Divide & Conquer

Rev. Michael Pfleger


Pfleger is a longtime Obama friend and was in the audience at the National Press Club for Wright's press conference, and when we talked afterward, he realized Wright created a problem for Obama. I was told Pfleger's comments stunned some in the Obama camp because they expected him to be more politically savvy -- and not take on Clinton, especially at Trinity, of all places.

----- Pfleger thinks Wright causes a problem for Obama? And then Pfleger performs the same sort of song and dance?

I find it disturbing that these crazy men of cloth, Pfleger and Wright, have built careers, and sometimes personal wealth, on exploiting black anger. Yes, there is racism in America, and always will be to some degree - but what have Wright or Pfleger done to ameliorate the situation?

There's an old joke : One day a farmer, after spending years with his mule plowing hard, unyielding soil in the hot sun for long hours every day, decided he had had enough of such labor. One day he put down his plow and looked to the sky and proclaimed, "Oh, God, this sun is so hot, and this ground is so hard, I do believe this Negro is called to preach."

Every wonder why current black "leaders" are preachers? Establishment whites approve of black men who put down the plow and do little but beg for more money from a pulpit, particularly from the pulpit of the white man's god.

Without strong families and moral principles, which is what these preaching fools should be bellowing about from the pulpit, the majority of blacks, whether we admit it or not, will never compete economically in white America. Disrespect education and keep having babies you cannot provide for on the master's modern plantation, and sit back and wait for reparations if you want.

While I can agree with Wright and Pfleger on a point or two here and there - personally, I wouldn't give two shits for either one of them - both have oversized egos and are out first and foremost for themselves and personal glory. Both are smug and pandering to their audiences. Both are slick players in the Chicago political machine, and would throw their own momma under a bus for vanity and with an amen.

A small nagging voice asks me if their animosity and theatrics is to widen the racial divide.

And remember, I'm no fan of Hillary so this is not in her defense.

To my children I passed the idea of don't get mad/get equal - prove you are as good or better than the white man. You have more access and opportunity now than at any time in American black history - especially to education and mobility.

Guys like Pfleger and Wright, while condemning white entitlement, push black entitlement and wrath. How does that make any sense? Whatever became of forgiveness?

Deconstructing the Myth of Castro

Fidel Castro ruled Cuba for 50 long years, or 49 to be exact, and finally handed the presidency to his brother in February 2008.

The US has had an embargo on Cuba for nearly as long. Depending on who and where you read, the official history of US/Cuban relations is blamed on various actions/reactions.

Short version: Batista was the US puppet and upon his overthrow in 1959, D.C. via the CIA, immediately attempted to invade and restore Mr. B., and with the failure of the Bay of Pigs in 1961, the US has since enforced a trade embargo to punish the Cuban people.

The "left" has defended Fidel for 50 years.

The "right" claims Castro is a dictator who oppressed his people after climbing in bed with the Soviets to spread communism in our backyard.

The "right" has condemned Fidel for 50 years.

Having lived through the life and times of this history here's what I know.

Initially, the US welcomed a democratic Cuba after the overthrow of Batista, and the CIA had even contributed funds to Castro and his men during their exile in Mexico, from which they launched the revolution that overthrew Batista. I've been aware of CIA/Castro connection for as long as I can remember although it doesn't seem to be part of the "left" or "right" official history.

But, as it was 2 years before the Bay of Pigs, it's reasonable to assume Washington expected to make the same arrangements with Castro as they had with Batista. It's also reasonable to assume the CIA "left" funded Castro as often is the case in Latin America, it is SOP to fund both sides - whoever wins will owe US.

It's been said that in the beginning Fidel denounced communism, was pro-capitalist; he simply wanted to rid Cuba of the dictator Batista. It is also said that Castro became angry with the US after US refusal to sell him arms and the relationship between the two countries quickly soured. Castro promptly began to acquire armaments from Belgium until the US issued a "friendly warning" to that country. Castro then turned to the Soviets who were more than happy to accommodate.

In March of 1960, over a year after Castro came to power, the CIA recommended to Eisenhower, the use of anti-Castro Cubans in Florida for the Bay of Pigs invasion. Seventeen months later Kennedy would have the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Seldom mentioned is the monthly rental income from the US for Guantanamo Bay. It is said that Castro does not cash the checks, stuffs them in a drawer. At $4000 per month that's about $2.5 million. Castro did cash the first check he received way back in the beginning but later said that was a mistake, an oversight. Cashing that first check, however, validated the lease agreement between Castro's Cuba and the US for continued use of Gitmo.

Perhaps Castro feared a push to vacate Gitmo would assure the US would remove him from power.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Personally, I believe the embargo is vindictive. Personally, the idea that Castro is a hero is childish romanticizing.

But here are some facts to consider. Has any president ever been qualified to hold office for 50 years? I don't think so. Does anyone believe if the CIA had wanted to take Castro out they couldn't have?

Consider that although the US has maintained a trade embargo, most of the rest of the world has not. Cuba has always had trade with Canada, China, Russia, Spain, Venezuela, U.S., Italy, Mexico, Japan, France, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, and many others.

The islands main products are: Beans, Cassava, Cobalt, Chrome, Coffee, Copper, Iron Ore, Livestock, Maize, Nickel, Oranges, Rice, Sugar Cane, Sweet Potatoes, Tobacco, Tropical Fruits. Major industries are: Agriculture, Cement, Chemicals, Fertilizers, Fishing, Food Processing, Light Consumer Production, Metal Refining, Mining, Oil Refining, Textiles, Tobacco Products. Major exports are: Chemicals, Coffee, Copper, Fish, Fruit and Vegetables, Nickel, Rum, Sugar, Tobacco.

The current population of Cuba is 11,000,000. So why has an island rich in resources, and trade partners with many other Western nations and the USSR - done so poorly for a population only 2 million larger than New York City? Where has 50 years of Cuban wealth gone?

Why are Cuban physicians currently in Venezuela defecting from Cuba? Have they not seen Sicko? Do they not know how good they have it in Cuba?

Why has it been only recently, under Raul Castro, that the average Jose Blow will be allowed to buy a personal computer? Although Internet access will still be restricted.

So tell me - is Fidel Castro a hero who emancipated his people from the evil imperialists, or just another tinpot Caribbean dictator who made an island his personal property? Are 50 years of poverty and social restrictions solely the responsibility of the US refusing to trade with Cuba? Or because Castro and his ruling class are, dare I say it, inept and corrupt?

With Castro's death, it's very likely Cuba will be opened. Just in time for the American "left" and "right" - enter Hugo Chavez, who will play the part of icon for the "left" and enemy for the "right."

Coined Outrage

Left/progressives are upset that the US military in Iraq is proselytizing for Christianity. You know, you'll find a few witnessing for Jesus no matter where or what - but this is just outrageous, immoral, illegal, unconstitutional (the usual "left" adjectives).

"Left" icon Juan Cole writes: "Many Sunni Arab Iraqis, once the country's ruling elite, now feel oppressed by Shiite, Kurdish and American Christian dominance. The story that Marines are passing coins to Sunnis in Falluja with Christian messages on them is felt as a further humiliation, especially coming after the incident of the US soldier using the Qur'an for target practice. The coins passed in Fallujah had John 3:16 inscribed on one side, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." This verse is not a good place to begin a Christian-Muslim dialogue. The Qur'an explicitly rejects the idea that the One God can have a "son" as polytheistic. Some Islamic theologians have argued that the phrase "Son of God" is a metaphor, which cannot be translated literally into Arabic. In any case, there are lots of Gospel verses that Muslims might find interesting, but they would generally take this one as a clear signal that Bush's Christian Soldiers consider Iraqi Muslims to be supine and abject."

Jason Leopold, another "left" icon, writes: U.S. Soldiers Launch Campaign to Convert Iraqis to Christianity. In addition to coins and Bibles, there have been reports of the distribution to Iraqi children of Christian comic books published by companies such as Chick Publications. These inflammatory comic books, published in English and Arabic, not only depict Mohammed, but show both Mohammed and Muslims burning in hell because they did not accept Jesus as their savior before they died. Christian proselytizing DIRECTLY violates General Order 1A, Part 2, Section J issued by General Tommy Franks on behalf of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) back in December of 2000...

BAGHDAD - A U.S. Marine handed out coins promoting Christianity to Muslims in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, outraged Sunni officials said Friday. The U.S. military responded quickly, removing a trooper from duty pending an investigation.

---- As a lifelong heathen and agnostic, I'm only slightly irritated when religious folk slip flyers under my windshield wipers in the parking lot. I am much more irritated when I see hype from self-styled experts Cole and Leopold. One would think there's a massive military offensive to convert all of Iraq to Jesus. Odd is it not, that an "award winning investigative journalist" like Leopold does not have a copy of said comic book, or even a page, to share with us.

Fact: Apparently it was 1 Marine passing out coins, now removed from duty. Bibles and comic books in Arabic are not likely to be numerous; even so there are Christians in Iraq who might appreciate the material.

This may shock you - but the military has more pressing concerns and duties than recruiting Christian converts. And, I might add, if a few hundred Holy Bibles find their way into Muslim households, with shortages being what they are, those pages are likely to be used in the bathroom for more than reading.

Leopold states: In a newsletter published in 2004 by the fundamentalist group International Ministerial Fellowship (IMF), Capt. Steve Mickel, an Army chaplain, claimed that Iraqis were eager to be converted to Christianity and that he personally tried to convert dozens of Iraqis, which is also an apparent constitutional violation.

Imagine that, a chaplain who would try to spread his faith.

And yes, as always, the First Amendment is thrown in for good measure - the State not supposed to promote religion, etc. (Anyone besides myself find it ludicrous that left/progressives chant no God in government funded public schools - but government funding is okay for teaching/promoting homosexuality in the same schools? What happened to the mantra 'government out of our bedrooms' - oh, I know, we took the bedroom into the 1st grade.)

I suppose the good news may be the "leftist/progressive" exspurts have ran out of troop atrocities to provoke public outrage. But even more hopefully - so have the Iraqi.

Here Come Da Dems - Act IV

Scott McClellan / Act IV, Scene 6, You Didn't Give My Momma the Guvnaship.

Scott McClellan, memoirs, "“WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong With Washington.”

“I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby,” McClellan wrote.

“There was one problem. It was not true.”

McClellan then absolves himself and makes an inflammatory — and potentially lucrative for his publisher — charge.

“I had unknowingly passed along false information,” McClellan wrote.

---- What's going on? A disgruntled employee performs a BushCo bash in time for the election? A weak link in the Bush crew seeking to capitalize on scandal? A clueless schmuck unaware of his political surroundings or what his cronies were up to for years as he supported rightwing propaganda, before, during, and after the war, and then had an epiphany?

It's a ruling class chess move to swing the pendulum "leftward" ... back and to the left ... back and to the left ... uh where was I ... oh, yes, back to the democrats, to bolster the illusion of choice, to restore the illusion of honest and caring government lackeys who are out there and come to tell you the truth (and make a few dollars in the process).

It's showtime!

The Same Coin

CARACAS, Venezuela: Manuel Marulanda, the guerrilla tactician whose rise from peasant origins to top commander of Latin America's largest rebel group was a mythical feature of Colombia's long internal war, died on March 26 in a mountainous hideout in the Meta department in central Colombia. He was believed to be 76 years old.

James Petras: Marulanda, unlike many better-known ‘poster-boy’ guerrillas, was a virtual unknown among the elegant leftist editors in London, the nostalgic Parisian sixty-eighters and the New York Socialist scholars. Marulanda spent his time exclusively in ‘Colombia profunda’, the deep Colombia, preferring to converse and teach peasants and learn their grievances, rather than giving interviews to adventure-seeking Western journalists. Instead of writing grandiloquent ‘manifestos’ and striking photogenic poses, he preferred the steady, unromantic but eminently effective grassroots pedagogy of the disinherited. Marulanda traveled from virtually inaccessible valleys to mountain ranges, from jungles to plains, organizing, fighting… recruiting and training new leaders. He eschewed tripping off to ‘World Forums’ or following the route of international leftist tourists. He never visited a foreign capital and, it is said, never set foot in the nation’s capital, Bogota.

--- I supported FARC as a people’s resistance movement in the ’60s and ’70s but they failed to obtain and sustain the support of the masses, and today’s generation of Farc-sters are thugs. They traffic drugs, run guns, kidnap, rape, murder. The elders are no longer freedom fighting heroes - but aging criminals, raising their young to maintain a lifestyle of jungle hegemony - by any means necessary. They are no longer a “resistance” but have become no different than those they fight against - and are very aware that the “left” in the US is simpatico.

The American "left" - always advocating non-violent movements at home yet praise and pay homage to violent rebellions abroad, although at home and abroad the "left" are fighting the same enemy, are they not? US government policy?

Petras does not mention FARC's execution of 3 US Indian (AIM) activists Ingrid Washinawatok, Lahene Gay, and Terence Freitason on Venezuelan soil in 1999 after they were kidnapped for ransom in Columbia.

No mention of why the "left" is against child soldiering yet 30% of FARC members are under 18, many under age 15.

The "left" romanticizing violence - "the ends justify the means" - the same b.s. the "right" uses to justify their crimes, but no surprise - America's left and right are both sides of the same coin.

Obamboozle

Where I've Been

Gardening, vegetables and roses. Preparing for youngest daughter's wedding on July 5. DIY projects around the homestead.

I have also been posting on a dissident website (under a pseudonym), which feels somewhat like cheating on this blog.

For the life of me I cannot understand how anyone can be excited about Hillary or Obama. The public can't be that dumb - tell me it isn't so.

More later. Perhaps when I find that "change you can believe in" and some of that 3 a.m. audacity.

Elmo Terrorist

The Bowman family, of Lithia, Fla., said an Elmo doll belonging to their 2-year-old son, James, began to spout death threats towards him after they changed its batteries.

The Elmo Knows Your Name Doll started saying "Kill James!" in a sing-song voice, the site reports.

"It's not something that really you would think would ever come out of a toy," James' mother, Melissa, told the site. "But once I heard, I was just kind of distraught."

----Now, I'm not saying there's any connection but today I received these fotos from one of my sons, with the description that "Elmo hostage taking during our MOUT training (military operations in urban terrain). Basically I was taken hostage and taped up on a chair with IEDs strapped to it and an elmo doll holding a gun to my chest." But made me go hmmmmmmm.

Housecapades

Number 2 son at WH yesterday.
In first foto J. is claiming
he did not have sexual relations with that woman.

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.

Bagging Wind For the Church of Prattle - A Sermon

Well Bubba - it has begun. Discord in the Church of Progressive Prattle.

Yep, discord I tell ye. The "progressive" sites, which hath ranted in unison against 8 years of Bushites, are now turning on one another. Their Moses did not return with commandments everyone can agree on; no hero hath parted the Potomac; they hath wandered in the political wilderness for 40 years.

For the last 8 years they sayeth all manner of radical talk to dismantle the system! bring down the imperialists! stone and crucify the Bushites! And chastisement to all those who do not accept the word of progressive politics into their heart! Banishment to ye who would question progressive prattlers in this nation of spinners and spiels.

Leap with faith onto the bandwagon of change, verily change. The Church of Prattle has preached for an end to this reign of terror - with almighty camera angles and docudramas - to deliver unto us a world of peace, and other free stuff.

Verily Bubba - I sayeth these Progressive Congregationalists hath blogged long and loud against the status quo! Loooooong and loud! shaking fingers and posterboards at the profit makers of unrepentant criminals in the White House. Woe be unto neocons and Zionists.

The Congregation of Good Progressives raised their voices and spoke! They spoke of smote and smite and no mercy to the sinners of profit and war - and after the rallies and candlelight vigils they drank wine and planned the next paper petition rebellion and mall meet-up.

Yea, verily Bubba - they held their nose and fought swiftboaters and voted for Kerry - then they too stoned Kerry with epithets; he, a skull and bony harlot, had thrown 4 more years to the crooks and liars called Bushites. Then came 4 more years of gnashing of teeth and wailing. Deliver us they cried, deliver us from these evildoers.

And after John the Botox was politically beheaded in '04, the Church of Prattle congregation spoke another 4 years of smote and smite to those who would steal elections. They held more rallies and vigils and railed righteously against the immoral war of the father, the son, and the Dick Cheney.

Yea, Progressives sayeth they would make new wine in old skins and speak truth to power when they took back the congress in '06 - but then the sky opened sorely and they wailed anew - against the Pelosi. With gnashing of teeth and railing they draped themselves in tee-shirt cloth and red paint and held more vigils and signed more petitions.

Oh Bubba! Behold! I have seen the anger of Progressives - raging against the evil sinners of the war machine; cheering at the altars of Moore, Penn, Sarandon, or Feingold, Murtha, Kucinich, Joe Wilson, Gore, Ron Paul, Nader - anyone who thumped the Progressive Bible even once, and what's that Tim guy's last name, you know the new one who made a speech about young folk not believing Bush on bringing back the draft because Bush was untruthful - but then he got put on the, Ryan, that's his name, Tim Ryan-D Ohio, he got put on the House Armed Services Committee and kept Youngstown airbase alive and not on BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) list.

Ahem ... hmmm ... yes ... at any rate, I saw the Progressive Congregation clutch at any and every famous voice that spoke against the wickedness of the Bushites - politicians, pundits, comedians, celebrities, preachers, professors, anyone who was a former something, and grieving mothers, and medal tossing ex-warriors - angels to help, blowing their self-promo horns from on high. The Progressives congregated and heaped praise on them - for hours, weeks, months, even years. And the flock of the progressive knew temporary pleasure and kept the faith that a savior would arise from the ranks.

The flock heaped praise and called those men and women wise shepherds - who would walk through the valley of shadow with them - and hold more candlelight vigils - well, that is until the shepherds got kind of busy with traveling, fund raising, book writing, etc. but they keep in touch on-line with parables and OpEd pieces.

And now cometh another evil upon the Congregation - Election Race '08. Oh Lord, will the travails never end they cry. Why hath the lord forsaken the Progressivites they wailed.

But wait! lo - behold! then came Obama. He comes to separate the chaff from the wheat. He comes issuing forth words of eloquence from his mouth opposing the harlot of Rodham who cackles at world pain whilst her man mate is a secret member of the Bushites and other dens of iniquity.

Oh the faithful began this election cycle skeptical enough - damning the Hillary and not taking Obama too seriously, but all that changed in a few short weeks, with excellent Obama public relations propaganda.

The Obama floated from the clouds into their presence - revelations Bubba, revelations.

In the midst of the seven cable channels one like unto the son of a Kenyan man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girdled in fine cloth but without a flag pinned lapel. His head and his hair like wool, and his eyes as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they were burnished in a furnace. Oh Obama, oh Obama they cry - ye hath come to deliver us from these warmongers and deficit spenders.

Some Progressives in the Congregation, now that it seems Obama might win the nomination, hath wrought the calf of the golden chant - that chant I tell you today Bubba - "hold thy nose and support the lesser of 3 evils for would not an Obama be better than a Hitlery or a McCain?"

They preach for followers to have faith in the system and vote for Barack "What Have We To Lose" Obama. Oh radicals, where fort art thou now.

They believe Obama is the savior of change (in increments). Yea, I tell you verily Bubba, Progressives now believe Barack is the rectifying messiah, the new god of hope who will usher in the days of all things good.

But woe be unto the duopoly - a few backsliding Progressives this time cannot be fooled again - Obama is not their Lord of Deliverance. And when they say as much on the church of blogs where they were once welcomed to prattle - they are now chastised, they are heretics! But these unfooled Progressives will not cast their pearls before swine - lest they be trampled again in the sty of politicians.

These few blasphemy - reject the idea of voting for Obama - they refuse to acknowledge Obama as the one who will save the world (in increments), oh Lord from the corporate imperialists. Smite all those who do not support Obama cry the true thumpers; throw those cynics into eternal hellfire - lest they lead us all toward revolution and certain sacrifice. Begone with these folks who hath the audacity to not believe Obama is the author of hope. Begone.

Obamamite bloggers lift your heads! Lift your eyes and hands to the heavens and hope, hope this election, this time, something different will happen. For Ye are true believers! Truly ye believe in the American system. Vote, vote, vote ... and donate ... and someday the nation will not be ruled by rich white men - but by rich men of all hues from all continents.

Vote Obama fans, vote. For ye are the stalwart political correctors, ye are the blessed faithful of the American political system - and ye shall be called the children of Obama. Verily, verily.

Praise the lord and pass the bumperstickers.

Amen.

You're In Real Trouble Now

March 2008 Hersh: Don't trust Washington on Iraq.

Prominent journalist Seymour Hersh says the US is 'in real trouble' because news coverage on Iraq is anything but balanced and unbiased.

Hersh said media outlets spread 'fake' news and suggested his audience resort to translations of local media sources when learning about issues concerning the Middle East.

---- March 2007 Doing his part to scare America shitless, this time with what Sy calls The Redirection.

April 2006 Hersh wrote The Iran Plans: A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that Bush was “absolutely convinced that Iran is going to get the bomb” if it is not stopped. He said that the President believes that he must do “what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,” and “that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.”

January 2005 Hersh wrote "The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,” the former high-level intelligence official told me. “Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign. We’ve declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah — we’ve got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism."

Note to Seymour : Please inform your source, the "former high-level" intel official that the "war on terror" like the war on drugs, poverty, crime, the war on AIDS, cancer, etc. is never meant to be "won."

Note to audience: Hersh knows all about spreading "fake" news. Hersh insinuates mainstream media, other than on Iraq, is fair and balanced - Sy fakery.

Seymour "Me Lie" Hersh - "broke" the My Lai story to fuel the '60s anti-war movement - because one faction of the ruling class was ready to take the profit and run. No member of the ruling class wants peace - they just use the rhetoric to move their game piece to another location.

"Brokers" like Hersh, or Woodward and Bernstein, more recently Novak/Wilson etc., are fed the story to "broker" publicly - given to them by a faction of the ruling class; maneuvering a game piece, strategy. After a career is made - Hersh, Woodward, Bernstein - they can be used until they die, and sometimes longer; all "news" brokers figure out their useful idiotness fairly quickly but none will give up the money and glory, nor do they respect the unwashed Joe Schmucks enough to tell Joe he's a schmuck.

Their "stories" never make life better for Joe but he will believe his news is trustworthy; he will shout we has freedom of the press; real news. Joe thinks he has smartened up - he never realizes half of what the "brokers" write is talking down to him and the other half has no significant meaning in it - and he can strut around claiming he's informed because he has bumper stickers and tee shirts; because he knows the soap opera lives of opposing talking heads and politicians. He can't find his own home state on a map but he can find 2 girls and a cup on Youtube.

(Honest news brokers usually die young, and/or never find an audience.)

Hersh says to "resort to translations of local media sources when learning about issues concerning the Middle East." He means turn to local sources of spin, which is the rehash and reprint of the official left/right spin. Seymour Hersh - lifetime mouthpiece for the powers that be.

Bubba, pols and pundits are not members of the ruling class - they are pawns like the rest of us, albeit better dressed, better paid, awarded and knighted and honoraried and such.

Honorable David Manning

Honor


Racism is Not the Problem


MacDaddy Trash


Obamas Don't Pay Child Support


Typical White Grandmama - (Preached 03/22/08)

Emboldened

Public dissent in the United States has caused increased attacks against civilians and American soldiers in Iraq, according to a recent study by two Harvard economists.

Following months of data collection, Jonathan Monten of the Belfer Center at the Kennedy School of Government and Radha K. Iyengar of the Center for Government and International Studies determined that there was a 5-10 percent increase in insurgent attacks following a spike in anti-war rhetoric.

---- I know progressives don't want to hear information such as this study but it makes logistical sense for Iraqi insurgents; anti-war rhetoric encourages their recruitment, their patience. The authors above aptly named it the "emboldened effect."

The "effect" is also one of the reasons MSM does not widely cover events with WinterSoldiers, Cindy Sheehan, Kucinich, Code Pink, etc. But don't worry - the Qatar emirate owned Aljazeera and Allied Media in Alexandria, VA are spreading democracy and keeping the insurgency informed of Joe Blow poll opinions and sentiment.



(Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani (Arabic: الشيخ حمد بن خليفة آل ثاني‎) became the Emir of the State of Qatar on June 26, 1995 after deposing his father, who was vacationing in Switzerland at the time.)

Calling All 10th Graders

John W. Dean, former Nixon attorney, once described by the FBI as the "master manipulator" behind the Watergate cover-up, asks of Obama's "More Perfect Union" speech Did It Reveal Him To Be Too Intellectual To Be President?

DEAN: Obama Speech Was Frank, Direct, and Intelligent - But Was It Pitched to Too Advanced an Audience? With his speech addressing race in America, Obama has done something that few politicians are willing to do: speak with compelling intellectual honesty. Rather than fuzzy-up difficult and troubling questions about race, he confronted them directly. Rather than avoiding issues that are typically ignored, he brought them forward for public discussion. Most strikingly, he did this with nuance, great tact, and conspicuous intelligence.

DEAN: Republicans Have Dumbed Down the Presidency.

DEAN: Enterprising linguists and others have applied the test to a wide variety of material. For instance, the folks at youDictionary have tested the inaugural addresses of presidents. They discovered that no president since Woodrow Wilson has come close to delivering speeches pitched at a 12th grade level. Bush II's first inaugural address was at a 7.5 grade level, which ranked him near Eisenhower's second address (7.5), Nixon's first (7.6), LBJ's only (7.0), and FDR's fourth (8.1). Clinton's two addresses, by contrast, scored at the 9th grade level (9.4 and 8.8 respectively). I tested Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech and it scores at a 10.5 grade level, which by current standards is in the stratosphere. But maybe he was being too smart to win the presidency.

DEAN: Using complex statistical and analytical tools, Professor Simonton has estimated the IQs of all our presidents. For example, for the last sixteen presidents he estimated (and I have rounded his figures) the following IQs: Wilson (155), Harding (140), Coolidge (142), Hoover (142), F. Roosevelt (151), Truman (140), Eisenhower (145), Kennedy (160), L. Johnson (141), Nixon (143), Ford (140), Carter (157), Reagan (142), G. H. W. Bush (143), Clinton (159), and G. W. Bush (139). With the exception of LBJ, the Democrats have provided the country with much higher wattage than the Republicans. But clearly, none of these men are stupid.

---- What does Dean mean? Well Bubba, Dean is saying you are a blockhead if you just don't understand Obama's brilliant speeches.

Dean is saying if you have the intellectual level of a 14-year-old 10th grader - then you grasp Obama's nuance and conspicuous intellect.

Dean is saying some professor's guesstimated IQ spread from Truman's 140 to Kennedy's 160 is testimony to the Republicans dumbing down the presidency although he also claims "none of these men are stupid." They just play dumb on TV.

But one must really be dumb to believe that George W. Bush hits the quotient at 139. Lol lol ... wait a second, my side hurts.

Ahem .... where was I.

Dean even gives Reagan a stroke, Ron's "letters demonstrate more thoughtfulness and policy savvy" than previously known. Lol lol ...

I apologize Bubba, I didn't know Dean had such a droll sense of jest.

Not everyone is so enamored with Obama. Barack reads inspirational speeches well from a teleprompter before television cameras or with ample practice time but critics say "many of his speeches on the campaign trail have failed to electrify." I agree, some of the clips I have felt embarrassed empathy for him.

Has anyone noticed when Obama adlibs he stutters and searches for words almost as painfully desperate as the boy Bush? Obama simply retrieves information more quickly and with more artfulness, whereas Bush grabs the last comment he heard someone say about the topic. If brains were p.c.'s Obama is an XP and George W is still using DOS; a gigabyte versus a kilobyte; a CD versus the 5" floppy.

As every one of these presidential men, including Obama, employ a pool of speech writers and ghost writers it's the delivery of the script where talent shows - Obama gets an Oscar - Bush a Golden Raspberry Award.

Out of curiosity I ran JuicyStudio readability for websites on the Dean article quoted above from SmirkingChimp and my post below Obama Speech to Allay White Folks Fear of Angry Black Folks.

I was surprised as the Flesch-Kincaid results for my piece was a Grade 12 level and Dean's piece a 6.48. Gunning Fog index for KAB post was 17 which puts it in the "academic" category; Dean's Fog number was 9.85, falling in the "most popular novels" range - probably romance novels. Now that is funny - 6th grade level John "Jethro" Bodean - a political expert for the people.

Has anyone read Dreams of My Father? It is awfully mediocre. Florid bordering on trite, with a hint of virgin white gardenia buds in the garden standing taut against the black ominous sky of a stark and dormy night with "wind whipping across the lake" .... where was I ...

... oh yes, Dreams ... of long-winded descriptions of nothing important; 400 pages of "stuff" happening to a passive narrator named Barack, more akin to a high school memoir than an autobiography written by an adult man. A book to peruse, if you must, on a day at the beach.

So, Mr. Dean, to answer your original question, is Obama too intellectual to be president - of course not - he pitches his speech to voters at the emotional and intellectual age of 10th grade and he's going to ride the public's hope as far as it takes him; then unload his lanky ass off the get-on-board change train just before it derails into Politics As Usual.

Business As Usual

March 31st, 2004 - The former chief financial officer of San Francisco health care giant McKesson Corp. was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury for his role in a huge criminal securities fraud that wiped out $9 billion of shareholder value five years ago.

A few of those charged : Jay Gilbertson, Dominick DeRosa, Timothy Heyerdahl, Charles McCall, Jay Lapine, Richard Hawkins, Albert Bergonzi. None in jail of course, some have moved on to the next executive position in another company.

Those who use the shredder the quickest must be acquitted.

FEBRUARY 16, 2006 - McKesson Corporation to Pay United States $3 Million to Settle Fraud Allegations. Today’s civil settlement resolves allegations that the San Francisco-based corporation, between October 1997 and December 2001, knowingly defrauded the Defense Department’s medical treatment facilities more for pharmaceutical products than was allowable under its prime vendor contracts with the government.

Nice "resolution" if you can get it.

Fiscal year 2008 1Q federal contracts to McKesson: $466,932,122. The bulk of this years contracts coming from Department of Veterans Affairs (war is very good for the medical business), and the Bureau of Prisons.

McKesson misconduct. McKesson has been fined 982.5 million in misconduct cases with $4332.4 million in federal contracts awarded in the last 8 years; not included are contracts to McKesson subsidiaries.

Also not included in the stats are cases pending. A class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts against McKesson Corporation alleges McKesson and pharmaceutical data publishing company First DataBank entered into a secret agreement to artificially inflate the average wholesale price (AWP) of hundreds of brand-name drugs. The government uses average wholesale prices as reported by drug companies to set reimbursements from federal health programs. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of healthcare consumers and third-party payors who allegedly overpaid for drugs by billions of dollars.

As usual - expect only the lawyers to profit off lawsuits "filed on behalf of ... consumers."

Bubba, business is gonna love it when the US implements that "free" healthcare.

The Hereafter TV

Hereafter TV movie review of American Gangster
(James X and Michael X)



No comment.

The Mother's Act

GovTrack.us. S. 1375--110th Congress (2007): Mom's Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act.

Bill S.1375 is currently in the first stage of the legislative process. It was introduced to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on March 11, 2008.

The “Mothers Act” would screen pregnant women for potential depression -- and treat them with antidepressants during and/or after pregnancy to avoid postpartum depression.

Co-sponsored by Barack Obama, and senators Bernard Sanders (VT), Sherrod Brown (OH), and Christopher Dodd (CT).

--- The bill is promoted under the pretext of protecting new mothers from depression and/or giving new mothers the tools to manage depression. Of course, many new mothers will be diagnosed in need of medication.

Another boost for BigPharma, and the drug pushers we sometimes refer to as "doctors." More payment to pimps, sometimes referred to as contributions to politicians. More dumbed down legal junkies, sometimes referred to as sheople.

Gosh Bubba, I can hardly wait for free healthcare so we can all be diagnosed and treated for something. (Spoonful of Sugar)

The 15 Minutes of Camilo Mejia

Sgt. Camilo Mejia was one of the first US soldiers to refuse orders to deploy to Iraq. As an Army staff sergeant, he fought in Iraq for five months but refused to go back after returning home. He spent five months in hiding before surrendering to the military. He served 8 months in prison and was released.

He is also the author of Road From ar Ramadi.

Mejía has joint Costa Rican/Nicaraguan citizenship but has lived in the USA since 1994. He decided to join the armed forces one year later, aged 19, serving as an infantryman from 1995 to 1998. He then continued his contract as a reservist in the Florida National Guard. He was deployed to Iraq in April 2003 and deserted while home on leave in September 2003.

Contrary to progressive blog beliefs Camilo did not join the military to get US citizenship. He was given permanent residency status in 1994 when his grandmother in Florida, who had become a naturalized US citizen, obtained permanent residency status for Camilo and his mom who were living in Costa Rica (his parents had separated years before). Permanent residency status gave him the right to live and work permanently in the United States - he didn't have to join anything.

Oh wait, some progressive blogs believe he joined for college benefits, although in 1994 grants and funds for minority students were at their highest, plus Pell grants and students loans. I've known too many young people from the '90s who obtained degrees by working their way through college. The "I joined for college benefits" is a small minority. It's the promise of travel and adventure that captures most young people. Camilo had dropped out of college and enlisted, then after his active duty in the '90s he signed up for the Florida National Guard. Again, he didn't have to join anything.

Mejía's parents were both Nicaraguan Sandinistas; Camilo's father, Carlos Mejía Godoy, was the singer associated with the Sandinista movement and his songs were the music of the Nicaraguan workers and revolutionaries. Mejía Godoy was a vice-presidential candidate in the last Nicaraguan election.

According to 32-year-old Camilo's myspace these days he's busy with "Activism (mostly antiwar), writing, reading, walking, talking, watching movies, spending time with friends and family, and spending time with my daughter, Samantha ... "

... when he's not traveling to speak in New England and California, etc. about how "this war was based on lies" although when he deserted in September 2003, 80-90 percent of the sheople were still supporting the war and expecting WMD to be found any day.

In the 1960s the men and women I knew who refused the draft or deserted - sacrificed something. They left the country, left friends, family. They went underground, gave up normal lives. Some spent long stretches in military prison. Today's soldiers who refuse spend a few months in jail sifting through book deals, lining up a lecture schedule, raising funds for defense and creating foundations to their own "cause."

I sometimes wrestle with what I feel toward guys like Mejía. Guys who enjoyed the benefits of the US military until they had to get their hands dirty. Men whose own accounts of atrocities grow with every story they read in the news; when they're not "reading, walking, talking, watching movies." Guys who become the heroes of the "left" until the next 15 minutes hero comes along, while soldiers like Alan Lewis are forgotten.

I know you'll think I've gone stark-raving rightwing mad - but I don't see honor in guys like Mejía - I see another type of sociopath - not the kind that throws a puppy off a cliff, or rapes and murders a 14 y/o girl in Iraq - but an antisocial dickhead who deep down really doesn't give a shit about anything other than his own ego and finding the easiest way out, upon which he will capitalize for as long as he can.

Alan Jermaine Lewis - Milwaukee

JP Eats Bear Stearns

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- As more than 14,000 Bear Stearns Cos. employees watch the value of their stock sink and brace for firings, some of the company's 550 brokers who handle individual investors' accounts are receiving job offers from competitors promising windfalls of $2 million or more.

"The brokers aren't going to get hurt,'' said Mitch Vigeveno, chief executive officer of Turning Point Inc., an executive-search firm in Safety Harbor, Florida. "They have a book of business they can move. The ones who are going to get hurt are other employees, like people in operations and marketing.''

Bear Stearns employees own about one-third of the common stock, according to the company's Web site. High and mid-level executives participate in a compensation plan tied to income per share, a program that until recently had "worked very well for a long time,'' said Alan Johnson, a New York-based compensation consultant. The company spent $1.5 billion on stock compensation from 2005 to 2007, last year's annual report said.

"It's publicly known that a lot of individuals in the company own a good part of the company so we clearly believe there was value in the organization,'' Kanwardeep Ahluwalia, Bear Stearns head of risk management for Europe and Asia, told Bloomberg Television March 17. "But when there is a run on the bank there's nothing you can do. I guess we have to grin and bear it and move on to a strong partnership with JPMorgan."

---- JPMorgan is part of JPMorgan Chase & Co., a "leading global financial services firm with assets of $1.5 trillion and operations in more than 50 countries."

Under the impetus of Ronnie Reagan the game was megamergers, hostile takeovers, corporate raiding, and bailouts of course. The game is played by CEOs (front men for the power behind the scenes) who move companies around as if pieces on a board game - buying, selling, and dumping businesses.

As KAB said last summer, the big boys have been there done this before. When the bubbles burst, never fear. The Wall Street boys, always in search of big money, will find a way to turn bubbles into a lot of loot, or loot a lot of bubbles. And party harder when the feds step in with your tax dollars.

The big boys created the Great Depression to their benefit. Their spawn and protégé have created subsequent economic downturns, recessions, inflation, stagnation, fake runs on a bank, boom, bust, bubbles.

The name of the game is Corporate Cannibalism.

KAB advice, based on my dad's phrase of "paper rich, dollar poor" - buy tangibles: gold, land, gems, canned goods, ammo, shotguns ....

Mr. Poller Mr. Poller

Poll: Most Americans Say War Not Worth It. One the eve of the five-year anniversary of the start of the war with Iraq, Americans continue to think the results of the war have not been worth the loss of American lives and the other costs of attacking Iraq, according to a new CBS News poll.

----- Mr. Poller Mr. Poller, ask Americuns how they feel about the billions we're still pumping into Clinton's effort in Kosovo/Serbia to protect oil interests, as in the trans-Balkan pipeline - known as AMBO pipeline, reportedly being built at a cost of 1.1 billion dollar by US builder and operator company, the US-registered Albanian Macedonian Bulgarian Oil Corporation will pass through it in due course. The pipeline would pump Caspian oil from the Bulgarian port of Burgas via Macedonia to the Albanian port of Vlora, for transport to European countries and the United States.

Yesterday, Nato put the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica under de facto military law after rioting by Serbs hostile to the newly independent state left one UN policeman dead and forced the withdrawal of UN staff.

I have a nephew who returned from Kosovo a couple of years ago, after a 12 month stint, only to deploy to Iraq. Yessiree Bubba, we're still contributing boots to the colony of Kosovo.

Serb vigilantes pledge to fight over Kosovo.

Obama Speech to Allay White Folks Fear of Angry Black Folks

Oh dammit, do I have to write about it? Whine ... groan.... I don't want to write about it - it was the typical pol giving a typical "trust me, I'm with the government and here to unite you" speech.

Good lord Bubba, he is just another uniter not a divider politician.

Besides, are you not tired yet of hearing Obama praise his white momma from Kansas? Who later went on to marry a future economist, divorce, marry a Shell oil executive, and herself become involved in "microlending" and work as a consultant to such good guys as the World Bank and USAID, while she dabbled in beads and fabric and wore long hippie dresses?

Obama spoke about the racial slurs (he called them stereotypes) which his white grandmother used that made him cringe, and her fear of black men, but he lauded her for the love she bestowed upon him. Must have been some mixed messaging going on in that household, poor kid. Grandma should write a book about how to raise a black man to be a black man when you're afraid of black men.

In today's speech Obama says: "I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible."

The Only in America meme.

Hey, what about Hugo Chavez, mixed heritage of Amerindian, African and Spaniards (3 continents) son of humble schoolteachers from a farming village? (The hues and continents also describes my own family.)

Have you noticed Obama and his camp never mention his father except to say he was the son of a Kenyan goat herder who came to America for education, where he met Obama's white mother from middle class Kansas.

The story is that Obama's father abandoned ... er, I mean ... left Barack and his mother in Hawaii to go to Harvard, and then returned to Kenya; divorced Barack's mother according to Islamic law and remarried. As a Kenyan government official Daddy Obama traveled around the world, but only managed one visit with his son, when Barack was 10. He had remarried and began a large family in Kenya.

Although Obama likes to claim his interracial parents "epitomize the possibilities of this nation" his daddy apparently thought Kenyan possibilities were better after all.

Rumors from the rightwing are that Obama's father was not the son of a goat herder attending Harvard or Hawaii U on a poor boy scholarship - but a member of a large family of Kenya's privileged upper class who aided and abetted the British oppression in Kenya.

Obama's father returned to Kenya in the 1960s around the same time Kenya obtained its independence from Britain - and of course violence has prevailed ever since with tribal factions fighting for leadership roles while the West arms everyone and backs their favorite puppet.

The current mayhem in Kenya is the factional fighting between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Kibaki's opponent in the December elections. Odinga is described in the US media as Obama's "distant cousin" but actually they are 1st cousins.

Obama and supporters never seem to say much about his stepfather Lolo Soetoro, with whom he lived until he was sent to his grandparents in Hawaii for the prestigious prep school there. All I know about Soetoro is he worked for Shell oil company in Indonesia, and the Indonesian Army, during the Sukarno/Suharto era.

So for me Bubba, it's not a question of Obama's faith and membership in the Church of The Angry Black Folks, or his race (halfrican according to gasbag Limbaugh), or his hyped up heritage of a Kansas mom and Kenya goatherder - but what are his ties to Iraqi billionaires and Rezkos, his ties to oppressive African and Indonesian governments, to big oil, and global wolves like World Bank and USAID - are those the ties who made him the rock star of the new millennium?

Or was Obama really made by his Kansas flower child momma and Black fearing midwest maw-maw and a good edumacashun?

Note grandma's holding purse away from Obama. ;)

Woman Without a Wing

Yesterday I was reading a post on a dissident voice website regarding the rules of engagement in Iraq having been "thrown out the window." The author quoted veterans of Iraq turned anti-war activists at the WinterSoldier event.

QUOTE: "John Michael Turner served two tours in the Marines as a machine gunner in Iraq. Visibly upset, he told the audience, “I was taught as a Marine to eat the apple to the core.” Turner then pulled his military metals off his shirt and threw them on the ground."

Alternet reports Turner quote as : " John Michael Turner began his testimony by telling the audience that as far as he was concerned, "Once a Marine, Always a Marine" was history. For him it is now "Eat the apple and fuck the corps." Then he tossed his dog tags into the audience saying, "Fuck you, I don't work for you no more."

That made me hold my nose and the article lost credibility with me. It's so John Kerry-ish medal toss. Apparently the winter soldier event was not well-attended; Youtube has clips. And did Turner toss his "medals" or "dog tags"?

Another high-profile Iraq vet turned activist is Evan M. Knappenberger.

Knappenberger was fired from his job as an analyst while in Iraq but he served in the Army for almost four years. He was given a general discharge under honorable conditions in April 2007.

General under honorable discharge means the soldier's conduct was sufficient but not meriting an honorable discharge, usually a pattern of bad behavior; general discharge usually interferes with the Montgomery G.I. Bill and education assistance benefits but the vet can appeal for upgrade of his discharge.

When did Knappenberger have his anti-war epiphany? How do I know guys like Turner and Knappenberger are not just wannabee Kerrys in the making?

Having 3 sons (ages 24, 33, 37), nephews, and a DIL, in the military doing multiple tours, I have not heard first hand of any troop atrocities - not that such hasn't occurred in Iraq perpetrated by US troops. And believe me, my relationship with my sons is such they would tell me if they witnessed war crimes.

My oldest son told me recently that many of the Iraqi males he has come to know believe wholeheartedly that Saddam Hussein won the Gulf War. That in 1990-91 Saddam's army and the Republican Guard were victorious and ran the US out of Iraq. My son said he couldn't convince them otherwise. Certainly the educated informed Iraqi under Saddam knew better but the Iraqi masses, much like America's own, believed what their government (Saddam) told them.

Some Iraqi believe today they can repeat their Gulf War victory and drive the "infidels" out. But I think they are a small minority, although talk of US withdrawal probably fuels the "insurgent" hopes and their numbers with the idea that the US can be beaten again.

I want the war to end, protested before it began, but I'm not hearing definite ideas from the anti-war groups regarding after the war ends - I'm from the '60s Civil Rights and Peace Movements and I remember when Vietnam ended - and I could sit in the front of the bus and pee in the white bathroom - the US culture began a long ride in a hand basket, along with passengers by the name of recession, inflation, gas lines, kung fu movies, disco, and cocaine at every office party.

What happened to those radicals/peace activists of the '60s after Vietnam ended? Gee Bubba, the ones not assassinated just faded away overnight - or put on suits and got richer, e.g. Ellsberg, Kerry, Jesse, Tom Hayden, or former Black Panthers who went on to become crooked politicians like Chicago Bobby Rush (D), or the more radical of the radicals like Eldridge Cleaver and Abby Hoffman who ran away with their drug addictions and arrest warrants to be eulogized later as "prominent" social and political activists.

Meanwhile, the capitalist/corporate system that historically stages all wars was not altered at all. In fact, worsened, and continued to overtly and covertly fund dirty little wars and death squads in Africa, Central America, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, etc. Some leaders prefer to call their foreign meddling "humanitarian aid" and/or "peacekeeping" but it is always death to the natives.

So my distrust of today's participants in the anti-war or "peace movement" arises from the question - if you end the War on the Middle East - what then?

Do we get peace and prosperity? Do we get a more sane economic and political system? or do we just shuffle home and demand more "free" stuff from BigDaddy government until Daddy withholds it from our paychecks and we think it's "free", while the US political "monster" meanders off stage to plan the next generation's war? and today's "activists" run for office while siphoning funds off their newly founded foundations that promise a new dawn for all the little sheople.

Recently, using another name on a "dissident" forum, I posted similar sentiment as above. Did so politely as I believe I'm a guest when on another's forum and will behave as a guest should, even if I adamantly disagree. But as I was not swallowing and regurgitating the party line the other guests called me a petty liar, a troll, and even that I was likely so ugly my husband wouldn't sleep with me.

Oh the pain of it all - the "right" wing doesn't like me and the "left" wing won't have me ..... boo hoo hoo.

Between Chicken & Bull

The Man Between War and Peace aka Admiral William "Fox" Fallon.

To hear the "left" tell it, Fallon is the man who stood between Iran and Boy George.

That Fallon has been "brazenly challenging his commander in chief."

That Fallon has been the lone resistance to BushCo's military strike on Iran.

That Bush is not accustomed to a subordinate who speaks his mind as freely as Fallon does, and the president may have had enough," forcing Fallon to resign.

Good grief people. The man has 41 years in the military - time to retire? You think?

For months the opposition stories have been of "this administration's" dangerous push to war on Iran and only the patient, calm resolve of Fallon's reasoned voice has prevented the war with Iran.

Well, who do you think appointed Fallon to his commands these past 7 years? That's right, "this administration." And Fallon was a HUGE improvement over Tommy Franks and John P. Abizaid.

As KAB has posted for the past 3 years: We are not going to war with Iran. And, if by some slimmest of a slim chance Bush or the next president declares Iran war, it will be as Fallon himself says regarding the Middle East - "These guys are ants. When the time comes, you crush them."

But turning the ME into a glass parking lot would sure interfere with oil profits. Not to mention the angry mob at home that might get off its ass and blame politicians when the economy really goes to a wartime economy, and they lose their cable TV.

Last fall, it was reported in the press that Fallon had called General Petraeus an "ass-kissing little chickenshit" for being so willing to serve as the administration's political frontman on the Iraq surge. Fallon says the press has an overactive imagination and the story was "absolute bullshit." He said his own children called laughing and saying they knew the story was false because "chickenshit" is not a word he would use.

Beginning March 31st with Fallon's retirement the command will be taken over, at least temporarily, by Lt. Col. Martin Dempsey, his promotion to 4-star General awaits senate approval. Whether Dempsey is another "brazen challenger of this administration" or an "asskissing little chickenshit" we must wait for the media to tell us.

Fallon's own statement on his retirement:
Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the President’s policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time and hamper efforts in the CENTCOM region. And although I don’t believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command Area of Responsibility, the simple perception that there is makes it difficult for me to effectively serve America’s interests there.

You could read the statement as a polite way of leaving without saying anything nasty about "this administration." But come on folks, Fallon has 4 decades of dealing with men like BushCo, at home and abroad - males like "Fox" Fallon, who walk softly and carry a big stick, are not forced out of anything.

Or you could read the statement as saying the media, often "absolute bullshit," has made it difficult, as Fallon says, to do his job - which would make you wonder why the seeming "anti-war" crowd would create an atmosphere Fallon doesn't want to work under.

Or the statement may simply mean he's old, he's tired, and ready to retire.

And you could say the same crowd, which has shilled for 5 years of the rush to war with Iran, is full of shit - be it chicken or bull.

Crazy Uncle in the Attic

Reading the usual progressive sites (DailyKos, Huffingtonpost, PI, DU, etc.) on the topic of Obama/Wright, supporters are doing the defensive stand by my man tap dance around this week's reverend "revelations."

The usual meme for the defendant is "Obama has denounced and rejected Wright’s comments ... So, people, let’s move on already."

Heehee. Everyone wants to move on when it's their sucking tick under the microscope.

But some of the progressive intelligentsia/vanguard (said with tongue in cheek) are miffed.

Typical responses from DK on Obama's uncle excuse:

"... Obama has insulted the intelligence of every American with that line. I don't believe there is any chance he can be President."

" ... Obama's answer that he only valued Wright for his theology is no comfort for me, since Christian thoeology for me is mythical. It frightens me that a President, weather Bush or Obama really believes this stuff."

" ... as he negates the politics of his church, he is only left with the Theology, which to this atheist, is even less palatable. His problem becomes the problem of all who see a need for something to replace the conservative mentality of the last seven years."

" ... Wright performed his marriage, and, by his own statements, Obama went to Wright's church weekly. He may have missed the individual speech, but he must have heard about it. The "crazy uncle" analogy sounds weak and Obama needs to at some point stop the empty denials."

As I said 10 days ago Bubba , in The Obama Fling - "Obama is the forbidden fruit, the love taboo, call it "change" if you want and you don't have to sneak around - but most white voters aren't going to marry him, or even take him home."

Obama, an intelligent man had to know Rev. Damn America Wright would be an issue. Surely he knew the difficulties of interracial voting. Didn't he see Jungle Fever?

Did you know the government created AIDs for Black American genocide? I thought it was for Gay white men. Damn, learn something new every day Bubba.

Some are incensed over accusations that the "liberal" media bias has not covered the story until now - ranting "... the "media has ignored" Obama's relationship with Wright? What planet is this guy living on? It's been droned about endlessly on Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and all the other far-right media sites..."

Well yea, it has kind of been ignored by MSM as over a year ago RollingStone wrote about Obama and Reverend Wright.

RS: The Trinity United Church of Christ ... is a leftover vision from the Sixties of what a black nationalist future might look like. There's the testifying fervor of the black church, the Afrocentric Bible readings, even the odd dashiki. And there is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a sprawling, profane bear of a preacher, a kind of black ministerial institution, with his own radio shows and guest preaching gigs across the country. The senator "affirmed" his Christian faith in this church; he uses Wright as a "sounding board" to "make sure I'm not losing myself in the hype and hoopla." Both the title of Obama's second book, The Audacity of Hope, and the theme for his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 come from Wright's sermons. "If you want to understand where Barack gets his feeling and rhetoric from," says the Rev. Jim Wallis, a leader of the religious left, "just look at Jeremiah Wright."

Shame on Obama for now denouncing the crazy uncle who made such an impact on his faith and influence on his life and career. Shame, shame, shame.

And then there's the Farakhan and Wright/Obama "connection." Who, on cue, Obama has also "denounced."

(I won't tell you about Obama's fellow Chicago southside democrat and supporter Bobby Rush, the Barton-Rush telecom bill and the SBC/ATT $1 million to Englewood charity founded by Rush and his wife, cha-ching, or the Bobby Rush fight to save Cabrini-Green from the wrecking balls - until Obama and gentrification began to take hold of Chicago in the early 1990's, and the land on which Cabrini-Green sat became extremely valuable, cha-ching, cha-ching.)

But at least this episode of the political sideshow, Handing McCain the White House, is more entertaining than the 2004 bored to death John I-found-out-I'm-a-Cohen Kerry just standing there with his horse face giving BushCo the White House.