A call to Arms...

For 2008, I wish, for each and every one of you, the will to fight.

The American Dream is up against the wall, and it's time to ask...Do you love the Constitution?

George Bush don't.

A Liberal voice passed away this year, but he left us with a call to arms...

It is time to stop looking for an accommodation with the right. They want none
for us. They want to win, at any price. So, you have a choice: be a fighting
liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what
are you?

Steve Gilliard was a fighting Liberal...And so are we!

Bring it On, 2008! It's time to kick ass, or die!

Peace,

Steve

So Mean

A relative was offended when I said I wouldn't even consider a Republican candidate this time. He kept asking why?

By way of replying, I asked him to name one thing that the republican party, being in control of all three branches of government, had done that was good for the Country? The only thing he could come up with was "no terrorist attacks since 9-11", which is hilarious...since they really have to take credit for 9-11 in the first place. Lot's of people were trying to tell them but they really screwed that one up and I think it has to stay on the record.

My real problem with Republicans is that they are just plain damned mean, and I just don't like them anymore, sorry. Republicans have even gotten so mean they don't even like themselves:

"My party is appealing to a real meanness," he said in an interview, "and an irresponsible sense of machismo in foreign policy. ...I'm an American before I'm a Republican."
...Republican Senator John Danforth

Me too, Senator Danforth. As a matter of fact, I'm so many things before I'm a republican that I can't even list them here, but I think republican falls right between corpse and nazi war criminal, if I'm reading my list right.

Peace,

Steve

*****

I keep hearing people diss John Edwards because he's wealthy and a lawyer. All I can say is, So is everyone else.

Most people think of John McCain as a war hero. He has very little business experience and has been a Senator since 1982. He was hounded by scandal fairly early in his career but one thing is certain...No one seems to realize how much money he's worth or that most of his net worth was gained during his tenure in the senate.

John McCain is a very wealthy man, primarily due to selling beer...Say $21 to $32 Million according to his filings, but others put the figure as much higher.

Mitt Romney is worth somewhere north of $190 Million.

Hillary ain't no slouch, with $10-50 Million, though that includes Bill's money too.

Barack is a relative pauper with reported assets of $456k to $1.1 Million, and Kucinich probably qualifies for food stamps with only a few hundred thousand.

Huckabee is worth a bit less than a Million but Giulliani is loaded with estimates in the $50 Million range and rising fast.

All in all, it's good to see that a poor boy can rise up and get rich enough to run for President of the United States of America...Poor Girls, too.

Financially Speaking

New Year Predictions...Not looking so good.

(From a blogger with a very good track record, btw)

Perhaps

Things are happening all over the world that will impact our future in unimaginable ways. Amazingly, they seem to be happening right here in the USA, even though we're usually too stupid, or too corrupt, to jump on them.

I told you about this one, but there's more.

America innovates and the rest of the world goes for the brass ring using our ponies. We come up with solar cells printed on cheap foil that can produce electricity at the same cost as coal and who figures out that this is a good idea?

Not America, with two corrupt oil men (is that redundant?) sitting in the Whitehouse doing nothing for their country, but Europe is ready and willing.

The holy grail of renewable energy came a step closer yesterday as
thousands of mass-produced wafer-thin solar cells printed on aluminium film
rolled off a production line in California, heralding what British scientists
called "a revolution" in generating electricity.

The solar panels produced by a Silicon Valley start-up company,
Nanosolar, are radically different from the kind that European consumers are
increasingly buying to generate power from their own roofs. Printed like a
newspaper directly on to aluminium foil, they are flexible, light and, if you
believe the company, expected to make it as cheap to produce electricity from
sunlight as from coal.

It's not hopeless though. We have some of those "liberal college students" who are kicking ass designing and building off the grid energy efficient homes and proselytizing their renewable heretic ways. How dare they make Big Electric obsolete!

For now the cost is excessive in these demonstration homes but they showcase the future and how we can eliminate oil and coal as dominant energy sources. It is a disruptive idea whose time should have been thirty years ago. Ask yourself this:

What power would Al Queda have if oil were only worth $12 a barrel even today?

Perhaps it is not too late.

Peace,
Steve

Field of Study

With a presidential candidate not immediately being forced to withdraw after noting with a straight face , that assassinated former Prime Minister of Pakistan did not properly sacrifice herself to her husband and, and Tennessee's own Prez candidate saying that it's fine for other countries to have a woman leader but not the USA ... I need to get a laugh somewhere.

There's always Texas, right?

The Winter Solstice signals the darkest night of the year but there is another darkness creeping around this Country. It seems like the Texas Board of Higher Education wants to allow the Institute for Creation Research issue Master's Degrees. I think the degree would be an M.S...That would not be Master of Science...The S would stand for Stoopid, I think.

Susan has the funny:

Why do we need an Institute for the study of Ignorance?

We're pretty good at that right off the bat.

Peace,

Steve

Tilt, And the Gift of the Mysterious

Around here it happened around 6:08 this morning, and it is all because of the TILT. The tilt is pretty close to 23.5 degrees and combined with the gyroscopic effect of the rotating planet we live on, and the period of orbit around the star which is our major source of energy, we have seasons.

I like seasons, and even though I appreciate the fact that seasons are a by product of the physics in a dynamic solar system, I still take a visceral pleasure in the seasonal mystery of cold foggy mornings like this one. My mind says all this starts with the tilt, of course, but my sprit says, "Breathe deeply and enjoy your life this morning. This is a gift."

Last night was the night of the Winter Solstice and was the longest one for the next 365 days, and we have learned that it can be predicted with simple arithmetic. We humans did not always know that and some of us still don't. When we were more ignorant, our mystics told us various things were the cause of the long night and the cold. Some of the mystics told their tribe members to do various things so that the days would get longer and warmer again and the crops would grow and the tribe would again have enough to eat. Interestingly enough, nearly all winter solstice festivals involved giving things to the mystics in one form or another, even though there were thousands of variations on the theme. Here is an example from Ancient Greece:

The winter solstice ritual was called Lenaea, the Festival of the Wild Women. In very ancient times, a man representing the harvest god Dionysos was torn to pieces and eaten by a gang of women on this day. Later in the ritual, Dionysos would be reborn as a baby. By classical times, the human sacrifice had been replaced by the killing of a goat. The women's role had changed to that of funeral mourners and observers of the birth.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

So because of the TILT, we had seasons and some of them were rough on humans living at various latitudes on planet Earth. Religious myths were created by simple social conversations and interactions and sometimes molded and used for the benefit of some folks, but not always, as in the case of some of the Winter Solstice celebrations. Sometimes it was dark and cold and miserable and people just needed a party.

Just remember that "YOUR RELIGION" is the only true religion and all those others are just mythologies, but even so, all of the Winter Solstice celebrations have come about because of the TILT.

If you are curious, and I know that you are, you might enjoy reading about a lot of the practices that various peoples have created just to get them through the darkest night. Your personal religion is probably listed here but that's just for camouflage and the interests of peace and good will.

You and I both know that your personal religion is actually the only real one. All of those other religions owe their Winter celebrations to TILT...But not yours.

Enjoy your gift and may you revel in it's mysteriousness,

Peace,

Steve

Tolerance for other's beliefs

A Change A Gonna Come

This could be the most important breakthrough in electrical history on a functional day to day basis.

A Standford University researcher has created a silicon nano-wire Lithium battery that has ten times the storage capacity of previous batteries. It's a well understood combination of two separate technologies and could be commercially viable in a very few years.

If this technology is not stopped, we could see a severe depression in the price of oil as the 80% efficient electric vehicle replaces the 18% efficient gas powered vehicle. Screw you, Exxon-Mobile.

If this technology is not stopped, we could see those motor vehicle manufacturers who have dragged their feet and opposed efficient vehicles lose out big to the ones who have aggressively pursued the technology. Screw you, General Motors.

If this technology is not stopped, We could see the end of the offensively loud internal combustion engine which insecure males use to augment their manhood in the form of two wheeled machines with noise generating non-mufflers that scream, "I am a moron" and impose this information on everyone within a half mile. Screw you, Harley Davidson, and the leather clad wannabees that have stuffed you into their codpiece.

Now be quiet.

Peace,

Steve

Crazy Conspiracy Theories, Whitehouse Fire edition

Those crazy conspiracy buffs...I can't wait to see what they come up with on the fire in the Eisenhower office building next to Dick Cheney's ceremonial office. (I think he has trophy mounts of lawyer's heads in there on the wall or something)

The next thing you know, they'll be saying that Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and some other Justice Department lawyers decided whether they should destroy the CIA torture tapes or something. How silly is that?...Oh, wait...They did?

Fun with Politics, Crazy people edition

Pat Robertson says the complete destruction of George H. W. Bush's other home and George W. Bush's other home town of Kennebunk Port, Maine, was because they weren't being "solicitous enough of Israel"...

GOP contender Mike Huckabee named John Bolton first on his list of people who's world views he respects. Bolton may have been body snatched by an alien mustache. it's the only thing that explains his determination to start World War three. Huckabee is simply nuts, and yes, his office did issue a correction that even though he wrote it in his book, he doesn't actually think gays are the same as necrophilacs, or worse...
Environmentalists! ..."Aberrant Behavior" he called environmentalists.

And then there's the Ten Best list...No not David Letterman. This is for the best George Bushisms of 2007, like this one:

"And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it." ---interview on National Public Radio, Jan. 29

One Liner

Listening to the news talk shows you are absolutely convinced that the Republican race is between the ascendant, Huckabee, and the descendant, Romney and Giulianni with a slight nod to McCain. Romney can't win because Mormons think God is Jesus' older brother and Giulianni has gay friends and mistresses (apparently the mob connections are no problem, it's the homos). I have this theory that Romney and Giulianni may be pandering self serving ass holes, but in the end they just aren't crazy enough to appeal to the republican primary voter, noted far and wide for foam at the mouth wing-nuttery.

In the media, the Democratic contest is between Hillary and Obama with Edwards only talked about as a "dark horse". Hillary has the highest negatives of any Democrat, though, and Obama has his own challenges, although most intelligent people think living a portion of your life outside the USA is a huge credential on the world stage, and why is it that a person with only one white parent is black, anyway?

But polls depicting a head to head match up tell a completely different story. Head to head puts this candidate against that candidate, and guess what it tells us?

John McCain is the only republican who beats any of the Democrats, and John Edwards is the only Democrat who destroys every single one of the Republicans...humiliating John McCain by ten points. Iowans thought Edwards was by far the best candidate in the last Democratic debate and the Iowa caucus polls show him tied or beating Hillary, with Obama in the lead. We'll see what happens after the debate has time to sink in.

Suffice it to say that it ain't over, though we will see pronouncement after pronouncement on news talk shows, particularly the ones that feature a Republican and a Conservative as their fair and balanced commentators, which is most of them.

Frankly, I can't wait for the writer's strike to be over so we can get some real news in America. The Daily Show, Colbert, and the late night monologues are the main place coherent thinkers in America get to speak out, with Olbermann rising fast.

Why is it that comedy shows tell us the news...And the news shows are a joke?

Peace,

Steve

Saving for Christmas

The current savings rate for US citizens is below zero.

We are borrowing a bit more than we earn. Would that this was true of the Bush Administration, which is borrowing a LOT MORE than we earn. George W. Bush has borrowed more money than all the Presidents in history before him, over $4,000,000,000,000.00.

Four Trillion Dollars is a lot of money. One Trillion is the bill for Iraq if we stop right now this second...but we won't, and that will have to be added but we'll stick with Four as the number right now. If we only pay interest on Four trillion dollars and we can get it at 5%, which may be optimistic given the state of the Bush Dollar which is now worth less than the "loonie", we will have an additional burden of $200,000,000,000.00 added to the USA's cost of merely existing.

And it goes on forever.

That's 200 Billion Dollars a year forever. We have a problem, America, and with that in mind, there is only one appropriate gift for children this year.

One of these.

The Great Depression was the price America paid the last time we got in this situation, and I can't see much of a way to avoid something like that in coming years. Bush has borrowed the credit card over the limit and will do his damnedest to get out of the house before the bill comes in. The next President will not only have to deal with the most screwed up International situation in my lifetime, but the worst financial situation America has been in , maybe ever.

Peace,

Steve

Sunday Reading Assignment

"...had the Congressional Democrats been more willing to consistently oppose Bush on his wrongheaded proposals, not only would Bush's approval rating be even lower than it has been, the Democrats would have had more success in their opposition and been better able to peel away enough Republicans concerned about their own political survival to have made some meaningful difference in what has happening, especially in this past year of nominal Democratic control. "

A review of Tom Oliphant's new book

Brilliant! (And the books seems nice too)

Old Dogs and Children

Michael Vick, the very talented and now jailed quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, is serving 23 months in jail for abusing dogs. I detest people who abuse animals, but I have to think Vick's sentence has more to do with who he is than what he did. What if he were white?...Or the son of a Republican?

In Roane County, Tennessee a man was sentenced to probation for killing his wife's lover. "He was upset," said the judge.

In Blount County, Tennessee a Judge refused to issue a restraining order against a man who regularly beat his wife on the grounds that she was not an American citizen, even though she was legally in our country. The penalty for spousal abuse can easily match what Vick is serving for abusing dogs.

I can go on, and it's not just Tennessee, I just happen to be familiar with these examples and I'm sure you can provide your own.

Here's one you might be interested in...A man shot, hung, slit the throat, and eventually stoned a stray dog to death. He and his buddy were fired from their jobs as camp councilors (taking care of kids, yeah) but not reported to the police. That was a few years back, and recently the man was arrested at the airport trying to board a plane with a loaded Glock pistol. "Didn't know it was there," he said and was sentenced to 10 days of community service which he can avoid by paying $100.

"Politically motivated," said the man's father about the accusations and charges. The father also carries a concealed weapon. he is also a Baptist Minister, and is currently in the lead to win he Iowa Republican Caucus. I guess it's ok that his child seems to have serious problems because it's only fair to be mean toward children of Democrats...Ask Chelsea Clinton, who seems to be living a fine life to make a parent proud. It would make headline news if Chelsea Clinton got a parking ticket, but David Huckabee tries to walk on board a plane with a loaded weapon and gets a hundred dollar fine and you folks only know about it because of some liberal blogger living in a cabin in the hills of Tennessee.

Mike Huckabee claims to love Jesus and love guns and raised a child who should have felt consequences for several of his actions, but didn't. I think it is a small example of how justice would be administered if he were in charge. It's just one more example of Conservative self delusion, that it is fair if his children don't get punished for things that send other's to prison.

What is it about prominent Conservatives that crazy gets a pass? What is it about your media that this is OK by them?

Where has "FAIR" gone in America?

Peace,

Steve

What Rule of Law?

I wanted to title this post "Screw You" but I felt like that was a bit inappropriate since it winds up on the front page of so many other blogs, only it actually WAS totally appropriate as a description of the Bush Administration's view of Law in America.

I'm disgusted and I don't know what to do.

Why aren't Impeachment Proceedings raging forward in Congress?

This President and his minions have simply flipped off the notion of Justice enshrined in the Constitution. The Justice Department is now simply a political enforcement arm of the worst clique within the Republican Party, bringing ludicrous prosecutions against Democratic enemies and sweeping corruption investigations of Republicans into the compost pit.

Evidence is destroyed routinely. Subpoenas are simply ignored. The Rule of Law has no meaning.

George W. Bush, in the biggest screw up of recent Presidential memory, simply refused to speak under oath and without the accompaniment of the man behind the curtain (Mr. Cheney) when asked why he ignored the screaming Presidential Daily Briefing with the title, "Bin Laden Determined to attack within the United States."

"I don't know, I don't Remember, I can't recall," is the mantra for all members of the Bush Administration and Republicans everywhere, including their current crop of Presidential contenders.

So now...Under a Court order to preserve evidence in the CIA torture case, we find that the video tapes were simply destroyed.

"SCREW YOU, America"...Love George

John Edwards... Yesterday

My other cabin is in South Carolina near Seneca where my boys were born, and so, as chance would have it, was John Edwards. He came home to see his Mom and Dad and stopped by the new Democratic Campaign headquarters to cut the ribbon.

I've heard his speeches before and I'm a fan. He's different.

Of all the candidates, He strikes me as a person who wants to be President because he feels obligated to serve, not just because he wants to be President.

His events are not a rock show or a tent revival. It is so refreshing to hear someone ask for help getting the work done, rather than "elect me because those other people are mean"...Even though some of us think that.

Since the event was at the Democratic headquarters, they had to display campaign literature and posters for all the candidates. Hillary was prominent, as were Chris Dodd and Barack Obama. One good Democrat even had a Hillary campaign hat on. Edwards shook his hand just as enthusiastically as anyone else's. The guy really smiled back at John Edwards and watched him intently as he went through the crowd.

One other thing I noticed was the diversity of the folks. Every demographic was there. Old, young, girls, boys, men, women, Hispanic, Black, White, and other. The Vets were there and so were men and women still on active duty. I talked to one who was standing smartly in beret and camo who said he had heard about Edwards and had to see him.

"What did you think?" I asked him.

"You saw him," he said, looking me right in the eye. "He's the one."

Thoughts

I have a problem with how we discuss things like the latest "Mall Massacre."

I'm sorry for all his relatives and friends but he was simply a murderer. A vile and disgusting murderer who did not even have the decency to end his own life without destroying the lives of other innocent people who had done him no harm.

He chose to end his miserable existence in the absolute meanest possible way and should be publicly vilified as a wretched piece of scum.

Now I know that the ammofascists will rant things like, "See! If everybody else had been packing heat, he would have been stopped after the first few murders." This is a dishonest and self serving argument that conveniently ignores the possibility of a massive gun fight erupting in the chaos, or the untold numbers of shootings that would inevitably blow up in day to day interactions of Little League dads with guns readily at their finger tips. It also fails to own up to the fact that a large percentage of shooters like this have obtained their guns illegally, through some flaw in the system as did the shooter at Virginia Tech.

Yes I know that our latest monster had problems and had gotten dumped by his girlfriend and fired from his job at McDonald's but that makes him no less the foul monster that is proved himself to be.

Media will focus on the dead, the wounded, and the stories of near misses and near tragedies, and it will wallow in the grief, interviewing everyone who will tell their horrible story, and they will tell the names of the victims and the name of the murderer, who says he did it to become famous.

And these sick people who may become the next miserable monster to go on a rampage of senseless death will be watching and may well envision their own photograph on the screen. I would tell them, at this instant, that we will never again show the photo of a monster, say his name out loud, or promote his unworthiness and miserableness in any manner that can remotely be considered glorification.

I would tell them that we will not remember them at all...For they are the scum of human existence and we will turn our backs on them and turn our minds away from their vile and putrid last act.

We shall grieve, but...

The muderer shall receive no reward.

Peace,

Steve

Shorter CIA: "Impeach the President"

I think revelations by the CIA and 15 other American Intelligence agencies is the biggest news of the last twenty years and maybe my lifetime.

The President of the United States has known for over a year that Iran had ceased development of nuclear weapons in 2003 and has lied about it... and continues to lie about it.

We have to ask, Why?

But even more shocking than that...I have to ask myself how bad things must be for the Central Intelligence Agency to go public and call the President of the United States and his entire Administration Liars? It is essentially an accusation of "High Treason" and attempting to start what could be a nuclear war under false pretenses.

What would it take? The CIA kills people, for heavens sake...How big of a problem is a little lying about a nonexistent nuclear weapons program in a small foreign country?

The CIA revelations had to come at great personal anguish to nearly everyone in the agency. It had to be the realization that the people surrounding the President of the United States are crazy enough to really try to start World War Three just for the "Hell" of it, and the President of the United States is stupid enough to let them.

The CIA is essentially calling for the Impeachment of the President.

Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country.

Maybe it is up to the rest of us, because It appears that there are very few of them in Congress.

Peace,

Steve

CIA plot...To protect Iran?

These people are absolutely crazy or just simply evil beyond belief..

American Heroes

The President had staked out his stand against war with Iran and now the CIA has backed him up.

A different president did everything he could to prevent the CIA from going public with damning information that undermined his case for war.

What information did President Bush try to keep from being released?

Iran has no nuclear weapons and has no intention of getting them.

It is a tale of the weirdest time in American history when the CIA backs the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and publics points out the President of the United States, George Bush, is a big fat liar...But that is exactly what just happened.

At the same time, every major Republican Candidate for President was made to look like a complete fool.

Giulianni just kept on rattling his sword at Iran, promising war and looking more like a character out of some freaky Batman sequel, what with his mafia friends, police force lackeys, and serial mistresses.

Romney was made to look like a complete idiot saying we should talk to the religious leaders in Iran instead of the Government, and why talk anyway when we can just bomb the crap out of them?

Huckabee said we should talk to China, Russia, and South Korea so that when we go to war with Iraq it will be their fault.

...And then the CIA pulled the rug out from under every single one of them.

There must be a fascinating backstory in all this but from where I stand, Condi Rice comes off as a minor heroine who went against Dick Cheney and his plans for eternal war by allowing the release of a previously classified report by the 16 Intelligence Agencies who went against their President in order to prevent what Bush himself was calling "World War Three."

Frankly, folks...In my lifetime I never thought I would call anyone at the head of an American Intelligence Agency a hero, but here I am... These people love their country.

No Congressman or Senator or any activist anywhere in America has presented a more definitive case for impeachment of the American President, George W. Bush, and the Vice President, Richard B. Cheney, than the CIA just did.

At the very least, the CIA has done what it could to prevent World War Three.

Peace,
Steve

Political Creek

National politics affect us all, and I guess it's time for me to own up to the original reason I started writing WhitesCreek Journal. I wanted to document my thoughts on the Presidential election and the direction certain choices would take America. Over the next year, I expect I will offer a good bit of opinion on the candidates and what choosing them would mean for our future, so I'm just warning you...If you stay with me, you'll read a lot of things like this:

Leader of the Pack?

Suddenly the leader of the GOP pack has changed in Iowa. Rudy Giulianni has had the shining veil of his 911 extended photo op lifted to expose him as a philandering megalomaniac who uses public money for his own, possibly illegal, purposes and attempts to destroy anyone who dares to oppose him or reveal the truth about his exploits.

Giulianni has been replaced by Mike Huckabee, a megalomaniac who uses public money for his own. possibly illegal, purposes and attempts to destroy anyone who opposes him or reveal the truth about his exploits.

I keep coming back to a question I and many other folks have repeatedly posed...Are ALL Republican candidates nutjobs? I mean when Mitt Romney seems to be the sanest one of the bunch, there's some serious smoke coming from the engine compartment of the GOP bus.

Huckabee, being the front runner, gets our attention for now. He has something in common with Giulianni in that only about a third of his former constituents would support him if he got the nomination. It took a lot of shouting from Giulianni's ex-people to get the rest of the world to start noticing that the guy has a corruption problem, even if you disregard his cheatin' ways. Now that Rudy is in eclipse feathers, we can turn to Huckabee for an even bigger and more egotistical nutjob, if that's possible.

Sanctioned by the campaign ethics commission on more than five separate occaisions, Huckabee has earned the support of a minority of his own party's legislators in Arkansas. Only 10 of the 33 Republican Legislators in Arkansas have said they will support him.

A lot of speculation has gone on regarding the secrets held on State computer hard drives that might xpose even more wrong doing on Huckabee's part, but he took care of that little problem by having the hard drives crushed.

Salon on Huckabee

Enjoy your reading assignment. There'll be more.

Peace,

Steve

He was in jail next to Awful Knofel

Random stuff From http://www.wikipedia.com/ :

The animated Beatle Movie "Yellow Submarine" premiered on July 17, 1968. For some reason I have been wanting to play Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and started thinking. You folks know how dangerous that is. So here's a bit of Yellow trivia:

The term "Blue Meanies" is actually a metaphor for bad people in government and corporate, who force their wills on good people (Pepperlanders), and carelessly deplete and ruin the natural environment, resources, colour and landscape. They are carefree about their destructive ways and will do whatever necessary to crush those (The Beatles) who oppose them.

Evel Knievel died yesterday. He was a wild ass petty criminal who entertained a lot of us as we watched him to see if he would kill himself. I thought he got his name from his grandfather but here's a different version that's funnier:

Bobby Knievel dropped out of high school after his sphomore year and got a job with the Anaconda Mining Company as a diamond drill operator in the copper mines. He was promoted to surface duty where his job was driving a large earth mover. Knievel was fired when he made the earth mover pop a motorcycle-type wheelie and drove it into Butte's main power line, leaving the city without electricity for several hours.

With a lot of time on his hands, Knievel began to get into more and more trouble around Butte. After one particular police chase in 1956 in which he crashed his motorcycle, Knievel was taken to jail on a charge of reckless driving.

When the night jailer came around to check the roll, he noted Robert Knievel in one cell and William Knofel in the other. Knofel was well known as "Awful Knofel" ("Awful" rhyming with "Knofel") so Knievel began to be referred to as Evel Knievel ("Evel" rhyming with "Knievel"). The nickname stuck.

So now he's died...An American Character we'll miss, somehow.

Peace,

Steve

The Uncalculated Cost of War

War atrocities take their toll, not just on the victims within the war zone, but also on the troops who are led to commit them in America's name:

There is a particularly terrible irony in the relationship between suicide
bombers and the suicides of American soldiers and veterans. With the possible
exception of some few sadists and psychopaths, Americans don't enlist in the
military because they want to kill civilians. And they don't sign up with the
expectation of killing themselves. How incredibly sad that so many end up dying
of remorse for having performed acts that so disturb their sense of moral
selfhood that they sentence themselves to death.

Today, about 17 American Veterans will commit suicide. That's over 6000 a year. it is roughly 50 times the number of suicide bombers in the same period. This is a phenomenal cost to our society and to our Country.

The Iraq War must end now. There is no possible outcome that can be good for us at this point. Let's cut our losses and stop marching American lives over the cliff...Let us save, not only those lives we would lose in conflict of war, but also those lives we will lose to the nightmare of their continued existence in emotional anguish.

Here is more on the plight of the American Veteran.

Peace,

Steve

Quote of the Day

There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes
and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a
racket...Major General Smedley
Butler, USMC

General Smedly was a two time Medal of Honor winner and that was from a speech in 1933. It has never been more evident than this moment that the General was absolutely correct.

One Democracy Initiative

Ok...I'm going to shill for a Presidential Candidate.

If your mind is already made up, go away, unless you care about ideas that could possibly make America work. (I said possibly)

So I'm a John Edwards fan, nothing new about that, but I keep wondering why Edwards hasn't gone straight to the front of the pack of Democratic candidates? He has great ideas and is much more electable than Dennis Kucinich. Maybe that's why the $400 haircut myth is still being pushed out there by his opponents in both parties...Edwards has great ideas...And he's electable!

Nothing scares political operatives more than something that would actually give "Power to the People," and it scares elected politicians even more...There goes the old meal ticket, should an actual thought process be brought into the act of making legislative decisions.

See...Scary!

Well John Edwards is backing just such a policy. It's called "A Citizen Congress."

"Wait a minute," I can hear you saying, "Isn't that what Congress was supposed to be when the Constitution was written?"

Well, Yea-uhhh! But that was back in the days of selfessness and idealism...You know, before Congress actually realized there was a lot of money to be had by whoring for Corporations.
Right now, this very second in time, is a very good example of why politicians shouldn't be allowed to get elected to office. (I know that sounds funny, but think about it) Congress continues to enable the Iraq war even though an overwhelming majority of Americans (68%) want us to bring the troops home. About that same number think we should impeach the President and most of his staff, and at least put the ones guilty of treason in jail for a little bit.

But Congress doesn't pay any attention to the people...Only Lobbyists, apparently.

So now there comes this idea that America belongs to the Americans and not Corporations, especially the ones that have some foreign ownership, which is just about all of them.

So John Edwards has this talk he gives about the Two Americas and it's a doozy. But now he has come out with this new one about:

One Democracy.

Wow...What an old fashioned idea.

Peace,

Steve

Thanksgiving for Peace Kids

If there's one thing an American believes he has it is the right to Free Speech.

First Amendment rights supercede all others, but only in theory. The most protected of all speech envisioned by the Founders was that of the political opposition. If we don't protect the speech of those "Not in power" our country could fall into the hands of an unprincipled leader who might get us into an illegal war against a sovereign nation that poses no threat to us, or something.

So on this Thanksgiving Day, I want to give thanks for those who stand up for our Freedoms by expressing and fighting for their own.

Since the American Media have abdicated their role in preserving Free Speech by being the gatekeepers for facts, It is now up to us. We know that it is not supporting our Troops when they are sent to be maimed or die for a cause, falsely presented by our leaders...Leaders who brand those who oppose them as traitors even as they commit visibly treasonous acts themselves, for no better reason than to harm those who oppose their schemes. With this in mind, I would like to present two groups of great Americans who fight for our Freedoms in their own personal way and at great personal cost.

First is a group I call, "The Bridge Chicks". Statements against them include such as these:

“While I believe in the right to free speech, to me that doesn’t give anyone the
right to criticize one’s leader at a foreign venue in a totally nonpolitical
event.”

Note that had the little sign been in praise of Bush it would have been fine...No taking sides here? Another statement:

“It’s not that I don’t forgive them, but I still think they should be punished.”

So what did these women do? They waved American flags, hummed the Star Spangled Banner, and held up a sign that said,

"We did not vote for Bush."

The second group of great Americans wanted to form a "Peace Club" at their Florida high school.

Their posters were torn down or Swastikas were painted over them. Other kids wore Confederate flag shirts with slogans like,

"If Peace is the Answer, It must be a stupid question."

Another student had a peace poster torn off her locker and replaced by this one:

'I Love America, Because America Loves War' sign up.'

The school refused to allow the Peace club and has lied about it to the press, saying no written application was received by the Principal, but not only was that not true but the kids had a faculty sponsor. In dramatic irony, the Principal's name who won't let the Peace Kids have their club is...

Mr. Cool.

So today let us give thanks for these Great Americans who continue to believe in America.

Peace...And have a Happy ThanksGiving!

Steve

Sorry I'm a day late...It's not the first time, OK?

Before there were Simpsons...There was...

Squirrel

48 years ago Yesterday

I'm a total Peabody fan.

(Hey...It's a Holiday week, OK? )

Al Gore will be in the White House

So that's not my prediction..It's for a ceremony in the Oval Office recognizing America's Nobel Prize recipients.

I wish it were to be at a huge ceremony open to the public. Al Gore deserves great accolades and should be revered by this country. Regardless of his failure to defeat George W. Bush and his evil minions for the Presidency, our world is a better place because of Al Gore.

And I'm thinking about something that this brings to mind...When Democrats leave high office, it seems like they spend a great deal of their time and resources "helping" as Gore's Live Earth, Inconvenient Truth, Current TV (which you should watch if you don't already), and other tireless efforts demonstrate. Gore has even made good honorable money in the process, of which I am a huge fan.

Then there's Jimmy Carter's work with the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity. His travels all over the world have done far more to promote fair elections than anything we have seen from a Republican.

I mean...Republicans spend their time...uh...what do they spend their time doing?

George H. W. Bush formed the Carlyle Group, an oil and war material corporation, and now owns northern Paraguay.

Dan Quayle...Remember Dan Quayle?...Qualye has made the big bucks as a financial operative.

But they've also done a lot of good for the world, right?...Ok, help me here...somebody...I mean aside from instigating a few wars, profiting massively, driving up the cost of oil by 300%, and causing the deaths of tens of millions, I'm sure there are some good things...Aren't there?

Well, anyway, how do you think Al will feel walking into the Oval Office to be congratulated by George?

*****

And here's another interesting news item:

T. Boone Pickens stood up at a gala and gave a speech defending his support of the Swift Boat Veterans, offering John Kerry one Million Dollars if he could disprove one single claim of the Swift Boat Ads. That should be interesting, since essentially ALL of the Swift Boat claims have been debunked.

Kerry has offered to take Pickens to visit the Veterans organization he will donate the money to, and has challenged T. Boone's honor if he doesn't live up to his wager.

Kerry should know better than to think a man who supports the Swift Boaters HAS honor.

This could be fun!

Peace,

Steve

Thoughtful Thursday?

Yes, yes, I know it's Friday but I'm just thinking about what an interesting Thursday we just had.

Barry Bonds was indicted for lying to Federal agents about what drugs he takes, and that seems to have been a huge deal. Do folks remember that Vice President Cheney was implicated in lying to Federal investigators about committing Treason...His Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, was convicted and, since he refused to testify against his Bosses, had his sentence commuted by a grateful George Bush. But that was just lying in order to cover up the treasonous offense of outing a covert CIA agent...Nowhere near as important as the integrity of baseball, Right?

Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein came under so much public pressure that Harry Reid might have had to remover her from the Senate Finance Committee if she had voted to give certain Telecom Corporations immunity for committing crimes against their customers at the request of the President of the United States. Remember that it was public pressure...phone calls, emails, and actual handwritten letters...so many that the phone lines into Feinstein's office were jammed...pressure from people not lobbyists that scared Feinstein so badly that for the first time in a long time she actually voted to represent her constituents. This is good for America...Bad for George Bush. If the telecoms go on trial they will point millions of dollars worth of fingers at George Bush, for instigating criminal acts...Thousands of them.

Wolf Blitzer asked the stupidest most prejudicial questions in the history of Presidential debates. Here's one:

If a million people die in the next 9/11, would you be willing to chill out about torture? Yes or no?

Right, Wolf...If we torture a bunch of people, the rest of the world will love America and not attack us any more right? Mathew Iglesias identified Blitzer's motive: "The point, after all, is to force a choice -- piss off an interest group, or say something that could be used in a GOP attack ad."

Wolf Blitzer is a Republican operative...Duh!

No event more clearly illustrates how disasterous CNN's editorial choice has been to become just another outlet for Faux news. Their ratings are dropping...Ever since they abandoned Ted Turner's personal mantra to "Tell America the Truth." CNN is just not news anymore, and now Keith Olbermann and MSNBC are rising.

Of course, If you want real news...You have to watch Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert on the Comedy Channe, or the late night TV monologues. Problem is, they are all reruns because the writers are on strike, because the Corporate media won't pay them what they deserve.

There's something funny about that.

TGIF

Peace,

Steve

Fred explains electoral and economic theory...It's all about the pendulum, or something

So Republicans are always promising prosperity and economic growth...Only, it ain't necessarily so, Right, Fred?

"You know, you look back in history... whether it's been in the 20s or the Reagan administration or the Kennedy administration or this administration, when you've lowered taxes and lowered tax rates, you've got economic growth. I mean, everything depends on economic growth."...Fred Thompson

Well, Fred...not really! As an actual researcher points out....

"In other words, Republican presidents produce poor economic performance because they're obsessed with helping the well off. Their focus is on the wealthiest 5%, and the numbers show it. At least 95% of the country does better under Democrats"...Washington Monthly

Also: ...if you make less than $150,000 a year, Republicans are your friends only one year in four. (That fourth year would be... Election Year...And then you're screwed for three years)

******

And then there's this...Susan gets email about the White House Thanksgiving Dinner:

....we'd start off with crow, sour grapes, trickled down crumbs, face-blasted cronyberry sauce, waterboard crackers, and pained-looking tight-lipped very neat serving of Condi rice pilaf.

More at: KissMyBigBlueButt

Fall in the Gorge

The forecast was for strong storms later on last night, so I wanted to take this before the leaves got knocked off the trees. We did have the storms and about 2 inches of rain.

Did anyone else think it was funny that Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue waited until rain was in the forecast before he held his prayer vigil?

Cheap theater.

The good news is that we still have lots of color left. It's a beautiful morning.

Sex, Lies, and Abstinence Ed...

This line caught my eye:

...U.S. educators wanting a piece of the nation's $200 million "abstinence only" budget must adhere to a curriculum that links sex to delinquency and explicitly precludes discussion of contraception.

So the Bush Government is spending $200,000,000.00 a year telling your
children that if they have sex they're more likely to be delinquents.

Two hundred million bucks...

So providing them a little health care is socialism but lying to them is just fine?

The required curriculum handed down by the Bush Government requires that the children...YOUR children...be told that sex is one precursor to becoming a petty criminal. They might as well add that becoming a Republican is a precursor to getting arrested in a public restroom for homosexual solicitation or paying prostitutes to dress you up in a diaper and spank you...Wait...those last bits are true...

Well anyway, early teen sex is NOT...repeat...NOT...a precursor to juvenile delinquency and if anything, kids who are sexually active turn out to be LESS LIKELY to engage in other forms of risky behavior including delinquency. I would term it the..."Happy kids aren't as mean as unhappy kids" syndrome.

"...the Virginia study found that adolescents who had sex at younger ages were less likely to end up delinquent than those who lost their virginity later. Many factors play into a person's readiness for sex, but in at least some cases sexual relationships may offer an alternative to trouble, the researchers say."

It worked for Mom and Dad.

What is clear in all this is that the Bush Government panders to anyone who it thinks can help it stay in power at any cost whatsoever to our society. Truth be damned! It also points out the bankrupt principles of an Evangelical movement willing to support any government, however corrupt, in order to advance its own oppressive and fallacious agenda.

Why can't we simply be honest with our children? Prepare them with knowledge, understanding...and the two commandments:

"Thy shalt be responsible for thy actions!"

"Thy shalt not have unprotected sex!"


Peace,

Steve

Sunday Sermon

I am in awe at the simplicity of all the solutions to all the world's problems.

You could point out that nearly all of them involve too many humans on one small planet and you'd be correct. The old joke about solving the greenhouse emissions problems by simply having all the people on Earth hold their breath for five minutes is obviously true but wouldn't be much fun for most of us. Reducing the human impact, whether by reducing population or, well, by reducing human impact, is the only way we can save our planet. Sorry, but for the aware, this is an inescapable conclusion.

We humans stupidly ask ourselves how to sequester carbon while we continue to dig it up and burn it, causing great environmental calamity at both ends of the operation. In fact, very little of the energy we expend actually improves the human condition, whether it's hauling a 120 pound human female around in a fossil fuel powered three ton SUV, or the inappropriately named "security light" mounted 24 feet off the ground with an inadequate reflector shield so that it uses three times the wattage necessary while simultaneously irritating the neighbors by shining an unwarranted light through their bedroom windows.

Perhaps we can rename them "Paranoia" lights since they actually statistically increase crime in their vicinity. Renaming them does nothing concrete but installing adequate shielding reflectors would greatly reduce their energy consumption and eliminate the crime of "light trespass", a term I have recently become aware of and like a great deal. By what tortured stretch of the imagination should anyone be allowed to shine lights on someone else's person or property? It is a crime, plain and simple, but even so, it pales when compared to the fact that escaped light steals the very stars themselves from all of us.

We actually, at one time in our history, had our energy problems well managed with our well equipped and self sufficient communities of the fifties, needing only carefully chosen technological advances from today's cornucopia to make them little heavens on earth. I remember a time when the grocery store, the pharmacy, the school, and the place where my Dad worked were all within walking distance. There was such a thing as a family farm. Gas was 17 cents a gallon and sirloin was $1.19 and the President was our hero.

Then the Oil companies and the Auto companies and the War companies became ascendant. Mass transit was labelled a communist plot and GM brought out the Edsel.

President Eisenhower warned us...The "Military-Industrial Complex" he labelled it... but Ike, grand as he was, did not have the courage it would have taken to set this nation and thereby the world on a better course.

Imagine how little meddling the world at large would be doing in the Middle East if oil were currently worth less than $10 a barrel? It's possible even even now.

I am an Idealist, of course, and have this insane idea that people should sit down together, paint a common picture of a realistic Eden, and work together toward achieving it as a goal. The journey may seem distantly inachievable but each single step is very close and not so big.

It would be so easy.

Peace,

Steve

Chamber of Commerce or Chamber of Horrors?

How about a little story today? Call it light reading, if you will.

This little story has ramifications in every community in America. It involves a United States Supreme Court Justice, Powerful Republican operatives including the just reelected governor of Mississippi, The Chamber of Commerce, bribery, corruption, and using the Justice system to unfairly prosecute innocent people who oppose the corrupt system put into service of the Corporate Political malignancy that currently rules America.

It starts with "The Count of Monte Christo" to show that Alexaner Dumas' France got nothing on our America.

A Minor Injustice

Pampleteers of the Resistance

The best writing on the web seems to be in the Blogosphere.

Some choose to remain anonymous and with some, it is an open secret as to who they are. The Freeway Blogger is anon and ever present, speaking our thoughts in the medium of cardboard and chainlink. But then there are the pamphlets that are not pamphlets. The bloggers:

"Rivulets of water ran down from his thumb and forefinger as he held them up, "I was this close... this f***ing close... to ruling the whole goddam world... but no, I had to be the power behind the throne of Bozo-the-F***ing-Clown..."

And also:

"I knew that a real journalist would’ve found a way to cross the river, climb the last line of mountains and then headed down to see the killing up close. Good journalists go to the places where people die: great ones get there in time to watch them do it. Once I realized that I knew I didn’t want to be a journalist anymore."

As we watch our Constitutional freedoms get picked off by fearmonger Fascists, we look to our elected officials for salvation but they are cowards. It is up to us to give them transplants of courage.

They can ignore our emails to the official Congressional web site..But they cannot ignore our cardboard screams. Will there be a price on our heads like that of John Hancock?

We are the Pamphleteers of the new resistance movement and it is an honorable company...But some of us are the essence of greatness are to be revered.

One such is Scarlet. Enjoy!

The Freeway Blogger

A Story

We are asking a great deal of our Troops. We are asking them to fight and possibly die for what we all know and believe, now, is a lie.


Of greater ultimate impact is the truth that each of us must face...it is you and I who are killing them by allowing this senseless war to continue:

More service members killed themselves while serving in the Iraq war last year than in any year since the war began, and the suicide count for 2007 is on track to surpass that. The dead are generally junior enlisted soldiers who are single, white and male.

One Story

Since you asked...

Tonight's the night in America when all sorts of strangeness hits the neighborhoods. The show in Rockwood is usually well over the top and was a stunner to me when I emigrated to Roane County 19 years ago. I knew you folks were wondering where the craziness originated so I did some looking.

In small town Georgia, my parents put a mask on me and took me around to the prominent houses around Dublin, Ga. My grandmother didn't understand why, since it was unheard of when she was a kid. I got candy, so what else does a four year old need to embrace a program?

Here's a little history for what's about to happen:


The earliest reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English speaking America occurs in 915, with another isolated reference in Chicago in 1920.[9] The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but do ot depict trick-or-treating.[10] Ruth Edna Kelley, in her 1919 history of the holiday, The Book of Hallowe'en, makes no mention of such a custom in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America."[11] It does not seem to have become a widespread practice until the 1930s, with the earliest known uses in print of the term "trick or treat" appearing in 1934,[12] and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939...

...Trick-or-treating spread from the western United States eastward, stalled by sugar rationing that began in April 1942 during World War II and did not end until June 1947. Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given in October 1947 issues of the children's magazines Jack and Jill and Children's Activities,[16] and by Halloween episodes of the network radio programs the Baby Snooks Show in 1946 and The Jack Benny Show and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1948.[17] The custom had become firmly established in popular culture by 1952, when Walt Disney portrayed it in the cartoon Trick or Treat, Ozzie and Harriet were besieged by trick-or-treaters on an episode of their television show,[18] and UNICEF first conducted a national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity while trick-or-treating...

Wikipedia

And Kids...Let's be careful out there!

Peace,

Steve

Forward

Do you ever wonder where those anecdotal emails come from?

You know the ones..They tell some totally insightful story about this or that candidate that either paints him as an unheralded low key saint...or the devil. I'll tell you in just a minute.

The emails will almost never ever have any link to a reputable source. If they do have a link, it might be to Limbaugh or Drudge, or some similarly untrustworthy source of manufactured propaganda. The Swift Boaters were the source of any number of now discredited attacks on John Kerry but there were other false emails that balanced the attacks on the opponent with glowing "You'll never read this in the Liberal media" emails that painted George W. Bush as a kind caring saintly President who cares deeply for the troops and prays for them every day.

Where did it come from? Tennessee voters might want to know:

"Snopes determined that a gushing pro-Bush e-mail from 2004 about watching the
President worship in the pews of St. John's Church in Washington was actually
written by the press spokeswoman for Republican Senator Lamar Alexander. Her
name is Laura Lefler, and she now works for Senator Bob Corker.
"

...Christopher Hayes, The
Nation (subscription required until the next issue comes out)

The email was false.

http://www.snopes.com/ is the Urban Legend site that checks these things out and publishes their findings, let the chips fall where they may.

Dirty tricks would have no place in a just world, but as long as we have the modern virulent strain of conservative loose in the world, we have to challenge every one of these emails.

Personally, I won't stand for it. When someone forwards something to me, they better have it checked out and know that it's true, or they get a rant about passing on a lie.

Wouldn't it be really nice if everyone who claimed to be a Christian would give the same breathless attention to those who break the "Thy shalt not bear false witness" commandment as they do the "They shalt not commit adultery" one?

For people who forward these nasty and destruction emails that are in fact, nothing more than character assassination, I would point out that by forwarding these lies...They themselves are the bearers of "False Witness".

Those who are throwing these stones are the sinners here.

Fight them with honesty, please.

Peace,

Steve

Sunday Sermon

The Sunday Sermon at WhitesCreek enlightens the stark differences between Islam and Christianity:

"Jesus lived a perfect life of nonviolence, showing kindness to humans and animals, without material possessions, and abstaining from sin."

Well of course...All Christians know that. But that is a description of Jesus, not from the New Testament, but from Islam.

"One of only 8 chapters (out of 144) named after a person, the Sura Maryam tells the story of a woman called Maryam, Umm Isa.

Maryam is a Semitic name which means Mary in English.

Christians know her as Mary, Mother of Jesus."

Link and Learn...

Peace,
Steve

Fake Fake News?

Fox News, among very few others, carried the live news conference from FEMA 's Southwest D.C. office with only 15 minutes notice.

So what's the big deal? It was a FAKE news conference! The "reporters" were FEMA employees. No risking an actual question about actual things that FEMA is actually not doing that could ACTUALLY embarrass this FAKE Government agency.

The ACTUAL story

Via KOS:

Turns out that one of the FAKE news people was also an advisor to Mike Brown, the famous "You're doin' a Heckuva job, Brownie" Mike Brown who presided over the destruction of New Orleans.

If you really want an inside view of a tragedy, check out this link to the actual emails in and out of Brownie's office at the very moment New Orleans was dying. Fascinating, enlightening...and sickening!

Vast Right-Wing Crazy People

Here's your morning reading assignment, only this time you can have a perverse enjoyment of the crazy person behind that "Vast Right-wing Conspiracy" that Hillary spoke about.

Apparently, his hatred of Bill Clinton is exceeded only by his hatred of one thing...Ex Wives

No screed about Richard Mellon Scaife, who shares more spoiled frat boy character traits with George W. Bush than I can recount here, would be fair without showcasing his counterpart on the other side, George Soros, who actually earned his money instead of inheriting it.

Soros actually had more to do with bringing down the Soviet Union than the idiotic policies of Ronald Reagan, but asks and receives no credit for it. His family life is a bit more discreet, but he certainly is no one woman man. What sets him apart is his dedication to creating open and honest societies across the world.

For that I honor him!

Peace,

Steve

Blogs are writ..

Evolutionary theory is fairly well misunderstood by most folks. It's fairly obvious really, but there are those who study ignorance, and those who prefer ignorance to knowing. I prefer knowing.

I was thinking about this while leaning on the deck rail in a break in our long delayed rain and looking at the various trees that have survived our record drought...And also looking at the trees that didn't. Every living thing is different from every other living thing...different, even, from those other living things it is most alike: Mother, Father, siblings, and various cousins. Taller, shorter, weaker, stronger...strong in ways that aren't obvious, like the ability to stand a shortage of life sustaining water.

I thought about that because some of my trees aren't looking too good. Ok, some of them are dead. But now that the rains have finally come, some of them have perked up and look fine. Some are toast, and some others are indeterminate. This is one of those evolutionary filters that take certain members of the gene pool...out of the gene pool. They have a combination of genetic materials that are unsuited for survival in years like this one. "Filtered out" they are.

Two of my native azaleas and a rhododendron or two got "filtered out". The ones that are left will have to take over and fill some gaps. So will some oaks and pines and cherry trees up on the ridge. Their roomates got filtered.

Whether this is an aberration or the new rule of climate for our area, we don't know. I think we're screwing it up and I also think we won't stop doing it anytime soon, so the trees better get with it.

It's filter time ...And while Blogs are writ by fools like me...

Only trees can make a tree.

Peace,

Steve

Old Green Teeth is an Expert now?

Charlie Daniels is pretty much the brain dead fat white right wing nut job you thought he was...And now he's a FOX NEWS expert on domestic spying. I think it was that pot he smoked in his early years. Did he ingest way too much? Or not enough?

I have decided to place a "hold" on the latest FISA bill that would have included amnesty for telecommunications companies that enabled the President's assault on the Constitution by illegally providing personal information on their customers without judicial authorization.

Chris Dodd does what he can to protect the Constitution from Bush and his buddies.


It appears that every military leader with any fortitude is working as hard as they can, behind the scenes, to stop the Bush administration from starting another war, this time in Iran. These are the real heroes of our time. If they speak out, they'll be fired...If they refuse..they'll be Court Marshalled.

And lastly but not leastly, Ecuador says very simply that is Bush wants to keep the American Military base in Ecuador, all they have to do is allow Ecuador to build an Ecuadoran Military Base in Miami.

Seems fair to me.

Masters of Illusion

The great illusionists of the Republican party are at it again...Well actually they never stopped. There are so many red herring being flung around at the Republican debate it was fishier than a cat food factory. All they seemed to talk about was how bad it was going to be when Hillary got to be President.

They are blaming her for bad Military morale and raising taxes and having the Federal Government actually concern itself with the health of its citizens. Of course it is the Republican war in Iraq and their massive incompetence which might have had some effect on lowering morale, or maybe firing every General who dares to question the latest stupid plan from men who never served.

And ask yourself what health insurance corporations care about your health? Suppose a cure for cancer were discovered this afternoon...They'd do everything in their power to destroy it, obviously. They'd be out of business if people got healthy. Same thing with preventing illness...Bad for business...Can't have it. Hillary must be stopped.

So what do they talk about in a debate? Do they have ideas? Something new to show us the way out of this mess they got us into?

Ummm...No!

"...what masters of deflection Republicans have become. A debate about whether to invade Iraq becomes a debate about whether Joe Wilson's undercover CIA wife hooked him up with a sweet junket overseas. A debate on stem cell research becomes a debate about whether Michael J. Fox exaggerates his symptoms. A debate about the right to privacy becomes a debate about whether Terri's blinks were voluntary. A debate on Iraq policy becomes a debate about how mean people are to General Petraeus. A debate about health care becomes a full-blown investigation into the lifestyles of 12 year old Graeme Frost and 2 year old Bethany Wilkerson. A debate about curbing global climate change becomes a debate about how many compact fluorescent light bulbs Al Gore has in his house. A debate about the shameful level of poverty in this country becomes a debate about how much money John Edwards spent on a haircut. A debate about who's qualified to be president becomes a debate about who does or does not wear a lapel pin. A debate about executive accountability becomes a debate about whether Representative Stark hurt Mr. Bush's feelings..."

Georgia10

It's God's Fault

People so totally mistunderstand the Endangered Species act. These lesser children of creation are the canaries in our mine shaft. If we let them die, we'll not be able to recognize that our own lives are threatened with extinction.

I wonder what conservation measures were put in place to prevent the necessity of destroying the diversity of life in this river?

Idiots

The Ghost of Freedom Past

"What were we thinking?" said Jefferson.

"Boy, did we screw up" said Adams.

"Really" said Monroe.

"Here we were trying to make sure Americans would have and retain their democracy and freedom... and they didn't want that after all...They wanted an authoritarian fascism...Duh!" said all the ghosts of America in unison.

"Why did we write that thing about "Protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic? It's just like President Bush said, I guess...The Constitution is just a piece of paper."

P.M. Carpenter:

"Meanwhile, back to the Senate, where sits and testifies a Holocaust-citing
Constitution Denier... Retired federal judge Michael Mukawsey, batting for Alberto Gonzales...

"Technically and legally speaking, in any real constitutional environment the good judge would be handed his walking papers after that. But, to cite yet one more video scene, this one from "Patton," his confirmation no doubt will go through the Senate "like crap through a goose." Said crap will then sit over at Justice, and the crap will just keep flowing downhill. "

...And President Scrooge, who laughed at the Tiny Tims of America as he took their healthcare away, lit a fire with the signatures of the founders of America, but with much difficulty. In America today, the Constitution does not burn brightly.

Peace,

Steve

Tennessee Dems

The Munday Message

Gore's Challenge

Speaking in Norway today, Al Gore said he had a greater challenge on his plate than running for President of the United States...Fighting Climate Change and global warming. I think he's downplaying the challenge. I think he's not just fighting climate change, I think he's fighting a deep abiding ignorance generated by the lackeys hired by Exxon Mobile Corporation and others. .
This is starkly illustrated by the Scripps Howard published Knoxville News Sentinel which published this local editorial lead:

"It's not often that we're able to hail a native son for winning the Nobel Peace
Prize. So we take great pleasure in saluting former vice president Al Gore as the
recipient of the prestigious award."

But then there it was on the opposite page...this nasty bit of fraud by a bit player in the war on truth:

Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize for his error-filled, shrill campaign to instigate responses to global warming is not just a kind of ideological fraud worthy of a chuckle or two but, quite possibly, a very real danger, a precursor to devastation.

Had there been errors of any sort in Al Gore's Oscar winning movie, it would have been front page news all over the world. In fact, a court of examination in Great Brittain found that out of hundreds of statements of fact contained in the movie, a scientific panel was able to only quibble with the language and not the underlying claims in nine sentences in the whole movie.

And yet, the Knoxville News still allows venomous attacks such as this one to appear in its pages even though its claims are lies. How in Hell can burning fewer fossil fuels be "a precursor to devastation"?

This is horse shit on the face of it, and yet there it is...in the Knoxville News Sentinel.

So...Al Gore does in fact face a greater challenge than running for President. He faces a greater challenge, even, than global warming. In reality, Al Gore is waging a war for Truth...for Science...and for the very salvation of this planet.

Peace,

Steve

Protecting America

Warning...This is not for the faint of heart. These people act in our name and this is what they do:

Blackwater

Last Evening

Finally! We actually had a sprinkle of rain in October.

It wasn't much but it did kill some of the dust and bring the fall singers out in full voice last evening.

The Katydids have given up their heavy metal thumping and we're left with a softer trill in the night. I like to sit on the deck with a glass of something and listen for the harmonies of the night.

Sometimes I think it's just my tinnitus from playing in a bad rock band that makes the harmony but then who cares, right? Music is where you find it.

There are other sounds that I can identify and some I can't. I have to wonder what beast makes the sound that momentarily overpowers the crickets, but it comes once and no more. I can't even describe it, except to say I've heard it before.

From time to time something pulls their chain and the barred owls bark at each other and make other calls with amazing power, even though they are a fairly big bird it is still impressive how loud they are. I'm still waiting for the screech owls. They are my favorites, with trills and coos and sounds that used to evoke ghost stories in days when humans were still connected with the real world instead of sitting inside in front of a liquid crystal display feeding them fantastical impossibilities.

Why invest yourself in other people's realized hallucinations? Isn't reality strange enough?

I'll take the owls and crickets and true mysteries of a Fall night.

Peace,

Steve

Welcome to the New American Century

Update:

Air America talk show host was NOT attacked while walking her dog yesterday. A police source said Rhodes never filed a report and never claimed to be the victim of a mugging. Randi says she just doesn't remember what happened, but appears to have fallen down stairs. She's in a lot of pain but will be back on the air Thursday at last report.

The rest of this is quite true...Sorry for accepting other source's hysteria.

Thom Hartman, another Air America talk show host had three bullet holes found in his car when a broken windshield was replaced.

Michelle Malkin savagely lies about a 12 year old brain injury victim over an insurance debate.

Welcome to the America envisioned by Bill Kristol, Dick Cheney, and Paul Bremer.

I'm not sure we're going to like it here.

Peace,

Steve

Gore = Current TV = current.com

Al Gore's startup TV and Internet Network is CurrentTV.

These videos were uploaded Sunday. Do they look like campaign videos to you?


http://current.com/items/84987281_health_care_is_a_right

http://current.com/items/84986911_americans_deserve_more_protection#

http://current.com/items/84986481_get_the_troops_home

Hmmm??? Very suspicious...

Are we "Good Germans"?

Laura Bush has suddenly discovered Myanmar and the horrible human rights violations occurring there...Should someone mention to her...say...Iraq?

Are the Americans who continue to support the Iraq war simply the "Good Germans" of this generation?

Absolutely!

Frank Rich

Peace

A friend called and asked how what Al Gore does to fight climate change is related to Peace? "Why the Peace Prize?" he asked. Reasonable question and simply answered.

The militant disruption of the African continent is due to economic reasons...Essentially that there is not enough arable land to go around to the populations and armed tribal conflict is the result.

(You should all understand that "armed tribal conflict" is also what is going on in Iraq but for slightly different reasons, but anyway...)

Without economic stability there will be no possibility of relative World Peace. With global warming there will be no economic stability. The human disruptions will be massive and have already started. They will involve wars at every level.

Happy sane people don't start wars. So I hope that clears that up for everyone...

Then there's George W. Bush.



Josh Marshall has a meaningful take on Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize:

By every just measure, Gore won the presidency in 2000 only to have George
W. Bush steal it from him with the critical assistance of the US Supreme Court.
It's worth taking a few moments today to consider where the country and world
would be without that original sin of this corrupt presidency.

And yet this is a fitting bookend, with Gore receiving this accolade
while the sitting president grows daily an object of greater disapproval,
disapprobation and collective shame.

Don't miss the rest, including his question at the end:

Josh Marshall

Peace (prize),

Steve

Odds are 4-1 in Seden

Where's he going?

... five minutes ago I received an email from Barbara Boxer, saying that
Gore asked to reschedule at the last minute so that he could "travel abroad
tomorrow for an exciting and urgent mission that could result in a major
breakthrough in the fight against global warming".

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced late Thursday night... actually at 2am Friday morning, Pacific time.

Hmmmm??

...must... stop... laughing...

Trouble typing...two fingers...shaking...laughing hard....must...stop...actual recipe from US Senator:

Super Tuber is a great snack that uses one of my favorite vegetables: The
Idaho Potato. Of course, I suppose any type of potato could be used, but I
cannot guarantee that a Super Tuber made with anything but a true Idaho potato
would taste as good.

Sincerely,

Larry E.
Craig, United States Senator

This delicacy is apparently to be enjoyed in airport restrooms across the country.

Tom Tomorrow

Tom Tomorrow

Kingston girls VS Oliver Springs

Kingston was ahead 4-0 when I left but Oliver Springs is much improved and will be a good team down the road.

Get The Memo?

Gore-Nobel-President?

The Gore movement is gaining a lot of momentum --- if he does indeed win
the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, can anyone honestly deny that this is the most qualified man to be our next great President?

I have a different take on this...Al Gore is the most qualified person to be our next great President whether he wins a Nobel prize or not.

Al Gore

Via http://www.michaelmoore.com/:

Oct. 8, 2007 - Al Gore is not running for president. But might the publicity and
sheen of a Nobel Peace Prize change his mind? Some Democratic activists sure
hope so.

NewsWeek

Help People?

The terms "Liberal" and "Progressive" are not the same thing. One could actually be a progressive conservative, even though that is highly unlikely, since Progressives tend to have a conscience and have difficulty in attempting to live in an alternate reality, which seems to come naturally to the brand of conservative loosed on the world today.

Saint Paul has something to say about this.

Paul Krugman:

For now, in other words, being an active liberal means being a progressive.
And being a progressive means being partisan. But the end goal isn't one-party
rule. It's the re-establishment of a truly vital, competitive democracy. For in
the end, democracy is what being liberal is all about...(Conscience of a Liberal)


The reason that Bush is so opposed to SCHIP, is the same reason he
was so determined to privatize Social Security, which is that they're both
programs that work. You have to understand, that is the point of view of
somebody who really wants to undo the New Deal -- and if possible -- I quote
Grover Norquist in the book -- get things back to the way they were before Teddy
Roosevelt and the "Socialists" came in. The worst thing is a government program
that actually does help people...(Buzzflash Interview )

Hmm...A government that "Helps people"...The conservative nightmare putting the lie to the conservative philosophy.

Peace,

Steve

Random Political

Let's see...

Hillary is slightly ahead of John Edwards in Iowa, but she made a gaff that may have some effect there. She refused to admit that her recent Senate vote allows George W. Bush to start moving down a greased slope into war in Iran, and then told the questioner he had been told to say that...Well...NO, Actually.

It's interesting (and tragic, at the same time) to see the Democrats tear each other up so the Republicans don't have to, while at the same time the Republicans simply attack Hillary, who in reality is nothing more than a moderate Republican who just isn't batshit crazy.

Oddly, the Republican attack on John Edwards centers around the claim that he's just too attractive to be President.

The other leading Democratic candidate is being whispered about in Republican quarters because he's black, of course, and his Daddy slept with a White woman. Why is it that the person with half Japanese and half white parents is "half Japanese" but since Obama's Mother was White and her husband was Black, Obama is Black?

That's not fair. I'm not exactly sure who it's unfair to, but I'm pretty sure I should be aggrieved about something. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Peace,

Steve