The Magical Imaginary World Of George W Bush

Has there ever been a more out-of-touch chief executive than George W Bush. Still firmly ensconced in his bubble, the White House is now downplaying talk about an economic recession, even as it works to pass an "economic stimulus" package. I guess when your base hasn't really been affected, you could really give two turds, until aides point out it may reflect poorly on your legacy to have completely destroyed the country.
So if you ignore the record number of foreclosures and the drop in single family home sales, the slowest increase of the GDP in five tears, consumer spending down, skyrocketing food prices , not to mention the falling stock market, then, yeah the economy looks pretty good. I mean, if Bush can ignore the NIE, ignoring this should be no problem for someone living in his own version of reality.

Sometimes Someone's There To Make Mike Huckabee Seem Plausible

I'm always alternately amused amazed and angered when I read an account following the latest Republican debate. Amused as they fall all over each other in an attempt to appeal to their base by offering the biggest tax cuts in history. Which then makes me angered as I realize that the tax cuts are what has lead us down the road to Deficitville, one of the reasons the economy is stinking like Dick Cheney's undisclosed location after a particularly long weekend of heightened terror alerts. But mostly I'm amazed at the almost willful display of ignorance being offered to those who would vote Republican.Usually the most amazing statements are made by unbrainwashed's own personal whipping boy, Rudy "I-couldn't-beat-a-carpetbagging-Hillary-in-my-own-state-how-will-I-beat-her-in-a-national-race-why-am-I-still-in-the-race-when=I-haven't-placed-in-a-single-primary-America's-mayor-Mr.-9/11" Ghouliani. In another bold display of bad decision making in the face of contrary analysis, Mr. 9/11 Man made this naive statement:

"I see 20 or 30 million people coming out of poverty in China every year," said Guiliani. "To me, that's 20 or 30 million more customers for the United States."

And what, pray tell, does Rudolph propose we sell to China? I'm sure he sees it as an opportunity to sell them more of his wonderful "consulting" capabilities, but the for the rest of the country, most of the things that our corporations sell are made in China to begin with, how does that create jobs?
Amazing!

The Corpocracy Has Spoken!

The election is all but over. The "official paper of record" has announced it's endorsements for the presidency , and to no one one's surprise, it's the rich old white dick whom supports the war in Iraq vs. the rich old white bitch who supports the war in Iraq. Both support the US violating the NPT by bombing Iran for following the NPT at the urging of Israel, who hasn't signed the NPT.
The upside to all this is now Bush doesn't have to use his emergency powers to declare martial law and suspend elections, he and Dick Cheney can rest well at night knowing the corpocratic agenda of fleecing the American taxpayer out of every last dime can continue unabated. There is no fear among the elite that democracy might actually work and bring forth a candidate who will actually follow the will of the people, or the letter of the law, or that "Goddamned piece of paper" lovingly referred to by our forefathers as the Constitution.
So, nothing to see here folks. Please go back to your television sets, keep looking for the latest celebrity-induced psychodrama, and thank you very much for playing!

Goodbye, Rollo

Friday evenings are the best. Tired from working all week, I scramble to make some dinner while the kids watch syndicated reruns on the local Fox affiliate (except King of the Hill and Everybody Loves Raymond, two shows we find it hard to stomach, especially while we're eating.) Between 5:00 and 8:00 they frequently run the Alltell commercials featuring spokesman Chad as he squares off against four nerds representing the other cellular phone providers.
I think it was Wilbur who questioned why the other guys didn't have names, and unable to come up with a response, we decided to correct this injustice by christening them with names of our own choosing. The ringleader became Dexter, his right hand man was named Jenkins, the quiet guy was named Martin and finally, the chubby feller in the yellow shirt was christened Rollo. And all through the series of commercials featuring these characters, we cheered for the nerds, always rooting for the underdog.
Now a new commercial has appeared, with the actor who portrayed Rollo gone, replaced by someone who kind of resembled him. Did Rollo leave because he wanted more money? Is he branching out into fast food commercials? Will we see him as a nebbishly nerdy neighbor on some future sitcom? We don't know, but we will miss Rollo, and salute him and wish him luck where ever his career takes him. Goodbye, Rollo.
Of course, now we must name the new guy, and the first suggestion? Paolo.

Maybe

Democrats Disappoint Again

So Nancy Pelosi (remember her? the Democrat in charge of the House who gained power riding in on a wave of "change"?), when greeted with impeach Cheney and Bush activists sticks to her position that impeaching the two criminals would be "divisive". God forbid the Democrats actually behave as if they are truly an opposition party. I guess asking for an investigation into the many crimes perpetrated by these criminals is asking too much.
Meanwhile, the criminals in charge try to bury a pardon for the crimes they may have committed into a bill.

I think we need to "change" the Democratic party for a real opposition party, not just the other half of the War Party. You may vote for them this November, but I'm going to follow the sage advice of one Mr. Peter Townshend

Democrazy?

It's official. I've become officially disgusted with the nomination process, and while it would be easy to place the blame on the voters of this country, I can't help feeling it's not really their fault they are so misinformed. They foolishly placed their faith in the media to act as an impartial observer to provide accurate and unbiased information to help them make their decision.
The media has already decided who they want to win, basing their coverage on polls, which determined front runners, except were found to be seriously flawed in determining the winner in New Hampshire, but still guides their coverage of candidates today, which explains why you get more coverage on Rudy Giuliani, who has yet to win or place in fully one-tenth of the country, than you do on Ron Paul. When they do mention Dr. Paul at all, it's in the form of a smear campaign based on something someone else had written in the last millennium, while there is very little media outcry over Mike Huckabee's racist statements of last week , or Hillary Clinton taking money from a money launderer for the Mexican drug cartel. (Or her connections to a Macau crime lord who runs a child prostitution ring, even going as far as having the two of them photographed together.)
Senator Clinton, who is shaping up to be her party's candidate in November, is running on a promise for change, but all she is really offering is is more of the same bullshit we got from Bush. So excuse me if I'm officially disgusted, not only with the media, but those who would call themselves progressives rallying behind such an obviously flawed choice, especially when there were more better suited candidates. It's not even November yet, and once again, the Democrats have proven to be disappointing as usual. Guess I'm voting independent, again.

Refund On Intelligence

Bubble Boy's bubble must have finally burst.
Following his trip to the Middle East to promote peace by trying to gain support for war, the president has returned home to finally focus on America, only to find that his economic policies here are immense failures, too. All those tax cuts for the rich, coupled with deficit spending on the war, and rising oil prices because of the war, have pushed this country to the brink of a recession. Ooops.
So Bush and Congress have a plan. Neither he, nor Congress believe the NIE on Iran, and since we spent $43.5 billion last year on the NIP, they have decided to give the taxpayers a refund on the money they spent on intelligence operations.
"Here, take this $300 and buy yourself something while we go start another war."

Not-So-Strange Bedfellows

Does it seem strange to anyone else that with fifty states, Rudy Ghouliani is focusing one just one-Florida? especially when his chief stategist says:

“A lot of us on this campaign have learned a lot of politics and get out the vote strategies from the Bush-Cheney-Mehlman-Rove machine, and we’re replicating all those things,”he said. “They work great, we’ve seen them work great in Florida in the past.”

And what strategy is that?
And does it seem odd that when Rudy gave a speech to a church yesterday that Katherine Harris was also in attendance?

I Was Elected To Lead, Not To Read

This is what a leader does! When faced with insurmountable evidence to the contrary, he makes his own decision anyway! Since he's been spending the last year of his term on his 'legacy', it seems that President Bush has decided that it will be as the most war mongering president in history!
Bush, speaking about spreading democracy in front of the most undemocratic country in the Middle East, found his fresh fervor for force following his recent visit to Israel (which only goes to prove the validity of Mearsheimer Walt as to who really controls US foreign policy). But Bush is not planning a war, per se, just nuclear strikes against Iran.Like he suggested the US should have bombed Auschwitz, without thinking of all the innocent people who would have died, Bush is ignorant to all those US troops downwind of the fallout in Iraq (not to mention in striking range of the Iranian military, should they decide to retaliate). This is madness, and it's time the Democrats in Congress stepped up and impeached him.
A war, or nuclear strike if you will, will have a negative impact not only on the people of Iran, but on the rest of the world as well. Iran has threatened to seal of the Straits of Hormuz, thereby effectively sealing off the world from a major oil supplier, which in turn would drive up oil prices further. And if you think the economy's doing bad now, just wait until oil prices go through the roof.
This only goes to illustrate how important this election year is. Not only do we have to pick a leader who will put the real concerns of Americans first, second and third, but we also need to vote for representatives who will represent us, and not kowtow to defense contractors or other special interest lobbying groups that don't have the United States best interests at heart.

Deep Dark Recession Excessive Misery

The Republicans candidates had another debate Thursday night in South Carolina with much more posturing in response to the alleged Persian Gulf incident, with all candidates (with the exception of Ron Paul)
promising war if they were president.
When the topic turned to the impending recession, they all tried to top each other with what they would do to help out the economy. Like going to war? One of the factors in the current economic state is the fact the high oil prices (caused by military misadventures) is driving up the price of everything else. McCain, who in ads portrays himself as an outsider in Warshington says he would make Bush's tax cuts (which has increased the deficit) permanent, Huckabee and Romney promised tax cuts as well, and Ghouliani, not to be undone promised he'd push through the "biggest tax cut in history."
Either these people are complete morons, or they're hoping the people of South Carolina are. Six years of Republican economic policies have put us in the situation we're in, they're not going to get us out of the hole. Maybe their plan is to follow Ghouliani's lead and ask people to work for free.

SIBEL SAYS

Former FBI translator and whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds has released a list of photos of those she claims to have overheard in wiretapped conversations (that took place, coincidentally, before Bush's illegal wiretapping program was put in place)of selling nuclear secrets to untrustworthy allies such as Pakistan. Many of the people involved were high ranking officials within the State Department during both the Clinton and Bush administrations and include the self proclaimed prince of darkness, Richard Perle. (Also named are Pentagon OSP Douglas Feith and convicted AIPAC spy Larry Franklin)
Ms. Edmonds has been under a gag order not to speak, because what she heard America's national security would be severely impaired.

Edmonds contends that an international nuclear smuggling ring, associated with the intelligence agencies of Pakistan, Turkey, and Israel, has been permitted to operate in the U.S. with impunity. Our government, she claims, knew all about it yet, in order to placate the foreign governments involved, allowed a vast criminal enterprise to carry out its activities, including money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and espionage involving efforts to steal U.S. nuclear technology.

And, it seems, a trail leading right up to 9-11, what with Pakistan ISI head Gen Mahmoud Ahmad, the gentleman who wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta's Dubai bank account prior to that fateful day. Add to that the news report that one Louai al-Sakka, who claims to have trained several of the 9/11 hijackers at a camp situated outside Istanbul in the resort area of the Yalova mountains, and you get the idea that something fishy was going on there. And it was going on right under the government's nose, while people within the current administration were blocking any investigation of any wrong doing. And seeing the close proximity some of these people had to the vice-president's office.........

Tell Us The One About How You Invented The Internet, Senator Clinton

Hmmmm. "35 years of change".
In 1973, touch tone phones were becoming the rage, although they were still attached to the wall, so you couldn't talk on them in your car, or at the supermarket, so personal conversations were personal, not the property of everyone in earshot.
In 1973, news was reported to us by journalists, who actually investigated corruption and wrong doing. News focused on stories of the day and weren't celebrity obsessed nor tabloid-like offerings designed to pull in more ratings, but rather a respected part of a network's schedule. We only had three networks to choose from, and every night they all went off the air.
In 1973, the majority of consumer goods purchased by Americans were still manufactured in the US. Not only that, but we still exported goods to be sold in other countries apart from the munitions and other war weaponry which is pretty much all we export now. Many households were still one-income households, which was sufficient to support a family.
In 1973 there actually was an opposition party that vigorously investigated wrong doing by the executive branch...............


One could be a wag and point out all the advancements made since 1973 (the internet for one), and I welcome them, as well as I could make more points (for instance, in 1973, public opposition to an illegal war actually mattered and helped to bring it to an end) but in the end all these wonderful changes Sen. Clinton is taking credit for have only been good for the elite in the country at the expense of everyone else, especially the quickly vanishing middle class (which was thriving in 1973).

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

On the weekends, I usually arise early, while my kids are still sleeping, and spend a little quiet time reading the news. As a holdover from my net-less days, I still turn on the television and watch those weekend "news" programs, the one where crowds gathered in front of the television studio scream on cue in hopes that the folks watching back home might be able to see them on the TV.
But the show hardly qualifies as news, because, in between segments about how to make the most out of life by buying some great new product that is more than likely manufactured in China, or some where else with out our stringent environmental and labor protection laws, recaps of the weather (because looking out the window is so boring), the show runs short segments of news where Britney Spears latest attention grabbing escapade garners as much, if not more, air time as the possibility that the nation's economy is heading for a recession.
It doesn't help when our leader is in denial despite the growing evidence to the contrary. But even so more resoundingly, the politicians grubbing to be our next leader don't mention it either. The Republicans seem fixated on "fighting terrorism", "strengthening Families" (by scapegoating gays, and not by offering any semblance of economic stability), and the age-old refrain of "lowering taxes" (which ends up lowering taxes for the wealthy, not for anyone else), while the Democrats seem fixated on the vagueness of "change" (which got them pretty far in the last election) with out being too explicit about what they intend to change. No one mentions it because they all know that they were the ones holding the dog while the corpocracy screwed the pooch.
So, not being much of a believer at all, I take this news as a sign that there is justice in the universe.

Go, Johnny Go

Well, the Iowa headache is over, and with 49 or more of these to go, it's too soon to call it, but I am delighted to see that Clinton pulled in to a third place position, or as TIME, the most corporate of corporate media put it, Edwards barely beat Clinton. (In a state where she outspent and campaigned twice as much (with help from her husband) as Edwards. And frankly, I'm glad.
Edwards, while no Kucinich, is a candidate for change. Clinton is part of the elite that has been running the country for the last twenty years, and look where we ended up. If she does (God forbid) win, that means in nearly a quarter of a century, only two families have controlled the White House. How's that for democracy?
Can we really trust these people? Bill Clinton got elected by promising to help the working people, then worked to pass NAFTA, which worked the working people right out of work. Bush ran on a platform of smaller government, has since increased the federal government making it more sluggish and inefficient than it ever has been. What promises has Hillary made? No, not to us, but to all the campaign donors with deep pockets and control of the corporate media which has painted her as a front runner. You know, the people who aren't really hurting under $100 a barrel oil.
As Bill was fond of saying back in '92, it's the economy, stupid. And as the Republicans were fond of saying back then, Anyone But Clinton.

The Grand Old Patriarchy And It's Hysterical Homophobia Strike Again

Hoo boy! You can always tell an election year, it's when the gays come out of the closet and into your living room as the cause of all the world's problems. Mitt(head) Romney and Mike Huckabee have both run adds attacking civil unions, and now, the pope has come out attacking civil unions as the cause of unrest in the world. Funny, when you have the Christians attacking the Muslims, and the Jews attacking the Muslims, and the Muslims attacking the Christians and the Jews, I would suspect the number one cause of unrest in the world would have to be religion.
So I wonder, just who out there is afraid of civil unions and why? I mean with oil prices rising and the dollar dropping, mortgage defaults at a record high causing the the collapse of the housing market, which when combined with the possibility of rising unemployment and factories slowing down signals that we are heading for a recession, shouldn't we be working on solving these problems, rather than scapegoating gays, whom I'm pretty sure had nothing to do with these problems? Perhaps we should thank God we live in a country where hysteria can be misdirected away from the real culprits towards a minority of people whose only wish is to be granted the same rights everybody else enjoys.

Lying's Okay, When Something Important Like Hannah Montana Tickets Are At Stake

Sometimes you come across a story that is a barometer of how far off track this country has become. We are, in my opinion, a nation of dishonest people. From our leaders we hear such lies as "I did not have sex with that woman" to "Mission Accomplished" to "My father marched with Martin Luther King" to "If I'm elected the oil-producing countries will drop the price of oil", and we expect them, and only get angry when the other side lies. We do this because in this country, it's more acceptable to be a dishonest winner than an honest loser.
So it should come as no shock to find out that a mom has admitted to lying to win her daughter Hannah Montana tickets (for those of you who outside of the mainstream who don't know, Hannah Montana is the latest crime against the pop culture perpetrated by the follicular challenged Billy Ray Cyrus since his "Achy Breaky Heart" gave a bunch of inbred mouth breathers an excuse to boot scoot at the local trailer trash breeding ground and Budweiser dispensary). Plus, she got an awesome Hannah Montana blonde wig, because even though we like to make jokes about them, every girl wants to be blonde!
Now as House is fond of saying, everybody lies, but it's what we lie about and what we stand to gain from the lie that determines the difference. I lie to spare myself the embarrassment of past mistakes being brought to light, this mother lied about the child's father being blown up by a roadside bomb in Iraq so her daughter could gain much coveted concert tickets (and who says we're a Christian nation?).
And what did this mother teach her child with this deception?

“We did the essay and that’s what we did to win,” Priscilla Ceballos, the mother, said in an interview with Dallas TV station KDFW. “We did whatever we could do to win.”

So Ms. Ceballos' daughter learns that honesty is less important than things, values aren't as important as winning, and worshipping at the altar of the cult of celebrity personality is the new morality in today's society.
In the meantime, Ms. Cyrus has a photo scandal brewing (which she blames on "Satan attacking". Time for the Vatican Satan squad to step in!) that's sure to place her in the running to be the next Jamie-Lynn Spears.

Ghouliani:The Final Solution

When you're a one-issue candidate, you tend to attract the singly simple-minded people, as is the case with Rudy Ghouliani, as this video of Rudy's New Hampshire campaign official shows. To this obviously Fox News addled idiot, it's much easier to wipe the planet clean of Muslims (or at least chase them back into their caves)than it is to:
1)address the security issues that allowed a horrendous assault on the US to occur in the first place, or
2)address the geopolitical issues that cause the Muslim population to "hate" Americans in the first place.
(Thanks to mike votes for the heads up on this story)

Curiouser and Curiouser

Like many people, I was shocked to hear today of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. But I was also struck about the way it was carried out The assassin first shoots her, then blows himself up? It seemed a bit odd, I mean, isn't the modus operandi typically the suicide bomber just blows himself up in close proximity to their intended victim?
Now comes the news that the US is sending a "surge" of troops into Pakistan in the wake of the assassination, after Pakistan had temporarily restricted US involvement in cross-border military operations as well as paramilitary operations on its soil.Hmmmm.
One only needs to look at the globe and see how nice and cozy Pakistan is in regards to Iran. Perhaps this lends some credence to Ron Paul's claim that we're getting ready to bomb Iran on MSNBC's Morning Joe today.
Very curious, indeed.

Next: A Promise To Leap Tall Buildings In A Single Bound

Is this the best the Democrats can muster? (No, it isn't) Can anyone, for God's sake tell me why Hillary Clinton is the front runner when she says absurd things such as “Elect me and oil prices will instantly drop!” Surely she must be intelligent to know that the president doesn't control oil prices, but maybe she's hoping that her supporters aren't that savvy.
Oil prices are set by demand, so as long as Americans insist on driving gas sucking pigs of cars, the oil prices will stay high. Sure, there are things a president can do to ensure lower gas prices, such as, I don't know, not labeling Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization(second story down), a step towards a war with Iran that will, that's right, drive up oil prices. (of course, Ron Paul is a kook for suggesting that America's foreign policy is why we are hated in the Middle east, Hell, the whole damned planet, but what does he know? He voted against the war in Iraq that Hillary voted for, which was the start of the rise in oil prices.
Of course, Hillary has her kool-aid drinking legions who think she would be a great president, or maybe they feel that a female president would be better than a male (which, if you look at it, is chauvinistic sexist drivel.) Sure, she could be a president, just not a very good one, if her past actions are any indication of what the future holds from her.

Another Holiday Tradition: Lew's Annual Christmas Rant

I really hate this time of year. With the incessant hawking of every damned invention on the planet as "the perfect Christmas gift" to the non-stop blaring of awful Christmas music from every imaginable source, Christmas has because a time of major annoyance than a time of peace.
The most truly irritating is of course, the advertisers, of whom I'm sure would advertise their product as a sure cure for the war on terrorism, if they thought they could get away with it. Blissfully unaware of the growing stagflation, they hawk new cars and expensive jewelery as the way to "show your wife how much you really love her". Enough to pay thirty-nine percent for five years on a useless trinket destined to sit in a box for most of the rest of her life (oh, right, it's an investment, something she can pawn off in five years when she runs off to Florida with the pool boy, leaving with nothing but the debt and an awful taste in you mouth).
Then of course, there is the Christmas music. Every fresh crop of pop singers ensures us another string of new Christmas CDs, designed to cash in on the singer's popularity before all their recorded output ends up in the cut-out bin at a bargain book store. So they sing the same songs that 16,000 other singers have sung, just as sincerely and emotionally overwrought, where it will end up being about as memorable as Barry Manilow's version of Jingle Bells. Apparently no one can do anything original, like write a new Christmas song, but even if they did, most people wouldn't like it, as they fear the unknown, and tend to stick to familiar territory.
I had someone ask me what I wanted for Christmas this year, and I thought long and hard. I don't really want anything, but I do need a cheese grater, so I suggested that, and was given the dirtiest look I've managed to arouse from someone since my days as a dirty hippie at a punk rock show.
The one thing I do enjoy about the season, however, is being able to give my children presents. I don't get an opportunity the rest of the year, but the end of the year is when I get my annual attendance bonus, where the company I work for reimburses me for the sick days I did not take. It's supposed to come two weeks before Christmas, giving me ample opportunity to shop (which I loathe) and stash the loot away before Christmas. Well, once again this year, as it did last year, the company I work for screwed up and did not give me my bonus as they are contractually obligated to, so I had no money to get my kids gifts, except for the gift card my ex-mother-in-law sent me, which I was grateful to receive, but with prices the way they are these days, didn't go too far.
So today, I was a little down, a little depressed, and angry that management, who fucked up their responsibility, didn't step up to the plate (one of the corporate cliches they are fond of using)and deliver my bonus to me in a timely manner. I felt like Clark Griswold from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Then, a miracle happened. Cindy, a good customer of mine paid me a visit. She had told me that she had prayed the night before that she may be able to deliver a gift to someone who really needed it this year, and was directed by whomever to me and my two boys. My eyes began to tear up and my throat was choked close as I thanked her very much. Suddenly, the whole meaning of Christmas was shown to me, it's the joy of giving out of love, not from obligation, that is the real meaning of Christmas.