Evil Catholics Defy the Sanctity of the Church

It's my job and Jesus' General's job to point out hypocrisy in religion. He does a great job of it today. Evil Catholics who don't think it's a sin to receive Holy Communion and support gay rights defiantly did so yesterday and Jesus' General applauds the Catholic Church on their efforts to block the doors to the Church. You must check it out immediately and then come back here of course.

Today's getting to know your blonde friend feature: I don't know why it's my job to point out religious hypocrisy when my life is so darn eccentric eclectic. I had a calling back in the late 1980's to do so. Seriously. It was an honest to god religious calling that forced me into a seminary for several years at night school achieving a masters degree in theology of all things. Don't get me wrong. I am no saint. I'm a guitar playing, song writing, beer swigging, butt smoking, 40 something, raspy voiced blues, rock and jazz singer who gigs in bars regularly. More on me another time.

Wing Nut Whining

Some poor 19 year old boy who writes for "Town Hall" was lamenting that hardly any right wingers got asked to speak at college commencements this year. He lamented that mostly "lefties" were asked. He was amazed that Jon Stewart of the Daily Show was the most sought after commencement speaker. Did anyone ever notice that a lot of so called "lefties" have great senses of humor? We call them comedians. It's a sign of intelligence: sense of humor and brains. I have to give this kid credit though for one hilarious part of his article:

"Strangely, prominent conservative/populist media people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Tony Snow and Bill O'Reilly are not scheduled to speak anywhere."

The right wingers have no sense of humor. The lead story in World Net Daily is whining that Clinton is going to help the Kerry campaign because he has charisma. It's true that Kerry isn't Mr Personality, but honestly, at this point in time, who cares? He is probably one of those guys who is more friendly in person. Bush is just plain goofy when he gives a speech. I'll take serious over goofy any day.. but Clinton sure was a master of charisma and if anyone recalls, we had it pretty good during the Clinton Admin. (hat tip to Doomocracy). Mr Kerry is facing the most treacherous administration in the history of the United States. This really isn't very funny. Let the lefty pundits make the jokes this time. The candidates ought to be sticking to the serious stuff anyway.

WND's other lead story is about a book that blames Clinton for 9/11. yawn. I wonder if it blames Clinton for Mr Bush's sitting in a classroom like a dufus that morning doing nothing and blaming Clinton for NORAD being told to stand down? Over the weekend, Clinton gave a commencement address at Cornell University and challenged students to pursue "the eternal mission of American democracy" and he said "If you live in a world where you cannot kill, occupy or imprison all your actual or potential adversaries ... you have to try to build a world with more friends and fewer terrorists." How very terribly unchristian of him. NOT.

Speaking of Clinton, Michael over at Public Domain Progress noticed that a Reuter's story about Mr Bush displaying Saddam's gun in the oval office includes these absolutely unnecessary 2 sentences (only the press in Australia bothered to edit them out):

The magazine quoted a visitor who had been shown the gun, which is kept in a small study off the Oval Office where Bush displays memorabilia. It is the same room where former President Clinton had some of his encounters with former intern Monica Lewinsky.

It's Memorial Day today. Let's forget Monica Lewinsky. It was not a matter of national security, nor did she hamper our democracy. Blowjobs do not count as "sex". I went to Catholic schools all my life, and believe me, anything except actual penetration, is NOT sex. Mr Clinton sent a most powerful message to all women in the world: Some hunky, really smart powerful guys like a girl with hips. (heh) I'm digressing. Stop me! :-)

Let's remember all the men and women who fought and died for our democracy and freedom. Let's not let them down. Let's be freer with the use of the word 'fascist' when referring to our present regime. Let's call a spade a spade so that those who fought for us didn't do so in vain. God bless every single person on the planet. No exceptions. God made everyone. We are all God's children which makes us brothers and sisters. Let's try to show love where there is hatred and intolerance.

Coulter is Not Female

Just to remind you that Ann Coulter is not human therefore is not and doesn't have a c*nt.

BlondeSense Decree: Ann Coulter is not to be referred to in human terms- especially not to be referred to as "she" or "her". Coulter has no gender, sex organs or reproductive capacity. Coulter is a pre-programmed Republican "hate" cyborg.

I will thank you not to insult females by referring to "it" as a female in the future.

Thank you.
-The Management

Criminal Justice: Texas Style

For a blues musician and singer, I'm such a geek. But blues people sing about jails, bad men, the south, injustice and stuff... so today let's look at the Texas Crime Rate (Mr Bush was governator of Texas from 1994 until he became President)

~ In the 1990's, 1 out of 5 new prisoners added to US prisons was in Texas.

~ Prison growth in Texas was almost twice (11.8%) the average annual growth (6.1%) of the other states in the 1990's

~ 1 out of every 20 adults in Texas are either in prison, jail, on probation or on parole.

~ The Lone Star State now has more than 700,000 of its citizens under criminal justice control .

~ Although Texas had the most inmates incarcerated from 1999-2001, California edged ahead of the Lone Star State in June 2002. By 2003, Texas beat California and ran a close second with Mississippi.

~ The incarceration rate in California is far lower than Texas though: 455 per 100,000 residents. The National Average is 480 per 100,000 residents and Texas rates 692 per 100,000 residents.

~ If Texas were a country, it would have the highest incarceration rate in the world easily surpassing the US, Russia and China.

~ Blacks are 7 times more likely to be incarcerated than whites in Texas. Whites are more likely to be executed though.

~ Despite adding more than 100,000 prisoners, Texas crime rate declined (-5.1%) at half the national average (-10%) in the 1990's and the least of any of the nation's five largest states [California (-23%), Florida (-5.9%), Illinois (-9.0%), or New York (-21.1%).

~ 89,400 people are incarcerated in Texas for non violent crimes. Texas has more people in jail than Great Britain.

Texas has about the same population as my home state, New York. Downstate NY, where I live is sort of liberal because we are very integrated and ethnically mixed, upstate NY is rather conservative and mostly white except for the cities.

Comparing Texas to NY:

~ Texas added more prisoners (+98,081) than NY's entire prison population (73,233) in the 1990's.

~ Yet since 1995 Texas had the fastest growing prison population and NY had the 3rd slowest growing crime rate.

~ Texas' current crime rate is 5,111 per 100,000

~ Texas' crime rate is 30% higher than NY's 3,588 per 100,000.(In 1998, Texas' murder rate was 25% higher than New York State's rate.)

NY State has not executed anyone for murder since capital punishment was brought back in 1976. Since 1990, Texas has executed 283 inmates and is scheduled to execute 6 more by September of this year.

One more tidbit: the bible belt has the highest crime rate in the country and conducts more executions than any other part of the country.


I believe that the prison system needs a good overhaul nationwide. It's obviously not working nor is it a deterrent to a life of crime. There are many more statistics I did not include. I have more stuff I want to look up.

Sources:
Houston Chronical: Texas again leads U.S. in prisoners
November.org:Texas leads US in incarceration growth
Bureau of Justice Statistics Home Page: poke around here for tons of statistics on who gets executed and incarcerated by demographics, race, religion, age, etc.
Texas Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Texas Death Row Home Page: charming
What to wear to a Texas execution: Not kidding.

Playing the "God" Card is Not Fair or Legal

One of the reasons separation of church and state is a good thing is because there are soooo many churches that it wouldn't be fair to pick one church and let it have any influence over the government. That would cause a bigger stink than 2 party politics. Look at Iraq for instance. They have 3 major Islamic groups who would gladly kill each other. Supposedly the same religion.... hmmm Remember Northern Ireland? Christians?

In the past week or so I was freaking out because the apocalyptic christians who are pro Israel and anti Palestine have influence with the Bush administration. These folks are clearly not Christian and they don't deserve the capitalization of the letter "c" when referring to them cause they support annihilation and armageddon. That's not a Jesus thing for anyone who is non Christian and reading this, I assure you. Plus who wants an American administration that supports annihilation anyway? Well some do, but most of us don't.

Before that or after that, I forget, I was freaking out cause some nutcase Catholic Bishop in Colorado was telling folks they are not communion worthy if they vote for any candidate who is not "pro-life". This of course means that you better vote Republican or be excommunicated. The stupid thing about all this is that the only platform that is remotely Christian about Republicans is the pro-life platform and just about everything else is anti-Christian. I was surprised a Bishop would fall for it. Today I read in the Denver Post that they are calling for an IRS investigation into the Catholic diocese of Denver and all diocese' where they intervene in political campaigns. You see they are NOT supposed to get involved or they lose their tax exemption. One way to get Catholics to toe the line is to hit them in their pocket book.

I'm firmly committed to our getting a new president. I'm firmly committed to separation of church and state. It seems that this president is playing the 'God card' for all it's worth. Visit Americans United for Separation of Church and State for more information about why this is more important than ever in American politics and for the survival of democracy as we used to know it.

Prayers For Peace

One of my favorite spirituo-political bloggers (I made that up), Father Jake Stops the World, offers some Prayers For Peace. Here's one:

WORLD PEACE PRAYER
Lead us from death to life
Lead us from falsehood to truth
Lead us from despair to hope
Lead us from fear to trust
Lead us from hate to love
Lead us from war to peace
Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our Universe.

There is a massive nationwide prayer group constantly praying or collectively willing that George Bush will meet and conquer his foes with success. Obviously this success means death, destruction, sanctions, depleted uranium, mutilations, torture, bulldozing, bombing, shooting, homelessness and years of despair for many more innocent people than guilty people. In our country, corporatism is taking a firm hold and these naive people who collectively will or pray for the success of Mr Bush are also unwittingly willing the demise of our democracy.

Back in early 2001, right after he was inaugurated, Mr Bush started repeating over and over that we were going into a recession. At the time, the economy was strong. By constant repetition and drilling the idea of a recession into the masses, it was a collective willing of the economy to decline.

My point is that even if you are not religious/spiritual and you don't pray per se, you can indeed, by your attitude, your words and your meditations along with millions of others, help change the course we are on and counter the collective willing towards doom and decay.

I deliberately posted a sort of non-religious prayer for everyone above.. a prayer to the force of the universe, the spark, the flame, the creator, your higher power, god, goddess, the 'is-ness of being'. Go to the link above for more prayers and meditations.


Hannity Insanity also called for "Praying for the election of George Bush". We gotta counter that.

Tomorrow I'll go back to being my ridiculous vulgar self.

Why is she so happy?

His name is Manadel al-Jamadi . Mr. Jamadi is the second dead prisoner to appear in photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison. An autopsy has determined that Mr. al-Jamadi was beaten to death. Her name is Spc. Sabrina Harmon. It's not known nor has it been proven if he was a terrorist or an insurgent or anything evil at all.

I don't know that much about Sabrina. She looks like the average American girl next door with her winning smile and cheerleader expression. Take away the dead body and she looks like she just won first prize in the county fair. She is smiling with her eyes too. Why is she so happy? I dare not even speculate, dear reader.

I wish I had a way to tell the young women in uniform that they made a big mistake. The military is no place for ladies. War is definitely no place for them. Forget equal rights for a minute... women are life givers. It's biological. Unless they are mentally ill, women are nurturers. Training women to not only kill but rejoice in it goes against what it means to be female.

The women seen in the pictures from Abu Ghraib disgust me. They are a discredit to our gender. They must be from the same demon seed as Ann Coulter. Saying this goes against my creed of "live and let live" but women of this ilk shouldn't breed.

Iraqi Wedding Video

Here are some pictures of the wedding that the US fired on in Iraq.. you know, the wedding that they said wasn't really a wedding... take a look

My Letter of Hope and Salvation for All

My Dear Christian Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Gay marriage will devastate our nation beyond repair. We will no longer be able to safely walk the streets, send our children to the playgrounds or even to school. Our televisions will show only filth and acts of sodomy. Soon polygamy will enter the playing field and orgies will be the norm. My eyes will have to be taken out of their sockets when America becomes Sodom and Gomorrah.

What's more, our children are not allowed to pray aloud in the schools nor are they allowed to view the 10 Commandments in a public place. How on earth can our children learn about values if they are not always within eyesight of our Lord's commandments? How can I remember what the Lord expects of me if it is not written everywhere I look? How can our children ace a test if they cannot pray aloud before the exam? The Holy Bible which was dictated to men thousands of years ago by God's own mouth is not allowed to be read in our schools and of course the most horrible thing is that soon Christian preaching will be deemed hate speech. How Christian speech can be deemed hate speech is beyond me, but it is construed by evil hateful liberal baby killers as such. When we proclaim that God hates homosexuals, this is not hate speech. This is dogma.

I would like to point you to an excellent website that will help us God fearing, saved Christians take refuge: ChristianExodus.org. The plan is that 50,000 of us real Christians will move to South Carolina hopefully before sodomite marriages are forced on us. We will then reestablish a constitutional governance similar to the early United States. We will no longer be beholden to the evil corrupt sodomite government of Washington DC.

George Bush is not one of us. Do not be fooled by his intellect and charm. Remember he blasphemed when he stated that Christians and Moslems worshipped the same God. There is but only 1 true God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ Almighty. Please sign up to be one of the chosen 50,000 and save your souls. We will live together in peace and true Christianity in a new country one day soon.

God Bless You if You are Blonde Like Me.
Say Amen
amen
..............................................................................

Update 5/28: Gentle readers, The letter above is satire. Do not be alarmed. I have not lost my marbles. Unfortunately many Americans have lost theirs.

There was an article at WorldNetDaily on May 24th about this subject. This morning I did some further research and found this alarming information at WorldNetDaily again:

In the wake of WorldNetDaily's exclusive report this week, hundreds of American citizens have contacted a group of Christian activists looking to secede from the United States to form a republic based on Christian principles.

"It's unleashed a barrage," said Cory Burnell, president of Texas-based ChristianExodus.org . "It's been an incredible response, it's nothing I'm used to and is fairly gut-wrenching for me."

Burnell and like-minded believers are looking to encourage thousands of U.S. citizens to migrate to South Carolina, run for state office, and eventually prompt South Carolina to peacefully secede from the union to create a new country where "government derives its power from the consent of the governed."

He says since WND's story was first posted, the number of those actively interested has jumped from a few dozen people to hundreds. Many people are also stepping forward to work as volunteers, and Burnell himself has had numerous appearances on radio talk shows as well as "Hannity and Colmes" on the Fox News Channel.

Honestly I wouldn't mind if religious whackos went and started their own theocracy somewhere else, but I think it would be nice if they checked with the citizens of South Carolina before they invaded it. This is something to be worried about.

Stop and smell the flowers

This morning about 8 cardinals were chirping wildly and flying around in distress as my fluffy white kitty looked at them through the screen on my front door. The air was sweet with the smell of flowers and fresh from a spring rain. I decided not to read the paper or turn on the news. I went for a walk first.

They Should Stop Calling it "Intelligence"

...especially with these neocon nincompoops at the helm. It's just too ridiculous. So we were fooled by the Iranians into this war with Iraq? Well I wasn't, but Bush et al were. Rude Pundit has such a way with words and no one puts it better than he does.

American Fascism

It's interesting how Amnesty International claims that the US has proven "bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle" in its fight against terrorism and invasion of Iraq. AI has a lot of countries to complain about and the US, once the model of decency is right up there on the top of the list of human rights violators since Mr Bush took office. Thanks Mr Bush. Well it's no wonder. We are barely hanging on to being a democracy. Democracies generally do fall victim to fascist dictactorships if we read our history books.

My friend Billydoom over at Doomocracy has this and more to say about Corporatism, human rights and the seeping of fascism into a capitalistic society:

Corporatism views human rights of little value and a hindrance to realizing the objectives of the ruling elite. Through clever use of propaganda, the population is brought to accept these human rights abuses by marginalizing, even demonizing, those being targeted. The tactic is to use secrecy, denial and disinformation. -American Fascism

NY Heroes Have To Sue For Justice Revisted

How the RNC has the unmitigated gall to come to NYC after the way their leader treated NYC after 9/11 just inflames me. I hereby encourage all protesters from the world over to gather around the RNC in solidarity with New Yorkers, especially for those who died on 9/11, their families and the heroes of the NYFD and NYPD who gave their lives and their health for our city and our country only to be stabbed in the back by our President and his most evil accomplices in Washington.

Yesterday I reported that 1,700 of our heroes have to sue to get medical help they desperately need. Remember when they were promised $90 million from Bush? Well they didn't get it. They got $25 million after much begging and gnashing of teeth. That was just the NYFD, the cops didn't get anything. Remember how the EPA was told by the White House not to release any health warnings about the air quality in NY after 9/11? They finagled with the air quality report and yet Mr Bush continues to politicize 9/11 as if it's his own.

DiPierro, a cop in the 46th Precinct, worked at Ground Zero all night on Sept. 11 and every day for months afterward.

He was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in March, and underwent surgery on April 5 to have two tumors removed.

By September 2002, Shore became crippled with pains in his rib cage that spread to his spine. Months later, he was told those pains were caused by terminal pancreatic cancer.

By April 2003, Shore was having surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center to remove his pancreas, gallbladder and spleen.

Shore is not expected to survive, despite extensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments. His doctor, Charles Hesdorffer, insists the deadly blend of noxious gases released by the collapse of the towers either caused or accelerated his condition. -NY Daily News

Richard Lahm, 49, who retired from the 46th Precinct in the Bronx this year, is battling terminal tonsil cancer - a condition his doctor claims was caused by the toxins released at Ground Zero.

...The FDNY received a $25 million federal grant to monitor health issues with firefighters. The NYPD was denied a similar grant.

...Detective John Walcott is one of those cops who has filed a notice of claim against the city seeking financial compensation after he was diagnosed with cancer last May.

...This year, Walcott has undergone bone marrow transplants and a series of chemotherapy treatments, and he often wakes up in the middle of the night with blood coming out of his eyes.

....NYPD street crime Detective Robert Williamson, 43, became sick with pancreatic cancer in March 2003, a year after he retired from the force. Williamson, his doctors and his attorney, Michael Barach, insist he became sick inhaling carcinogens at Ground Zero 16 hours a day for five months. He never smoked and has no family history of cancer.

...Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steven Cassidy said three Brooklyn firefighters have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer since working at Ground Zero. Another has leukemia. Hundreds more have retired with asthma and other respiratory issues, he said. -NY Daily News

Pete Strahl was on his belly, crawling in a tunnel of debris under 7 World Trade Center to reach an injured civilian...

Strahl is now battling a deadly throat cancer. His lung tests are also showing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dubbed the "World Trade Center cough" by medical experts.

"They took out my voice box," said Strahl, a 21-year FDNY veteran who retired in August 2002, just months after doctors found a malignant neoplasm of the larynx in his throat.

...Strahl's oncologist, Louis Rosner, said he believes the 47-year-old father of three developed cancer because of his work on Sept. 11 and in the days after.

The deadline to apply for financial help from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund passed on Dec. 22, 2003.

Advocates and lawyers fear that some serious, even critical, health problems related to 9/11 will not become apparent until months or years later, too late to apply to the fund.

Attorney Michael Barasch, who represents Pete Strahl and a slew of other emergency workers, said he has 73 clients who missed the deadline.

..."Their injuries were not diagnosed until after the deadline. But cancer doesn't have a calendar. Their lungs weren't informed of the deadline to apply," Barasch said. "The fund was very fair to people who had orthopedic injuries but very unfair to people who had latent diseases who were not diagnosed prior to the deadline." -NY Daily News

Message to all you rah rah rah flag wavers out there: Kiss My Big Fat Ass. Don't sing God Bless America to me. Go down to DC and appeal to congress and get them to give our heroes the money they were promised by that piece of shit you voted for in 2000. Raise millions more for their families while you are at it. If 1,700 heroes that worked at Ground Zero are in serious trouble and cannot work, 90 million bucks isn't going to cut it. Your government thinks all citizens are "fungible" and there are no heroes -only big business. Just think, last year the federal government subsidized Wal-mart to the tune of 1 billion dollars. Democracies don't subsidize corporations.

It's Almost the "Day After Tomorrow"

The movie, "The Day After Tomorrow" opens the day after tomorrow I think. As per usual, this disaster movie destroys New York as did 'Independence Day' which was also directed by Roland Emmerich, a NY hating director. This time global warming is the culprit and New York is plunged into the ice age after a tidal wave hits our fair city. If you hate NY, as Mr Bush and Al Qaeda does, then you will certainly enjoy this movie. Here are some interesting excerpts from a review by Dale Peck in the NY Observer, "Drown Town"

...the [tidal] wave in The Day After Tomorrow is medium-sized—just high enough to wet the face of the Statue of Liberty, but leaving her head and upraised arm sticking out of the water. Although the image was, I’m pretty sure, a nod to Planet of the Apes ’ iconic final moment, I was reminded more of a beach-going mom who’s decided to smoke and swim at the same time, determinedly holding that cigarette above the waves.

...The point is not that New Yorkers are living in fear, but that we’re not. We are neither offended nor horrified by these particular images because we have disinvested in the idea of our own destruction, opting instead for the safety of statistics. Another way of saying that 2,801 people died in the World Trade Center is to say that seven million New Yorkers didn’t. This is one of those rationalizations that is either very brave or very foolish, but it is, to all appearances, and for all intents and purposes, the way things are now.

...For Mr. Emmerich, New York would seem to embody all that is evil in our post-Revolutionary, pre-Apocalyptic nation...[it] seems to be the somewhat resigned notion that, well, we deserve what’s coming to us. Some sort of civilization-ending event initiated not by terrorists but by nature or fate, which we might here term our collective unconscious, or perhaps simply our collective stupidity...

...Or maybe he’s just some kind of tough-love junkie. In The Day After Tomorrow , he’s hit upon a narrative of particular, if somewhat belated, resonance to New Yorkers. Quaid’s against-all-odds quest trades on the sense of helplessness that all Americans, but especially New Yorkers, felt in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, as we watched the towers burn for a few minutes that seemed to last millennia, and then searched for endless weeks afterward for survivors, or at least something recognizable to put in the ground. Quaid’s command to Gyllenhaal to "stay in the building" is eerily reminiscent of the advice given to occupants of the World Trade Center after the plane hit the north tower. That advice, we now know, was a mistake—and, to Rudy Giuliani’s credit, just about the only fucking mistake that was made—and Quaid is setting out, not quite three years too late, to rectify it. Come hell or high water (both of which do come, if we accept Dante’s vision of the final pit as a lake frozen by Satan’s breath), Quaid will get his son out. And, of course, he does—dads always get their sons out in movies like The Day After Tomorrow . And when he does, guess what: everybody at my screening laughed again.

..The buildings stand, but the city, and indeed the nation, falls. The fact of the matter is, Americans, for good or ill, have made their pact with the devil, and will have their second homes and S.U.V.’s and personal electronic devices and 4.4 pounds of trash per day; and New Yorkers, in denial or acceptance, have made their peace with life in this city in the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center. We are a city under threat, a threat that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or climatologist) to predict will come sooner or later, be it another bomb, or radioactive device, or chemical or biological agent. Our fear of that attack isn’t so great that we’re willing to make changes in our lifestyle—to move, or to live under a police state. Rather, we trust to the safety of the herd: It is the stragglers that will get picked off, the weak, the sick, the old, the unwary or unwise. Someone else will die; when the helicopters come to pull the survivors out, as they do at the end of The Day After Tomorrow , we believe that we will be among the pitifully small crowds gathered on the rooftops of this metropolis we’ve chosen to live in. Mr. Emmerich’s vision of the Apocalypse is just about as plausible as the one in the Book of Revelation, but that isn’t why we don’t believe it. We’re much too busy believing in stories we’ve made up all on our own.

I just love New York disaster movies. After 9/11, it will be interesting to watch a new one. This time mother nature is the culprit but it's because we as a human race failed to heed the warnings. This reviewer mentions that at her screening, New Yorkers were giggling. We're turning Californian. She's right when she says that while almost 3,000 people died on 9/11, 7 million people didn't. I always think I could never live in California because of the earthquakes, brush fires and mudslides and I am amazed how Californians go about their business as usual not thinking about their impending doom. Most of the time nothing happens and most of the time people die of natural causes. Same here.

See the trailer here.

Bush Hates NY. Bush Hates Our Heroes

Bush Ignores Sick 9/11 Firefighters & Cops

Over the last month, President Bush has repeatedly recounted how he was inspired by "the courage of the firefighters and the police"(1) in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He recounted how, when standing atop a pile of rubble at Ground Zero, he was told by a firefighter, "Don't let me down" (2). But more than two years later, he continues to ignore the needs of firefighters and police officers who are now suffering adverse health effects from their rescue efforts at Ground Zero. The situation has reached a head: yesterday, 1,700 cops and firefighters were forced to sue in court for the medical help they desperately need (3.)

While the President's very first campaign commercial used photos of coffin draped corpses (4) being pulled from the rubble, the White House has sought to hide evidence that Ground Zero firefighters and cops were exposed to hazardous toxins. Specifically, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) intervened to doctor EPA press releases (5) that were supposed to warn the public about toxins near Ground Zero. The press releases were modified to claim that the air was safe - despite the fact that there was not adequate scientific evidence to substantiate that claim. The CEQ was headed by James Connaughton, a former asbestos industry lawyer who represented companies in toxic pollution cases (6).

When Ground Zero firefighters and cops began getting sick, the White House tried to block $90 million in funding (7) for medical treatment. When Congress forced the Administration to accept the $90 million, the Administration then delayed the money (8) and threatened to shut down the health-screening program. Even today, the New York Police Department has been denied much needed health grants (9).

Sources Daily Mislead:

1. Remarks by the President at Victory 2004 Luncheon, 04/20/2004.
2. Remarks by the President to the American Conservative Union 40th Anniversary Gala, 05/13/2004.
3. "1,700 sue over 9/11 sickness", New York Daily News, 05/24/2004.
4. "President Bush: Don't use my husband as your mascot", Salon, 03/05/2004.
5. "W. House Molded EPA's 9/11 Reports", CBS News, 08/22/2003.
6. "It's public be damned at the EPA", New York Daily News, 08/26/2003.
7. "Cough up 9/11 aid, workers tell Bush", New York Daily News, 01/25/2003.
8. "$90M in WTC aid on hold", New York Daily News, 07/10/2003.
9. "1,700 sue over 9/11 sickness", New York Daily News, 05/24/2004.

The Almighty's Gift to Humanity

click for larger version

C Student Indeed

Bush pronounced 'Abu Ghraib' differently 3 times last night within 2 minutes.
If you have a Republican Congress person or Senator, write to him/her and say that your intelligence is repeatedly insulted by this "president".

If God was actually speaking to Bush, I am sure that God would know how to pronounce words in all languages and would inspire a human to speak well on his behalf. I can't take it anymore.

A letter to the Commander in Thief

Dear Mr Bush,

I have read your commencement speech to the students of LSU and was overcome with emotion at some of your comments such as this one:

"Some in this class are graduating with honors, and I congratulate all of you on an achievement that took a lot of discipline. Others may have spent a little less time in the library -- (laughter) -- a little more time keeping the stools warm down at The Chimes. (Laughter and applause.) But you earned your degree, and you, too, can leave today with high hopes. I speak with some authority here -- (laughter) -- I've seen how things can work out pretty well for a C student."

and this one:

"There's no such thing as a self-made man or woman. Everyone has had a little help along the way."

Are you bragging that you coasted through life after doing very little in school or life other than partying? You insulted those students who worked hard to get good grades. How dare you? You became president because of your father's connections and nothing more. In your case you made nothing of yourself. In Bill Clinton's case, he was a self made man. He was a scholar and had no sugar daddy to bail him out all through life like you did.

Mr Bush, are you planning to help these students? Do you think that students who attend a state university have daddies who can set them up in lucrative businesses with rich oil investors and propel them to fame and fortune based on name recognition? The unemployment rate in Louisiana is 5.5% Did you even bother to check before you embarrassed yourself at the commencement? Can you imagine how many students must think you are a total jackass?

The construction and mining jobs are improving at the moment in Louisiana, but students don't go to higher learning institutions for those jobs. Here are some statistics: Professional and business services, 179,500, up from 178,700; educational and health services, 247,000, remained the same as in February; leisure and hospitality, 198,800, down from 200,600; and government, 379,000, down from 379,400. How many of these students do you think will be drafted to fight your wars or how many of these students will end up in the military when they realize the only jobs that they can get will be jobs where they have to wear a hair net to work? This wasn't Harvard or Yale we are talking about.

Your arrogance is astounding. You are unfit for the presidency. Your speech writers are charlatans. Your years of drugs and alcohol abuse betray your diminishing brain cells. You insult those who are deserving of your position in life based on their own merits. You should be ashamed of yourself.

A Disgusted American Patriot,
Ms. BlondeSense

Silent Night: The 7 o'clock news

High ranking US military officers were certainly aware of what was going on at Abu Ghraib and even some of them took part in the heinous interrogations. Did Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez protest too loudly? Indeed he did.

2,000 pages of the Taguba Report are mysteriously missing from each Senator's copy of the reports too. There are supposed to be 6,000 pages. The Taguba report is the one that Rummy didn't even look at before he held the press conference about the Abu Ghraib scandal. He already knew about it.

If a responsible news source would interview Sibel Edmonds, the public would know that these people are not responsible for 9/11. Previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq describe in raw detail abuse that goes well beyond what has been made public, adding allegations of prisoners being ridden like animals, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve their food from toilets. Videos amplify the violence.

Prisoner deaths have reached 37 in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Guardian reports that Iraqi women are also detained and raped repeatedly by US Soldiers. And the US explains its way out of being held responsible under international law. And to top off today's news, the whistleblower of the abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was stripped of his security clearance and told he may face prosecution because his comments were "not in the national interest." God Bless America, indeed.

Hofstra graduation speaker is booed

Crowd of parents, relatives say ceremony was the wrong place for E.L. Doctorow to criticize the president.

Dear President Rabinowitz,

I am writing to commend you for your selection of EL Doctorow for commencement speaker at Hofstra. I just read about it in Newsday. My son attends Hofstra's Honors College class of 2007. At first I was saddened that Mr Doctorow was booed and wondered if Hofstra was the right place for my son but then again, I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinions.

I was glad to see that many in attendence at the commencement ceremony gave Mr Doctorow a standing ovation. whew! Unfortunately, at this time in history, Mr Doctorow's sentiments are not merely political opinion, they are fact. We are facing in American history what can only be called a dangerous revisiting of Germany before the war. I never in my life envisioned an America like we have today. I never thought we would be so dangerously close to a fascist dictatorship in this country. People say that we don't have the holocaust so it's isn't like Nazi Germany. I say, Just Wait.

The Department of Justice website, just a click away, indicates plans to return to conscription. The Bush administration, famous for denying truths, will surely be drafting our young people if this administration is elected to power in November. I am surprised that more students are not aware of how close they are to conscription. There will be no college deferments this time. A student may only finish his/her current semester. I suppose if more students were aware of this, the sentiments would be more like they were when I was in college during the Vietnam conscription years.

Again, I applaud you for the courage in bringing a speaker who dared to speak the truth in these times. The truth these days is a hard thing to swallow but I think it's high time that Americans grow up and take responsibility for their country and regain control for their future and the future of their children.


Sincerely
BlondeSense

Dear Newsday,

My son is a student at Hoftstra and I am happy to read that Hofstra had the guts to bring in a speaker like EL Doctorow who dared to speak the TRUTH about this administration.

At this time in history, the politics of the Bush administration are carving out a dangerous future for all our children. They will be faced with more wars in the event that this administration is elected in November. They will find it more difficult to find jobs as corporatism takes more of a stranglehold on our society and they face the possibility of taking jobs that require them to wear a hair net to work. They will be paying off the deficit for the rest of their lives. All our futures are uncertain as this administration makes Americans look ugly to the rest of the world. Our borders are wide open and terrorists are still free to come and go as they wish.

Those who booed Mr Doctorow were in denial of the harsh realities facing the graduates of Hofstra. This is no time to paint a rosy picture of the future for our youth. There is no rosy future. Mr Doctorow did not give an opinion, he gave facts. Facts that the students should have been aware of.

I implore Newsday to please interview Ms. Sibel Edmonds in Florida, former FBI interpreter to get the facts about the 9/11 coverup. The people of this country need to be more aware of what happened to us on that day and why. The future of our democracy depends on it. Newsday has a responsibility to its readers and to democracy.

Sincerely
BlondeSense

Urge Sharon To Quit It!

From Amnesty International
TAKE ACTION!
Israel's policy of destruction violates fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. Write to the Israeli Prime Minister and call on him to put an end to house demolitions and the destruction of land. You can base your appeals on the letter below.

Dear Prime Minister

I am writing to ask you to urgently amend your government's policy of house demolition and destruction of land and property in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

Such destruction has resulted in widespread violations of the right to adequate housing and a decent standard of living for tens of thousands of people and violates fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law.

I am concerned that in Israel, homes of Palestinian citizens of Israel seem to be targeted through a policy of large-scale confiscation of land, restrictive planning regulations, and discriminatory policies in the allocation of state land. In the Occupied Territories, the destruction of Palestinian homes and land appears to be linked to a policy of appropriating as much as possible of the occupied land, notably by establishing Israeli settlements and related infrastructure, and military/security needs are often invoked as a pretext for the destruction of homes and properties, including as a form of collective punishment. House demolitions should never be anything but a last resort.

I call on you to cancel all outstanding orders for demolitions in Israel until such time as Israeli law is amended in a manner that complies with international standards. I also urge you to immediately order a halt to all house demolitions and destruction of property for punitive reasons or where there is no absolute military necessity, and cancel all demolition orders of unlicensed houses in the Occupied Territories.

Yours sincerely,

You can copy and paste this sample letter into an e-mail or a document to print out.

Please send appeals to:
Ariel Sharon
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
3 Kaplan Street
PO Box 187
Kiryat Ben Gurion
Jerusalem 91919, Israel
Fax: +972-2-5664838
E-mail: pm_eng@pmo.gov.il

This is urgent because Last spring, after President Bush announced his Road Map plan for peace in the Middle East, the Apostolic Congress co-sponsored an effort with the Jewish group Americans for a Safe Israel and placed billboards in 23 cities with a quotation from Genesis ("Unto thy offspring will I give this land") and the message, "Pray that President Bush Honors God's Covenant with Israel. Call the White House with this message." It then provided the White House phone number and the Apostolic Congress's Web address. Bush backpedaled after 50,000 postcards were sent to the White House and thousands of phone calls by Christian Zionists who are in favor of World War 3 beginning in Israel against the Palestinians. They do not want peace in the middle east. They want war and they want to see more Palestinians killed, bulldozed and brutalized.

Christian Zionists are not true Christians. Jewish Zionists are not true Jews.
Do not vote for officials who support Sharon's Israel. They want only war and devastation.

Reliving 9/11 and A Message to Warmongers: Pt.I

The 9/11 Commission keeps rolling on. I am reliving the horror following 9/11 because of it... of course not nearly as much as those who lost their very dear loved ones that day. Things changed that day. I am filled with bitterness and anger.... not so much for the hijackers anymore, but for those who are trying to coverup what happened here. Don't try to tell me who to be angry at now. I was here. I will report what it was like to be New Yorker who lived here on 9/11 and what my message is to Faux 9/11 Sympathizers and War Mongers. I'll deliver it in several parts. This is PART I:

I am so positively sick of the faux sympathy for New Yorkers after 9/11. I go around the internet and read blogs by war mongers who keep asking how we could forget 9/11 and where is our anger.... why are those "liberals" protesting the war in Iraq.. and blah blah blah. I wasn't even a liberal until GW Bush came into power.
...
Quit trying to squash the really bad thing that happened on 9/11, by trying to make me think that what is happening in Iraq will somehow make up for the intense trauma I went through that day and months after it. ... You are hateful people who use this tragedy as an excuse to act out your intolerance and bigotry for those who are not exactly like you. The government has politicized the tragedy to make corporations even more wealthy and to promote American Imperialism.

You have no idea what it was to be covered with dusty remains of our neighbors and friends who died in those towers for months after the attack. You have no idea how very vulnerable we felt here. Almost everyday for months a firefighter or cop's funeral passed my house on the way to the cemetery near my house. Every time another one passed my house, I relived the horror and the loss. Every time I attempted to simply dust the remains of the WTC off my furniture, it wouldn't budge for it was gritty and sticky and needed to be scrubbed. I scrubbed human remains from my table tops...

Read the whole thing in it's entirety and Listen to My Songs right here

Strippers Vow to Vote Democrat in '04

The Most Very Christian, John Ashcroft spoke yesterday at the Club Badda Bing reminding its patrons that they were indeed hellbound. He promised to push through legislation the shut down of such clubs as they are breeding grounds for gay marriage, prostitution, masturbation and abortion. Ashcroft has never masturbated and considers it a grievous sin. A constitution amendment prohibiting the suggestion of anything sexual in nature outside the marriage bed is in consideration at this time.

"We'd like to model our society after the Saudi society and require all women to be covered up at all times when outside of their respective homes," Ashcroft claimed. This will create jobs, he explained, as young christian men will be hired right out of college to view and censor all printed material, photographs, videos and internet sites for anything sexual in nature. Mr Ashcroft will then be called in to view said pornography and will make the final assessment before any material can be accessed by the public.

A heckler started calling out sexual Bible passages that indeed got a rise out of Mr Ashcroft who became uncomfortable and sought refuge behind his podium. He told the heckler to cease at once and called him a blasphemer. "Get thee behind me Satan! The dirty parts of the Bible are not inspired by the Lord!", he proclaimed.

Ashcroft quieted the crowd and himself, then noted that Miss Candy, a pole dancer from Nebraska should not be extolled for her disgraceful deformity, obviously due to the sins of her parents. Patrons applauded loudly, but not for Ashcroft as Miss Candy swung her massive mammaries on top of Ashcroft's head and knocked him to the ground swifty. When he regained consciousness he was quickly ushered out of the 'Bing swinging his fists and singing "Let The Eagle Soar".

After hearing the news, southern Wisconsin Strip Clubs began registering people to vote and encouraged them to oust Bush. Republican strippers and patrons alike promise to vote Democratic in the next election in order to keep their industry alive. Newly registered voters also vowed to vote Democrat.

Miss Candy, a 250ZZZZ cup, was very concerned that her livelihood was at stake. "It's not like I can be a secretary or sumpthin' "

It's The BIG ONE, Elizabeth!

Livid Lizzy Speaks Out

House Speaker Dennis Hastert laid down a budget making it easier to pass future tax cuts regardless of their impact on the federal deficit.

John McCain, a Republican Senator said something that made sense and he was shot down for it. You see, in politics, particularly Republican politics, you are not allowed to have an opinion other than that put forth by the powers that be - even if they are bumbling idiots who have made the US into a worldwide mockery.

"Throughout our history, wartime has been a time of sacrifice. ... What have we sacrificed?" McCain said. "As mind-boggling as expanding Medicare has been, nothing tops my confusion for cutting taxes during wartime. I don't remember ever in the history of warfare when we cut taxes."

Hastert joked, "Who? Where's he from? A Republican?"

Oh Hastert wasn't talking about money, he was commenting about sacrifice. Republicans don't need no stinking sacrifice. Silly me. Just visit one of the thousands of troops with their arms and legs blown off for oil. How many times did we change the reason for invading Iraq anyway? How come we invaded Afghanistan again? I can't keep up with the excuses.

Then Hastert said, "If you want to see sacrifice, John McCain ought to visit our young men and women at Walter Reed and Bethesda (two Washington area military hospitals). There's the sacrifice in this country. We're trying to make sure that they have the ability to fight this war, that they have the wherewithal to be able to do it..."

What a maroon. We need money to fight war and cutting taxes to the wealthy is making that vein in my forehead throb.

Hastert went on, "And at the same time, we have to react to keep this country strong not only militarily but economically. We want to be able to have the flexibility to do it. That's my reply to John McCain."

WHAAAAA? Now I am having a heart attack. How pray tell is cutting taxes making our country strong? The wealthy don't buy stuff that stimulates the economy. Corporations are making money hand over fist but do not raise the salaries of the workers they don't lay off accordingly. Corporations in their unmitigated greed continue to outsource jobs to foreign countries so they can make even more money, while college educated, tax paying citizens are forced to vie for minimum wage jobs requiring one to wear a hair net. I didn't learn hairnet jobs in college, goddammit. Is that the sacrifice we are supposed to make? They cut healthcare benefits or make them so expensive that employees can barely pay their bills with all the money being taken out of their paychecks.

"The speaker is correct in that nothing we are called upon to do comes close to matching the heroism of our troops," McCain said. "All we're called upon to do is not spend our nation into bankruptcy while our soldiers risk their lives. I fondly remember a time when real Republicans stood for fiscal responsibility."

Yeah me too. How the hell is cutting taxes helping our troops? When those poor bastards come back to the US from Iraq, how the hell are they going to support their families? They'll be paying taxes, and their kids will be paying taxes and their kid's kids will be paying taxes to pay off the gluttony of these sad excuses for representatives of the people in government.

Where was the call to conserve gasoline? We've got idiots driving SUVs the size of Army tanks and sucking up gasoline like there's not tomorrow. Where is the responsibility? Where is the sacrifice? When the troops come home, they will be welcomed with paycuts, no healthcare, no money in the bank cause their freaking spouses had to drain the savings to make ends meet while they sacrificed for the wealthy SOB Republicans whose only goal is to make themselves richer and pay less taxes.

America is run by Fascists.

Dude, I Want My Country Back

The US and Israel have proved to be the bullies of the world. Israel trumps Abu Ghraib this week, the wedding massacre trumps Nick Berg, prompting many Americans to be afraid of traveling overseas due to anti-American sentiment this summer and forced to pay top dollar at the gas pumps while trying to vacation here on the Homeland.

Citizens are so happy that our leaders are so very excellent at selecting paid allies in Iraq such as Chalabi who was able to earn 27 million of US Taxpayers money up until now. When it was discovered that he was preparing for a coup, he was fired. I'd like my money back.

Armageddon Started in Massachusetts

“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked ..." -Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, at the Nuremberg Trials

All the blunders by BushCo in Iraq can easily be swept under the carpet when a new enemy is brought to the forefront: Homosexuals being married. Bill Berkowitz in Working For Change:

"...the number one issue facing Americans is whether Massachusetts, on May 17, unleashed the fatal blow to America's moral fabric. Armageddon is not what is happening on the ground in the Middle East; it's the havoc gay marriage will bring to America's cultural and political landscape.
...
According to the Wall Street Journal, in several battleground states -- including Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio, Oregon, Missouri, and Michigan -- "a vote on gay marriage may be included on November ballots, a move that could prompt a large turnout among socially conservative voters."
...
Will social conservatives be able to turn their collective rage against same-sex marriage into a bona fide campaign issue?
...
If that "silent majority" is awakened, the results could seriously affect John Kerry's campaign for the presidency."

BushCo has an uncanny way of inciting hatred in his constituency and getting the sheep to follow. You know how the wingers are always accusing Kerry of politicizing? Yeah right. Remember how your mom always told you that if your jealous husband accuses you of cheating, it's because he is afraid that you are doing what he is doing? This is the same thing.

Justice Department Coverup

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm positive there is a conspiracy surrounding 9/11. If you don't think so, then you haven't been paying attention.

Remember right after 9/11/01, the FBI Hired Sibel Edmonds to translate intelligence information? She discovered that we were indeed warned about 9/11 but not in English. Remember when Bush said last month, that if he had known the time, date and place of the terrorist attack on US soil that he would have done something to stop it? Well he should have added, "and in English." Ms Edmonds was fired the next year by the FBI. She appeared on 60 Minutes complaining that the FBI was incompetent. She did testify to the 9/11 Commission that the FBI sure as hell was forewarned. Well we all remember this anyway.

Here's the scoop from the NY Times:

The Justice Department has taken the unusual step of retroactively classifying information it gave to Congress nearly two years ago regarding a former F.B.I. translator who charged that the bureau had missed critical terrorist warnings, officials said Wednesday.

Law enforcement officials say the secrecy surrounding the translator, Sibel Edmonds, is essential to protecting information that could reveal intelligence-gathering operations. But some members of Congress and Congressional aides said they were troubled by the move, which comes as critics have accused the Bush administration of excessive secrecy.
...
"I have never heard of a retroactive classification two years back,'' said an aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject is classified.

"It would be silly if it didn't have such serious implications,'' the aide said. "People are puzzled and, frankly, worried, because the effect here is to quash Congressional oversight. We don't even know what we can't talk about.''

Senator Grassley said, "This is about as close to a gag order as you can get."

The F.B.I. denied the accusation.

"We're not imposing a gag order,'' the F.B.I. official said. Members of Congress have the information, but have to treat it as classified, the official said. "The problem is that while these pieces of information may look innocuous on their own, you put them all together and it reveals a picture of sensitive intelligence collection, and that's a security problem.''

Yes it reveals that the government knew that we were going to be attacked and it explains why Bush sat in the classroom on 9/11, why NORAD stood down, why Cheney sat in his office watching CNN on the morning of 9/11 and why Rummy sat in his office in the Pentagon doing nothing that day. This was Bush's Reichstag Fire boys and girls. Call your elected officials and demand answers.

Mad At Ahmad

"American soldiers and armed U.S. civilians could be seen milling about Chalabi's compound in the city's fashionable Mansour district. Some people could be seen loading boxes into vehicles. Aides said documents and computers were seized without warrants. "

"A senior coalition official said several people were arrested and that arrest warrants were issued for "up to 15 people" on allegations of "fraud, kidnapping and associated matters." "

"Newsweek magazine has reported that Chalabi and some of his aides are suspected of giving information about U.S. security operations in Baghdad to Iran."

Well how do you like that? We've been paying Chalabit $350,000/month and he turns out to be a crook. How many of you are not surprised?

""I am America's best friend in Iraq," Chalabi said. "If the CPA finds it necessary to direct an armed attack against my home, you can see the state of relations between the CPA and the Iraqi people." " -CBS News

I hope we cut off his salary.

The Wedding Was a Blast

The US Military refuses to answer questions about whether or not wedding guests were killed when they opened fire on a house in western Iraq on Wednesday. The US says it was a "suspected foreign fighter safe house" and the Iraqi's say it was a wedding and as many as 45 men, women and children were killed. From the picture above, it seems that if it was a safe house, the foreign fighters were mighty tiny. Dozens of mourners got out their shovels and buried the dead. Apparently in Iraq part of celebration requires shooting guns in the air. It seems that on occasion the US can't tell if there is celebratory fire going on or if they are being attacked. Read more

This is not the first time that the US has canceled a wedding. Many weddings in Afghanistan were also attacked...mistakenly.

After Wednesday's "Shock and Awe" wedding, a man who was interviewed said, "This was a wedding and the (U.S.) planes came and attacked the people at a house. Is this the democracy and freedom that (President) Bush has brought us?

Commission Kisses Guiliani's Ass: New Yorkers Still In The Dark

Rudy's a legend all right. While NYers were getting ready to vote in the NY Mayoral Primaries on Sunny September 11th, 2001, and happy that Guiliani would be gone come January, 2002, planes crashed into the WTC towers.

Mr Guiliani was heckled by relatives of victims who died on 9/11 in NYC yesterday. The so called "commission" kissed his ass while family members called out what questions they wanted answered, particularly about the non working radios that would have kept the emergency personel in contact with their command center. People felt the whole commission thing was a waste. Which it is. It's a big coverup. We'll never find out why Bush, Cheney and Rummy sat down while we were under attack. We'll never find out why no fighter planes intercepted the hijacked planes.

From the The NY Times regarding Guiliani's testimony yesterday in NY:

Elsewhere, some of the family members lingered and spoke of how they had not heard the questions and answers they had come to hear. Some had lost faith in the commission, saying it seemed to be committed to a sanitized history of that day.

"We fought like crazy to get this commission established," said Lorie Van Auken, whose husband, Kenneth, died in the north tower. "We want the truth. If we're not being told the truth, if we are only being told one side of the story, the commission is not doing its job properly."

Betsy Parks, who lost her brother, Robert Emmett Parks Jr., on Sept. 11, had yelled out in the room for a family member and a first responder to be on the panel. Now she said, "I wanted to hear why everybody above the fire in both buildings was simply forgotten about." She said, "I was disappointed by Giuliani's testimony. I was bored by it."

One young woman shook her head and smiled: "He's a legend. No one takes on a legend."

Rain continued to fall from the sky. Rudolph Giuliani was long gone.

Bush Is the Worst President Ever: Proof

Read Historians Vs Bush

Fascism Anyone

Another Excerpt from Doomocracy:

By institutionalizing the "war on terrorism" a government may acquire a rationale for expanding its powers and furthering its domestic agenda. While the nation's resources are directed toward endless war, promoting tax cuts in the midst of recession, leaving few resources available for domestic programs.

This form of fascism will sneak up on you in a disguise. Slowly it's roots will grow deeply, spreading in all directions, entangling the entire society.The ideologically driven party nurturing its own intellectuals and supporting a network that transforms the national ideology from mildly liberal to predominantly conservative, slowly pushes the Democrats to the right enfeebling opposition. The government responds primarily to corporate interests; voters become cynical, resigned and opposition decreases. It adopts a reckless unilateralism, demands unquestionable support on terms it dictates; ignores treaties and violates international law at will; invades other countries without provocation; and incarcerates persons indefinitely without charging them with a crime or allowing access to counsel.

Read the whole thing here

Dealing With Horror

This is an excerpt from Fr Jake Stops the World Blog which I visit regularly for a daily dose of spirituality and a realistic view of what is happening to us as a people:

Most of us invest much time and energy trying to hide from the horror. We live in gated communities behind locked doors, with armed police units only three digits away. We hoard our resources, keep to our routines, and avoid strangers. We want to be safe. Our society enables this facade that safety is an external commodity. Yet, regardless of our efforts, in the middle of the night we awaken trembling; the fragility of our fate made manifest within the darkness that surrounds us. We cannot keep the horror out, because it dwells within;

"...I no longer had a healthy mind that could contemplate the world in a cheerful light. I had found that any such vision was indeed infirm and weak, because I had experienced the horror that lay just beneath our ordinary waking consciousness. Nothing could change that. Even if I never had another panic attack, I would never be able to forget what I have seen... "
- The Spiral Staircase, Karen Armstrong.

Even though the horror is nothing new, our means of global communication is greatly enhanced today. More of humanity is being forced to confront the horror than ever before. To some, it is the death of an age of innocence.

We are witnessing a time of grieving over the loss of more carefree days. Fear, denial, anger, and depression are to be anticipated responses.

Read the whole post here

America, We Are Fucked.

Hope my language isn't too offensive. I am trying to utilize my right to free speech as much as I can before it goes away. -The Mgmt.


I still have an AOL account and I should be shot. I still get email there so I log in occasionally and look at the news. It usually has a link to a chat room or a message board so I go to see what people are thinking. DON'T GO THERE. It's hatred central.

Lynndie England is a hero to them. There are tons of comments like this: "She deserves a medal for a job well done. I hope she shoved a cattle prod up their terrorist asses." "Lynddie is an American Hero"

There are very few reasonable people commenting on the message boards. They are branded as liberal commies who only want to have sex and drugs. They have convinced themselves that anyone who is anti-war is a liberal who hates freedom. It made me ill. Here are some quotes that I copied off the message boards. Read while I vomit:

"My local News Paper reported that the Iraqi people want those guards executed for the abuse in the Iraqi Prisons. Well Folks, if that be the case, than we must execute every towel-headed detainee for the crimes that they have committed. Their crimes are far more serious than taking photos of naked prisoners."

Read my whole post here

More on Nick Berg: Psy-Ops?

Interesting information regarding Nick Berg's decapitation. Lots of weird things about video disclosed. Be sure to scroll down and check out the whole page. Just stuff to think about.

Eric Idle's New Song to the FCC

From PythonOnline.com:
Eric Idle presents... The FCC Song.
"Here’s a little song I wrote the other day while I was out duck hunting with a judge… It’s a new song, it’s dedicated to the FCC and if they broadcast it, it will cost a quarter of a million dollars."
You can download the MP3. It's called "Fuck You Very Much"

Bush Admin Consults with Zionist Apocalyptic Christians!

The end of the world according to the Mayan calendar is 12/21/2012. Every generation of Christian since St. Paul has been convinced that they were living in the end times. Seriously. Read St. Paul's letters towards the back of the New Testament. They were wacky back then because they thought they were going to die soon. So it's natural that in this new millennium, fringe religious wackos are going to drag out the Book Of Revelation from the Bible. Revelation and the Mayan prediction of the end times really gives this credence for them. (The Mayans also believed that life on earth came from god's from outer space which sort of goes along with the Bible too in some cases) The only thing that really really bugs me and should bug everyone on the planet is this: Our government is in cahoots with these wackos; especially George W Bush. The Bible may have saved him from his alcoholism, but it's not going to save him from destroying the world in the name of God. How did this happen? Why are so many people in America literally asleep at the wheel?

One way to gain control of the population and string it along is with fear and hatred. Bush did a great job of that with 9/11 and pushing us into war just like the Nazi's did. Rah Rah Rah. Kill the bad guys. Save us from evil. It's so Orwellian and Hitlerian, it's uncanny.. but it worked on millions of Americans. Since the rest of us who maintained some sort of intelligence are still around, the fascists/corporatists took over the mass media and more or less squashed our voices.

Corporatism, a nice word for fascism is taking over our society in record breaking time compared to the way Hitler did it. With a good solid fascist government in control, the White House can pursue it's agenda of World Domination.. and they don't give a shit whether you and I get killed in the process. Huge fundamentalist Christian Corporations (in addition to oil companies and the energy industry) back this President and they have millions of Americans under their spell; many are apocalyptic Christians who are hell bent on being raptured because they are tired of trying to take responsibility for their actions on earth and want to die and be saved. Quickly.

These corporations back Bush with lots and lots of money. Since Bush is allied with Israel and likes to invade other countries to make his friends rich through war profiteering and building pipelines so you and I can drive SUVs, he's pretending to go along with the apocalyptic Christians. Why do I know that Bush doesn't buy this apocalypse stuff? Because he is a money hungry, greedy, selfish kid who never grew up is why.

There are 3 other possibilities: Bush doesn't believe this shit and is merely pursuing a fascist dictatorship for the benefit of the very rich, who according to the Bible are going to hell anyway so they might as well have fun here on earth now, or he is really the antichrist who is responsible for bring on Armageddon or he has the Messiah Complex to the nth degree and wants to lead the charge to Armageddon as a good guy. Nah. He's too greedy.

For me personally, if there is an Armageddon, I believe that it will come from an alien invasion. Remember Reagan? But let's get back to the wacko fundies...

They believe that they will be raptured, that is caught up with Jesus in the blink of an eye. I call it being nuked (by aliens or else nuked by the rest of the world) who are sincerely pissed at the US for it's imperialism and war profiteering. Here are the Bible quotes supposedly endorsing the rapture:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Mark 13:26-27: And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

Revelation 11:11-12: And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

Sounds like an alien invasion. I don't mean to be smart. But really now. Anyway, it's pretty clear now that Bush is pursuing this armageddon, end times agenda with Christian Zionists to keep their $upport and get votes on election day.

The story in a nutshell is this: The Temple in Israel that was destroyed in 70AD needs to be rebuilt according to prophecy, the Jews in Israel are supposed to be there cause God said so thousands of years ago, the Jews need to be converted (fat chance and I don't blame them), a great war, Armageddon will happen and these very righteous, holy Christians will get raptured up to heaven without feeling the heat.

So while the US government is supporting Israel because they need some sort of presence in oil rich mid eastern lands, the Christian Zionists are supporting the government thinking that they are complicit with the plan to help Jesus start the end times. It's very complicated but I assure you that the US motives are not to bring on the absolute end of the world.. it's to dominate the world. Sure they will start a huge world war and millions will be nuked and killed, but that's ok cause they want a new world order and they have bunkers.

So far, and lucky for us who are awake, BushCo is sinking in their own stink they created in Iraq. Bush knew about the torture prisons being run by the CIA. Read the news. If he didn't, don't you think he would have fired his cabinet? If he had an ounce of compassion, he would have. But we know he doesn't because he signed execution orders for over 150 people in Texas without allowing DNA evidence to be checked. He even mocked the pleas of a woman on death row begging for reconsideration. This man is no Christian, let me tell you.

Today in the Village Voice there is an article called: Bush White House checked with rapture Christians before latest Israel move:The Jesus Landing Pad. It seems that the Bush administration still needs the so called "Christian" support of his electorate so they "consulted" with the "Apostolic Congress" which is part of an important and disciplined political constituency courted by recent Republican administrations. As a subset of the broader Christian Zionist movement, it has a lengthy history of opposition to any proposal that will not result in what it calls a "one-state solution" in Israel according to the article. The US National Security Council's top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios. These Christians oppose a Palestinian state at all costs because the bible says that this land belongs to the Jews. They also need to have the mosque where the temple once was torn down so a new temple can be built. If this doesn't happen, then Jesus won't come back! in his flying saucer

Are you vomiting yet? Our US National Security Council is in on this? Hey what ever happened to the people's say in the government of this country? Oh yeah, we gave it up after Bush's Reichtag Fire, I mean 9/11.

The Apostolic Congress dates its origins to 1981, when, according to its website, "Brother Stan Wachtstetter was able to open the door to Apostolic Christians into the White House." ...Ronald Reagan bore theological affinities with such Christians because of his belief that the world would end in a fiery Armageddon....

While the language of apocalyptic Christianity is absent from George W. Bush's speeches, he has proven eager to work with apocalyptics—a point of pride for Upton [he's the pastor for the Apostolic Congress]. "We're in constant contact with the White House," he boasts. "I'm briefed at least once a week via telephone briefings. . . . I was there about two weeks ago . . . At that time we met with the president."

Oh my. These nuts get to meet with the president and I can't go and talk some sense into him. Oh yeah, I don't make enough money to not pay taxes, so he isn't going to listen to me.

Last spring, after President Bush announced his Road Map plan for peace in the Middle East, the Apostolic Congress co-sponsored an effort with the Jewish group Americans for a Safe Israel that placed billboards in 23 cities with a quotation from Genesis ("Unto thy offspring will I give this land") and the message, "Pray that President Bush Honors God's Covenant with Israel. Call the White House with this message." It then provided the White House phone number and the Apostolic Congress's Web address.

Then what happened was the White House got 50,000 postcards opposing the Road Map, which aims to create a Palestinian state. Then Bush started backpedaling. Now if the rest of us knew about this stuff, we'd be sending millions of postcards to the White House. Maybe we better get cracking.

Bush doesn't know what he wants does he? On one hand he is proposing ways to achieve peace in the Middle East (supposedly) and on the other hand his staff is consorting with Christian Zionists who really don't give a shit if there is peace in the Middle East or not as long as they get raptured.

Now go and read this article then report back to me

French Guy Writes Book with No Verbs

"The verb is like a weed in a field of flowers," he said. "You have to get rid of it to allow the flowers to grow and flourish.

First, there was the novel written without using the letter "e". Now a French author has produced what he claims is the first book with no verbs. Read More

Horrific War Crimes in Afghanistan

"Thousands of Afghan prisoners were killed while travelling in sealed containers on their way from Konduz to a prison at Sheberghan. The bodies of the dead and some who survived were then buried in a mass grave at nearby Dasht Leile. US special forces were closely involved and in charge at the time. Were they involved in a war crime? The Pentagon denies the events. The eyewitnesses tell what happened." Read more

See part of the documentary "Afghan Massacre: the Convoy of Death" - produced and directed by award-winning Irish filmmaker Jamie Doran here (52MB). This movie has been seen all over the world but banned here in the US. Wonder why? If you have a fast internet connection, definitely check it out.

Stuff a Sock in it Zell

Who else but Senator Zell "The Smell" Miller had this to say about the "torture" at Abu Ghraib on Imus today:

Senator Zell Miller: "The two times I think I have been most humiliated in my life was standing in a big room, naked as a jaybird with about fifty others and they were checking us out, now that was humiliating. It was humiliating showering with sixty others in a public shower. It didn't kill us did it? No one ever died from humiliation."
Imus: "Whenever I was naked I always felt sorry for the other guys."

Zell, the moron that he is, left out the part where he was sodomized with a light stick and broomstick, forced to keep a bag over his head, forced to perform sex with other men, forced to (imitate?) oral sex, kicked, leashed like a dog, photographed and beaten almost to death. That was the most humiliating part and Zell couldn't even bring himself to recall that.

The excuses from God fearing Christian politicians about Abu Ghraib scandal are outrageous. The excuses are worse than what happened there and more embarrassing to us as a nation. Can't they just shut the hell up already?

'Nuff Said

From Rense.com

A Musical Interlude

Ok. I was asked to calm down a bit. It's very hard after reading the papers and listening to Air America. But here goes: This morning I'd like to turn you on to some very Patriotic Music. I'll be updating this article periodically as I find more music of interest. If anyone wants to turn me on to other artists of note, let me know!

..........................................................................................................................................................


Sonny Meadows: How Does a Patriot Act?
September 11th - the day a criminal act of terror shook our world. But it was only the beginning. The fear and terror engendered by the Bush Administration and their corporate protectorate dwarfed the events of 9/11 and turned our country, once the bastion of Liberty and Justice, into the homeland of fear, anger and revenge. It is time for logic to replace emotion and bring America back home.

I highly recommend this CD to progressive patriots. Sonny Meadows is a musical colleague of mine on LI whose music is topical, ironic, witty, intelligent and informed. Never at a loss for lyrics or music, Sonny Meadows is a true American Patriot. This CD is a follow up to his very popular "Bibles, Guns and Flags".

..........................................................................................................................................................

Someone sent me a link to this: This is hilarious
The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld put to music! If you think of Rumsfeld as a character in a Gulf Wars II musical, these are the songs he might sing. The seven songs show the Secretary not only holding forth from his press podium, but in introspective moments as well. You can listen to sound clips here. Just check it out.

..........................................................................................................................................................

Another one of my most favorite musical activists is Michael Franti and Spearhead who play liberation music. I went to see Ziggy Marley at Westbury Music Fair and Michael opened for Ziggy. Michael stole the show and his message was one of peace and harmony in the world. I cried. It was just what I needed.

Michael Franti and a delegation of peace workers, musicians, artists and filmakers are planning a trip to Iraq, Israel and Palestine from from June 2nd through the 15th. The intention of the trip is to see first hand the affects of the war on all those involved from Iraqui civilians to men and women in uniform. Although no concerts are planned for the trip, Michael and the others are planning on meeting with as many Iraqui musicians and artists as possible as well as students and other youth organizations.

Definitely visit his site today at Spearheadvibrations.com. Click on Sounds and Video to see and hear this amazing artist. You can download free mp3s there.

..........................................................................................................................................................

Linda Ronstadt is my musical idol. I like her even more now. "We need a different president right away, I think. I think we should impeach this one [rather than wait for] the next election," she told WABC Radio's Mark Simone on Saturday. Yay Linda!

Shocked Senators Subjected to Porn for Hours

Satire(quotes are real): One hundred duly elected US Senators gathered to watch hundreds of pictures of prisoner abuse from Abu Ghraib prison. Many of the photos showed naked penises. We don't call it the American Penal System for nothing. Homo-erotic torture of male prisoners kept the Senators squirming in their seats looking straight ahead with an occassional furtive glance toward the lap of another Senator.

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said: “I expected that these pictures would be very hard on the stomach lining and it was significantly worse than anything that I had anticipated." I think he means that more than his stomach lining was affected. Nevertheless he took a swig out of a bottle of Maalox that was being passed around.

“Almost everybody was naked all the time.” This is one of the perks of being a Senator.

Other Senators remarked, “There were several pictures of Iraqi women who were disrobed or putting their shirts up." Some shots showed Iraqi women commanded to expose their breasts. They also said that this was the only way that our stressed out soldiers could re-enact their carefree spring break days at Ft Lauderdale. There was something titillating about playing "Girls Gone Wild" with those prudish Iraqi women. Quick! Take pictures! Senator Lieberman, gathered up the remains of his Joe-memtum and attempted to lighten up the group quirking, "It just deepens the conclusion that this was a cell block that had gone wild." That's right Mr. Lieberman. That's all it was. We see this stuff on late night infomercials back in America all the time.

Thank Allah, “They were not smiling in the pictures, that’s for sure. But it didn’t look like they had been beaten or hurt,” another Senator remarked relieved that this only amounted to soft core porn and not torture.

“I don’t know how the hell these people got into our army,” said Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, from Colorado. Another Senator reminded Ben that they were recruited. You know how the recruiters stalk high schools across America looking for boys and girls who want a glamorous career seeing the world and getting college money.

“It was pretty disgusting, not what you’d expect from Americans,” said Senator Norm Coleman. Hey Norm, we're not in Kansas anymore but thanks for your comment. Fortunately, most of the rapes of Iraqi women and men were handled by highly paid mercenaries who, thanks to the forward thinking CIA, are above the law, and are not all Americans. whew!

The Senators were also treated to some consensual porn videos. Pte Lynddie England, of trailer park, West Virginia engaged in sex acts with other US soldiers for the video camera, some senators told news reporters. They were relieved that it was consensual sex on one hand but saddened that it lacked much of homo-erotic zing of her dominatrix photos. Senators like that stuff.

With the 37 cases of rape reported from the front by female GI's, it would be just appalling if any of these were actually video taped and in the hands of the American public. On the other hand, hundreds of sexy female US soldiers had to leave Iraq due to pregnancy because they too needed to blow off a little steam.

“She [England] was having sex with numerous partners. It appeared to be consensual,” said one very relieved senator who was able to enjoy this part of the presentation with our own little Lynddie England as the star. Another Senator was very relieved that they were not doing it with their clothes on. Yep, they were nekkid. “There was lots of sexual stuff – not of the Iraqis, but of our troops,” giggled another Senator recalling his younger days when a gang bang in the frat house was a great stress reliever.

blowjob for a dolla?

Sadly, Iraq is no Thailand. There are no Asian beauties awaiting our troops. The Iraqi's weren't geared up in advance for the influx of US GI's who would greatly "Stimulate" their economy as our troops are historically known to do when they reach port. The Senators agreed that luckily some of our most patriotic female US troops are more than willing to donate their services to our boys.

All in all the Senators, the moral bastions of our society who never have sex with anyone except for pro-creation, were feigning disgust while secretly pleased that they didn't have to pay to see these and other such photos on American porn websites.

Many Senators sat back and had a cigarette after the show recalling the glory days of the Bill Clinton Inquisition.

No one brought up the subject of how all the Iraqi porn ended up on pay for porn websites though.

Pte England went on American television yesterday in a bid to defend herself. She said she was following orders when commanded to appear in photographs. Is the US Government running a porn ring? oy vay.

Irony Watch: Gay Marriage a Threat to Society

Front Page NY Times:

...In a last effort to publicize their cause before the impending wave of same-sex marriages, conservative Christian groups are organizing an emergency telecast to churches around the country...

...The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, said: "I don't see any traction. The calls aren't coming in and I am not sure why."

... "Other issues are far more important to most Americans, including evangelicals — issues like the economy, jobs, health care, the war in Iraq," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

...The amendment's backers contend that the reason people are not responding more vocally is that many grass-roots conservatives do not yet understand how same-sex marriages affect them personally.

Hey I am not a conservative Christian, but I would like to know what the emergency is and how gay marriages would affect me and my family personally. Do tell!

5 months till elections

Can anyone imagine what it would have been like if American colonists stood around with signs calling for an end to English rule?

We'd still be saying things like "By jove" and "Jolly Good".


Update 5/17/04: George Orwell said, "Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act."

Excellent article in Commondreams called Which Side Are You On. Thanks to Michael at Public Domain Progress for the heads up.

Doomocracy is Here

There's a new kid in town, BillyDoom, over at Doomocracy. He used to live in a dictatorship before he came to the US 25 years ago. He gives his analysis of what is happening to our democracy. He loves this country and is worried about it as I am. Take it from someone who's been there.

"Under fascism the big business virtually owns the government. How is that possible? By forming a capitalist oligarchy - an alliance of big business that takes over a political party; financing, buying, coercing elections; controlling  the media, the economic assets of the society, it's representation in government and privatizing all agencies of the government. For the capitalists within the alliance, privatization of government agencies is a great source of revenue without competition or bidding process. It's like "wolves guarding the sheep"... " Read the whole article.