CRYSTAL BLUE PERSUASION AND ONE HANGING

Saddam Hussein is dead and gone.
His fate was sealed soon after he climbed out of his spider hole.
Fallout from wars of the Bush regime continue, and Saddam Hussein can now hang out with virgins in paradise.
How much better do we feel that a brutal dictator was put to death?
The United States of America is itself still hanging in the balance of truth and justice.
Will the Bush administration ever be prosecuted for any Crimes or Misdemeanors?
Will President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney escape investigation for war that was dictated and prosecuted with fabrication and obfuscation?
We may feel good about the hanging of Saddam Hussein, but we should not feel satisfied until our own leaders are brought to justice for an unjust and unnecessary war.


INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE!



***


Robert Fisk (Middle East journalist): “His execution will go down - correctly - as an American affair and time will add its false but lasting gloss to all this - that the West destroyed an Arab leader who no longer obeyed his orders from Washington, that, for all his wrongdoing Saddam died a "martyr" to the will of the new "Crusaders". (The Independent, 30 December)


The International Action Center ( US ): “This punishment has nothing to do with the alleged crimes of the Iraqi leader nor is it part of an historical judgment of his role. It is the act of a conquering power against a nation that is occupied against the will of the vast majority of its people.”


Professor Jose Maria Sison (the Philippines ): “Bush depicts the hanging of Saddam as a part of building democracy in Iraq and even in the entire Middle East . But he is clearly lying in view of the so many authoritarian regimes (including monarchic and theocratic ones) in the region with which the US has good relations. The brutal US occupation of Iraq has nothing to do with democracy. What is important to the US is servility to the rule and profit-making of US monopoly interests.”


Cebrapaz ( Brazilian Center of Solidarity with the Peoples and Struggle for Peace): "The president of the USA , who ordered this act, enters in history as the greatest enemy of the peace and the greatest terrorist of all time. The world will only know better days, of peace and justice, when imperialism and its war politics are defeated."

Doppelganger

I woke up feeling stranger than usual.
I knew who I was.
Of course, I was myself---I mean I was me--- but I also felt I was someone else just like me.
I took a quick peek in the bathroom mirror.
It was still just me in the mirror.
What in the heck was going on?
What was causing these sensations of disambiguation?
I checked my horoscope for that day.
I don't believe in astrology, nor do I ever read horoscopes, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to check today's horoscope.
Nothing about Doppelganger in my horoscope.
Next, I checked my biorhythm.
Again, nothing here.
Then it dawned on me what the problem was:
I had been eating cloned beef and drinking cloned milk.
It was causing me to think I was a copy of myself.
It was making me feel twice as good about myself as well.
Let me know if I am not the only one (or two) experiencing this phenomenon.



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

ODD JOBS

Some jobs are born odd.
Some jobs achieve oddness.
Other jobs have oddness thrust upon them.
I may have already written about the different odd jobs that I’ve had.
When I was going to college I worked as a cashier and stocker for a major retail food chain.
This job paid for my college education.
This was before any lasers scanned IPCs.
I punched the stiff keys of a large cash register.
I checked items quickly, and this is what management liked.
After graduating from college, and after leaving my job as a store stocker and cashier, I was a teacher for a short time in a small Colorado town.
The racial violence in the school and community made me resign after a semester.
I thought that I would never teach again, but this didn’t happen…thankfully.
I worked in three different restaurants.
I was a dishwasher at two restaurants, and a short-order cook in the other one.
But so far, these are not the oddest jobs that I’ve had.
The oddest jobs were the day labor jobs.
One time I went to clean a business that had burned down. Smelly, sooty and dirty!
Another time I spent the day picking up odd pieces of paper at a city dump. The wind was flying and so were those pieces of paper. But at $4 per hour I was all for the wind doing its job. It took more time for me to chase all those pieces of paper.
One morning I went to a house to find out where a sewer line was blocked.
It was the house of the writer and historian Forest Crossen.
He pointed out where to dig.
I found the blockage quickly. I forget what I did after I found it.
Mr. Crossen made me breakfast. I remember the very ripe red tomatoes that were sitting on his kitchen window sill.
One morning I went to K-Mart to work. The job was unloading bags of manure. I had on my nice coat and so I didn’t accept this job.
I worked in two factories for about three months each.
At one factory I sorted magazine subscriptions by city and state.
At another factory I dipped tips of wires into hot solder.
Menial jobs are good for thinking about your life. The repetitive actions give you time to think about all sorts of things. But sometimes you don’t do any thinking at all. It’s kind of liberating.
When I was in New Mexico I dug a hole in the desert for a girl named Mary. She needed an outhouse. For this job I wasn’t paid any money, but Mary made me breakfast every morning. I dug through what seemed like mostly rocks, but I finally had the hole dug. It was shaped like an upside-down T. I felt proud after I finished excavating this pit.
Another job that satisfied the vagabond side of my soul was being a garbage collector. Except for having to inhale diesel fumes, this was a satisfying job. The oddest part was seeing what people eat and throw away. I remember the boxes of empty wine bottles I would pick up at this nunnery. I guess the wine compensated for an otherwise strict and sedate way of life.



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

THE SOFT DOWN OF MANHOOD

I'm growing my beard again.
Or as my Shakespeare professor said to me many years ago (when I was working as a humble dishwasher):
"Oh. I didn't recognize you with your facial hair."
My philosophy professor had one of those almost pure white beards.
Such beards make me think that the life and soul of the beard-bearer has been a pure one.
Not too many persons have said to me, "Ah. You're growing a beard!"
And so I haven't given my usual retort: "No. It grows all by itself!"
There's nothing worse than a man with a beard who's trying to be funny.
Here are some beard quotes that I like:

"Chins without beards deserve no honour." (Spanish proverb)
"A beard signifies lice, not brains." (Greek proverb)
"He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man." (Shakespeare)

People have been calling me Santa Claus lately.
I guess that's a compliment.
I don't know how long I'll keep my beard this time around.
But it's getting long enough now to be more than just facial hair.
I guess my beard is growing on me after all!



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

GIRLY-MAN AND GREENHOUSE GASES

Global Warming is not a fraud.
It is a big threat.
The country might pull together on the issue of Global Warming because of one former bodybuilder who became an actor, and now is the governor of California.
Arnold Schwarzenneger is the compassionate conservative that George W. Bush wasn't.
Arnold, unlike George, doesn't have oil wells and cronies sprouting out of his shorts and shoes.
Mr. Schwarzenegger can never be president (unless Congress changes Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution.) since he was born outside of the U.S.
But he could get elected as a senator.
Arnold has gone green.
He supports strict regulations and enforcement of greenhouse gas levels.

Mr. Schwarzenegger said:

"The war has dragged us down. There's no reason to get political, that's just the way it is. But you can balance it by being a great leader in the environment. The more America shows leadership in that area, the more we will be loved for that as much as they love us for our hamburgers and for our jeans and for our movies and for our music."



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

EATING OUTSIDE OF THE BUN

The worst case of indigestion and gas that I’ve ever had came after I dined at a popular restaurant that encourages its customers to think
OUTSIDE OF THE BUN.
I think that it was the taco sauce.
That delicious, hot taco sauce.
My girlfriend walked on my stomach to "push" the gas out of me.
Don't get me wrong.
I like this restaurant's food.
(I will not write the actual name of the restaurant. I don't want to hurt their business any more than has already been done by their E. coli problem.)
Tonight I heard a fellow (some company spokesman I suppose...I didn't see him because I was cleaning my eyeglasses), and he was telling the world that their food was now safe to eat where the E. coli outbreaks had occurred.
Well, I don't suppose every vegetable consumed in their restaurants can be checked for E. coli.
And let's face it; it was probably just a statistical occurrence that could happen in any restaurant.
Still, when I eat south of the border, I know that I may experience more gastronomic difficulties.
So far so good.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

YOUR WAY FORWARD IS GOING BACKWARDS

"There's no question the military has been used a lot."
George W. Bush
December 19, 2006


***

You're so right Mr. Long War President.

The soldiers that you put in Iraq for your deceitful and deranged war HAVE BEEN USED.

And the American people HAVE BEEN USED.

A surge of more soldiers will produce more insurgency.

You must be receiving your thoughts from some pinball machine:

Pull the lever and let the balls go where they want to go and that’s where the answers lie.

Barney and Laura may indeed end up being the only two who ultimately support your Great Debacle in Iraq.

Getting the job done is not necessarily victory.

Victory isn't winning when thousands and thousands more die.

A surge will not produce a purge.

It will create more death.

It will incite more violence.

If the Long War President is neither winning nor losing in Iraq (as he now claims), then he is stuck in neutral---and there is no way forward since there is no movement.

It is an impasse that will deteriorate and become more grave (and graves).

The dictatorial rhetoric is devoid of reality and rationality.

It is full of rationalizations and self-delusion.

Sean Penn is right.

You must be investigated and impeached for your crimes.

It is no game.


It is no joke.
It is not a smirking matter.

Your script now says a new way forward.

But when you're going in reverse (or neutral) you can't go forward.

So put on the brakes...now...before more body bags return to the U.S.

Before more war breaks out in the Middle East!

Only when US troops are withdrawn will Iraq move to the next stage in its development. That stage is unlikely to be pretty. It will involve jockeying for position by different religious and ethnic groupings, and the likelihood is that the violence that we now see will continue. Only one thing will change: The Iraqis will be in charge of their destiny. And that change is, of course, the essential one.
That's why the vast majority of Iraqis tell pollsters that the US occupying forces should leave.
It is time to put aside fantasies, and fantastical strategies, and recognize that the next chapter in Iraq's history will only begin when foreign military forces leave.
Strategists in Washington should be developing a plan for US troops to surge homeward, not pushing a scheme to send more young men and women into a hopeless--and deadly--quagmire.

[From “Surging” in the Wrong Direction
By John Nichols/The Nation/Posted
12/19/06]



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

ON BOREDOM

BEING BORED IS A DISEASE
WITHIN NOT WITHOUT.

"I AM BORED" MEANS "I DO NOT WANT TO FIND ANYTHING INTERESTING IN WHAT I AM DOING; I AM NOT GOING TO FIND ANYTHING INTERESTING IN ANYTHING."

THIS IS A VERY NEGATIVE ATTITUDE.

THE BORED PERSON IS MORE BORING THAN THE THINGS HE OR SHE SAYS BORES HIM OR HER.

THIS TYPE OF PERSON IS BORING. HE OR SHE IS THE BORE! IT IS NOT THE THINGS HE OR SHE MUST READ OR EXPERIENCE THAT ARE BORING SO MUCH AS HIMSELF AND HERSELF.

THE BORED SAY THAT THEY ARE BORED BECAUSE THEY THEMSELVES ARE BORING.

AN INTERESTED PERSON WILL NEVER GET BORED, AND THEY WILL BE INTERESTING BECAUSE THEY REMAIN INTERESTED.




IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

STRANGE WORDS

I woke up this morning with a strange phrase running through my head.
PENIS IN A SANDBOX.
It is stange and mystifying how some words will form in our brains.
From whence do they come?
And why?
I have never read or heard the above enigmatic phrase.
Maybe it's because of the Iraq War.
Maybe I was subconsciously thinking about U.S. leadership (or unleadership) that has life and treasury deadlocked and dying in Iraq.
If I learn how and why PENIS IN A SANDBOX began running through my head, I will let you know.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

MY NEW WAY FORWARD REQUIRES MORE MONEY AND SOLDIERS

"Mr. Bush did announce his plan for 20,000 more troops, and the White House trumpeted a $1 billion contribution to reconstruction efforts. Congress will debate these as if they are the real issues. But they are not. Talk of a “surge” ignores the other 140,000 American troops trapped by a failed strategy."
"We have argued that the United States has a moral obligation to stay in Iraq as long as there is a chance to mitigate the damage that a quick withdrawal might cause. We have called for an effort to secure Baghdad, but as part of the sort of comprehensive political solution utterly lacking in Mr. Bush’s speech. This war has reached the point that merely prolonging it could make a bad ending even worse. Without a real plan to bring it to a close, there is no point in talking about jobs programs and military offensives. There is nothing ahead but even greater disaster in Iraq."

Editorial
The Real Disaster
Published: January 11, 2007
The New York Times


***


The war in Iraq will determine the kind of world your children and grandchildren will live in.
At this moment that world is going to be a dark and bleak one unless we complete the mission and get the job done in Iraq.
Our mission in Iraq will not be complete until the mission is completed.
The job will not be finished until Victory is achieved.
We will not cut and run.
We will not walk and hum.
We did not remove a dangerous dictator and murder his sons just so that we could leave Iraq without achieving victory.
We came, we saw, we bombed…and we will conquer the radicals and extremists.
Many battles have been won; many civilians have been killed; but our mission still isn't complete.
Halliburton and Bechtel must also complete their mission.
We cannot allow extremists and radicals to have our...I mean Iraq’s oil.
The stability of the Middle East depends on defeating the enemies of peace in Iraq.
Iraq is now the center of the Global War on Terrorism.
Iraq is the new breeding ground for the killers who want to kill you, me and our children.
But we are cornering and corralling the radicals and extremists in Baghdad
It is there that we will defeat the enemies of peace and bring them to justice.
There can be no retreat.
There will be no retreat.
We shall prevail.
I created this mess.
Let me destroy what I have created.
I will work on a new way forward…
And it’s my way or the highway!
We still have God on our side!
I know.
I talked with Him the other night.
Barney was there.


***

"You see, we do not have a democracy, with the Bush administration in power. We have an elective dictatorship."

"Bush is the Napoleon of our age, trampling on whole peoples, a Jacobin Emperor mouthing the slogans of liberty and popular sovereignty while crushing and looting those he "liberated." And Kagan and Kristol (playing Talleyrand 1798) and Emperor Bush are readying a further slaughter of our US troops, 24,000 of whom have been killed or wounded, and of innocent Iraqis, 600,000 of whom have been killed by criminal and political violence since spring of 2003."

"The problem is that Iraq is a 500,000 troop problem. Another 40,000 are just going to anger locals."

From Informed Comment
www.juancole.com
December 15, 2006



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

LETTUCE COFFEE AND THE FDA (Fraudulent Drug Agency)

Recent studies have reported how drinking 3 cups of coffee each day can help maintain the brain.
Coffee also contains more anti-oxidants than green tea.
Recent E. coli outbreaks have put the blame on spinach, onions, lettuce, beef and cheese.
No more deluxe hamburgers.
Forget those delicious tacos.
No more salads.
But...drink all of the coffee that you want!
Then there's the FDA that seems to give rapid approval to hundreds of drugs with all of those exotic names.
Such as Brovara, Tyzeka, Januvia, Pylera, Fentora, Veredeso, Daytrana.
Daytrana is for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children 6-12 years of age.
And the good news: It's a transdermal patch!
Each issue of my Reader's Digest contains its share of drug advertisements.
(I have the TV on and just heard this maxim:
"Knowledge is the best medicine of all."
You said it brother!
Getting back to Reader's Digest.
I have one issue with 10 ads for various drugs.
Then just before drug ad #11 there is an advertisement for Taster's Choice coffee.
At least RD is fair and (somewhat) balanced.
I get a big kick out of the warnings for these drugs.
Lunesta (or eszopiclone) is a sleep aid.
Part of its ad states:
"Lunesta not only helps most people fall asleep fast, it helps you sleep all through the night...Until you know how you'll react to Lunesta, you should not drive or operate machinery. Side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, drowsiness and dizziness."
Maybe just stop drinking the coffee that keeps us awake.



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

GUADALUPE

 

Guadalupe's Light
Shines Through A Forest's Tall Trees
Awakening Love

By M.L. Squier



The origin of the name Guadalupe has always been a matter of controversy. It is nevertheless believed that the name came about because of the translation from Nahuatl to Spanish of the words used by the Virgin during the apparition to Juan Bernardino, the ailing uncle of Juan Diego.
Some believe that Our Lady used the Aztec Nahuatl word of coatlaxopeuh which is pronounced "quatlasupe" and sounds remarkably like the Spanish word Guadalupe. Coa meaning serpent, tla being the noun ending which can be interpreted as "the", while xopeuh means to crush or stamp out. So Our Lady must have called herself the one "who crushes the serpent."
Quetzalcoatl
Serpent-god
We must sadly remember that the Aztec priest class executed annually at least 50,000 inhabitans of the land, men, women and children, in human sacrifice to their gods. In 1487, just in a single 4 days long ceremony for the dedication of a new temple in Tenochtitlan, some 80,000 captives were killed in human sacrifice.
An almost universal symbol of that religion was the serpent. Human sacrifices were heralded by the prolonged beating of huge drums made of the skins of huge snakes, which could be heard two miles away. Nowhere else in human history had Satan so formalized his worship with so many of his own actual symbols.
Certainly, in this case She crushed the serpent, and few years later millions of the natives converted to Christianity. [http://www.sancta.org/nameguad.html0

BONES HAIR & SCHOOL DISCIPLINE

It was my science class.
I was in the seventh grade.
My teacher (for that time) had very short hair.
Miss Anderson also seemed to have only two pairs of clothing.
She wore the same dress and blouse day after day.
It was a shock when she wore her other outfit.
This is all that I remember about my science class…this…
And the day that Miss Anderson pulled Greg Feazell and me out of class by our hair.
Miss Anderson had warned us.
She mostly warned me.
I was the main joker.
Miss Anderson was talking about the bones of the human body.
I made one “joke” too many.
She immediately grabbed my hair and Greg’s, and dragged us out like an angry cave woman.
We didn’t resist.
It hurt like hell.
Our bodies went limp.
Outside the room she said something like, “Are you two going to stop it and shut up?”
Underneath our clutched hair follicles were two red faces moving up and down.Yes, we understood.
And we were embarrassed.
It didn’t matter too much to Greg, since the girl who he liked wasn’t in this class to see the humiliation.
It didn’t matter to me because Miss Anderson didn’t call my mom.
Her philosophy was that if the teacher had to call her I WOULD GET DOUBLE WHAT THE TEACHER HAD GIVEN ME.
Nowadays teachers need to document and document bad behavior before they submit their discipline referrals.
Not Miss Anderson.

WATER AND OIL (DON'T MIX) ON MARS

If Mars only had petroleum.
Then the Bush-Oil-War-Cabal might quickly skip and hop to Mars and leave Iraq.
Go to Mars...Get out of Iraq.
That would be the new mantric soundbite.
Martian oil would produce the impetus to develop faster and more efficient spaceships.
Maybe Mars does have oil.
Let's find out...
And then a graceful exit from Iraq can occur...
Now...
Not later!


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

The anti-war demonstrations on the eve of the Iraq war, in New York, Los Angeles, London, Rome…were the biggest anti-war demonstrations in world history, but Bush invaded Iraq the next month anyway, and as of Dec. 8, 3,000 Americans have been killed there, and perhaps 650,000 Iraqis, according to the Johns Hopkins study published in The Lancet.
From John Lennon's Legacy/By Jon Wiener/The Nation/12-7-06

“It’s bad in Iraq. Does that help?”
George W. Bush


***


The Iraq Study group has paved a way for the Iraq War to continue.

In Orwellian fashion the ISG defines the war as a failure, but

then lists the things that need to happen for the failure to

become a success.

The caldron of lies is only being agitated.

The wool is over our eyes, so just die the wool a different

color.

Who's to notice?

The Long War President still roosts on the sunny-side of his

self-delusion.

The barn is burning but Bush believes it isn't.

The strategic and corporate interests of the Bush Cabal will

not permit the abandonment of Iraq's oil fields.

If the welfare of the Iraqi people (and the world) had been

the real reason for the Pre-Emptive War, then Iraqis would

have water, electricity and freedom.

Honor would be to leave the Iraqi people now.

Dishonor already occurred when America invaded Iraq.

The Decider may not condone abortion, but his war has

become a large, grotesque, bloody one.



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

DOUBLESPEAK AND SURRENDER MONKEYS

The policy is, always was, and in the minds of the Bush cabal will always will be, to occupy Iraq indefinitely while we install 14 permanent military bases, where they have absolutely no business of the Iraqi people to be there. And until they are absolutely forced to do otherwise that is where they will stay, which is what is precisely meant by Bush's recent rejection of any kind of "graceful exit."

The SECRET Plan
To Stay In Iraq
PeaceTeam.net
12-7-6

Since the US army has no control, provides no security, and does not know who it is fighting, US troops simply provide targets for insurgents. They are accomplishing nothing positive and should be withdrawn. US troops in Iraq serve one purpose: They are a provocation that foments Islamic extremism and creates dangerous instability throughout the Middle East.

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

"I listen to all voices, but mine is the final decision."
George W. Bush
April 18, 2006


“We will act in a timely fashion”.
December 6, 2006
George W. Bush

A September opinion poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org showed that 71 per cent of Iraqis want the U.S. out of Iraq within a year.

“As part of an aggressive prewar covert action program--codenamed Anabasis (after an ancient text about a botched invasion of Babylon)--the CIA was authorized by the White House in the winter of 2002 to blow up targets in Iraq and engage in "direct action" (an agency euphemism for assassination) to weaken Saddam's regime and to prepare for his ouster by the U.S. military. For Anabasis, the agency smuggled Iraqi exiles to a top-secret site in the Nevada desert and trained them in sabotage and explosives. The Iraqi force, known as the Scorpions, was being trained to seize an isolated Iraqi military post-in order to create a provocation that could trigger a war with Iraq.”

[From The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War by Michael Isikoff and David Corn]


***

They are addicted to obfuscation.
They are drunk on power.
They are hooked on a war for peace and their nationalinterests.
They will try to change their behavior.
(But it’s tough)
They’re not winning, and they’re not losing.
But the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating.
(All options have to stay on the table).
The ship of state has hit rough waters.
It must now chart a new way forward.
(They will stand down when they can stand up)
But they do not recommend a stay-the-course solution.
(They used to be there to spread democracy; now they’re in a new phase)
They are starting a new way forward.
(They will not leave until they win...they will not go until the job is done)
If they don’t complete the mission there will be regional cataclysm and chaos.
There will be, for quite some time, a robust American force presence, both in Iraq and in the region, because of our interest in preventing just such a result and also because of our national security interests in the region.
You cannot solve this problem by dealing with the military problem.
You cannot solve this problem by dealing with the economic reconstruction problem.
You cannot solve this problem by dealing with the political problems in Iraq.
It's too far along the way for that.

THEN WHAT IN HELL will the Long War President do next?

The room is spinning.
The sky is falling.
Where are we?
Who are we?
Who’s our daddy?
They won't be here when they’re dead.
The war will still be going on long after they’re dead and gone.

Let others worry about my war when I'm dead and gone.
Victory!
Victory!
Victory!



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!


***


"People in South Carolina come up to me in increasing numbers and suggest that no matter what we do in Iraq, the Iraqis are incapable of solving their own problems through the political process and will resort to violence, and we need to get the hell out of there."
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)

"We should put the responsibility for Iraq's future squarely where it belongs ---on the Iraqis. We cannot save the Iraqis from themselves."
Senator Carl M. Levin

"If the Iraqis are determined and decide to destroy themselves and their country, I don't know how in the world we're going to stop them."
Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.)

"No more coddling of Iraqis.”
Sen. Barak Obama

IN DENIAL ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING

They said that cigarettes were not (that) dangerous.
They said not to worry about them.
Then down the road, years later, was the living (or dying) proof that cigarettes DID KILL.
Global Warming.
Stop your worrying.
It won't kill you.
Then down the road, years later, our cities were under water.
Stop your worrying about Global Warming.
It won't kill you.
Yet.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!


***


November 29, 2006
Filed at 12:04 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court stepped gingerly into the national debate over global warming on Wednesday, asking how much harm would occur if the Environmental Protection Agency continues its refusal to regulate greenhouse gases from new vehicles.
In the first case about global warming to reach the high court, a lawyer for 12 states and 13 environmental groups pressed the justices to make the government act, saying the country faces grave environmental harm.
Inaction is like lighting ''a fuse on a bomb,'' said James Milkey, an assistant attorney general for the state of Massachusetts.
Opening up an hour of arguments, Justice Antonin Scalia asked, ''When is the predicted cataclysm?''
It's not cataclysmic, but rather ''ongoing harm,'' Milkey replied.
Deputy Solicitor General Gregory Garre, representing the Bush administration, cautioned justices that EPA regulation could have a significant economic impact on the United States since 85 percent of the U.S. economy is tied to sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
Garre also argued that EPA was right not to act given ''the substantial scientific uncertainty surrounding global climate change.''
Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out that regulating carbon dioxide emissions from new vehicles addresses just one aspect of an issue of global dimensions.
The argument by those pushing for EPA action on vehicle emissions might or might not be valid, but it ''assumes everything else is going to remain constant,'' Roberts observed.
Several justices questioned whether the states and environmental groups have met their legal burden to show they will be harmed by continued EPA inaction. Petitioners to courts must meet that threshold before the merits of a case may be addressed.
''We own property, 200 miles of coastline, that we're losing,'' Milkey said, trying to allay justices' concerns.
But Justice Samuel Alito, who with Roberts seemed most skeptical of the states' position, said that even in the best of circumstances, the reduction in greenhouse gases would be relatively small.
Milkey replied that even small reductions would be meaningful, pointing out that very small rises in the sea level would inundate significant portions of low-lying coastal land.
The Bush administration argued in court papers that the EPA lacks the power to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Even if it had such authority, the EPA still would not use it at this point because of uncertainty surrounding the issue of global warming, the administration said.
Global climate change is ''a controversial phenomenon that is far from fully understood or defined,'' trade associations for car and truck makers and automobile dealers said in a court filing signed by former Solicitors General Theodore Olson and Kenneth Starr. They backed the administration position.
Twelve states, mainly along the nation's Atlantic and Pacific coasts, three cities, a U.S. territory and 13 environmental groups are arguing that the EPA ignored the clear language of the Clean Air Act. Under the 1970 law, carbon dioxide is an air pollutant that threatens public health and the EPA must regulate it, they said.

The Ross Ice Shelf, a raft of ice the size of France, could collapse quickly, triggering a dramatic rise in sea levels, scientists warn.
A New Zealand-led drilling team in Antarctica has recovered three million years of climate history, but the news is not good for the future.
Initial analysis of sea-floor cores near Scott Base suggest the Ross Ice Shelf had collapsed in the past and had probably done so suddenly.

From Scientists fear results of collapsed ice shelf
By JOHN HENZELL
29 November 2006
www.stuff.co.nz

GAS PRICES

Unleaded Regular Gas was $2.04 per gallon a few days ago.

I sneezed and the price went to $2.17 per gallon!

I knew prices would go up after the November election.

I don't know why I thought that, but I was correct.

Yes, the experts can tell us all about supply and demand, and this and that or the other.

But the experts might just as well say "It's because of a spike in the sun's solar flares---or Madonna is not touring enough---or Wal-Mart is not opening up enough stores in China."

A friend of mine, a former U.S. Seal, said to me in 1981 that he would never buy another car until it was a solar car.

He'll have to wait a few more years.

The Sheiks and the oil companies won't stop feeding our oil/gas addiction until the ice caps are on our doorsteps and theirs...or until Hell freezes over.

I just sneezed.

The price of gasoline hiccupped again.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

AUTOMATED TARGETING SYSTEM

Data Miner 1: O.K. We have a file on a male.
Age: 58
He's on a flight to New York from London.
Aisle Seat.
He had lamb and rice for dinner.
No alcohol.

Data Miner 2: O.K. Monitoring has been given a green light by Central Computer at DHS.

Data Miner 1: 10-4.

Data Miner 2: Targeted male citizen has just farted.
The Smell-O-Meter is on.
The reading just went through the roof!

Data Miner 1: 10-4.

Data Miner 2: Whew! Glad we're done with this one.

Data Miner 1: 10-4.
O.K.
New target.
Female.
Age 83.
Window seat.
No need to monitor.
She just had a heart attack.

Data Miner 2: 10-4.
Let's take our break.

Data Miner 1: 10-4.

INSANITY IS DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS

“We can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our grandchildren."
George W. Bush
11-29-06


***


COMPLETE THE MISSION…
COMPLETE THE MISSION…
DON’T LEAVE UNTIL THERE’S
VICTORY…
DON’T LEAVE UNTIL THERE’S
VICTORY…
I WON’T LEAVE UNTIL WE’VE WON...
I WON’T LEAVE UNTIL WE’VE WON...
I'll STAY THE COURSE…
OF COURSE, OF COURSE...
I'll STAY THE COURSE…
OF COURSE, OF COURSE...
IT’S TOUGH…
IT’S TOUGH…
I KNOW, I KNOW...
IT’S TOUGH…
IT’S TOUGH…
I KNOW, I KNOW.
BUT UNTIL THERE’S VICTORY...
UNTIL THE MISSION’S DONE...
WE’LL STAY IN IRAQ…
UNTIL THE MISSION’S DONE…
Until the mission's accomplished...
Until the mission's accomplished...
Until the mission's accomplished...
Until the mission's done...
Until Kingdom come...
Until Kingdom come...
Until the job is done...
Until the job is done...
NO RETREAT...
NO CUT AND RUN...
NO RETREAT...
NO CUT AND RUN!
TIL’ DEMOCRACY’S SPREAD ACROSS THE GALAXY…
TIL’ DEMOCRACY’S SPREAD
ACROSS THE GALAXY!



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

BEWARE OF SMALL, SEMI-AQUATIC ANIMALS

This is a serious long term war and it will lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country, it will lead to us to learn how to close down every website that is dangerous.
Newt Gingrich

***

A newt is a small, semi-aquatic salamander.

Newt Gingrich is not a newt.

But sometimes he thinks and talks like one.

Mr. Gingrich already announced to the world that we are in World War III:

"You have to say to yourself: this is, in fact, World War III."

No, Newt, I don't have to say that to myself.

This is what I have to say to myself:

If Newt (the salamander) Gingrich runs for president, I need to pay close attention to his verbal fear-mongering.

Newt Gingrich is now suggesting that use of the Internet and our Freedom of Speech should be reexamined (Muzzled? Monitored? Eliminated?):

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Manchester Union Leader: Gingrich raises alarm at free-speech dinner

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire -- Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.

Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.


***


"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich.
[CNN Political Ticker]


***


Beware of small, semi-aquatic salamanders…

Who can think!


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

BLACK HOLES AND SNOW JOBS

Yesterday NPR was discussing black holes with a scientist.
The scientist described how it is theoretically possible to create black holes---and tiny universes!---from raspberries (or any minute-sized object).
Men are still acting like gods.
Greek gods would smack down these uppity humans.
Maybe the Almighty God of Catholicism and Christianity (and all its sects thereof) will be less angry.
Meanwhile, Tony Snow is producing his own black holes.
Snow is coming out of them.
(Yes, stuff like snow can also get out of black holes.)
The (continuing) snow job from the White House is that there is no civil war (one of the best and most unfortunate oxymorons) in Iraq.
David Letterman had a segment last night called WINK, WIPE, WINK.
The Decider winked, wiped his mouth, then winked again. It was another unsavory presidential moment.
In Jon Stewart's Daily Show was the moment of zen segment that showed the Long War President's facial expresssion during a festivity in Vietnam (or Indonesia).
It was scary to behold such jiggling and glazed eyes.
Now I realize why Tony Snow has to give his snow jobs.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

THANK YOU BUT NO THANK YOU

America
You have done
Enough.
You removed
Saddam Hussein
But you replaced him
With Hell.
Iraq was more peaceful
With our Dictator
Than you have been
As our “Liberator”.
Rivers of blood
Flow in our streets...
Corpses of citizens
Float in our rivers.
America
You have done
Enough.
Leave us.
Before there are more
Deaths.
Before there are more dead mothers, fathers and children to bury.
America
You have done
Too much.
Leave us
Now.
We do not want you
To do
Any more.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

WHY DICK CHENEY IS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Dick here.
Just a few words to explain why I'm here in Saudi Arabia.
You all know how much the United States depends upon Black Gold.
Gas for your cars requires stability in the Middle East.
The U.S. has to have that oil flowing for years to come.
I'm here to kiss King Abdullah's butt
(for gas that you and I need).
I'm also here to talk face to face about how to resolve the mess in Iraq.
The United States will not permit terrorists and insurgents to stop Americans from filling up their gas tanks.
That oil must continue to flow unimpeded.
Forget that 15 of the 19 terrorists who attacked America on September 11, 2001 came from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Americans are a forgiving people (especially when their cars need gas).


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!


In charitable contributions alone, the Saudis gave at least $3.5 million to Bush charities -- $1 million by Prince Bandar to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, $1 million by King Fahd to Barbara Bush's campaign against illiteracy, $500,000 by Prince Al Waleed to Philips Academy, Andover, to finance a newly created George Herbert Walker Bush Scholarship Fund, and a $1 million painting from Prince Bandar to George W. Bush's White House.

Then there were the corporate transactions. In 1987, a Swiss bank linked to BCCI and a Saudi investor bailed out Harken Energy, where George W. Bush was a director, with $25 million in financing. At the Carlyle Group, investors from the House of Saud and their allies put at least $80 million into Carlyle funds. While it was owned by Carlyle, BDM and its subsidiary Vinnell received at least $1.188 billion in contracts from the Saudis. Finally, Halliburton inked at least $180 million in deals with the Saudis in November 2000, just after Dick Cheney began collecting a lucrative severance package there.

In all, at least $1.476 billion had made its way from the Saudis to the House of Bush and its allied companies and institutions. It could safely be said that never before in history had a presidential candidate -- much less a presidential candidate and his father, a former president -- been so closely tied financially and personally to the ruling family of another foreign power. Never before had a president's personal fortunes and public policies been so deeply entwined with another nation.
From House of Bush, House of Saud By Craig Unger


WASHINGTON - The 27 classified pages of a congressional report about Sept. 11 depict a Saudi government that not only provided significant money and aid to the suicide hijackers but also allowed potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups through suspect charities and other fronts, according to sources familiar with the document.

One U.S. official who has read the classified section said it describes "very direct, very specific links" between Saudi officials, two of the San Diego-based hijackers and other potential co-conspirators "that cannot be passed off as rogue, isolated or coincidental."

Said another official: "It's really damning. What it says is that not only Saudi entities or nationals are implicated in 9/11, but the [Saudi] government" as well.


Saudi Government Provided Aid to 9/11 Hijackers, Sources Say
By Josh Meyer
The Los Angeles Times/Saturday 02 August 2003

SLEEPING DEMONS

To be a Muslim today can be troublesome.

Especially on planes.

Take the woman who was kicked off of her flight because she was nursing her baby.

Or those men who got kicked off of their plane for praying too loudly.

They were also discussing politics.

(That can get anyone into trouble.)

But praying to God and breast-feeding.

Now those are two dangerous acts of terror!

When I lived in Afghanistan, I took in stride the noisy mullahs shouting their prayers.

I took in stride the men who prayed a lot every day.

Of course, there wasn't any public breast feeding.

Recently, we saw and heard those volcanic reactions that erupted from Michael
Richards.

Impulses---savage and sleeping---dwell inside of us.

None of us know when dormant demons will jump out of our souls.

The scariest part is that no human is without demons.

The genetic code has imbedded demonic traits in our genes whether we like it (or know it).

Some have fewer demons.

Some have more.

Let's pray that the human race drinks more of the milk of human kindness, not less, to make a better world.

Until then...

Keep your ears and eyes open!

REMEMBERING FLORENCE BECKER LENNON

It was my second year at the university.
I had rented a room in a house where an elderly widow lived.
Her husband had passed away years ago.
He had taught either political science or sociology (I forget which) at the university.
She told me that she was one of the first camera operators for silent films.
When I moved in she told me not to have any food or do any cooking in my room.
I bought a hot plate and kept cans of food in my closet.
When I went to my classes I'm sure she knew about my hotplate and the canned food, but she never said anything.
We rarely saw each other, and I can't remember ever talking with her except that one time when she told me about her husband and her involvement in silent movies.
I do remember her tea kettle whistling every morning.
I remember her dog who slept in the bathtub (I took showers on the campus).
And I remember all of her cats.

But all of this is just a preface to the woman who I really want to write about...and remember.

She is Florence Becker Lennon.
I forget how I met her, but it is most likely that it was through an advertisement that offered a poetry workshop taught by her.
It was only coincidental that I lived so close to her on the same street called Rose Hill Drive.
The poetry group met at her house one day each week.
We sat in her sunny front room that was wall-to-wall books (just like every room in her house).
I remember writing a poem in this front room.
She had asked us to just write something right then and there, and then read our product to the other aspiring bards.
Mine seemed silly and ordinary.
I was a little embarrassed, but deeper inside I sort of liked what I had written.
Here's what I wrote:

Sitting in the Living Room of Florence Becker Lennon

Spider . . .
A breeze
Twists
These
Minute
Tightropes
In
The
Sun.
Flower . . .
A spider
Must
Delight
In
Climbing
Her
Soft
Green
Stem.
Ms. Lennon didn't seem too impressed (or depressed) by what I had created. She made some comment that I don't recall now.

Florence Becker Lennon must have had every protest button ever made plastered on the outside of her house.
She also had buttons on the hats that she wore.
She dressed in bright colors.
She wore B I G sunglasses.
Even in her early eighties she walked briskly.

I forget whether it was before or after the poetry workshop when I asked her if she would like to go with me to a Pablo Casals concert.
She didn't hesitate and said "Sure".
She actually knew Mr. Casals.
We walked to the concert arm in arm.
I was 20 and she was 80-something.
Big deal.

After the concert I think she wanted to visit with Mr. Casals, and so we parted ways.
I didn't see her again until years later.
I was walking down a sidewalk beside a cemetery.
I stopped and said "Hello Ms. Lennon!"
She stared and said "Who in the HELL are you?"
I said "Remember, I'm the one who went with you to see Pablo Casals!"
She didn't seem to remember, but politely said "Oh".

It was only years later that I found out that Florence Becker Lennon wrote a book about Lewis Carroll.
I've tried to find her own biography and any poems that she may have written...without any luck.
I don't know why, but during this Thanksgiving holiday, I started thinking about Florence Becker Lennon.
Here's another poem that I wrote about her.

My Date With Florence Becker Lennon

Feeling bad I told her I had reached level
Zero and offered her some of my ginger beer.
We were going to see Pablo Casals
And I told her I hoped it
Would cheer me up.
On our way down the sidewalk I saw
An empty gerbil cage with its door open.
Except for a little pile of hay inside
Where had the poor little gerbil gone
I wondered at the stoplight.
The Casals concert was o.k. but
Life still exists on the streets
Like that sad-looking gerbil cage door open
On the street.

ONLY TWO MORE YEARS BEFORE THE TURKEY GOES HOME TO ROAST

George W. Bush just pardoned two turkeys.
The Decider might not have done any pardoning if these turkeys had been some foul prisoners on Death Row.
(But he may have some signing statements on these turkeys just in case.)
The Long War President just returned from visiting Vietnam, Indonesia and Hawaii.
Vietnam was fair sailing.
Indonesia produced some squalls of protest against the Decider and his Iraq War.
A wheel "fell off" of Air Force One in Hawaii.
Three Honolulu Police Department motorcycle officers were injured when their motorcycles slipped while escorting the Long War President to Hickam Air Force Base.
In Argentina one of the Decider's daughters had her purse stolen.
Only two more years.
Then off to Paraguay!

"WAR IS NOT A TIME OF JOY" George W. Bush

"There's a lot of people — good, decent people — saying `withdraw now.' They're absolutely wrong. ... We're not leaving, so long as I'm the president. That would be a huge mistake."
George W. Bush

"These are challenging times, and they're difficult times, and they're straining the psyche of our country. I understand that. You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists."
George W. Bush


***


American bombs keep falling on Iraq.

But Americans don't hear them or read about them.

The bombs, just like WMDs, are hidden from the American public's consciousness.

The Decider doesn't want to strain the psyches of our country any more than he has to.

But the huge military bases keep getting built.

And the largest embassy on the planet (the George W. Bush Palace) will have its own clean water and electricity.

All of the things that Iraqis wish they had.

The warring sects want to move in and move the Americans out of their comfortable abodes.

But not without a fight, even though Henry Kissinger has joined the chorus of voices by telling us that victory is not at hand in Iraq.

But like the Long War President he also said that America cannot leave Iraq.

Dr. Kissinger, of course, is speaking on the Decider's behalf, telling us that the War must continue, even though it is a losing proposition.

Makes sense, doesn't it?

If you live on the dark side of Pluto.


***


At the moment, all sorts of Iraqi "redeployment" or "phased withdrawal" plans are floating in the air in Washington, most aimed at "stabilizing" the woeful Iraqi government embedded in Baghdad's well-fortified Green Zone and keep the US in that country in some scaled-down form. The fact is, with such goals, American troop levels simply cannot be slowly drawn-down without -- as in Vietnam -- some increase in the use of air power. And yet, you can look far and wide and find no indication of any public discussion of this at the White House, in Congress, or in what we know of the deliberations of James A. Baker's Iraq Study Group. And yet, as the Iraqi chaos and strife grows while the American public increasingly withdraws its support for the war, air power will be one answer. You can count on that. And air power--especially in or "near" cities--simply means civilian carnage. It will be called "collateral damage" (if anyone bothers to call it anything at all), but--make no mistake--it will be at the heart of any new strategy that calls for "redeployment" without meaning to get us out of Iraq.
The Uncovered War: Air Power in Iraq
Tom Engelhardt
Blog Posted 11/20/2006 @ 09:06am
The Nation

August Dallas Morning News editorial, Fortress America: New Embassy Sends Wrong Message to Iraqis: "America certainly needs a decent, well-defended embassy in Baghdad. But not as much as ordinary Iraqis need electricity and water. That our government doesn't seem to understand that reality could explain a lot about why the U.S. mission is in such trouble."

GO BIG GO LONG OR GO HOME

Bring in more soldiers, stay the course and leave Iraq are now the favored options.

The Generals, the Pentagon and the White House are having their own civil war about what to do (and undo) in Iraq.

A big coiling snake is recoiling.

The serpent doesn't know whether to eat its head or tail.

The war machine doesn't know whether to stay or leave Iraq.

The asses and the pachyderms are trying to figure out what to do.

George and Dick are probably just making more jokes about missing WMDs.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq was a blunder and mistake.

The U.S. occupation became a giant and tragic quagmire.

The world just witnessed the unpopularity of George W. Bush and his War Blunder when he stopped to visit Indonesia.

The Decider only shirked and said that it was not the first time people disagreed with his policies.

Henry Kissinger recently told BBC television:
"...an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control . . .
I don’t believe that is possible."

This doesn't indicate which of the three Iraq options Kissinger favors (if any).

The Tarot and I-Ching, plus Ouija boards and a Crystal Ball might help in the choice of the correct option.

OO7 ROCKY AND CAPTAIN KIRK

Bond is back.

Rocky is back.

Captain Kirk is back...

Beam him up (and show him the money).

But do I want to see Sylvester Stallone (a more pudgy Rocky) punch it out one more time?

Do I want to see yet another James Bond, when I really liked Sean Connery the best (before all of his clones).

I don't go to the movies much, so I wouldn't pay to see OO7 and Mr. Balboa in a money-making remake or sequel.

I am sure that both Stallone and Mr. Bond try quite hard to give us novelty and the newest special effects.

Nostalgia sells.

I'm just not buying.

DARK ENERGY

Life is a puzzle.

Humans are puzzling.

Evil is puzzling.

But thanks to the large eye of the Hubble Telescope, scientists now know how old evil is:

Scientists now have evidence that dark energy has been around for most of the universe's history.
Dark energy traced back to cosmic infancy.
Distant supernovae show repulsive force was active 9 billion years ago. [By Sara Goudarzi/Nov 16, 2006/msnbc]

That's right folks...this "enexplicable repulsive force, dark energy" has existed for eons and eons.

This planet's large-brained (and often) dumb denizens have manufactured, experienced and exploited the dark force for a long, long time.

Evolution has not slowed us down, either.

We continue to bash, mash, burn, bomb and blow each other up like there's no tomorrow.

DNA is a fine thing.

Someone ought to locate the dark force gene and kick it out...
AND SOON!

I saw a cartoon the other day with that same guy, carrying the sign that reads THE WORLD IS GOING TO END SOON.

Another guy says YOU KEEP SAYING THAT BUT IT NEVER HAPPENS.

The doomsday guy says THAT'S BECAUSE I'M AN OPTIMIST.

With things like WAR and GLOBAL WARMING, the light at the end of the tunnel is not always so brilliant or believable.

But we should still hope.

But more than just hoping, the human race, one by one, needs to let go of the dark

Energy...

If we can just figure out what it is:

Mario Livio from the Space Telescope Science Institute put the situation in perspective at a media teleconference at NASA headquarters today. “Water covers 70 percent of the surface of the Earth,” Livio said, yet it took humans many centuries to first discover the properties of water. With dark energy, he said, researchers are still in the phase of determining its properties.

I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT WAR WE'RE REALLY TALKING ABOUT PEACE

All delays are dangerous in war.-
John Dryden Tyrannic Love, act i.

Delays have dangerous ends.
King Henry VI. Part I. Act iii. Sc.

We'll succeed untless we quit.
George W. Bush
11-17-05

To attack or not to attack?

Iran is a festering sore.

Impale the monster before it grows bigger and “badder”?

Or wait?

Iraq was unnecessary.

Iraq was a mistake.

It was a blunder.

The danger, now, is that the U.S. has a weak hand to deal with Iran because the U.S. blundered in Iraq.

Or, one should say, BECAUSE GEORGE W. BUSH BLUNDERED.

And now, the Long War President blusters and blusters instead of admitting his BLUNDER(S).

The "mission was accomplished" for the Decider, but now the "job must be done" until there is VICTORY IN IRAQ..

But...

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war. said
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965).

George W. Bush should talk with the Iranian leadership.

Not out of weakness, but from confidence and strength.

America is not a paper tiger.

But America is an angry animal in Iraq fighting angry monsters.

Israel’s intransigence, plus America’s occupation of Iraq, is heating up Iran’s
nuclear ambitions.

Diplomacy, anyone?


There Are Four US Carriers In The Gulf
November 7, 2006,

On Oct. 31, the two nuclear-powered carriers, the USS Eisenhower and USS Enterprise, arrived in Bahrain, accompanied by their carrier strike groups. On Nov 9th, the USS Iwo Jima, and the USS Boxer also arrived. The presence of these carriers, combined with Israel's talk of a Iranian strike, sort of makes a person wonder if Bush is up to something. Assault Carriers and Full carriers

If Bush plans on going into Iran, there must be a massive attack on the Fifth Fleet, or a nuke in an American city. The trouble is - Israel knows it too.


rense.com

THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 1.


The will of the American people would have been won over...and it would have supported the Iraq War...had George W. Bush and his cabal of friends told the truth.
Since they did not tell the truth, the American people do not support these liars.
They will support investigations and impeachments.
The Pentagon, the White House and the Congress know this, and each knows it very well.
Vietnam is a benchmark and acid test for our present impasse.
It is true that the Iraq War was based upon lies and fabrications.
It is true that billions and billions of dollars have been lost there.
It true that Iraq is NOW worse (and a bigger THREAT...A GATHERING STORM!) than BEFORE George W. Bush’s SHOCK AND AWE PRE-EMPTIVE WAR.
Now, we are shocked and awed by the tragedy and catastrophe.
And yet, as I read the above lines from Shakespeare (after all of my screaming to leave Iraq), I now wonder whether it is more honorable to stay and fight the enemies there.
The problem, of course, is that the enemies now include Iraq's own citizens, not just sectarian factions, insane jihadists, or the new Al-Qaeda terrorists that the Long War President and his cabal spawned.
The Iraqis detest what has been done to their country in the name of saving them.
America can be kindly, but it has a savage history.
The slaughter of Native Americans is but one example of its savagery.
We must now include Iraq.
Unfortunately.




Deja Vu (All Over Again)

John Fogerty

Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Did you try to read the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I've heard it all before
It's like Deja Vu all over again

Day by day I hear the voices rising
Started with a whisper like it did before
Day by day we count the dead and dying
Ship the bodies home while the networks all keep score

Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Could your eyes believe the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I've heard it all before
It's like Deja Vu all over again

One by one I see the old ghosts rising
Stumblin' 'cross Big Muddy
Where the light gets dim
Day after day another Momma's crying
She's lost her precious child
To a war that has no end

Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Did you stop to read the writing at The Wall
Did that voice inside you say
I've seen this all before
It's like Deja Vu all over again
It's like Deja Vu all over again

RED RED WINE WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN!' PAPERS

I thought that report on red wine consumption was a good one.
Drink a lot of red wine and decrease your chances of heart disease.
Unfortunately, in ten years another study will come out that says,
"Whoops. All of that red wine causes kidney and bladder disease."
But...to the rescue!... is a new product (without any empirical studies yet) that will help immigrants get across the Rio Bravo and over that new border fence.
But it ain't cheap.
It's $1.49 per can.
Right now.
Not a big can either.
The Green Card energy drink is being made by Z-Corp.
Z-Corp's president, Jeff Weiss, was put over the coals by Hannity and Colmes.
Both were upset with Weiss.
Hannity went so far as to tell Mr. Weiss that he was aiding terrorists.
Well, I suppose he is aiding some with his capitalist venture.
But the drink does have vitamins.
America!
What a country!
Anything for making a buck.

PITTER-PATTERING POLITICAL FEET

On Sunday Rudolph W. Giuliani wasn't sure yet about running for president: “I haven’t made up my mind, nor has anybody else.”

But it's never too early to start begging for the millions and millions of dollars necessary to pay for all of those negative and nasty TV ads.

Today he is running.

The crime-buster and former mayor of New York has set up an exploratory committee.

So has Senator John McCain.

Let the madness of
Pitter-pattering
Political feet
Begin again.

HOT POTATOES AND MIGHTY IFS

The WAR ON TERROR hasn't been mentioned much lately.

The Congressional election saw some dragon puffs erupting out of the Long War President and some GOP members, telling us that a vote for the Democrats was a vote for the terrorists.

Wasn't that a most ridiculous and insulting allegation?

These shameless enunciations (and denunciations) about terrorists were intended to scare and to garner votes and approval for this shameless and sham administration.
They were self-serving, crooked and dishonorable.

When the Russians were coming (and they were always coming), the Pentagon was able to keep its till full.

Now that the terrorists are coming and coming (especially during elections) the Pentagon's till remains full.

The terrorists are coming in greater numbers now as a result of George W. Bush’s premeditated, self-made, pre-emptive, unnecessary war.

If (and this is a Mighty IF) we are to believe many critics these days who allege that 9-11 was both stoppable and possibly permitted to happen, then the War on Terror is as much its own homegrown danger as it is an outside threat.

The term "New Pearl Harbor" was taken directly from the declaration of principles in the neo-con "Project for the New American Century." The document said, in order to succeed in their project, a significant amount of money needed to be funneled to the military annually, and this would be a slow process, save a "catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor."
Daniel Boniface (editorial@boulderweekly.com)

A few things are still quite puzzling and troubling about September 11, 2001:

Why didn’t the leadership of our mighty nation order attack planes to shoot down the terror-planes?

[NOTE: Norman Mineta is former Secretary of Transportation]

MR. HAMILTON: I wanted to focus just a moment on the Presidential Emergency Operating Center. You were there for a good part of the day. I think you were there with the vice president. And when you had that order given, I think it was by the president, that authorized the shooting down of commercial aircraft that were suspected to be controlled by terrorists, were you there when that order was given?

MR. MINETA: No, I was not. I was made aware of it during the time that the airplane coming into the Pentagon. There was a young man who had come in and said to the vice president, "The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to, "The plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?" And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?"

MR. HAMILTON: With respect to Flight 93, what type of information were you and the vice president receiving about that flight?

MR. MINETA: The only information we had at that point was when it crashed.

MR. HAMILTON: I see. You didn't know beforehand about that airplane.

MR. MINETA: I did not.

MR. HAMILTON: And so there was no specific order there to shoot that plane down.

MR. MINETA: No, sir.

MR. HAMILTON: But there were military planes in the air in position to shoot down commercial aircraft.

MR. MINETA: That's right. The planes had been scrambled, I believe, from Otis at that point.


[From the NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TERRORIST ATTACKS UPON THE UNITED STATES
Public Hearing
Friday, May 23, 2003
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 216
Washington, DC]

Why was all of the debris from the Twin Towers shipped away…without any analysis?

1.8 million tons of debris removed
(108,342 truckloads)
3.1 million hours of labor spent on cleanup

Why was a passport of a purported terror-pilot found, but none of the black boxes (THAT ALWAYS SURVIVE CRASHES)?

If the impact destroyed the planes’ supposedly crash-proof flight-recorder black boxes, how was the FBI able to find, in perfect condition, the passport of Satam al Suqami, one of the alleged American Airlines Flight 11 hijackers?

[From The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll
By Mark Jacobson
New York Magazine
March 27, 2006]