Codependent Quoterama

Earlier this month on my easter post I noted the following quotes:

George Washington:
"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine."

Adolph Hitler:
"The national government... will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.”

Well, I found a couple of others that are as heartwarming:

George W. Bush:
"I believe that God wants me to be president."

Adolph Hitler (again):
"I would like to thank Providence and the Almighty for choosing me of all people to be allowed to wage this battle for Germany."

Maybe we can find some codependent quotes for Cheney/Stalin!

Finally, my 2 cents on the Obama church thing.

I'm late jumping on this bandwagon, but since it is still simmering, I just thought I would comment on this story-that-should-be-a-non-story about Obama and his church minister's provocative remarks.

First, an anology. I have a longtime friend who is also a blogger, and often reads this blog (howdy, dude!). He and I have known each other for many years. And, in that time, we have had many spirited debates about all kinds of subjects including politics, society, and culture. Each of us has made statements that the other disagreed with wholeheartedly. Sometimes those discussions were pretty dynamic. But in the end, we each were able to recognize that specific opinions are only fragments of the whole psychology, and our appreciation of the whole person superceded any problems we had with one opinion. And that, I think, would be the situation between Obama and this minister. Association does not mean absolute adherence to identical opinions. It just means you have a friend and you don't have to agree with every single word they utter.

Besides, there's really one hell of a double standard in the media attention here. For example, as described in this article:

Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.

Mitt Romney was part of a church that did not view black Americans as equals and actively discriminated against them. He stayed with that church all the way into his early thirties, until they were finally forced to change their policies to come into compliance with civil rights legislation. Romney never disavowed his church back then or now. He said he was proud of the faith of his fathers.

Jerry Falwell said America had 9/11 coming because we tolerated gays, feminists and liberals. It was our fault. Our chickens had come home to roost, if you will. John McCain proudly received his support and even spoke at his university's commencement.

Reverend John Hagee has called the Catholic Church the "Great Whore." He has said that the Anti-Christ will rise out of the European Union (of course, the Anti-Christ will also be Jewish). He has said all Muslims are trained to kill and will be part of the devil's army when Armageddon comes (which he hopes is soon). John McCain continues to say he is proud of Reverend Hagee's endorsement.

Reverend Rod Parsley believes America was founded to destroy Islam. Since this is such an outlandish claim, I have to add for the record, that he is not kidding. Reverend Parsley says Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" brought down from a "demon spirit." Of course, we are in a war against all Muslims, including presumably Muslim-Americans. Buts since Parsley believes this is a Christian nation and that it should be run as a theocracy, he is not very concerned what Muslim-Americans think. John McCain says Reverend Rod Parsley is his "spiritual guide."

If a candidate's support of, or from, volatile religious leaders with big mouths and small brains is a reason to condemn, then let's be fair, shall we?

Better yet, just get religion the hell out of government.

I think religion sucks, and I approved this message.

Happy Oestre, Or, My Employer Wants Me To Be Wiccan!?

Here is my fourth annual reprint of tidbits from my original constantly amazing easter post. This one goes out in honor of my place of employment, who, in an apparent attempt to be inclusive and politically correct, sent out a flyer to inform us of a celebration of the "spring equanox [sic]". More on the irony of that below. For now: Happy Oestre, Pagans!

Easter's Pagan Origins

Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a fictional consort who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. He was Attis, who was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period March 22 to 25. "About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill...Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection."

Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians "used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation."

Many religious historians believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with Attis, many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus' life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans. Others suggest that many of the events in Jesus' life that were recorded in the gospels were lifted from the life of Krishna, the second person of the Hindu Trinity. Ancient Christians had an alternative explanation; they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit deities in advance of the coming of Christ in order to confuse humanity. Modern-day Christians generally regard the Attis legend as being a Pagan myth of little value. They regard Jesus' death and resurrection account as being true, and unrelated to the earlier tradition.

Wiccans and other modern-day Neopagans continue to celebrate the Spring Equinox as one of their 8 yearly Sabbats (holy days of celebration). Near the Mediterranean, this is a time of sprouting of the summer's crop; farther north, it is the time for seeding. Their rituals at the Spring Equinox are related primarily to the fertility of the crops and to the balance of the day and night times. Where Wiccans can safely celebrate the Sabbat out of doors without threat of religious persecution, they often incorporate a bonfire into their rituals, jumping over the dying embers is believed to assure fertility of people and crops.

Oh, cool! This means that my employer is encouraging us to celebrate one of the 8 Wiccan Sabbats! Ha ha ha!

More about Easter

In Norway, in addition to skiing in the mountains and painting eggs for decorating, it is tradition to solve murders at Easter. All the major television channels show crime and detective stories (such as Poirot), magazines print stories where the readers can try to figure out who did it, and many new books are published. Even the milk cartons change to have murder stories on their sides. Another tradition is Yahtzee games.

In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, a tradition of whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. In the morning, males whip females with a special handmade whip... [consisting] of eight, twelve or even twenty-four withies (willow rods) and is usually from half a meter to two meters long and decorated with coloured ribbons at the end. It must be mentioned that while whipping can be painful, the purpose is not to cause suffering. Rather, the purpose is for males to exhibit their attraction to females; unvisited females can even feel offended. The whipped female gives a coloured egg to the male as a sign of her thanks and forgiveness. A legend says that females should be whipped in order to keep their health and fertility during whole next year. In some regions the females can get revenge in the afternoon when they can pour a bucket of cold water on any male.

Call it Easter, Spring Solstice, Fertility, Jesus, Rabbits, or whatever... even the celebration of the marketing of hideous crap.

Finally, a constantly amazing blog post is nothing without my obligatory political section [link]

George Washington:
"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine."

Adolph Hitler:
"The national government... will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.”

So, happy easter, everyone... another ancient pagan ritual celebrating the natural order of things. Seasons change. New life appears, and old things pass away. Constantly Amazing, isn't it?

Remember When I Used to Blog about News Stuff?

Plan To Spray Toxic Biological Chemicals Over San Francisco Announced

"the US Government is planning to poison more than two million people in California"

And people call me a pessimist. Sure, the glass is half-full... of poison!

A Scandal... Maybe.

Okay, truthseekers, I am hoping this one is not true. Truth be told, it is based on hearsay. I don't want to slander anyone, but if the accusations are true, then a worldwide charity organization may be guilty of extortion and fraud. If it turns out that I am wrong, and this story is untrue, then I will gladly retract this.

The basic gist of it is, I've heard that the local Salvation Army homeless shelter is requiring homeless people who want to stay there to apply for food stamps, whereupon they must surrender 80% of those food stamps to the Salvation Army! And, they're also directing those homeless persons to apply for a small amount of cash assistance that is available to them for personal needs, so they can also hand over 30% of that assistance to the Salvation Army!

If this is true, it is infuriating. Besides the fact that the Salvation Army is a religious organization and is tax-exempt, and probably receives considerable tax breaks, federal grants, and other such perks thanks to the Bush/Cheney "faith based" free-for-all, how dare they exploit homeless people by using them as a tool by which they can suck money from taxpayers and funnel it into their proselytizing coffers under false pretenses. Besides, public assistance benefits are required to be used in specific ways. They are most definitely not intended to be bartered as rent, or worse yet, extorted by some christian authority figures who strong-arm the vulnerable homeless and shake them down for their public assistance like some schoolyard punk bullying a smaller and weaker kid out of their lunch money. It is also worth mentioning that I live in a small, economically disadvantged community where homeless peoples' options for finding shelter are limited.

I intend to follow-up on this until I know what is really going on. If the Salvation Army is doing this, it cannot be allowed to continue. It's unethical, and most likely illegal.

Again, I am operating on verbal hearsay, and my information has not yet been confirmed. Anyone reading this, who is of a mind to get in on the ground floor of a scandal that has not yet appeared in the media, might want to check out their local Salvation Army homeless shelter and see if this may be happening in their community.

Blog on, truthseekers, and power to the people.

There's Always Room for Another Conspiracy Theory

Okay, who has been reading my blog long enough to remember be saying (a lot) that Hillary is the repuke's fave pick as candidate for president '08? Anyone? (crickets chirping in background, but thanks to those five of you who do remember).

First of all, we have Rush Limbaugh imploring his listeners to cross over and vote for Hillary Clinton in the Texas Democratic Primary. Next, we have news reports that republicans are, in fact, doing just that: hordes of GOP dittohead zombies are voting in the democratic primary, which is open to anyone. And do you think they are simply disaffected conservatives who want "change"? Puh-leeze. They are the same repuke bastards who have turned their party into a cesspool of corruption, perversion, hypocrisy, and treason, and they are scared shitless that they might further lose their grip on power.

They know they can't beat Obama, and they shudder at the thought that regardless of whatever policies he decides to implement, his election symbolically represents wholesale rejection of fascist neocon republican values.

Republicans also know that they can never win an honest election - they had to cheat in order to "win" in 2000 and 2004. So, true to form, they once again must resort to dishonest trickery to secure the office of president. This is only a gnat's piss away from the type of criminal activity that Watergate was all about, by the way. Now, that's what I call true conservatism: bringing back the crime-culture that defined their party, and associated it forever with corruption (there's a reason why every political scandal has the "-gate" suffix).

If the repukes succeed in mucking up the election by deliberately sabotaging the electoral process (which has been their tactic for at least the last two presidential elections), there should be hell to pay. Seriously. Even though the press and the public will lie probably down and take it... how long must we tolerate this behavior?

Link Project (Phase One) complete, or, More About Me!

Okay, I have finally (after !@#$ months) sorted through my list of links. That's been on my to-do list for a long time, and yes, I evidentally like lists. But if you think that's the end of it, think again: I have a bunch of saved links to add now, not to mention all the great ones I find at other blogs like politickybitch or Azgoddess's "now for something completely different" links. Damn, this blogging stuff is a lot of work!

Okay, so...

...I've finshed some of the updates on the blog. I still have to revise my whole blog roll, because some of them are probably dead links by now, and I've also spotted a few embarrassing typos. I've been adding them since November 2004. It seems like an eternity sometimes... I began all this as a reaction to the awful Bush presidency, and now that presidency is winding to a close, and it feels as if we have been through political hell. Or, a hell of a political ride, at least.

I was a contributor to three different blogs at one point. One is defunct, one carries on, and mine sometimes feels, well... I mean, look at some of those links. 9/11 stuff, Bush stuff. Less and less relevant as time goes by, which is sad to say, because the events of the Bush administration represent some of the most significant crimes against this country, and the world, and they are fast slipping from public memory. Treason in the face of apathy and acceptance equals success for the plutocratic bastards of the neocon Bush/Cheney regime.

But I digress. As I think about blogging; the act of blogging, that is, one thing really stands out to me. That is the impact it has had on the establishment and the way some politicians have demonstrated such a fear of bloggers. Right-wingers in particular (well, it's true) tend to condemn bloggers with such enthusiasm that it is almost funny to watch, if it weren't so sad (how many times have I had to type that phrase over the last four years?). It's so painfully obvious how afraid the rightwing is of "common people" having such a powerful voice in current affairs. Even though they gain power by pandering to the masses, they never reliquish their power to those masses - they use them and toss them aside, and maintain their deathgrip on all of us who exist only to be used by them in their ongoing quest for more money and power.

But when blogging came along - Bam! All of a sudden, the rest of us had a voice that the establishment had not yet learned how to supress. And they still haven't, although they are learning, and they ultimately will shut us up one way or another. Until that time, we will have made a hell of a mark. Like the underground countercultures that have come before, and changed the world, bloggers have dealt a blow to the powermongers that was really felt. Ha. I'm glad. For a while, at least, we can say we had a positive effect on the world.

Because we can't win, you know? We can't. Progressive movements change the direction of society for a few miles on the highway of history, but ultimately the powerbroker class wins and crushes us until the next uprising. America itself is a good example. It began as a progressive revolutionary rebellion against the established ruling class, but soon corruption reared its ugly head and became an intrinsic part of American government, and once again the same old rich and powerful ruling class were in control. See, progressives are usually content to fix a hole in a boat, relax and sail on in the knowledge that the problem was a one-off and all is well from here on out. Optimism. The power-elite estabishment, on the other hand, conservatives will keep punching holes in that boat until they sink it, no matter how many holes the progessives fix, the conservatives will not rest until the boat has sunk. As they boasted in 2004, they are "resolute." We won't have to worry about what to do with our newly-won democracy and benevolent leadership anytime soon, I'll bet.

This is a rambling and depressing post, isn't it? At least there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is minor regime change coming along, so that's something. I'm looking forward to seeng who corporate America selects to "lead" the country. In the meantime, I'll dream of a planet where domocratic leaders are elected through direct elections by a popular vote with verifyable results and runoff elections to ensure majority rule. In other words, more crazy rambling.

It's Darwin Day!

February 12 is Darwin Day!

Woo hoo! Rock on, those of you who eschew the literal interpretation of Genesis! Rock on, all you organisms in the ecosystem! Let's all hope we can evolve a little further this year. I've done my part, by providing a home for a six-toed cat. Surely, he represents the future.

Elect-ile Dysfunction

All my voting life, I have been very dissatisfied with the American process presidential elections. The electoral college is not only obsolete and ineffective, but the electors are not required to vote according to the will of the people, and occasionally they don't. The electoral college has it's defenders (or apologists), but the bottom line is that it was designed to oppose democratic elections and replace the results with election by a select elite. I don't know them and I don't trust them.

It is common knowledge that Gore won the popular vote in 2000 by approximately half a million votes. As far as democracy is concerned, he was elected president in 2000. In my opinion, that means Bush was not elected president, and if he wasn't president in 2000, he could not be "re-elected" in 2004, so he has been a phony pretender to the office for his entire administration. Imagine how much better off the world would be if the voter's actual votes had been respected, and the president had been elected by the citizens.

All this defines me as a tin-foil-hat-wearing-far-left-radical-conspiracy-theorist-blah-blah-etc in the eyes of the right, and even in the eyes of the mainstream, most of whom do not seem to give a monkey's buttcheek whether their most valuable right as citizens is just a cheap facade. They are so placated by the propaganda that is foisted upon them from cradle to grave, so that most of what they think they know is actually lies, that they just don't care. In our consumerist/celebrityist culture, they are more concerned with having stuff and being entertained that by the things that really matter (yes, I am inclined to be done with relative values: I say there are things that matter more than bigscreen TVs and SUVs and Britney Spears).

In 2004, I thought that the horror of the 2000 election fiasco would shock voters to demand changes to the electoral process: Direct elections with verifiable results. Is that so much to ask from the nation that defines itself as the world leader in democracy and technology? But, no change happened, and I am beginning to believe won't anytime soon. Those of us who question the status quo are laughed at and derided.

Meanwhile, in the primaries, by the time they come to my state (CA), half the choices have decided to quit and deprive us of the choice to vote for them. So a handful of states (swayed by corporate-controlled media selectivity) who are lucky enough to have earlier primaries get to choose who the rest of us are offered to vote for in the primaries... we don't even get to vote for our choice among the declared candidates! That is taken away from us even at this early stage! Do you want to vote for Edwards, or Kucinich? Tough luck, California, South Carolina or the pop media or whoever makes the call says that we are not allowed to have the same choices they had.

Some democracy. It's totally unfair and rigged from day one. I am completey disillusioned (again). My vote means nothing, and never has. And don't get me started about electronic election fraud and the inevitable republican victory it portends (unless the republicans are following their pattern of ruining the country and then leaving office for a term or two so a democrat can repair the damage and take the blame, thus paving the way for the next eight year plutocratic orgy).

I am back to where I was before 2004: part of a radical minority who will never be represented in American government; who must select candidates and positions based on other people's values; who is completly aware that he has no representation and no voice that matters; who's smartest option seems to be to simply try to make a life in a nation built of lies and deceit and treachery; where sharing democracy with the world means bringing death from the skies and the stormtrooopers who facilitate that carnage are regarded as heroes even by those who claim to oppose the never-ending war and invasion and occupation to lay seige to other countries' resources; where all power is transfered to the Halliban plutocracy and the christian-fundamentalist theocracy; where waging war for oil is more important that education and healthcare and the president is applauded for saying so.

Yeah, I'll vote. I'll participate in this broken corrupt system to save myself from having to listen to others tell me that if I don't vote, I have no right to complain. That's the rub that Americans always present us dissenters with, isn't it? Either vote for something against which you are morally and philisohically opposed, or else your fundamental right to freedom of speech doesn't exist. I'm not allowed to express my opinion unless I march in lockstep with the machinery of the corporate machine that is America.

Yeah, I'll vote. May the best tool win.

bonus vid :)

The best best best election coverage site I know of.

www.electoral-vote.com is a plain-looking, but totally great, site devoted to tracking election results. I first discovered it when I started blogging before the 2004 election. It was the only source that seemed to accurately show what was really going on, and explained things pretty well also. Now, as I am not the most worldly source of info in the blogosphere, I can't guarantee that there isn't something better around the corner. But I recommended watching www.electoral-vote.com to keep track of the unfathomable chaos that serves as our electoral process.

Same Old More of the Same

Here's a quick thought...

Here's a quick thought that I heard on my morning drive time radio (Stephanie Miller show): "Attorney General John Edwards."

Not bad, eh? Strange, after those words were uttered, the sun came out and the rain stopped and the birds began hopping around...

I like to see him start prosecuting you-know-who, you know?

Hoo.

Corporate Media Fascism Rules the Day

So dig it, truthseekers:

MSNBC prepares to broadcast a "debate" (they're not debates in the true sense of the word, just public appearances). They decide, of course, to exclude Dennis Kucinich (the candidate who best represents progrssive values and enjoys huge popular support, therefore scaring the shit out of America's powermongers). Exclude him! I mean, they actually changed the rules so he could be disinvited. Lovely.

So, insted of a democracy where we get to choose between candidates who are running for office, we get whatever triangulating centrist corporate shill the news media decide to whore out for mass consumption.

And we all know that most people in this country don't have the brains to think past American Idol and will happily vote for whoever is most successfully marketed to them. No matter how much they complain, they (we) will receive more of the same, wrapped in a new package.

It's all just sales schtick. The new brainwashing catchphrase on all sides is "change", repeated enough to make people think that's what is being offered, when the truth is they are receiving the very same plutocratic corporatist gruel they are given every election. The only change they offer is the fact that the next president is much more likely to be able to actually speak english in a coherent fashion like a sober adult, instead the absurd, unintelligible gibberish we have been subject to for the last eight years. Yes, Bush has lowered our expectations to the point where we will accept a villian just as rotten as him, if only they can present themselves as if they are at a job interview instead of an audition as a babbling, snickering hillbilly lunatic in a Tarantino film. But I digress.

The subject at had is the slow painful death of American democracy. If I counted the times I have read and/or heard progressives state who they would like to elect for president, I would swear that 90% of them have said they liek Kucinich best. But the corporate media (bizarrely characterized by the "right" as the "liberal media") would have you think that Kucinch does not even exist.

We are truly fucked, truthseekers, when our so-called "democracy" is just another poorly produced "reality" show where the candidates we have to choose between for President of the United States are chosen for us by the corporate media, who not only choose who we should choose, but more importantly, decide who we are not allowed to choose.

Even progressives have been saying for months that the best candidates, their favorite candidates, who they believe would best lead the country, have no chance of winning. No chance of even being considered. Everyone resigns themselves to the lesser of evils.

And that's not even factoring in the electronic vote manipulation the right will employ to steal votes, or the dirty tricks they'll employ right before the election (like suddenly declaring victory and bringing the troops home or whatever).

Yes, we are screwed, and I feel like the election is already over and the same old power elite has won again as they always do and they always will. We are truly on our own, those of us who want anything more than plutocratic/theocratic/fascist corporatocracy.

PS: Remember what Eisenhower said:

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

Dwight Eisenhower, November 8, 1954

I talk about the candidates and choose the ones I loves and hates

Okay, now that I am blogging again, I am way overdue to offer my sage wisdom regarding the presidential race of 2008. How can I best describe the excitement of the 2008 American presidential election?

Pitiful comes to mind. Pathetic. Appalling. Disappointing, disheartening, discouraging. I’m sure there are more adjectives than we have room for here.

The Big Two parties continue to fail us.

The republican party presents us with liars, hypocrites, “flip-floppers”, religious fundamentalist zealots… at least they’re consistent with previous offerings.

The democratic party has offered us enablers, appeasers, facilitators, rhetorical hypocrites, and more of the same, except for Dennis Kucinich, who is a shining beacon of hope and is, therefore, regarded as unelectable. Integrity is poison to American government.

Here are my thoughts about the candidates (most of them, not all of them), starting with the democrats, for whom I will be forced to vote because we are stuck with the @#$%^&* two-party system again when I would far rather vote for the Green Party.

Besides which, the cadidates we have to choose are selected by the media before we ever get near them. There is no good reason why the media darlings should get virtually all the press attention, while the best candidates, in my opinion, are ignored by the media as if diseased, until they are finally driven from the race. More on that later.

First, the Democrats.

Hillary Clinton:

She was the front runner for a long time (and may be again) because the republicans who control everything (that is, society's corporate puppetmasters) want her to be. I say again, and insist this is true: Hillary is the republican’s chosen candidate. She has been crafted and nurtured by the right into their desired adversary over the last decade, and she represents a total win-win situation for the republicans: If she wins, they get a president who has been a loyal adherent to Bush policy, and yet will manage to improve America’s reputation abroad by virtue of her connection to her well-regarded husband. If she loses, which they expect her to do anyway, they get their own body in there. Either way, a vote for Hillary is a vote for the republican party.

Barrack Obama:

Says he would have voted against war in Iraq, which we can never really know because he wasn’t there. And he’s a little too hawkish about Iran for my taste. I like Michael Moore’s description:

“Barack Obama is a good and inspiring man... But who is he... other than a guy who gives a great speech? How much do any of us really know about him? I know he was against the war. How do I know that? He gave a speech before the war started. But since he joined the Senate, he has voted for the funds for the war, while at the same time saying we should get out. He says he's for the little guy, but then he votes for a corporate-backed bill to make it harder for the little guy to file a class action suit when his kid swallows lead paint from a Chinese-made toy. In fact, Obama doesn't think Wall Street is a bad place. He wants the insurance companies to help us develop a new health care plan -- the same companies who have created the mess in the first place. He's such a feel-good kinda guy, I get the sense that, if elected, the Republicans will eat him for breakfast. He won't even have time to make a good speech about it.”

Don't get me wrong, I like Obama. I worry that he might be swallowed up by the corruption of the vocation, but I would take the risk and vote for him if he was the democratic candidate for president.

John Edwards:

Of the three front runners, he’s the one I like best. Moore writes about him, too:

“…you find a man who is out to take on the wealthy and powerful who have made life so miserable for so many. A candidate who says things like this: "I absolutely believe to my soul that this corporate greed and corporate power has an ironclad hold on our democracy." Whoa. We haven't heard anyone talk like that in a while, at least not anyone who is near the top of the polls… he has nowhere near the stash of cash the other two have. He won't take the big checks from the corporate PACs, and he is alone among the top three candidates in agreeing to limit his spending and be publicly funded. He has said, point-blank, that he's going after the drug companies and the oil companies and anyone else who is messing with the American worker. The media clearly find him to be a threat, probably because he will go after their monopolistic power, too. This is Roosevelt/Truman kind of talk. That's why it's resonating with people in Iowa, even though he doesn't get the attention Obama and Hillary get.

And he voted for the war. But unlike Senator Clinton, he has stated quite forcefully that he was wrong. And he has remorse…He went further than Clinton and Obama and said he'd have all the troops home in less than a year.

Edwards is the only one of the three front-runners who has a universal health care plan that will lead to the single-payer kind all other civilized countries have… he is the only one who has correctly pointed out that the health insurance companies are the enemy and should not have a seat at the table.

Then, as the theme from Gilligan's Island puts it, are "all the rest" (I'm only touching on a few of them):

Richardson: Excellent resume, made lots of sense, has good experience in foreign policy, I liked him a lot, but then he made a stupid statement about homosexuality in a debate and it was downhill from there. That, combined with the lack of media attention, seemed to remove him from the race.

Biden: Also made a lot more sense in debates than, say, Hillary Clinton, but was also ignored. He was possibly the best qualified candidate the democrats had to offer. Because of that, he was given the silent treatment, too.

Kucinich: Now, then. I want to state loud and clear that Dennis Kucinich is my top pick of all the candidates of any party (or independent). He represents the values of progressives right down the line. On every issue: war, health care, environment, economy, etcetera, Dennis Kucinich is absolutely the ultimate top-flight a-number-one best-choice candidate. And if that's not enough, dig this: He is consistently chosen in polls by many other progressives as their favorite, too. I am truly shocked by how often I read other progressive writers' opinions that they, too, like Kucinich best. Nationwide polls choose Kucinich as the number-one favorite. In fact, I read more often that he is the chosen favorite candidate by progressives than any other, and I mean any other, including the media front-runners. Nevertheless, Kucinich is thoroghly ignored by the media, effectively turning him into a non-entity and strangling his campaign. Why? Because he is exactly what we want, that's why, and the corporate pigs who contral everything, left and right, are terrified of us having so much power as to elect a president who represents the majority of progressives. They're afraid of him, they're afraid of us, and I am sick of trying to take that as a compliment. Besides, they are stealing another election by selecting candidates that they want us to choose, instead of us choosing who we want. How long must we be subject to this?

Now, the Republicans. Short work, this. I mean, in general, it is still true that the republican party is the party of hypocrites, liars, perverts, and the only thing you can count on with any of them is that whatever they tell you, you can be sure the opposite is true.

Huckabee: Fundamentalist crackpot, bible-literalist, wants to convert the whole country to his religion, pitifully uninformed, is a great schmoozer but so is every asshole salesman I've ever known. Make that bible salesman in his case.

Romney: Let me just say this up front so I can be accused of predjudice: I have been intimately involved with the Morman church in my lifetime. Specifically, I was "converted" when I was 10 by a stepfather into it and was thus involved until I was in my late teens. I hated it, but these are not just sour grapes. See, I believe that in order to support a particular religion, one must accept that religion's dogma - all of it, including the metaphysical parts like creation, life after death, the definition of "God" and other important members of the pantheon, etc. If you don't accept those things, then you don't believe in the most important aspects of that religion and are thus a disbeliever, affiliated in name only. Fast forward to Mitt Romney. I happen to know some things about mormonism that make me despise it as the insidious cult that it is, founded by a liar and con man. I won't go into them here (no room, no time), but I say for the record that anyone who is involved in mormonism is either ignorant of these things or agrees with them. I don't want someone who is that ignorant in charge of the country. And I certainly don't want anyone who actually believes in the bullshit that is mormonism to be in charge of anything connected with my life. No apologies. Mormonism is not a religion that deserves tolerant respect, it is a con that hurts people and would be prosecuted as a crime if it didn't cloak itself in a facade of false "Christianty" so that society is afraid to touch it. Mitt Romney is part of all that.

Giuliani: At the republican national convention of the 2004 election, he said that his first thought when he saw the towers fall was, "Thank God George Bush is president." That statement alone, whether true or not, is enough to disqualify him as a candidate by virtue of his thorough disconnection with popular opinion. Added to that is the fact that he is sleazy (moved his mistress into the governor's mansion while he was still married), corrupt (Bernie Kerrick?), and cannot be trusted. He was a joke up until 9/11, at which time he exploited tragedy for personal gain (Bushism in a nutshell). He would sell us all out to achieve his personal glory.

McCain: I am from McCain's state, Arizona. I have followed his career since he came on the scene in the 80's. His only qualification at that time was that he was a prisoner of war. Everyone who voted for him then, who effectively began his political career, stated up front that they voted for him because he was a POW. No regard whatsoever for his policy positions, whatever they were. Since then, he has proven himself to be a political whore who will flip-flop his ass off and sell his soul to toe the party line. He was also in the pocket of savings-and-loan-scandal figure Charles Keating. He's likeable but he is bad news.

Fred Thompson: A lobbyist/lawyer!? How wonderfully republican. How perfect, if he hadn't turned out to be the scary uncle candidate.

The rest of the republicans: if they've held office during the last eight years, they are guilty of being part of the legion of vial bastards who believe America should become the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany all rolled up in one. To hell with them all.

So there we are. What is the result of my analysis? It is this:

1. Believe in the priciples of Dennis Kucinich,

2. If we are forced to choose between Clinton, Obama, and Edwards, choose Edwards,

3. Expect the republican corporate fascist plutocrats to steal the 2008 election using the same methods that worked for them in 2000 & 2004.

I'm Back!

I’m back! Yeah, I know, I have been gone before, but … wow. It seems like I’ve been gone for months. And apparently, I have.

It’s been a really busy summer-fall-winter. First of all, my wife and I bought our first house, which was a long process that kind of took up a lot of my time and energy. Between that and the move and work and whatever, my mental processes were sapped, and my body is not designed for too many more moves.

Besides that, I have been so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of horrible current events that I have a hard time digesting it all, let alone write commentary. I am not talking about simple bad news, where one can shake one’s head and say, “Oh, those darn politicians, they’re such scoundrels, with their earmarks and their good old boy networks and their selling out government to the highest campaign contributor.” We’re used to that old stuff, it’s been going on forever; it’s old hat. I’m talking about how America has become everything that I was taught, growing up, was wrong: We invade and occupy other countries that pose no threat, in order to seize their resources. We kidnap people, hide them away in secret and torture them. We torture people! Or we send them to another country and have them tortured for us! and our leaders are arguing over whether or nor that is okay!? Domestically, civil rights have been demolished. Worker’s rights have been demolished. All power has been returned to the richest of the rich, and taken away from the people whose fathers and mothers fought so hard to win it during the last century. Corporate power rules over all and masses of the faithful are duped by corporate/political con men that wear masks of piety and spew hatred in God’s name. Fascism, plutocracy, theocracy, all combined into the new American Way. Our leaders have learned their lessons at the knee of their masters; the Nazis, the Soviets, and if you dare criticize or dissent, you are branded an enemy of the state by the brainwashed masses whose ideas are formed for them by corporate shills through the right-wing media.

I remember when one of the first actions by the Bush administration, before the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, was to petition the world court and demand that America cannot be held responsible for war crimes. Again I point out, that was at the beginning, before the wars. How could anyone ignore such an action? How could people simply shrug that off and assume the Bush people had the best of intentions by demanding they be immune from prosecution for war crimes!?

I remember not long after that when they worked to eliminate workers’ right to overtime pay. What I do not recall was very much media attention paid to it and even less of a response from the workers themselves. And then there was all the lowering of restrictions on dumping poison into the air and water. The list goes on and on.

And it hasn’t stopped. It’s gotten worse and worse and worse. And the most mortifying reminder of it is the fact that the Democratic party screwed us all over by duping us into electing them to enact change and instead becoming the rubber-stamping enablers of the Republican fascists. I’ve said this in this blog many times before: who is worse, Hitler, or those who did his bidding? I am often inclined to choose the latter.

Depressing? Yes. So much so that I have a hard time maintaining a (generally) political blog. But, I promised myself at the beginning that I would keep forging ahead until this administration is out of office. I am aware that they may declare a national emergency and refuse to leave, but I intend to honor my vow and keep trying to make sense of it all.

So, I offer my happy-holiday wishes to all. I wish the best of luck to us all, as we ride out the eighth year of the most diabolically evil presidential administration in our nation’s history. Good luck.

This Freaks Me Out! [Pictures Newly Uploaded - Hope It Works This Time!]

For years I have noticed that members of the Bush administration are prone to flashing this particular hand sign when giving speeches or public statements. Now, I am no babe-in-the-woods, and I have been a keen observer of human behavior all my life. I never saw this gesture used so often by a specific group of people until I began noticing its frequent use by the Bush cabal.

It's not a new or complicated hand sign. It is a simple hand gesture, often used to indicate measurement, as in, "I need six #10 bolts about this long," or something like that (I know all the implied penis-size jokes are there too, so we don't have to bore each other with those). I have a theory, though. It will sound like typical "conspiracy theory" stuff, but here it is.

I think the gesture is a hand-sign/secret code used by the neocon "Bushies" to indicate something to specific listeners when they are speaking in a public forum. I believe that when they are speaking, they are not addressing the general public or an interviewer, they are secretly speaking to a target-audience of socioeconomic & political elite, their "base" as Bush called them. The hand-sign is flashed to indicate to those listeners who are "in the know" that the phrase connected with the sign is to be interpreted a particular way, rather than literally. It might mean to use a predetermined code, or to simply use the opposite meaning, or whatever; I do not know the code. But I suspect it exists and that is what they are doing.

Remember, these are a bunch of secret-society frat-boy types, Skull-and-Bones members, etc. They are long accustomed to communicating through elitist signals; it only makes sense that they would employ that tried-and-true method throughout their lives' endeavors. And remember what I said about the gesture being used ordinarily to indicate measurement? At the risk of ridicule, I offer the notion that the use of such a gesture as a secret message could have masonic roots.

In any event, here are a few examples:







I am dead serious. Can anyone tell me what is really going on with this?

A Good Little "Why They Hate Us" Video

I used to have a link to a site that had a totally great little article called "Why They Hate Us," describing why so many people from other countries (say, Iran or Iraq) hate us (hint: they don't "hate us for our freedom").

Alas, that link is no more. I miss it so, but luckily other similar sites exist to fill the void. Here is one such link:



Infuriating and enlightening at the same time. Consider, for example, the part about 32 seconds into the piece, where it says that since 1991 were had been bombing Iraq on a weekly basis. The Bush administration has such a low opinion of you and me that they think we'll believe their lie that the Iraqis "hate is for our freedom," not for conducting bomb runs against them every week for years.

Whoever believes the right-wing position on world affairs is either an ignorant dupe or an evil bastard.

Probably More Likely to be My Last Rove Post

One more thing, damnit: I am sick to death of hearing about what a brilliant strategist and a genius Karl Rove was. Can someone please, please, tell me something he did to warrant such a description?

Frequently mentioned is his success in getting George W Bush into political office (I won't say "elected" because that's not how it went down). What is the brilliant strategy in lying and cheating and stealing? Maybe the result is the proof: One might have to be brilliant to get an asshole like Bush into office.

I am anxiously awaiting proof that the morally bankrupt failure Karl Rove is as smart as they all say he is. Personally, I think they are simply repeating that lie because they were ordered to... probably by him.

Maybe My Last Rove Post

Of course I can’t let the resignation of Carl Rove go by without comment. I have referred to him a lot since I began blogging. So, rather than re-hash old material, I’ll just hit a few highlights.

1. Rove is not the genius he is credited to be. His ideas and methods were not new or innovative. His tools (secrecy, lies, cheating) are as old as the hills. He is simply a cunning backroom schemer whose plans were/are so unethical that they caught his opponents by surprise (that in itself is surprising given the nature of American politics). Even his big claim to fame – perverting the American system of electing our political leaders into a sleazy façade of pandering, corruption, election-rigging and vote-theft – has been done before, by both parties, more often than most of us would care to know. Of course, Rove had the audacity to take it to treasonous levels without remorse, but the important thing here is that his vaunted “genius” did not win the day. Not forever, anyway. Bottom line: not a genius, just so rotten that his peers thought only a genius could get away with that.

2. Rove’s grand vision of a permanent Republican majority fell down around him like a house on fire. I suppose he thought he could fool the public, for whom he and the Bush administration have demonstrated the utmost contempt throughout their reign, into thinking Republicans were morally above reproach, fiscally prudent, adherents of traditional Christian values and proponents of smaller, less intrusive government (I’ll continue as soon as you stop laughing). Now, certainly he (as a “genius”) must have been fully aware that Republicans were the exact opposite of all those things, morally, ethically, economically, & politically. So he must have thought he could build that permanent Republican majority either in spite of, or, even worse, because of, the despicable nature of Republican politicians. The “in spite of” option = stupidity, the “because of” option = evil. And that is the consistent hallmark of Republican politicians: you get to choose between stupid or evil (with the Texacutioner we got both). Either way, the “genius” failed miserably, for himself, his party, and his dark neocon masters.

3. Maybe being known as the “brain” of a “shit-for-brains” president is not such a good thing after all.

Selling Us Up the River, or, How Long Has it Been Since I Wrote a Post Where I Had to Include the Word "AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!"

Okay, I don’t know why I never thought of this before, but:

Recently I received a call from a telemarketer who I believe was calling from outside the US, possibly India. Now, usually when this happens, I don’t give it much thought. We all know outsourced phone bank workers have become a normal part of the global economy. Customer service calls of all kinds are routed overseas to workers who earn a small fraction of what similar workers in America would earn.

But this time, it occurred to me that an international call from a telemarketer to my residence is now considered justification for me to be investigated by homeland security domestic surveillance operatives. After all, we now live in a country that believes any call in or out of the country is suspicious.

This whole situation pisses me off in all kinds of ways (surprise).

Besides the fact that domestic spying is an insult to our constitutional rights, and besides the fact that telemarketing is an insidious annoyance despised by all but it’s purveyors, and besides the fact that outsourcing cheats the working men and women of this country out of needed jobs, I am pissed off because corporations (who really run this country anyway) can not only take away your customer service or marketing job and then call you every evening to rub your nose in it, they can now turn you into a criminal just for having a working telephone in your home. They can turn you into a criminal and they can make money off it in the process!

Talk about another sick example of twisted repuke perversion of justice! I don't want to receive unsolicited calls from overseas, but I can't prevent it, and it is being fueled by the corporations who contribute to the politicians who insist that those calls make me criminally suspect, and yet they receive their campaign contributions and lobbyist money from the revenue based on those very calls!

AAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Declaring War Against Ourselves?

Odds n’ Ends in the War on Terror

If the United States attacks Iran preemptively... the signatories of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty [NPT] do have certain obligations... basically Russia and China, as well as France and the United Kingdom, will "provide immediate assistance" to Iran if it "is a victim of an act, or an object of a threat of, aggression in which nuclear weapons are used." Interesting, eh? So if Bush-Cheney bomb Iran, the other NPT members are required under international law TO DEFEND IRAN.

So, if we attack Iran, out allies are obligated to defend Iran against us. Bush-Cheney could end up forcing the rest of the world to declare war against us.

Now, that's what I call a legacy.

Saturday is Music Appreciation Day at Constantly Amazed!

And I hope you'll enjoy a little Django Reinhardt. Trivia: His left hand (the one on the frets) was severely injured and he only had use of two fingers.

They say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to...

In all the frequent mentioning in the media of oil issues (use, overuse, peak oil, war for oil, price of gas, OPEC, what have you), they are inevitably focused on automobile usage. It's always driving, driving, driving, and the price of gasoline. That's it. As if the whole petroleum industry starts and stops there. Okay, so maybe 1% of media mention heating oil. But the other 99% is all about gasoline.

As you might have already suspected, I think a little differently.

See, when they talk about fuel, I don't think about Joe Mullett's jacked up F250 or the asinine SUV Mr. & Mrs. Suburbia use to drive back and forth from their McMansion to the local warehouse store (driving with a starbuck's froofroo cafe caramel mocha latte half caff whatever in one hand and text messaging on their cell phone in the other). No way, Jose.

I think of all the other stuff. For example, cars a probably a drop in the bucket compared to the bazillions (I don't know exactly how many) of jet airplanes that fly back and forth across the country and across the world, and how much jet fuel goes into those things and gets burned up by the, what, hundreds or thousands of gallons a minute? Does anyone know?

Even more importantly, what about all the stuff that is made from petroleum that we use and toss away every single day? Plastic is a petroleum product, and everything is made from plastic (you may think this is old news, but 70% of Americans don't know plastic is made from oil)! There are even petroleum products in your food. I think more people should be reminded more often that the oil interests who want to control the resources of the middle east are not just interested in fuel and lubricants. If they control petroleum, they control just about every product produced on the planet.

A partial list of products made from petroleum: a partial list of products made from Petroleum (144 of 6000 items):

Ammonia, Anesthetics, Antifreeze, Antihistamines, Antiseptics, Artificial limbs, Artificial Turf, Aspirin, Awnings, Balloons, Ballpoint Pens, Bandages, Basketballs, Bearing Grease, Bicycle Tires, Boats, Cameras, Candles, Car Battery Cases, Car Enamel, Cassettes, Caulking, CD Player, CD's, Clothes, Clothesline, Cold cream, Combs, Cortisone, Crayons, Curtains, Dashboards, Denture Adhesive, Dentures, Deodorant, Detergents, Dice, Diesel, Dishes, Dishwasher, Dresses, Drinking Cups, Dyes, DVD's, Electric Blankets, Electrician's Tape, Enamel, Epoxy, Eyeglasses, Fan Belts, Faucet Washers, Fertilizers, Fishing Rods & gear, Floor Wax, Folding Doors, Food Preservatives, Football Cleats, Football Helmets, Footballs, Footballs, Gasoline, Glycerin, Golf Bags, Golf Balls, Guitar Strings, Hair Coloring, Hair Curlers, Handguns, Hand Lotion, Heart Valves, House Paint, Ice Chests, Ice Cube Trays, Ink, Insect Repellent, Insecticides, Life Jackets, Linings, Linoleum, Lipstick, Luggage, Model Cars, Mops, Motor Oil, Motorcycle Helmet, Movie film, Nail Polish, Nylon Rope, Oil Filters, Paint, Paint Brushes, Paint Rollers, Panty Hose, Parachutes, Percolators, Perfumes, Petroleum Jelly, Pillows, Plastic Wood, Purses, Putty, Refrigerant, Refrigerators, Roller Skates, Roofing, Rubber Cement, Rubbing Alcohol, Safety Glasses, Shag Rugs, Shampoo, Shaving Cream, Shoe Polish, Shoes, Shower Curtains, Skis, Slacks, Soap, Soft Contact lenses, Solvents, Speakers, Sports Car Bodies, Sun Glasses, Surf Boards, Sweaters, Synthetic Rubber, Telephones, Tennis Rackets, Tents, Tires, Toilet Seats, Tool Boxes, Tool Racks, Toothbrushes, Toothpaste, Transparent Tape, Trash Bags, TV Cabinets, Umbrellas, Upholstery, Vaporizers, Vitamin Capsules, Water Pipes, Wheels, Yarn...

Even $@#^& candy wrappers are made from plastic! Along with just about every piece of product packaging filling the aisles of your local Hell Mart.

And to top it off, you have things like this happening: Boeing Unveils Blockbuster Plane:

"What makes the 787 revolutionary is that it is the first airplane built mostly not of metal, but rather mostly of high tech composite material, a type of reinforced plastic."

Do you see what I mean? They don't just want to control the gas you put in your car. If they control oil, they control everything!

So now you know why, every time I hear someone from either side of the argument proposing to save the day by encouraging the use of biofuels, I feel a little cheated. Honestly, we need to address the big picture here. The fuel thing important, but we really need to address the fact that practically everything else is made from oil, too. And the neocons want to own every drop of it!

P.S. Someone once said that I shouldn't address problems like this without also providing a solution. So... how's this: Henry Ford built an automobile out of soy and hemp!