What's To Worry?

The way the US government measures unemployment is ludicrous. Instead of counting the number of people actually out of work, it counts the number of people filing for unemployment benefits. Which would be accurate, if benefits lasted until one found a position. So once your benefits run out, you are not counted as unemployed by the governmnet, regardles of whether or not you were successful in gaining employment. So when the government lists unemployment at 4.7%, is it really an accurate representation of unemployed?
I mention this because of this article which states that after the war, the major concern of Americans is the economy. If the economy is doing so well, why are Americans so concerned?
Well, the reality is, that the economy is only doing well for the top 20% of Americans. The average executive compensation to worker compensation ratio has gone from 107 to 1 in 1990, to 431 to 1 in 2003. The top 10% of Americans hold 37% of the income. And they just got a tax cut that Bush wants to make permanent to boot.
The average American worker however, is seeing none of this "booming" economy. Their healthcare costs are going up, as well as the price of gas, which will eventually drive up the price of everything else. But as long as the haves and have mores aren't hurting, don't expect the Republicans to do anything about it. As GOP pollster Whit Ayres puts it,
"We see low unemployment, but the headlines are dominated by the thousands being laid off by General Motors and Ford." So apparently, they don't see the lay-offs as being unemployed. Why not just say "Let them eat cake!" you blind and heartless bastard.
What it all comes back to is how the numbers are crunched by the government. Sure, GDP is up, but only in large enough numbers for the 10% so it averages out to appear that it's up for everyone. Sure, unemployment is down, when you discard the people who have exhausted their benefits. And sure, wages are up, when you take into account the average CEO compensation of $11 million.

Making Michigan Motor

If you live in this state, you more than likely have seen the ads. Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos driving a car through the streets of Michigan, in an attempt to look sincere. Now, while I don't doubt that Mr. DeVos drives, I know for a fact that he's never driven through my neighborhood, and he probably doesn't live more than ten miles away. But if you live on this side of the state, you've seen the family helicopter, flying them downtown, to Ada, and to the family compound on Lake Michigan in Holland. You're not a regular guy, Dick (although you are a regular dick) so don't pretend to be one.
One of the campaign pledges Mr. DeVos is making is to get Michigan working again. Michigan's unemployment rate is running at least 2.1% points higher than the rest of the country. And with lay-offs coming at Ford, GM, and Delphi, it's only going to go up.
Michigan's economy has always been tied to the automotive industry, at least for the last seventy years. If you drove an American car, there's a good chance it was made in Detroit, Flint or Lansing. But lately this economy has been hurting, and even the introduction of employee pricing last fall didn't do much to save the Big Three automakers.
There's a lot of reasons given as to why this has happened. But here is only one reason, and it's simple economics.
When Henry Ford first started mass producing automobiles, his workers were the highest paid auto workers. They earned enough to afford to buy the cars they were building, thereby increasing orders. And as the business spread, so did the number of cars sold. Now, of course, most parts making is being outsourced, closing factories in Michigan. Since 1999, one in three plant jobs have been lost in Michigan. People who don't have jobs can't afford to buy new cars, and with the low paying jobs being created in the new economy, they can't afford to buy new cars either. When people can't afford to buy new cars, new car sales start to slump.

A ripple effect spreads and before you know it, you're sliding into a recession that spreads into other areas of the economy. New housing sales are down five percent. Support businesses that relied on the automotive industry start to falter as well. In fact, except for the executives, everybody starts to feel the pinch.

So Dick DeVos thinks he can change that. It takes more than bold pronouncements to do it, it takes a plan. And so far, all Mr. DeVos has shown us is that he knows how to drive a car. Which makes him one of the few in the state who can still afford to do it.

Time For The Ol' Dirty Trick Squad

(Note: My computer is running funny; until I get it running right, the posts here might be a bit sporadic. Sorry, Lily, if I haven't been responding to your emails, but if this son-of-a-gun is infected, I'm not sending out any emails until I get it de-bugged, in the words of Ron Nasty "If you know what I mean").
Today news out of the White House concerns the big shake up in the Bush administration. Scotty has left the building. Also Karl Rove has resigned as Deputy chief of staff. Why? here's my theory.
Rove has left to help the Republican mid-term elections, which means the revival of the dirty trick squad. Now I'm sure that the Democrats have a dirty trick squad, being craftier and less blatant, they seem to never get caught. But the republicans, suffering in the polls, need some one to work that old black magic to help them retain control of Congress. Bush needs a rubber stamp for his plans to invade Iran, I mean nuke Iran, and even though AIPAC controls Congress, and Israel is pushing for a strike against Iran, the Democrats are likelier to get a pang of conscience and demand that Bush actually try diplomacy, rather than threats and intimidation.
Also, a Democratic controlled Congress might investigate Constitutional violations made by the Bush administration and even *gulp* move to impeach the President. And a Democratic controlled Congress won't roll over and go belly up like the Republicans have every time that Bush has clearly violated the law. So in order to do that (and possibly distance himself should he be indicted in the Plame leak case), Rove has diminished his role in the Bush administration.
So, it's apparent what the Republican strategy will be again. Anti-gay marriages, fighting terrorists, and protecting the flag (while the President wipes his ass on the Constitution). Don't mind the unemployment (now at 12%), or high gas prices (while the oil company executives are walking away with hundred million dollar retirement plans) or the tax cuts for the rich (Cheney received a $1.8 million tax refund). Ignore the bad news coming out of Iraq, or Afghanistan, or from the retired generals, (but please swallow all the anti-Iran propaganda being spoon fed to you) coming out of the "liberal" media. The country's doing great and Karl Rove is getting ready to smear any any liberal tax and spend Democrat who has the audacity to state otherwise. So if I were Russ feingold, I'd stay out of any small aircraft.

What Qualifies As News

Sitting at my computer this evening, strumming my guitar as I tried to figure out a song at Harmony Central while browsing their OLGA, , a news story in my sidebar brought a WTF reaction to my head long enough to distract me.
The other night, while at Kvatch's, there was a discussion about Kitten Biting Republicans. The theory was, that these people would support President Bush even if he went on live television and bit the head off a kitten.(Kind of like the people who would vote for the Democrats even if they ran a yellow dog)
But what caught my attention was this little item: Sean Hannity Still Backs Bush. This is news? Sean Hannity is the Kitten Bitingest Republican ever. Bush could be revealed to be satan himself, or a friggin' space alien and Hannity would still be behind him. Why? Because they're both Republicans, and that means besides being pig headed, neither will admit they're wrong.
"Let me be straight with you — I like George Bush," Hannity said. "I think he's a man of principle, a man of faith. I think he's got a backbone of steel and he's a real, genuine, big-time leader ... He's a consequential figure for his time. We don't see it right now."
We don't see it right now because Bush isn't showing any of the qualities that make you fawn over him, you pugnacious sycophant. A leader? The man has led the country into two quagmires and is planning on a third. Sure, he a consequential figure for his time, but not in a good way.


History will vindicate Bush as a strong leader the same way it did Harry Truman, another unpopular president of his time, Hannity said.
No, history has already vindicated those who opposed the war in Iraq, which no matter how much Bush tries to spin it, turned out to be a bad decision. Hurricane Katrina, Social Security reform, Medicare drug program, the Dubai port deal, increased budget and trade deficits, record unemployment, recession,the Bush administration has been one failure after another. The only people who think he's doing a good job are those people in the bubble with him (who got those huge tax cuts and, like Dick Cheney, who received a $1.9 million refund, got huge tax refunds).
So how this qualifies as news is beyond me. I'd rather have another fluff story about some cat trapped in a wall than one about Hannity backing Bush. i guess the corporate media couldn't find anyone to back Donald Rumsfeld, do they went with the next best thing.

Lincoln's Dream Has Died

Once upon a time in America, a great man stood before the people and proclaimed that"government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth." Well, that dream has died. And while it may be easy to blame Lincoln's own party for the failure, the truth is, that the Democrats have as much to do with it's death.
We no longer have a government of the people. By this, Lincoln meant that our representatives in Congress should be like us, farmers, doctors, people from every walk of life. Now, we just have one kind of representative, the professional politician. his job is not to represent the people, it's to increase the power of his party, and increase the contributions to his own, as well as his party's campaign war chest. Legislation detrimental to his own constituency is passed, often times against the objections of said constituency. The core constituency of the Democratic Party has always been organized labor. When NAFTA passed, a treaty that would hurt organized labor the most, passed, it was passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by a Democratic President. And in that time, we have seen more and more jobs filled by organized labor moved out of this country.
We no longer have a government by the people. Too often, issues are not defined by the needs or wants of the people, but set by the propaganda ministers of the corporate media. Illegal immigrants and undocumented workers have been a part of the American landscape. Why has this suddenly become an issue? With real unemployment at 12%, why has now been chosen to flood the labor pool, at the expense of those born in, or legally immigrated to, this country? Do the people benefit from this, or only a select few.
Congress just voted to spend $92 billion more on a war that the American people increasingly do not want. The have raised the debt ceiling to $9 trillion. How does miring future generations with a debt for a war that should never have been fought benefit America?
The answer to all these questions is, it doesn't. The only ones to benefit from any of this are corporations. We have become a country of, by and for the corporations. At a time when CEOs are posting record salaries (Capital One President Richard Fairbank at the top with $249 million) the average workers wage has fallen 2.3% since Bush took office. So who got the tax cut? The people who are gaining the most as they slowly squeeze out the middle class.
And so as I look back over the last five years, has any legislation been enacted that has benefited the American people? The prescription drug program? Social security reform? The Patriot act? The answer, in my eyes, is no, we haven't. And as for Lincoln's dream that a government of, by and for the people not perish from the Earth?

Make your own sign here

Struggling?

President Bush and his party are struggling in the polls right now. Every attempt by the adminstration to sell the war in Iraq has only led to his numbers falling more. In the mean time, we get more and more news out of Washington about the abuse of power and disregard for the Constitution by the Bush White House, and every day, we see the Republican Congress, instead of dealing with the violations of law by Bush, enabling them to continue on. They have put the party before the country, and more and more people are waking up to that fact.
Bush likes to blame the media for continuing to report the bad news out of Iraq. If the war had gone as they and their pundits in the corporate media had claimed, the Iraqis would have their own government in place, and our soldiers would be at home. but now Bush has said that the troops won't be coming home on his watch, which is something we weren't told (by the administration anyway)pre-invasion. This makes the Republicans look dishonest. Is it any wonder they're struggling?
This week saw the resignation of Tom DeLay from his House seat. Mr. DeLay is one of a number of Republicans getting caught up in the Abramhoff scandal, all of which have been Republicans. Add to that, the recent conviction of Abramhoff. Plus the indictment of Scooter Libby. Which has led to the White House being the source of the leak, after a year of denial from the White House. Then there was the arrest this week of Brian Doyle, DHS deputy press aide. then ther was randy "Duke " Cunningham, convicted of accepting bribes,the White House aide arrested for stealing from Target, a list so long that I probably couldn't name them all, nor could you.
In short, the Republicans have done nothing the public approves of. From shielding the President from any retribution for his criminal act, to passing legislation that most Americans oppose, all the while not making them feel any more secure, the Republicans have dropped the ball. (of course, the Democrats have forgot what they were playing and are now lucking for a puck, but that's another story)
In the days following 9/11, the republicans have squandered all the political capital they had (as well as much of the countires resources) on an agenda meant to further the party more than help the American people. They have spent us into a hole, not including the war on terrorism, which is off the books (and was supposed to pay for itself), and continue to expand the trade deficit. They have lined the pockets of the wealthy while doing everything they could to ensure that the working people slip further into debt. Perhaps the Republicans are struggling because the majority of Americans are struggling themselves.

Plamegate Summer

There's a blog name I like called Watergate Summer mainly because the name harkens back to my childhood, a time when there was nothing on television in the afternoons but the Watergate Hearings. The President of the United States at the time had been found to abusing his power, authorizing illegal wiretaps against political enemies, and break-ins to the opposition party's headquarters to acquire incriminating photographs of associate E. Howard Hunt as one of the "mystery tramps" arrested in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. The hearings were at a time when not only was our country at war, but facing the greatest Constitutional crisis it had ever faced.
During the time this was going on, as I mentioned, we were fighting a war, much the same as we are today. We were fighting in Viet Nam, a southeastern Asia country. We were not at war with Viet nam, but merely fighting against the spread of Communism, a political ideology in direct opposition to our own. The Communists weren't free, they lived in fear of the government, and had to be careful what they said because the government was spying on them and could lock people away with out a trial. The Communists were trying to take over the world, and it was the determination of the capitalist backed US government not to let this happen.
But the war was never used as an excuse to prevent hearings into what the President knew and when he knew it. And though the Congress was controlled by the Democrats, and the White House was Republican, this was not seen as a partisan move, merely an investigation into whether or not the President had been involved in breaking the law. Along the way we learned of a lot of the inner workings of the Republican party, such as the dirty trick squad run by Donald Segretti that followed 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern around and harassed him at every turn. And then, in the midst of it all, the President resigned rather than face impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Sound familiar?
The result of all this was that Congress passed laws to ensure that this type of abuse of power wouldn't happen again. Another result of this was that it prevented the Republicans from gaining control of Congress as they had lost all credibility with the American voter.
Now we have a President who is fighting a new war. And unlike the previous abuser of power, he has used this war to justify every wrong it commits. Torture? It's okay, I'm a war President. Lie to Congress about Iraq's threat to the United States? It's okay, I'm a war president. Break the law to spy on peace activists and religious organizations? It's okay, I'm a war President. Oh, that's illegal? I'll get my party to pass a law that allows me to skirt the law because we're the war party, and I'm a war president.
So it comes as no surprise that when a member of the opposition party suggests censuring the president, he finds no support in Congress. The Republicans are in charge and they can remember that the last time their president turned out to be an odious monster, it hurt the party for years. So, rather than put the country, or for God's sake, the Constitution before the party is akin to sacrilege to them.
Now the word has come from Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the leaking of a covert intelligence agent's name to members of the press, known as Plame-gate, the authorization for this leak came from the President himself. the leak came on account of the covert agent's husband writing an op-ed piece in the New York Times denouncing the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Anyone who's been paying attention to remembers what the President said when questioned about this. (or maybe it was his press secretary, Bush doesn't do a lot of meet and greet with the press, having to answer questions just not his forte). "If any one in this administration has been found to involved in this in anyway, rest assured they would no longer have a job." Or words to that effect. Now it's been found that the line goes all the way up from Scooter Libby to Dick Cheney and the President himself, is it possible we may be looking at a Plamegate summer?

DeLay Decides to Drop

Ethically challenged human insect Tom Delay is expected to announce today his intentions not to seek re-election in the upcoming election. Mr. Delay, a Texas Republican, is part of an election year lobbying scandal that forced him to step down earlier from his post as House Majority Leader. He recently easily won the Republican primary in Texas, home of the corrupt politician.
And so the Democrats plan for the midterm election begind to unfold. Do nothing, and the Republican Party will collapse under the weight of it's own hypocritic corruption. Why move to censure Bush? Keeping unpunished for his crimes will only cause him to commit more, thereby driving more people into the Democratic fold who are weary of the incompetence and corruption of the Republicans which they swore to do away with in their "Contract On America".
DeLay, for his part, threatened to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign to promote foster care, Republican candidates (how many would want this corrupt bastard stumping for them?), and a closer connection between religion and government. Of course, being a religious man (so he claims) hasn't kept Mr. deLay's hands very clean, one wonders how many more corrupt Christian candidates he would support.

Not Another Dick In The State Capitol

Turning our attention to local politics, news came out today that GOP gubernatorial candidate Rich DeVos has already spent $2.5 million in his quest to be Michigan's next governor. One has to wonder the wisdom of spending this kind of money for a job that pays considerably less than this per annum. And this from someone who is sure to make the state's budget deficit a campaign issue. Of course, what he won't mention is that when John Engler took office in 1988, the state had a balanced budget as well as a surplus, something burned off in the next twelve years of the Engler administration, handing Jennifer Granholm a budget deficit when she took office six years ago. Of that money, most was spent on cut and run politics, cutting taxes for the likes of Dick DeVos so they run their businesses out of Michigan.
Devos' wife (and former Nation GOP Chair) Betsy did so, by selling her families company, Prince, to Wisconsin-owned Johnson Controls, who closed much of the operation in the state. Then Ms. DeVos had the audacity to claim that Michigan workers were "overpaid" (as opposed to CEO's of Michigan companies, such as her husband) . DeVos also promised George W Bush she would deliver him Michigan in 2000, a promise broken by the DeVos' insistence of putting their school voucher scheme on the ballot in the same year, sending record numbers of Democratic voters to the polls to defeat it.
And the voucher program is what this campaign is all about. Even after being resoundingly defeated by the voters in 2000, plus DeVos' failed Senate Campaign, they just don't get the message that the people of Michigan don't really want them in charge, or their voucher plan to use tax dollars to fund religious education. Taking more money away from public schools, that'll make them better. Or better yet, privatize them and have your school children being auctioned off to the highest paying bidder in their effort to imprint children with their product brand. Because just having commercials on tv, billboards, t-shirts, above urinals, parking lot spaces, city buses, semi-trailers, isn't enough, now they want to start surrounding our children with their product statement. Just how our children are supposed to get an education with all the distractions is anyone's guess.
DeVos' experience comes from his job as Alticor president, a job he got because.. His daddy started the company. And while he managed to keep the business going, how hard is it to run a glorified pyramid scheme. You see, Alticor is the parent company of Amway, which is enough said around these parts as the company's founders have ponied up enough dough to put their name on a slew of local public buildings.
So while Jennifer Granholm plans on making a voluntary financial disclosure on April 17, DeVos has chosen not to, as everything in this campaign is designed to have DeVos ("the workers of Michigan get paid too much money") as a friend of the working man, the people who are losing their jobs as more and more Michigan companies fold. The state congress, run by the Republicans, have even passed a measure to raise the state's minimum wage in a bid to keep a proposal off the ballot that would likely bring more Democrats to the polls. And that, in a nutshell, is how our political system works, only doing something for people when it serves your needs.

I'm Not All Evil!

You Are 46% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

I really think these online quizzes are the ultimate in pussiliency, but I was curious to see if I was as evil as people seem to think I am.

Give Your Children The Gift of Love, A Tumor

Everytime I see an idiot walking around or driving talking on their sell phone, I wish grievous harm upon them. Is there something so important about your conversation that it can't wait until you can devote your full energy to it? Of course not, cell phones are the new status symbol, and nothing is more evident of that then the new models with better features they bring out after the suckers have bought all the old models.
Now, I'm not entirely opposed to cell phones, there are times when a cell phone is a useful tool. It's the calling plans that force you to use or lose your minutes that keep people driving around absorbed in conversation when they ought to be absorbed in driving. But now, a recent Swedish Study suggests that extensive cell phone use can lead to brain tumors.
Sure, I know, studies funded by the cell phone comanies have suggested otherwise, but the phone companies wouldn't release a study that shows their product to be dangerous. The Swedish study also suggests that the chance for tumors in greater in younger people who use the cell phones. And this is just the group that cell phone advertisers aim for, as well as the parents of concerned parents who want to keep tabs on their children at all times.
To me, the study makes sense. Cell phones send a radioactive signal to a tower, which then sends the signal via radio waves to another, all the time continuing the intensity of the radio signal. And the signals emit from a device that is held in close proximity to the brain. How could it not cause tumors?
So, will this study stop people from using cell phones frequently? Probably not, as there are those out there who still smoke cigarettes, or methamphetamine, despite the obvious health risks. This might even increase cell phone use by teenagers who always seem to have a death wish anyway (I know I did when I was a teenager. I thought that nothing can kill me, and so far, I've been right) as they think it makes them look cool to be dangerous.

Save Your Breath

Many times throughout my life, in times of trouble or crisis, I've had people come up to tell me, "We're praying for you." And of course, I would never be rude enough to say "Don't bother, if the cancer hasn't responded to chemotherapy, it probably won't respond to mindless chanting", so I thanked them for their efforts. And I never wanted to be entirely negative and say the prayers won't work, on the off chance they might, but now I know different.
According to a study funded by the John Templeton Foundation,prayer had no effect in the recovery of patients. Patients actually did worse if they knew that people were praying for them. Of course, prayer advocates will tell you that prayers were answered, only in the negative, I say if God has already decided whether a person will live or die, the prayers of strangers won't change his mind.
So the next time someone says they're praying for you, what should you do? Thank them for their concern. because it's nice to know that in this selfish and self-sentered world, there are still those who are concerned with others.

Senate Debates Immigration: Why?

Today, debate began in the Senate over a Bush proposal to allow amnesty for 11 million illegal aliens in the US right now. And I find myself wondering why? What's the point?
If the Congress passes a bill that Bush doesn't like, one of two things will happen, as Bush has done in the past. If they pass one similar to the one Bush would like to see passed, he'll just sign the bill he would like to see passed in place of that one. He has done that before, a few weeks ago, he signed an appropriations bill that was $2 billion different than the one passed by Congress. If the Congress passes one that goes against the wishes of the Bush administration, one that a majority of Americans would like to see passed, such as the McCain-Feingold bill on torture, he'll just issue a signing statement that says he doesn't have to enforce the law. Congress has become like the UN in the Bush's eyes, irrelevant unless it does exactly what Bush wants. The checks and balances envisioned by our founding fathers have given way to those who believe in a unitary executive (i.e., a dictator), as long as that unitarian executive is their guy.
So while the Republicans jockey for position in the Senate over where to take this legislation, the battle lines drawn have already shown who will win. Bill Frist, looking at a 2008 Presidential run, has appealed to the racist anti-immigration majority in the Republican party. Sam Brownback, while in favor of strengthening our borders, would like to grant amnesty to illegals already here, in a move to appeal to the business end of the Republican party who would like to increase profits by flooding the labor pool with low wage employees rather than take a pay cut themselves. Who will win? It doesn't really matter who wins, because no matter which bill passes, America will lose because of the actions of the Bush administration, who, like every other member of Congress, is in the pockets of big business and will do what's best for them to the detriment of the rest of the country. Remember NAFTA? Remember CAFTA? These bills were passed against the objections of a majority of Americans so big business could send jobs across our borders. We were supposed to see the price of things go down, but unfortunately, because of the high price of fuel to move products, as well the increased trade deficit created by this move, the prices of most things haven't gone down, the only increase has been in the salaries of CEOs across the country.
So why debate this? Why not just roll over and expose your soft white underbelly? It doesn't matter what Congress does, so why in the Hell do we pay the bastards? As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said a few weeks ago, America has begun a slide into a dictatorship (thanks in part to you, you bitch), and since nobody in Congress appears willing to stop it (okay, Russ Feingold, but who else?) why don't you just vote to dissolve yourself and take a job on the board of directors of some corporation, because you're obviously not working for the people anymore.

Buck Owens:1929-2006

When I was a youngster, one of the family traditions was gathering around the television to watch Hee Haw. The show, which started in 1969, featured country music artists performing their hits, as well as songs by members of the ensemble cast. My younger sister an I, unfamiliar with the music being played, would enjoy it during a song when a chorus line of animated dancing pigs would come out in the middle of the song.
The show as hosted by two talented country music artists, Roy Clark, one of the best stringed musicians America has ever produced, and Buck Owens. Both had been successful in their own right, but television brought them into America's living rooms. And it will be unfortunate that these two will be remembered for the cornpone country show, as opposed to their successes as recording artists and musicians. For Buck Owens, country music legend, passed away today at the age of 76.
Buck had a string of 20 number one hits, is perhaps best known (aside from the tv show), for his hit, "Act Naturally", which was later covered by the Beatles. He was also immortalized in John Fogerty's "Lookin' Out My Back Door", recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival. He also recorded a song with Dwight Yoakam in 1988, "The Streets Of bakersfield"
Growing up, I had no use for country music. My music was rock and roll, so I overlooked a lot of artists from many different genres. It wasn't until I had kids of my own that I began to explore different genres, including country music, discovering a Buck Owens Greatest hits set at a flea market in 1998. It was the setting aside of my preconceived notions of what "good" music was that forced me to set aside any preconceived notions I may have held elsewhere.
And so, it is today that I give a great big unbrainwashed salute to a true American hero.

SAL-LUTE!

Corporate Media Manipulations

If you tried to Google Actor Charlie Sheen's name together with 9/11 recently, you might have not have had any matches, that's because Google censored the story. You see, last week, Mr. Sheen was on the Alex Jones radio show, when he expressed doubts about the official 9/11 conspiracy theory, which is quickly becoming as dangerous as Holocaust denial. And of course, the media focused in on the tinfoil hat part of Mr. Sheen's comments, those focusing on the Pentagon. Now Mr. Sheen never doubted the Pentagon story he just wanted them to

"Show us this incredible maneuvering, just show it to us. Just show us how this
particular plane pulled off these maneuvers. 270 degree turn at 500 miles and
hour descending 7,000 feet in two and a half minutes, skimming across treetops
the last 500 meters."

Which is not saying that the Pentagon wasn't hit, but maybe was wondering how inexperienced pilots who had never flown a plane that size could have pulled off a manuever that an experienced pilot would have trouble doing. And that was what the morning radio shows focused on, rather than any of the other questions Mr. Sheen (and a lot of other people) would like answered. Such as:

Eyewitness accounts of explosives in the Towers. Supposedly, a fireball went 1100 feet down aa elevator shaft (doesn't heat rise?) to cause the damage that led to the damage that caused the buildings to collapse in to their footprint like a controlled demolition. But there are scores of eyewitness accounts of explosions before the towers fell.

Why did WTC 7 collapse, having sustained fire damage on two floors. Why did owner Larry Silverstein say he decided to "pull" the building ( a demoliton term for pulling the outer walls towards the center of the building) with only two floors damaged? Wiring a building for such an event takes weeks of careful planning, yet it would appear that everything was set to go ahead of time.

There are more troubling question raised by Charlie Sheen concerning 9/11, but to me, the biggest tip-off is the fact the both george Bush and Dick Cheney did all they could to stop any investigation into what happened on that day. When they did finally decide to set up a comission, first they tried to place henry Kissinge in charge, and limited the scope, range, time, and funding for the commission. It's like Janeane Garofolo said on Air America a couple of weeks ago, 9/11 was an inside job. Perhaps if she was a bigger name, she might have generated as much controversy.

Thank You Bastards!

You! Yes, you! You flag waving beer swilling brain damaged chemically imbalanced paranoid idiot! You know I'm talking about you, you bastard. The idiot who voted for Bush, twice. Those who insist, still, that Saddam had WMD. The seriously deluded fuckhead who thinks we're there to bring freedom to the Iraqi people. The misguided moron who thinks this war is "going to make America strong." You know who I'm talking about, if your not against it, then you are for it, you bastard.
And what are you for? Beyond the civil war? Beyond the establishment of a Islamic state in the place of a secular one? Beyond the senseless slaughter of innocent civilians? Beyond the lies of a corrupt and devious administration? Let me tell you what you're for.
OPEC. That's right, supporting this war means you're siding with OPEC, the bastards who are screwing us at the gas pump RIGHT NOW!!! So if you support the war, that means you're perfectly happy with the continuation of rising gas prices, because when it comes down to it, this war has always ben and will always be about the oil. Not some self-deluded notion of "keeping America free", because the war will ensure that we will always be paying high prices for our oil.
Greg Palast has uncovered a 323 page plan for Iraq's oil secretly (does the Bush team do any thing in the open? Of course not, then we'd know what they were up to)drawn up by the State Department directing Iraqis to maintain a state oil company that will"enhance it's relationship with OPEC." What this means is that oil in Iraq will not be pumped freely from the ground and shipped to refineries then on to the American people at rate and quantities enough to allieve our current gas pains. What it means is that the oil will be pumped at OPEC rates, which are designed to keep oil prices high.
So where's the freedom maintenance? How does the American taxpayer benefit from all this? They don't! You idiot, if you think Bush is about keeping Americans secure then perhaps you never saw the video of Bush receiving a warning of catstrophe in New Orleans, pre-Katrina.
Bush and the Rethuglicans just handed out a permanent tax cut that affects the top end of the pay scale more than it does the rest of us. Like the guys (and gals) at Halliburton and Big Oil. You don't think their children are over in Iraq fighting, do you? So what has he given the families whose members are over there sacrificing life and limb? A big fat gas hose up the ol' cornhole, that's what.
Oil company profits were at $34 billion in 2002. Last year, they posted a whopping $113 billion dollar profit. Which is good news if you own oil stock, bad news if you have to drive anywhere. And who can we thank for it? You, you fucking idiot. You delusional dorks who think the war in Iraq is a good idea. You imbecilic idiots who think we're there to bring democracy to a bunch of people who seem hell bent on rejecting it in favor of a theocracy. And just think, if that's at all possible for you, how much more they will profit when the oil supplies are interupted after Operation Iranian Liberation.
Some of you will just shrug your shoulders and say"Well, that's capitalism," and I say capitalism is nothing more than a euphemism for criminal activity. Just don't bitch to me about how high gas prices are, I never supported the war and I never voted for Bush. So thank you, you Bush lovin' bastards.

Bush's Brazen Blasphemy

For many years, the United States has been a beacon of hope and the light of democracy for all the world. The citizens of the United States were guaranteed rights under a sacred document, the US Constitution, that were the objective of all the citizens of the world. The people choose a leader, who takes an oath on another sacred text, the Holy Bible, that he (or she) will defend and uphold all the rights contained in that document, serving under the will of the people, that America never cease to be that shining model for all the world to strive to attain.
However, in more recent years, some of it's citizens, blindfolded by a piece of cloth adorned with stars and stripes, have chosen to follow a leader who, while taking the same oath as his many predecessors, has chosen to instead to ignore that document, and everything it stands for, in a misguided belief that we can transplant democracy around the world while abandoning it here at home. Once we have abandoned these principles, we have ceased to be the beacon of light for the rest of the world.
The Constitution has been the model for other documents around the world, treaties that guarantee rights to all the world's citizens who strive to acheive and attain the same rights that we struggle to maintain here at home. The right of due process, once merely a right guaranteed here in the US, created by our Founding fathers to prevent the abuses of the monarchies from which they came, that would detain enemies for an indefinite period of time, with out allowing them the right to stand trial for the charges for which they are being held, and defend themselves against those charges. This right has now been removed from the Constitution by the very man who took an oath on the Holy Bible to defend that right.
Another right guaranteed by that document is the freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. That protection, too, has been torn assunder by the very same man who pledged, not once, but twice, to uphold that very protection. The protection from unreasonable search and seizures, also rendered away from the Constitution, once again, by the very same man.
The Constitution also holds that no person is above the law. This was proved when a previous executive, testifying under oath in a court proceeding, committed the act of perjury. Said executive was then impeached for this crime, which he willfully committed. However, our current executive has willfully placed himself above the very Constitution he has worn to defend and uphold,allowing him to violate treaties passed by the Legislature in accordance with the rules set forth by the Constitution.
The Presentation clause of the Constitution states that before a law can be signed by the Chief Executive, it must be passed by both chambers of the Legislature. However, our most recent executive signed The Budget Reconcillatory Act which was markedly different than the one passed by Congress. This is another willfull violation of the Constitution by the man who placed his hand on the Holy Bible and swore to defend the Constitution.
To pledge on a sacred text, is to show reverence for said text. To then follow that up with what could be construed as willfull contempt for the reverence of the Holy Bible, is the definition of blasphemy. And so I present to you, our Blasphemer-in-Chief, George W. Bush.

Pot Calls The Kettle Black

President Bush today accused Belarus president Lukashenko of being among " the most corrupt leaders in the world", in a vain attempt to paint himself in a more flattering light. he has also threatened sanctions if tomorrow's elections are manipulated "as expected." Appearantly Mr. Bush has forgotten Florida 2000, or Ohio 2004.
Mr. Bush also alleges that Alexander Lukashenko has "enriched himself at the expense of his people." That sounds familiar George. Ever hear of Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld?

Lubachenko has also...cracked down on dissent. Geez, this all sounds so very familiar. Let's see, he has also, well, raided civil society organizations, and, uh, stifled anti-government rallies.

A report drafted in response to the Belarus Democracy Act passed by Congress in 2004 says,"the precise extent of the corruption is difficult to determine due to the regime's lack of transparency."

Christopher Smith(R-NJ) who sponsored the Belarus Democracy Act says "There's a long list of people...who torture and abuse..people." Appearantly Bush feels Lukashenko is cutting in to his action. There's a way to prop up your approval ratings. Show the people what a hypocrite you really are.

Welcome To The Quagmire

Eleven people, most of them women and children were killed during a US bombing raid north of Baghdad. The raid also netted one insurgent, thereby justifying the carnage in the eyes of the military. We are certainly winning their hearts and minds, yessirreebob!
(thanks to mikevotes for the heads up on these pictures

The Republican Party Defensive Strategy For 2006

The United States failed today to get Chinese and Russian support for it's efforts to get Iran to suspend it's nuclear enrichment activities. The Bush administration, with approval ratings in free fall, has begun it's 2006 campaign to retain Republican control of Congress. The plan is the same it followed in 2002. Accuse a Middle east country of a weapons program, pretend to use diplomatic channels to try and diffuse the situation, and bolster the propaganda and fear campaign to keep American citizens misinformed and frightened about a nuclear Iran.
Iran is having Russia build them a nuclear power plant at Bushehr. They have begun enrichment of uranium. So far, no problem. Now, some people are questioning why an oil rich country would need nuclear power when they have all that oil at their disposal. While it's true that Iran has oil it can use, it lacks refineries to turn the oil into a usable fuel. Another reason why they might choose nuclear power is the fact that along with oil, Iran has deposits of uranium as well. So how can we know that Iran is enriching it's uranium for peaceful purposes and not for defensive purposes? So far, it has 3000 centrifuges to enrich it's uranium, it takes 60,000 to enrich enough uranium for nuclear weapons, a difference of 57,000 (for those of you who can't do the math). How long does it take to build 57,000 centrifuges? (Hint: US intelligence sources say Iran is at least ten years away from the bomb)
The strategy worked in 2002 with Iraq. Democrats were forced to vote for the war or look soft on the war on terrorism, like the war on drugs, an unwinnable war designed to take away our rights and line the pockets of defnse contractors. Since July of last year, Dick Cheney has had a hard-on for Iran, asking STRATCOM to draw up plans for bombing the country in the case of a terrorist attack, whther or not Iran is linked to said attack. Which has some people thinking that we'll have another staged terror event like 9/11, to bolster Bush's approval ratings and give him a blank check to invade Iran.(Personally, I don't see it for two reasons: Bush still gets a lot of mileage by chanting 9/11 at every opportunity, and another "terrorist" attack would not only make Bush look even more incompetent, but also show how ineffective the new Patriot Act is at fighting domestic terrorism)
Anonymous sources here at unbrainwashed have placed the invasion set for January or February of next year. That gives the president and the Republicans a lot of time to swagger about and talk tough about terrorism while getting voters to forget about the rampant corruption with in the Republican controlled Congress(and the Republican's unwillingness to do anything about it). In the meantime, we have this war's "Niger" documents (fixed intelligence), a laptop computer that happened to fall in our laps, which we claim has the plans for a nuclear bomb on it, however the expert are still out on whether this is true.
So expect a lot of anti-Iran propaganda in the corporate media over the next nine months. It's president has committed the ultimate in thought crimes, he has dared to question the Holocaust. That alone is enough for Israel to call for military action against Iran. He also had said that Israel should be wiped off the map.(after Israel, first suggested that if Washington did not stop Iran's nuclear program "we will take action ourselves") This will be followed by stories about those persecuted under the theocracy in Iran, designed to enrage those who wish to institute a theocracy in the US.
So there is the strategy. Keep the masses good and frightened (last weekend they brought back the terror alerts that worked so well last time) so they can't think straight and will run to good old daddy Republican to protect them from evil terrorists. It never fails. What's that they say in Texas?

Is Bill O'Reilly a Terrorist?

One of the provisions of the new PATRIOT Act signed in to law by George W. Bush makes it illegal to make threats to try and coerce someone to change their opinions. It is defined as an act of terrorism.Anybody who would continue to do so can be reported to the FBI.
Lately, Bill O'Reilly has been getting phone calls to is daily radio show who disagree with him. It is not against the law to disagree with O'Reilly, and given that his show claims to be "fair and balanced, one would think that he would welcome opinions from both sides an issue. But lately, O'Reilly has threatened to turn those who disagree with him over to Fox security. And at least two callers have received threatening phone calls from Fox security.
One caller made the mistake of mentioning Keith Olberman's name. Olberman and O'Reilly are in a pissing match with each other, watching neither, I'm not sure what the gripes are, and as far as I know, Olberman is using people's dislike for O'Reilly to build ratings for his own show.
Meanwhile O'Reilly's ratings have slipped 21%, although it would be unfair to give credit to Olberman for the ratings slip. O'Reilly has a daily radio show for two hours, plus the O'Reilly Factor nightly on Fox as well as a newspaper column . Overexposure will hurt any celebrity's career, and there's only so much Bill O'Reilly that even his biggest fans can take in a day.
This blog, like any other is just a matter of opinion. You can take it or leave it. And there's an option for you to dissent, and perhaps, through reason, you can get me to see things in a different light.
In the meantime, you could send O'reilly some falafel. Or a loofa on a pita.

From The People Who Brought You Ketchup as a Vegetable

I keep hearing from pundits and politicians about how wonderful the economy is doing. And I look around me, and I often wonder, what planet are these guys on. The I remember that it's hard to see well when you spend all day in an Ivory Tower. And being well paid, they don't see how terrible things are really going. In all probability, they never visit anywhere near where I live, but from what I see, things here are deteriorating rapidly.
At the First of the year, food banks reported over 25 million people customers. Now I doubt that these are just people being thrifty as some might think, but points to a real problem in this country-people can't afford food. Why can't they afford food in this robust economy? Because there is no robust economy, just some more of the type of accounting Enron used to raise stock prices used to mask reality.
Right now, the government is a on a spending spree. It just can't stop spending money it doesn't have. They're are just about to bump their heads on the $8.2 trillion debt limit and are tapping civil service pensions to cover the gap. Of course, the rubber stamp Congress will raise the ceiling more, leaving one wondering how they can call this fiscal responsibility.
Another problem the government has turned a blind eye to is employment. Or rather, unemployment. The current rose colored rate is at 8%, which is based on numbers derived from people drawing unemployment. What it completely ignores is the 5 million people who are chronically unemployed, that is, those who have been unable to find gainful employment beyond their benefit period. Not to mention the under employed, who subside on part time positions or wages that don't meet inflation. With rising gas prices the cost of everything has risen as well while Congress still refuses to raise the minimum wage above $5.25 an hour.
Now we're supposed to believe that the government is creating new jobs. That is what was supposed to happen with the passage of NAFTA and CAFTA. The reality is, they just haven't happened. Recently when WalMart opened a store in Illinois, 25,000 people stood in line for 300 available jobs. WalMart would like to think because it's such a great place to work, but a job that offers no benefits is not a great job. 25, 000 people stood in lines for hours because they want to work!
There's a house I pass everyday on my way to work, beautiful house, brick ranch with an attached garage, right next to a church, yet the house has been on the market for over two years. It hasn't sold, not because mortgage rates aren't low enough, mortgage companies advertise all over about how low rates are, but because rates are so low, for ten grand or so more, you can buy a new house. But now, even new houses aren't selling, as the Commerce Department said there's a glut of unsold new houses on the market, with sales sliding steadily as much as 5%. Now if you live in an area where there's a lot of available jobs, selling your house wouldn't be a problem, but if you don't, housing values are expected to fall as much as ten percent in a dozen major markets. So those people who refinanced their house at the old boom price, could end up losing money when it comes time to sell their house. And new housing starts have been the main barometer of the manufacturing economy.
Speaking of the manufacturing economy, the current administration likes to boast about how it created new manufacturing jobs. When they say this you must remember that these are the same group of people in the Eighties who tried to get ketchup classified as a vegetable in school lunch programs. How did they "create" these new manufacturing jobs? They merely reclassified a job making burgers at McDonald's as a manufacturing job.
Unfortunately, a job "manufacturing" burgers at McDonald's doesn't pay you enough to buy a new house.

Just Another Reason to Boycott Wal-Mart

Today the New York Times ran an article concerning how Wal-Mart uses right wing blogs to improve it's corporate image. Gee, are right wing blogs just shills for Corporate America? Is Bush incompetent? It seems that some right wing blogs, lacking talent imagination and writing skills, post the emails stories sent to them by WalMart verbatim. One might view this story as an attack on the blogs by the Corporate Media, who are losing more readers to the blogs (and thus advertising revenue), but I see this as just another reason to boycott WalMart (as well as right wing blogs) Why?
Not only does WalMart use the blogs to rshape it's image, it also uses them to smear the competition. One story passed along was about how WalMart stores raised more money for the Salvation Army than Target, which banned red kettle collectors from the front of their stores. Anothe rstory dealt with 25,000 people turning up to apply for jobs at a new Wal-Mart in Illinois, which is more a statement about the lack of good jobs in this country than it it about people willing to work at WalMart.WalMart does not compensate the bloggers, however, they have invited the bloggers, at their own expense, to a media conference at corporate headquarters in Bentonville AK. Yeah, like a bunch of right wingers are going to want to go to the land of Bill Clinton.
So rather than improve conditions and benefits for it's workers, which is the main goal of WalMart Watch, they'd rather spend the money to hire a consultant to spread propaganda about how wonderful a place WalMart is, something that would be obvious if it really were.
No,Rex Kramer was not named as one of the bloggers receiving emails from WalMart.

Saving The Rubber Stamp Congress

US Ambassador to the UN Michael, er, I mean John Bolton speaking before a group of British MPs today said a military strike could halt Iran's nuclear program if all diplomatic efforts fail. Of course, by diplomatic efforts, Bolton means if the Security Council rejects the US call for economic sanctions against Iran, which it will surely do as both China and Russia (who is building the plant at Bushehr) are likely to veto the measure.
While the State Department and the CIA are skeptical about a military action, the White House, big surprise, has already made plans. Even the UK has ruled out a military option, but our retard in chief is a war retard, every thing he does, he does with war in his retarded little brain. Perhaps Bush is angry because, unlike his deal with India which benefits US Corporations seeking to reap billions in profits from selling India nuclear technology, the Iranians deal is with Russia, to the benefit of no US Corporation. Or maybe Bush is trying to stop Iran from opening it's oil bourse, trading in petroeuros instead of petrodollars.
Meanwhile IAEA chief Mohammed el-Baradei said a deal with Iran is still feasible, one that would allow them small scale enrichment. Germany, which could live with the pilot program being suggested, has made it clear that it will stand with it's partners in the EU on the issue.
Bush, however needs to keep the brain damaged beer swilling chemically imbalanced flag wavers paranoid. And so we see the process that led up to his illegal invasion of Iraq being played out again, note for note. Intelligence sources said in November of 2005 that Iran is at least ten years away from a nuclear weapon. So why the big scare? Oh yeah, this is an election year, and if, perchance, the people vote out Republicans in large numbers, Bush's rubberstamp Congress will be gone. War works real good for Bush, he gets plenty of photo ops holding up plastic turkeys and landing on aircraft carriers, and generally giving the people the impression he actually is concerned with their safety. Which he needs after the video showing him being warned beforehand about the potential devastation in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina proved otherwise.
And like Iraq, Bush has no plans beyond striking key Iranian positions, dragging the US into another long and drawn out quagmire to the benefit of no one except Halliburton stockholders.

Et Tu, Brutus?

In the past weeks, like rats deserting a sinking ship, Bush supporters have been jumping ship as his approval ratings sink lower and lower. In fact, it would seem that only the loyalsits have stuck with this team, much the same way Detroit Lions loyalists stick with them through the whole season (instead of jumping ship halfway through the season like a sane person would do). Bush is doing irreparable harm to his party, well that and Dick Cheney, and Scooter libby, and Jack Abramoff, that ruin his chances of maintaining a majority in Congress, unless of course, those electronic voting machines are rigged.
One of the first ones off the boat was neocon architect Francis Fukuyama. Then Bill O' Reilly suggested we get out of Iraq following the bombing at the Golden Dome mosque. In the past couple days have seen the defection of George Will and Grandpappy of the conservatives William F. Buckley.But today comes word of the biggest defection of all, as far as most Americans are concerned.

"I'm not a Republican," actor Bruce Willis intoned during a press junket for his new movie, 16 Blocks. "I want a smaller government. I want less government intrusion." Is this perhaps in response to the wiretapping scandal that has the government intruding and spying on people?"I hate the goverment. I'm a-political, okay?" Hates the goverment?Two years ago, that meant hating America.
One wonders if all this apolitical posturing is because he has a new movie coming out this weekend and he doesn't want people who don't agree with his views avoiding the movie. While I personally didn't care for his pro-Republican views, it didn't stop me from seeing him in a good movie. Or The Sixth Sense. I find that Willis, as an actor, may not be great, he's certainly not as awful as other Republican actors.
"I want them to be fiscally responsible, " said the man who offered a million dollars for the head of Osama Bin Laden ( hey Bruce, he's here can I get my million dollars?),"and I want these [expletive] lobbyists out of Washington." So do we, Bruce, so do we.

The Man Who Sold the World....Aspertame

The main difference between the right and left is their view of the government and it's role as a servant of the people. The right thinks that the government should adopt a laissez-faire attitude towards business, while acting like our big daddy to protect us from the horrors of gay marriages, independent thought, and the retaliations of the people from whom we are stealing oil. The left, on the other hand, feels the government should keep out of a person's private life, and protect it citizens from the greed and hazards of the corrupt corporate America.
Also the role of the federal government is to determine which legislation is best left to the individual states. As is stands now, states have the right to determine what kind of food safety labeling for products that can cause cancer, birth defects, allergic reactions or mercury poisoning. But now Congress is actively trying to change that with H.R. 4167 which will not only prevent states from passing laws requiring labels for such dangerous products, but also for genetically altered food, or food that may contain rBGH. Truly if the Congress is not going to defend the people from potentially dangerous foods, we cannot expect the corrupt corporations from doing it. Because they've already proven in the past that they don't really give a rat's dropping what goes in our food.
A good example of this would be aspertame. Aspertame was first discovered in 1966 by a scientist working at G.D.Searle Industries as he was trying to develop an ulcer drug. It was suggested as a sugar substitute after the scientist accidentally licked his fingers and found them to taste sweet. It is an rDNA deriviative, made by combining two amino acids.It was once listed as a prospective chemical warfare weapon on a list submitted to Congress by the Pentagon. It has three components,asparatic acid, phenylalaline, and methanol amino acids saturated in petrochemicals. when ingested, aspertame breaks down into it's constituent amino acids, and methanol, which then biodgrades into formaldehyde.Mmmmm...formaldehyde. says Monsanto, one of the leading suppliers of aspertame, "Formaldehyde has been implicated as a possible carcinogen when inhaled, but this hasn't been shown to be the case when taken by mouth."
Aspertame used in diet drinks, affects the brains production of serotonin, making the body crave more carbohydrates, cancelling out it's effectiveness as a diet aid. It can produce brain tumors, lead to blindness, and dries up the lubricating synovial fluid and turns joints into plastic. It can cause memory loss, chronic fatigue, and even death at extreme levels. One man who walked into a manufacturing facility with out proper protection died instantly.
From it's inception, aspertame was a drug. An addictive drug. So how did it become a food additive?
Searle had been seeking FDA approval for fifteen years for aspertame as a drug. While it funded a number of reports minimizing aspertame's dangers, a number of independent tests proved it to be unsafe.That all changed with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. A member of Reagan's transition team, Donald Rumsfeld was appointed CEO of Searle.Calling in all his markers Rumsfeld was able to get aspertame fast tracked as a food additive despite FDA reports it caused brain tumors. It's so deadly, flies won't touch it. Yet this person, looking to line his pockets, use politics to unleash a potentially deadly ingredient into the American diet. So excuse me if I feel he is unfit to defend the country from a terrorist attack. He has already unleashed a deadly chemical weapon upon the American people.
But at least gay people can't marry each other, and isn't that the most important thing?

And Then He Changed Into A Pink Leather Outfit For Aerosmith

When you're talking about corrupt corporations, the lowest slime is reserved for defense contractors. You have Halliburton, for instance, receiving billions of dolars in no-bid contracts, even after they're caught overcharging the US for their services. Or then there's MZM, which admits to paying off Randall "Duke" Cunningham and Katherine Harris. Or then there's Perini Inc. which received hundreds of million dolars from the Corps of Engineers, most likely because majority stockholder Richard Blum is married to Sen. Dianne Feinstein,who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, proving that Democrats are just as intersted in lining their pockets as the Republicans.
Other corrupt Corporations put the public health at risk by spewing pollutants in the air that cause numerous health hazards. Or put products on the market knowing they are unsafe, or unfit for human consumption. But what would you call a defense contractor that sells the US a product that puts our troops at risk?
That's just what happened with DHB Industries, who sold the Marines 10,000 body armor vests that failed to meet government standards. CEO, David H Brooks had failed to disclose these facts to stockholders, exercised a stock option worth $104 million right before word got out and DHB stock plunged, leading to a class action lawsuit on the behalf of DHB stockholders. The SEC was also investigating Brooks for"certain party transactions between the Company and affiliates of David H. Brooks."
So let's see. A product recall on a contract item. Class action lawsuit. SEC investigation. What do you do? You throw your daughter a $10 milion bat mitzvah! Performers include Tom Petty, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Joe Walsh and Don Henley, 50 Cent, Ciara, Stevie Nicks, and DJ AM. All you had to do was put a couple of Marines lives at risk (and their lives are pretty much at risk anyway, being Marines). And for that you got to dance around in your black leather metal studded suit and rub elbows with your favorite-I mean, your daughter's favorite dinosaur rock acts.
So hats off to David H Brooks, my choice for CorruptCo CEO of the year-2005.

Looking For A Fix

Islamophobes in this country have to find a new reason to hate Iran, as today, Russia and Iran agreed to enrich uranium in Russia. This enriched uranium is for the nuclear power plant that Russia is building at Bushehr. This means that once again the Bush administration is not telling the truth about another Middle Eastern country. And of course, I'm not talking about UAE being such a good ally, rather, I'm speaking of Iran's intentions to build a nuclear power plant.
So, barring another "terrorist" attack, the Bush administration has to find another way to stop Iran from trading the oil that US corporate hegemonists covet.
Perhaps the Bush administration will turn it's sights on Venezuela , which has threatened to cut off oil shipments to the US if the Bush administration dosn't back off it's attacks on Venezuela. When will these people learn (Evidently, never) that you can't go around threatening sovereign nations? People around the world don't hate us because we're free, they hate us because our government is a bunch of dicks who have no problem bullying weaker nations (i.e., every other nation in the world). We're like a junkie with the biggest gun in the world, breaking into everybody's house to get our fix.
Experts within the industry say Venezuela might have a problem finding a market for their oil, but I don't think so. Thanks to corporate America out sourcing jobs to India and China, their demand for oil is on the rise.
So while the flag waving, beer drinking, chemically imbalanced brain damaged mouth breathing jackanapes advocate a military solution to everything because their too busy watching NASCAR to see who is screwing the pooch, the rest of us our wondering, is there any American wet dream these people can't fuck up?

UAE Deal A Distraction

While America was in an uproar over Bush's plan to sell Eastern seaboard ports to UAE, Congress voted 404 to 4 in favor of condemning the government of Iran for violating it's international nuclear non-proliferation obligations and expressing support for efforts to report Iran to the UN Security Council. Of course, Iran has never been in violation of the NPT, since building a nuclear power plant is perfectly legal. And any hippie worth their weight in Crosby Stlls and Nash records knows that while nuclear power is not safe, it certainly isn't worth dropping nuclear weapons on a country over.
Ron Paul, the lone Republican dissenter, laid out a good argument against the measure. One, we have put Iran in th impossible position of proving a negative. Since it can't prove it's not meeting it's obligations under the NPT, this gives the George W (W stands for warmonger)Bush administration the excuse it needs to stop Iran from creating it's oil exchange dealing exclusively in euros. Clause four of this legislation calls for Russia and China, the two Security Council members likely to vote against this resolution, to take action in any response to iran's noncompliance. Even if that report is akin to the forged Niger yellow cake documents used by Bush to justify it's invasion of Iraq.
So while the Bush administration distracts the American people with a deal that even he didn't know about ( adeal that even has longer time Bush sycophant Cal Thomas outraged)until it was brought to his attention, the US Congress took one step closer to another war we can not win. Making three so far in this present administration.

Last Words On Danish Cartoons

Parading my contest winning (or was is it losing?) profile around the blogosphere last night, I visited a lot of sites. Right wing, left wing, they all agreed on one thing. TheMuslims were wrong to over react to catoons published in Denmark. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, even if they happen to be hypocritic.
In the eyes of the Muslim peoples, the Bush administration has declared a War on Islam. Using propaganda, they have successfully used Congress to force a vote on Iran at the UN. Iran is an Islamic country that is building a nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, North Korea, which is not a Muslim country, already has developed nuclear weapons and has the ability to strike the US, yet the US has made no threat against them. In the eyes of Islam, this is evdence that the War on terror, North Korea being part of Bush spurious "axis of evil", is really against Islam.
In Pakistan, a couple of weeks ago, the US sent an armed drone into a party of people in an attempt to take out the head of al Qaeda. The result killed a number of innocent people, but was unsuccessful in it's intended goal. The people who were killed? Muslim, to which the Bush administration never formally apologized, or even took responsibility for the mistake.
Recently, more pictures of brutal torture and abuse were released from Abu Ghraib prison . these pictures show US military personell subject people to numerous violations of the Geneva Convention. The victims in these photos? Muslim, every last one of them. From the secret torture prisons the US has scattered all over the darkest corners of the globe, to the Taliban fighters, who, were not part of alQaeda, and whose only crime was defending their homeland from an invasion, are now locked in Guantanamo Bay, in a US prison camp, with no hope for release, simply because they are Muslims.
Everywhere a Muslim is to look, the US has declared war on them. They supported the secular Fatah party in Palestine, and when the Islamic Hamas won, the US threatened to cut funding for the Palestinian Authority. The war in Iraq has killed over 100,000 civilians, an estimate, because Bush declined to count them in the War dead BECAUSE THEY ARE ISLAMIC!!!!!
To add insult to injury the US slipped three insulting pictures into the Danish cartoons to provoke a row between Europe and the Islamic world. The world's only remaining superpower has declared war on Islam, and they have every right to feel persecuted and angry.
Now, I've been to right wing blogs where the Danish editors were praised for exercising their "freedom of speech." And these are the same people who would like to silence war critics at home with a new Sedition law , aimed at those who might think the war in Iraq a bad idea. So, free speech is good, as long as it doesn't take place in the US, and as long as it's directed at Islam.
But even far more disturbing are the left wing blogs that I visited that have criticized the Muslim protest while hailing the Danish freedom of speech. Excuse me, but isn't protest a protected form of free speech? You can condemn the Muslims for over reacting, sure, but to say they have no right to protest is like saying you want your license to blog taken away.
I'm not sure if forgiveness is part of the Islamic religion.But I know it is part of the Christian religion so hopefully you can forgive the Islamic world for feeling a bit persecuted. Because they are.

Facing Foreclosure: The Looting of our Legacy

The End Of Dollar Hegemony is looming in the horizon, whether or not we attack Iran. If we do, Iran has threatened to close off the Straits of Hormuz, and has the capabilities to do so, effectively closing one of the largest shipping lanes for the world's oil supplies and driving up oil costs per barrel dramatically. If we don't, Iran will open it's oil market plan to trade exclusively in euros, effectively closing off the country with one of the greatest oil reserves from the country that consumes the most oil.
Since 1971, when President Nixon, in a move to protect the US's remaining gold reserves, took the dollar off the gold standard, where one dollar was equal to 1/35 of an ounce of gold, the Federal reserve has been printing money on a fiat money system, backed not by gold, but by an agreement with oil producing nations to accept only dollars for their oil. Many nations now had to keep dollars as a reserve currency, and pegged their monetary system to that dollar. In November of 2000, Saddam Hussein, having suffered under economic sanctions imposed on Iraq following the first Gulf War by the US and UK, moved to accept only the euro as payment for his oil. This means that all the billions of dollars he was holding in reserve like an I.O.U. could now be called in by Mr. Hussein for payment. Thus we have one of the major factors of why the US went to war in Iraq, as the sanctions against Iraq were due to be lifted and the flow of Iraqi oil could continue at full speed, only in euros instead of dollars.
Now we have news of Syria snubbing the dollar, just another of a list of countries that the Bush administration has been pressuring, following Venezuela and Iran. At this point it would be fair to point out that Bush is not the one responsible for the dollar's loss of value, and that he's dealing with it the only way he knows how.
Eventually, if and when the dollar is replaced as the major reserve currency, all the countries that now hold dollars in reserve will send those dollars here, demanding payment. And so the foreclosure sale has begun. First, Bush has given away $7 billion in oil royalties to oil companies for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Following that, Bush is planning on selling $800 millionof forest lands set aside as a legacy for our children and grandchildren.
Now the Department of Homeland Security has approved the sale of six major US ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. This has created a bipartisan uproar in Congress as UAE was the operational and financial base for the alleged hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks. UAE was also a transfer point for smuggled nuclear components by a Pakastani scientist.
So, this is how it declines. Piece by piece our country is sold off to the highest bidder while our hope of manufacturing something to sell the world is traded off for tax breaks for billion dollar corporations and the blame is placed on the labor force that built this great country for wanting the dignity of making a living wage. The ones who children are now off fighting a war of conquest designed to insure that those who have profitted most from this system never have to face the consequences of their actions.

Rumsfeld Admits Government Cluelessness and Incompetence

In an appearence Friday at the CFR, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that the current administration has no clue how to win the hearts and minds of Muslims.
"Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but for the most part we-our country, our government has not adapted."
He then went on to state that the battle for public opinion is at least as important as the battles on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"In some cases military public affairs officials have had little communications training and little, if any training in the timing of rapid response, and the realities of digital or broadcast media."
In other words, these guys are clowns with no fucking clue as to what they're doing. Hey let me give you a clue Dumsfeld, since you seem to be seriously lacking one, stop bombing the fuck out of their countries. I think that's a good way to sway Muslim public opinion towards America. Bombing the shit out of their countries and sending troops in to point guns at their families is like a backward step.
Another good idea is stop abusing "detainees". Rendition is still torture and it doesn't matter who we send them to do it, they are still doing it for us! Also, when you say that detainees are being trained to lie about mistreatment and torture, remember that these people have family back in Afghanistan and Iraq or where ever we snatched them from. When you call these prisoners of war, or, in Gonzalese, "enemy detainees", liars, you are saying all Muslims are liars. Remember how upset they were by those Danish cartoons (plus the three pictures the US threw in as a psyop to get support for our upcoming war in Iran)?
And another thing, when you tell lies, such as Saddam had WMD, or Saddam moved all his WMD to Syria, or Iran is building chemical weapons, while the average beer swilling brain damaged NASCAR watching Rush listening chemically imbalanced jackanape might believe, these people live there and know this just isn't true.Syria fought against Iraq in the first Gulf War, now all of a sudden we're supposed to believe that Saddam gave them his WMD to hold on to? Only the most deluded unthinking brainwashed Bush supporter believes that nonsense, and any reasoning mind knows this is bunk.
Of course, all of this is asking too much, and you know it. And I hardly think that you are too concerned with swaying the Muslim opinion. If you were, you wouldn't be building four new permanent bases in Iraq because there'd be no need for them. You would give those prisoners in Camp Delta at Guantanamo the benefit of a trial guaranteed under the Constitution. But mostly, you wouldn't be drawing up plans for invading Iran because they plan on switching to the euro (the real reason for the invasion)and try to work out a diplomatic solution. If only Bush hadn't appointed a bunch of incompetents to those positions.

Last Words On Cheney Shooting?

(Editors Note: I put the question mark in the title because I feel that if I did conclude this, the National Enquirer will have a front page story on this tomorrow that will shed more light on the shooting. Then again, there are those right wing blogs that are still obsessing over the Vince Foster "suicide".

Today on the way to work, two separate radio stations were playing Bob (Walking 'Round In Women's Underwear)Rivers song parody, "Cheney's Got A Gun", proving once again that the MSM is trailing the blogs as Neil Shakespeare has been running a thread on this since Sunday.
Also another fact brought to light following Cheney's taking responsibility for his actions (kind of) and admitting to having one beer at lunch (which is what I would tell my dad as a teenager when I would come home plastered on a Saturday Night) is the fact that Texas authorities say Secret Service prevented them from interviewing Cheney after the incident. So much for law enforcement working together (or the 14th Amendment for that matter).
Still, the biggest question in my mind is why these two gentlemen were out hunting with two women who weren't their wives. In my mind the shooting and the drinking question are a diversion from this fact.Tom Peyer:Superfrankenstein has some fairly incriminating pictures of Cheney and Ms. Armstrong together. It would seem that the mountain of morals and integrity that Bush promised us in 2000 never existed in the first place.

"They Hate Us Because We Are Free And They Are Not"

Once again proving they are utterly clueless, the Bush administration, whose idea of democracy is voting in their people, has devised a plan to destabilize the Palestinian government. The PA, if you can recall, (if your beersoaked television affected short term memory lets you) was won in the last elections by Hamas, the terrorist organization set up by the Israeli government to be a religious alternative to the secular PLO. Fatah, the US backed puppets, lost, most likely because they were US backed puppets. So rather than suck it in and accept the fact that many Palestinians, acting as free citizens, voted for a party that used to be a terrorist organization, the Bush administration shows it's utter contempt for freedom by trying to destabilize the government the people voted for. Do you think maybe it's shenanigans like this that cause the US to be so hated in the Middle East?
Now, if I were the Bush administration, I would be trying to acheive a dialogue with Hamas, and working together, maybe they would stop their prior action of suicide bombing that had made Hamas the scourge of the world. Respect them, and by doing that, respecting the Palestinians and they choice they have made as well, and you might have a chance of working out the problems that have plagued Palestine since it was split in two to create the state of Israel.
Anyway, the Bush administration plan is to cut off funding for the PA, as well as pressuring world leaders to do the same. This would cause hardship amongst the Palestinians and Mahmoud Abbas would have no choice but to call for new elections. Does anyone see anything right with this? Is this going to create allies of the Palestinian people? Is this the right step towards fighting terrorism?
That's right! Bush doesn't actually want an end to terrorism, he wants more and more of it so he can use it to justify even more and more wars and Constitutional abuses! Hamas might want Israel to actually follow UN resolutions that would divide "God's Country" (I thought that was the US) severely irking "Pat" Robertson and the religious right who are itching for the rapture. Irk "Pat", and he may call for God to take you out (and we know how close to death Cheney is anyway. How close? So close he has to travel with a medical team in case his ticker skips a beat) or smite you.
So the next time some assclown tells you they hate us because we are free and they are not, remember who's fault that is.

Bloodthirsty Veep "Accidentally" Shoots Fellow Hunter

Proving once again that nothing stands in the way of his quarry, whether it be a fellow hunter or a sovereign nation, Vice President Dick (Head) Cheney today "accidentally" shot fellow hunter Harry Whittington as Cheney picked out a quail from a covey that was in flight and followed it inflight and shot.
Fortunately for Whittington Cheney always has a lot of medical personnel around him at all times, in case he knees fill up with fluid, or needs another blood transfusion allowing him to cheat death for another month or so. The medical team attended to Whittington until emergency services could arrive.
A spokesperson for Cheney said the Vice President had become trigger happy as of late being almost three years since he started a war. Also the prospect of having to wait for sufficient reason before bombing Iran had made the Veep "edgy".
Whittington is expected to recover from his wounds, although his $11 million worth of Travis (TX) County property, the center of condemnation battle with the city of Austin was seized by the city under current eminent domain rules and is scheduled to be demolished. The demolition contract went to a subsidiary of Halliburton.

Disappointing Democrats Deliver Again

Proving once again that party loyalty affects the reasoning part of the brain, the Democrats are introducing legislation, HR 4694 that will cut private funding for candidates running for House seats. It will also mandate public funds for candidates of the "two major parties" (there are two major parties?)Let me see, corruption, cronyism, incompetence and crimes being committed by the Republicans in Washington DC and this is the best they can do?
Obviously, the Democrats are feeling threatened and know they can no longer hold on to their base as they are no longer an opposition, party, merely a mirror of the Republicants. Even 2008 Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton supports the war in Iraq, even when a majority of Americans no longer do. So rather than act like an opposition party, the Democraps are in a power grab to hang onto what little they have left by being as party oriented as the Republicans.
It would be cynical to think that the Democrats are anxious to introduce legislation they know the Republicans will vote on. This will give the appearance of Congress not being so partisan. And while I may not care too much for the Democrats, it would be nice to see the Democrats regain control of Congress, so that if they didn't start impeachment proceedings, at least they may stop this bill from being passed. But, once again, we're talking about the Democrats, and one thing they never fail to deliver, it's disappointment.

New Poll Shows Growing Number of Americans Are Fucking Idiots

In a new AP/Ipsos poll, 48 percent of Americans now support Bush's illegal wiretapping and surveillance, up from forty two percent last month. This is due in part to a propaganda campaign played throughout the corporate media preying on people's ignorance of the law and their fears of a terrorist attack. What wasn't divulged was that Bush was spying on antiwar protestors and religious groups such as the Quakers.
Seizing the momentum, Bush used a speech today to tout the stop of a terrorist attack in 2002 that would have operatives fly airplanes in to the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles. The plot was stopped when an alQaeda operative was arrested by a Southeast Asian nation. How any of this actually ties in to the illegal campaign to spy on Americans was not made clear, but Bush invoked September 11 and Osama Bin Laden enough times to create the fear necessary to cloud the judgement of brainwashed Americans across the country.
The Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles complained that this was the first time he learned of this watching Bush's remarks on TV, but Press Secretary said the White House notified American officials before going public with this story, who were grateful to use the opportunity to exploit this matter for political gain.

Someone Get Bush a Gross Of Toilet Paper.........

.......so he'll stop wiping his ass on the Constitution. Continuing on in his one man crusade against the bill of rights, the Justice Depatment said Bush may have the authority to order assassinations in the US . No trial, no due process, just you're a terrorist and *blam* , you're dead. It's scary to think what other powers Bush may be granted by Alberto Gonzales because Bush is a war president. Torture, spying on citizens, and now assassination. Of course, after the power to take the life of someone living in the US, there's not a lot more he can't do.
Well, we are a penstroke away from being rounded up into FEMA detention camps , should Bush decide it necessary. And given the rampant paranoia in the White House, plummeting poll numbers could be reason enough.
Even some in his own party are saying Bush's wiretapping violated the law. Some conservatives are saying the reason Bush skirted the law is because he was abusing it to gather information to use for blackmail purposes. Ever wonder why the Democrats sit quietly while Bush runs rampant over our rights? Ever wonder why the media violates the public trust by becoming an arm of the Bush propaganda machine?
Unfortunately, the people who can make the most change are too brainwashed to do so. They work hard all day and refuse to get off their asses once they've been planted in front of the television. They'll talk more about the wonderful commercials they watched last night during the Super Bowl than they will about the abuses of the Bush administration. They're more concerned about who will make it on to American Idol than than they are about how they are losing their rights as Americans. They trust the corporate media when they say everything's all right while Bush flushes that turd stained "Godamned piece of paper" down the toilet.

Wacky War Plans of Bush and Blair

According to a leaked British memo, Tony Blair and George W (w stands for WWIII)Bush floated the idea of painting a US fighter jet in UN colors and flying it over Iraq, in hopes that Saddam would shoot it down, thereby giving them the justification for the invasion of Iraq. This was probably before the forged Niger "yellow cake" documents fell into their laps through Larry Franklin and his friends at AIPAC. If they had only spent as much of an effort in planning the invasion as they did in finding a reason for it.
And it seems that if they seemed so eager to start a war in Iraq, why not look beyond that to Afghanistan? That invasion was in the planning stages six months before 9/11, what sort of deception might they use to justify that invasion? If a stray aircraft that accidentally wandered into the airspace over George W's Crawford Ranch while he was there this weekend could be forced to land by fighter jets, why couldn't hijacked planes be forced to land on 9/11? (This whole incident is reminiscent of the USS Liberty Affair, where unmarked Israeli fighter jets attacked an American Naval radio ship monitoring communications during the Six Day War in 1967 in an attempt to bring the US into the war on Israel's side)
The Bush administration, mired in corruption and practiced in deception, is now looking to invade Iran, which is building a nuclear power plant. How many lies will it spread to the American people in order to start this war, which like Afghanistan and Iraq, are all about the oil. Iran plans on exchanging it's oil for euros in March, once that happens, this supposed booming economy that we have will disappear because all those dollars sitting in foreign banks are worthless if any of these countries should try to exchange them for euros.
The sad truth is the average American is ill-informed. The corporate media is owned by people whose wealth is all in dollars. It's just as beneficial for them to continue the charade as it is for the Bush administration and Congress. So the lies being fed to the flag waving, beer swilling, brain damaged chemically imbalanced jackanapes are more convenient to them than actually reading and finding out the truth. They are the great American shame, for every time it's been pointed out that Bush is lying to them, the accept theold lie and believe the new one. Fool me once........

How Can You Not Love This Guy?

Blognonymous has an essay contest entitled "Why I Love Our President", but there are just so many reasons, I thought it best to illustrate each point.



He is a man of clear vision

Who knows where he is going,

a man who knows what needs to be done in a moment of national crisis,

while exhibiting Christian morals and values.

In short, he is everything we could want or need from a leader. How could you not love this guy?

alQaeda Calling?

The other night, in his State of the Union address, President George W (W stands for wash out) Bush called on Congress to act in " a spirit of goodwill and respect for one another-and I will do my part". Of course now, after the cameras are put away and a great number of Americans are stocking up on beer for the Super Bowl, Bush is refusing to release it's classified legal opinions on President Bush's domestic spying program, prefering instead to follow "the road of isolationism and protectionism" which "may seem broad and inviting-yet it ends in danger". Danger for the Constitution.
Today, I received a phone call, a wrong number from someone speaking a language I was unfamiliar with. Then I began to wonder: what if it was alQaeda calling, and got me by mistake? I mean suppose some Islamo-fascist has fat fingers and hits a seven instead of a six, and you wind up on the Bush administration's wire tap list? This is the thought that has me crouching behind my computer desk right now, watching the door for the jackbooted thugs of the US government to kick my door in and haul me away and detain me and torture me. (That would make it the second worst birthday I ever had).
I suppose it would be unfair of me to hold Bush to everything he stated the other night. After all, he didn't write it and he didn't mean it. It was all just election year posturing, with Bush breaking his previous record of going against his words by having Cindy Sheehan hauled off before he even got the chance to utter the words "Democracies...respect the rights of their citizens".
Which is a clear indication of #2 on this list