Phallic Symbol

I guess somebody thinks the republican Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter of Idaho is a dick. "Butch" might want to invest in some grass seed.

Sign of Distress UPDATE

Sad But True over at Les Enrages.Org has written up the story of a North Carolina couple who were arrested and subsequently harrassed by police for flying a flag upside down--a recognized distress signal. Read the story here.

From reader Barbie:Woman Allowed to Fly Flag Upside Down. At the Denver Channel.

No End in Sight

Found this over at Nate's place. Watch the preview and see if No End in Sight is playing in your neck of the woods. I'll have to wait for the DVD.

1000 Reasons

How many more do the American people need before they DEMAND from our government the removal of the Bush crime syndicate?

President bush's speech last week arguing that the United States must stay in Iraq to defeat the Al Qaeda leadership reassembling there ranks as one of his most vacuous. It drew on intelligence that was conveniently (and perhaps selectively?) declassified in order to make the dubious case that the Al Qaeda in Iraq today is the same enemy that attacked us on 9/11

. Read a few more here.

Peace Bridge

Thursdays's Democracy Now! puts Amy Goodman in conversation with two people working for Peace.

Three years ago, a Brooklyn school teacher created a project to connect his students with Iraqi youth. The objective of One to One Iraq Contact was to teach students about the people on the “other side” of the war and to create a peace bridge between the two sides. The American and Iraqi students and teachers began exchanging emails about their lives, war and growing up in Brooklyn and Baghdad.

Read or listen to the interview.

Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.-Laurence J. Peter

American Response

YouTuber Davis Fleetwood, has his response to the YouTube presidential candidate debates hosted by CNN. Take a look.

Friendly Fire? Who Needs Enemies

New evidence came out today indicating Pat Tillman was not only shot and killed by American troops--but at close range. Pat Tillman was reportedly about to speak out against the prosecution of the war. Read the story at Mystical Maven's place and Crooks and Liars as reported by the AP..

Korey Rowe Arrested

Korey Rowe, producer of "Loose Change" was arrested Monday night in New York on a military warrant for "Desertion". Rowe, the Iraq and Afghanistan veteran was sent to Fort Campbell, Kentucky in spite of showing New York law enforcement officials his DD Form 214 which proved he had been honorably discharged from the Army for two years.

Cheese Whiz

Yesterday's (day before?) "terrorism suspicion" at the various airports, then the subsequent "warning" to be on the look out for the cheese-as-bombs scenario turns out to be, in at least one instance, an old woman's broken icepack.

A female U.S. citizen in her late 60s wrapped the 10-to 15-year-old ice packs to prevent leaks because they had grown brittle, Sanfilippo said. She had a legitimate medical reason for carrying ice packs and did not appear to be able to afford to buy new ones. He could not explain the differences in the TSA bulletin. _-AP report

Maybe this is the "gut feeling" Skeletor Chertoff had eluded to. Notice how the 'false flags' start waving when BushCo is in trouble?

Demoted

Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger should start packing his duffel bag.

Army Secretary Peter Geren is expected to recommend that a retired three-star general be demoted for his role in providing misleading information about the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, military officials say, in what would be a stinging and rare rebuke.

Why are We in Iraq?

Listen to the interview Thom Hartman does with Congressman Jim McDermott of Washington state. Rep. McDermott has many insights into the situation in Iraq and how our continued occupation only exacerbates the the danger to Iraqis and American soldiers.

YouTube Debate

Last night CNN in conjunction with YouTube, had Americans submit questions for the Democratic presidential candidates to answer. Watch and weigh in with what you think.

Ready,Set

Think Progress has a piece up expanding on my concern about the state of the nation.

The Washington Post reports on an executive order issued by President Bush last week entitled, “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq.” In the extreme, it could be interpreted as targeting the financial assets of any American who undermines the administration’s Iraq policy.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, was denied access to the White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack. “I just can’t believe they’re going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack,” he said.

Read the rest.

Tell Me Your Secrets

A Robert Smigel cartoon from SNL: Oprah Interviews the '08 Presidential Candidates.

Politics: The Music Video

Apparently while I was packing, unpacking and dealing with my new 'money pit', a cultural phenomenon erutpted: The political pop music video. One of the trailblazer's is Barely Political. Check out the music video Debate '08: Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl.

Friday Night Follies:I found the WMD's

When the going gets tough, I opt for the weapon, musical distraction.
Rihanna:Shut Up and Drive

All The Presidents Enablers

How many more of these stories do I have to read before someone in government does something to remove Bush & Co.?

Op-Ed Columnist Paul Krugman gives us All the President’s Enablers:

In a coordinated public relations offensive, the White House is using reliably friendly pundits — amazingly, they still exist — to put out the word that President Bush is as upbeat and confident as ever. It might even be true.

What I don’t understand is why we’re supposed to consider Mr. Bush’s continuing confidence a good thing.

Remember, Mr. Bush was confident six years ago when he promised to bring in Osama, dead or alive. He was confident four years ago, when he told the insurgents to bring it on. He was confident two years ago, when he told Brownie that he was doing a heckuva job.

Now Iraq is a bloody quagmire, Afghanistan is deteriorating and the Bush administration’s own National Intelligence Estimate admits, in effect, that thanks to Mr. Bush’s poor leadership America is losing the struggle with Al Qaeda. Yet Mr. Bush remains confident.

Sorry, but that’s not reassuring; it’s terrifying. It doesn’t demonstrate Mr. Bush’s strength of character; it shows that he has lost touch with reality.

Actually, it’s not clear that he ever was in touch with reality.

Read the rest over at the Frenchman's.

The Root of All Evil

The terribly smart, caustically clever crew over at Les Enragés.org posted about the federal government's latest computer prying into private citizens computers. Read KVATCH's post on what you can do to protect yourself from prying eyes.

NSPD-1984

There has been an inordinate amount of talk the last few days of martial law being invoked by the emperor-chimp, and I have to say it is more than a little unsettling. I don' recall any time in my life when the political landscape was this littered with dangerous minds. Looking into the American pathology has become more a thing of shame and disappointment than I care to admit. But what to do?

We have an absolutely criminal administration and an opposition party that looks more and more Chamberlinesque with each passing day. The convenience of politics, i.e, either participating or not, if you feel like it, the laissez faire, take it or leave it, no longer seems possible. To read or listen to conservative Bruce Fein tell it, the founding fathers would take up arms against this lawless BushCo bunch, and all things considered, it would appear we are through the looking glass.

JFK's assassination, the Vietnam war, Watergate, Iran-Contra, they don't even come close to the depth and breadth of of corruption and in-your-face deceit presented with such extraordinary hubris it stuns the senses. And Americans do nothing. The left blogosphere is blowing its top, which has been on-going to the point of fury-fatigue, but to what avail?

The fuckstick(s) in the White House have crafted yet another National Security Presidential Directive. Have a look at the list of NSPD's. Consider that any number of constitutional law scholars have called much of what BushCo has done/continues to do daily, illegal but end commentary with, "...but these issues will not get through the courts until Bush is well out of office." Or maybe until he cancels the election, declares martial law, seizes the assets of dissenters. The entire 1984 scenario is absolutely surreal until you look back carefully sorting through the details of what these criminals have done and then it seems strangely possible.

I have no answers, only prayers. Hopes that the spirit and courage of our ancestors who fought for the independence of this country 231 years ago still survives in the genes of today's Americans. I'm not sure what else to do but hope.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -Plato

Duke Cunningham Sings

Convicted, imprisoned Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the former congressmen from San Diego, has spilled the beans about the depth of corruption in the GOP to the FBI. We can only hope the Duker's dump doesn't fall on deaf ears.

VA Chief Resigns!

And none to soon for me. Jim Nicholson is a dick. His only qualification was being a loyal "Bushie". Read about it at VA Watchdog. Latest here.

Believe You Me

On a related note, Dana Blankenhorn has a great piece about how the MSM can make us believe anything. Please wake up America.

Old News to New Ears

While most have certainly seen or heard Keith Olbermann's Special Comment making the best argument of why BushCo should resign, I heard it only now. If you haven't, do so now. If you have listen again. Try to influence others to listen. Drag them away from the noisebox of infotainment and make them listen.

I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war.

I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.

I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.

I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors.

I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but to stifle dissent.

I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought.

I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents.

I accuse you of handing part of this Republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it.

And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that Vice President, carte blanche to Mr. Libby, to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to Grand Juries and Special Counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation, with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison, and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.

Speaking of DeLays

The Aerialist, a DKOS contributor, has written up a terrifically frightening news item we haven't heard about in the MSM (color me surprised). Ronnie Earle, the Texas District Attorney who brought charges up on the criminal Tom DeLay, is pushing for the Texas Appeals Court to not change the law in order to get DeLay off the hook for his criminal tampering with Texas elections. Texas readers and concerned citizens, please contact your representatives or Democrat Nick Lampson who now holds DeLay's seat in Congress, and have them chime in on the Texas' despicable legal pandering. Just another example of my-most-recent-ex-"home" and its constant meddling with justice, and simply what's right. A textbook case of "judicial activism." Sheesh.

If he [Ronnie Earle] can’t persuade them [Texas Appellate Court] to reconsider, police and prosecutors would be powerless to bring conspiracy charges in a wide variety of felony crimes, perhaps including the next pair of Columbine-style killers who plot to bring their guns to a Texas school.

Four dissenting judges on the nine-member Court of Criminal Appeals agree that the court is about to make bad law and bad public policy in the course of throwing out a conspiracy charge against DeLay and two accused co-conspirators. Earle is trying, with a motion for rehearing filed Thursday, to persuade at least one more justice to reconsider.

Read the rest...

MRAP too good for the US Military but not too good for Blackwater USA

The MRAP, the lifesaving Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle with the v-shaped hull which provides significant protection from IED's has been deemed "too expensive" for US military but just right for the Iraqi soldiers we train. Have I mentioned today how much I hate these people? USA Today finally writes up the obvious.

On Dec. 22, 2004 two weeks after President Bush told families of servicemembers that "we're doing everything we possibly can to protect your loved ones" a U.S. Army general solicited ideas for an armored vehicle for the Iraqis. The Army had an "extreme interest" in getting troops better armor, then-brigadier general Roger Nadeau told a subordinate looking at foreign technology, in an e-mail obtained by USA TODAY.

In a follow-up message, Nadeau clarified his request: "What I failed to point out in my first message to you folks is that the US Govt is interested not for US use, but for possible use in fielding assets to the Iraqi military forces."[Emphasis mine]

Thanks to the US taxpayer though, Blackwater USA has plenty of MRAP's for their highly paid assassins. Thanks BushCo for all your support of the troops.

H/T to Lotus and RF for the linkies.

Duct Bush

'Nuff said.

Zeitgeist

I started this blog precisely because my world view was drastically altered by watching a film that changed many of my perceptions of the world as I knew it. That film is Loose Change. I again, recommend it. Tonight I added another cinematic piece of information to the unraveling of the intricate puzzle of deception in which the powers-that-be have ensnared us all.

Being very close to moving when the year anniversary of my blog occurred, I didn't write up the significance of the emotional earthquake I encountered which created the impetus for the blog itself. Tonight I offer, for your weekend viewing pleasure, another terrifically persuasive film about the depth of corruption and nearly imperceptible duplicity and manipulation of your government and our world as we know it.

Take the time this weekend, or any other time you can manage, to watch the the documentary film Zeitgeist. Done in an interesting montage, triptych presentation, a social, historical, deconstructionist commentary on religion, 9/11, and international banking practices. This film will stun your senses and make you rethink much of what you think you know about the world, the history of the United States, and government in general. Tonight with my viewing, I had another epiphany.

Zeitgeist was created as a not for profit work to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective.

The more you begin to investigate what you think we understand; where we came from, what we think we were doing, the more you begin to see we've been lied to.

We've been lied to by every institution.

-From Zeitgeist

Give yourself two hours and see if watching Zeitgeist changes anything.

A Case for Impeachment

Bill Moyers hosts Bruce Fein and John Nichols as they parse out the case against BushCo. Worth a listen.

The founding fathers expected an executive who tried to overreach and expected the executive would be hampered and curtailed by the legislative branch... They [Congress] have basically renounced — walked away from their responsibility to oversee and check. — Bruce Fein

On January 20th, 2009, if George Bush and Dick Cheney are not appropriately held to account this Administration will hand off a toolbox with more powers than any President has ever had, more powers than the founders could have imagined. And that box may be handed to Hillary Clinton or it may be handed to Mitt Romney or Barack Obama or someone else. But whoever gets it, one of the things we know about power is that people don't give away the tools. — John Nichols

The Outrageous White House

We present our 757,000th nominee:The outrageous White House report on Iraq. By Fred Kaplan.

The "Salvador Option" in a Lose-Lose War

I have been busier than I ever wanted to be. I'm anxious to return to a normal schedule rather than this 'Farmer John' dawn-to-dusk thing.

Meanwhile, back at the illegal occupation of Iraq, Dr. Dahlia Wasfi joins Robert Scheer and James Harris of Truthdig to discuss the past, present and future of the Iraq war. This piece is interesting and thought-provoking. Give this 30 minute interview a read or a listen.

With all the supplemental bills and Pentagon’s baseline budget of $500 billion and everything that’s been appropriated for continuing our occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite all that money floating out there, in 2005 the Veterans Administration healthcare budget came up $1 billion short. The only people who are not supporting the troops are the ones who’ve been delegated the responsibility to do so, and that’s our government. That is unacceptable that the troops who come home can’t get access to healthcare for six months. It is unacceptable that one-third of the homeless on the streets today are veterans. And there’re already Iraq war veterans showing up homeless on the street. It is unacceptable that after we put them in a war zone, when they come home we don’t take care of their psychological trauma.

Someone wake me when it's over

Happy Birthday Chimpy. I can't in good conscience add that part about many happy returns.

Plumbing Woes

I had a bad day with an angry dishwasher, among other things. Sorry for the lack of post today.

Freedom isn't Free

Especially for those of us serving in the military. 3,587 military dead as of today.

Democracy in Jeopardy

The Democratic National Committee has a new ad out:
I hope it makes a difference.
H/T to Lotus for the link.

Independence Day?

A little review is in order I think. From the Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

NPR has a reading of the Declaration by various media personalities. Listen to it. With very few changes, it could easily be about our current day 'King George.' The irony is endless.

Conquering Iraq

Getting a jump on the day...finally. Today I start blogging again.

I present here a video by Chalmers Johnson, the foremost expert on American hegemony and the dangers of "blowback". He presents a stunning report on the status of the permanent military bases being constructed in Iraq. Six different mini-cities, American style. From the documentary, The Bases Are Loaded:

"...Clearly, what went into the thinking of the war against Iraq was to conquer it..." "Whoever controls Iraq, controls the world. Iraq sits n the largest world reserves of oil. When Saudi oil has long run out, when all nations are without petroleum resources, Iraq would still sit on a sea of oil. The country that controls Iraq is the country that will essentially dictate the world economy for the next generation and possibly longer"

The lies that brought us into this conquering of Iraq and subsequent occupation have continued unabated. These bases are being constructed with American tax dollars; no-bid, cost-plus contracts that DIRECTLY benefit members of the Bush crime family. These are the facts. There is no dispute about them. The Dems in congress do nothing but make empty threats to an out-of-control regime bent on the destruction of America as we know it. Do your homework, find out for yourself. This is the beginning of the end and still impeachment is "off the table." Watch this 30 minute video and make your own decision.

Divine Chaos

I try as a rule, to 'trust the universe' as it were and as far as I can tell it working. Today after two weeks of being 'off the grid', I finally today, after my long days of toil, tune in to KO to find out the shitkicker-in-charge "commuted" Scooter Libby's prison sentence. Just perfect. I am grateful for the many days of work ahead of me necessary to set-up a new household. The many hidden repairs somehow seem less daunting when I look on the national scene and see nothing but chaos. I am trying desperately to give attention to the many tasks before me while getting back into my blogging. I wish it was more pleasant to pay attention to my country but its hard when the power that be destroy it more each day.

First Official Day Off

At the risk of sounding completely pedestrian, my only update today is that we are taking our first day off since moving and our first boat trip on the Gulf. Monday will be the day to restart the political commentary on the world I've been resting from for these nearly 2 weeks.