Sat is Music Appreciation Day at Constantly Amazed..!

Reagan/Bush Ally Executed

So, Saddam Hussein has been executed. He was Reagan & Bush Sr's man in Iraq:

"...all evidence pertaining to the massive Anglo-American support given to Saddam during the worst years of his savage reign has been completely supressed. The crimes for which he has been sentenced to death were carried out while Donald Rumsfeld was shaking his hand and Ronald Reagan was supplying him with moolah, diplomatic support and direct military intelligence to target his poison gas attacks on Iranian forces and aid his bombing of Iranian cities. [And people wonder why Iran doesn't like us] The crimes for which he is currently on trial -- gassing the Kurds -- were not only countenanced by George Herbert Walker Bush and his administration (which included Dick Cheney and Colin Powell in key positions), but Bush went on to reward Saddam with showers of money (much of it funneled through secret bank accounts), military hardware -- including dual use technology for WMD -- and agricultural credits, which allowed Saddam to use his hard currency reserves for more weaponry... Further charges -- moot now -- would doubtless have included Saddam's brutal suppression of the Shiite revolt following the Gulf War: a revolt openly fomented by Bush I who then betrayed the Iraqi rebels, specifically allowing Saddam to break the rules of the post-war armistice and use his attack helicopters on the Shiites, and also using the American forces still in place there to prevent Shiite rebels from reaching buried arms caches. Many of the mass graves over which American officials -- like the unctuous Colin Powell -- have publicly shed salt tears were, again, the result of direct collusion with Saddam by American officials, many of them now in power once more." (link)

Get the picture? The Bush crime family, including their crime bosses Cheney and Rumsfeld, wanted Saddam Hussein dead because he was living evidence of their shared responsibility for the atrocities committed in Iraq for decades. It's never been a "war on terror". It nothing more than an old-fashioned Godfather-style power struggle between rival crime families. Only, this time, it happens to be played out on a country that sits atop what are said to be the second largest untapped oil reserves on the planet. And we, all of us, are considered expendable in the neocons' quest to enrich and empower themselves. (see also Why the Bush Crime Family Wants Saddam Iced).

And what has it got them?:

"In every vital area, from Afghanistan to Egypt, his policies have made the situation worse than it was before... What an amazing bloody catastrophe. The Bush administration's policy towards the Middle East over the five years since 9/11 is culminating in a multiple train crash. Never in the field of human conflict was so little achieved by so great a country at such vast expense. In every vital area of the wider Middle East, American policy over the last five years has taken a bad situation and made it worse... So here's the scoresheet for Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt: worse, worse, worse, worse, worse, worse and worse."

And still, Bush vows he will continue along the same course until he has destroyed us all. Thanks to the neocons, the Bush administration, and "conservatism", America of the 21st century will resemble nothing so much as Germany of the 1930s-40s.

Here's a Treat for After Christmas...

Here's a treat to help with that "morning after" post-christmas feeling:

Everybody... Lambretta Twist!

Merry Christmas!

For those of us who write political blogs, Christmas has become a whole new experience, thanks to the rightwing fundamentalist christian taliban psychos who think the world was created in Norman Rockwell's image, and who have invented this asinine so-called "war on christmas".

Fortunately those of us who still manage to remain sane in spite of the madding shrieks and howls from the bubbling cauldron of disfunction on the right, are well aware that winter holiday celebrations of all kinds have been going on for many thousands of years. The history of these celebrations (see here and here) demonstrates that they are for everyone, not just fundmentalist wackos who want to possess it (and everything else) for themselves. So this year, I say, Merry Christmas to those of us who are fed up with the ridiculous blather of the fundamentalist christian "right".

Merry Christmas and happy holidays... to the rest of us! By the way: Wassail!

Saturday Night is Music Night at Constantly Amazed!

Okay, holiday music is in order, so here are a couple I hope you like.

First, Stu Hamm's version of Vince Guaraldi's immortal "Linus and Lucy"... playing both bass line and melody on the bass. Groovy!


Also, a little something special for the Snoopy dancers in the audience...

Another Presidential Press Conference:

Oh, did I mention the lies?

Forgive me, my friends...

...for I have been busy/lazy/whatever, and have not posted very well lately. Please don't give up on me! I'll try to get back into it ASAP. Peace!

Weekend Musical Interlude

Lately I've been trying to make weekends "music time" around here at Constantly Amazed. Now... what better way to ward off a winter chill than a little Tom Waits? Pour your self a drink first. You know.


Here's another, because Tom Waits' music is too good to leave without an encore.

Barking Up The Wrong Tree, or; Pining for the Good Old Days

Well, we've all seen the hubub over the removal (and apparent restoration) of Christmas trees at SeaTac airport.

The whole thing is laughable at one moment and pitiful the next.

Laughable because of the sheer irony that Christmas trees are totally pagan holiday trimmings that have nothing to do with the central purpose of Christmas. In fact, the practice was condemed by Christians, including the Puritan "pilgrims". Apparently both sides of the argument have been proceeding under the erroneous impression that Christmas trees are actually Christian. LOL! Honestly, that's like saying jack-o-lanterns are the Christian symbols of Halloween.

Pitiful because I, as a Non-Christian, have always loved Christmas festivity and decorations, and I like to see the trees. I guess it's always been the pagan in me. But it saddens me to see any group call for the removal of trees, especially on the premise of some weird perversion of tolerance. It's hardly worth the effort to diagram the chaotic cyclone of twisted logic and contradiction involved with this simple issue.

I say, let the trees go up, along with menorahs or stars or crescents or pentagrams or whatever people need to remind them that the winter holiday is, to a very few of us, a season of giving and sharing and joyful invitation to join the celebration.

Up Hill(ary) Climb

Clinton dogged by ‘electability’ questions, says the headline of this article, "N.Y. senator is Democratic frontrunner, but national appeal unclear".

Well, I personally do not like Hillary as a candidate. For one thing, she was in favor of the war against Iraq, which is reason enough to give me pause. But in political terms, consider the landscape: Republicans have proven time and again that they place greater value on character assasination of their political enemies than on the welfare of the country. A Hillary presidency would be like the Whitewater witch-hunt years ten times over, every day. The repukes would devote all their time and resources (including millions or billions of taxpayer dollars) to attacking her instead of doing the jobs they were elected to do. The right wing media would go after her full bore, too. If the repukes regained control of congress, they would invent a reason to impeach her. Her whole term(s) would be one long adversarial mudfest. I'd rather see a president who can operate as free from conservative hate-mongering as possible. Although, who knows: they might go after any non-republican (or even moderate republicans) with the same energy as they would devote to Hillary Clinton.

Michael Moore's Post-Election Message

Yeah, I know, I'm a little late with this one. But, since the repukes are still in power (and, true to form, avoiding any real work), there's still time to review Michael Moore's Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives. Even though I'm trying to get back to doing more writing and less re-printing of news items etc., I liked this enough to reprint it here. Enjoy.

To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,

I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.

Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.

Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:

Dear Conservatives and Republicans,

I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:

1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.

2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.

3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.

4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.

5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.

6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.

7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.

8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.

9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.

10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.

11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.

12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.

I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.

Signed,
Michael Moore
P.S. Please feel free to pass this on.

Saturday Night with SAHB

SAHB... the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Now that I have joined the ranks of the "let's put youtube videos on our blogs while it's still free" movement, I'll share one from a band I've been diggin' since a friend and I used to listen to the 8-track of their live album back when I was in high school back in the [gasp] seventies.



By the way, Alex Harvey died in 1982. But, like the pirate Yellowbeard ("Us Yellowbeards are never more dangerous than when we're dead"), he still rocks.

Catching up on this-n-that

Official Presbyterian Publisher Issues 9/11 Conspiracy Book

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government, according to a book to be released later this month by Westminster John Knox Press—a division of the denominational publisher for the Presbyterian Church.

Environment drowning in bottled water

"Although in the industrial world bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, it can cost up to 10,000 times more," states an article at the Earth Policy Institute Web site. "At as much as $2.50 per liter ($10 per gallon), bottled water costs more than gasoline." ...making and hauling all those plastic bottles burns massive quantities of fossil fuels. Most of those bottles are made from crude oil derivatives... making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.

Good Riddance To The Gingrichites: GOP 'Chess Club' Ruled The House For 12 Years And Won't Be Missed

The men who ran the Republican Party in the House of Representatives for the past 12 years were a group of weirdos. The iconic figures of this era were Newt Gingrich, Richard Armey and Tom Delay. They were zealous advocates of free markets, low taxes and the pursuit of wealth; they were hawks and often bellicose; they were brutal critics of big government. Yet none of these guys had success in capitalism. None made any real money before coming to Congress. None of them spent a day in uniform. And they all spent the bulk of their adult careers getting paychecks from the big government they claimed to despise.

And finally:

"This administration has been by far the most incompetent, inept, and with more moral cowardice, and obsequiousness to their wealthy contributors, and obliviousness to the public interest of any administration in modern history, and probably in the entire history of the country." - Al Gore, speaking for me... thanks, Al

Okay, I'm back...

...and I brought something really, really weird with me. Maybe you've seen this before, maybe not. It freaks me right out. It's even been logically explained to me, but it still just freaks me out.

Here it is: the Flash Mind Reader.

If you follow the directions, it might just freak you out too 8^)

P.S. When you've finished with that, there's also this. Who needs unauthorized wiretapping?

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving posts always present a veritable cornucopia of possibilities (pun intended, I guess). Sure, there are the things we're thankful for, blah blah blah, what wine goes with tryptophan, parades, and the unique, singularly inescapable hell that is "family".

Well, one thing that thanksgiving seems to be truly about is food, and lots of it. Turkey, of course, or the hip alternative. Weird pies, things made out of green beans, "stuffing" (a term which always struck me as being a little curious, like something Vincent Price would offer during a meal: "Here, my dears, have some... stuffing).

Well, my saucy gastronomes, you're in luck! Because I am here to guide towards the lime-green light of truth known as The Gallery of Regrettable Food. Before you can truly appreciate what you have on your table this season, you MUST examine the gallery. Then, and only then, can you truly appreciate, and be thankful for, your Aunt Edna's Tuna Beet Mold.

Bon Appetit!

Me too, ay?

Seems like so many bloggers have been posting music bits and whatnot, and dammmit, I should do that too! So, just because it's Tuesday, here's a bit of weirdness. Thumpety-whackety-whoo!

The Empire Will Strike Back

Conservative leaders plan a comeback

Just so you don't have to register with the LA Times to read the article, I'll just paste a few bits here:

Awaking to the dismal reality of widespread defeat, more than 100 of the conservative movement's most ardent leaders gathered as they have every Wednesday for more than a decade in a downtown conference room to discuss strategy... speaker after speaker declared that voters had not rejected conservative ideas but had merely rejected Republican Party leaders who strayed from the movement's basic values.

Translation: They got caught.

"There was no ideological rejection in this election," said Richard Lessner, former executive director of the American Conservative Union... "This was about the Republican Party not behaving like Republicans."

Translation: This was about republicans behaving exactly like republicans.

What is needed now [they] said, is reinforcement of their principles of cutting taxes and spending along with promotion of social causes such as the fights against abortion and same-sex marriage.

Cutting spending? What do republicans know about cutting spending?

The star guest was Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who reminded participants that after losing the White House to Clinton in 1992, the movement turned its losses into the 1994 takeover of Congress. "We have a long history as a movement... of using our difficult election outcomes to make ourselves better," Mehlman said. "...I think we need to look at it as a big opportunity as a party and a cause to return to our reformist approach and our reformist principles."

This guy was the head of the RNC, and he doesn't know that "conservatism" and "reform" are, by definition, opposites?

A Republican National Committee memo laying out talking points for conservative pundits, bloggers and other supporters... underscored that message, calling for the party to "refocus conservative principles of less government, lower taxes, less regulation, strong national defense, judicial restraint and fiscal conservatism."

Who do they think they're kidding? The size of government explodes under republican control, they spend money like mad, their idea of national defense is a Hitlerian fantasy, and their definition of "judicial restraint" is that corporate criminals, republican politicians, and their cronies are all above the law.

At the same time, the conservative leaders made clear where they thought the GOP had strayed from its principles.

Translation again: They got caught.

And their criticisms underscored some long-simmering tensions within the conservative movement that foreshadowed the GOP losses

...But not enough to make them do anything about it until, you guessed it, they got caught.

Several participants said the growth of government over the last 12 years — accelerated under the Bush presidency — had discouraged traditional supporters who had long viewed the GOP as the party of limited government.

Guess what? Goverment expanded more under Reagan and Bush than it did under Carter or Clinton. These so-called "fiscal conservatives" are delusional. Hypnotized. Fooling themselves, and sadly, fooling the poor saps who support them.

One election-night poll presented Wednesday illustrated that concern. It showed that more voters now considered the GOP the party of big government.

Finally. It's about @#$%^ time.

"There's no doubt in my mind it was not a repudiation of conservatives but it was a repudiation of the Republican Party," said the group's president.

Lately we've been bombarded with republicans' lamentations that their party stopped being "conservative" a long time ago. Too bad they didn't consider that a problem until, you guessed it, they got caught.

For his part, meeting host Grover Norquist said in an interview that he viewed the election as a bump on an otherwise smooth road to continued conservative dominance... Despite short-term setbacks, Norquist said, the conservative movement is "perfectly healthy. No one is losing because they favor tax cuts, are pro-life, pro-gun or pro-growth... And Democrats will be standing there, naked to the winds, having been forced by Nancy Pelosi to vote for tax increases, gun control and impeaching the president," he added, referring to the future speaker of the House.

That's the same Grover Norquist who supports Central American death squads as a tool for political change and likes to give money to Jack Abramoff.

Yup, they'll be back in new costumes. Let's be ready.

Wha-?

What's true? this, or this?

One thing is absolutely true: oil is a finite resource. It will be used up eventually.

Why They're NOT "Progressive"

Compare and contrast:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

"Immigrants arrested in the United States may be held indefinitely on suspicion of terrorism and may not challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts, the Bush administration said Monday."

The Flip Side

An argument currently rages about whether the President should be impeached. Now, I am totally in favor of impeachment. I think it is more than necessary; it is a duty that would be more dangerous to neglect than to pursue. Nevertheless, some disagree. One who does is Robert Reich, of whom I am a fan. He makes his case for replacing impeachment with other goals in this article: What the Dems Should Do Now. He makes a very good point, although I am still in favor of impeachment.

The Lifelong Failure Who Never Matured Beyond His Twisted Silver Spoon Adolescence

Can Bush Sr. and His Team Save Son’s Presidency?

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

Fiscal Restraint

From Newsweek (emphasis mine): Where the Republicans Went Astray:

"From the beginning of Gingrich's tenure, the GOP's K Street offensive had warned lobbying firms along Washington's K Street corridor that they would be wise to hire Republicans if they wanted access... Before long, lobbyists could be seen in committee rooms writing legislation. With corporate coziness came the abandonment of fiscal restraint. Committee chairmen now routinely handed out 'earmarks,' special provisions authorizing spending for members' pet projects. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan vetoed a highway bill because it had 152 earmarks. In 2005, President Bush signed a transportation bill with 6,371 earmarks"

Youch! The party of small government sure knows how to get the job done, ay?

A Commentary on an Old News Item

President's Radio Address (from 11/11/2006):

"One freedom that defines our way of life is the freedom to choose our leaders at the ballot box. We saw that freedom earlier this week, when millions of Americans went to the polls to cast their votes for a new Congress. Whatever your opinion of the outcome, all Americans can take pride in the example our democracy sets for the world by holding elections even in a time of war."

Since when have we ever suspended elections during wartime? Apparently, Bush & Cheney & Rove et al discussed the possibility of doing just that. We know he doesn't write his own speeches. This statement was made to plant the seed in Americans' minds that the Bush regime and/or their repuke successors have the power to take away our right to vote.

This is a recurring theme in the Rovian neocon theory of political success: they take away peoples' votes, whether through fraud or by force, and after that they exercise tyrannical control.

Poetic Justice

Even though I grew up in deer-huntin' country, I'm always rootin' for the deer.

A deer being kept in a pen attacked and killed his owner Sunday, state police said... The buck that killed [him] was among about a half dozen deer penned up on his property

"his owner" !? Yeah, right! I think the deer showed the bastard who owns whom!

A Constantly Amazing Election

Karl Rove’s stated goal was to create a permanent one-party control over all branches of government. So, perhaps, was Caesar’s, and Napoleon’s, and Stalin’s, and Hitler’s, and so on and so on ad infinitum. It is an entirely un-American approach to government; to deny representation to roughly half the population. My impression of Rove is that he really regards American politics as a sort of competitive game, wherein the goal is to win the contest, capture all the pieces, and so on, with no consideration whatsoever of the effect it has on the human lives which hang in the balance. We are just his game pieces. He lost this round, but I expect he will return more determined to win his pieces back in 2008. Expect diabolical behavior on an extraordinary scale.

The Democrats in congress have now been given their orders: Do a better job than the Republicans, or get thrown out next time. This a golden opportunity for the Democratic party to prove they can be a superior representational body. The Republicans blew it when they had the same opportunity. Now it’s the Democrats’ turn. It wasn’t too long ago that the repukes enjoyed similar victories and proclaimed it a “landslide”, a “mandate”, and “political capitol”. The Republicans thought their success released them of all accountability. Through their arrogance, they became pigs at the trough, giving full expression to all the most hideous aspects of human nature. Democrats must not make that mistake: they are placed in a position wherein they are expected to demonstrate highly ethical behavior – no lying, no stealing, no deception, and so on – and if they catch one of their own doing bad things, they need to punish the culprit, not hide them in the basement like the repukes. If they can’t manage that, then they are just as replaceable as their predecesors.

The Democrats must also not mimic Republicans’ gloating over their 2004 victories. There was a lot of sniping back and forth, with the right claiming their “sweeping mandate,” and the left replying, “2% is not a mandate.” And despite their previous rhetoric, Republicans will pull the same “obstructionist” tactics, like filibustering, for which they sneeringly chastised Democrats.

And to those who say the Democrats are as hopelessly corrupt as the Republicans, all I can say is, there is always hope for, and potential for, positive change. The Dems have turned themselves around before – they were once the party of southern racists, and the party of Vietnam. They are now the party that most Progressives choose as the vehicle of choice for expression of progressive values. That in itself is a step forward, and they should keep that momentum.

Everyone is saying the Iraq war is the most important thing. But don’t let that distract from the enormity of damage the Bush administration has done in so many other areas – domestic policy, environmental policy, non-Iraq-related foreign policy, trashing of our Constitution, implementation of the so-called “patriot act”… the list is far too long to repeat here. We must not ignore those things by becoming too myopic; all these problems need to be addressed as soon as possible, while we have the chance.

And finally, the question of impeachment. My position, for the record, is this: we should impeach the president and the vice president, and pursue punitive action against other cabinet members including Rice, etc. Why? Because the only effective deterrent to crime is certainty of punishment. If the Bush Cabal is allowed to ride off into the sunset without being held accountable for their misdeeds, then we are establishing the precedent (or reasserting the already established one) that it is okay for an American executive administration to behave the way they did. We must not send that message. We must not allow crimes of this magnitude to go unpunished. Impeach.

By the way, I still say 9/11 was an inside job.