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.