Where's My Glasses

Television alone is reason enough to lose hope. Three years ago I climbed to the roof and knocked the satellite to the ground. But "news" comes through the rabbit ears. Banality, brutality, tripe, anger, with big doses of fashion models who walk the walk of broken hips that healed crooked, or celebrity gossip and tits-a-lation, it's all there. Suicide and homicide bombers. Burning buses. Tyra's boobs are real and Demi got married somewhere between the smiling war mom gently carried from her protest under arrest. Play that bias again, and again, news that fit to please one muther then the other. Big ratings for the pundit darlings speaking from their assholes because their mouths know better and nothing is heard but the din.

Every winter children die in tenement fires and old folks are found frozen to their kitchen chair. It's called unfortunate. Imagine the coming winter with the cost of energy. Moms drown their children and we say they're depressed. Mass murder in school by children and we say the kiddie perps were victims; bullied. Pedophiles destroying lives and we install a turnstile system for them. But it's 3 strikes and life for selling crack in the ghetto instead of cocaine on Carolwood Drive.

After a century of research and billions of dollars we still cut, burn, or poison to treat most cancer but can cure a limp pecker. We have millions without healthcare but anyone can get Xanax or Oxycodone. You might die in the ER waiting for $100,000 surgery for that silent aneurysm giving you a headache, but you probably could scrape up $2000 or so for breast implants.

Bullwhips up the arse or feces smeared on canvas is art but photos of naked bodies in a pyramid is torture. Depends on the arse, the artist, and the patrons. Millions will rush to watch beheadings online but recoil at our own troops handiwork traded for porn. We censor politics that make us look like dirty players but can't censor anything someone might use to get their rocks off. Freedom you know. We 'Raq and Roll. Give the people a golden shower and tell them its raining sunshine. We're a nation stretched out on the couch with a remote in one hand and our crotch in the other, wanting more. Debase us, kill us, prove guvmint loves us.

America shakes a finger at Chavez as we watch our own drown in poverty shitsoup, and demonize them for not having spoons. We snipe at China for censorship while our own press, poofed-up or flat-ironed hair-heads, read news the government hands them. Military dictator we screech at Castro, while asking for a greater military role for homeland storms or "catastrophic" events. Put troops and mercs in the street to kill thieves so my SUV and plasma screen is safe under 20 feet of water and I be free.

Corrupted courts, cops, and lawyers and folks say it's always been this way. Corrupted elections, billions stolen from the treasury. Neighbors gouge neighbors for an extra dime. Just business as usual, or at least for the last 35 years. Greed is good if you don't get caught. Give me an S&L loan or a reconstruction contract please.

Americans cry for "under God" to be included in the pledge and condemn other nations for inserting god in their politics. US religious leaders issue fatwahs and we shrug while moving tax dollars to a faith-based system. Lord can I get a million dollar grant to teach these 12 disadvantaged po' folks that marriage is good and give them a voucher for some groceries? Let's put Jim and Tammy Faye Holyroller in charge.

Politics and politicians so staged and scripted it's as boring and predicable as a Stephen King novel. I can't recall the last genuine political moment caught on tape. Regardless which side of the aisle is in power the opposition has it's script ready to keep cable news occupied with no change in the landscape. Blowjobs and shirt buttons. Nanner-nannergates that ebb and flow never going anywhere important enough to make a difference, sailing in the Sea of Stupid on a boat named Fool's Reality.

As friends continue to urge me to leave this sinking ship I keep thinking maybe things can change ... it wasn't always this way, or this bad … maybe there's hope yet, and maybe ... maybe it's not really as bad as it looks … if I can just find that pair of rose-colored glasses.

Sixteen Minutes & Commercials

Dubai, 26 Sept. (AKI) - The al-Qaeda movement has for the first time broadcast a television news bulletin, via the Internet. While the Islamist terror group has made ample use of the web for propaganda, this is the first time it has produced something that resembles a traditional television news bulletin - with some striking differences; the newsreader has his face covered and a Koran and rifle at his side. The presenter of the 16-minute "bulletin" entitled Sout al-Khalifa (the Voice of the Caliphate) announced that they would be broadcast weekly.

The first programme opened with the headlines: Gaza has been freed, a great victory; From Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi declares a war of revenge of the Sunnis; Hurricane Katrina, the start of a divine retribution.

The news content of the al-Qaeda bulletin is even interrupted for an advertising break, which announces the imminent release via the internet of a film entitled Total Jihad. The bulletin concludes with news of Hurricane Katrina, defined as "divine punishment on America" which the presenter says has caused some 900 victims.

Tell Me Another One

"They" are rerunning the "abuse" mantra. Abuse of Iraqi prisoners 'was sport'. Anything short of death allowed. Another phony 'see how moral America is, we don't do this.'

We're to believe American media's concern about prisoners in Iraq when we rape, torture, abuse, murder our own citizen prisoners? Tell me another one.

For An Effective Protest

An Orange County editorial offers an opinion on how to have an effective protest :

"Most of all, we hope that they reflect not just a radical fringe group of knee-jerk Bush-haters, but the growing number of ordinary Americans - around 60 percent according to most polls - who have come to see the war in Iraq as a mistake."

"Ms. Sheehan's statements have sometimes gone beyond understandable anger about the war to embrace a range of radical causes. We think that is a mistake. Ordinary Americans who love their country and don't see it as the source of most of the evil in the world but are upset about the Iraq war need to see a reflection of themselves, of a broader Middle America, in this weekend's events. Otherwise they are likely to dismiss the protests as the work of people who will leap at any opportunity to "blame America first."

"Some signs are less than hopeful. The Washington organizers might have asked for a speaker from Pat Buchanan's American Conservative magazine, which has opposed the war steadfastly from the beginning. But the speakers we saw listed on the United for Peace and Justice Web site were all from the left side of the spectrum. When the anti-war movement, to borrow a phrase, starts to look like America, the politicians will start to pay attention."

How does the writer know Buchanan or other conservatives weren't invited to speak? I'm not sure what radical causes or left-sided spectrum the writer is whining about, or what the movement needs to "start to look like America" in his eyes. The few minutes I caught of the rally yesterday on Cspan had a lesbian singing, a Black guy speaking on the victims of Katrina, and an American Iraqi for peaceful solutions. Are those the "radical fringe group of Bush-haters" he speaks of? Maybe the writer thinks straight, white Christians, upset with Iraq War, and who only request an end to this particular venture without assigning blame, would look more like his "Middle America,' the America he thinks politicians pay attention to.

War Business Boom

(New building to change Dubai skyline) Dubai's phenomenal building boom has been given a further boost with the announcement of new projects worth $21.7 billion in just the last ten days … as the emirate seeks to capitalize on the oil wealth it knows won't last forever, Dubai has become a building site, and not even the sea has escaped, with the building of the luxury Palm and World manmade island developments on reclaimed land. Many new initiatives were announced at the three-day Cityscape property exhibition in Dubai, which ended on Monday, including a two billion dirham golf development, which investors said they hope will turn Dubai into the "world golf capital". The two golf course development features 1,000 homes and themed Fire, Earth, Water and Wind courses designed by golfing champion Greg Norman. The announcement of the new ventures comes as many projects announced in 2001 and 2002 reach completion. According to Gulf News, more than 12,000 families have moved into new homes as freehold owners, which it describes as being unimaginable four years ago. The emirate is expected to experience a housing supply excess by 2010.

Jordan's Royal Metropolis Underscoring its commitment to contribute to the infrastructure development of Jordan, Gulf Finance House B.S.C. (GFH), one of the leading Islamic investment banks in the region, Monday said that Jordan Gate, the first phase of the US$1 billion Royal Metropolis, was a beginning and the bank would like to enhance its investments in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Simultaneously, preparations are also on to commence work on Royal Village – a luxury gated residential community on 470,000 square metres in Marj Al-Hammam along the main highway to the Dead Sea, which is a salient component of the second phase of Royal Metropolis.

The Middle East’s premier international property investment and development event, Cityscape 2005, has been inaugurated by General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Minister of Defence, UAE. First day visitors included political delegations, business leaders and VIP guests from North America, Europe and the Far East, confirming Cityscape’s emergence as a major international event for industry professionals. Former US Presidential candidate and President and CEO of Forbes Inc, Steve Forbes, was a VIP guest of Saudi Arabia’s Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Company at Cityscape 2005. “Dubai has now joined the ranks of Hong Kong, Shanghai and other rapidly growing areas. It is demonstrating enormous growth. The changes take one’s breath away,” said Forbes.

Employee compensation across all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is rising at a rapid pace, fueled by the increased cost of living, limited supply of available talent, and GCC citizens’ growing expectation of a share in their countries’ windfall oil revenues, according to a study just released by GulfTalent.com, one of the region’s leading online recruiting agencies.

Emaar Malls announced. The Company has decided to incorporate a fully owned subsidiary, Emaar Malls, which will develop world class shopping malls in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, India and Pakistan. The Company is already fast developing the world's largest shopping destination - the 12 million square feet Dubai Mall - in the Burj Dubai Development in the heart of Downtown Dubai. In addition to good quality housing, people are increasingly looking for a fantastic shopping experience, rivaling that of developed countries. We aim to create this for them. "The GDP of the countries in the catchments are in excess of $1.7 trillion and the retail sector will be one of the key drivers of growth and development in this region. International studies by renowned consultants such as McKinsey have clearly demonstrated that the retail industry is one of the largest worldwide and growing at a rate of 15 per cent annually. Over 45 per cent of the GDP of any economy is driven by the retail sector," Mr. Alabbar said.

Falcon City of Wonders, a mega project to be set up within Dubailand, has signed an agreement with leading German design firm Kling Consult to carry out the concept design for 345 villas that form part of the first phase of the project. The agreement was signed between Salem Al Moosa, Chairman and CEO of Falcon City of Wonders, and Falah Al Salman, Associate Director, Kling Consult, in the presence of Mahmoud Rayyan, Project General Manager, Falcon City of Wonders at Cityscape 2005, being held at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre.

Manama, Bahrain has decided to drop its ban on the import of Israeli goods, as part of the free trade agreement it has signed with the United States. The move was confirmed, following media reports, by the kingdom's foreign minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, who told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai al-Aam in New York: "A free-trade agreement has been signed by Bahrain and the United States, and the free-trade agreements do not allow the implementation of boycotts."

Damascus, Syria - In the wake of last week's fall in the value of the Syrian pound, President Bashar al-Assad has scrapped restrictions on the amount of hard currency money the country's private banks are allowed to sell. The president's decision ends more than 35 years of strict state control on the amount of hard currency Syrians are allowed to purchase. While the decision has been officially motivated as necessary to halt the pound's fall, some analyst believe it marks the beginning of the removal of foreign exchange controls in Syria as part of the government's move towards the introduction of a market economy.

Arcapita Bank B.S.C., a leading Bahrain-based investment firm, announced today that it and its co-investors have acquired a majority equity interest in Falcon Gas Storage Company Inc., (“Falcon”), one of the largest independent owners of natural gas storage capacity in the United States. The total value of the transaction was approximately $100 million.

Alsunut Development Company, Sudan’s leading real estate development company, announced at Cityscape the international launch for their US$4 billion business and residential community in the centre of Khartoum, Sudan. The ‘Almogran’ master planned development is set to be a hub for activity in East Africa’s modern business market and a catalyst for further enterprise in this oil rich, dynamic region of Africa. Located where the Blue Nile meets with the White Nile, Almogran, has two phases being developed in parallel, the first is a 160 acre, state-of-the-art, Central Business District and the second is a 1,420 acre, residential and leisure estate featuring an 18 hole golf course. Construction on stage one has already commenced and is estimated to be complete within 5 years.

Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO), the major diversified investment holding group of the Middle East and North Africa region, sealed the successful closure of its recent US$ 175 million syndicated term loan facility in a ceremony with leading European banks mandated as lead managers. The ceremony in Dubai concluded formalities with mandated lead managers Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein of Germany, HSBC Bank plc of the UK, and Austria’s Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich Aktiengesellschaft. Also present were representatives of prominent international and regional banks involved as arrangers in the syndication, including Emirates Bank, National Bank of Dubai, BNP Paribas, and the State Bank of India.

The Western press is full of tales of economic doom and gloom, and yet the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) is experiencing an economic boom despite the shadow of a looming war in Iraq. What are the forces driving this boom? The level of investment now pouring into new projects in the Gulf is an astonishing contrast to the downturn in investment evident in the West where collapsing stock markets and business confidence have taken their toll. And remarkably, the GCC boom has only just started to roll.

October 2003 - A staggering US$4 billion in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds earmarked for the reconstruction of the country has disappeared into opaque bank accounts administered by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US-controlled body that rules Iraq. By the end of the year, if nothing changes in the way this cash is accounted for, that figure will double.

August 2004 - At least $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds that was given to Iraqi ministries by the former U.S.-led authority there cannot be accounted for, according to a draft U.S. audit set for release soon. The audit by the Coalition Provisional Authority’s own inspector general blasts the CPA for “not providing adequate stewardship” of at least $8.8 billion from the Development Fund for Iraq that was given to Iraqi ministries. The audit was first reported on a Web site earlier this month by David Hackworth, a journalist and retired colonel. A U.S. official confirmed that the contents of the leaked audit cited by Hackworth were accurate.

February 2005 - Dennis Kucinich : "Was the $9 billion stolen? Did it go to pay bribes? Do we have another Iran-Contra on our hands? We will not know until top U.S. officials under penalty of perjury are called before the grand jury to answer questions about the missing $9 billion. The administration's response has been, Hey, it's Iraq, it's chaos, it's war. I say, Hey, you can't account for $9 billion spent over 9 months. That is $30 million a day. And you want Congress to appropriate another $80 billion for Iraq? I do not think so. Investigate Iraq-gate and the unaccounted- for $9 billion."

September 2005 - At least $1 billion has been plundered from the coffers of Iraq's defense ministry, seriously affecting the government's ability to combat the insurgency, the Independent newspaper reported Monday, citing the Iraqi finance minister. "It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history," the center-left paper quoted finance minister Ali Allawi as saying.

"You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end ..."

Mark Dayton's Minipax

The senator from Minnesota announced in February of this year he will not seek reelection. Dayton was first elected in 2000 after a lengthy career in public life in Minnesota's liberal Democratic politics. Dayton served as an aide to former Sen. Walter F. Mondale, and was state auditor for four years in the 1990s. He says now the "money chase" or fundraising is distasteful, which surely it is to anyone with a conscience but I'm not buying that reason. More likely he recognizes his stand on issues may get him wellstoned.

The senator voted against the Iraq War resolution in October 2002 which authorized Bush to use military force, if necessary, to disarm Iraq. He was also the senator who closed his Capital Hill office in October 2004 citing fear of "a possible terrorist attack that could harm his staff or visitors." At confirmation hearings for Condi Rice he accused her and other Bush officials of "lying to Congress, lying to our committees, lying to the American people" in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

For a moment I thought Dayton might possibly be the closest thing I could find to an honest politician. Imagine that. Then the senator does this : before leaving the congressional sewer he proposed this week the Department of Peace. Another noble sounding idea which will do little more than create a departmental beauracracy to extract funds from the public trough. The idea coincides with the 44th anniversary of JF Kennedy's creation of the Peace Corp. How much peace has the Peace Corp created?

"... from the roof of Victory Mansions you could see all four of them simultaneously. They were the homes of the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided. The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty."

Presidential Library Open 24 Hours

Thanks The Specious Report

Picture That

NEW YORK An editorial cartoon in the Independent Florida Alligator has angered University of Florida students, administrators, and others who called the drawing racially insensitive.



Marlette, who is white, said he wasn't making a racist statement, and that the term "Nigga" is commonly used in rap lyrics. Marlette said "I can picture a black woman saying that to a black man."

Playing the "race card" has become a common accusation these days – and an obvious attempt at silencing critics. Judging Marlette from above comments he doesn't seem to be that clever; maybe he's just imitating groupthink. Contrary to popular notion not all Blacks use "nigga" at home or listen to rap music, or like watermelon. And although I don't find any political humor in the cartoon, it's almost funny to "picture" Condi saying "nigga please" to any man.

On second thought, maybe Marlette is a genius, as he not only paints Kanye a sweating, gold chained, bug-eyed, bling bling Black male, he also stereotyped the Secretary of State as a Sapphire (scowling, angry, overbearing, emasculating black woman w/chip on shoulder) sarcastically saying to a Black man "nigga please" - if he criticized her homeboy Bush.

GB Doesn't Care About Black People

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soul-sides.com

Not Behind the Plow

Good news from Army Times for all you high school dropouts : "Army recruiters now have a wider pool to find future soldiers in. The Army is reaching out to a slice of America’s youth long ineligible to serve: non-high school graduates who don’t have a General Equivalency Diploma." You too can join and the Army will pay for tutoring to get that good enough diploma (GED).

If an individual has been out of high school for at least six months, can pass a physical exam and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, he or she may be eligible for help getting a GED.

My grandfather served in WWI. That's a picture of him (left) and his brother as young men in their 20s in some fairly shabby uniforms, and his dog tags. He was self-educated, more or less, with a "formal" 6th grade education. Grampa was a busy family man; producing sons who served in 3 wars, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. When I was 6 my grampa proudly taught me to sing "you're in the army now, you're not behind the plow, you'll never get rich you son of a bitch, you're in the army now." I sang it often and loud as he gave me permission to use the SOB dirty word.

Grampa (and his sons) also told me for each of their wars to wear the uniform all you needed to pass the physical was breathe. The ASVAB testing began in the 1960s and we know how many functionally illiterate still managed to sneak through and serve in Vietnam. But before the ASVAB, in WWI, the military used the Army Alpha test which was 212 multiple choice, true/false questions. When the Army learned many couldn't read and write they developed the Army Beta test, which used only pictures. So don't worry about being illiterate or IQ challenged; when in need of cannon fodder the powers that be are very accommodating. Some believe our military is now so high tech that only smart men and boys can serve, but our leaders understand it doesn't take a genius to carry an M16. And if they don't teach you to at least write your name, you may still be eligible : just scratch an X on the line the man points to.

Rags of Power

Tony Blair is said to have relished sending troops into action when British forces joined the US in Iraq airstrikes in 1998. So says the diaries of a former aide. The British government forced some change of wording in the book, the "relishing" now reads Blair had "mixed emotions." Boys like Blair (and Bush) feel "it is part of coming of age as a leader." Or as some in the press refer to Tony's action “his first blooding" as prime minister. Remember Bush's fist pumping "feels good" on the eve of war.

The ruling elite have truly dredged the bottom of their gene pool for leaders, being unable to find at least two Anglo male figureheads who have a semblance of being men. Not an Ike or JFK among the elite foot soldiers for the new world odor? They give us Blair and Bush. Two limp wristed forever frat boys with flaccid egos. Sadomasochists in suits with coddled tempers.

The two boys of the "free world" were so close when they first targeted Iraq that movies were made depicting their alliance, their hearts beating as one on the war drum.

Females have menarche, males have bloodletting. Bush and Blair have now passed the swagger ritual for real men in their circle of power. And it would explain why both pout, shout, kill; being on the bloody rag all these years with "mixed emotions."

Papa Simeus

Dumas Simeus, Haitian businessman, seeks office of President of Haiti. Or, seeks office as overseer of the plantation for the US. Mr. Simeus, now 65, left Haiti 44 years ago but believes as a successful businessman in the food industry, with connections in Texas and Florida, he can run Haiti like a good business should be run. Haven't we heard that argument before?

Simeus founded Haiti's first investment bank, PromoCapital. Promo bank is headquartered in Petionville, Haiti with representatives in D.C. and Aventura, Florida. PromoCapital investors are the Haitian elite and business class; a ruling sack of tastefully designed thugs who have never been regarded highly for their ethics or their concern for the public good of Haiti. Remember proxy US dictators - Papa Doc Duvalier and his son Baby Doc (known as Uncle Sam's Hammer and Sickle respectively) held their fellow Haitians in bondage for decades. Another fine example of US democracy at the end of a gun, or rubber necklace.

Simeus' assets were frozen briefly in the early '90s as suspect of being a coup backer in the 1991 overthrow of President Aristide. He, and most of the other individuals connected to PromoCapital are suspected of backing the more recent coup and violence. But hell, let's not use suspected and alleged, we know they are the coup backers.

Roger Noriega, Bush's Asst. Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, has spent his career more than eager and willing to do what's necessary to further US elite interests in Latin America. In the 1980s Noriega was directly in charge of channeling aid to the Contras-sometimes laundering the aid through an operative of Colombia's Medellin drug cartel residing in Miami. Likely Noriega was somewhere behind the 2004 coup of Aristide since the "freedom fighters" were trained next door in the Dominican Republic with CIA.

The HERO act (Haiti Economic Recovery Opportunity Act of 2004), being pushed by Mr. Simeus and the consortium of Haitian elite, is of course promising to bring peace and prosperity and democracy to Haiti but actually nothing more than the usual legislation to aid wealthy investors in their control of a third world economy, a.k.a. making the economic rape of other countries legal, a.k.a. raping and looting by the elite : or rich folks who "find" things all over the world.

And for all those neoliberals who believe Democrats are helping the cause of democracy and the plight of the poor note who co-sponsored the HERO act : Rep. John F. Conyers, Jr., along with Reps. Clay Shaw (R-FL, Clay Shaw…hmmm), Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Philip Crane (R-IL), Kendrick Meek (D-FL), Porter Goss (R-FL), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Mark Foley (R-FL), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Donna Christensen (D-VI), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), and Diane Watson (D-CA).

Bankers and businessmen and politicians ... I can smell the corporate rewards and campaign contributions from here.

#1 Son

Top of the world ma.


Son second from left.


Lifesaver magazine.

Who Belied

Who Belied

Townhack Linda Chavez writes "They're At It Again", claiming Jackson, Sharpton, and Waters, the "race men" are "are at it again, turning the tragedy of New Orleans into a morality tale about racism in America."

Chavez states : "Even the pictures that emerged as victims were being rescued belied any hint of racism. Most of the National Guardsmen and other military personnel saving lives were white, while most of those being saved were black, not surprising given the demographics of the respective groups. Blacks made up 68 percent of New Orleans' population, but only about 20 percent of all military personnel and an even smaller proportion of National Guard troops."

Well, math was never my favorite subject but I get bent out of shape when airheads blow percentages from a rickety soapbox. It seems to me Chavez is implying Blacks aren't serving in the military in all that great a number, "only about 20 percent of all military" are Black. But "most ... military personnel saving lives were white" while those being saved were Black. Apparently sufficient duh proof for Ms. Chavez that there is no racism in America.

Let me see ... there are aproximately 1.2 million US troops ... if 20 percent are Black that's roughly 240,000 Black troops ... and that would be about 0.8 percent of the total Black American population in uniform, given there are 32 million Black Americans. Assuming the remaining 960,000 troops are white and America's white population is 218,000,000 (minus Hispanics, Asians, others) then "only about" 0.4 percent of the white population is in uniform (deducting 100,000 or so of our fair-skinned brothers of non-white others in uniform).

So 0.8 percent of Black Americans are serving in uniform and 0.4 percent of white Americans are military. Is that right? Math never was my best subject.

De Camptown Doo Dah! Doo Dah!

FEMA allocates $5 billion for trailers to house Katrina victims.

"We are going to spare no effort to get them the help that they need," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said last week when asked about the spending total and the increasing deficit. "The president has made it clear, in meetings he's been having, that we are going to show the true compassion of America in all that we do."

Mr. King and others who voted against the $51.8 billion bill said the issue is not how much is being spent, but how. Speaking by telephone from Louisiana, where he had spent the night at a Red Cross shelter in Baton Rouge, Mr. King said the trailer houses are a perfect example.

The first bill called for 200,000 trailers, at a cost of $3.3 billion. Then, even after learning that only 30,000 trailers could be delivered now, the administration requested money for 100,000 more in the second bill, for a total cost of $4.9 billion. They will be located "some place about 100 miles north of New Orleans" in a temporary trailer-house city that eventually will be bulldozed, Mr. King said.

Things are working out very well for them, all concentrated in hundreds of thousands of trailers. Suggested name for the camp (thanks to Dean Nugent, LA coroner's office) might be "Cockroach Strip" , with contracts later going to Israeli experts for the eventual bulldozing.

Bush On Vacation

Dictatorade

Bush says he may need more power.

Bush’s backing for the congressional inquiry raised the possibility that lawmakers might expand presidential authority to:

• Order mandatory civilian evacuations.

• Dispatch U.S.-based armed forces for emergency search-and-rescue operations.

• Grant wider leeway for active-duty U.S. military personnel to carry out law enforcement operations.

Damn! The man really knows what to make when life hands him a lemon. Ask for more power.

Fanning White Folks

MoveAmericaForward , one supremacist voice of conservative (white) America has an ad telling like minded folks how they can fight the "anti-war extremists" (like Cindy Sheehan) who are now "exploiting" Katrina.

Sheehan : " The horrific events that have unfolded in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, in the wake of the deadly hurricane Katrina are stark reminders of just how lop-sided our nation's priorities are. Resources that could have been used to save lives are instead tied up in a war that continues to kill Iraqis and U.S. servicepeople. Our nation is at a crossroads: will we continue to squander resources and take lives in a war that never should have happened, or will we commit ourselves to the re-building of the Gulf Coast and the lives torn asunder by Katrina?"

WaPo headlines read : Storm's Devastation Fans Antiwar Flame . Seems to be a lot of shit hitting the fans these days.

Reality is both sides are detracting from what went on in New Orleans. We have the "resources" to handle both war and hurricane. But ain't it convenient that both factions ignore racism and poverty. Although the anti-war crowd does like to compare themselves to Black figures, i.e. Rosa Parks, Emmet Till's momma, and even comparing Casey Sheehan's death with Martin Luther King's. Someone please tell the "left" to stop standing on the backs of long-suffering down-trodden and murdered Black images.

A recent poll showed that the majority of Black America viewed the government response to drowning Blacks in New Orleans as racism. While the same poll showed the majority of whites did not, preferring instead to blame it on "squandered resources" and an incompetent administration. This country has always squandered money and blood on foreign adventures, nothing new here folks.

But this is the usual preference : to pretend America's problems revolve around a particular figurehead president. A preference to play musical president chairs rather than change the fakery of an Anglo social structure and a political system of death and destruction that has worked well for America, particularly white America. I don't think you'll be seeing a lot of Blacks in those mostly white marches and rallies or pointing a finger at just one side exploiting. Been there, done that, didn't change much.

Duct & Cover

FEMA director, Mike Brown, resigned Monday and was replaced temporarily by the highest-ranking permanent professional in FEMA, R. David Paulison, a former fire chief in Miami-Dade County in Florida.

R. David Paulison thank goodness has so much more sense. I hope he gives us more methods as useful as his previous "duct tape and plastic" supplies for survival. "Americans have apparently heeded the U.S. government's advice to prepare for terror attacks, emptying hardware store shelves of duct tape."

Don't forget to seal yourself in real tight now. (You might want to use those extra batteries for something more fun than tuning to the local radio for how screwed you are in the event of a terrorist attack.)

And the Survey Says

The Most Likely Fall Guy Is ... From Fox News : "Staunch supporters of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq have become more vocal and public with their concern over the way things are going there, prompting observers to suggest that even Republicans are getting nervous."

"I have been struck that so many of the intellectual, neo-conservative supporters of the war have been quite critical of the Bush administration's management, or mismanagement, of the post-war situation in Iraq, both politically and militarily," Diamond (Hoover Institute) told FOXNews.com.

"Andrew Bacevich, a Vietnam veteran and professor of international relations at Boston University, said he sees a marked shift."

"I think there are definite cracks" in the president's Republican support, said Peter Beinart, editor of The New Republic magazine, which has supported the invasion of Iraq from the beginning.

In July, Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Md., a Vietnam War veteran who has supported the war in Iraq, became the fourth Republican to sign on to a bipartisan resolution urging the president to lay out a clear exit strategy, and has said publicly he's concerned about the effect of public opinion on congressional Republicans in 2006.

All the recent "marked shifts" and "definite cracks" and "getting nervous" is for show. Bush supporters question war "tactics" not the war, and the "questions" are only to assure the faint-hearted among their constituents that victory of some sort is on the way, and Bush political supporters "question" now b/c elections are coming up. Bush takes the fall, congress dickers a few years over the war while murdering for profit, and the Newcons continue on, etc. You didn't really think "the war on terror" would go any differently did ya? If not so tragic for we the people and the world, it would be funny watching the pResident Chimp take a fall.

Welfare State & Katrina

Robert Tracinski authored A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State, an article making the rounds which basically blames the victims. Mr. Tracinski blames the chaos in NOLA on people not behaving the way you would expect them to behave and they're not behaving because they are products of the "welfare state."

Tracinski says : "But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them...People living in piles of their own trash, while petulantly complaining that other people aren't doing enough to take care of them and then shooting at those who come to rescue them—this is not just a description of the chaos at the Superdome. It is a perfect summary of the 40-year history of the welfare state and its public housing projects...The welfare state—and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages—is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is reporting."

Trancinski believes capitalism is the only moral system and holds the usual neocon view that it's racism only when it involves Jews (nor does he ever mention the welfare state of Israel and the brutish mentality that encourages). He used to write on Clinton's policies being disasters, etc. And of course wouldn't ya know it, Larry Elders over at Townhacks also writes of the "welfare state" in connection to Katrina stating : "Some demand a commission to investigate the failures and breakdowns in Hurricane Katrina. Fine. Let's hope they put together a commission to investigate another hurricane -- that wrought by the welfare state and the irresponsible use of the race card." Larry, keep hacking and you too will get that Armstrong Williams reward. I wonder if Larry is listed in the Rent-A-Negro directory. Larry may not be "wrought" but he is bought.

Almost forgot, Star Parker also weighed in on the issue : "The charges of racism-inspired foot-dragging isn't just nonsense. It's pernicious nonsense." All the Townhack folks deny racism except of course in connection to Jews, and they often mention American Black leaders hugging Chavez and Mugabe these days as proof of some evil or another.

Laura Judy Type

"I also want to encourage anybody who was affected by Hurricane Corina to make sure their children are in school." –First Lady Laura Bush, twice referred to a "Hurricane Corina" while speaking to children and parents in South Haven, Mississippi, Sept. 8, 2005.

After days of nonstop news focus on Katrina this ignorant heifer calls it hurricane Corina. Has she been busy at the spa with mudpacks and massages and not keeping up with news on the little people? I'm not surprised with Laura's obvious lack of information because she is the "Judy type."

The "Judy" is two-faced, insensitive, and easily entertained by her own "beautiful" mind. I once knew a "Judy type" and can spot them several States away. The "Judy" is a prudish stickler, who as a young female passed herself off as a "good girl" but by her own definition that meant she didn't screw a guy (or mark) the first month, and only after they are seen as a couple will she go beyond the groping and petting; presenting him the honor of intercourse while she thinks of tomorrow's errands and the new shoes in her closet, but faking passion and innocence so well the male struts off pretty sure he needs her since she was a "good girl" until he overcame her with his stud-like conquest. If he dumps "Judy" his life is in peril at stop signs.

Every male is a potential mate for the "Judy," after his current or future earnings and family background pass inspection. She's not particularly bright or intelligent but is a good "test taker" and does well at repeating ideas from books, and she does read a great deal due to lack of dates. The notion that a man is a companion, lover, friend is distasteful to her but she'll pretend otherwise because she read somewhere she should think that way about men. She pretends a lot of good human qualities she has read about.

Once married to the "Judy type" female, a man has to be a popular bully but privately weak; a man who doesn't put up a fight when the "Judy" tucks his balls in her purse, although she will allow him the public image as man of the house. Some folks may call it "whipped" as if that's a good thing but it's braggadocio. It works well for the image of both as it hides the sexual and human dysfunction of the couple. The "Judy" is never smarter than her man, but more wily at terrorizing him in his home. She keeps him in fear of what she might tell others about him.

She really doesn't want children but will have at least one pregnancy for the sake of appearance, and inheritance. Children are tiresome for her, both physically and emotionally, and interfere with her beautiful mind where she dwells on self. The "Judy" seeks to soften her hardness by professing deep concern for children; seeking positions and outlets where she doesn't really have to deal long-term with kids on a personal level but can talk about them as if she does (church and charity.org work well). Her own children will shame her and she'll cut them off at the knees, or the bank, whichever works best.

She will prefer a mother-in-law with whom to share laughs as they deride the men folk, and shop lavishly, usually with privilege they feel their vagina has earned them the right to. The "Judy" believes she's literally sitting on a labial goldmine and materially overvalues that which she dislikes most and understands even less (sex). The Judy pretends to be a lady in public but is crude and coarse privately; telling raucous stories, dirty jokes, farting, belching, making men blush. She enjoys the discomfort her contradictory behavior causes the men in her circle.

The "Judy type" is a born frump but with time and professional help she becomes a better-dressed and coifed frump. For all the importance she places on sex as a reward and privilege she is never sexy, and nothing sensual about her. Even at a young age she looked like someone's dumpy dowdy mom. She has a hard look somewhere on her face because she was born bitter over her plainness.

"Judy type" usually marries later in life (31 for Laura) as the clock is ticking, having run most mentally healthy men off with her demands and domineering whine and/or threats. Her choices are fewer by this stage in the game and she often marries her counterpart, the bachelor playboy, after a hasty courtship (3 months for George & Laura). She often finds one so brain damaged from his own hedonism that she has no difficulty in putting the ring through his nose as he slips one on her finger. But it's not a pretty marriage. Fights, petulance, retaliation by two selfish middle-age children who, as they exasperate everyone else, are bound together forever as one another's only friend, and not even good friends.

The "Judy" I knew has done well for herself monetarily, but she's a lonely old woman always in search of friends, with surface relationships and shallow concerns. Living in seclusion, pretending she's very important in the grand scheme of things although her family rarely visit and then only a formality. She attends church regularly, yet I watched her in a courtroom swear to God on a Bible and then lie through her teeth with every breath. The "Judy" has no shame, no conscience, no substance. She can only pretend what she has read about love. She still believes everyone wants to be like her because her mind thinks it, sitting straight, regal, on a self-made pedestal. I kid you not.

Hacienda Politics

September 9th AP story reads : "U.S. and Latin American officials stepped up pressure Friday against legislative efforts to oust Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos, whose anti-corruption campaign has driven lawmakers of his own party into alliance with rivals. New U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli presented his credentials to the government on Friday and warned that Bolanos' removal "would be a disaster for Nicaragua." In Washington, the Organization of American States urged "an immediate halt" to actions that could worsen Nicaragua's political crisis. Bolanos is defying constitutional amendments passed by a legislature dominated by his rivals that would strip him of much of his authority."

Bolaños ran a scare campaign in 2001, connecting the FSLN opposition, Daniel Ortega, to terrorists. Bolaños' new front man, Trivelli, is said to approach his job with more subtly than his predecessor, meaning Trivelli is more adept at putting a pleasant ambassadorial spin on the repression and US terror in Central America. Reading the above AP story you'd think it's the bad guys trying to get rid of a good guy president. But what's really going on is Bolaños is as corrupt as his compadre Aleman (former prez) : Currently Aleman faces money-laundering charges in Miami. A mere $740,000 deposited in a Miami bank account is chump change for Senor Aleman who stole upwards of $100 million from the Nicaraguan treasury during his presidency. Note too that Panama is mentioned (in case you're still wondering why US drug lords had to get rid of Ortega and Noriega). Although labeled a liberal Arnoldo was another fat-cat proxy dictator for the US government, as is President Bolaños.

Bolaños was VP under Aleman and after elected initiated the corruption charges against Aleman out of anger that Aleman had left nothing to steal. Now Bolanos too is up to his poncho in corruption charges. Of course they all "deny any wrongdoing." Since the ousting of the Sandinistas, the US backed "political contras" have served the US well. Returning to the tactics of Somoza, i.e. illiteracy, malnutrition, cheap labor, protecting the drug trade. And partying in Maryland and Miami with their US backers, or hosting same in San Juan del Sur.

Aleman was recently convicted of fraud in Nicaragua and sentenced to 20 years but he does time on his estate in Managua "under strict house arrest." Meaning he has to say please for permission to globe trot. Under Nicaragua law Aleman is immune for much of his looting. Daniel Ortega, former Sandinista president, is working to deprive Aleman and the current President Enrique Bolaños, of their immunity to open the way for judicial actions against them during their time in office. "Actions" as in real prison cells with other common criminals.

A couple of years after the Contra War ended during a visit to Managua I was conversing with a group of D.C. experts who's mission was to advise Nicaragua on setting up a "system." One gentleman was outlining the Social Security system and another explaining taxation methods similar to the US. Taxation is new for most Nicaraguans. Taxing folks where 80 percent of the population makes less than $1 a day; why do I see vampires here. The two experts went on and on until out of air and waited for a response; this being the pause where I'm supposed to say what a wonderful thing they're doing for the little brown people. My not praising the foisting of an IRS and SSA on the little people could only mean I was a "marxist sandinista" sympathizer.

The "disaster" Ambassador Trivelli speaks of is that the ruling elite of Managua don't want to return as Miamistas living off US citizens rather than their own. While the US has been occupied elsewhere average Nicaraguans are looking at removing the US boot, again. And at least for now trying to do so legislatively. I heard a phrase once describing Latin Americans, can't remember the gringo who said it : "Every time they get out of their hammocks they start a revolution." A symptomatic slur of how the US thinks about Latin American democracy. And Ambassador Trivelli, Senor Rico Suave, will spin a people's movement as political terrorism and get all the guns he needs from D.C.

Back of the Bus

What I Know & When I Knew It

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True

Hmmm

"The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months."

Maybe those tinfoil stories of FEMA concentration camps need looking at again.

Ray the Cable Guy

Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans. Nagin was a member of the Republican party (supported GW) and only switched to Democrat in 2002 when he filed to run as candidate for NO mayor. His campaign was self-financed, after a career as a manager at Cox Communications (cable company).

On September 1st Nagin made the impassioned plea : ... "Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country."

Four days later (Sept.5) and a reminder as to who owns his loyalty, Ray the cable guy recovered his budding political career when he placed blame at Governor Blanco's feet. Nagin stated : "Look, I've gotten promises to -- I can't stand anymore promises. I don't want to hear anymore promises. I want to see stuff done. And that's why I'm so happy that the president came down here, because I think they were feeding him a line of bull also. And they were telling him things weren't as bad as it was." The "they" in this case being Governor Blanco who, with more political savvy, knew the correct thing to say, like hey Ray why didn't you use all those empty school buses to evacuate?

But maybe it was all the stress because on the 3rd Mayor Ray told CNN the "CIA would wipe him out" after his criticism of President Bush and the Federal Government in response to Hurricane Katrina.

Let's fund a study, kiss kiss makeup, and declare it was a "communications gap." Yea, that'll work.

Clinton: Government failed Katrina victims.

"Our government failed those people in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it," Clinton said. "One hundred percent of the people recognize that -- that it was a failure."

...And that means a lot coming from a man who failed 800,000 Rwandans on his watch?

"Clinton suggested that once the emergency is over a commission should be formed to examine what happened."

You know, some considered it an insult when it was said Clinton was the first Black president; a gentile slur because he played the sax, talked trash, and was a lying, promiscuous cheat and womanizer. Not funny or a compliment at all.

Fact or Fiction

There were two babies who had their throats slit. The seven-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in the Superdome. And the corpses laid out amid the excrement in the convention centre.

In a week filled with dreadful scenes of desperation and anger from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina some stories stood out.

But as time goes on many remain unsubstantiated and may yet prove to be apocryphal.

New Orleans police have been unable to confirm the tale of the raped child, or indeed any of the reports of rapes, in the Superdome and convention centre.

"Katrina's winds have left behind an information vacuum. And that vacuum has been filled by rumour.

"There is nothing to correct wild reports that armed gangs have taken over the convention centre," wrote Associated Press writer, Allen Breed.

"You can report them but you at least have to say they are unsubstantiated and not pass them off as fact," said one Baltimore-based journalist.

"But nobody is doing that."

Either way these rumours have had an effect.

Reports of the complete degradation and violent criminals running rampant in the Superdome suggested a crisis that both hastened the relief effort and demonised those who were stranded.

By the end of last week the media in Baton Rouge reported that evacuees from New Orleans were carjacking and that guns and knives were being seized in local shelters where riots were erupting.

The local mayor responded accordingly.

"We do not want to inherit the looting and all the other foolishness that went on in New Orleans," Kip Holden was told the Baton Rouge Advocate.

"We do not want to inherit that breed that seeks to prey on other people."

The trouble, wrote Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune is that "scarcely any of it was true - the police confiscated a single knife from a refugee in one Baton Rouge shelter".

"There were no riots in Baton Rouge. There were no armed hordes."

Similarly when the first convoy of national guardsmen went into New Orleans approached the convention centre they were ordered to "lock and load".

But when they arrived they were confronted not by armed mobs but a nurse wearing a T-shirt that read "I love New Orleans".

"She ran down a broken escalator, then held her hands in the air when she saw the guns," wrote the LA Times.

"We have sick kids up here!" she shouted.

"We have dehydrated kids! One kid with sickle cell!"

Eyes of the Storm

The contractors story. I won't waste time on the story of five contractors shot on a bridge because the story has already disappeared down the memory hole and altered to read that five gunmen were shot as they were shooting at the good guys.

I won't dwell on talk of another commission to study Katrina because I have previously blogged my feelings about commissions. Commissions are funded to funnel more funds to the elite pocket and cover up truth while pretending to serve the people. Thinking folks know the truth and the remainder want a taxpayer paid bedtime story; the same folks who think the same meager footage shown over and over day after day for a week is disaster news reporting.

I didn't see the footage of thugs looting 5 plasma screen televisions that Bill O'Reilly alluded to on one of his programs. O'Reilly didn't see them either but the sound bytes are put out there. The looting I've seen has been for survival, food, water, diapers, dry clothing. There was the footage of two NOLA cops looting in Wal-Mart but the fact that cops are criminals with gun and badge is hardly new.

I won't mention that as the water recedes looting will definitely be a problem, with plunder sold on the periphery to white boys in pickup trucks with Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi plates. I won't think about turning well-armed just back from Iraq troops on looters at Enron, Halliburton, KBR.

Lets not think about Halliburton getting NOLA reconstruction contracts even before the bodies began to pop up like corks in the toxic waters. Or the stars and pols who pop up for photo-ops and publicity, even if their presence hampers more than helps because of the attendant security and cameramen.

I won't ask where the liberal democratic champions such as McKinney, Kennedy, Hillary, and Conyers were the first week of the Katrina disaster. They weren't countering the immediate deluge of racism to demonize the victims. From day 1 the news led with stories to tell us tens of thousands of barely surviving, traumatized, shell-shocked half drown people were more interested in looting than living. Or the Huffington post of Randall Robinson claiming that after 3-1/2 days folks were cannibalizing corpses. Which side of hell are these two moles paid by? Pretty heavy duty demonizing; one can't feel too sorry for looting, raping, murdering, human corpse eating Black Americans.

And although the propaganda will paint various pictures over the coming months, hype to ellicit warm fuzzies and heroes for a day, the truth is, the drowning of New Orleans put a plain face on racial cleansing in America, which began before the Civil War and continued after the Civil Rights movement. Katrina shows clearly there are no strong militant Black leaders around these days. No Black leaders issuing serious plans for unity and change. Black power was neutralized long before Katrina. Believe it and weep.

I have read the story that the mass orgies of NOLA looting, raping, murdering thugs are due to the welfare state. Remember, however, that poor welfare whites don't loot, they "find things." But then I've long called for abolishing the welfare system because I believe Black America would adapt easier and quicker if funds were stopped. It's poor white America that the politicians are afraid of. A few million former Black recipients can be controlled, already have been to a large degree with the prison system and political system. Several million whites losing handouts would burn down D.C., if the government cuts the phony disability checks and prescriptions for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), which eventually the government will.

And whacha gonna do when they come for you poor white boy? How are you going to blame America's problems on the next guy when you are the next guy?

Headlines & Priorities

New Orleans Gets More Troops to Stop Katrina Looting.
Troops Deployed to Stop Looters.
New Orleans Mayor Orders Looting Crackdown.
Looters Take Advantage of New Orleans Mess.
New Orleans Coverage: Looting or Finding?
New Orleans Fights To Stop Looting.
CBS News | Gov. Asks For Help To Stop Looters.
USATODAY.com - New Orleans Police Ordered to Halt Looting.
WorldNetDaily: Looters Turn New Orleans into 'Downtown Baghdad'.
NPR : In New Orleans, Floods and Looting Spread.
World Watches the Looting of New Orleans – GOPUSA.
Looting in New Orleans.

Google Icon. Appropriate.

Certainly in these first 4 or 5 days the looting has been for food, water, necessities. And even that which isn't - what good will Wal-Mart junk or electronics be to anyone after sitting weeks or months in an environment of fetid, diseased water. The headlines are, as usual, to turn the eyes from the guilty: the politicians and agencies who pretend to spend billions in programs to benefit us.

Nahleans

We all feel for the suffering in the Gulf Coast area after Katrina. Specifically for the poor who have no resources. The bloggers wasted no time in jumping on the "people suffering b/c of Bush" rhetoric. I find GW as despicable as the next person but here's my thoughts on the matter.

Bush's FY budget cut funding to New Orleans approximately $50 to $70 million depending on whose figures you read. This gave the New Orleans district $272.4 million in 2006, down from $343.5 million in 2005. These millions are budgeted to New Orleans every year.

The Corps of Engineers budget could still be beefed up, as it is every year, through congressional additions. Last year, Congress added $20 million to the overall budget of the New Orleans district but a similar increase this year would still leave a $50 million shortfall. We're speaking of a shortfall for 2006 spending.

So Bush "slashes" a budget that will effect Louisiana. My question : What have the good porkers of New Orleans politicians been doing with the decades of funding? Why with decades of federal money are they caught with their dicks in the wind? Living in an area of wetlands, which holds catastrophic possibilities of nature, where have decades of dollars for maintenance and upkeep of the infrastructure been spent? Decades of funding for levees, floodwalls, and pumping stations. I checked out New Orleans and Grand Isle a couple of years ago, thinking of relocation. Nice place, wouldn't want to live there; half the state is on stilts. Too much water I said.

Federal law requires that high priority projects, such as roads, bridges, damns, waterways are included in the distribution of Federal funds to states, but state and local politicians will jockey around the Federal government mandates with how a project is included or excluded from the State's distribution formula of the funds. All those buddy contractors to distribute to, doing projects on the cheap, padding expenses, kickbacks. And if there's the word Corps or Army anywhere in it you know toilet seats and screwdrivers are gonna cost you.

Blaming Bush is easy and predictable, but look at Louisiana's own politicians and system (both aisles) for some accountability. This disaster didn't come about because of FY 2006 cuts. Louisiana has spent poorly and corruptly (as do all states). As a side note, last night my daughter mentioned that predictably we'll soon see the video of "Black folks looting," … oh … nevermind she said as those images were showing as she spoke. White folks never seem to loot for the camera.

Outings & Sightings

There are so many it's hard to keep up. I was following the theories of Wayne Madsen and Michael Ruppert but lost faith after their "Bush/Cheney indictments are looming!" last year. Now I'm not sure I understand the theory this pair is pushing but apparently it's along the line that the wrath of the CIA is working against the Bush family empire.

In a Ruppert article Beyond Bush II he writes: "A simple way to look at this is to say that the CIA represents the interests of Wall Street and the global economic powers, while the Bush Neocons represent the interests of only one American faction of the global economy. It is inevitable that the Neocons will be replaced. Several US presidents have fought the CIA and they have always emerged on the short end of the stick. This time will be no different."

So the agency that Poppy Bush once directed is out to overthrow his son? Poppy Bush became director of CIA at a time when the agency was being scrutinized for dirty tricks, the Allende in Chile assassination, Diem in Vietnam, various other nasty deeds. When Bush was confirmed as CIA director he promised to make : "CIA an instrument of peace and an object of pride for all our people."

The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999 was signed into law by President Clinton on October 20, 1998. Among its provisions, the Act directed that the Headquarters compound of the Central Intelligence Agency located in Langley, Virginia, shall be known and designated as the "George Bush Center for Intelligence." That designation now makes me chuckle (and think send your son there GHW). Nice honor for a guy who only served as CIA Director for one year. I would expect things are named after men who help promote an agenda or occasionally to please the public, i.e. all the MLK boulevards across the country.

Some have theorized that Nixon's downfall was also a silent CIA coup. Perhaps a setup by CIA covert operator James McCord, one of the Watergate "plumbers." Nixon attempted to get the CIA to take responsibility for Watergate, as a CIA job or claiming "national security" to shut down the investigation. Director Richard Helms would have none of that. Nixon fired Helms but the House cleared CIA of any involvement in Watergate.

During the Watergate era polls were showing the public disinterest in the matter until a media hype campaign began to turn the polls against Nixon. Even so, most folks felt Nixon stealing info on his opposition and subsequent coverup was how all pols played the game. It was hard for many to accept that burglary and coverup were so awful a crime considering we assassinated foreign heads, overthrew governments, waged wars for profit, etc. What was the big deal people asked at the local diner. One theory proposed that Nixon had threatened the CIA with his knowledge concerning JFK assassination and/or Bay of Pigs. Did the CIA show a sitting president how impotent his position really is?

But why, according to Ruppert's theory, would the CIA do a silent coup on Son of Bush? Because BushCo is only one small American faction of global interest as Ruppert states? Mighty powerful little faction. Is it because BushCo put the blame on CIA intel failures as leading to 9/11?

Luckily, the finger then pointed away from the CIA to the FBI, and Sibel Edmonds comes forth as a convenient whistleblower to show how the FBI is negligent, incompetent, guilty. Who does Ms. Edmonds really work for? Wilson and Plame also conveniently come forth as victims, again making the CIA a circuitous victim of BushCo, as the Plame outing damaged their NOC and corporate cover Brewster Jennings. Although nothing trustworthy (for me) regarding Plame's career or Brewster Jennings has been put forth; a lot of heresay and bloggers hypothethetical speculation from bits of information from unidentified anonymous sources. Are these whistleblowers, among others, just doing their job: deflecting blame from CIA?

At one point it was claimed that George Tenet was falling on the sword for Bush and Tenet has now resigned. His replacement, Floridian Porter Goss, is long time buddy of the Bushes. Would Goss participate in or thwart a silent coup against the Bush dynasty? Personally I don't see the fight against the CIA by BushCo and the CIA's counter silent ongoing coup that Ruppert speaks of.

Maybe it's all going as planned. Boy Bush falling on the sword for the new world order. Intentionally made to look so odious and treasonous that most everyone will breathe a sigh of relief when he's gone, and welcome the replacements, be it McCain or a Clinton or Dean or "anybody but Bush."

As the accusations and theories disappear to the corners of internet archives, the programs for a police state are set, profits made, internal power struggles shift, and the global realignment moves further ahead. It's all the same agenda, just different ideas on who's driving and who's along for the ride. All the confusion and lies of the past few years will fade with folks believing one or a combination of theories. It was intel failure, it was the CIA, it was Bush and neocons, it was FBI incompetence, it was our foreign policy, it was evildoers, Illuminati, it is God, and/or democrats rolling over. It seems "inevitable" that just as with JFK, Vietnam, Nixon, the Contras, Noriega, Vince Foster, etc. there will be little hard truth revealed but enough theory to keep everyone busy for a lifetime.

Today's information "outings" remind me of UFO sightings. Plenty of folks claiming they have firsthand knowledge but no smoking gun proof. Convincing stories sometimes but who knows for certain there aren't little gray men abducting earthlings or if every whistleblower is a truth telling hero here to save the day and clear things up. Either way, there's always some rectal probing for the Joe Average faction.

Black Independent Voter

Black America: We Have a Problem!

Ignorant Thinking

This is the type of ignorance that gripes my butt. Blue State Losses Give Moral Authority For Protests. The blogger states : "You need only look at the sheer number of Iraq war dead hailing from the West Coast, Illinois, Michigan and the Northeast, from Pennsylvania to Maine, to see that it is predominantly Democratic areas that are bearing the biggest human cost of Bush's war."













It looks fairly equal to me. This kind of logic is hypedumb. Equivalent to claiming that most all of the war casualties are democrats. And has anyone suggested we don't have a "moral right" to protest?

Dickie's Glee Club

Didn't we all go through high school with a boy like Dickie? You know, the somewhat good-looking "rich kid" popular clique member, leader of the "in" crowd? Sexy sometimes in that high school jock way, even if not built for sports or good at sports he was considered a jock. He was extremely confident because no matter how inattentive in class, no matter what weekend wildness, no matter what law he broke or bent he never had a legal problem, or if he did the run-in with the law always went away. In my high school he was Dickie.

Guys like Dickie were never punished for driving under the influence and wrecking a few of daddy's cars during high school. Never prosecuted for exploding the cow carcass with dynamite in the town square. That last 4 point speeding ticket went away every time and Dickie never lost driving privileges.

Dickie never had to brag because the kids boasted for and of his antics and escapades. He was a celebrity all through high school just for being who he was, the popular "rich kid." The teachers, knowing his social rung, all stopped short of public fawning, but often upgraded his scores, never to give Dickie less than a gentleman's C.

He had his female glee club, who giggled praise when he was around and when he wasn't. Most all the girls, openly or not, wanted to be with Dickie. Dickie was not particularly drop dead handsome, but not ugly. There was always a female counterpart for Dickie and they usually dated. He never had a problem getting laid. Good girls and bad girls up and down the social ladder would accommodate him just to say they "knew" Dickie.

His buddies included one guy from the wrong side of the tracks with a name like Stud or Stoney; the guy who gave Dickie courage and Dickie gave Stud a little status. He was the guy who led Dickie's male glee club and gave Dickie the bad-boy image folks are prone to palpitate over. The guy who would take the rap for Dickie if need be.

High school was the best years of Dickie's life and 20, 30, even 40 years later he may still tell you it was the best years of his life. These were the years Dickie, without any effort at all, felt unconditional hero-worship; love and approval were automatic simply because of where he stood on the local social food chain.

Dickie's dad is a lawyer, landowner, politician, or physician, and owns many of the local businesses. They are an old family in town and have controlled the pecking order for a long time. No sheriff is elected or town council member seated without his family's approval. His mom is a socialite and do-gooder, when she's sober; no one mentions her closet drinking, and certainly not her banging the kitchen remodeling contractor 20 years younger than herself. They're the perfect family with Dickie often being the only child or with a much younger little sister whom he adores and protects, a future clique member and "rich kid."

After high school Dickie attends the family alma mater, usually with great difficulty having never developed learning skills, never felt the lust for knowledge, never any impetus to excel. Dickie never had to go to war although his father and grandfathers usually did, as they were from an era that expected that of men who would be leaders. He's the third or fourth generation; each generation living off the rewards of the father before them; familial strength and incentive begin to run thin. He will try to walk in the footsteps of his forefathers, fail, and the family cleans up behind him as they have all his life. He's locked into and spoiled by a system of generational character erosion.

There are some bitter ugly disappointing adult years for Dickie, and his folks try hard to keep him together. Eventually he hits middle-age, rescued by a crew of old supporters who knew his dad and/or grandpa. His adult glee club. They will give him the appearance and documentation of mature respectability, but the reality is Dickie never did grow up, and never will. All the old men look haggard, protecting all the selfish sons they failed. God save us from the next generation of Dickies.

Janis Lost a Bird

Having lost a bird, demoted from Brig. General to Colonel, Janis Karpinski grumbles about the Bush administration. Claiming Abu Ghraib was not her fault, blames Rumsfeld, Bush, and superior officers. She also plays the sex card, claiming she was chosen to take the fall for Abu because she's female, a martyr for womanhood. (Forget about the shoplifting charge at the PX, no scapegoating for makeup and small items.)

Karpinski was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1977. She went to the Reserves in 1987, and became a "self-employed consultant" in Hilton Head, SC, where she ran grueling military style training programs for those hoping to scale the corporate ladder. I could find nothing on the "Executive Training and Corporate Improvement Program" listed on her wikipedia bio. I can't imagine Bill Gates or Donald Trump in their youth punishing themselves with these programs but maybe executives have become real warriors. I suspect the market for this grueling improvement is executive employees of "private military companies."

In September 2003 Karpinski was the Abu tour guide for Rumsfeld and other VIPs, showing them where Saddam once tortured, raped, murdered, committed atrocities. In December 2003 in a St. Petersburg Times interview she stated in Iraqi prisons "living conditions now are better in prison than at home, and that "at one point we were concerned they wouldn't want to leave." Sounds like she didn't spend much time at the Abu office water cooler picking up prison gossip.

So what happened? She now says Army Intel officers encouraged the abuse and the guilt runs all the way to the WH. She claims she was not allowed to speak with the Abu nightshift prison guards as they were not under her command (although 7 of the reservists caught on film humiliating prisoners were her thugs). She didn't live at the prison and traveling was not allowed at night because it was unsafe, so she didn't know what went on at night. She had no experience or training in prison guard duty some of her supporters reason.

She lived near Baghdad International Airport in what used to be Hussein's private sports preserve. "The setting is almost paradisiacal with small palaces surrounding a man-made lake." Nice. I'd like to know how many days she called in sick to Abu so she could enjoy those small palace surroundings.

Karpinski is a woman with 28 years in camo and khaki and running military style programs. Her husband is also military, Lt. Colonel George Karpinski. She served primarily in MI and MP assignments, and served in the first Gulf War. And she couldn't CYA (cover your ass) any better than this? Incompetence, lack of leadership, crass unconcern, and promoted on a gender ride from the women's movement had nothing to do with her failure at Abu Ghraib, right? It really does roll downhill, and most of it missed the Colonel. She should be in a cell a few floors below Lyndie England; instead she rotates out and goes home with a PR tour and military benefits.

GoDaddy Thugs

What became of the story of the Seattle soldiers just home from Iraq beaten senseless in front of Larry's bar? Here's the local KOMO footage. Looks like 2 white boys in the Rodney King position on July 31.

Larry Culp, the co-owner of Larry's said "there are several things that really disturb him. He said if police believe it happened at his club, why didn't they contact him until Thursday? And why didn't they ask for tapes from the two cameras he has outside the building?"

Rob of SayAnything blog posts there's a website that "apparently records “ghetto” fights and sells them to the internet public. The video I saw from the email (I was repulsed when I watched it and wish people wouldn’t send me crap like that) looked so much like the video released by the police in this case got me to thinking: I wonder if this website had anything to do with this beating?"

FloppingAces blogs that godaddy.com is the hosting company for Real Fights/Ghetto Fights, a site that pays $1000 for street fights.

Michelle Malkin is also all over the story. She's "continuing to keep a close eye on the outrageous act of barbarism in Seattle committed against three American soldiers (two of whom were beaten unconscious) in Pioneer Square last month by a group of thugs." Malkin does her usual hairpulling rant at the "politically correct" liberals ignoring the incident.

Note: The Freeper thread was shut down for inappropriate commentary based on the ethnicity of the people involved. Imagine that.

It does seem a bit odd that at least 2 videos were recording the fight without any interference from anyone. Odd also that the Seattle PD released the video 3 weeks after the beating with request to help identify the perps. I guess the perps are unknown to the Seattle PD as no arrests have been made yet, but PD says arrests are coming soon.

If the Malkinistas could have put the right spin on this, i.e. the fight began over a disagreement on the Iraq war and because the victims were soldiers I'm sure they would have (reminiscent of spitting on soldier myth), but the fight began over groping the ladies and throwing hotdogs. I guess shit like that happens, especially when you're the only white boys hanging around a black bar in the wee hours of the morning. Did any freepers ask what those boys were looking for?

Raining BS

Supreme reign of the Christian Coalition, reigning white Christian supremist Herr Robertson, recently suffered verbally loose stool triggered by swallowing too much fatwa; causing the old man to utter macho comments to his bleating audience, as he rested comfortably in the belly of the boobtube. A syndrome sometimes associated with contamination by Rovian Blowflys.

Karl: We need more frivolous news stories to fill the airwaves.

Blowfly: Big one or small one, tear-jerker or pointless ?

Karl: Make it a nothing going nowhere byte.

Blowfly (looking through list of rightwing Parasites & Toadies): We could call Pat R. and have him make a comment. Or we could issue a terrorist alert on Farmer's Almanac or terrorists disguised as homeless, or ...

Karl: No fool, we did those alerts already. But Pat's good. Have him say something about assassinating a foreign head of state. Make it on that bastard Chavez.

Blowfly: Will do ... but Pat's senile, remember he messed up with that line saying Bush told him "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties" when he was supposed to say George warned him about casualties and the unbearable grief it would cause him as president.

Karl: Tell him if he doesn't do this one right ...

PBU35

Love Your Country? Demand Impeachment

Oh yea, we were so much better off after we impeached Nixon (Reagan/Bush 12 yrs) and again after impeachment of Bill Clinton (Bush/Cheney 8 yrs). It would interesting indeed to see what we would get after impeachment of George Bush. Be careful what you wish for, it might be a real peach.

FM

Blame Israel first seems a chant growing louder these days. More and more websites are presenting the line "Israel tricked" the US into going to war in Iraq, along with other deceptions, some failed, some not, some public, some not.

I will agree Zionism has too much influence in D.C. So do wealthy Christian wingnut groups. So do multinational corporations, who package their product as a people's crusade for freedom rather than what it really is : insatiable greed and aggression. Has Zionism had a long hold on power in D.C.? Probably, since the days when Hayem Solomon financed the American Revolution, although not labeled Zionism at the time.

The US has been "tricked" by Jews for decades according to some bloggers and non-bloggers. For instance the bombing in 1967 of the USS Liberty, said to be a failed Israeli attempt to "draw the US into joining the Jewish state as a fighting partner in its war against Arab states." And the subsequent cover-up with help from Lyndon Johnson, who declared the incident an accident. If I'm going to be a true conspiracist let me say there's nothing puzzling about LBJ's behavior; he owed Mossad and CIA a few favors for his limo ride to the White House.

Typically though Mossad, Israeli intel, runs black ops that make the CIA cry with envy. But only to the extent that the Mossad is more successful at tricking the sheople, not at tricking the US or the CIA. It's sort of like the Heartland phrase "can't bullshit a shitter." One agency can spot another agency's handiwork, they cross-train, swap methods, run joint operations. Intel doesn't work for the government, intel is the government.

And contrary to popular myth, prostitution is not the oldest profession. Women were free for the taking when shaman Trog used fire and otherworldly magic to trick his faithful into raiding a neighboring cave. Then came the spy to infiltrate the neighboring cave and report back. Politicians use religion and religion uses politics, and the flocks are dazed legally and morally; each and every time buying the magic blown at them. It's in the divine plan, and gosh, Bubbatrog, you are part of that lofty goal. Just take this club and kill those folks in the next valley, and trust the shaman, trust the leader. Today's shamans and leaders are better dressed with better posture, armed with bigger clubs and better magic intel.

It's beyond my imagination to think the US was "tricked" by Israel. It's that word "trick." Granted, there's a lot of prostitution in government but pimps know a trick when they see one. The real trick is the one played on the masses who buy the idea that the US government is and has been continuously stupid and repeatedly duped by Zionists or Jews or Neocons. There's no trickery or duping here. It's politics/intel and religion as usual. Collusion, is the better term, similar to that between pimp and john. Both are getting what they want out of the deal. Unfortunately, that leaves we the people in the other position, screwed and holding the douche bag.

Real Torture

More Abu Ghraid photos. "There's a new batch of photos from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, and these are reportedly far worse than the sickening originals. Naturally, the Pentagon is trying to block their release." - Ari Berman (The Nation).

Berman concludes : "Far from endangering American national security, the release of the horrific images could provide new impetus to the stalled Congressional investigations into prisoner abuse, and the Pentagon's failure to hold any high-ranking officers accountable for Abu Ghraib. An independent counsel with subpoena power is what's needed most right now to prevent images like these in the future."

Does anyone believe the release of these photos will "prevent images like these in the future?" It may prevent troops having cameras and video. More Hype R Us media. MSM (and the blogosphere that repeats it) intentionally misses the mark on interrogation techniques and torture.

I believe this b/c I've had the following in my mail for a while now and have finally decided to post it (edited), for what its worth. It comes from someone in military interrogations and intelligence:

"What went on in Abu/Gitmo to "soften up" prisoners is what some dumbass troops do for "fun." Those are not the techniques used to "soften up" anyone. The media hype about Gitmo and Abu is a false outcry. No one is looking at anything real. A military interrogation is conducted by the book. Gitmo is not a torture palace. Everyone is looking in the wrong place. The story is not about Gitmo or Abu Ghraib. Those places are rough and an individuals may take it upon themsevles to do things they shouldn't but there is no "torture" going on.

However, other government agencies are conducting interrogations in camps not spoken of, using methods not spoken about. In these camps they are torturing people. In these camps there are true war crimes being committed. In Abu Ghraib they made men lie naked in a pyramid – that's not torture, that's uncomfortable. The torture is at these other agency camps; they are doing horrible things to people. But Gitmo and Abu Ghraib are not the problem. I'm telling you, no one is looking at anything real. I'm telling you to look into the real camps."

A Mom of Their Own

There are few things in life more difficult than seeing a loved one go off to war. And here in Idaho, a mom named Tammy Pruett -- (applause) -- I think she's here -- (laughter) -- knows that feeling six times over. (Applause.) Tammy has four sons serving in Iraq right now with the Idaho National Guard -- Eric, Evan, Greg and Jeff. Last year, her husband Leon and another son, Eren, returned from Iraq, where they helped train Iraqi firefighters in Mosul. Tammy says this -- and I want you to hear this -- "I know that if something happens to one of the boys, they would leave this world doing what they believe, what they think is right for our country. And I guess you couldn't ask for a better way of life than giving it for something that you believe in." America lives in freedom because of families like the Pruetts. (Applause.)

Mercs or Private Military Companies

On WRH today: Article from OpEd News: George Bush's Soldiers of Fortune prompted this flashback of my blogging on the subject.

Mercs Or Private Military Companies blogged March 4, 2005.

Comment from Mr. Brooks March 13, 2005 9:05 PM:
Howdy!

Stumbled across your blog by chance!

Yeah, IPOA does support peace and stability operations, as well as the increased use of the private sector to make these international operations succeed. If you have any doubts or questions, I’d be happy to discuss it with you at your convenience.

Regards,

Doug Brooks
President
International Peace Operations Association (IPOA)
"the Business of Peace"

Phone: (202) 464-0721
Cell: (202) 297-9717 - Washington, DC
Fax: (202) 464-0726

1900 L Street, NW, Suite 320
Washington, DC 20036

Work email: DBrooks@IPOAonline.org
IPOA website: www.IPOAonline.org

Response to Mr. Brooks March 14, 2005: Have Gun Will Travel