Bush Administration is the announcement of their "Plan in Iraq"...They were going to announce it three days after the Iraq Study Group report came out, then delayed it a week , then...Well anyway, the Bush "Plan" is now due out sometime next year.

Next year?

After three and one half years of fighting, killing, and dying...we'll have a plan...Next year? I have one now. it is the same one I have had from day one. Apologize, load up, come home. We have screwed the pooch in Iraq. It is over and there is not one damned thing America can do to help one damned thing in Iraq except to come home.

Try this quote from a very smart man:


...if it(winning in Iraq) means the establishment of a stable, pro-American, anti-Iranian government with an effective and even-handed army and police force in the near or even medium term, then the assertion is frankly ridiculous...

Professor Juan Cole

So...We can't win in Iraq. We are the problem and the longer we stay, the harder it is going to be for whoever is going to fix this mess, to fix this mess. And whoever it will be, it will come from within Iraq. We should simply make sure that is where the solution comes from, whatever they choose and however they choose it.

I do not believe it will be a pretty solution.

Peace,

Steve

The Creek Family

And a friend.

Ready, Set, Eat!

The morning of Christmas eve:

Amazingly, both sons are home, sleeping late of course, but home. We spent yesterday inside a gym watching Thomas play in a basketball tournament. The folks who put those local tournaments on are on my list of unsung heroes of community life. They even had Santa hats for the boys to wear as they posed for the trophy pictures. After everyone else had gone, they spent a couple of hours cleaning up after us and hauling off the trash. I wish I had a trophy to give to them for being so good to the kids. They'll make a little money on the tournament and it will all go back into the community league for the kids winter basketball league.

We'll be busy cooking most of the day and at the end we'll spend thirty minutes destroying the food. It will take longer to clean up than to consume and it will be totally worth it. I made the congealed salad last night and will cook duck this afternoon. Later this evening I will be resting in the recliner, uncomfortably full and loving it.

Most of you have similar plans. Your Xmas shopping should be done by now but I know there are slackards amongst you. I would be willing to bet that more of you are more worried about what you are giving than what you are getting. This is a good thing. I expect it of you.

But I hope you get something good!

Merry Christmas,

Steve

********

The story...

A child is given, a son. He grows up to be a teacher, sage, healer and prophet. He gains a large following. To many he is a divine savior; to the rich and powerful he is an enemy.

Read: Bill Moyers (A story for our time)

Also, the end of year notice from Human Resources: Memo to Employees

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I've decided to give up on my personal war on Christmas, mainly 'cause I like getting stuff, and you have never seen how a mobile home can be beautified until you take a night time drive through East Tennessee the weekend before Cristmas. I keep wondering how many of those folks, with the seven gazillion lightbulbs wrapped around everything including the trampoline, are getting heating bills assistance checks?

Actually I've decided to skip right over Christmas and mobilize for the "War on New Year!"

I mean, the timing's all wrong anyway. January First doesn't mean a danged thing to anybody except the snake oil merchants selling hangover cures. The new year doesn't and never has started on January 1! Today is the first day of the new year, what ever number it is on your particular calendar, as any self respecting Astronomer, pagan, or druid can tell you if you ask...well, actually, most Druids and Pagans will tell you that whether you ask or not...Astronomers don't talk about astronomer stuff except to other astronomers because, here in East Tennessee, people keep asking them to tell 'em about their horoscope and is this a good time to buy a lottery ticket.

( I say take the money and tell 'em no...It's like doing them a favor)

Anyway, January 1 shouldn't be on January 1. The calendar got screwed up way back when by all kinds of Italian dictators. Ceasar Augustus added his own month, maybe because he was born of a "virgin" well before that got so popular a few hundred years later. Julius added his own month and Constantine, who wasn't an Italian even, monkeyed around with all kinds of stuff they didn't mention in you world history class, unless you had Dr. McCammon who was a rip roaring drunk and passed out in class now and again, but danged if he wasn't fun to listen to. He was particularly shocking when he got on a roll on Napolean or the Russians or anybody with a modifier after their name. like "The Great" or "The Terrible"...

But anyway, just so you'll know...Today is the real first full day of the New Year...YaaaaaaaaaY!!!!

It will be very slightly longer than yesterday as a gift from the laws of Physics.

Tomorrow will be even better!

Peace,

Steve


More fun stuff:

OK, Conservative secrets will be doled out by Tom Delay for $52 a year but only to Conservatives with the proper credentials. That's what dear old disgraced Tom thinks folks will pay for his, uh, "wisdom for combatting the Radical Left!" (Too much pesticide snorting back when he tried to have a job in the real world maybe? )

Chemical Tommy tried to start a blog for Convervatives but not enough of them could read and write. He got tons of comments from those evil Liberals, though, pretty much making fun of everything and he pulled his nice shiny new blog off the internet tubes and decided you'd have to pay if you wanted to read what he wrote.

Wrong on both counts...I can read rather well but would rather not expose my "beautiful mind" to his venom...And he doesn't write that stuff anyway.

(Thanks to my favorite Big Blue Butt for the heads up)

And anyway...how are folks going to pay for this? Anybody who sends their credit card number to Tom Delay is seven times stupid! (I'm taking Texan lessons...Can you tell?)

America isn't losing the war

"...A lot of Americans understand the consequences of defeat. Retreat would embolden radicals. It would hurt the credibility of the United States."

So here's my question...Doesn't it hurt the credibility of America even more for us to be stupid?

And anyway, George W. Bush is losing the war in Iraq...Not America!

A Virgin Birth, or "Here, there be Dragons"

Essentially what we have here is an immaculate conception," he said...

"We will be on the look-out for shepherds, wise men, and an unusually bright
star in the sky over Chester Zoo,"

That's because the virgin in question is Flora the Komodo dragon, a giant lizard at Chester Zoo in England that has laid fertile eggs despite never having had a mate.

DNA tests confirmed Flora was the sole parent, says Chester Zoo curator of lower vertebrates Kevin Buley.

Mama? That you?



Quote of the Day:

The political worldview in Washington right now is schizophrenic: cautious at
home and a daredevil abroad. Sending 140,000 predominantly Christian troops into
the heart of Islam and expecting them to be greeted as liberators - that is a
faith-based initiative. But on the domestic front, our government seems to have
given up trying to make a difference. Our health care system is broken, our
transportation system is breaking, our education system is a tale of two cities,
we are more dependent upon oil, and our deficit is about to fall off the cliff.
Washington responds with a tax credit here or an earmark there. Iraq is sucking
all the oxygen out of the real policy debates, which are long overdue.

Ned Lamont, the guy Connecticut did not elect instead of Liebermann.


Now!

At 7:22 pm EST this evening the tilted Earth's path around the Sun will produce, for those in the Northern hemisphere, the longest night of the year. The moment of the Winter Solstice has been predicted with calculation and astrolabe by the scientific members of societies for thousands of years. Some of these knowlegable individuals used this information embellished with charlatanry to gain influence and power over their tribal associates, and some did not. In religious societies, the former tended to be revered and the latter...burned at the stake. This societal tendency continues even today, but I digress...

The further from the equator the more valuable the ability to calculate the event of the Winter Solstice. After all, what difference does it make to a culture living in grass huts and able to pick fresh fruit year round? If a tribe faces short days and long 40 below zero nights, the ability to predict the moment of the year in which the light of day begins to increase...well that's an important skill. As societies evolved and populations increased, the burdens that humans placed upon the Earth's ability to support them became increasingly tight, until making it through the Winter was more and more difficult and rationing of provisions collected in warmer months became necessary for survival. It had to be depressing, hanging out in the dark and cold waiting for it to warm up outside. With the occurrence of the Winter Solstice, the days would increase and there was cause for the celebrations of rebirth and renewal.

Winter Solstice celebrations take many forms and have been coopted into religions other than their indiginous ones. Preachers of all sorts and through out history have known a good bandwagon when they saw it, and today we have this hodge podge of rituals known as "The Holidays". Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanuka, Festivus, and on and on and on...Preachers keep inventing them and we keep celebrating them. Some folks pick and choose amongst them, and some old miscreants deny every one of them...I propose to celebrate them all.

In order to make sure I have enough time to properly celebrate all the different holidays, I started a couple of weeks ago and plan to continue until the event of the Vernal Equinox, whereupon I shall immediately start celebrating the various Spring rituals, such as the easter Bunny, which may be the weirdest of all the western concoctions but at least it has the redemptive value of chocolate. This continues through the Summer Solstice and Autumnal Equinox until it is time to start the rotation all over again. A bit of a bump in the year round celebrations should be reserved for Mother's Day, which is supposed to be about ending all wars, and Thanksgiving, which is supposed to be about... well... being thankful. And I am!

So sometime after dark today, the exact moment being irrelevent until the Sun comes up anyway, our days will become longer and longer and brighter and brighter for the next six months. So in keeping with spirit of the spirits, I propose a toast that all of us should be able to share...

"To the coming of the Light...In all it's meanings"

Peace,

Steve

The War on Xmas Continues

From the Whitehouse:

Laura and I send our best wishes for a joyous Kwanzaa and a blessed New
Year...

...During the seven days of Kwanzaa leading up to the New
Year, friends and family come together in a spirit of love and joy to honor
their rich African heritage, reflect on the Seven Principles and give thanks for
the blessings of freedom and opportunity. Forty years after the first Kwanzaa,
this hopeful occasion remains an opportunity to build the bonds of family,
community and culture and move ever closer to the founding promise of liberty
and justice for all.

Liberty and Justice for All?

George W. Bush wants "Liberty and Justice for All"...Who knew?



Quote of the Day:

"Bush has always worked with the Democrats the way that a shark works with chum.

I wouldnt expect a new approach from him now, even if the blood in the water is
now his own after all, he's never shown any ability to adapt to changed
circumstances... Or even to recognize that they exist."

That quote is from the comments section of an article in which Bush talks about the reasons for the Republican defeat:

"Look, you've got a guy using earmarks to enrich himself; there was sex and all
kinds of issues that sent the signal that perhaps it was time to give another
group a chance to lead."

This is a must read for anyone wondering how America can be so out of touch with what is going on in Iraq:


"Some $400 million in media consulting contracts has been awarded during the past few years by the Pentagon, for the purpose of helping 'to effectively communicate Iraqi government and Coalition goals with strategic audiences,'" Alvin Snyder pointed out. "Thus far both the Pentagon and its contract psy-op journalists have experienced a painful learning curve, but the most recent contract award will show how much each has learned. The outlook is not promising."

So our tax money goes to pay people who make up lies? And then we get told those lies by people we are supposed to be working for us. Isn't there some budgetary process by which this money can be cut off?

You know...The line item about paying people to make shit up...

Peace,

Steve

Books? What Books?

There are plans for a George W. Bush Presidential Library costing half a billion dollars to celebrate Bush's magnificent presidency for all of America's subsequent history. We have managed to get hold of the plans so you folks can have a sneak preview. While the architechtural views of the outside cannot compare with the Bill Clinton Library, a magnificent hybridization of a large stainless steel mobile home cantilevered over the Arkansas River in Clenile homage, the inside is a walk through rooms depicting seperate acheivements of the Bush presidency. For instance:

The Victory in Iraq Room — The visitors view a short film about our glorious victory in Iraq. After which, they are beaten for five minutes by actors playing the part of Iraqi citizens.

A fun aspect of the W Library is the "Hunt for Weapons of Mass Destruction Room"...and we're still hunting...for the room.

W Presidential Library

Now for some local stuff!

For those of you who may not already know that the publisher of Knoxville's supposedly alternative weekly newsrag, Brian Conley, is a dirtbag, Here's a nice piece fron the social section of the Knoxville news Sentinel. Too bad he was released on bond.

WhitesCreek's State Senator, Tommy Kilby, has announced that he will not seek reelection on 2008. Word is that both party bosses have decided that any candidates to replace Senator Kilby will be picked from a pool of area residents who can read and write at or above the eighth grade level. This has already caused problems with several potential candidates and has narrowed the field considerably.

Rumor has it that Senator Kilby was driven to consider retirement by the growing sentiment to ban cigar smoking from the Senate Chambers.

Peace,

Steve

The Smell of Energy?

When the chips are down, who ya gonna call?

Cow Pattie!

Well, anyhoo.... go read my friend, Prairie Weather every chance you get.

Gift

When I catch the eye of babies, grocery store, line at Wendy's, etc., I look at their eyes and make a joyous face. My joyous face may scare adults but babies seem to like it. My version of the joyous face is eyes and mouth widely open and laughing, with a silent exclaimative intake of breath. like a prelude to a nice cackling or Ho, ho, ho. As I come to more resemble the big fat elf, I suppose I am more acceptable as a stranger.

Even if the child has never seen me before, I usually get a smile in return and sometimes laughter. More than one Momma has turned around to see what her kid has suddenly squealed at. They will invariable have already caught the smile themselves.

Humans have social brains, hard wired for kindness, of all things. I suppose that is why we are so happy when the babies are happy, whether they are related to us or not. We want to be happy and we want the people around us to be happy as well. Entire religions are founded on this fact, Budhism for one, and the nicer Christian denominations as well, though many seem to dwell on the gorier aspects depicted by the Old Testament instead of the incredible and lengthy string of kind acts depicted by the tellers of the Jesus story.

Studies of human reactions prove that we want to be kind first and foremost and that it is an aberration to be cruel. Babies tend to cry when they hear recordings of other babies crying but not when they hear a recording of their own cries. Even the lower (supposedly) primates will starve themselves when they realize that taking food caused a shock to be delivered to their cage mate. We don't like to hurt other people and we do like to make them happy, as a rule though this rule can certainly be broken with selfish or vengeful motivation.

I wonder why it is that humans seem more willing to follow a leader who says, "I will protect you" even when the thing you are being protected from is essentially insignificant, as in the "Terror" boogieman, rather than following one who says, "I will make you happy"?...Or, "I will make your children happy!" and even more significant promise.

Interestingly, we now find that our brains never quit recharging themselves and rewiring themselves due to the discovery of neuroplasticity, and that we ourselves have much to say on whether we will rewire for "sad" or "happy"... Whether we will be cruel or kind?

There are now "Laughter Clubs" around the world that do nothing more than meet outside and start laughing. All accounts seem to say that the laughers are inexplicably happier after laughing, even when it is faked.

Well, we should know that while the first smile may be faked, the mirror smile on the face of someone else is not. So try it today...Make someone smile back at you.

Give the gift of a "Joyous face". Give yourself the gift of happiness by giving others the gift of kindness.

"Tis the Season", after all.

Peace,

Steve

People Forget...

People forget...

When Donald Rumsfeld took over the United States military services, the world feared our might. The restructuring of the military under Clinton and Gore gave us the ability to put on such incredible demonstrations of precision military destruction that, from invisibly high altitudes, we could destroy a chicken coop and leave the outhouse next to it untouched. The fine surgical instrument that was handed over to Rumsfeld was used with all the finesse of a rock.

Now the whole world knows that the fearsome 'Black Helicopters" can be knocked out of the skies with a small caliber squirrel rifle.

Ahbu Graib, Guantanamo, over 3000 dead, 10,000 greivously wounded, hundreds of thousands of dead civilians, and a royal cluster bleep in Iraq and, by the way, Afghanistan...

"Don Rumsfeld is the finest Secretary of Defense this country has had"...Dick Cheney

A tribute to the man who has a machine sign his "personal" letters to the parents of dead soldiers.

"Oh, come on. People are fungible. You can have them here or there." Don Rumsfeld

And also, as Rummy rides off into the sunset, we hear the haunting echos of his prediction on how long the Iraq War would last,

"It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

I watched a small bit of Rumsfeld's farewell ceremony...It made me sick.

In reality, I don't think most of America WILL forget...

Bye Rummy! Go live in your walnut paneled cave in your gated community protected by your private armed guards... and think about what you've done.

Peace,

Steve


******

For Matt:

Zombie Music

It's a little early for the "Year in Review" stuff but TT has started with a good one (scroll down). I would like to see someone collect all the "We're winning" bs remarks from W and pals and try to explain how the "War President" has conducted a war longer than WW II and just found out that things aren't going so well. He was about to announce his new plan for Iraq and apparently had to postpone the announcement because, well,

...There was no plan.

They had a name for it, though..."The New Way Forward!"

Wow, cool, sounds great...Only it falls into the same genre as the Killer AP Software known as "Vaporware"...

I hear music from the past:

"Her eyes are clear and bright, her voice is soft and cool....But she's not there..."

Then the most awesome keyboard riff of the 60's takes us off into la la land.

Where "The Decider" lives, apparently.

Peace,

Steve

Update: I had the lyrics wrong in my memory (imagine that?)

Here they are:

Well, no one told me about her The way she lied

Well, no one told me about her How many people cried

But it's too late to say you're sorry How would I know, why should I care?

Please don't bother trying to find her She's not there

Well, let me tell you 'bout the way she looked

The way she acts and the color of her hair

Her voice was soft and cool, her eyes were clear and bright

But she's not there

Well, no one told me about her What could I do?

Well, no one told me about herThough they all knew

But it's too late to say you're sorry

How would I know, why should I care?

Please don't bother trying to find her

She's not there

The Zombies

I'll be Damned!

I didn't even know there was such a thing as the Baptist Center for Ethics, much less that it was in Tennessee. I thought Tennessee Baptists did things like sue small universities for trying to bring diversity to their Board of Directors instead of the all Baptist, all the time, mode of their usual endowees.

Baptist ethics? Like segregation? Preaching in schools? (Let's not pretend it's about prayer" eh? It's preaching an we all know it...) America is a christian nation and no other religion counts, even Presbyterianism?

I give the baptists a hard time...They deserve it. Usually, but now here they go and do something that looks...well...Christian!

We believe that Wal-Mart has been given and entrusted with much wealth,
power and influence. We believe that much is required of and demanded from
Wal-Mart in terms of its responsibility to working families. That responsibility
necessitates that Wal-Mart treat well its employees with such things as:

fair-living wages, not poverty-level wages;

generous health care benefits, not eliminating low-deductible health care
plans;

decent places to work that treat women with dignity and equality;

respectful schedules for children in school; and good benefits for sound
retirements.

A company with the wealth of Wal-Mart has the responsibility to advance the
common good for a better society, not seek only personal gain. Wal-Mart's
leaders need to recognize their moral obligations to be good stewards of what
the corporation has been given and entrusted, not simply through acts of charity
but with justice for working-family employees who have built but not necessarily
benefited from Wal-Mart's vast earnings.

So I have to ask: "Who are these guys and are they real Baptists or have progressive aliens taken over their bodies? "

To further confuse things I found this on their web site:

BCE challenges Christians to be

pro-health, not anti-alcohol;
pro-women and pro-people of color, not anti-discrimination;
pro-poor people, not anti-poverty;
pro-family, not anti-abortion and anti-pornography;
pro-sex education, not anti-human sexuality;
pro-character development, not anti-moral failure.

All I can say is,

...I'll be damned!

and...

I'll drink to that.

Peace,

Steve

It's all clear now...

This is the best analysis I've seen on 9-11. Why didn't I see this before now?

Steve

I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus...

Ok, we've tried to get people's attention but nothing worked so far. Perhaps we can make headway if people would come to the realization that very lives of Santa, Rudolph, the elves, and the Retail Capitalist's religious world view is at stake.

I'm, of course, talking about Global Warming:

The North Pole is Melting

Would children make their parents do more to stop human caused climate change if the kids realized that Mom's SUV was killing Santa?

Should I copywrite the T-shirt that would get the FundXtians totally on board? You know...the one that says:

"Oh my God! We Gotta Save Santa!"

And from our WAR ON XMA$$ Department:

How 'Bout those Christmas Trees!

The Rabbi said he wasn't going to sue the Airport and offered an electric minora for display alongside the Christmas trees in the terminal. This item also concurrently submitted by our Department of Irony, given the history of the Xm$$ tree being a Pagan Symbol. The Airport Authority countered by saying they were "Holliday" trees in the first place.

Geez!

Society bends over backward to be accommodating to religious sensibilities but not to other kinds of sensibilities. If I say something offensive to religious people, I'll be universally censured, including by many atheists. But if I say something insulting about Democrats or Republicans or the Green Party, one is allowed to get away with that. Hiding behind the smoke screen of untouchability is something religions have been allowed to get away with for too long.
Richard Dawkins

Peace,

Steve

Truce...for the sake of the kids

Of course this flies in the face of the concept "Non overlapping Magesteria" , wherein science is science and religion is religion, but these are dire times. If we don't figure things out and act in common...we're toast. Literally!

I personally have acheived a truce with religion, and though I have upheld my side of the signatories, it has not been willing to leave me alone. Still, I haven't once responded to "Merry Christmas" with "May Gaia forgive you" or something like that. The religious get very offended at a reflected hipocrisy, and most of them haven't a clue as to the nature of the jest anyway.

There is a new thought, however, that says for Science and Religion to join against a common enemy, a comcept well known for all time as the very best creator of deep and abiding friendships.


http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/16203416.htm


To address the fate of the Earth, "it will be necessary," Wilson writes, "to find common ground on which the powerful forces of religion and science can be joined." In an interview with The Inquirer (Page C2), he says that "no well-known scientist" he knew of "had ever held out the hand of friendship to the evangelicals." Yet "if we could combine the moral passion and commitment of those with religious faith, which is sincere and deep and powerful, with the similar passion of secularist scientists" in saving the creation, "that would be a perfect combination."

Read it all

This is an interesting proposal and at this point in the downward spiral of our planet's ecosystem, I am willing to try anything.

Peace,

Steve

And the Word is..."Subpoena"

Let's see...

Abramoff, Delay, Savafian, Ken Lay, Katrina, New Orleans, Iraq, Trillion dollar deficits, Dubai ports deal, K-Street project, Contractor corruption ruining the Coast Guard, and on and on and on....

I guess the Bush Administration has more in common with a Mafia organization than a Presidency except for one thing...The Mafia wouldn't tolerate the Bush disorganization and incompetence! Sure they would over charge you but the damned ships would at least float!

There is nothing touched by George W. Bush that has gone well, unless you count the incredible amounts of money his associates have banked in offshore accounts. Can we stand two more years of Republicans in charge?

Here is a fine editorial opinion that expresses my personal belief in a straight forward no nonsense manner:

"Has the President so failed in his duties to the nation that he should leave office? The answer to that question is yes, and the time for the President to leave is not after months of continued national embarrassment but now....

Unfortunately, that opinion is a bit dated:

---USA Today editorial, Sept. 15, 1998

I don't suppose you guys remember that during the Clinton years, the Republican controlled Congress spent two years investigating the Clinton's Christmas card list. Then there was the Clinton's travel budget, and so on. After 50 million dollars worth of investigations by a republican special prosecutor, they brought an impeachment charge in the Senate against Bill Clinton for lying about a blow job.

This brings me to the question...

Where are the newspapers, the so called Liberal media, Now, when we really need them? Where are the calls for Justice for America? Are they all under the thumb of the Right Wing?

We'll see.

Peace,

Steve

*****

I don't have the time to describe the travesty that the Bush Administration has committed against the Coast Guard. No one is braver than your average Coastie, and the list of those who have served in the USCG is long and distinguished. But that's not the only outsourcing travesty purpetrated upon america...

http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com/2006/12/outsourcer-in-chief.html

And today's quote:


"A Conservative is someone with two good legs who will not move forward." President Franklin Roosevelt

Thirteen

I love Winter in the South, even though technically it is still Fall. It's 13 degrees on the back porch and the bald eagles are flying low in the gorge this morning as they head out to find dead things washed up along the lake. When cold weather sweeps the Eastern USA, the big bird population of Whites Creek gorge swells up to four or five times the Summer census as Northern birds head for Southern beaches and ice free hunting for fish, fowl, and the lakeside version of road kill.

...Nothing nobler than to witness our Nation's majestic symbol feasting on four day old fish.

I jest...As many times as I've held my morning coffee aside to watch one glide by, I love seeing the eagles. We can watch them grow up and get their adult color over the course of three years ans we've even seen one of our "yard birds" get overly friendly with a yankee visitor and leave us come spring, after twirling and play fighting and locking feet in mid air in grand entertainment for the earthbound who look up.

Winter eagles are all over East Tennessee and I see them even in downtown Knoxville. I've watched them glide over Interstate 40 and 75 while sitting in afternoon traffic, but i wonder how many people actually notice them. The $99 Nikons I keep in the console of my car have given me great pleasure while waiting in the parking lot for a shopping event to be over. I watched a broadwing hawk drop out of a tree straight down onto a snake just last week, while I was talking on the phone in a office building parking area. When I mentioned the hawk to an associate, he said something like, "I never see things like that. You are sure lucky."

I don't think luck has anything to do with it. I think I pay attention to things I care about.

If your day is all about making a deal, then you may only see things that let you gain the upper hand on your competition. If your day is all about seeing and experiencing as much of this universe as you can in the tiny amount of time you have on earth, you may see wonderous things that others miss simply by looking around, no matter where you are.

These moments are life's prizes.

They are free and good for everyone.

Peace,

Steve

*****

We should also ask why anyone who didn't raise questions about the war — or, at
any rate, anyone who acted as a cheerleader for this march of folly — should be
taken seriously when he or she talks about matters of national security?

...Paul Krugman

I am STILL not the father of Mary Cheney's baby...And neither is Ranger Poe.

Lose...or Lose worse?

The Iraq Study Group laid some heavy words on President Bush, but frankly it was more about his incompetence and concealment of how things have been going than a real assessment of where we should take this mess from here. Why is that? Senator Russ Feingold has this to say about it:


"The fact is this commission was composed apparently entirely of people who did not have the judgment to oppose this Iraq war in the first place, and did not have the judgment to realize it was not a wise move in the fight against terrorism. So that's who is doing this report. Then I looked at the list of who testified before them. There is virtually no one who opposed the war in the first place. Virtually no one who has been really calling for a different strategy that goes for a global approach to the war on terrorism. So this is really a Washington inside job and it shows not in the description of what's happened - that's fairly accurate - but it shows in the recommendations."

Exactly! Not one person with the fortitude to say Iraq is a mistake had their opinion taken into account by the ISG. This eliminates a wide range of possible action from consideration, and certainly eliminates those with better judgement and courage.

Our troops will simply keep dying. even Lee Hamilton says there is on a 50-50 chance of success from here...at best.

Bring them home now!

Peace,

Steve

Major Smackdown

Major Smackdown of big time local blogger

Let's get this Straight...

Denial !

http://www.knoxviews.com/node/3106

Be sure and read the Comments


And for a rather compleat take on "How Screwed is Mary Cheney's Child" because they live in virginia and Virginia just passed an anti gay marriage law so Mary Cheny's girlfriend/wife/significant other will have no/zip/zero parental rights.

Whoa! A Virgin Birth just in time for Xmas?

The best stuff on the Internet tubes is in the comments!

Peace, little child...I wish for you the best in this life. Try not to act like the Bush Twins, eh?

Peace,

Steve

It was Twenty Years ago Today

Happy Birthday, Joseph!

Dad

OO-Goe!

OO-goe!

Hugo Chavez got re-elected. It was a landslide. This is not good news for the Bush administration because Chavez is not a member of the aristocracy and actually tries to help poor people. He was born and raised in a hut. He lost a large part of his eyesight when he was imprisoned for leading a Coup against a corrupt government of his country. The people demanded his release and pardon, and so did the guerilla groups that held a fair portion of the rural countryside. After they let him out of jail and he received medical treatment, Chavez organized a Socialist political party and got elected President of Venezuela.

Chavez was removed from office by a coup that was backed, so says everyone except the Bush administration, by the Bush administration, but they had to put him back in because the people shut down the country. "Shutting down the Country" actually means shutting down the oil fields. Venezuela has oil...lots of it. Why else would George Bush give a rat's ass about Venezuela?

Chavez ain't perfect by a long shot. His goverment is certainly less corrupt than the one he replaced but corruption runs deep and is difficult to eradicate, just ask Nancy Pelosi. He has run afoul of the powerful people in the world by actually trying to help his countrymen. He has taken back land that was taken from the indigenous people of rural Venezuela and given it to the indigenous people of rural Venezuela. Returning stolen property is a bad thing. if you don't believe that, just ask the Pope about his German art collection. Pat Robertson called Hugo a dictator and asked for him to be assassinated. This is interesting because Pat is a good friend of several Dictators, such as Charles Taylor who takes care of Pat's diamond mines so he's one of Pat's God's "chosen". God loves Dictators who help Pat Robertson get lots more money. "Dictating for Jesus" is good. "Taking care of your people for Jesus"...apparently not.

George Bush and his Peeps don't like Hugo. The most aggregious charge they level against President Chavez is that he has tried to consolidate into the presidency, the power of the Judiciary and the legislative branches. This is known as the "unitary" presidency and is Bad when Hugo does it but wonderful when George Bush does it. George could help his case tremendously if he would simply stand up in front of a camera and say,

"Ya know, America, all those signing statements where I say I don't have to obey the law? I think I'm going tochange all that and start obeying the law. I'm going to start by sending Karl straight over to room with Jack Abramoff. "

Yeah, right!

I think George is just jealous because Hugo's approval rating is twice as high as his. Hugo is curtailing Venezuela oil sales to the U.S. and China is very happy about this, and has tons of American dollars piled up with which to buy Venzuelan Oil. Hugo has offered free tuition for 100,000 medical students as a result.

George doesn't like Hugo, who was elected by his countrymen, but he loves King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. This is interesting because George Bush calls Hugo Chavez a 'dictator" even though he was faily elected in elections that Jimmy Carter called fairer than Florida. Bush calls King Abdullah a friend, even though he is the King of an Islamic country governed according to Islamic law, or Shari'ah, which forbids Kings. Go figure!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_arabia

If you want to read something really strange about George's friends, the Saudi Royal family, check out: Human rights in Saudi Arabia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia

Drinking is considered "sexual deviancy" in good old Saudi Arabia. What a fun country.

So anyway, let's all help our comrades in Venezuela celebrate a fair and honest election in their country by going out and buying a few gallons of gas from CITGO Oil today. CITGO is owned by the country of Venezuela, and it may be our last chance to buy oil from the Americas before it all goes to China.

And maybe one day, elections in the United States of America can be as honest as the ones in South America.

Peace,

Steve

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Chavez

Conservative Fair Play

Grinning, He looked at me and said, "You know why Chelsey Clinton is so ugly?...Janet Reno's the Father."

And he laughed and laughed.

"She's not that bad and she's a good kid," I replied.

"You just don't have a sense of humor," he said back at me.

"I like funny," I said, "I don't like mean." And with that he walked away.

That conversation happened several years back during the Clinton Administration. Remember way back then? The stock market was ripping, we had small skirmishes but no war, the environment was much better, we were startign to have realistic discussions on global warming, and we had the first budget surplus in eons. And, oh yeah...We could count the votes accurately if the Supreme Court would let us.

Bad times, according to conservatives.

Ask one how things are going today...A conservative, that is. Back then, they spent two years investigating the Clinton's Christmas card list. Today, they are screaming about investigations into domestic spying and war profiteering. Of course it is conservatives and their buddies who are being investigated this time. Several of them are already in jail.

I mention this because I got a nasty comment about my intolerance regarding the Bush Twins in yesterday's missive. All I did was point out, if you will remember, that George Bush's kids are not exactly setting an example for today's youth. I didn't say it was bad or good. Go check.

And I pointed out that George had also sent a few thousand Americans to face death in Iraq and that some of their parents, one being a Senator-elect from Virginia, were not happy with it.

So Conservatives either forget that they were hideously unfair and down right mean spirited to The Clinton's child, who is a fine person by all accounts, or they just don't care.

"We get to be horrid to you and yours" Conservatives are saying,..."And we get to whine, puff, and crap on things when you point out the obvious about us and ours." That is the conservative way. Selfish and mean to the core.

So, my Conservative friend, you were hideously unChristian with your joke about Chelsea. Was that what you were thiking when you sat with us at lunch and stopped conversation while you prayed in public with several of us around you before eating your sandwich?

I accept your hypocrisy, though I still marvel at your willingness to call me to task for something that is actually your crime not mine. But remember: George Bush and his parasitic children are fair game within context...You started it. I'll stop when you apologize...

... to Chelsea and her Momma.

Peace,

Steve

I didn't hear the phone...

Got that call every parent dreads... the son was fine, even though the car will be incarcerated at the auto repair for a while. The old deer versus Subaru bumper, hood, and radiator event happened about a half mile from the house just as I was deeply entered into REM sleep.

My first reaction was, "Huh?" as my wife was trying to hand me the phone. Then I was standing up groggy and concerned, with that knot in my stomach.

I did not want to deal with this but he said the poor beast was still suffering, so I crawled out of the sleep hole I was in, gathered up the appropriate implements to put a deer out of its misery and headed down the road.

"Got an A on the calculus test" he said as we looked at the crumpled up metal on the car. "I thought it was a buck when I first hit it...It's a really big doe."

"You Ok?" said the Dad.

"Oh yeah," said the invincible teenager. The realization of mortality is a couple of decades off for him...but not for me, and I am relieved. We did what had to be done and headed home. Sleep was still going to be a couple of hours away. It's the willing price of parenthood.



Peace,

Steve


In keeping with our parental theme:

"The president's twin daughters are celebrating their 25th birthday with a trip
to Argentina. Apparently their trip has caused what's known as chaos, to the
point where, according to ABCNews.com, the American embassy and many Argentinian
officials have strongly suggested the twins return to America. Just to repeat,
Argentina, former safe-haven for Nazi war criminals, is drawing the line at the
Bush twins." --Jon Stewart

The right wing blathersphere is all apoplectic about Senator elect Jim Webb being angry at President Bush's asking how his son was doing, calling Webb "crashing boor" among other nasty things. Let's see...Senator Webb's son is serving his country in a tank in Iraq, just had the tank next to him blown up with three of his countymen inside, fighting in a war that George Bush lied to get us into and there's no rational way out...

Let's see... Webb's son is risking his life for his country in Iraq and Bush's daughters are running naked through hotels in Argentina. The Bush twins even have look alike doubles to sit in front of them at Argentine soccer games so someone else would get shot at...I guess that's Bush family values in action...Getting someone else shot at instead of you...while you...party your ass off.