Pandering at the Pulpit Pays Well

In D.C. appearance, Jeremiah Wright remains controversial."

David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama, gets credit for understatement of the month with his comment on MSNBC this morning before the Rev. Jeremiah Wright wrapped up his media blitzkrieg of the last few days with an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

To the extent that voters attribute to Obama statements and opinions that aren't his, Axelrod said, "it's obviously not helpful."

---- Wright has reappeared for 2 simple reasons. Anger, because Obama threw him under the bus. And ego, because he liked the national media attention. While Wright performs as well as any televangelist could, he is now angry, because folks have, he says, attacked him and his former church.

Politics from the pulpit.

My favorite from Wright is that rich white men control America, ergo must be to blame for all the nation's ills. American policy, etc. not that war mongering policy is new, it's the norm for America. And I've no problem with the truth of the statement. Rich white men do control America.

It's my favorite because Wright says this with a pious righteous face - and then, thanks to the church's retirement package, he moves to his gated 10,000 square foot $1.6 million home in Tinley Park - ample space to house his anger and ego, and where 98% of his neighbors are "rich white men."

Untitled

I have started more than a dozen blog posts these past 2 weeks - none worth finishing as the news is more or less the same. Same political pandering, same liars, same airheads and pundits. Same exaggerated hype from both "left" and "right."

Prices continue to rise. The government throws coins to the peasants who will give it back to the gas pumps and slumlords.

Hillary plays the postmenopausal desperate housewife who would know how to bomb the world at 3 a.m. and avoid sniper fire while stylishly dressed in an expensive pantsuit - Obama plays whatever the crowd in front of him needs him to be: Boy from the 'hood, Ivy Leaguer, fatherless child, radical, talkin' about those narrowed minded and bitter small town crackers clinging to their guns and god.

In the words of Will Rogers: "There ought to be one day - just one - when there is open season on senators."

White World Wrestling Federation

Years ago I agreed with the writings of Charley Reese, and similar pundits, who I thought were honest and down to earth. However, when I read articles such as It's Occupation, Not War I no longer find common cause. I suppose it is my thinking which has changed as Charley and the likes have written the same for decades, like hamsters on a wheel, peddling the same ideas over and over and not getting anywhere.

REESE: (On Iraq civil war) ... But even if they happen, they need not concern us. Lots of factions in different parts of the world decide to kill each other from time to time, and we don't interfere. As long as there are no Americans to get caught in the crossfire, let the Iraqis have their civil war if that's what they want.

---- Those factions Reese speak of are always armed, funded, trained, supported at some point by Anglo suppliers - European and/or American - that's interference Charley. While the French were supporting Rwandan Hutus, America was supplying the Tutsi rebels, but no white folks in the crossfire.

REESE: Our presence in Iraq is the only thing that made al-Qaeda viable. Our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are the principal selling points in al-Qaeda propaganda. We have no interests, strategic or otherwise, in either country. The last thing al-Qaeda wants is for us to withdraw, which is why it should be the first thing we do.

---- Al-Qaeda (the base) was valid only in the '80s as Reagan's anti-Soviet "freedom fighters" which so many Reaganites like to say aided in the fall of the USSR. Al-Qaeda did not attack the US on September 11, 2001. Reese does not know what al-Qaeda wants or if the group actually exists. Al-Qaeda may be the name used now by a few in a new generation of the dead Osama followers but they no longer have funding from the US/CIA. Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been a media propaganda blitz in an attempt to justify the white folks latest hard money erection, a war-on (terror).

As for "no interests, strategic or otherwise, in either country" where have you been living Charley? War is always about "American interests." Profits. Oil. Geopolitical control.

REESE: Whatever someone imagines we gain by staying in Iraq and Afghanistan is far outweighed by what we are losing. We are losing lives in dribs and drabs, and we are losing treasure at an alarming rate. We have severe internal problems that our military presence in the Middle East aggravates. Our military is on the verge of being broken. Some Nobel laureates estimate the war will end up costing us $3 trillion. Well, plain and simple, we can't afford it.

REESE: We should never go to war unless there are tangible, identifiable benefits for the American people for doing so. Try to think of a benefit we have gained from Iraq or Afghanistan. There are none.

---- Reese essentially says interference should not be done when the cost is paid with US blood or treasury - the US should reap tangible benefits. Tangible benefits in any war has always been reaped by a select few; WWII contributed to the trickle down to build a large but brief middle class in the 1950s - which systematically for the last 45 years has been squeezed downward into the working class.

The "severe internal problems" of the US have to do with character, not cash. For Joe Blow there is never any "benefit" during war - only afterwards he may receive some largess from the windfalls of victory.

WWII was not about Jews/Hitler or stopping communism - just as Iraq was not about Saddam, another WMD "monster" created by the US. The US funded and nurtured Adolf Hitler, Nazism, and a few foolish fascist supporting royals in Europe. The US emerged as conquering heroes. The USA had beaten the old country, their European cousins, to become the wealthiest most powerful nation on the planet - much needed after the Great Depression and unfinished business of WWI.

And today, the US is not fighting Islam or al-Qaeda or a war on terror - that's propaganda for the sheople. It's the same money/power fight between white folks, particularly in the US and Europe. This time, however, Europe will not be fooled again.

Today, European ideals have attracted American "progressives" who are idiot enough to think that the US, a culturally mixed and non cohesive nation of 300 million, "can be like" Europe - you know, with free healthcare, legalized drugs, lower crime rates, sexually uninhibited, etc., like those small mostly white countries of 6-7 million; Norway, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc. (In Zug, to encourage recycling, the police check your garbage if you do not have a prepaid sticker - the fine can be $400.)

This time the European powers have more Americans cheering their ideas and ideals. Or if not actively cheering European style socialism, they are likable Americans like Reese who tell the sheeple that the US has no strategic interests in the Middle East and should leave now. No interests there at all folks, nothing to see, move along.

Leave now, let the Iraqi have their civil war slaughter as Reese says, let the US pump the same amount of treasury into reparations and reconstruction - because the rest of the world (London bankers) say it is the right thing do. Leave Iraq now; Russia and Europe will mop up and Dutch Shell will ration the oil for you.

(Or worst case scenario Saudi and Iran step in to fan the fires in Iraq and then of course the US/Euro white folks are "forced" to save the day - WWIII. But I'm not sure yet if the goal is WWIII or the collapse of the USA as we know it; possibly both?)

This time the European powers have more nations on their team - which likely includes Russia and China. Forbes declared London the global hub/playground for Western billionaires. Europe has revived.

Don't believe for a minute that the Euro-descendants of bloody, ruthless, infighting white folk are peace loving peacekeepers. An old vet like Charley Reese with 50 years in journalism should know how the game is played. War, for many centuries, has been white folks fighting among themselves for global power.

Reese's "it's occupation, not war" is lowbrow rhetoric. Where have white folks ever waged war and not more or less permanently occupied? War is occupation.

While the US empire's fall will be labeled the overreach of those greedy, violent, imperialist Americans, it is in fact the same white folk power struggle that has gone on for a thousand years. And judging by the antipathy in public rhetoric - the US is going to lose this time around. Not that the US ruling class puppets will lose - they like London and Paris, just you the little guy will live much more meagerly.

So America, be careful what you wish for. You have more riding on the outcome of the US in Iraq than you imagine.

Surprised

From ThinkProgress: McCain ‘Surprised’ By Events In Basra, Uninformed About How Ceasefire Occurred.

THINK PROGRESS: Asked if Maliki’s Basra campaign had “backfired,” McCain replied, “Apparently it was Sadr who asked for the ceasefire, declared a ceasefire. It wasn’t Maliki. Very rarely do I see the winning side declare a ceasefire. So we’ll see.”

Actually, it was apparently members of Maliki’s own government who traveled to Iran and requested the cease-fire, to which Sadr agreed. Maliki’s government then issued a statement praising Sadr, after Maliki insisted less than a week ago that there would be “no negotiation.”

---- A sharp-eyed and thinking poster commented to the above with :

Actually, it was apparently members of Maliki’s own government who traveled to Iran and requested the cease-fire...

"Actually, your cited source for this statement is a Salon piece by Juan Cole which refers to… “the cease-fire called Sunday by Shiite leader Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the millions-strong Sadr Movement,” …without any further qualification of this statement, nor any mention of Maliki involvement. Rather hard to criticize someone for stating the same thing Juan Cole does on the topic of Shiite militias, especially when that’s your own source for the contradiction."

Here is Cole's opinion piece being referred to above.

What a pitiful attempt by Think Progress, one of many in the "progressive" arena, to portray the doddering McCain as a senile bumbler.

What seems to go unnoticed by the average Joe Progressive, running around on-line looking for "truth", is that Muqtada al-Sadr, issuing orders to his Basra army from Qom, Iran, is proof of some degree of Iranian involvement in the chaos in Iraq - which has been BushCo's accusations for some time.

Predictability

April 7, 2008 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been "campaigning" to be John McCain's running mate, a former Bush administration aide said yesterday.

Rice has been courting the Republican elite, Dan Senor, a political strategist and former foreign-policy adviser to President Bush, said on ABC's "This Week."

"Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this," he said.

McCain told ABC News, "I did not hear that - I missed those signals."

--------- Dan Senor is so full of it; former AIPAC intern, Carlyle Group associate, foreign policy adviser to the thankfully short-lived presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, a Fox News contributor and all around errand boy for the evil empire.

Condi is much too tainted for the VP slot - any independent voters considering McCain would turn far left if Rice was the vice presidential running mate. Although ... a black republican female lesbian would certainly cover a few "firsts."

I also don't see Mitt getting the position - too many Mormons with multiple teenie bopper wives in the news - but it's possible as the republicans need someone who photo-ops with vitality, as opposed to McCain's one foot shuffling to the grave and one foot on a banana peel.

Fred Thompson, although only 66 he looks like the 86-year-old victim of vampires who have sucked the life out of him, but he has law and order face recognition. Huckabee a possibility - but Huck's religiosity would drive away potential independents and swing voters. And god please don't let that chester molester look-a-like Ghouliani get the VP.

Ron Paul would bring in a lot of votes for McCain - but Ron and John are opposites on their Iraq positions, although I think Paul would accept the job if offered - shucks, just to be forever in history books as VP would be sufficient for Paul. Sorry folks, there's something too psycho anal about a man who has spent his life staring at Texas vaginas and D.C. assholes.

If "diversity" as gimmick is the idea, McCain would be better off with Colin Powell. Although somewhat tainted by BushCo, Powell overall still has the respect of independent/swing voters. There's Alan Keyes, the republicans trot him out every so often for political purposes. And J.C. Watts, who once lambasted black democrats and civil rights leaders as "race-hustling poverty pimps" but he has been critical of 2008 presidential candidates as not showing up for blacks.

McCain is not as gimmicky as most pols so expect his VP to be someone lesser known and/or with lighter baggage.

Then again, does any of it matter with rigged elections? You're gonna get who they give you. Once we see who "they" are going to give us, it is easier to predict the coming attractions.

Also - for those who believe the Republicans want Hillary as the opponent ... wrong. It is Hillary they are afraid they cannot beat in November. They want to run against Obama because they have a good deal of unsavory hero-deflating information on Barack.

Responsible Propaganda

Sighted on multiple dailykos and commondreams and alternet places this morning is the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, a 36 page plan (including several pages of bibliography and quotes from this or that hero for an hour), supposedly written by "aggressive democrats" who have enticed congressional members (the usual Kucinich), retired generals, and others to sign on. You too can sign on the Plan.

On the "about" page there is not much information, other than the Plan is a project of Responsible Media LLC, which on a google search turns up nothing, therefore Responsible Media LLC must be very new indeed. Another limited liability corporation recently born.

Responsible Media's PR men are Trevor FitzGibbon and Alex Howe. Fitzgibbon also oversees media relations and strategy for MoveOn.org and is VP of Media Relations at Fenton Communications. Howe is also spokesperson at times for MoveOn.org and an executive at Fenton Communications.

So, there you have it. A public relations firm and PR men writing policy solutions to social and political problems. No agenda there huh Bubba?

The "Responsible Plan" is no more than rehashing progressive slogans - here are the 7 points they list:

1. End U.S. Military Action in Iraq
2. Use U.S. diplomatic power
3. Address humanitarian concerns
4. Restore our Constitution
5. Restore our military
6. Restore independence to the media
7. Create a new, U.S.-centered energy policy

Basically it's "redeployment" progressive style. It's pumping money to the same sources under the guise of "humanitarian" concerns. It calls for removing the power of presidential "signing statements" which of course will flip-flop to a good option as soon as a democrat takes the Oval Office. Calls for better benefits to military veterans - always a favorite political stump to stand on. Calls for restoring something we have never had "independence to the media." And, employ more bureaucratic wonkers to talk, talk, talk and throw money at ideas for alternative "energy" pork.

And oh yes, the "restore our constitution" which has been the slogan for 7 years now, and as example the usual wail regarding "warrantless spying" which I have come to conclude progressives understand not at all how FISA works, otherwise they would know that the major issue with FISA is insufficient oversight - not "illegal spying" on Amerikuns. And who gives a shit if telecom companies are immunized from redress when criminal politician A catches criminal politician B laundering money or other sleazy deeds.

The Responsible Plan is doublespeak crappola packaged for progressives.

I can't help it Bubba - but I still gawk in amazement at stupid.

Chi Lites

The Coldest Days of My Life


Oh Girl


Have You Seen Her

None Of Yo Business

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Your Best Friends

Russians, Saudis Expect U.S. Attack On Iran.

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - March 30, 2008 : The US Congress, the US media, the American people, and the United Nations, are looking the other way as Cheney prepares his attack on Iran.

If only America had an independent media and an opposition party. If there were a shred of integrity left in American political life, perhaps a third act of naked aggression--a third war crime under the Nuremberg standard--by the Bush Regime could be prevented.

----- I have said numerous times Roberts is a lying shilling fearmonger. Only a fool would think he has any credibility. By the way, Vdare, a website where Paul Roberts is popular, is listed as a hate site by SPLC. Vdare is named for Virginia Dare, said to be the first white baby born in the New World.

Vdare claims it is not racist because the site carries authors such as Michelle Malkin, i.e. some of my best friends are ..... heehee.

Roberts, a hardcore Reaganista, has sucked "progressives" into his fan club simply because he rants on BushCo. The "Regime" didn't offer Paul a position? Or perhaps they did - that of propagandist. He certainly makes his "progressive" followers look like dullards.