HATE AND VIOLENCE!
Several recent events have lead me to this conclusion:
The Rep. Don Young (R-AK) misquote of Lincoln. Actually it wasn't a quote from Lincoln at all but the creation of a so called 'journalist' who thought it would be cute to attribute it to Lincoln. Lincoln was opposed to the Mexican-American war, the only parallel to the current Iraq war.
The Catholic League attack on the two bloggers hired by Presidential candidate John Edwards. The League has nothing to do with the Church, it's funded by right wing groups, and opposed the two women because they were feminists.
The Republican Party continuing support for the Iraq War and the likely soon to be Iran war. And their extreme triades during the Iraq war resolution debate in the U.S. House.
What do all of these have in common - the Republican party!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
AL QAEDA HAS AN AIR FORCE AND NAVY !
This just in. According to Representative John Boehner of Ohio, Al Qaeda must have a navy or air force or both, because to quote Boehner, "If we leave, they will follow us home. It's that simple." Maybe that's why the United States has three aircraft carrier groups in the region, to attack and sink the Al Qaeda navy. And the Patriot missle batteries smart thinking. Give Bush credit for planning something, like our retreat! Might I suggest, instead of the troops coming back to the United States why not detour them to Europe that way Al Qaeda will attack there.
BUSH / CHENEY GONE BY LABOR DAY
Apparently everyone including Fox News now sees what I saw two years ago, namely that George Bush and Dick Cheney will not be President and Vice-President, respectively come Labor Day. Read the link below to see what I've been saying.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,251565,00.html
I'll have more the say about this later.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,251565,00.html
I'll have more the say about this later.
HOUSE RESOLUTION
According to John Boehner (House Minority Leader) on Sunday's Meet The Press, he doesn't see many Republican (defections) members voting for the Democratic party's Iraq war resolution. In John's words . . . he kind of mumbled, "I don't look at the numbers" to Tim Russert's question.
Well let's see, there are presently 202 Republican members of the U.S. House. So a 10% defection would be 20 members. The media talking heads are saying 30, maybe 60, definitely 'dozens likely to join vote'. That's . . . well it's a whole lot!
What do you think? I'll publish the defection numbers after the voting, it will tell us who's afraid.
Meanwhile, John Boehner is either (a) a bad liar, (b) poor at math, (c) doesn't know his own members (d) doesn't talk to anyone except Bush.
Well let's see, there are presently 202 Republican members of the U.S. House. So a 10% defection would be 20 members. The media talking heads are saying 30, maybe 60, definitely 'dozens likely to join vote'. That's . . . well it's a whole lot!
What do you think? I'll publish the defection numbers after the voting, it will tell us who's afraid.
Meanwhile, John Boehner is either (a) a bad liar, (b) poor at math, (c) doesn't know his own members (d) doesn't talk to anyone except Bush.
AN OLD WARRIOR PASSES ON
I was sadden to learn Sunday night that an old acquaintance passed on to the promised land. Coleman Persily and I, among others, worked together some 25 years ago organizing our neighbors around the issue of tenant rights. While we were unsuccessful in our goal - legislating tenant protections - it was remarkable time and learning experience.
Coleman was a colorful, down-to-earth character. A social causes warrior from the old school, Coleman was an unpolished, a get-in-your face kind of activist who never heard of the word nuance. He was more about fighting the fight because the fight needed fought than doing it to win.
Coleman never let his own ego interfere and always displayed a genuine concern for others.
His obituary from the Marin Independent-Journal is below: A special thanks to Gianna Easson for the link.
http://www.marinij.com/sanrafael/ci_5187022
Coleman was a colorful, down-to-earth character. A social causes warrior from the old school, Coleman was an unpolished, a get-in-your face kind of activist who never heard of the word nuance. He was more about fighting the fight because the fight needed fought than doing it to win.
Coleman never let his own ego interfere and always displayed a genuine concern for others.
His obituary from the Marin Independent-Journal is below: A special thanks to Gianna Easson for the link.
http://www.marinij.com/sanrafael/ci_5187022
'JOBS AMERICANS WON'T DO'
Does this phase get your goat like it does mine! There's not many jobs I can imagine that Americans will not do or haven't. Probably the worse job I can imagine is working with nuclear waste - radiation exposure - yet this job attracts people. Why? Maybe it's the pay.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
IRAN WAR STARTING SOON !
By my reckoning the Iran War will start sometime in March. I'd guess, if I was a betting man, about the 19th. It's the new moon (dark nights) and the 21st is the spring equinox (equal days/nights). The Bushco machine is thinking a 20-30 day air war can do the trick.
The propaganda machine is almost operating at full capacity. Suddenly Iran is behind/responsible for everything including the mysterious death of Anna Nicole Smith. It seems all bobble-heads, the 'liberal' media and the neighbor's dog is in a hurry to accuse Iran of meddling. More every hour.
What do you think?
The propaganda machine is almost operating at full capacity. Suddenly Iran is behind/responsible for everything including the mysterious death of Anna Nicole Smith. It seems all bobble-heads, the 'liberal' media and the neighbor's dog is in a hurry to accuse Iran of meddling. More every hour.
What do you think?
PUT A NAME TO THE NUMBERS
As of Sunday evening, February 11, 2007, the United States has lost 3123 of our fellow country people in the Iraq theater of war. In addition 23,417 Americans have been casualties.
Care to see their names?
http://icasualties.org/oif/US_NAMES.aspx
Care to see their names?
http://icasualties.org/oif/US_NAMES.aspx
Saturday, February 10, 2007
"IT'S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT THE OIL" -
As B. (Buddy) L. Dancer always says. Well I just came across this excellent article on Iraq, Afghanistan and oil. Long but to the point.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/47489/?comments=view&cID=516984&pID=516280#c516984
It's part of the peak oil story:
http://www.countercurrents.org/po-brandvik260106.htm
More on peak oil & other oil industry lies:
http://www.theoildrum.com/
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/47489/?comments=view&cID=516984&pID=516280#c516984
It's part of the peak oil story:
http://www.countercurrents.org/po-brandvik260106.htm
More on peak oil & other oil industry lies:
http://www.theoildrum.com/
Friday, February 9, 2007
IT'S OK TO DIE JUST DON'T GET WOUNDED
I guess this really pissed me off - I mean the death toll is bad enough (though by earlier war standards its quite low) but the wounded casualty numbers are outrageous. Modern military medicine has reduced the death toll from war but increased the wounded casualty numbers! And then to see that the Bush administration and the Republicans don't want to adequately fund the veterans administration and its looming health care demands. Many of these veterans of this war will require health care (24/7) for the rest of their lives. Well its just enough to make an average American cry. And to think it was all about oil.
Veterans Say '08 Budget Flawed
While nearly providing adequate funding for veterans health care and other programs, the DAV finds shortcomings in the President's proposed budget more...
http://www.dav.org/news/news_20070207.html
And this from Sen. Akaka of Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs:
The budget requests approximately $34.2 billion for veterans health care, a mere 6 percent increase over the 2007 funding level of $32.3 billion in the Joint Funding Resolution expected to pass the Senate. Once inflationary costs are subtracted from the Administration’s budget, the real increase is far from adequate. This budget will not allow for any new initiatives, including enhancements to mental health services desperately needed for our returning servicemembers. Without adequate funding, the VA health care system will find it more difficult to provide quality care for Hawaii’s 117,000 veterans and troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senator Akaka said today he’s especially concerned about out-of-pocket expenses veterans would be forced to pay under the Administration’s new budget proposal. “The doubling of drug copayments for veterans – who make as little as $28,000 a year – seems particularly cruel. Take the example of a veteran living on Oahu, where the cost of living is so high, who takes seven different prescriptions each month: his out of pocket cost goes up by $600 a year.
“Why are we asking veterans to suffer in order to finance a war? This Administration consistently fails to consider the cost of caring for veterans as part of the cost of war,” Akaka said.
Or this, from the Cneter for Budget and Policy Priorities:
Hospital and Medical Care for Veterans: The President proposes to increase funding for these programs by nearly $1.4 billion (or 4 percent) in 2008. But the increase would only be temporary. The President proposes to cut the programs in this subfunction in each subsequent year, from 2009 through 2012; in each of those years, the programs would be funded at levels below the amount provided for 2007, adjusted for inflation. In 2012, the cut would be $2.7 billion, or 7 percent.[iii]
Well, I remember three things from my youth about veterans: As a Boy Scout and it being the fifties/early sixties I was in a lot of Memorial Day/ Veterans Day parades. Most of those men who got being 'into the parades and marches' never left the states. In the late sixties, my father was in the veterans hospital in Pittsburgh and I can remember seeing many a kid not much older than myself in a hospital bed missing a limb. Lastly, my father had a history book of his infantry regiment's service during WWII. In it were marks my father had made next to names of men in his company (that didn't come home). He never once talked about it.
We ask people to serve their country - we owe them the best, regardless.
Veterans Say '08 Budget Flawed
While nearly providing adequate funding for veterans health care and other programs, the DAV finds shortcomings in the President's proposed budget more...
http://www.dav.org/news/news_20070207.html
And this from Sen. Akaka of Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs:
The budget requests approximately $34.2 billion for veterans health care, a mere 6 percent increase over the 2007 funding level of $32.3 billion in the Joint Funding Resolution expected to pass the Senate. Once inflationary costs are subtracted from the Administration’s budget, the real increase is far from adequate. This budget will not allow for any new initiatives, including enhancements to mental health services desperately needed for our returning servicemembers. Without adequate funding, the VA health care system will find it more difficult to provide quality care for Hawaii’s 117,000 veterans and troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senator Akaka said today he’s especially concerned about out-of-pocket expenses veterans would be forced to pay under the Administration’s new budget proposal. “The doubling of drug copayments for veterans – who make as little as $28,000 a year – seems particularly cruel. Take the example of a veteran living on Oahu, where the cost of living is so high, who takes seven different prescriptions each month: his out of pocket cost goes up by $600 a year.
“Why are we asking veterans to suffer in order to finance a war? This Administration consistently fails to consider the cost of caring for veterans as part of the cost of war,” Akaka said.
Or this, from the Cneter for Budget and Policy Priorities:
Hospital and Medical Care for Veterans: The President proposes to increase funding for these programs by nearly $1.4 billion (or 4 percent) in 2008. But the increase would only be temporary. The President proposes to cut the programs in this subfunction in each subsequent year, from 2009 through 2012; in each of those years, the programs would be funded at levels below the amount provided for 2007, adjusted for inflation. In 2012, the cut would be $2.7 billion, or 7 percent.[iii]
Well, I remember three things from my youth about veterans: As a Boy Scout and it being the fifties/early sixties I was in a lot of Memorial Day/ Veterans Day parades. Most of those men who got being 'into the parades and marches' never left the states. In the late sixties, my father was in the veterans hospital in Pittsburgh and I can remember seeing many a kid not much older than myself in a hospital bed missing a limb. Lastly, my father had a history book of his infantry regiment's service during WWII. In it were marks my father had made next to names of men in his company (that didn't come home). He never once talked about it.
We ask people to serve their country - we owe them the best, regardless.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
INSPIRATION
Politics is like driving. To go backward, put it in R. To go forward, put it in D.
TrueBlueMajority
TrueBlueMajority
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
363 TONS OF CASH
Yes probably like you I was surprised to hear that so much cash was just thrown in Iraq by the Provisional Authority. So this morning I was determined to get up and write a blog about this story only to find that others already have and there was no need to re-invent it. Attached are several good articles about this story. The first was written two years ago - when Congress should have been looking into it but the Republican majority did nothing.
http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2005/february/9_billion_missing.htm
This article provides a lot more detail into the whole story. Especially interesting are all the comments - particularly - 363 tons of cash requires 18 tractor trailers to move that much at one time.
http://http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/6/205743/7035
And, finally here is an article from ALL SPIN ZONE Progressive Politics Writ Large
"How much does $4,000,000,000 (in $100 bills) weigh? About 363 tons. That’s the rough total of the booty that was transfered from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York to Baghdad in 2003 and 2004. Think about that for a moment."
"My profession is (partly) logistics. A tractor trailer can legally carry about 45,000 pounds - for the sake of argument, we’ll call it 20 tons. Our government transfered the equivalent of 18 tractor trailer loads of $100 bills into a wild west war zone over a period of 6 months. No one has ever been able to account for the money, and let’s be clear that $4 billion is just the tip of the iceberg."
"Where’d the money go?"
"I’ve heard some lame-assed excuses for shit before, but former Iraq proconsul L. Paul Bremer’s testimony today on Capitol Hill pretty much takes the cake. Bremer should have been arrested and put in leg irons immediately after the hearing. This is friggin’ unbelievable."
"What’s even more unbelievable is one GOP representative’s response:"
“We are in a war against terrorists, to have a blame meeting isn’t, in my opinion, constructive,” said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican."
Demand Change!
http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2005/february/9_billion_missing.htm
This article provides a lot more detail into the whole story. Especially interesting are all the comments - particularly - 363 tons of cash requires 18 tractor trailers to move that much at one time.
http://http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/6/205743/7035
And, finally here is an article from ALL SPIN ZONE Progressive Politics Writ Large
"How much does $4,000,000,000 (in $100 bills) weigh? About 363 tons. That’s the rough total of the booty that was transfered from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York to Baghdad in 2003 and 2004. Think about that for a moment."
"My profession is (partly) logistics. A tractor trailer can legally carry about 45,000 pounds - for the sake of argument, we’ll call it 20 tons. Our government transfered the equivalent of 18 tractor trailer loads of $100 bills into a wild west war zone over a period of 6 months. No one has ever been able to account for the money, and let’s be clear that $4 billion is just the tip of the iceberg."
"Where’d the money go?"
"I’ve heard some lame-assed excuses for shit before, but former Iraq proconsul L. Paul Bremer’s testimony today on Capitol Hill pretty much takes the cake. Bremer should have been arrested and put in leg irons immediately after the hearing. This is friggin’ unbelievable."
"What’s even more unbelievable is one GOP representative’s response:"
“We are in a war against terrorists, to have a blame meeting isn’t, in my opinion, constructive,” said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican."
Demand Change!
Sunday, February 4, 2007
SUPER BOWL XLI COMMERCIALS
Too Bad About the Bears! Hopefully They can get back there next year.
I don't think it was Rex's fault. Study the game film and you will see the offensive line has been breaking down since mid-way through the season. My other problems - offensive and defensive game plans/calling.
My favorite commercials:
Bud Lite - auction marriage
Bud Lite - English as second language
Dave Letterman-Opray Winfrey Tonight Show (real quite)
Best Your Risk
The GM Robot
Bud Lite - Axe/ Chain-saw
Terre's favorites, also included -
Happliness factory
Fake Dalmatian
Blockbuster Mouse (the best by far, rates A++++)
I don't think it was Rex's fault. Study the game film and you will see the offensive line has been breaking down since mid-way through the season. My other problems - offensive and defensive game plans/calling.
My favorite commercials:
Bud Lite - auction marriage
Bud Lite - English as second language
Dave Letterman-Opray Winfrey Tonight Show (real quite)
Best Your Risk
The GM Robot
Bud Lite - Axe/ Chain-saw
Terre's favorites, also included -
Happliness factory
Fake Dalmatian
Blockbuster Mouse (the best by far, rates A++++)
Friday, February 2, 2007
SURGE WASN'T SURGED ENOUGH!
Latest news circulating - apparently the 21,500 soldiers and marines being surged into Iraq wasn't the actual number of military personnel being surged into Iraq! Gee, that doesn't make sense. Well then nothing related to this war makes any sense. The 21,500 number represents the actual number of combat troops and marines. The difference is the support personnel needed to maintain that size of force. I'm sure their will be more on this later.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
REMEMBER TO PAY YOUR PARKING TICKETS
The other day I saw a story on the internet about the use of SWAT teams to deliver arrest warrants. What concerned me the most was there liberal use - I mean they were being used to serve warrants for about every charge one can imagine. So my advice to my friends and enemies alike - make sure you pay your parking tickets.
The article was written by Paul Craig Roberts who has fairly conservative credentials, worked in Reagan Administration, but of late seems to be into conspiracty theories - 9/11 and opposed to the Iraq/Iran War. Here is the link: http://tyrannyalert.com/800.html
Some interesting excerpts:
- American police forces have called out SWAT teams 40,000 or more times annually.
- They were serving routine warrants to people who posed no danger to the police or to the public.
- In the U.S. today, 75-80 percent of SWAT deployments are for warrant service.
- Today 17,000 local police forces are equipped with military equipment .
- Idle SWAT teams due to a paucity of hostage or other dangerous situations
- SWAT teams serve warrants by breaking into homes and apartments at night while people are sleeping, often using stun grenades and other devices to disorient the occupants.
So friends remember to pay your parking tickets immediately!
The article was written by Paul Craig Roberts who has fairly conservative credentials, worked in Reagan Administration, but of late seems to be into conspiracty theories - 9/11 and opposed to the Iraq/Iran War. Here is the link: http://tyrannyalert.com/800.html
Some interesting excerpts:
- American police forces have called out SWAT teams 40,000 or more times annually.
- They were serving routine warrants to people who posed no danger to the police or to the public.
- In the U.S. today, 75-80 percent of SWAT deployments are for warrant service.
- Today 17,000 local police forces are equipped with military equipment .
- Idle SWAT teams due to a paucity of hostage or other dangerous situations
- SWAT teams serve warrants by breaking into homes and apartments at night while people are sleeping, often using stun grenades and other devices to disorient the occupants.
So friends remember to pay your parking tickets immediately!
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