George's Dirty Tricks
Thirty-eight years ago I was a 21-year old Marine Corps reservist/antiwar activist. I and two Air Force reservists had formed the G.I. Association, an anti Vietnam War group that organized reservists around the county to oppose that mortal sin of a war.
Needless to say the Nixon administration was not amused by our organizing efforts. They had a draft back then but, so many US kids were dying every week they had to keep stoking that furance with warm bodies, and they did not want us messing with those kid's heads.
While we advocated peace rather than violence and broke no laws, national or international, we suddenly found ourselves ass-deep in FBI agents wherever we went, 24/7. When my mail arrived an FBI would rush to the box and copy down the return addresses off the envelopes before returning them to the box. If he and I reached the box at the same time I had to wait until he was done.
This was hardly a covert operation. They wanted us to know they were there, watching. They amused themselves further by loosening the lug nuts on the wheels of our cars parked on the street overnight. After two of my wheels rolled by me on Golden Gate Bridge, I started checking the wheels instead of my oil every morning.
They would also show up at any place I landed a job, ask to see the boss, flash their FBI shields and then show the boss a photo of me. “Does this person work here?” they would ask. When the boss said yes, why are you asking, they would reply, “Sorry we can’t discuss that with you,” and leave. Need I tell you what happened next?
This was the FBI of J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon. It became an agency that spied on and harassed peaceful antiwar priests and nuns, spread false rumors and planted agent provocateurs within our group to create the very domestic violence we refused to ignite.
I thought those days were behind us, filed in the junk-heap of history along with Joe McCarthy’s empty bourbon bottles, Richard Nixon’s paranoia and J.Edgar Hoover’s evening gowns. But alas, that hope was premature.
WASHINGTON: New FBI documents to be released today show that anti-terrorism agents who questioned antiwar protesters last summer in Denver were conducting "pretext interviews" that did not lead to any information about criminal activity. The memos were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of ongoing litigation and provide a glimpse of the FBI's controversial efforts to interview dozens of members of leftist protest groups before the party conventions last year in Boston and New York. (Full Story)
Let’s be clear about exactly what's going on here. Just as they did nearly 40 years ago, an administration fighting an unpopular, unwinnable and illegal war is trying to use its national police force to silence protest.
It did not work on Vietnam War protestors, and it won’t work now. If we were supposed be scared off, they accomplished just the opposite. The use of the FBI to spy on and harass harmless, law-abiding Americans served only to reinforce our belief back then that the administration in power was corrupt and needed to opposed.
Back in those days, the administration used the threat of “Commies” among us to justify their police-state inclinations. Of course none of us were Commies. In fact most of those I marched with in those days went on to become successful businessmen and women. It was a pretext, just as the implied threat of “terrorists” among us is today. (If the FBI wants to do something that really might keep terrorists out of the country they could help secure our southern border instead of “interviewing” US antiwar activists.)
Because how real a threat is an openly anti-Bush-war activist? How far do you thing the 9/11 hijackers would have gotten if they had run around the US leading anti-US demonstrations? Not far. It’s just not a terrorist M.O.
Nevertheless here we are, right back to Tricky Dick’s dirty tricks, and for the same reason. This administration now has another Vietnam on its hands and they know it. Their options are to either admit they were wrong and withdraw, or to “stay the course,” which translates to “we can’t admit we were wrong because we killed over a 100,000 people already.”
Since the Bush administration will never admit it made a mistake, large or small, they are going with Option 2: Stay the course. They will try to stretch the Iraq operation out three more years and leave pain of the inevitable Option 1: Withdrawal, to the next administration.
But to have any chance of Option 2 succeeding that they need to do what they can to keep you and me quiet. They remember millions of people marching in the streets of San Francisco and New York and Washington filled opposing the Vietnam War, and they are doing what they can to make sure that does not happen on their watch.
It's hardball, pure and simple. Let me tell you, having a FBI agent ring your doorbell and flash his/her badge can be a real rush. (Hello, I am Special Agent Andrews; we’d like to have a word with you. Can we come in?”) And a visit to your workplace to flash your photo around, leaving your boss with the impression you might be Osama bin Laden’s first cousin or something, can be a real career killer.
Such tactics will scare off some.
They scare me too.
They just won’t scare me off.
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
May 17, 2005
What’s Wrong With Newsweek
Only reporters really understand how it feels when they discover too late that there’s a mistake in their story. I can’t tell you the number of nights over the years I awoke in a cold sweat terrified there might be an error in a story of mine running off the presses.. (Should I have triple-checked that item? Are my two, or three, or five sources spinning some kind of self-serving agenda I missed? Am I going to get sued and lose everything?)
Over nearly three decades of reporting I made a mistake or two, fortunately nothing that ever rose to the level of requiring a retraction or resulted in one of those dreaded “see you in court” moments. But that’s like saying I’ve been driving for 48 years and never had a major accident. It was a combination of careful reporting and a good helping of luck.
But let me assure non-journalists out there -- reporters hate mistakes that make it into print more than you can imagine. A big mistake in a story is to a journalist what a death on the operating table is to a surgeon.
Those who have been there know the aftermath. It consumes your nights and days for weeks, or even months. You lose your confidence. You begin to hesitate over even little matters. You start checking and rechecking the same facts over and over in a process that boarders on OCD. It can paralyze your production. When your editor asks, “Hey, when will that story be ready to go?” you can list a dozen reasons why you need more time.
Sooner or later you either have hang up the old word processor or get over it and slip back into the newsroom workflow.
Anyway, those of you who know of what I speak, know. Those of you who don’t, can’t even imagine how bad it can be.
I know what Newsweek’s Michael Isakoff is going through right now, and I extend my condolences. But there is a lot more wrong going on in this Koran-down-the-toilet flap than just a reporting error. Newsweek has taken its lumps, and will take more before this one is over. But some bigger lumps are going undelivered to other players who are far more deserving of them.
The Bush Administration
I almost choked on my lunch yesterday when I heard Rumsfeld and White House spinsters pontificating on the Newsweek piece, and how “the damage is done” and how Newsweek’s apology and admission that mistakes were made “were too little too late.”
- Of ALL people on the face of the earth the Bush administration has the least right to make such a statement. Some 15 people died in riots after Newsweek’s mistake. But thousands died from the Bush administration’s WMD intelligence “mistake,” -- for which they have not even had the decency to apologize.
- And, wasn’t this the administration that, after their WMD intelligence was proven to be not just wrong, but W-R-O-N-G, shrugged it off with a casual “oh, you know intelligence is never perfect.” Well, I have news for you guys, neither is s journalism. But journalists get it right (and tell the whole truth) a lot more often than this administration does. That’s for sure. And I challenge the administration to disprove it.
- Also, I heard no one from the Bush administration acknowledge the damage their own policies have done to the image of the US. Such as their well-documented policies and statements that the Geneva Convention’s rules for treatment of prisoners does not apply to the guys we a fighting right now. The actions that grew from that policy gave credence to the Newsweek story. For example, have US interrogators ever tortured and otherwise mistreated detainees? Yep. They sure have. We have the pictures. Have US interrogators ever targeted Muslim detainee’s religious beliefs to break them down? You betchya. We have the thousands of pages of documentation on that and now even a book written by former Gitmo interrogator that backs it up.
Nevertheless, the very administration whose own policies, lies and arrogance that took American down this ugly path now demand that Newsweek apologize and change the way it does business. What breathtaking chutzpah! Just when I think we have seen the limit of this administration’s Machiavellian/Orwellian proclivities they top them with something that leaves staring at the TV screen frozen in disbelief.
Is this a double standard? No. Double is not big enough. This one is off the mathematical chart.
Crazy Muslims
Islamic nations and their Koran thumping populations have to start taking responsibility for their own behavior and the causes for it. Even if US interrogators did flush a Koran down a toilet, rioting and killing 15 fellow Muslims in a street riot is not the US’s fault -- or Newsweek’s either. It’s the fault of the nations that allow half-educated radial Mullah’s to force-feed their flock a diet of 10th century ignorance, prejudice and intolerance from the pulpit. And more:
- These people burn American flags for sport, mindless of how Americans might be offended by it. But two lines in the Newsweek article that some infidel may have mistreated a Koran and it drives them into a self-righteous, murderous frenzy of insult – and more burning American flags.
- Every day now some self-proclaimed Islamic radical blows himself up killing scores of innocent civilians someplace in the world. And they justify this murderous behavior on “Islamic grounds.” The same folks that rioted at the thought some infidel might have mistreated paper, don’t riot over suicide bombings. Only one conclusion can be drawn from this; Muslims disapprove of Koran-abuse but approve of killing civilians -- as long as it is done under color of the Koran.
Islamic radicals like to indulge in the belief that the Judeo/Christian West is at war with the Muslim world. Well, there is a war going on, that’s for sure, but they have it backasswards. The West would be more than happy to see Muslims living quietly in their quaint 12th Century Islamic theme park nations, cutting off heads and abusing their women, if they would just knock off the terrorism.
On the otherhand, sending suicide bombers is the wrong way to convince the West to leave them alone. The Saudis and Egyptians learned a long time ago that all they had to do to be left alone was to find the right pressure points. They did and since then they have had the West dancing like a monkey at the end of their leash. Provide oil, promise to make nice to Israel, promise not to build nukes, promise not to become Commies – that's all it takes and then the checks from Uncle Sam start rolling in. (Duh!)
But as long as Islamic terrorists insist on blowing things up that don’t belong to them and killing innocent civilians, the West will continue returning the favor.
Reporters
Would White House, State Department and DOD reporters do us all a favor? Ask the those spinsters (on camera please) to compare the gravity of the administration’s WMD intelligence mistakes with Newsweek’s Koran-down-the-toilet mistake. And, why Newsweek has come clean but the administration feels their mistakes require nothing more than s shrug and a “well, considering Saddam’s history of behavior, we could have been right.” That same excuse could easy serve Newsweek. After all we have learned about US interrogation methods the flushing a book down a toilet seemed the least serious thing alleged.
The administration was also bemoaning the “damage done to the image of the US” by the Newsweek piece. Jesus, this administration has made mistakes that have hurt the US in ways that border on treason. I know some will see that as hyperbole, but think about it – torture, lying to justify a military invasion of another nation, detention without trial for detainees – the very kinds of behavior the US fought. There ought to be laws. (Oh wait -- there are laws.)
As the Queen told Alice, once you say something you have to live with the consequences. Newsweek is living with the consequences of its mistake. And the rest of us will, for the rest of our lives, have to live with the consequences of what this administration has said by its policies and actions since 9/11.
Ducks & Cover Update
For those of you asking, the surviving 12 ducklings and their two mothers are doing fine. They are now in a secure, undisclosed location.
Unfortunately the mastermind of the 5/11 attacks, Osama bin Skunk, continues to elude capture.
I am happy to report that we do have five local Raccoons in custody. They are currently undergoing interrogation in my Pizgo facility. My intelligence indicates that those in custody may know the current whereabouts of OBS so they are being subjected to certain "stress positions" until they talk.
Repeated demands by PETA to see the detainees have been denied. The detainees may not be skunks but they come from the same neighborhood, wear masks and sure look suspicious.
<> By Stephen Pizzo
<>
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Only reporters really understand how it feels when they discover too late that there’s a mistake in their story. I can’t tell you the number of nights over the years I awoke in a cold sweat terrified there might be an error in a story of mine running off the presses.. (Should I have triple-checked that item? Are my two, or three, or five sources spinning some kind of self-serving agenda I missed? Am I going to get sued and lose everything?)
Over nearly three decades of reporting I made a mistake or two, fortunately nothing that ever rose to the level of requiring a retraction or resulted in one of those dreaded “see you in court” moments. But that’s like saying I’ve been driving for 48 years and never had a major accident. It was a combination of careful reporting and a good helping of luck.
But let me assure non-journalists out there -- reporters hate mistakes that make it into print more than you can imagine. A big mistake in a story is to a journalist what a death on the operating table is to a surgeon.
Those who have been there know the aftermath. It consumes your nights and days for weeks, or even months. You lose your confidence. You begin to hesitate over even little matters. You start checking and rechecking the same facts over and over in a process that boarders on OCD. It can paralyze your production. When your editor asks, “Hey, when will that story be ready to go?” you can list a dozen reasons why you need more time.
Sooner or later you either have hang up the old word processor or get over it and slip back into the newsroom workflow.
Anyway, those of you who know of what I speak, know. Those of you who don’t, can’t even imagine how bad it can be.
I know what Newsweek’s Michael Isakoff is going through right now, and I extend my condolences. But there is a lot more wrong going on in this Koran-down-the-toilet flap than just a reporting error. Newsweek has taken its lumps, and will take more before this one is over. But some bigger lumps are going undelivered to other players who are far more deserving of them.
The Bush Administration
I almost choked on my lunch yesterday when I heard Rumsfeld and White House spinsters pontificating on the Newsweek piece, and how “the damage is done” and how Newsweek’s apology and admission that mistakes were made “were too little too late.”
- Of ALL people on the face of the earth the Bush administration has the least right to make such a statement. Some 15 people died in riots after Newsweek’s mistake. But thousands died from the Bush administration’s WMD intelligence “mistake,” -- for which they have not even had the decency to apologize.
- And, wasn’t this the administration that, after their WMD intelligence was proven to be not just wrong, but W-R-O-N-G, shrugged it off with a casual “oh, you know intelligence is never perfect.” Well, I have news for you guys, neither is s journalism. But journalists get it right (and tell the whole truth) a lot more often than this administration does. That’s for sure. And I challenge the administration to disprove it.
- Also, I heard no one from the Bush administration acknowledge the damage their own policies have done to the image of the US. Such as their well-documented policies and statements that the Geneva Convention’s rules for treatment of prisoners does not apply to the guys we a fighting right now. The actions that grew from that policy gave credence to the Newsweek story. For example, have US interrogators ever tortured and otherwise mistreated detainees? Yep. They sure have. We have the pictures. Have US interrogators ever targeted Muslim detainee’s religious beliefs to break them down? You betchya. We have the thousands of pages of documentation on that and now even a book written by former Gitmo interrogator that backs it up.
Nevertheless, the very administration whose own policies, lies and arrogance that took American down this ugly path now demand that Newsweek apologize and change the way it does business. What breathtaking chutzpah! Just when I think we have seen the limit of this administration’s Machiavellian/Orwellian proclivities they top them with something that leaves staring at the TV screen frozen in disbelief.
Is this a double standard? No. Double is not big enough. This one is off the mathematical chart.
Crazy Muslims
Islamic nations and their Koran thumping populations have to start taking responsibility for their own behavior and the causes for it. Even if US interrogators did flush a Koran down a toilet, rioting and killing 15 fellow Muslims in a street riot is not the US’s fault -- or Newsweek’s either. It’s the fault of the nations that allow half-educated radial Mullah’s to force-feed their flock a diet of 10th century ignorance, prejudice and intolerance from the pulpit. And more:
- These people burn American flags for sport, mindless of how Americans might be offended by it. But two lines in the Newsweek article that some infidel may have mistreated a Koran and it drives them into a self-righteous, murderous frenzy of insult – and more burning American flags.
- Every day now some self-proclaimed Islamic radical blows himself up killing scores of innocent civilians someplace in the world. And they justify this murderous behavior on “Islamic grounds.” The same folks that rioted at the thought some infidel might have mistreated paper, don’t riot over suicide bombings. Only one conclusion can be drawn from this; Muslims disapprove of Koran-abuse but approve of killing civilians -- as long as it is done under color of the Koran.
Islamic radicals like to indulge in the belief that the Judeo/Christian West is at war with the Muslim world. Well, there is a war going on, that’s for sure, but they have it backasswards. The West would be more than happy to see Muslims living quietly in their quaint 12th Century Islamic theme park nations, cutting off heads and abusing their women, if they would just knock off the terrorism.
On the otherhand, sending suicide bombers is the wrong way to convince the West to leave them alone. The Saudis and Egyptians learned a long time ago that all they had to do to be left alone was to find the right pressure points. They did and since then they have had the West dancing like a monkey at the end of their leash. Provide oil, promise to make nice to Israel, promise not to build nukes, promise not to become Commies – that's all it takes and then the checks from Uncle Sam start rolling in. (Duh!)
But as long as Islamic terrorists insist on blowing things up that don’t belong to them and killing innocent civilians, the West will continue returning the favor.
Reporters
Would White House, State Department and DOD reporters do us all a favor? Ask the those spinsters (on camera please) to compare the gravity of the administration’s WMD intelligence mistakes with Newsweek’s Koran-down-the-toilet mistake. And, why Newsweek has come clean but the administration feels their mistakes require nothing more than s shrug and a “well, considering Saddam’s history of behavior, we could have been right.” That same excuse could easy serve Newsweek. After all we have learned about US interrogation methods the flushing a book down a toilet seemed the least serious thing alleged.
The administration was also bemoaning the “damage done to the image of the US” by the Newsweek piece. Jesus, this administration has made mistakes that have hurt the US in ways that border on treason. I know some will see that as hyperbole, but think about it – torture, lying to justify a military invasion of another nation, detention without trial for detainees – the very kinds of behavior the US fought. There ought to be laws. (Oh wait -- there are laws.)
As the Queen told Alice, once you say something you have to live with the consequences. Newsweek is living with the consequences of its mistake. And the rest of us will, for the rest of our lives, have to live with the consequences of what this administration has said by its policies and actions since 9/11.
Ducks & Cover Update
For those of you asking, the surviving 12 ducklings and their two mothers are doing fine. They are now in a secure, undisclosed location.
Unfortunately the mastermind of the 5/11 attacks, Osama bin Skunk, continues to elude capture.
I am happy to report that we do have five local Raccoons in custody. They are currently undergoing interrogation in my Pizgo facility. My intelligence indicates that those in custody may know the current whereabouts of OBS so they are being subjected to certain "stress positions" until they talk.
Repeated demands by PETA to see the detainees have been denied. The detainees may not be skunks but they come from the same neighborhood, wear masks and sure look suspicious.
<> By Stephen Pizzo
<>
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
May 13-15, 2005
Weak-end Edition
I have to keep my contribution short today because my personal homeland security has proven to have a few holes in it. Yesterday three of my mother ducks suddenly began hatching chicks. A local terrorist skunk slipped through security. My barnyard looked like the Capitol on Wednesday, with chickens, ducks and goats screaming and running in all directions at once. There were casualties, all civilians.
So last night I put the remaining baby ducks in a box and brought them into my office for safety. This morning I discovered they had spent the night busting out. I now have a serious duckling infestation under my desk.
(Does anyone know if duck droppings are bad for a computer? I figure they can’t be good for it.)
Anyway, I have to sort this all out before I attract PETA demonstrators to the ranch.
So, I am going to take the next four days off. I have to hunt down Osama bin Skunk and then reinforce my borders.
So, instead of actually writing anything I am going to “re-purpose” (AKA, steal) a piece from a much better writer, Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle. He really nails it in the reproduced below.
Have a nice weekend. Steve
Join the Unitarian Jihad
By JON CARROLL
San Francisco Chronicle
The following is the first communiqué from a group calling itself Unitarian Jihad. It was sent to me at The Chronicle via an anonymous spam remailer. I have no idea whether other news organizations have received this communiqué, and, if so, why they have not chosen to print it. Perhaps they fear starting a panic. I feel strongly that the truth, no matter how alarming, trivial or disgusting, must always be told. I am pleased to report that the words below are at least not disgusting:
Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.
Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States! Too long has your attention been waylaid by the bright baubles of extremist thought. Too long have fundamentalist yahoos of all religions (except Buddhism -- 14-5 vote, no abstentions, fundamentalism subcommittee) made your head hurt. Too long have you been buffeted by angry people who think that God talks to them. You have a right to your moderation! You have the power to be calm! We will use the IED of truth to explode the SUV of dogmatic expression!
People of the United States, why is everyone yelling at you??? Whatever happened to ... you know, everything? Why is the news dominated by nutballs saying that the Ten Commandments have to be tattooed inside the eyelids of every American, or that Allah has told them to kill Americans in order to rid the world of Satan, or that Yahweh has instructed them to go live wherever they feel like, or that Shiva thinks bombing mosques is a great idea? Sister Immaculate Dagger of Peace notes for the record that we mean no disrespect to Jews, Muslims, Christians or Hindus. Referred back to the committee of the whole for further discussion.
We are Unitarian Jihad. We are everywhere. We have not been born again, nor have we sworn a blood oath. We do not think that God cares what we read, what we eat or whom we sleep with. Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity notes for the record that he does not have a moral code but is nevertheless a good person, and Unexalted Leader Garrote of Forgiveness stipulates that Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity is a good person, and this is to be reflected in the minutes.
Beware! Unless you people shut up and begin acting like grown-ups with brains enough to understand the difference between political belief and personal faith, the Unitarian Jihad will begin a series of terrorist-like actions. We will take over television studios, kidnap so-called commentators and broadcast calm, well-reasoned discussions of the issues of the day. We will not try for "balance" by hiring fruitcakes; we will try for balance by hiring non-ideologues who have carefully thought through the issues.
We are Unitarian Jihad. We will appear in public places and require people to shake hands with each other. (Sister Hand Grenade of Love suggested that we institute a terror regime of mandatory hugging, but her motion was not formally introduced because of lack of a quorum.) We will require all lobbyists, spokesmen and campaign managers to dress like trout in public. Televangelists will be forced to take jobs as Xerox repair specialists. Demagogues of all stripes will be required to read Proust out loud in prisons.
We are Unitarian Jihad, and our motto is: "Sincerity is not enough." We have heard from enough sincere people to last a lifetime already. Just because you believe it's true doesn't make it true. Just because your motives are pure doesn't mean you are not doing harm. Get a dog, or comfort someone in a nursing home, or just feed the birds in the park. Play basketball. Lighten up. The world is not out to get you, except in the sense that the world is out to get everyone.
Brother Gatling Gun of Patience notes that he's pretty sure the world is out to get him because everyone laughs when he says he is a Unitarian. There were murmurs of assent around the room, and someone suggested that we buy some Congress members and really stick it to the Baptists. But this was deemed against Revolutionary Principles, and Brother Gatling Gun of Patience was remanded to the Sunday Flowers and Banners committee.
People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again! (There will be coffee and cookies in the Gandhi Room after the revolution.)
Original Article HERE
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
From http://arniearnesen.com/
"You know I don't like the broad brush approach, but, evangelicals and fundamentalism are to Christianity what a marching band is to Mozart."
Amen
I have to keep my contribution short today because my personal homeland security has proven to have a few holes in it. Yesterday three of my mother ducks suddenly began hatching chicks. A local terrorist skunk slipped through security. My barnyard looked like the Capitol on Wednesday, with chickens, ducks and goats screaming and running in all directions at once. There were casualties, all civilians.
So last night I put the remaining baby ducks in a box and brought them into my office for safety. This morning I discovered they had spent the night busting out. I now have a serious duckling infestation under my desk.
(Does anyone know if duck droppings are bad for a computer? I figure they can’t be good for it.)
Anyway, I have to sort this all out before I attract PETA demonstrators to the ranch.
So, I am going to take the next four days off. I have to hunt down Osama bin Skunk and then reinforce my borders.
So, instead of actually writing anything I am going to “re-purpose” (AKA, steal) a piece from a much better writer, Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle. He really nails it in the reproduced below.
Have a nice weekend. Steve
Join the Unitarian Jihad
By JON CARROLL
San Francisco Chronicle
The following is the first communiqué from a group calling itself Unitarian Jihad. It was sent to me at The Chronicle via an anonymous spam remailer. I have no idea whether other news organizations have received this communiqué, and, if so, why they have not chosen to print it. Perhaps they fear starting a panic. I feel strongly that the truth, no matter how alarming, trivial or disgusting, must always be told. I am pleased to report that the words below are at least not disgusting:
Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.
Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States! Too long has your attention been waylaid by the bright baubles of extremist thought. Too long have fundamentalist yahoos of all religions (except Buddhism -- 14-5 vote, no abstentions, fundamentalism subcommittee) made your head hurt. Too long have you been buffeted by angry people who think that God talks to them. You have a right to your moderation! You have the power to be calm! We will use the IED of truth to explode the SUV of dogmatic expression!
People of the United States, why is everyone yelling at you??? Whatever happened to ... you know, everything? Why is the news dominated by nutballs saying that the Ten Commandments have to be tattooed inside the eyelids of every American, or that Allah has told them to kill Americans in order to rid the world of Satan, or that Yahweh has instructed them to go live wherever they feel like, or that Shiva thinks bombing mosques is a great idea? Sister Immaculate Dagger of Peace notes for the record that we mean no disrespect to Jews, Muslims, Christians or Hindus. Referred back to the committee of the whole for further discussion.
We are Unitarian Jihad. We are everywhere. We have not been born again, nor have we sworn a blood oath. We do not think that God cares what we read, what we eat or whom we sleep with. Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity notes for the record that he does not have a moral code but is nevertheless a good person, and Unexalted Leader Garrote of Forgiveness stipulates that Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity is a good person, and this is to be reflected in the minutes.
Beware! Unless you people shut up and begin acting like grown-ups with brains enough to understand the difference between political belief and personal faith, the Unitarian Jihad will begin a series of terrorist-like actions. We will take over television studios, kidnap so-called commentators and broadcast calm, well-reasoned discussions of the issues of the day. We will not try for "balance" by hiring fruitcakes; we will try for balance by hiring non-ideologues who have carefully thought through the issues.
We are Unitarian Jihad. We will appear in public places and require people to shake hands with each other. (Sister Hand Grenade of Love suggested that we institute a terror regime of mandatory hugging, but her motion was not formally introduced because of lack of a quorum.) We will require all lobbyists, spokesmen and campaign managers to dress like trout in public. Televangelists will be forced to take jobs as Xerox repair specialists. Demagogues of all stripes will be required to read Proust out loud in prisons.
We are Unitarian Jihad, and our motto is: "Sincerity is not enough." We have heard from enough sincere people to last a lifetime already. Just because you believe it's true doesn't make it true. Just because your motives are pure doesn't mean you are not doing harm. Get a dog, or comfort someone in a nursing home, or just feed the birds in the park. Play basketball. Lighten up. The world is not out to get you, except in the sense that the world is out to get everyone.
Brother Gatling Gun of Patience notes that he's pretty sure the world is out to get him because everyone laughs when he says he is a Unitarian. There were murmurs of assent around the room, and someone suggested that we buy some Congress members and really stick it to the Baptists. But this was deemed against Revolutionary Principles, and Brother Gatling Gun of Patience was remanded to the Sunday Flowers and Banners committee.
People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again! (There will be coffee and cookies in the Gandhi Room after the revolution.)
Original Article HERE
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
From http://arniearnesen.com/
"You know I don't like the broad brush approach, but, evangelicals and fundamentalism are to Christianity what a marching band is to Mozart."
Amen
Friday, May 13, 2005
May 12, 2005
Solving “The Bolton Problem”
You have to ask yourself why, with all the trouble this administration already has on its hands, it would stand by a troublemaker like John Bolton.
I have some ideas on that.
Almost nothing in Washington happens without there being what reporters call a “back story.” That’s a euphemism for, “the real reasons as opposed to the Orwellian talking point reasons.”
In Bolton’s case the administration’s talking point reasons are that Bolton is a tough guy and a straight talker and that’s just what we need at the United Nations.
The back-story is far more interesting. You see, Bolton knows where all – and I mean ALL – the bodies are buried, creating for the Bush administration a certain “Bolton Problem.”
Let’s start before the beginning. Before George W. Bush was declared President, Bolton was already on the payroll. The first time you saw Bolton you might have had a flush of déjà vu. You knew you had seen this guy before but could not recall where. Let me help.
Remember that cross-eyed bald guy the news always shows looking for hanging chads during the Florida recount? Well, the next time you see that file footage look behind him and you will see John Bolton. (Story)
Bolton was flown to Florida by Bush Family consigliore, James Baker; to make sure things went their way. And, now that we know just how “unpleasant” Bolton can get when things don’t go his way, we should not be surprised that Florida went their way.
So it started there. So Bolton’s head is chuck full of all the who’s, what’s, where’s and how’s of the Florida recount operation. including how it was really paid for, and by whom.
Having won his chops in Florida Bolton was put at the State Department to keep a Bush-eye on Powell. Bush picked him because Powell’s popularity ratings were higher than his own and because he could claim the distinction of appointing the first black to the job. But the Bushites did not trust Powell as far as they could throw him. So they put Bolton there to spy on him and, when necessary, sabotage him.
Trusted friend Richard Armitage was Powell’s choice as his right hand man and his job soon became keeping an eye on Bolton and, when necessary, to abscess Bolton off when he started causing trouble. That turned out to be a fulltime job for Armitage. This was pure, cutthroat; take no prisoners, raw palace politics. Shakespeare could not have embellished upon it.
But it was during the run up to the war in Iraq that having Bolton at State as a Bush Neocon mole really paid off. Powell and Armitage were something less than convinced by administration evidence that Iraq posed a clear and present threat to the US. Bolton, working with VP Cheney’s office kept the pressure on Powell by leaking information that undermined his boss’s position that the matter should be left for now in the hands of the United Nations and UN weapons inspectors.
As with the Florida recount operation, Bolton was one of just a handful of Bushites on the inside of Iraq War WMD propaganda operation. He knows what they really knew at the time. He also knows how (and who) cooked that information to justify war.
One more thing, and this shows just how “good” the Bushites are at what the do.
Not only did Bolton help the administration sell the false story about Iraq’s weapons programs but, as a bonus, they got Powell to personally peddle those lies live and in living color to the entire world. What a sweet moment it must of have been for John Bolton -- to have maneuvered his prey, Powell, and his nemesis, Armitage, to commit credibility suicide on the floor of the hated United Nations. Could life get any better for a Neocon?
After Bush won reelection a disgraced Powell and Armitage slunk off in defeat. The tried and true Condi Rice was going to be Secretary of State now so hit man Bolton was no longer needed at State. In fact he was not even wanted there. Rice knew first hand how much trouble Bolton could be and she wanted him nowhere near here turf.
But that left them with a problem -- what to do with Bolton? He knew too much to just fire. The administration knew only too well what fired insiders do – they write tell-all books. And if Bolton “told all,” people could go to jail. He could spark a “gate” -- Iraggate, Boltongate, Votegate, Cheneygate. Who knew if any would stick but if one or more did, it would ruin Bush’s second term.
Images of Dick Nixon waving goodbye from the helicopter steps haunted Karl Rove’s dreams.
Then it struck them. The UN is a pain in our ass. Bolton is a pain in the ass. The UN is mired in scandal and polls show the public doesn’t think much of the organization any more. Let’s “promote” Bolton to UN Ambassador.
They must have rolled on the Oval Office floor laughing the night they came up with that idea. “I can see it now,” Rove might have said. “Here comes the Nigerian ambassador, robes flying in all directions as he runs for his life down a hallway with red-faced John screaming behind him demanding he sign a resolution.”
Putting Bolton at the UN would be like setting off a stink bomb in a school auditorium. What a hoot that would be!
The administration figured nominating Bolton for the job was a win/win solution to the “Bolton Problem.” If the Senate confirmed him he would go to the UN and make trouble-on-order for the administration there as he did at State. But, if the Senate refused to confirm him then it would be a “clean kill.” Bolton problem solved. Bush’s hands would be clean.
“Gosh John, sorry. Those damn liberal Democrats! It’s the politics of personal destruction John and you are just their latest victim. You know I think you would have made a wonderful ambassador. Well, Bye John. Stay in touch.”
Bit it did not quite turn out that clean. The confirmation process got dragged out. Some Republicans even began to waver and the administration was forced to look as though they really wanted him confirmed. If Bush let Bolton swing in the wind at the very moment he needed the kind of loyalty he had showed them then he would leave angry. Really angry. And angry ex-officials write angry books. So Bush had to spend some capital, and investment in silence.
But Bolton took a real beating. I have no idea if he is going to get confirmed or not. But if he doesn’t he will have a lot of time to think about how he got returned to the private sector. He might start to wonder if the administration he served set him up for all this misery. He might wonder if all those stories about him being a hotheaded crazy guy were planted in case he later began talking out of school. “Oh, that’s just John,” White House spin masters will whisper to reporters. “You know how John can be.” (Accompanied by crazy finger circling by side of spin master’s head.)
But who knows what an angry ex-official might say if ever put under oath. Could John Bolton could become George Bush’s very own Sammy “The Bull” Gravano.
Sammy had “anger management” problems too.
And that’s the answer to the question, “Why Bolton?” That’s the back-story.
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
You have to ask yourself why, with all the trouble this administration already has on its hands, it would stand by a troublemaker like John Bolton.
I have some ideas on that.
Almost nothing in Washington happens without there being what reporters call a “back story.” That’s a euphemism for, “the real reasons as opposed to the Orwellian talking point reasons.”
In Bolton’s case the administration’s talking point reasons are that Bolton is a tough guy and a straight talker and that’s just what we need at the United Nations.
The back-story is far more interesting. You see, Bolton knows where all – and I mean ALL – the bodies are buried, creating for the Bush administration a certain “Bolton Problem.”
Let’s start before the beginning. Before George W. Bush was declared President, Bolton was already on the payroll. The first time you saw Bolton you might have had a flush of déjà vu. You knew you had seen this guy before but could not recall where. Let me help.
Remember that cross-eyed bald guy the news always shows looking for hanging chads during the Florida recount? Well, the next time you see that file footage look behind him and you will see John Bolton. (Story)
Bolton was flown to Florida by Bush Family consigliore, James Baker; to make sure things went their way. And, now that we know just how “unpleasant” Bolton can get when things don’t go his way, we should not be surprised that Florida went their way.
So it started there. So Bolton’s head is chuck full of all the who’s, what’s, where’s and how’s of the Florida recount operation. including how it was really paid for, and by whom.
Having won his chops in Florida Bolton was put at the State Department to keep a Bush-eye on Powell. Bush picked him because Powell’s popularity ratings were higher than his own and because he could claim the distinction of appointing the first black to the job. But the Bushites did not trust Powell as far as they could throw him. So they put Bolton there to spy on him and, when necessary, sabotage him.
Trusted friend Richard Armitage was Powell’s choice as his right hand man and his job soon became keeping an eye on Bolton and, when necessary, to abscess Bolton off when he started causing trouble. That turned out to be a fulltime job for Armitage. This was pure, cutthroat; take no prisoners, raw palace politics. Shakespeare could not have embellished upon it.
But it was during the run up to the war in Iraq that having Bolton at State as a Bush Neocon mole really paid off. Powell and Armitage were something less than convinced by administration evidence that Iraq posed a clear and present threat to the US. Bolton, working with VP Cheney’s office kept the pressure on Powell by leaking information that undermined his boss’s position that the matter should be left for now in the hands of the United Nations and UN weapons inspectors.
As with the Florida recount operation, Bolton was one of just a handful of Bushites on the inside of Iraq War WMD propaganda operation. He knows what they really knew at the time. He also knows how (and who) cooked that information to justify war.
One more thing, and this shows just how “good” the Bushites are at what the do.
Not only did Bolton help the administration sell the false story about Iraq’s weapons programs but, as a bonus, they got Powell to personally peddle those lies live and in living color to the entire world. What a sweet moment it must of have been for John Bolton -- to have maneuvered his prey, Powell, and his nemesis, Armitage, to commit credibility suicide on the floor of the hated United Nations. Could life get any better for a Neocon?
After Bush won reelection a disgraced Powell and Armitage slunk off in defeat. The tried and true Condi Rice was going to be Secretary of State now so hit man Bolton was no longer needed at State. In fact he was not even wanted there. Rice knew first hand how much trouble Bolton could be and she wanted him nowhere near here turf.
But that left them with a problem -- what to do with Bolton? He knew too much to just fire. The administration knew only too well what fired insiders do – they write tell-all books. And if Bolton “told all,” people could go to jail. He could spark a “gate” -- Iraggate, Boltongate, Votegate, Cheneygate. Who knew if any would stick but if one or more did, it would ruin Bush’s second term.
Images of Dick Nixon waving goodbye from the helicopter steps haunted Karl Rove’s dreams.
Then it struck them. The UN is a pain in our ass. Bolton is a pain in the ass. The UN is mired in scandal and polls show the public doesn’t think much of the organization any more. Let’s “promote” Bolton to UN Ambassador.
They must have rolled on the Oval Office floor laughing the night they came up with that idea. “I can see it now,” Rove might have said. “Here comes the Nigerian ambassador, robes flying in all directions as he runs for his life down a hallway with red-faced John screaming behind him demanding he sign a resolution.”
Putting Bolton at the UN would be like setting off a stink bomb in a school auditorium. What a hoot that would be!
The administration figured nominating Bolton for the job was a win/win solution to the “Bolton Problem.” If the Senate confirmed him he would go to the UN and make trouble-on-order for the administration there as he did at State. But, if the Senate refused to confirm him then it would be a “clean kill.” Bolton problem solved. Bush’s hands would be clean.
“Gosh John, sorry. Those damn liberal Democrats! It’s the politics of personal destruction John and you are just their latest victim. You know I think you would have made a wonderful ambassador. Well, Bye John. Stay in touch.”
Bit it did not quite turn out that clean. The confirmation process got dragged out. Some Republicans even began to waver and the administration was forced to look as though they really wanted him confirmed. If Bush let Bolton swing in the wind at the very moment he needed the kind of loyalty he had showed them then he would leave angry. Really angry. And angry ex-officials write angry books. So Bush had to spend some capital, and investment in silence.
But Bolton took a real beating. I have no idea if he is going to get confirmed or not. But if he doesn’t he will have a lot of time to think about how he got returned to the private sector. He might start to wonder if the administration he served set him up for all this misery. He might wonder if all those stories about him being a hotheaded crazy guy were planted in case he later began talking out of school. “Oh, that’s just John,” White House spin masters will whisper to reporters. “You know how John can be.” (Accompanied by crazy finger circling by side of spin master’s head.)
But who knows what an angry ex-official might say if ever put under oath. Could John Bolton could become George Bush’s very own Sammy “The Bull” Gravano.
Sammy had “anger management” problems too.
And that’s the answer to the question, “Why Bolton?” That’s the back-story.
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Thursday, May 12, 2005
May 11, 2005
Nuclear Option – for China
As their certifiably crazy neighbor, North Korea, moves towards their first nuclear bomb test, China continues to play inscrutably stubborn. The US and Japan want to threaten trade sanctions on N.K. as the last non-violent option to get North Korea to drop development of nuclear weapons. China, as a member of the Security Council would have to agree, and they won’t.
China could fix this little problem on its own. Because, without the charity fuel and food North Korea gets from China the Nutty Kingdom would collapse in a matter of months.
But the Chinese won’t do it because it uses North Korea like a thug uses a mean pit bull on a leash. Whenever the US pushes China to do something it does not want to do, like revalue its currency or slow imports of cheap goods, China fingers it's NK leash as though they are about to let it slip from their grasp, and the US backs down. (Story Here)
But North Korea is not China’s only leverage over the US. They know better than anyone that their North Korean gambit could blow up, literally and figuratively, at any moment. So, even as they play that card for all its worth, they have another ace in the hole. US economists live in terror that, if clamp down on the Chinese, they will start dumping US bonds and stop buying new ones. In other words, they will stop lending us the money we need to fund our twin deficits – the budget deficit caused by Bush’s tax cuts, and the trade deficit caused by – well China.
What President John F. Kennedy do if faced with this same situation? North Korea smells a lot like the Cuba JFK faced, only less immediately dangerous. Cuba had real nukes and real missiles. N.K. is on its way there, but not quite there just yet. And Cuba, like North Korea had a half-crazy leader propped up, like North Korea, by a giant communist power, the Soviets.
We know what Kennedy did during the Cuban crisis, and I suspect he would do much the same now if he were in Oval Office. He would begin by calling China’s bluff, just as he called the Soviet’s. And, at the same time start to gear up for a crediable naval blockade of North Korea.
Then he would have the Secretary of State phone the Chinese trade minster and ask how he would like to lose Wal-Mart as a customer.
Time for talk is getting short. Yesterday North Korea announced it had finished removing over 8,000 spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor. North Korea now has enough plutonium to make up to six bombs. How much do you think oil-rich Iran would pay North Korea for one or two of those babies? Would it be worth $100 million to Iran to be able to say to Israel, “go ahead, make our day.”
China’s cooperation is not just necessary right now but something the world should demand. If they refuse to get with it, and soon, then it’s time to tighten the economic screws on China. Without US trade China’s development would grind to a crawl, and they know it.
So, Cowboy George, do you have the same size balls as that bleeding heart liberal, JFK?
We’ll see.
(Memo to the Chinese: BTW, the place the North Koreans plan to set off their first nuke, Kilju, is right over the aquifer that supplies Southern China with fresh water. Just thought that was worth a mention.)
Check Please
The war in Iraq has now cost you $300 billion. Yesterday the Senate gave final passage to an $82 billion "emergency" war-spending bill. And you’re still not done paying for this little adventure. Army officials and congressional aides say more money will be needed as early as October. (Full Story)
Remember, this was the war that the administration assured us would cost us less than $50 billion, or even nothing at all since Iraqi oil would pick up the lion’s share of the tab. Call it “trickle up” economics and it’s working just as well as Bush tax cut “trickle down,” theory.
One reason the bill keeps going up is because private contractors continue to run barefoot through our national checking account. Chief among them is Halliburton, which has a special relationship with this administration. Even though Halliburton keeps getting caught shoplifting from taxpayers, they are able to not only stay out of jail, but are rewarded.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army said on Tuesday it had awarded $72 million in bonuses to Halliburton Co. for logistics work in Iraq but had not decided whether to give the Texas company bonuses for disputed dining services to troops. KBR's logistics deal with the U.S. military. In addition, investigators are looking into whether the Texas-based firm charged too much to supply fuel to Iraqi civilians... (Full Story)
I want a contract like that. One where I can screw my customer blue and get bonuses for it.
But wait, where are all those moralizing Christian fundamentalists in the administration when this kind Thou Shalt Not Steal, larceny is going on?
Oh. On the payroll of course.
Judges Agree -- It’s None Of Your Damn Business
Unless some enterprising Washington reporter is able to dig it up we will now never learn what advice Ken Lay gave to VP Cheney that now is part of the administration’s energy policies.
WASHINGTON, May 10 - A federal appeals court said on Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney did not have to divulge details about how the White House's energy policies were shaped, ruling in a case that touched on the constitutional separation of powers. The 8-to-0 decision, handed down months after the lawsuit became an issue in the 2004 election, was a victory for the executive branch in general and the Bush administration in particular. (Full Story)
Again I ask -- where are those conservative voices of outrage that condemned the secrecy of Hillary Clinton’s healthcare commission? Where are the congressional subpoenas that wrestled a blue dress and even Presidential DNA from Clinton?
None of your business, apparently.
It may be your government, but what it does behind closed doors is now officially none of your damn business.
Pension Pains
I wonder if Bush sees any irony in the ruling yesterday by a federal bankruptcy judge allowing United Airlines to dump billions of dollars of pension obligations onto the federal government?
The ruling releases United, a unit of the United Airlines, from $3.2 billion in pension obligations over the next five years. The federal agency that guarantees pensions, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, will assume responsibility for the plans. (Full Story)
Yes boys and girls, even as this administration touts the glories and riches to be had by privatizing Social Security, it is having to bail out a corporate pension fund. And why? Because it was mismanged - maybe even looted -- by the very company that now seeks federal bankruptcy protection from it’s own retirees.
It turns out that United Airlines’ pension fund is a little short on cash -- just under $10 billion. Apparently there was no lockbox at United.
Now that United has been allowed to dump it’s pension obligation on taxpayers, just wait and see how many other companies do the same.
And the administration wonders why voters don’t like their Social Security “reforms.”
How much would you like to bet that a decade or two after private accounts are allowed that those funds will come up short on the cash to pay their obligations and will be lining up in front of Uncle Sam’s ATM begging for taxpayer help?
You can bet on it. So, don’t bet on private accounts.
<> By Stephen Pizzo
<>
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
As their certifiably crazy neighbor, North Korea, moves towards their first nuclear bomb test, China continues to play inscrutably stubborn. The US and Japan want to threaten trade sanctions on N.K. as the last non-violent option to get North Korea to drop development of nuclear weapons. China, as a member of the Security Council would have to agree, and they won’t.
China could fix this little problem on its own. Because, without the charity fuel and food North Korea gets from China the Nutty Kingdom would collapse in a matter of months.
But the Chinese won’t do it because it uses North Korea like a thug uses a mean pit bull on a leash. Whenever the US pushes China to do something it does not want to do, like revalue its currency or slow imports of cheap goods, China fingers it's NK leash as though they are about to let it slip from their grasp, and the US backs down. (Story Here)
But North Korea is not China’s only leverage over the US. They know better than anyone that their North Korean gambit could blow up, literally and figuratively, at any moment. So, even as they play that card for all its worth, they have another ace in the hole. US economists live in terror that, if clamp down on the Chinese, they will start dumping US bonds and stop buying new ones. In other words, they will stop lending us the money we need to fund our twin deficits – the budget deficit caused by Bush’s tax cuts, and the trade deficit caused by – well China.
What President John F. Kennedy do if faced with this same situation? North Korea smells a lot like the Cuba JFK faced, only less immediately dangerous. Cuba had real nukes and real missiles. N.K. is on its way there, but not quite there just yet. And Cuba, like North Korea had a half-crazy leader propped up, like North Korea, by a giant communist power, the Soviets.
We know what Kennedy did during the Cuban crisis, and I suspect he would do much the same now if he were in Oval Office. He would begin by calling China’s bluff, just as he called the Soviet’s. And, at the same time start to gear up for a crediable naval blockade of North Korea.
Then he would have the Secretary of State phone the Chinese trade minster and ask how he would like to lose Wal-Mart as a customer.
Time for talk is getting short. Yesterday North Korea announced it had finished removing over 8,000 spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor. North Korea now has enough plutonium to make up to six bombs. How much do you think oil-rich Iran would pay North Korea for one or two of those babies? Would it be worth $100 million to Iran to be able to say to Israel, “go ahead, make our day.”
China’s cooperation is not just necessary right now but something the world should demand. If they refuse to get with it, and soon, then it’s time to tighten the economic screws on China. Without US trade China’s development would grind to a crawl, and they know it.
So, Cowboy George, do you have the same size balls as that bleeding heart liberal, JFK?
We’ll see.
(Memo to the Chinese: BTW, the place the North Koreans plan to set off their first nuke, Kilju, is right over the aquifer that supplies Southern China with fresh water. Just thought that was worth a mention.)
Check Please
The war in Iraq has now cost you $300 billion. Yesterday the Senate gave final passage to an $82 billion "emergency" war-spending bill. And you’re still not done paying for this little adventure. Army officials and congressional aides say more money will be needed as early as October. (Full Story)
Remember, this was the war that the administration assured us would cost us less than $50 billion, or even nothing at all since Iraqi oil would pick up the lion’s share of the tab. Call it “trickle up” economics and it’s working just as well as Bush tax cut “trickle down,” theory.
One reason the bill keeps going up is because private contractors continue to run barefoot through our national checking account. Chief among them is Halliburton, which has a special relationship with this administration. Even though Halliburton keeps getting caught shoplifting from taxpayers, they are able to not only stay out of jail, but are rewarded.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army said on Tuesday it had awarded $72 million in bonuses to Halliburton Co. for logistics work in Iraq but had not decided whether to give the Texas company bonuses for disputed dining services to troops. KBR's logistics deal with the U.S. military. In addition, investigators are looking into whether the Texas-based firm charged too much to supply fuel to Iraqi civilians... (Full Story)
I want a contract like that. One where I can screw my customer blue and get bonuses for it.
But wait, where are all those moralizing Christian fundamentalists in the administration when this kind Thou Shalt Not Steal, larceny is going on?
Oh. On the payroll of course.
Judges Agree -- It’s None Of Your Damn Business
Unless some enterprising Washington reporter is able to dig it up we will now never learn what advice Ken Lay gave to VP Cheney that now is part of the administration’s energy policies.
WASHINGTON, May 10 - A federal appeals court said on Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney did not have to divulge details about how the White House's energy policies were shaped, ruling in a case that touched on the constitutional separation of powers. The 8-to-0 decision, handed down months after the lawsuit became an issue in the 2004 election, was a victory for the executive branch in general and the Bush administration in particular. (Full Story)
Again I ask -- where are those conservative voices of outrage that condemned the secrecy of Hillary Clinton’s healthcare commission? Where are the congressional subpoenas that wrestled a blue dress and even Presidential DNA from Clinton?
None of your business, apparently.
It may be your government, but what it does behind closed doors is now officially none of your damn business.
Pension Pains
I wonder if Bush sees any irony in the ruling yesterday by a federal bankruptcy judge allowing United Airlines to dump billions of dollars of pension obligations onto the federal government?
The ruling releases United, a unit of the United Airlines, from $3.2 billion in pension obligations over the next five years. The federal agency that guarantees pensions, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, will assume responsibility for the plans. (Full Story)
Yes boys and girls, even as this administration touts the glories and riches to be had by privatizing Social Security, it is having to bail out a corporate pension fund. And why? Because it was mismanged - maybe even looted -- by the very company that now seeks federal bankruptcy protection from it’s own retirees.
It turns out that United Airlines’ pension fund is a little short on cash -- just under $10 billion. Apparently there was no lockbox at United.
Now that United has been allowed to dump it’s pension obligation on taxpayers, just wait and see how many other companies do the same.
And the administration wonders why voters don’t like their Social Security “reforms.”
How much would you like to bet that a decade or two after private accounts are allowed that those funds will come up short on the cash to pay their obligations and will be lining up in front of Uncle Sam’s ATM begging for taxpayer help?
You can bet on it. So, don’t bet on private accounts.
<> By Stephen Pizzo
<>
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
May 10, 2005
Sounding Off
First let me say this to Internet advertisers: knock it off with surprise ad audios.
This is the latest trick to get us to pay attention to ads on the web pages selling things we have no reason to care about. Having once owned a small newspaper I understand the need to please paying advertisers. But I also understand the importance of not pissing off readers.
And – Washington Post.com you pissed me off this morning when, still sleepy-eye I was about to take my first sip of coffee when that Hyundai ad began blaring loud music through my computer speakers. Jesus H. Christ! I'm still trying to get the coffee out of my keyboard.
Thanks to that little surprise I am now against all things Hyundai. And if you keep it up I will be against all things Washington Post as well. So, knock it off. Take note of Pizzo’s Rule No. 1 of Internet Marketing: Just because you can do something on the Internet does not mean it’s a smart thing to do.
Jarring your readers with “surprise sounds” is neither smart nor endearing. So knock it off.
One more personal rant before I get down to ranting about the news.
I have said this before and will not say it again, so listen up. I am a mistake factory. Not with facts but with spelling, punctuation and syntax. I think I have a touch of dyslexia and know I have a bunch of stupid going on in this 60-year old head. Neither condition is curable.
And, I am tired of people emailing me and telling me to get an editor. Right. You pay for an editor and I will happily get one. I appreciate good editing more than most writers. I readily admit I am a carefree and careless writer. Always have been. It's amazing I got as far in this business as I did. And I credit all the editors I drove to drink over the years for all of it.
But now I have no editors so what you get is Pizzo-raw. If you are one of those anal types that just cannot get past the typos, then spare yourself the pain. Just go away. Both of us will be happier for it.
Now To The News (Sans Sound or Editing)
At Last, Free Medical Care for the Uninsured!
Yes, it’s true. And – I hope you are sitting down – it is even backed by the Bush administration. Free hospital care for the sick and injured. Nationalized medicine.
But not for you, unless of course you are an illegal immigrant (translate that to Mexican illegal immigrant.)
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration announced on Monday that it would start paying hospitals and doctors for providing emergency care to illegal immigrants…. The money, totaling $1 billion, will be available for services provided from Tuesday through September 2008. (Full Story)
Yes, while 47 million certified, taxpaying American citizens go without health insurance, Washington politicians are going to use $1 billion of YOUR tax money to purchase the hearts and votes of the growing Hispanic demographic.
The money is also being spent to help hospitals that complain that the flood of illegals using their facilities for free is a burden they can no longer carry. So you and I will pay the bill now -- even if you can't get health insurance for yourself or your family.
This whole illegal immigration thing is going to bite both parties right in the ass if they don't wise up pretty damn soon. Pandering to illegal Hispanics to curry favor with Hispanic voters is only going to end badly for both this nation and for those politicians using our money to votes. Especially so because these are the same politicians who cannot muster the courage and wisdom to figure out how to provide basic health coverage to legal citizens.
And they wonder why people are cynical about politics and fed up with both parties. I would say "a pox on both your houses," but a pox epidemic is the last then we need with so many uninsured citizens.
Add This to Evolution
Born-agains are going to have another piece of science to hate besides evolution. It seems that more proof has surfaced that gays are born that way.
“Using a brain imaging technique, Swedish researchers have shown that homosexual and heterosexual men respond differently to two odors that may be involved in sexual arousal, and that the gay men respond in the same way as women… The new research may open the way to studying human pheromones, as well as the biological basis of sexual preference. (Full Story)
Religious fundamentalists of all flavors are not going to believe a word of that research. They hate it when anyone tries to take away a sin. Sin is critical to their whole shtick. Without sins what they have left? A whole race of humans who are just fine and need no unsolicited advice. And among Christians Top Ten sins is homosexuality -- strange when you consider the guy they worship spent most of his adult years wandering the desert with twelve men in robes.
Speaking of Hypocrites
Whenever I hear a politician demagoguing any matter sexual I know in my gut that he/she has a kinky side they have not quite come to terms with. Here’s the latest proof of that concept:
“Citing what he called persecution and hysteria, Republican Mayor Jim West says he's taking a few weeks off to defend himself against allegations of child molestation and new claims that he offered city jobs to men he met online.” (Full Story)
Oh man, is that sweet, or what? I would not normally take pleasure in another person’s misfortune except that this guy made his spurs by pontificating on the evils of homosexuality and opposing gay marriage.
At the same time he was beating gay voters over their heads with righteous indignation, he was sexually harassing men on his own staff. Ryan Oelrich, an openly gay 24-year-old, says he accepted West's appointment to the city's Human Rights Commission in April 2004 after meeting the Mayor – where? At City Hall? Ah, no. He met him online at Gay.com.
Oelrich said he finally had to resign from the commission because West "hounded me for months, telling me I was cute and asking me out on dates. Oelrich told the local newspaper that he knows of "five or six other young gay men that Jim West has met online and offered City Hall jobs."
What a piece of work! But it gets worse. He is now accused of trying to solicit sex from a reporter who was masquerading on a gay web site as a 17-year old boy. And in a series it began publishing last Thursday, The Spokesman-Review reported that West had abused two boys while he was a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Just keep all this in mind the next time you hear the likes of Rev. Jerry Falwell, Pat Roberson and Dr. James Dobson berating gays. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Hint: Suspect those that protest too much about personal matters that should be none of their damn business – unless of course, it is their business… if you get my drift.
Pope Putin I
By now you have heard that one of the first acts of the new Pope was to fire the editor of an influential Jesuit magazine. Ft. Thomas Reese was canned at the orders of the Vatican.
The National Catholic Reporter, the U.S. weekly reported that the Vatican had objected to articles in Reese’s magazine that openly questioned the Vatican’s ban on condom use to prevent AIDS, homosexual priests and secretive Church disciplinary measures.
The orders came from the department the Vatican renamed after the world learned about the horrors of the Inquisition. The department’s job now, as then, is to disciple Catholic theologians that stray from the party line. Cardinal Ratzinger ran this department from 1981 to 2005.
Now Pope Bene' the Ratzinger appears to be taking a page from Vladimir Putin’s playbook by slamming the lid down on the Church’s free press, particularly in America. How ironic that this guy should follow the Pope credited with ending Communist rule of Eastern Europe.
Maybe President Bush should give the new Pope his lecture on democracy and the indispensable nature of a free press.
First let me say this to Internet advertisers: knock it off with surprise ad audios.
This is the latest trick to get us to pay attention to ads on the web pages selling things we have no reason to care about. Having once owned a small newspaper I understand the need to please paying advertisers. But I also understand the importance of not pissing off readers.
And – Washington Post.com you pissed me off this morning when, still sleepy-eye I was about to take my first sip of coffee when that Hyundai ad began blaring loud music through my computer speakers. Jesus H. Christ! I'm still trying to get the coffee out of my keyboard.
Thanks to that little surprise I am now against all things Hyundai. And if you keep it up I will be against all things Washington Post as well. So, knock it off. Take note of Pizzo’s Rule No. 1 of Internet Marketing: Just because you can do something on the Internet does not mean it’s a smart thing to do.
Jarring your readers with “surprise sounds” is neither smart nor endearing. So knock it off.
One more personal rant before I get down to ranting about the news.
I have said this before and will not say it again, so listen up. I am a mistake factory. Not with facts but with spelling, punctuation and syntax. I think I have a touch of dyslexia and know I have a bunch of stupid going on in this 60-year old head. Neither condition is curable.
And, I am tired of people emailing me and telling me to get an editor. Right. You pay for an editor and I will happily get one. I appreciate good editing more than most writers. I readily admit I am a carefree and careless writer. Always have been. It's amazing I got as far in this business as I did. And I credit all the editors I drove to drink over the years for all of it.
But now I have no editors so what you get is Pizzo-raw. If you are one of those anal types that just cannot get past the typos, then spare yourself the pain. Just go away. Both of us will be happier for it.
Now To The News (Sans Sound or Editing)
At Last, Free Medical Care for the Uninsured!
Yes, it’s true. And – I hope you are sitting down – it is even backed by the Bush administration. Free hospital care for the sick and injured. Nationalized medicine.
But not for you, unless of course you are an illegal immigrant (translate that to Mexican illegal immigrant.)
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration announced on Monday that it would start paying hospitals and doctors for providing emergency care to illegal immigrants…. The money, totaling $1 billion, will be available for services provided from Tuesday through September 2008. (Full Story)
Yes, while 47 million certified, taxpaying American citizens go without health insurance, Washington politicians are going to use $1 billion of YOUR tax money to purchase the hearts and votes of the growing Hispanic demographic.
The money is also being spent to help hospitals that complain that the flood of illegals using their facilities for free is a burden they can no longer carry. So you and I will pay the bill now -- even if you can't get health insurance for yourself or your family.
This whole illegal immigration thing is going to bite both parties right in the ass if they don't wise up pretty damn soon. Pandering to illegal Hispanics to curry favor with Hispanic voters is only going to end badly for both this nation and for those politicians using our money to votes. Especially so because these are the same politicians who cannot muster the courage and wisdom to figure out how to provide basic health coverage to legal citizens.
And they wonder why people are cynical about politics and fed up with both parties. I would say "a pox on both your houses," but a pox epidemic is the last then we need with so many uninsured citizens.
Add This to Evolution
Born-agains are going to have another piece of science to hate besides evolution. It seems that more proof has surfaced that gays are born that way.
“Using a brain imaging technique, Swedish researchers have shown that homosexual and heterosexual men respond differently to two odors that may be involved in sexual arousal, and that the gay men respond in the same way as women… The new research may open the way to studying human pheromones, as well as the biological basis of sexual preference. (Full Story)
Religious fundamentalists of all flavors are not going to believe a word of that research. They hate it when anyone tries to take away a sin. Sin is critical to their whole shtick. Without sins what they have left? A whole race of humans who are just fine and need no unsolicited advice. And among Christians Top Ten sins is homosexuality -- strange when you consider the guy they worship spent most of his adult years wandering the desert with twelve men in robes.
Speaking of Hypocrites
Whenever I hear a politician demagoguing any matter sexual I know in my gut that he/she has a kinky side they have not quite come to terms with. Here’s the latest proof of that concept:
“Citing what he called persecution and hysteria, Republican Mayor Jim West says he's taking a few weeks off to defend himself against allegations of child molestation and new claims that he offered city jobs to men he met online.” (Full Story)
Oh man, is that sweet, or what? I would not normally take pleasure in another person’s misfortune except that this guy made his spurs by pontificating on the evils of homosexuality and opposing gay marriage.
At the same time he was beating gay voters over their heads with righteous indignation, he was sexually harassing men on his own staff. Ryan Oelrich, an openly gay 24-year-old, says he accepted West's appointment to the city's Human Rights Commission in April 2004 after meeting the Mayor – where? At City Hall? Ah, no. He met him online at Gay.com.
Oelrich said he finally had to resign from the commission because West "hounded me for months, telling me I was cute and asking me out on dates. Oelrich told the local newspaper that he knows of "five or six other young gay men that Jim West has met online and offered City Hall jobs."
What a piece of work! But it gets worse. He is now accused of trying to solicit sex from a reporter who was masquerading on a gay web site as a 17-year old boy. And in a series it began publishing last Thursday, The Spokesman-Review reported that West had abused two boys while he was a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Just keep all this in mind the next time you hear the likes of Rev. Jerry Falwell, Pat Roberson and Dr. James Dobson berating gays. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Hint: Suspect those that protest too much about personal matters that should be none of their damn business – unless of course, it is their business… if you get my drift.
Pope Putin I
By now you have heard that one of the first acts of the new Pope was to fire the editor of an influential Jesuit magazine. Ft. Thomas Reese was canned at the orders of the Vatican.
The National Catholic Reporter, the U.S. weekly reported that the Vatican had objected to articles in Reese’s magazine that openly questioned the Vatican’s ban on condom use to prevent AIDS, homosexual priests and secretive Church disciplinary measures.
The orders came from the department the Vatican renamed after the world learned about the horrors of the Inquisition. The department’s job now, as then, is to disciple Catholic theologians that stray from the party line. Cardinal Ratzinger ran this department from 1981 to 2005.
Now Pope Bene' the Ratzinger appears to be taking a page from Vladimir Putin’s playbook by slamming the lid down on the Church’s free press, particularly in America. How ironic that this guy should follow the Pope credited with ending Communist rule of Eastern Europe.
Maybe President Bush should give the new Pope his lecture on democracy and the indispensable nature of a free press.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
May 9, 2005
Short People Round Here
First let’s get something straight; North Korea is not a nation, it’s a Hood run by an Asian version of the Crips. Selling drugs and guns to anyone with hard currency is how they generate hard currency. They kidnap citizens of neighboring nations, not for their bodies, but for their brainpower.
North Korea’s foreign policies mirror the insecurities of it’s half-pint leader, Kim Jong II, who defensively rages as if he believes the entire world is singing “We don’t need no short people round here,” in four part harmony.
All this causes Kim The Minor to reinforce virtually every short-person stereotype on the books. He wears lifts in his shoes. He lets his hair grow long then does a Don King thing with it so it stands up straight gaining him another two inches of altitude. And, of course, he blusters and threatens any country that looks at him sideways. “You wanna piece of this? Huh, huh?”
But it the shoe lifts have failed to give the little fruitcake the respect he seeks. So now he is threatening to acquire the biggest shoe lifts on earth, nuclear weapons and the missiles needed to step across the Pacific and leave giant Kim-foot prints on US soil. Kim says he may be short, but his missiles are tall.
All this is grim news for those of us that live on the West Coast. Nevertheless I had to smile when I read what set off the alarm bells at the CIA. It was a satellite photo that showed North Koreans preparing what looked like a site to test a nuclear weapon. The give away was the construction of massive viewing stands. Yeah, open-air bleachers!
If this true then I say let the little bastards test their bomb. Let Kim invite his closest 10,000 friends to watch from nearby bleachers. What can explain this? Either the N. Koreans are unclear on the concept of nuclear explosions or one of the scientists they kidnapped from Japan is about to get even, big time.
Anyway, if it happened it would be the easiest and quickest regime change in human history.
Of course they are not that dumb. We should be so lucky. The North Koreans snookered the Clinton administration and, for the past five years, have been jerking the Bush folk around like monkeys on a leash. Now they are ready to light off their first nuke.
I have said this before and it needs to be said again. China is the key. The only way to get China to drop the hammer on Short Stuff is to publicly announce that if North Korea tests American nukes will be installed in Japan and South Korea the next morning. And that we will deploy a full naval blockade of North Korea and enforce it with force is necessary.
Now, that’s what I call being serious about non-proliferation. Anything short of that is just talk, and Not-So-Great Leader Kim knows its.
Your move Big-Talkin-George. Iran can’t wait to see what you do if N.Korea gets away with a nuclear test.
Body Counts – Last Refuge of Losers?
Those of us who lived through the Vietnam War remember “body counts” all too well. In an effort to prove to American’s that we were winning that mistake of a war the Pentagon began releasing a weekly accountings of how many North Vietnamese and Viet Cong they had killed. These accountings were carefully calculated to assure the number of enemy dead was always ten times or more than the 100 plus American soldiers killed the same week. (Figures don’t lie but liars can figure.)
After the war we learned that those accountings of enemy dead were so bogus even Arthur Andersen would not have signed off on them. Anything Asian found dead that week was counted as an enemy kill -- kids, mothers, the elderly -- and then, if the number was still deemed too low, they would throw in an estimate of how many they might have killed but never found the pieces.
If you treated those official body counts as a score then you would have concluded that we were indeed winning the Vietnam War. The numbers aid we were kicking their butts, big time.
Of course we weren’t winning. In fact, we lost, big time.
So I was not reassured today when I saw this story in my morning newspaper:
May 9 (Bloomberg) -- About 75 insurgents have been killed in western Iraq in the first 24 hours of an operation by coalition forces near the border with Syria, the U.S. military said today. (Full Story)
When this war began the Pentagon explicitly refused to release body counts, noting that they were not relevant. But now, three years and still fighting, we see the return of body counts along with almost daily news of the capture of some character we never heard of before but whom is now described as a “high value” terrorist.
Is this a sign we are losing? No, not yet. We have to wait until the administration declares a sighting of “the light at the end of the tunnel.”
What If?
Have you wondered lately what would happen if a general election were held today? How would Bush do? And would Republicans be able to maintain their dominance of Congress?
An answer is at hand.
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected calls to resign on Monday as he reshuffled the ministerial pack after last week's election sharply weakened his Labour government….Blair won an unprecedented straight third term for the center-left Labour party last week, but voters whose trust in him was damaged by Iraq more than halved his majority. (Full Story)
I am confident that if we had an election today the results here would nearly mirror those in Britain. Of course a lot would depend on who the Democrats put up in opposition to Bush and Congressional Republicans. But even if Dems put up their usual roster of limp-wristed, valueless, triangulating losers, the balance of power would shift dramatically – at the very least, back towards a genuine balance.
The reasons for such a change here would be the same as they were in Britain. There voters hated the war in Iraq and made Blair pay for playing Bush’s yes-man. But they also realized that Blair’s Labor Party had continued its Clintonite domestic economic policies which they liked. They also knew that the Tories (Republicans with a British accent,) would return the country to the uncompassionate conservative, Republican-like Thatcher economic polices. So they slapped Blair around for the war and then reelected his party anyway.
Bush does not have that advantage. The first thing he did when elected was to gut the fiscally responsible Clinton economic policies. So, if Bush had run today he could only run on a war he lied to get us into and humungous deficits that are now beginning to take their toll on an already shaky economy.
Congressional Republicans would fare even worse. Republican voters are shifting nervously as they watch their members of Congress wade into personal matters, like the Schiavo case, and pass intrusive measures like the Patriot Act and threaten sitting federal judges. Most Republican voters did not vote for any of that.
But we still have a year and half before the next mid-term election and three years before the next general election. I suppose I could take some comfort in assuming that Bush and his fellow Republicans will only get themselves into even more trouble between now and then. I am quite certain the will.
The only trouble is we are all passengers on this high-stakes Mr. Froggie’s Wild Ride.
I.Q.’s On Display
Did you know that Christian white people with names like Jethro and Mary Sue, and Billy Joe are smarter than black people and Jews? Yep, God made-em that way.
Anyway, that was the point these folks were trying to make over the weekend.
BOSTON -- White supremacists clashed with an angry crowd outside Faneuil Hall, where Holocaust survivors and their families were commemorating the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. (Full Story)
White supremacists always amaze me. While they are adamant in their belief that white Christians are God’s chosen people, they are a bad advertisement for both their position and God.
I feel sorry for people who are simply ignorant. But I despise people who are both ignorant and arrogantly ignorant. I have yet to meet a white supremacist who was not a complete ignoramus. They never seem to see the contradictions that surround their own lives. If they are God’s chosen people then I guess we also have to believe that mobile homes are God’s chosen abodes – even though He also clearly enjoys using tornados to rip them apart every spring.
This particular bunch of losers was in Boston to harass their second favorite target right after blacks, Jews. Blacks, Jews and Liberals are white supremacist’s axis of evil. They can trace every one of their own life’s country-and-western-soap-opera, Jerry Springer-show miseries to one or a combination of the three.
If they are stuck in a low-paying job it’s not because they could not be a corporate CEO, but because the Jews keep those jobs for themselves.
If they are stuck in a rotten neighborhood it’s because minorities moved in and, since the Jews get all the good jobs, they can’t afford to move to a better neighborhood.
If their kids are stupid it’s because those secular humanist liberals won’t let them pray in school and fill their heads with Bible-contradicting evolution lessons.
And of course those damn liberals are in cahoots with minorities and Jews making sure minorities get promoted instead of them and behind it all is big Jewish money.
There’s no reasoning with a white supremacist, so don't bother trying. They are lost to all logic. They will go to their graves believing the Holocaust was nothing more than giant publicity stunt cooked up by the Jews to get sympathy.
But at least one good thing does flow from every public demonstration by white supremacists. Every time they display themselves in public they disprove the central theory of their movement. They prove that, rather than all whites being superior, some are so stupid scientists should study how people with so few neurons firing keep their internal organs functioning.
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
First let’s get something straight; North Korea is not a nation, it’s a Hood run by an Asian version of the Crips. Selling drugs and guns to anyone with hard currency is how they generate hard currency. They kidnap citizens of neighboring nations, not for their bodies, but for their brainpower.
North Korea’s foreign policies mirror the insecurities of it’s half-pint leader, Kim Jong II, who defensively rages as if he believes the entire world is singing “We don’t need no short people round here,” in four part harmony.
All this causes Kim The Minor to reinforce virtually every short-person stereotype on the books. He wears lifts in his shoes. He lets his hair grow long then does a Don King thing with it so it stands up straight gaining him another two inches of altitude. And, of course, he blusters and threatens any country that looks at him sideways. “You wanna piece of this? Huh, huh?”
But it the shoe lifts have failed to give the little fruitcake the respect he seeks. So now he is threatening to acquire the biggest shoe lifts on earth, nuclear weapons and the missiles needed to step across the Pacific and leave giant Kim-foot prints on US soil. Kim says he may be short, but his missiles are tall.
All this is grim news for those of us that live on the West Coast. Nevertheless I had to smile when I read what set off the alarm bells at the CIA. It was a satellite photo that showed North Koreans preparing what looked like a site to test a nuclear weapon. The give away was the construction of massive viewing stands. Yeah, open-air bleachers!
If this true then I say let the little bastards test their bomb. Let Kim invite his closest 10,000 friends to watch from nearby bleachers. What can explain this? Either the N. Koreans are unclear on the concept of nuclear explosions or one of the scientists they kidnapped from Japan is about to get even, big time.
Anyway, if it happened it would be the easiest and quickest regime change in human history.
Of course they are not that dumb. We should be so lucky. The North Koreans snookered the Clinton administration and, for the past five years, have been jerking the Bush folk around like monkeys on a leash. Now they are ready to light off their first nuke.
I have said this before and it needs to be said again. China is the key. The only way to get China to drop the hammer on Short Stuff is to publicly announce that if North Korea tests American nukes will be installed in Japan and South Korea the next morning. And that we will deploy a full naval blockade of North Korea and enforce it with force is necessary.
Now, that’s what I call being serious about non-proliferation. Anything short of that is just talk, and Not-So-Great Leader Kim knows its.
Your move Big-Talkin-George. Iran can’t wait to see what you do if N.Korea gets away with a nuclear test.
Body Counts – Last Refuge of Losers?
Those of us who lived through the Vietnam War remember “body counts” all too well. In an effort to prove to American’s that we were winning that mistake of a war the Pentagon began releasing a weekly accountings of how many North Vietnamese and Viet Cong they had killed. These accountings were carefully calculated to assure the number of enemy dead was always ten times or more than the 100 plus American soldiers killed the same week. (Figures don’t lie but liars can figure.)
After the war we learned that those accountings of enemy dead were so bogus even Arthur Andersen would not have signed off on them. Anything Asian found dead that week was counted as an enemy kill -- kids, mothers, the elderly -- and then, if the number was still deemed too low, they would throw in an estimate of how many they might have killed but never found the pieces.
If you treated those official body counts as a score then you would have concluded that we were indeed winning the Vietnam War. The numbers aid we were kicking their butts, big time.
Of course we weren’t winning. In fact, we lost, big time.
So I was not reassured today when I saw this story in my morning newspaper:
May 9 (Bloomberg) -- About 75 insurgents have been killed in western Iraq in the first 24 hours of an operation by coalition forces near the border with Syria, the U.S. military said today. (Full Story)
When this war began the Pentagon explicitly refused to release body counts, noting that they were not relevant. But now, three years and still fighting, we see the return of body counts along with almost daily news of the capture of some character we never heard of before but whom is now described as a “high value” terrorist.
Is this a sign we are losing? No, not yet. We have to wait until the administration declares a sighting of “the light at the end of the tunnel.”
What If?
Have you wondered lately what would happen if a general election were held today? How would Bush do? And would Republicans be able to maintain their dominance of Congress?
An answer is at hand.
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected calls to resign on Monday as he reshuffled the ministerial pack after last week's election sharply weakened his Labour government….Blair won an unprecedented straight third term for the center-left Labour party last week, but voters whose trust in him was damaged by Iraq more than halved his majority. (Full Story)
I am confident that if we had an election today the results here would nearly mirror those in Britain. Of course a lot would depend on who the Democrats put up in opposition to Bush and Congressional Republicans. But even if Dems put up their usual roster of limp-wristed, valueless, triangulating losers, the balance of power would shift dramatically – at the very least, back towards a genuine balance.
The reasons for such a change here would be the same as they were in Britain. There voters hated the war in Iraq and made Blair pay for playing Bush’s yes-man. But they also realized that Blair’s Labor Party had continued its Clintonite domestic economic policies which they liked. They also knew that the Tories (Republicans with a British accent,) would return the country to the uncompassionate conservative, Republican-like Thatcher economic polices. So they slapped Blair around for the war and then reelected his party anyway.
Bush does not have that advantage. The first thing he did when elected was to gut the fiscally responsible Clinton economic policies. So, if Bush had run today he could only run on a war he lied to get us into and humungous deficits that are now beginning to take their toll on an already shaky economy.
Congressional Republicans would fare even worse. Republican voters are shifting nervously as they watch their members of Congress wade into personal matters, like the Schiavo case, and pass intrusive measures like the Patriot Act and threaten sitting federal judges. Most Republican voters did not vote for any of that.
But we still have a year and half before the next mid-term election and three years before the next general election. I suppose I could take some comfort in assuming that Bush and his fellow Republicans will only get themselves into even more trouble between now and then. I am quite certain the will.
The only trouble is we are all passengers on this high-stakes Mr. Froggie’s Wild Ride.
I.Q.’s On Display
Did you know that Christian white people with names like Jethro and Mary Sue, and Billy Joe are smarter than black people and Jews? Yep, God made-em that way.
Anyway, that was the point these folks were trying to make over the weekend.
BOSTON -- White supremacists clashed with an angry crowd outside Faneuil Hall, where Holocaust survivors and their families were commemorating the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. (Full Story)
White supremacists always amaze me. While they are adamant in their belief that white Christians are God’s chosen people, they are a bad advertisement for both their position and God.
I feel sorry for people who are simply ignorant. But I despise people who are both ignorant and arrogantly ignorant. I have yet to meet a white supremacist who was not a complete ignoramus. They never seem to see the contradictions that surround their own lives. If they are God’s chosen people then I guess we also have to believe that mobile homes are God’s chosen abodes – even though He also clearly enjoys using tornados to rip them apart every spring.
This particular bunch of losers was in Boston to harass their second favorite target right after blacks, Jews. Blacks, Jews and Liberals are white supremacist’s axis of evil. They can trace every one of their own life’s country-and-western-soap-opera, Jerry Springer-show miseries to one or a combination of the three.
If they are stuck in a low-paying job it’s not because they could not be a corporate CEO, but because the Jews keep those jobs for themselves.
If they are stuck in a rotten neighborhood it’s because minorities moved in and, since the Jews get all the good jobs, they can’t afford to move to a better neighborhood.
If their kids are stupid it’s because those secular humanist liberals won’t let them pray in school and fill their heads with Bible-contradicting evolution lessons.
And of course those damn liberals are in cahoots with minorities and Jews making sure minorities get promoted instead of them and behind it all is big Jewish money.
There’s no reasoning with a white supremacist, so don't bother trying. They are lost to all logic. They will go to their graves believing the Holocaust was nothing more than giant publicity stunt cooked up by the Jews to get sympathy.
But at least one good thing does flow from every public demonstration by white supremacists. Every time they display themselves in public they disprove the central theory of their movement. They prove that, rather than all whites being superior, some are so stupid scientists should study how people with so few neurons firing keep their internal organs functioning.
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Monday, May 09, 2005
May7-8, 2005
When Words Mattered
Some years ago I picked up a stack of old The Atlantic magazines. Got them for just a nickel each. They were dated from the late 1930’s through the late 1950s. In all they were about fifty issues and it turned out to be the best $2.50 I ever spent.
Not to be indelicate, but these old Atlantic magazines soon became my toilet reading of choice. And, one by one I poured through these wonderful paper-bond time capsules.
In the February 1937 issue Henry C. Wolfe, who authored a cautionary book entitle “The German Octopus: Hitler Bids for World Power, again sounded the alarm that too few would heed. The final sentence in his 1937 Atlantic article predicted,
“But the time will arrive when Hitler’s opponents will be compelled to resist his aggressive tactics or give way to him completely.”
And so, it came to pass. Reading Wolfe’s detailed Atlantic piece from 1937 leaves the reader with only one conclusion – Americans and Europeans had all the facts they needed to know what Hitler was up to and still failed to act. You see Wolfe’s essay, like all the others in the old Atlantic from my rummage sale collection, was long, nearly 2500 - 3000 words, as best I can tell.
And forget about new-capsules. In those days news was a serious business bordering on scholarship. These old articles were chockablock full of facts, figures, details and references. There was no attempt by the authors to talk down to the reader, or spare him/her the effort it took to truly grasp the important issues of the time.
Many of The Atlantic’s writers back then were also individuals with names that still ring with authority, brilliance, even genius.
* George F. Kennan, On US troops that fought during WWII in Russia
* Peter Ustinov -- a short story
* C.S. Lewis -- an essay entitled, “The Efficacy of Prayer”
* Walter Lippman – an essay “Lessons in Survival”
* T.S. Elliot -- a poem
* Archibald MacLeish -- a poem
* Bertrand Russell -- an essay, “Springs of Human Action”
* Thornton Wilder, an essay, “Toward an American Language”
* Robert Frost -- a poem
* James Reston -- an essay on journalism, “Secrecy and the Reporter”
* Henry Cabot Lodge -- an essay on the 1952 GOP nomination
* Edith Sitwell, an essay on Dylan Thomas
* Pearl S. Buck, on life in China
* Adlai Stevenson, article critical of the spread of gaming, “Who Runs the Gambling Machines”
* Conrad Akin – an essay on William Faulkner
I only mention this because, every time I pick up one of these old Atlantics, it makes me sad. They are a reminder that, in a time before television and the 24-hour news cycle, people had both the time and inclination to, not only learn what’s happening, but why.
This week we learned that newspaper circulation continues to plummet. This is largely because Generations X and Y are both products of an education system that failed to instill in them a passion for the printed word. My freshman year in high school, back in 1960, began by being handed a two-foot high stack of classics -- Shakespeare, Faulkner, Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson…. That began a love affair with the printed word and the art of writing that continues to this day.
Later educators started fiddling with experimental curriculums – many now discredited – that steered students away from “stale old Western literature,” and towards a more freeform, visual and “interactive” smorgasbord of learning activities.
The results of that little experiment were driven home for me during a four-year period during which I was part of an Internet start up back in the late 1990s. I and another veteran print journalist, Carol Pogash, had joined the company to produce written materials needed for the sites coverage of extreme outdoor events such as open ocean sailing and mountain climbing.
Almost immediately Carol and I were under attacked from our 20-something fellow employees. It seems they did not appreciate our style of journalism one little bit. Their main complaint – we “used too many words.” Even though we tried to keep our pieces to between 500 and 750 words, that was too many words for these kids.
“You guys are old media,” they would tell us dismissively during meetings. “This is new media where stories have to be told using visual content and fewer words. You two have to learn a different way to write.”
One day I had had enough of that and said, “Fine. I’m an old dog, but I can still learn new tricks. Stop telling me I have to learn a new way to write and show me what you mean.”
The lanky, grossly overpaid, arrogant little 20-something flashed a condescending smile and jumped up. “Okay, I will,” he said. “Wait here. I have to grab something off my desk.”
He disappeared for a minute and returned. “This is what I am talking about,” he said, slapping a booklet-sized item down in front of me. “This is how you tell a story visually.”
It was a comic book.
I walked by his desk later and noticed he had a lot of comics, as did many of the others around him. To them, that was “reading.”
They were smart kids, in a narrow, vertical sort of way. They knew how to produce colorful Web pages with things that went wiggle, wiggle and could hold the eye. What they could not do was tell a story.
But maybe even more importantly, they understood almost nothing about business cycles or human nature. Because neither subject could be reduced to pictures and speech bubbles.
The Internet company I was with, like most of the others, failed. Economists blame the Dot-com bust on over-exuberance. But they miss another, maybe more fundamental, reason.
What drove that frenzy? With that much money flying around there had be more than just 20-somethings involved. There had to be some old-timers too. Why did they let it all get so out of hand?
I can tell you -- because they let Dot-com-land buisness become a high-tech version of Lord of The Flies. They let these “unliterate” kids drive the process. Add to that this was also the generation who attending school during the days when maintaining a student’s self-esteem took precedence over demanding performance. That meant you couldn't criticize anything they did without running the risk of them either desolving in tears or storming out in clueless but righteous outrage.
I recall the day I “got” what was happening. I had just locked horns with a couple of these kids and our CEO approached me.
“Steve,” he said, “You can't talk to these kids like that, it just upsets them.”
I argued that the kids in question had just screwed up an entire project with graphic gadgets that did not work. The CEO paused, and then it came.
“Steve, do you know how to write code in Java or Flash? Well, neither do I. We need these kids. So, leave them alone.”
Our little company proceeded to “burn through” about $160 million in four years. The money was lavished on things that made no economic sense whatsoever, but sure were pretty on a screen.
Finally I folded my tent and left in a huff. It was March 1, 2000 and the company's stock was still in the double digits. One year to the day later the company was stone dead and its 450 employees on the street.
Anyway, that’s just my experience with the word-hating generation. Maybe they were right and I was wrong. Maybe not. I hope that since their "new media" fantasies went up in smoke at least a few of them have chucked the comics and are now curling up with books that have more words than pictures.
As for comparing today's MacNugget news products to venerable old publications, like The Atlantic, what can I say? There is no comparison that can be made that would be kind to today's news products. Still I suppose I should be happy to at least see folks reading USA Today on the train than a Batman comic.
But let’s not kid ourselves. What we call news today would have infuriated serious readers 50 years ago, leaving them asking, “Where’s the beef?”
Some years ago I picked up a stack of old The Atlantic magazines. Got them for just a nickel each. They were dated from the late 1930’s through the late 1950s. In all they were about fifty issues and it turned out to be the best $2.50 I ever spent.
Not to be indelicate, but these old Atlantic magazines soon became my toilet reading of choice. And, one by one I poured through these wonderful paper-bond time capsules.
In the February 1937 issue Henry C. Wolfe, who authored a cautionary book entitle “The German Octopus: Hitler Bids for World Power, again sounded the alarm that too few would heed. The final sentence in his 1937 Atlantic article predicted,
“But the time will arrive when Hitler’s opponents will be compelled to resist his aggressive tactics or give way to him completely.”
And so, it came to pass. Reading Wolfe’s detailed Atlantic piece from 1937 leaves the reader with only one conclusion – Americans and Europeans had all the facts they needed to know what Hitler was up to and still failed to act. You see Wolfe’s essay, like all the others in the old Atlantic from my rummage sale collection, was long, nearly 2500 - 3000 words, as best I can tell.
And forget about new-capsules. In those days news was a serious business bordering on scholarship. These old articles were chockablock full of facts, figures, details and references. There was no attempt by the authors to talk down to the reader, or spare him/her the effort it took to truly grasp the important issues of the time.
Many of The Atlantic’s writers back then were also individuals with names that still ring with authority, brilliance, even genius.
* George F. Kennan, On US troops that fought during WWII in Russia
* Peter Ustinov -- a short story
* C.S. Lewis -- an essay entitled, “The Efficacy of Prayer”
* Walter Lippman – an essay “Lessons in Survival”
* T.S. Elliot -- a poem
* Archibald MacLeish -- a poem
* Bertrand Russell -- an essay, “Springs of Human Action”
* Thornton Wilder, an essay, “Toward an American Language”
* Robert Frost -- a poem
* James Reston -- an essay on journalism, “Secrecy and the Reporter”
* Henry Cabot Lodge -- an essay on the 1952 GOP nomination
* Edith Sitwell, an essay on Dylan Thomas
* Pearl S. Buck, on life in China
* Adlai Stevenson, article critical of the spread of gaming, “Who Runs the Gambling Machines”
* Conrad Akin – an essay on William Faulkner
I only mention this because, every time I pick up one of these old Atlantics, it makes me sad. They are a reminder that, in a time before television and the 24-hour news cycle, people had both the time and inclination to, not only learn what’s happening, but why.
This week we learned that newspaper circulation continues to plummet. This is largely because Generations X and Y are both products of an education system that failed to instill in them a passion for the printed word. My freshman year in high school, back in 1960, began by being handed a two-foot high stack of classics -- Shakespeare, Faulkner, Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson…. That began a love affair with the printed word and the art of writing that continues to this day.
Later educators started fiddling with experimental curriculums – many now discredited – that steered students away from “stale old Western literature,” and towards a more freeform, visual and “interactive” smorgasbord of learning activities.
The results of that little experiment were driven home for me during a four-year period during which I was part of an Internet start up back in the late 1990s. I and another veteran print journalist, Carol Pogash, had joined the company to produce written materials needed for the sites coverage of extreme outdoor events such as open ocean sailing and mountain climbing.
Almost immediately Carol and I were under attacked from our 20-something fellow employees. It seems they did not appreciate our style of journalism one little bit. Their main complaint – we “used too many words.” Even though we tried to keep our pieces to between 500 and 750 words, that was too many words for these kids.
“You guys are old media,” they would tell us dismissively during meetings. “This is new media where stories have to be told using visual content and fewer words. You two have to learn a different way to write.”
One day I had had enough of that and said, “Fine. I’m an old dog, but I can still learn new tricks. Stop telling me I have to learn a new way to write and show me what you mean.”
The lanky, grossly overpaid, arrogant little 20-something flashed a condescending smile and jumped up. “Okay, I will,” he said. “Wait here. I have to grab something off my desk.”
He disappeared for a minute and returned. “This is what I am talking about,” he said, slapping a booklet-sized item down in front of me. “This is how you tell a story visually.”
It was a comic book.
I walked by his desk later and noticed he had a lot of comics, as did many of the others around him. To them, that was “reading.”
They were smart kids, in a narrow, vertical sort of way. They knew how to produce colorful Web pages with things that went wiggle, wiggle and could hold the eye. What they could not do was tell a story.
But maybe even more importantly, they understood almost nothing about business cycles or human nature. Because neither subject could be reduced to pictures and speech bubbles.
The Internet company I was with, like most of the others, failed. Economists blame the Dot-com bust on over-exuberance. But they miss another, maybe more fundamental, reason.
What drove that frenzy? With that much money flying around there had be more than just 20-somethings involved. There had to be some old-timers too. Why did they let it all get so out of hand?
I can tell you -- because they let Dot-com-land buisness become a high-tech version of Lord of The Flies. They let these “unliterate” kids drive the process. Add to that this was also the generation who attending school during the days when maintaining a student’s self-esteem took precedence over demanding performance. That meant you couldn't criticize anything they did without running the risk of them either desolving in tears or storming out in clueless but righteous outrage.
I recall the day I “got” what was happening. I had just locked horns with a couple of these kids and our CEO approached me.
“Steve,” he said, “You can't talk to these kids like that, it just upsets them.”
I argued that the kids in question had just screwed up an entire project with graphic gadgets that did not work. The CEO paused, and then it came.
“Steve, do you know how to write code in Java or Flash? Well, neither do I. We need these kids. So, leave them alone.”
Our little company proceeded to “burn through” about $160 million in four years. The money was lavished on things that made no economic sense whatsoever, but sure were pretty on a screen.
Finally I folded my tent and left in a huff. It was March 1, 2000 and the company's stock was still in the double digits. One year to the day later the company was stone dead and its 450 employees on the street.
Anyway, that’s just my experience with the word-hating generation. Maybe they were right and I was wrong. Maybe not. I hope that since their "new media" fantasies went up in smoke at least a few of them have chucked the comics and are now curling up with books that have more words than pictures.
As for comparing today's MacNugget news products to venerable old publications, like The Atlantic, what can I say? There is no comparison that can be made that would be kind to today's news products. Still I suppose I should be happy to at least see folks reading USA Today on the train than a Batman comic.
But let’s not kid ourselves. What we call news today would have infuriated serious readers 50 years ago, leaving them asking, “Where’s the beef?”
Friday, May 06, 2005
May 5, 2005
Do As We Say, Not As We Did
Two stories caught in my craw this morning. At first glance they may seem unrelated but in fact they have one very important thing in common.
Story 1:
Two on Ethics Panel Withdraw From DeLay Inquiry
WASHINGTON, May 4 - Two Republican members of the House ethics committee who contributed to the legal defense fund of Representative Tom DeLay, the majority leader, recused themselves Wednesday from any potential investigation of him as the panel took the first steps that could lead to such an inquiry. (Full Story)
This first story details how House Republicans, having been caught red-handed trying to stack the House Ethics Committed with two pro-DeLay shills, are now desperately trying to avoid having an outside counsel forced appointed to investigate their mega-sleazy Majority Leader.
The two Republicans who recused themselves each had already coughed up $5,000 to the Tom DeLay legal defense fund. The fund will pay DeLay's legal expenses in the event he is indicted for in Texas or has to fight charges of misconduct in Washington.
Chew on that little item for just a moment. House Speaker, Dennis Hastert removed two moderate Republicans form the Ethics Committee and replaced them with two guys he knew had each contributed five grand to pay DeLay’s lawyers. Talk about GOP chutzpah! Talk about arrogance. That’s the kind of thing John Gotti’s people used to do when their boss had to face justice… make sure he would be judged only by the best jury money could buy.
House Republicans thought the fix was in for DeLay, but Democrats blew the whistle on them and threatened to hold their breaths until Hastert put the ethics process back the way it was.
Yesterday Hastert tried to look like he was relenting. But Dems are having none of it. They want a nonpartisan outside counsel appointed, and that’s what was really behind Hastert’s strategic retreat.
You see Republicans, many of them the same people who gleefully used the Independent Prosecutor statute and hatchet-man Ken Starr to harass and cripple the Clinton presidency, are now terrified their own Tom DeLay might just get the same level of scrutiny.
Hastert’s ham-handed and obvious attempt to neuter the House Ethics Committee for DeLay has created the first real opening for House Democrats in five years. For the first time they now have a shot at cracking open the lid on the corrupt GOP campaign machine. Hastert’s actions have so tarnished and compromised the House Ethics Committee that only an independent counsel can conduct a credible investigation into the charges against DeLay.
Republicans will argue that the allegations against DeLay are not serious enough to require an independent counsel. I see. But “Filegate,” an old failed Arkansas real estate deal and lying about getting a BJ from an ugly fat girl was serious enough for an Independent Prosecutor and years of non-stop investigations costing taxpayers nearly $70 million.
Now, Story 2:
U.S. Warns Unions on Protests About Social Security
WASHINGTON, May 4 - The Bush administration has warned the nation's biggest labor federation that union-run pension funds may be breaking the law in opposing President Bush's Social Security proposals. (Full Story)
The administration’s Dept. of Labor shot off a letter Tuesday to the A.F.L.-C.I.O. warning that the Bush appointees at DOL were "very concerned" that the unions might be spending workers' money to "advocate a particular result in the current Social Security debate."
And, they warned the unions could be violating their fiduciary responsibilities by suggesting that they might take their investment business away from Wall Street firms that support Mr. Bush's plans.
Okay, let’s see if I get this straight. Labor unions are not supposed to use their member’s money to advocate political issues but tax-exempt religious groups can.
Do I have that straight? Onward Christian soldiers, is the American way, but workers unite, is just plain wrong.. I see.
Maybe instead of pretending to be shocked that labor unions would get involved with the Social Security debate, Republicans should ask why. Could it be that once upon not-so-long-time-ago employers provided generous pensions, including medical plans for their loyal retired workers. But no longer. Those have been "privatized," - which means employees have to fund their 401Ks out of their own paychecks. Those employer pension funds that still exist have either been looted dry by the employers or are under-funded and functionally insolvent. Even the federal pension insurance fund is broke.
Now that Social Security is all workers have to look forward to their unions are fighting to at least keep that safety net from being "privatized" into oblivion as well.
So, that’s why labor unions have jumped into the Social Security fight. And, may I say, it’s the least unions can do after sitting on their hands for the past two decades as employer after employer reneged on promises to their employees, mismanaged or robbed their retirement funds.
I said these two stories had something in common. In case you missed what it was, allow me.
- House Republicans are going to fight any attempt to appoint an independent counsel to investigate House Minority Leader Tom DeLay, even though they argued just the opposite when the perp was Bill Clinton.
- Pro-Christian, anti-labor Republicans in administration threaten labor unions for getting involved in the Social Security debate because they oppose the Bush plan, while actively encouraging tax-exempt Christian fundamentalists groups to support Bush’s efforts to stack the courts with conservative judges.
The thing the two stories have in common is, in a word, hypocrisy. Gross, shameless, brutal, self-serving, liar-liar-pants-on-fire, abuse-of-power, violating-of-public-trust, jury tampering, aiding-and-abetting, see-no-evil, your-mother-wears-combat-boots, stomach-turning hypocrisy.
Jesus H. Christ!, do these people have NO shame? (That was obviously a rhetorical question.)
Yuk of the Day
http://toccionline.kizash.com/films/1001/138/index.php
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Two stories caught in my craw this morning. At first glance they may seem unrelated but in fact they have one very important thing in common.
Story 1:
Two on Ethics Panel Withdraw From DeLay Inquiry
WASHINGTON, May 4 - Two Republican members of the House ethics committee who contributed to the legal defense fund of Representative Tom DeLay, the majority leader, recused themselves Wednesday from any potential investigation of him as the panel took the first steps that could lead to such an inquiry. (Full Story)
This first story details how House Republicans, having been caught red-handed trying to stack the House Ethics Committed with two pro-DeLay shills, are now desperately trying to avoid having an outside counsel forced appointed to investigate their mega-sleazy Majority Leader.
The two Republicans who recused themselves each had already coughed up $5,000 to the Tom DeLay legal defense fund. The fund will pay DeLay's legal expenses in the event he is indicted for in Texas or has to fight charges of misconduct in Washington.
Chew on that little item for just a moment. House Speaker, Dennis Hastert removed two moderate Republicans form the Ethics Committee and replaced them with two guys he knew had each contributed five grand to pay DeLay’s lawyers. Talk about GOP chutzpah! Talk about arrogance. That’s the kind of thing John Gotti’s people used to do when their boss had to face justice… make sure he would be judged only by the best jury money could buy.
House Republicans thought the fix was in for DeLay, but Democrats blew the whistle on them and threatened to hold their breaths until Hastert put the ethics process back the way it was.
Yesterday Hastert tried to look like he was relenting. But Dems are having none of it. They want a nonpartisan outside counsel appointed, and that’s what was really behind Hastert’s strategic retreat.
You see Republicans, many of them the same people who gleefully used the Independent Prosecutor statute and hatchet-man Ken Starr to harass and cripple the Clinton presidency, are now terrified their own Tom DeLay might just get the same level of scrutiny.
Hastert’s ham-handed and obvious attempt to neuter the House Ethics Committee for DeLay has created the first real opening for House Democrats in five years. For the first time they now have a shot at cracking open the lid on the corrupt GOP campaign machine. Hastert’s actions have so tarnished and compromised the House Ethics Committee that only an independent counsel can conduct a credible investigation into the charges against DeLay.
Republicans will argue that the allegations against DeLay are not serious enough to require an independent counsel. I see. But “Filegate,” an old failed Arkansas real estate deal and lying about getting a BJ from an ugly fat girl was serious enough for an Independent Prosecutor and years of non-stop investigations costing taxpayers nearly $70 million.
Now, Story 2:
U.S. Warns Unions on Protests About Social Security
WASHINGTON, May 4 - The Bush administration has warned the nation's biggest labor federation that union-run pension funds may be breaking the law in opposing President Bush's Social Security proposals. (Full Story)
The administration’s Dept. of Labor shot off a letter Tuesday to the A.F.L.-C.I.O. warning that the Bush appointees at DOL were "very concerned" that the unions might be spending workers' money to "advocate a particular result in the current Social Security debate."
And, they warned the unions could be violating their fiduciary responsibilities by suggesting that they might take their investment business away from Wall Street firms that support Mr. Bush's plans.
Okay, let’s see if I get this straight. Labor unions are not supposed to use their member’s money to advocate political issues but tax-exempt religious groups can.
Do I have that straight? Onward Christian soldiers, is the American way, but workers unite, is just plain wrong.. I see.
Maybe instead of pretending to be shocked that labor unions would get involved with the Social Security debate, Republicans should ask why. Could it be that once upon not-so-long-time-ago employers provided generous pensions, including medical plans for their loyal retired workers. But no longer. Those have been "privatized," - which means employees have to fund their 401Ks out of their own paychecks. Those employer pension funds that still exist have either been looted dry by the employers or are under-funded and functionally insolvent. Even the federal pension insurance fund is broke.
Now that Social Security is all workers have to look forward to their unions are fighting to at least keep that safety net from being "privatized" into oblivion as well.
So, that’s why labor unions have jumped into the Social Security fight. And, may I say, it’s the least unions can do after sitting on their hands for the past two decades as employer after employer reneged on promises to their employees, mismanaged or robbed their retirement funds.
I said these two stories had something in common. In case you missed what it was, allow me.
- House Republicans are going to fight any attempt to appoint an independent counsel to investigate House Minority Leader Tom DeLay, even though they argued just the opposite when the perp was Bill Clinton.
- Pro-Christian, anti-labor Republicans in administration threaten labor unions for getting involved in the Social Security debate because they oppose the Bush plan, while actively encouraging tax-exempt Christian fundamentalists groups to support Bush’s efforts to stack the courts with conservative judges.
The thing the two stories have in common is, in a word, hypocrisy. Gross, shameless, brutal, self-serving, liar-liar-pants-on-fire, abuse-of-power, violating-of-public-trust, jury tampering, aiding-and-abetting, see-no-evil, your-mother-wears-combat-boots, stomach-turning hypocrisy.
Jesus H. Christ!, do these people have NO shame? (That was obviously a rhetorical question.)
Yuk of the Day
http://toccionline.kizash.com/films/1001/138/index.php
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Thursday, May 05, 2005
May 4, 2005
I Get It – Now
It was early 2002 and I was doing research work on Enron for out-of-power Clintonites. During that research I began following an Enron thread that eventually led me right smack into the middle of the DeLay/Abramoff machine. All the stuff you are reading today in the Washington Post and New York times was there – Enron, the Marianna sweatshops, the gambling, the money.
I laid it all out in a long and detailed report (posted here) and turned it in. Two days later I asked when we could get that information out. The answer I for was, no -- “We don’t want to pick a fight with Tom DeLay right now.”
I was flabbergasted. All the information now crippling Tom DeLay could have been out there before the 2002 mid-term elections and before the big race in 2004. By then DeLay would have likely been out of congress and back killing bugs in Sugar land, Texas.
Why, I asked myself, didn’t the Dems use that report? Today I got the answer:
“Lobbyist Jack Abramoff paid at least a portion of the expenses for two Democratic members of Congress and two staff members to then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) during a pair of trips in the mid-1990s to the Northern Mariana Islands, according to a former Abramoff secretary and travel records published on the Internet yesterday…..” (Full Story)
So, there you have it. As usual, it always comes down to the corrupting influence of money. Money has no party.
I can only imagine what those Dems who took money from Abramoff said when they saw in my report that Jack was the Darth Vader of Tom DeLay’s Empire of Evil.
At the same time I did this report I tried to convince people in Tom Daschle’s office to come hammer Bush’s tax cuts. Silly me. Once again the Dems had neutered themselves.
“Oh, we can’t do that,” they said. “A lot of our own members voted for those cuts.”
Yes, how embarrassing.
Like me most of you would probably be happy to trade clueless, valueless Democrats for the pack of Robber Baron bastard Republicans currently running the show. Nevertheless I am sick and tired of having my vote reduced each election to choosing lesser of evils. I am sick of the whole bunch of them, Repugs and Dems alike. A pox on both their scheming houses.
I don’t know whether to argue in favor of a viable third party that’s practical and progressive, or public financing of campaigns. Probably it will take both, because it would only be a matter of time before the HIV of politics, big money, infected members of that new party too.
So let’s review. If you read the report I wrote for Dems in March 2002 you will see that Dems could have sunk DeLay long before he was able to redistrict Texas and cement Republican control of Congress. And, he would have been gone before the next general/presidential election where his leadership PAC could extort millions of dollars from Bush’s wealthy tax cut recipients.
But the Dems didn’t, did they. And now we know why. They had had unprotected relations with DeLay’s Godfather, Jack Abramoff. They were infected. They are infected.
I am depressed. (Okay, okay… more so than usual.)
Why Independent Judges are Important
Christian rightwing-nuts have one more reason to hate an independent judiciary today:
“Miami, Florida -- “After first resisting a judge's order to allow a 13-year-old in state custody to get an abortion, Gov. Jeb Bush's administration changed course on Tuesday and said it would abandon the legal fight…. Judge Ronald Alvarez agreed to delay the procedure while he weighed the facts, but ruled on Monday that the girl was competent to make decisions about her pregnancy and free to do so under the State Constitution.” (Full Story)
This compassionate and commonsense ruling is precisely the kind of decision fundamentalists label as “judicial activism.” Let’s cut the crap. Any decision they don’t agree with is described as judicial activism.
Trying to force a troubled 13-year old girl to have a baby establishes a new marker for the religious right. If these folks ever prevail in their stated desires to stack government and the courts with their own kind the America that would emerge would be a place the Taliban would find most accommodating.
Want more proof?
"AUSTIN, Texas - Legislators in Texas, famed for its Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, considered legislation to ban 'sexually suggestive' performances in schools…. After an alternately comic and fiery debate — punctuated by several lawmakers waving pompons — the state House on Tuesday approved a bill to restrict "overtly sexually suggestive" cheerleading to more ladylike performances." (Full Story)
At least for now we still have a few judges willing to rule on the facts at hand rather than Revelations.
I have just one piece of advice for Dems. Since the one thing you guys are really good at is talking, filibuster.
Infallibility Oops
While on the subject of the Bible did you hear about the discovery? Scientists have finally figured out how to read scrolls found in Egypt many decades ago. The fragile scrolls were browned by age and the writing on them was virtually invisible. Well, they figured out how to make the writing visible and, it turned out they are very early, first century, versions of the New Testament.
Religious scholars have just begun reading them but already they have discovered that Bible thumping ministers who have been evoking 666 (“the sign of the beast,”) to scare their flock straight, have been invoking the wrong digit. Just fifty years after Christ got nailed his followers chronicled the real number -- 616. (Full Story)
Oops. I wonder what else did King James’ rewrite men got wrong – by accident or on purpose? I can’t wait to see. Will there be mention of a Mrs. Jesus locking horns with that little tramp Mary Magdalene? Stay tuned. I see rich potential for a late night HBO series in this stuff. Desperate Disciples?
(BTW, some folks in Michigan might want to check into getting a new area code now that Satan has a claim on 616.)
That’s has be it for today. I have reached smart-ass overload.
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
It was early 2002 and I was doing research work on Enron for out-of-power Clintonites. During that research I began following an Enron thread that eventually led me right smack into the middle of the DeLay/Abramoff machine. All the stuff you are reading today in the Washington Post and New York times was there – Enron, the Marianna sweatshops, the gambling, the money.
I laid it all out in a long and detailed report (posted here) and turned it in. Two days later I asked when we could get that information out. The answer I for was, no -- “We don’t want to pick a fight with Tom DeLay right now.”
I was flabbergasted. All the information now crippling Tom DeLay could have been out there before the 2002 mid-term elections and before the big race in 2004. By then DeLay would have likely been out of congress and back killing bugs in Sugar land, Texas.
Why, I asked myself, didn’t the Dems use that report? Today I got the answer:
“Lobbyist Jack Abramoff paid at least a portion of the expenses for two Democratic members of Congress and two staff members to then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) during a pair of trips in the mid-1990s to the Northern Mariana Islands, according to a former Abramoff secretary and travel records published on the Internet yesterday…..” (Full Story)
So, there you have it. As usual, it always comes down to the corrupting influence of money. Money has no party.
I can only imagine what those Dems who took money from Abramoff said when they saw in my report that Jack was the Darth Vader of Tom DeLay’s Empire of Evil.
At the same time I did this report I tried to convince people in Tom Daschle’s office to come hammer Bush’s tax cuts. Silly me. Once again the Dems had neutered themselves.
“Oh, we can’t do that,” they said. “A lot of our own members voted for those cuts.”
Yes, how embarrassing.
Like me most of you would probably be happy to trade clueless, valueless Democrats for the pack of Robber Baron bastard Republicans currently running the show. Nevertheless I am sick and tired of having my vote reduced each election to choosing lesser of evils. I am sick of the whole bunch of them, Repugs and Dems alike. A pox on both their scheming houses.
I don’t know whether to argue in favor of a viable third party that’s practical and progressive, or public financing of campaigns. Probably it will take both, because it would only be a matter of time before the HIV of politics, big money, infected members of that new party too.
So let’s review. If you read the report I wrote for Dems in March 2002 you will see that Dems could have sunk DeLay long before he was able to redistrict Texas and cement Republican control of Congress. And, he would have been gone before the next general/presidential election where his leadership PAC could extort millions of dollars from Bush’s wealthy tax cut recipients.
But the Dems didn’t, did they. And now we know why. They had had unprotected relations with DeLay’s Godfather, Jack Abramoff. They were infected. They are infected.
I am depressed. (Okay, okay… more so than usual.)
Why Independent Judges are Important
Christian rightwing-nuts have one more reason to hate an independent judiciary today:
“Miami, Florida -- “After first resisting a judge's order to allow a 13-year-old in state custody to get an abortion, Gov. Jeb Bush's administration changed course on Tuesday and said it would abandon the legal fight…. Judge Ronald Alvarez agreed to delay the procedure while he weighed the facts, but ruled on Monday that the girl was competent to make decisions about her pregnancy and free to do so under the State Constitution.” (Full Story)
This compassionate and commonsense ruling is precisely the kind of decision fundamentalists label as “judicial activism.” Let’s cut the crap. Any decision they don’t agree with is described as judicial activism.
Trying to force a troubled 13-year old girl to have a baby establishes a new marker for the religious right. If these folks ever prevail in their stated desires to stack government and the courts with their own kind the America that would emerge would be a place the Taliban would find most accommodating.
Want more proof?
"AUSTIN, Texas - Legislators in Texas, famed for its Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, considered legislation to ban 'sexually suggestive' performances in schools…. After an alternately comic and fiery debate — punctuated by several lawmakers waving pompons — the state House on Tuesday approved a bill to restrict "overtly sexually suggestive" cheerleading to more ladylike performances." (Full Story)
At least for now we still have a few judges willing to rule on the facts at hand rather than Revelations.
I have just one piece of advice for Dems. Since the one thing you guys are really good at is talking, filibuster.
Infallibility Oops
While on the subject of the Bible did you hear about the discovery? Scientists have finally figured out how to read scrolls found in Egypt many decades ago. The fragile scrolls were browned by age and the writing on them was virtually invisible. Well, they figured out how to make the writing visible and, it turned out they are very early, first century, versions of the New Testament.
Religious scholars have just begun reading them but already they have discovered that Bible thumping ministers who have been evoking 666 (“the sign of the beast,”) to scare their flock straight, have been invoking the wrong digit. Just fifty years after Christ got nailed his followers chronicled the real number -- 616. (Full Story)
Oops. I wonder what else did King James’ rewrite men got wrong – by accident or on purpose? I can’t wait to see. Will there be mention of a Mrs. Jesus locking horns with that little tramp Mary Magdalene? Stay tuned. I see rich potential for a late night HBO series in this stuff. Desperate Disciples?
(BTW, some folks in Michigan might want to check into getting a new area code now that Satan has a claim on 616.)
That’s has be it for today. I have reached smart-ass overload.
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
May 3, 2005
Duck and Cover! Again
After 9/11 first responders - police and fire personnel - became national heroes. Glowing in the reflection of their brethren who died trying to save people in at the World Trade Center, first responders nationwide were universally lauded and, since then, lavishly funded. Police and fire departments from LA to Dog Patch have been force-fed money like geese being prepared for foie gras.
It’s all supposed to make us feel safer. But are we?
The short answer is, no. Of course it’s more complicated than that. There are millions of variables, every one of them unaffected by money spent on first responders. For example, where will you be when the next terrorist attack comes? If you are within a couple of miles of ground zero the day a nuke goes off all the first responders in the world won’t save your be able to save your fricasseed ass.
What about those who do survive? First responders will have their hands full with the living and that's where we will get our money’s worth, right?
Well, no.
“When asked during the campaign debates to name the gravest danger facing the United States, President Bush and challenger Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) gave the same answer: a nuclear device in the hands of terrorists…..But more than 3 1/2 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. government has failed to adequately prepare first responders and the public for a nuclear strike, according to emergency preparedness and nuclear experts and federal reports.” (Full Story)
All those billions of dollars spent on first responders and where are we? Well, still right where we were back in 1954 when I was in grammar school and we practiced the state-of-the-art nuclear survival technique -- hiding under our flammable wooden desks.
I’m not kidding. We are no better off. Doubt me? Well then go to the web site funded by some of those Homeland Security billions and see for yourself.
Here’s your “new” government-sponsored survival plan for a nuclear attack taken directly off that site: (annotations are mine, not that you would be confused by them.)
1. Quickly assess the situation.
(No shit. In nuclear-explosion-terms “quickly” computes to about one tenth of a second. After that any further “assessing” would be limited to counting how many appendages are still attached to your smoking carcass.)
2. Consider if you can get out of the area or if it would be better to go inside a building to limit the amount of radioactive material you are exposed to.
(This is the “cover” part of your new survival plan. They don’t mention ducking because they probably assume you ducked during the “assessment” phase of this procedure. If you didn’t then you won’t need the rest of this anyway.)
3. If you take shelter go as far below ground as possible, close windows and doors, turn off air conditioners, heaters or other ventilation systems. Stay where you are, watch TV, listen to the radio, or check the Internet for official news as it becomes available.
(Turn off air conditioners? Haven’t these people seen the films of nuclear blasts? The nuke would have “turned off” all that stuff long before your trembling fingers reach the switch. And “check the Internet,” now there’s a wonderfully useless piece of advice. Assuming the electricity was still on in your flattened and/or smoldering city, just what would you find on the Internet? “Yo dude, did you see that Flash?” and “In times of stress, Viagra, more important than ever!”)
A Ready.gov graphic shows how someone a city block from a nuclear blast could save his or her life by walking around the corner. Right. Run this piece of advice by the citizens of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. They might suggest changing that to “someone in a neighboring city.”
Look, sorry to break the news but all this money spent the near-deification of first responders is pure placebo affect. Sure those men and women risk their lives daily for which they deserve both our admiration and thanks. But when catastrophe strikes, be it an earthquake, a tsunami or WMD terrorist attack, first responders will make about as much difference as a band aid on a sucking wound.
With the next Big One hits, first responders in large cities will be immediately overwhelmed. Sirens will wail, ambulances will roll, and fire trucks will scramble in every direction. But the size of the job facing them will dictate that most city dwellers will wander around for days before they get any help.
Then there’s all those tiny police and volunteer fire departments in rural towns that are now chockablock full of government provided high-tech disaster gear from nuclear/biological space suits, to machine guns.
Townships thousands of miles from the attack will come alive as their first responders jump at the opportunity to try out all that expensive stuff the government has lavished upon them. It will be a scene right out of The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming, in Dog Patch.
(Trust me on that one. I ran the weekly newspaper in a small rural town served by a volunteer fire department and I can tell you, it will be something to behold the next time something big comes down.)
The bottom line: Just as it was when be stood nuclear eyeball to nuclear eyeball with the Soviet Union there is no defense against a nuclear attack, just useless feel-good advice. Al Qaida claims it has a few of the old Soviet suitcase nukes. Now North Korea has both nukes and the means to hit the Western US.
And so once again it’s duck, cover and then pray you are out of range. (Oh, and when the dust settles, don’t be startled by that guy in your front yard in the bio-suit, helmet, night-vision goggles, the ground-to-air radio pack and machine gun. It’s just volunteer battalion chief Barney hot on bin Laden’s trail.)
Now, Something Real
Good news, for a change. Congress is poised to do something that might actually make us safer.
“A House and Senate conference now taking place has included the requirements, which apply to all 50 states and other jurisdictions that issue licenses, in a supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq, aides involved in the process said on Monday. The draft legislation will be completed in the next few days and is all but certain to pass.” (Full Story)
This is important, so listen up. I am talking to my fellow liberals here. Pandering to Hispanic voters by allowing illegals to get state driver’s licenses is wrong. Any votes scheming politicians get for supporting illegals will be wiped away the first time a terrorist once again uses a driver’s license to get on a plane or into a facility and kills a bunch of innocent legal American citizens.
(Remember, the 9/11 terrorists had 12 driver’s licenses between them. One was of them was stopped on the way to the airport for speeding and was not arrested because he had a legal driver’s license. Duh.)
Fact: Conservatives are not always wrong. Fact. Liberals are not always right. Get over it. This time conservative James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin, fought through the hypocrisy of his own party and the numbskull political correctness of many Democrats and got this measure through.
Remember to thank James Sensenbrenner the next time you flash your driver’s license to get on board a plane. Once this law goes into effect that little action will no longer be just a symbolic waste of time… a kind of ID version of “duck and cover.”
Faith-based Soldiers for Bush
President Bush (read Karl Rove) has long sought a more diverse Republican Party, one that could lure blacks and Hispanics into a dominant conservative bloc. It’s working and you and I are paying the bill. You will find the reference to it buried in the budget under the name the “Compassion Capital Fund.”
Yes boys and girls, God might be a Christian and, while his son might have been able to make wine out of water and divide fish and loaves, faith-based Christians need money and lots of it to get their job done. And there’s no pile of money bigger than the one found in the federal temple.
“A religion-based fusion of politics and policy, the fund is the president's most tangible effort to help those he calls the "armies of compassion," small religious groups with shoestring budgets that care for the downtrodden. Over the last three years, it has spent $100 million to train such religiously motivated foot soldiers, and in some cases to give them small grants, on the theory that a bit of managerial coaching will mobilize new healing platoons.” (Full Story)
Among God’s self-appointed hall-monitors getting a hunk of your money is Nueva Esperanza Inc., one of the largest contracts of the 44 religious groups chosen to provide the training to smaller organizations and distribute the federal cash. With $7.4 million, it has worked with 180 small programs from Miami to Seattle, making the Rev, Mr. Cortes one of the most prominent Hispanic evangelicals in politics.
"I'm not red, and I'm not blue," Mr. Cortes said in a recent interview. "I'm brown. This is what I tell politicians. You want an endorsement? Give us a check, and you can take a picture of us accepting it. Because then you've done something for brown."
Excuse me Mr. Cortes, and your ilk. But I was under the impression that religious groups are exempt from taxes only as long as they stay out of politics. I guess laws like that only apply to non-Christians and non-Hispanics these days. You guys can praise the lord right to the bank and still meddle in politics. And, while illegal immigrant from Somalia probably can’t get a driver’s license illegal Jose can and, according to you, not only should get one, but deserves to get one.
This is not a racial issue, though opportunists on both sides would love to make it into one. Nor is it an anti-religious thing, though I readily admit I consider all that stuff little more than organized superstition.
It’s about commonsense. And clearly something has gotten all twisted up when it comes to both religion and immigration.
Readers Sound Off
Letters From Readers on the White House Correspondents' Dinner Here
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
After 9/11 first responders - police and fire personnel - became national heroes. Glowing in the reflection of their brethren who died trying to save people in at the World Trade Center, first responders nationwide were universally lauded and, since then, lavishly funded. Police and fire departments from LA to Dog Patch have been force-fed money like geese being prepared for foie gras.
It’s all supposed to make us feel safer. But are we?
The short answer is, no. Of course it’s more complicated than that. There are millions of variables, every one of them unaffected by money spent on first responders. For example, where will you be when the next terrorist attack comes? If you are within a couple of miles of ground zero the day a nuke goes off all the first responders in the world won’t save your be able to save your fricasseed ass.
What about those who do survive? First responders will have their hands full with the living and that's where we will get our money’s worth, right?
Well, no.
“When asked during the campaign debates to name the gravest danger facing the United States, President Bush and challenger Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) gave the same answer: a nuclear device in the hands of terrorists…..But more than 3 1/2 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. government has failed to adequately prepare first responders and the public for a nuclear strike, according to emergency preparedness and nuclear experts and federal reports.” (Full Story)
All those billions of dollars spent on first responders and where are we? Well, still right where we were back in 1954 when I was in grammar school and we practiced the state-of-the-art nuclear survival technique -- hiding under our flammable wooden desks.
I’m not kidding. We are no better off. Doubt me? Well then go to the web site funded by some of those Homeland Security billions and see for yourself.
Here’s your “new” government-sponsored survival plan for a nuclear attack taken directly off that site: (annotations are mine, not that you would be confused by them.)
1. Quickly assess the situation.
(No shit. In nuclear-explosion-terms “quickly” computes to about one tenth of a second. After that any further “assessing” would be limited to counting how many appendages are still attached to your smoking carcass.)
2. Consider if you can get out of the area or if it would be better to go inside a building to limit the amount of radioactive material you are exposed to.
(This is the “cover” part of your new survival plan. They don’t mention ducking because they probably assume you ducked during the “assessment” phase of this procedure. If you didn’t then you won’t need the rest of this anyway.)
3. If you take shelter go as far below ground as possible, close windows and doors, turn off air conditioners, heaters or other ventilation systems. Stay where you are, watch TV, listen to the radio, or check the Internet for official news as it becomes available.
(Turn off air conditioners? Haven’t these people seen the films of nuclear blasts? The nuke would have “turned off” all that stuff long before your trembling fingers reach the switch. And “check the Internet,” now there’s a wonderfully useless piece of advice. Assuming the electricity was still on in your flattened and/or smoldering city, just what would you find on the Internet? “Yo dude, did you see that Flash?” and “In times of stress, Viagra, more important than ever!”)
A Ready.gov graphic shows how someone a city block from a nuclear blast could save his or her life by walking around the corner. Right. Run this piece of advice by the citizens of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. They might suggest changing that to “someone in a neighboring city.”
Look, sorry to break the news but all this money spent the near-deification of first responders is pure placebo affect. Sure those men and women risk their lives daily for which they deserve both our admiration and thanks. But when catastrophe strikes, be it an earthquake, a tsunami or WMD terrorist attack, first responders will make about as much difference as a band aid on a sucking wound.
With the next Big One hits, first responders in large cities will be immediately overwhelmed. Sirens will wail, ambulances will roll, and fire trucks will scramble in every direction. But the size of the job facing them will dictate that most city dwellers will wander around for days before they get any help.
Then there’s all those tiny police and volunteer fire departments in rural towns that are now chockablock full of government provided high-tech disaster gear from nuclear/biological space suits, to machine guns.
Townships thousands of miles from the attack will come alive as their first responders jump at the opportunity to try out all that expensive stuff the government has lavished upon them. It will be a scene right out of The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming, in Dog Patch.
(Trust me on that one. I ran the weekly newspaper in a small rural town served by a volunteer fire department and I can tell you, it will be something to behold the next time something big comes down.)
The bottom line: Just as it was when be stood nuclear eyeball to nuclear eyeball with the Soviet Union there is no defense against a nuclear attack, just useless feel-good advice. Al Qaida claims it has a few of the old Soviet suitcase nukes. Now North Korea has both nukes and the means to hit the Western US.
And so once again it’s duck, cover and then pray you are out of range. (Oh, and when the dust settles, don’t be startled by that guy in your front yard in the bio-suit, helmet, night-vision goggles, the ground-to-air radio pack and machine gun. It’s just volunteer battalion chief Barney hot on bin Laden’s trail.)
Now, Something Real
Good news, for a change. Congress is poised to do something that might actually make us safer.
“A House and Senate conference now taking place has included the requirements, which apply to all 50 states and other jurisdictions that issue licenses, in a supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq, aides involved in the process said on Monday. The draft legislation will be completed in the next few days and is all but certain to pass.” (Full Story)
This is important, so listen up. I am talking to my fellow liberals here. Pandering to Hispanic voters by allowing illegals to get state driver’s licenses is wrong. Any votes scheming politicians get for supporting illegals will be wiped away the first time a terrorist once again uses a driver’s license to get on a plane or into a facility and kills a bunch of innocent legal American citizens.
(Remember, the 9/11 terrorists had 12 driver’s licenses between them. One was of them was stopped on the way to the airport for speeding and was not arrested because he had a legal driver’s license. Duh.)
Fact: Conservatives are not always wrong. Fact. Liberals are not always right. Get over it. This time conservative James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin, fought through the hypocrisy of his own party and the numbskull political correctness of many Democrats and got this measure through.
Remember to thank James Sensenbrenner the next time you flash your driver’s license to get on board a plane. Once this law goes into effect that little action will no longer be just a symbolic waste of time… a kind of ID version of “duck and cover.”
Faith-based Soldiers for Bush
President Bush (read Karl Rove) has long sought a more diverse Republican Party, one that could lure blacks and Hispanics into a dominant conservative bloc. It’s working and you and I are paying the bill. You will find the reference to it buried in the budget under the name the “Compassion Capital Fund.”
Yes boys and girls, God might be a Christian and, while his son might have been able to make wine out of water and divide fish and loaves, faith-based Christians need money and lots of it to get their job done. And there’s no pile of money bigger than the one found in the federal temple.
“A religion-based fusion of politics and policy, the fund is the president's most tangible effort to help those he calls the "armies of compassion," small religious groups with shoestring budgets that care for the downtrodden. Over the last three years, it has spent $100 million to train such religiously motivated foot soldiers, and in some cases to give them small grants, on the theory that a bit of managerial coaching will mobilize new healing platoons.” (Full Story)
Among God’s self-appointed hall-monitors getting a hunk of your money is Nueva Esperanza Inc., one of the largest contracts of the 44 religious groups chosen to provide the training to smaller organizations and distribute the federal cash. With $7.4 million, it has worked with 180 small programs from Miami to Seattle, making the Rev, Mr. Cortes one of the most prominent Hispanic evangelicals in politics.
"I'm not red, and I'm not blue," Mr. Cortes said in a recent interview. "I'm brown. This is what I tell politicians. You want an endorsement? Give us a check, and you can take a picture of us accepting it. Because then you've done something for brown."
Excuse me Mr. Cortes, and your ilk. But I was under the impression that religious groups are exempt from taxes only as long as they stay out of politics. I guess laws like that only apply to non-Christians and non-Hispanics these days. You guys can praise the lord right to the bank and still meddle in politics. And, while illegal immigrant from Somalia probably can’t get a driver’s license illegal Jose can and, according to you, not only should get one, but deserves to get one.
This is not a racial issue, though opportunists on both sides would love to make it into one. Nor is it an anti-religious thing, though I readily admit I consider all that stuff little more than organized superstition.
It’s about commonsense. And clearly something has gotten all twisted up when it comes to both religion and immigration.
Readers Sound Off
Letters From Readers on the White House Correspondents' Dinner Here
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
May 2, 2005
White House Press Corps Disgraces Itself -- Claps
If the White House Press Corps got any closer to the people they cover we they would be exchanging body fluids.
Saturday night main mainstream media celebs gathered for their annual love-fest the White House Correspondents' Association's Dinner. How many things are wrong with this? Let me try to count them.
First, ask yourself this -- why the hell do White House reporters need their own association? There is no shortage of reporter-clubs and associations they can join if they are lonely -- the Washington Press Club is nice and just down the street, and if they are serious about uncovering the truth I recommend a membership in the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association.
So, why a White House Correspondents' Association?
Because they're special. This is the top, top beat. While other reporters chase police cars and interview county commissars, White House reporters munch their morning donuts and sip latte a few feet from the most powerful man in the world. But wait, it gets better. The president not only knows them by first name but assigns nicknames to some as well. Imagine that.
Imagine this. It’s 8:45 am and you are scuffing your way across the White House lawn on the way to work and the President of the United States of America spots you. He waves and shouts “Hey, morning Stretch, you’re up early.” Whoa! Now, that’s special.
Since there are no reporting rungs further up the career ladder, these reporters decided they deserved their own club, a place where they can gather with their own kind. After all, who else but those who share the rarified air of the White House understand what they endure, or the way-inside jokes?
So now they have their own exclusive club, what now? An association needs to not only recognize the “special-ness” of it’s own special members, but also needs to make sure it recognizes it’s own “special-ness” so we all understand why it’s so special to be a member. So they came up with the idea for an annual dinner.
But hey, every association has an annual dinner, nothing special about that -- unless you notice who the guests of honor are for this one. They are, to put it mildly, the most special guests in the world – the President of the United States and the First Lady. No other association can top that bill. Not even the Academy Awards. No siree. If special is what you crave an invite to the White House Correspondents' Dinner, is where it’s at. Only Monica Lewinsky managed to get closer to most power man in the world.
And so there they all were, the Andreas, Wolfs, Mathews, the Fox gang, the Washington Posters, the New York Timers, if they had a White House pass they were there all gussied up in gowns and tuxedos. No ink-stained wretches in this crowd. No siree Bob.
And there at the head table sat President and Mrs. Bush. Each performed their own scripted shticks making fun of themselves and the press. The Bush’s delivered their lines poorly, like bad actors reading for a part off a script they never saw before. But never mind, the “journalists” in the audience obediently threw their heads back in boisterous laughter and gave each a standing ovation. (Shades, I am sure, of the days when old Soviet leaders like Khrushchev told jokes at Communist Party Correspondent’s Dinners.)
But forget the jokes. All were lame and obvious gags that would have bombed had you or I delivered them during open mic night at any local standup club. No it’s not about the bad jokes from the podium but the bad jokes sitting in audience.
I’m sorry but I’m an old reporter and still believe that Job #1 of any one who calls him or herself a journalist is to keep a professional distance between themselves and those they are being paid to keep honest. You don’t socialize with those you cover. Period.
And you sure as hell don’t throw a lavish bash for them every year and dress up in your best party duds, yuck it up at their jokes, stand and clap your hands raw and have your picture taken with them. (Holy crap. The very fact I have to write that line makes me sick.)
“Oh, lighten up Pizzo,” they might retort. “It’s an innocent little dinner where people who have to work under tremendous pressure every day can let their hair down a bit.”
Okay, fine. Then let’s also start up a Federal Prosecutor’s Association so they can have an annual dinner at which some of their high-profile targets get to roast them. I can see it now. Elliot Spitzer sitting there in a tux laughing his head off as Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski and Bernie Ebbers made jokes:
“Hey, Elliot did you hear,” Bernie cracks, “I have a new cookbook coming out this fall entitled, “Book Cooking for Dummies.’… Hey, I just flew in from visiting my money in Bermuda, and are my arms tired…. but seriously folks, take my accountant… please…”
Spitzer throws his head back in hysterical laughter, stands and applauds wildly. After all that pressure prosecuting crooks, how nice it would be if, just once a year, the cops and the crooks they chase could just let their hair down and laugh about it all.
Give me a friggin’ break. The White House Correspondents' Association is - to put it bluntly - a disgrace. First it’s a disgrace that the WHCA exists in the first place. And that it then feels it must further disgrace itself and it’s full-of-themselves members once every year with this glitzy, groveling group grope.
Maybe instead of sponsoring this disgraceful dinner every year the WHCA should turn itself into a force for good. God knows the quality of White House reporting has -- to put it mildly -- suffered in recent years. Maybe instead of reassuring their members they are special they should start enforcing some tried and true journalistic standards.
Here's an idea. For starters they could throw Robert Novak out and demand CNN stop putting him on the air until he explains why two other reporters are facing jail for revealing a CIA source when he was the one who broke that story but is not facing jail. Hey Robert, tells us, how’s that work? My guess is you gave up your source the first time the Feds shined a bright light in your eyes. Robert Novak and Jeff Gannon, two slices of baloney cut from the same rotten stick.
And of course the “liberal media” hating crowd from FOX “News” were sitting right there among the very White House correspondent’s from other media companies FOX berates and ridicules. Yep there they were, yoking it up and slapping backs with the rest of them Saturday night. (Nothing personal. Just business -- as usual.)
After my first assignment to Washington many years ago I returned to California convinced that the White House Press Corps was an inherently flawed institution. Media outlets that insist on posting reporters at the White House, (as well as the Pentagon and the State Department,) should treat the beat like combat assignments by imposing a one-year and you're out, rule. One year in and two years out. After one year at the White House they should be assigned back onto a general reporting beat. Because nothing improves a reporter's skills like general reporting. First it sharpens reporting skills. And, as bonus, it keeps reporters grounded and humble.
The argument the White House Correspondent’s Assoc. makes against rotation is that it takes time to learn the ropes and develop sources on this important beat. Nonsense. Any reporter worth his or her salt is used to being assigned a story, learning what needs to be understood fast and getting the story right and on deadline. That's their job. Let there be a 45-day period where the outgoing reporter works with the incoming replacement. That’s all it should take – if that is, the reporter is worthy of the assignment in the first place.
The trouble with posting reporters for years at the White House is that they make friends there. They get to know those they have to cover as human beings. They develop real sympathies for them. They see their families, their kids, even their pets. They get invited to weekend barbeques at their homes or affairs. None of that improves their reporting. The result is softer stories. It's just human nature. The same reason farmers warn their kids not to make pets out of the farm animals. Because the day will come when they have to eat them.
Also, just as staying Washington turns politicians into … well, politicians, covering just the White House and Congress turns reporters into political groupies who, like band-groupies soon forget the music as it all becomes about the band.
So, there they were Saturday night clapping and laughing at the very people who have spent the last five years trying to gut America’s broadcast media. And, even as laughed at their jokes and the champagne flowed, they were still at it.
The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence…chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, contracted last year with an outside consultant to keep track of the guests' political leanings on one program, "Now With Bill Moyers." (Full Story)
Every single reporter who attended that dinner Saturday night should all be ashamed of them self. Period.
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
If the White House Press Corps got any closer to the people they cover we they would be exchanging body fluids.
Saturday night main mainstream media celebs gathered for their annual love-fest the White House Correspondents' Association's Dinner. How many things are wrong with this? Let me try to count them.
First, ask yourself this -- why the hell do White House reporters need their own association? There is no shortage of reporter-clubs and associations they can join if they are lonely -- the Washington Press Club is nice and just down the street, and if they are serious about uncovering the truth I recommend a membership in the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association.
So, why a White House Correspondents' Association?
Because they're special. This is the top, top beat. While other reporters chase police cars and interview county commissars, White House reporters munch their morning donuts and sip latte a few feet from the most powerful man in the world. But wait, it gets better. The president not only knows them by first name but assigns nicknames to some as well. Imagine that.
Imagine this. It’s 8:45 am and you are scuffing your way across the White House lawn on the way to work and the President of the United States of America spots you. He waves and shouts “Hey, morning Stretch, you’re up early.” Whoa! Now, that’s special.
Since there are no reporting rungs further up the career ladder, these reporters decided they deserved their own club, a place where they can gather with their own kind. After all, who else but those who share the rarified air of the White House understand what they endure, or the way-inside jokes?
So now they have their own exclusive club, what now? An association needs to not only recognize the “special-ness” of it’s own special members, but also needs to make sure it recognizes it’s own “special-ness” so we all understand why it’s so special to be a member. So they came up with the idea for an annual dinner.
But hey, every association has an annual dinner, nothing special about that -- unless you notice who the guests of honor are for this one. They are, to put it mildly, the most special guests in the world – the President of the United States and the First Lady. No other association can top that bill. Not even the Academy Awards. No siree. If special is what you crave an invite to the White House Correspondents' Dinner, is where it’s at. Only Monica Lewinsky managed to get closer to most power man in the world.
And so there they all were, the Andreas, Wolfs, Mathews, the Fox gang, the Washington Posters, the New York Timers, if they had a White House pass they were there all gussied up in gowns and tuxedos. No ink-stained wretches in this crowd. No siree Bob.
And there at the head table sat President and Mrs. Bush. Each performed their own scripted shticks making fun of themselves and the press. The Bush’s delivered their lines poorly, like bad actors reading for a part off a script they never saw before. But never mind, the “journalists” in the audience obediently threw their heads back in boisterous laughter and gave each a standing ovation. (Shades, I am sure, of the days when old Soviet leaders like Khrushchev told jokes at Communist Party Correspondent’s Dinners.)
But forget the jokes. All were lame and obvious gags that would have bombed had you or I delivered them during open mic night at any local standup club. No it’s not about the bad jokes from the podium but the bad jokes sitting in audience.
I’m sorry but I’m an old reporter and still believe that Job #1 of any one who calls him or herself a journalist is to keep a professional distance between themselves and those they are being paid to keep honest. You don’t socialize with those you cover. Period.
And you sure as hell don’t throw a lavish bash for them every year and dress up in your best party duds, yuck it up at their jokes, stand and clap your hands raw and have your picture taken with them. (Holy crap. The very fact I have to write that line makes me sick.)
“Oh, lighten up Pizzo,” they might retort. “It’s an innocent little dinner where people who have to work under tremendous pressure every day can let their hair down a bit.”
Okay, fine. Then let’s also start up a Federal Prosecutor’s Association so they can have an annual dinner at which some of their high-profile targets get to roast them. I can see it now. Elliot Spitzer sitting there in a tux laughing his head off as Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski and Bernie Ebbers made jokes:
“Hey, Elliot did you hear,” Bernie cracks, “I have a new cookbook coming out this fall entitled, “Book Cooking for Dummies.’… Hey, I just flew in from visiting my money in Bermuda, and are my arms tired…. but seriously folks, take my accountant… please…”
Spitzer throws his head back in hysterical laughter, stands and applauds wildly. After all that pressure prosecuting crooks, how nice it would be if, just once a year, the cops and the crooks they chase could just let their hair down and laugh about it all.
Give me a friggin’ break. The White House Correspondents' Association is - to put it bluntly - a disgrace. First it’s a disgrace that the WHCA exists in the first place. And that it then feels it must further disgrace itself and it’s full-of-themselves members once every year with this glitzy, groveling group grope.
Maybe instead of sponsoring this disgraceful dinner every year the WHCA should turn itself into a force for good. God knows the quality of White House reporting has -- to put it mildly -- suffered in recent years. Maybe instead of reassuring their members they are special they should start enforcing some tried and true journalistic standards.
Here's an idea. For starters they could throw Robert Novak out and demand CNN stop putting him on the air until he explains why two other reporters are facing jail for revealing a CIA source when he was the one who broke that story but is not facing jail. Hey Robert, tells us, how’s that work? My guess is you gave up your source the first time the Feds shined a bright light in your eyes. Robert Novak and Jeff Gannon, two slices of baloney cut from the same rotten stick.
And of course the “liberal media” hating crowd from FOX “News” were sitting right there among the very White House correspondent’s from other media companies FOX berates and ridicules. Yep there they were, yoking it up and slapping backs with the rest of them Saturday night. (Nothing personal. Just business -- as usual.)
After my first assignment to Washington many years ago I returned to California convinced that the White House Press Corps was an inherently flawed institution. Media outlets that insist on posting reporters at the White House, (as well as the Pentagon and the State Department,) should treat the beat like combat assignments by imposing a one-year and you're out, rule. One year in and two years out. After one year at the White House they should be assigned back onto a general reporting beat. Because nothing improves a reporter's skills like general reporting. First it sharpens reporting skills. And, as bonus, it keeps reporters grounded and humble.
The argument the White House Correspondent’s Assoc. makes against rotation is that it takes time to learn the ropes and develop sources on this important beat. Nonsense. Any reporter worth his or her salt is used to being assigned a story, learning what needs to be understood fast and getting the story right and on deadline. That's their job. Let there be a 45-day period where the outgoing reporter works with the incoming replacement. That’s all it should take – if that is, the reporter is worthy of the assignment in the first place.
The trouble with posting reporters for years at the White House is that they make friends there. They get to know those they have to cover as human beings. They develop real sympathies for them. They see their families, their kids, even their pets. They get invited to weekend barbeques at their homes or affairs. None of that improves their reporting. The result is softer stories. It's just human nature. The same reason farmers warn their kids not to make pets out of the farm animals. Because the day will come when they have to eat them.
Also, just as staying Washington turns politicians into … well, politicians, covering just the White House and Congress turns reporters into political groupies who, like band-groupies soon forget the music as it all becomes about the band.
So, there they were Saturday night clapping and laughing at the very people who have spent the last five years trying to gut America’s broadcast media. And, even as laughed at their jokes and the champagne flowed, they were still at it.
The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence…chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, contracted last year with an outside consultant to keep track of the guests' political leanings on one program, "Now With Bill Moyers." (Full Story)
Every single reporter who attended that dinner Saturday night should all be ashamed of them self. Period.
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Monday, May 02, 2005
April 29-30, 2005
States of Confusion
Can it really just be coincidence that both Texas and Florida have eclipsed my home state, California, when it comes to nutty happenings? The only thing the two states have in common is that George W. Bush ran one and the other is still run by his brother Jeb.
Today’s nutty news item comes form Jeb’s state. Yes, even as the memory of Terri Schiavo tug of war remains fresh in our minds, Florida is once again messing with a person’s life. This time the person involved is a troubled 13-year old girl.
While under Florida state supervision in a shelter for troubled teens the girl ran off and got pregnant. Now the very agency agency that failed to protect her to begin with, the infamous Florida Dept of Children and Families – which still can’t find some of the foster kids they placed – went to court and got an order prohibiting the little girl from getting the abortion she wants.
Their reasoning is that the girl is too young to make such a decision. So, let’s see if we can get this straight. If a little girl in Florida is old enough to get pregnant, they are still not old enough to decide what to about that.
Of course this nonsense is entirely another product Gods self-appointed hall monitors on the religious right. These are the same hypocrites who, when their state’s electric chair malfunctioned and instead of quickly killing inmates, set them on fire, gleefully dubbed the malfunctiong device, ‘Old Sparky.”
The little girl in question learned she was pregnant two weeks ago and begged to the pregnancy terminated. But Florida's DCF instead rushed to court and got a judge to block the procedure.
Never mind that this 13-year old girl clearly already has enough problems in her life – problems that state care seems to have manged now to make worse. Nevertheless, the state of Florida wants to force this child to have a baby -- a child, having a child. Oh yeah, that’ll teach the little bitch a lesson-- the wages of sin and all that rot.
Compassionate conservatives, my ass. America’s Christian fundamentalists have become little more than carbon copies of the narrow-minded, mean-spirited, women-oppressing, control freaks American soldiers died to chase out of Afghanistan.
And cases like this prove it.
Faking It
When your own President and those closest to him lie and get away with it, the news gets around. And now we learn that the Commander-in-Chief has become a role model for his troops.
When Senators became concerned earlier this year that the methods being used to interrogate captured terrorists were both too extreme and ineffective, the Army arranged fake interrogation sessions to prove them wrong.
“The U.S. military staged the interrogations of terrorism suspects for members of Congress and other officials visiting the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to make it appear the government was obtaining valuable intelligence, a former Army translator who worked there claims in a new book scheduled for release Monday.” (Full Story)
Hey, no biggie. I mean their boss lied like a rug to get us into this war to begin with and no got in trouble for that. According to the former translator, Sgt. Erik Saar, his superiors chose detainees who agreed to put on a good show for the visiting dignitaries. The detainee’s chosen had already spilled their guts in earlier rubber-hose sessions and agreed to an encore performance.
(Rumors that the Actor’s Guild is demanding the Defense Dept. pay the detainees involved union scale could not be confirmed. Nor could we confirm that one of the detainees is writing a memoir entitled, “Moaning For Mercy: How Method Acting Got Me Out of Gitmo.”)
This Sunday night you can hear more about this sorry tale on CBS 60-Minutes.
Budget From Hell
This administration and congressional Republicans are serial abusers of the English language. They have Owellianized dozens of words and terms over the past five years -- “Clear Skies Imitative,” and “No Child Left Behind,” for example. But nothing matches what they did to the word “budget” yesterday.
The word was meant to mean when one figures out how much income they have to spend each year and then “budgets” their spending to remain within those limits.
Yesterday the Republican-House and Senate came together to turn that meaning on its head when they apporved a national “budget” for the coming year. But this “budget” is written in red ink – at least a third of a trillion bucks of red ink, and likely more.
But red ink is apparently less worrisome to Republican lawmakers than protecting the tax cuts they passed in Bush’s first term. Part of yesterday’s “budget” agreement makes a big chunk of those tax cuts permanent.
As a show of fiscal responsibility the budget also calls for Congress to shave $35 billion from future budgets over the next five years – all of it out of social programs. Nearly a third of the cuts will come right out of Medicaid, the primary health program for the poor.
So the poor, sick and elderly take it in the posterior. Let’s see what sacrifices the rich made:
“At the same time, the budget makes room for $106 billion of tax cuts over five years, $70 billion of which would be protected from a Senate filibuster, enough to ensure that all expiring tax cuts can be extended, including the 2003 cuts to capital gains and dividend tax rates and last year's deduction for state and local sales taxes. (Washington Post)
Bottom line: The cost of the GOP’s tax-cut extensions will more than cancel out the savings from those social program cuts. This “budget” is effectively a transfer of $35 billion from the poor to the wealthy PLUS another $71 billion. ($35B + $71B = $106 billion.)
And, notice this -- as Medicaid is slashed by $10 billion the Defense Dept. gets $11 billion more.
I'd say this was like robbing Peter to pay Paul, but both Paul and Peter were poor fishermen. This is more like robbing the Red Cross to pay Halliburton -- and with borrowed money, nonetheless!
"If you like debt, you've got to love this budget, because it builds a wall of debt," said Senator Kent Conrad (Dem. N.D.) who sits on the Senate Budget Committee.
This “budget” also allows lawmakers to raise the federal government's statutory debt limit by a whooping $781 billion, to $8.96 trillion.
When George Bush took office the national debt stood at $5.9 trillion and was being paid down. Since taking office Bush’s policies have added $3 trillion to our national credit card balance. ”
At least those nasty “tax and spend liberals” you Red State voters feared so much, knew enough about budgeting to balance the friggin’ books.
(P.S. And this time when the US runs out of credit the Repo-man is Chinese.)
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Can it really just be coincidence that both Texas and Florida have eclipsed my home state, California, when it comes to nutty happenings? The only thing the two states have in common is that George W. Bush ran one and the other is still run by his brother Jeb.
Today’s nutty news item comes form Jeb’s state. Yes, even as the memory of Terri Schiavo tug of war remains fresh in our minds, Florida is once again messing with a person’s life. This time the person involved is a troubled 13-year old girl.
While under Florida state supervision in a shelter for troubled teens the girl ran off and got pregnant. Now the very agency agency that failed to protect her to begin with, the infamous Florida Dept of Children and Families – which still can’t find some of the foster kids they placed – went to court and got an order prohibiting the little girl from getting the abortion she wants.
Their reasoning is that the girl is too young to make such a decision. So, let’s see if we can get this straight. If a little girl in Florida is old enough to get pregnant, they are still not old enough to decide what to about that.
Of course this nonsense is entirely another product Gods self-appointed hall monitors on the religious right. These are the same hypocrites who, when their state’s electric chair malfunctioned and instead of quickly killing inmates, set them on fire, gleefully dubbed the malfunctiong device, ‘Old Sparky.”
The little girl in question learned she was pregnant two weeks ago and begged to the pregnancy terminated. But Florida's DCF instead rushed to court and got a judge to block the procedure.
Never mind that this 13-year old girl clearly already has enough problems in her life – problems that state care seems to have manged now to make worse. Nevertheless, the state of Florida wants to force this child to have a baby -- a child, having a child. Oh yeah, that’ll teach the little bitch a lesson-- the wages of sin and all that rot.
Compassionate conservatives, my ass. America’s Christian fundamentalists have become little more than carbon copies of the narrow-minded, mean-spirited, women-oppressing, control freaks American soldiers died to chase out of Afghanistan.
And cases like this prove it.
Faking It
When your own President and those closest to him lie and get away with it, the news gets around. And now we learn that the Commander-in-Chief has become a role model for his troops.
When Senators became concerned earlier this year that the methods being used to interrogate captured terrorists were both too extreme and ineffective, the Army arranged fake interrogation sessions to prove them wrong.
“The U.S. military staged the interrogations of terrorism suspects for members of Congress and other officials visiting the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to make it appear the government was obtaining valuable intelligence, a former Army translator who worked there claims in a new book scheduled for release Monday.” (Full Story)
Hey, no biggie. I mean their boss lied like a rug to get us into this war to begin with and no got in trouble for that. According to the former translator, Sgt. Erik Saar, his superiors chose detainees who agreed to put on a good show for the visiting dignitaries. The detainee’s chosen had already spilled their guts in earlier rubber-hose sessions and agreed to an encore performance.
(Rumors that the Actor’s Guild is demanding the Defense Dept. pay the detainees involved union scale could not be confirmed. Nor could we confirm that one of the detainees is writing a memoir entitled, “Moaning For Mercy: How Method Acting Got Me Out of Gitmo.”)
This Sunday night you can hear more about this sorry tale on CBS 60-Minutes.
Budget From Hell
This administration and congressional Republicans are serial abusers of the English language. They have Owellianized dozens of words and terms over the past five years -- “Clear Skies Imitative,” and “No Child Left Behind,” for example. But nothing matches what they did to the word “budget” yesterday.
The word was meant to mean when one figures out how much income they have to spend each year and then “budgets” their spending to remain within those limits.
Yesterday the Republican-House and Senate came together to turn that meaning on its head when they apporved a national “budget” for the coming year. But this “budget” is written in red ink – at least a third of a trillion bucks of red ink, and likely more.
But red ink is apparently less worrisome to Republican lawmakers than protecting the tax cuts they passed in Bush’s first term. Part of yesterday’s “budget” agreement makes a big chunk of those tax cuts permanent.
As a show of fiscal responsibility the budget also calls for Congress to shave $35 billion from future budgets over the next five years – all of it out of social programs. Nearly a third of the cuts will come right out of Medicaid, the primary health program for the poor.
So the poor, sick and elderly take it in the posterior. Let’s see what sacrifices the rich made:
“At the same time, the budget makes room for $106 billion of tax cuts over five years, $70 billion of which would be protected from a Senate filibuster, enough to ensure that all expiring tax cuts can be extended, including the 2003 cuts to capital gains and dividend tax rates and last year's deduction for state and local sales taxes. (Washington Post)
Bottom line: The cost of the GOP’s tax-cut extensions will more than cancel out the savings from those social program cuts. This “budget” is effectively a transfer of $35 billion from the poor to the wealthy PLUS another $71 billion. ($35B + $71B = $106 billion.)
And, notice this -- as Medicaid is slashed by $10 billion the Defense Dept. gets $11 billion more.
I'd say this was like robbing Peter to pay Paul, but both Paul and Peter were poor fishermen. This is more like robbing the Red Cross to pay Halliburton -- and with borrowed money, nonetheless!
"If you like debt, you've got to love this budget, because it builds a wall of debt," said Senator Kent Conrad (Dem. N.D.) who sits on the Senate Budget Committee.
This “budget” also allows lawmakers to raise the federal government's statutory debt limit by a whooping $781 billion, to $8.96 trillion.
When George Bush took office the national debt stood at $5.9 trillion and was being paid down. Since taking office Bush’s policies have added $3 trillion to our national credit card balance. ”
At least those nasty “tax and spend liberals” you Red State voters feared so much, knew enough about budgeting to balance the friggin’ books.
(P.S. And this time when the US runs out of credit the Repo-man is Chinese.)
By Stephen Pizzo
Raconteur at Large
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
