Tuesday, September 30, 2008

BIG BROTHER








The high school where I teach now has surveillance cameras.

They are those black half-spheres that are on the ceilings of some stores and casinos.

I missed the public announcement that said that these cameras were now installed.

I am not surprised.

I once suggested the idea myself after

I got fed up with all of the graffiti and

false fire alarms.

We often say or hear others say:

“Big Brother is watching”.

And so “he” is.

Big Brother has been watching us for quite some time.

The cameras are everywhere:

In cars…

On our streets…

In our own hands…

In outer space!

We are never alone.

The black and blue skies

Now have such big eyes…

We can’t hide our lies.






Sunday, September 28, 2008

OUT OF THE PALIN AND BEYOND




Sarah Palin, you know, was at the U.N. yesterday, and she was a big hit. She's over there meeting all of the world leaders. She's still learning who the world leaders are. Right now, she thinks that Warren Buffett is the head of Margaritaville.
David Letterman





President Bush met with John McCain and Barack Obama. John McCain showed up without running mate Sarah Palin, which is a shame because she actually has a lot of experience with financial matters. You know, she lives right next to a bank.
Jimmy Kimmel





Hillary Clinton canceled an appearance at the UN next week, after learning that Sarah Palin was also invited. And after Hillary canceled, the group canceled Sarah Palin, saying they didn't want any politicians. Which is a shame, because this would have been Sarah Palin's first trip to the United Nations. Although to her credit, she has been to the International House of Pancakes.
Jay Leno






Sarah Palin's been spending the last couple of days being briefed by advisers on what she needs to know to be John McCain's vice president. That's true. Yeah. Apparently, the first thing they taught her was CPR.
Conan O'Brien






They're selling Sarah Palin Action Figures online. I don't know where they get the outfits for these, but she looks like the sluttiest librarian of all time. Sad incident at Toys 'R' Us today...a Sarah Palin doll shot My Little Pony.
Jimmy Kimmel



IT'S THE MOOSE STUPID!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

TUNE IN TURN ON AND DROP OUT



MY FRIENDS: SOMETHING CRAZY AND DANGEROUS STINKS ON THE STRAIGHT TALKING EXPRESS

Make it easy on yourself, John McCain, and just drop out of the presidential race, and take Mrs. Palin with you.

Go drill, drill, drill---bomb, bomb, bomb.

Because America does not need you.

America does not want you

Or

Sarah Palin at the helm of our sinking Ship of
State that was sunk by George W. Bush.

Our nation is sick, broke, and tired of the past horrible years of malfeasance, lies and treason.

America does not want you to be our next president.
So, please, just drop out.

Go drive all of your cars and occupy all of your houses, and let Sarah Palin have the necessary time to dress her moose.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

SHOW ME THE MONEY

Henry Paulson: Give me $700 billion…no strings attached…no oversight…and for good measure, I’ll throw in a few golden parachutes.
American Citizen: Thanks, but no thanks. Isn’t that stealing…you know...Robbing Peter to pay Paul?
Henry Paulson: Nope. Just fork over all the dough…I’ll do the worrying for both of us.
American Taxpayer: But that's what worries me, and it’s my money …
Henry Paulson: No…it’s not your money. Your money has already been paid to the Federal Government as taxes, and the Government can now do whatever it wants or chooses to do with your money. On the part of this nation…and myself…I want to thank you….
American Taxpayer: Can I pay you with the equivalent number of hot apple pies?
Henry Paulson: Forget it. Officers, take this moronic malcontent to jail.



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

FIRE OR ICE?







Hold the phone!

Keep making those carbon footprints!

Don’t end your addiction to oil just yet!

If a new report (below) is true,
the planet may need you to keep driving your gas-guzzling Hummers, Super Trucks, and Cadillacs.

PLANET EARTH may be cooling down, and not heating up.

If true, this inconvenient truth will trump Al Gore’s inconvenient truth, and he may have to return his Oscar and Nobel Peace Prize.

But don’t hold your breath…
Unless you plan to move to Beijing.

IT’S THE OIL STUPID!

***



Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh

Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh

Phil Chapman | April 23, 2008

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0%2C25197%2C23583376-7583%2C00.html


THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.

What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot.

Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously.

All four agencies that track Earth's temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California) report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record and it puts us back where we were in 1930. If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over.

There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence that 2007 was exceptionally cold. It snowed in Baghdad for the first time in centuries, the winter in China was simply terrible and the extent of Antarctic sea ice in the austral winter was the greatest on record since James Cook discovered the place in 1770.

It is generally not possible to draw conclusions about climatic trends from events in a single year, so I would normally dismiss this cold snap as transient, pending what happens in the next few years.

This is where SOHO comes in. The sunspot number follows a cycle of somewhat variable length, averaging 11 years. The most recent minimum was in March last year. The new cycle, No.24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers.

It didn't happen. The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon.

The reason this matters is that there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth's climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790.

Northern winters became ferocious: in particular, the rout of Napoleon's Grand Army during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots.

That the rapid temperature decline in 2007 coincided with the failure of cycle No.24 to begin on schedule is not proof of a causal connection but it is cause for concern.

It is time to put aside the global warming dogma, at least to begin contingency planning about what to do if we are moving into another little ice age, similar to the one that lasted from 1100 to 1850.

There is no doubt that the next little ice age would be much worse than the previous one and much more harmful than anything warming may do. There are many more people now and we have become dependent on a few temperate agricultural areas, especially in the US and Canada. Global warming would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it.

Millions will starve if we do nothing to prepare for it (such as planning changes in agriculture to compensate), and millions more will die from cold-related diseases.

There is also another possibility, remote but much more serious. The Greenland and Antarctic ice cores and other evidence show that for the past several million years, severe glaciation has almost always afflicted our planet.

The bleak truth is that, under normal conditions, most of North America and Europe are buried under about 1.5km of ice. This bitterly frigid climate is interrupted occasionally by brief warm interglacials, typically lasting less than 10,000 years.

The interglacial we have enjoyed throughout recorded human history, called the Holocene, began 11,000 years ago, so the ice is overdue. We also know that glaciation can occur quickly: the required decline in global temperature is about 12C and it can happen in 20 years.

The next descent into an ice age is inevitable but may not happen for another 1000 years. On the other hand, it must be noted that the cooling in 2007 was even faster than in typical glacial transitions. If it continued for 20 years, the temperature would be 14C cooler in 2027.

By then, most of the advanced nations would have ceased to exist, vanishing under the ice, and the rest of the world would be faced with a catastrophe beyond imagining.

Australia may escape total annihilation but would surely be overrun by millions of refugees. Once the glaciation starts, it will last 1000 centuries, an incomprehensible stretch of time.

If the ice age is coming, there is a small chance that we could prevent or at least delay the transition, if we are prepared to take action soon enough and on a large enough scale.

For example: We could gather all the bulldozers in the world and use them to dirty the snow in Canada and Siberia in the hope of reducing the reflectance so as to absorb more warmth from the sun.

We also may be able to release enormous floods of methane (a potent greenhouse gas) from the hydrates under the Arctic permafrost and on the continental shelves, perhaps using nuclear weapons to destabilise the deposits.

We cannot really know, but my guess is that the odds are at least 50-50 that we will see significant cooling rather than warming in coming decades.

The probability that we are witnessing the onset of a real ice age is much less, perhaps one in 500, but not totally negligible.

All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead.

It will be difficult for people to face the truth when their reputations, careers, government grants or hopes for social change depend on global warming, but the fate of civilisation may be at stake.

In the famous words of Oliver Cromwell, "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."

Phil Chapman is a geophysicist and astronautical engineer who lives in San Francisco. He was the first Australian to become a NASA astronaut.


Monday, September 22, 2008

Q & A

What will Sarah Palin and Hamid Karzai talk about?
Moose?


Is the number of cars McCain owns an important issue to you?

Do I care about how many motorcycles or cars that Jay Leno or anyone else owns?
Not really.
But the difference, here, is substantial.
If McCain is so worried about his own “carbon footprints”, then one would think that he would practice what he’s been preaching.
Once again Mr. McCain is not being accurate, consistent or forthright.
Straight-talking?
Maybe in a Cadillac.


What will it take to restore confidence in the U.S. financial system?
Depends.
If McCain is elected (wearing “depends”).
No.
Ditto on what it takes to restore confidence in the United States of America.



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!



Sunday, September 21, 2008

IT MUST BE SAID AGAIN: IMPEACH AND JUSTICE FOR ALL



In 1765 Patrick Henry said,

“We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain…We have petitioned; we have remonstrated…Our petitions have been slighted…we have been spurned, with contempt.”

Of course, the subject then was British tyranny, but the subject here and now is the tyranny of the Bush administration, and what it has done to America and the world.

Dennis Kucinich wrote:

"Even in the face of an indifferent Congress, a powerful grassroots movement has emerged to gather over a million signatures on impeachment petitions because America has been led into a dark and destructive period of deceit for which there is only one Constitutional remedy - - Impeachment.”
“Impeachment has been the first step in our efforts toward truth. The American people were lied to. We went to war based on lies. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.”
“This election should and must be about the economy: Millions of Americans have lost their homes, their investments, their health care, their retirement security and the education of their children is at risk. But long after this election is over, the very structure of our democracy will need repair.”
“America must move from the errant retributive justice of 9/11 to a healing restorative process of truth and reconciliation. The truth can move us forward, as a unified whole, so that we can one day become a re-United States.”
"In the face of a destructive war against Iraq, preparations for war against Iran, the initiation of a cold war with Russia, the inevitable destruction of our domestic economy from the extraordinary cost of a great military buildup, and the gutting of civil liberties, the call for Impeachment has been the only remedy."
"Millions of Americans recognize this."
"Opinion: 2 Million is a lot of people. Thanks to all who signed!”

Sep 12 08 04:15 am

The Republicans were in control up to 2006, and they have continued to be in control, because the Demo-ChickenOut-Crats did nothing to thwart the Executive powers of a mumbling Liar-in-Chief.
The Congress should have already impeached the arrogant, recalcitrant, renegade, and untruthful Bush and Cheney regime, but Democrats and Republicans themselves have so much to hide---and have the skins of their own hides to protect---that they have ignored the voice and will of the American people.
Make that THE WORLD.

It is under George W. Bush's administration with a Republican majority then---
And a Democratic majority now---
That has passed virtually everything that Bush ever wanted.
If America were not a democracy, it would be a dictatorship under George W. Bush.

Whenever the Decider-Deceiver did not approve or accept any new amendments and laws, he conveniently executed them with his Signing Statements which permitted him to ignore them.

And speaking of Ignorance, it was a deceitful Decider at his Crawford ranch who ignored the Aug. 6 briefing, titled ''Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.''

[President Bush was told more than a month before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that supporters of Osama bin Laden planned an attack within the United States with explosives and wanted to hijack airplanes, a government official said Friday.
The warning came in a secret briefing that Mr. Bush received at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., on Aug. 6, 2001. A report by a joint Congressional committee last year alluded to a ''closely held intelligence report'' that month about the threat of an attack by Al Qaeda, and the official confirmed an account by The Associated Press on Friday saying that the report was in fact part of the president's briefing in Crawford.
The disclosure appears to contradict the White House's repeated assertions that the briefing the president received about the Qaeda threat was ''historical'' in nature and that the White House had little reason to suspect a Qaeda attack within American borders.]

From AUGUST '01 BRIEF IS SAID TO WARN OF ATTACK PLANS
By ERIC LICHTBLAU AND DAVID E. SANGER; PHILIP SHENON, ADAM NAGOURNEY AND JAMES RISEN
The New York Times
April 10, 2004]

Even Attorney General John Ashcroft “was briefed in the summer of 2001 about terrorist threats, ‘but there is no evidence of any activity by him.’”

It was President George W.{ar} Decider-Denier Bush and Vice-President Dicktator Cheney who willingly and falsely asserted that Iraq was an "IMMINENT THREAT"---
when it was not---
and were dangling "mushroom clouds"---
which it never had.

George W. Bush took America to war on the backs of his lies and then forced these lies upon the backs of our brave soldiers.

Decider Bush and Dicktator Cheney---and their CON-MEN and CON-WOMEN---extracted and cherry-picked data that they wanted---
PROPAGADNDA that they repeated and catapulted over and over---
In order to give us their
Dirty
Dastardly
And
Deadly war.

They had the American people and Congress---the world---convinced that Saddam Hussein was an "imminent threat".

Yes, Congress approved a law that would allow Bush to bomb Iraq, but that approval was given based upon
FABRICATION.

It is still Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney who TOOK US TO WAR.

Here are some facts from the recently released Bush Administration's final Mid-Session Review of the budget.

It isn't any party's line.
*Current Administration will leave the nation with largest deficit in history: The
Administration’s 2009 budget will leave the country with a $482 billion deficit, trumping its previous $413 billion record set in 2004.

*Debt balloons under Administration policies: Since the President took office in 2001, the debt held by the public has swelled by $2.0 trillion, an increase of 59 percent with most of it financed by foreign investors.

*Economic growth is anemic: GDP grew just 1.9 percent in the second quarter of 2008 mainly because of the economic stimulus Congress passed. This follows growth of just 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008 and revised negative growth (a contraction) of -0.2 percent in the last quarter of 2007, fueling the argument that we are already in a recession.

*Thousands of jobs lost: Private payrolls have lost 578,000 jobs since December. To
date, this Administration has created just 58,000 new jobs per month on average
compared with 237,000 per month under President Clinton.

*Household incomes have fallen: Real median household income has decreased by
almost $1,000 under President Bush. During the Clinton Administration, real median household income rose by $6,000, or 14.0 percent.

*The President’s fiscal policies impose heavy debt burden on America’s families: The
$2.0 trillion added to the public debt under this Administration equates to $26,000 in additional federal debt for every family of four in the U.S, far more than most families have received in tax cuts.


IT'S TYRANNY STUPID!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Q & A

Is Sarah Palin’s 15 minutes of fame over?

I pray to the gods that it is so, even though I am not a praying man, but Sarah Palin IS...
A praying and preying woman.
I do not want Mrs. Palin anywhere near the Oval Office, let alone to have her painted lips near any "Nuclear Buttons".
She is more dangerous than Decider George.
This secretive, sanctimonious, and unctuous moose-killer has no business being at the highest levels of the U.S. government, but neither does John McCain.
After all.
HE PICKED HER.


Are federal bailouts of troubled financial institutions a good idea?


NO, they're bad…very bad…and very sad.
AND CRIMINAL!
Not by the laws “on any books” (that I know of), but these profit-making entities, without any stringent regulation, have loaned money to anyone with empty pockets. And, now, because their pockets are empty, they are relying upon tax dollars to bail them out from their money problem(s) that they themselves have engendered.
“Troubled asset relief program?”
That’s one of the best euphemisms that I’ve heard in a long time.
And what do the last two words mean in this September 9, 2008 AP Report titled “Oil prices plummet $10 in two days; off 8% for year” by Stevenson Jacobs?
“But analysts said the biggest weight on oil prices was the slumping economy and continuing demand destruction.”




What does it mean when the Wall Street Journal slams McCain on the economy?


It means that John McCain is not going to be the next president of the United States….
With or without his running mate...
A shallow, sexy, shrewd moose-killing hockey-mom.


IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID!



***


A footnote of depressing last words:

"Like scores of evangelists and hypocrites and moralists who spew and praise family values and pretend to be holier than thou and are then regularly caught cheating or found to be perverts, these Bush hypocrites who spewed for years the glory of unfettered Wild West laissez-faire jungle capitalism allowed the biggest debt bubble ever to fester without any control, and have caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression."

"They are are now forced to perform the biggest government intervention and nationalisations in the recent history of humanity, all for the benefit of the rich and the well connected. So Comrades Bush and Paulson and Bernanke will rightly pass to the history books as a troika of Bolsheviks who turned the USA into the USSRA"

"Zealots of any religion are always pests that cause havoc with their inflexible fanaticism – but they usually don't run the biggest economy in the world. These laissez faire voodoo-economics zealots in charge of the USA have now caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression and the nastiest economic crisis in decades."

From

Public losses for private gain

By Nouriel Roubini

guardian.co.uk

September 18, 2008


Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Q & A

Was Governor Sarah Palin properly vetted before being named John McCain’s
V.P.?

John McCain might be handing the election to Obama and Biden---
or Karl Rove---
once again sitting on his “Trojan Horse”---
has “done the math” (and correctly this "round")---
and believes that the Palin choice is going to win the White House for McCain.
Sarah Palin as McCain’s choice for his Vice President is a gaffe, a huge error, or a brilliant decision.
Joe Liebermann was obviously not standing at McCain’s side to correct this mistake---if it was a mistake.
Palin’s pregnant 17 year-old daughter is not as important as Mrs. Palin’s record or her I.Q.
Being a woman is not enough.
Being good-looking is not enough.
Being black is not enough.
Being experienced is not enough.
But being intelligent, inspirational, and rational are quite important in the current DANGEROUS---
Cold and hot---
WARRING WORLD.

Does President Bush’s speaking to the Republican Convention help or hurt John McCain?

If Bush fell off of the Empire State Building, would it hurt?
Bush will hurt John McCain just as he has hurt Iraq, the U.S. economy, the U.S. Constitution, our Privacy…
but I won't use time or space here to list all of the damage that has been done by King George.
Liars and murderers have never been respected.
It would have helped McCain if Bush had been out of town with Cheney at some undisclosed location.


How important will the Iraq war be to voters come November?

It will be important to re-remind voters that the war was unnecessary, wrong, built upon lies---that this misbegotten war will continue to plague our children and grandchildren with its consumption of tax dollars in the trillions of dollars---
that this war’s horrific, physical, and psychological injuries will exist long after the U.S. finally leaves---
that this war has produced NOT JUST HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DEAD IRAQIS---
But a million+.
Since the Congress---
Democrats and Republicans!---
haven’t impeached Bush and Cheney (yet), the voters must be reminded over and over what crimes and misdemeanors this duplicitous and secretive administration has committed, even if conditions in Iraq have improved---
and even when NOTHING is done by way of public investigation of the Bush administration.
It is disgusting for me to read the statement that “The situation has come a long way from the darkest days when millions of Iraqis became refugees, hundreds of thousands were killed…”
This sounds like the Republican line, and the sad part is that voters believe it.
(Tell Iraqis that they have come a long way.)
Yes, I guess we can say that millions will have come a long way---
a very long way---
when they return to their damaged and invaded homeland!
What does it say about us that Sarah Palin is attracting more attention than the two men who would be president?

It means that we are in deep and dark doo-doo.
I love America (THE WAY SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BE), but I’m just about ready to leave her.
Have we come to this?
Have we come to the point of being mesmerized by outward appearance and show, rather than substance and character?
I’ll revise my first sentence…
we’re morons
in
Deep
Dark
Doo-doo.



What would it take to restore your faith in our government?

The United States needs leaders who are not liars, thieves and criminals.
My faith will be restored when the thousands of profit-reaping (reeking) corporations START PAYING TAXES to the U.S. Treasury!
My faith will be restored when our government believes that Peace, Health, and Education are more important than
War.



Was John McCain’s statement that the economy is fundamentally sound a fatal error?


Of course not.
A moose-slaying and good-looking cigarette girl called Sarah Palin (with or without lipstick) will continue to razzle-dazzle the TV and image-addicted American public.
USA! USA! USA!





IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

Friday, September 12, 2008

LIPSTICK ON A BARRACUDA




Alaska is right next to Russia.
John McCain

“You can't blink. You have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we're on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can't blink…”
Sarah Palin


***

Questions for Sarah Palin:
What do you mean by REFORM?
What do you mean by VICTORY IN THE WAR?
TELL US HOW YOU PLAN TO DO THESE THINGS?




SARAH PALIN

WITH

HER ROLLING PIN

AND

HOCKEY MOM SKIN

ISN’T SOMEONE

WHO IS A

HAS BEEN

FROM

SOME

TRASH BIN

BUT

SARAH PALIN

WANTS TO WIN…



SARAH PALIN

WANTS TO GET

OSAMA BIN

LADEN

AND

PUT HIM ON HER WALL

LIKE AN ANIMAL SKIN.



SARAH PALIN IS

A

MOOSE-MURDERING

AND

WOLF-KILLING HOCKEY MOM!



SARAH PALIN

IS JUST LIKE

GEORGE W. BUSH…

SHE CAN’T PRONOUNCE THE WORD

NUCLEAR---



AND

SARAH PALIN

IS

JUST LIKE

GEORGE W. BUSH---

BECAUSE SARAH PALIN

BELIEVES THAT GOD

WANTED THE U.S.

TO INVADE IRAQ.



SARAH PALIN

IS

CUTE

DENSE

AND

DUMB.



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!


***

Here is something that Maureen Dowd wrote:

Two weeks after being thrown onto a national ticket, and moments after being speed-briefed by McCain foreign-policy advisers, our new Napoleon in bunny boots (not the Pamela Anderson kind, but the knock-offs of the U.S. Army Extreme Cold Weather Vapor Barrier Boots) is ready to face down the Russkies and start a land war over Georgia, and, holy cow, what business is it of ours if Israel attacks Iran?

The trigger-happy John McCain has indeed found a soul mate. Trigger squared. In Fairbanks on Thursday, at a deployment ceremony for her son who is going to Iraq, Governor

Palin followed the lead of McCain and W. in fusing Osama bin Laden’s diabolical work on 9/11

and the mission in Iraq. She told the departing troops, “You’ll be there to defend the innocent
from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the deaths of thousands of Ameri
cans.”

The really scary part of the Palin interview was how much she seemed like W. in 2000, and not just the way she pronounced nu-cue-lar. She had the same flimsy but tenacious adeptness at saying nothing, the same generalities and platitudes, the same restrained resentment at being pressed to be specific, as though specific is the province of silly eggheads, not people who clear brush at the ranch or shoot moose on the tundra.

Just as W. once could not name the General-General running Pakistan, so Palin took a position on Pakistan that McCain had derided as naïve when Obama took it.

“We must not, Charlie, blink, Charlie, because, Charlie, as I’ve said, Charlie, before, John McCain has said, Charlie, that — and remember here, Charlie, we’re talking about John McCain, Charlie, who, Charlie, is John McCain and I won’t be blinking, Charlie.”


Like W., Sarah has the power of positive unthinking. But now we may want to think about where ignorance and pride and no self-doubt has gotten us. Being quick on the trigger might be good in moose hunting, but in dealing with Putin, a little knowledge might come in handy.

From Bering Straight Talk

By MAUREEN DOWD
New York Times
Published: September 13, 2008


Wednesday, September 10, 2008

ON PIGS




“Never get into a wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”
Senator John McCain
(In New Hampshire in January after reporters asked him about Mr. Romney.)


"It gets down to whether you support what's being done in this new strategy or you don't. You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig in my view."
John McCain
February 1, 2007


"It's all about withdrawal or not withdrawal, okay? I mean that's what it's all about. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."
John McCain
February 1, 2007


“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
Winston Churchill


“If God blesses a Man, his Bitch brings forth Pigs.”
Benjamin Franklin


“There are too many pigs for the teats.”
Abraham Lincoln

***

Poor, poor pigs---poor, poor maligned pigs!

We humans say, "She looks like a pig."

Or, "He or she eats like a pig."

Or simply,
"Don't be a pig!"

The poor pigs in the novel Lord of the Flies received the worst kinds of insults.

I am worrying about protons colliding at the speed of light, and about how the world might end
because of their collision, but the presidential candidates are talking about putting lipstick on
Pigs!

And what it means to each candidate.

What has this Republic come to?

Wars.
Deficits.
Wars.

Deficits.
Deficits.
Deficits.
More Wars.
More Deficits.


Both candidates should worry less about pigs and what to put on their lips (and the associations and innuendos thereof), and begin worrying about Wars and Deficits...and what they're going to do about them...and Education, Health Care, the Global-Environmental crisis
Etc.

Deeds...not words!

Actions...not talk!

Leave the pigs to us who love to fry and eat their bacon...

But no lipstick!



By Mad Plato


IT'S NOT THE PIGS STUPID!



***


After Obama Jab, Pig Lipstick Sales Surge

by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace

(2008-09-10) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s growing popularity has spawned a booming cottage industry in Palin-esque items from hockey jerseys to her distinctive frameless eyeglasses. Now, an allegedly off-hand remark by Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama has sparked a run on another product, clearing the shelves of pig lipstick at farm stores across the nation

Yesterday, Sen. Obama mocked the McCain-Palin ticket’s “maverick” claim, at one point noting that “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig“. An explosion of laughter from his audience on the word ‘lipstick’ seemed to indicate that many people recalled the punchline of Gov. Palin’s convention joke about the difference between a hockey Mom and a pitbull, and thought he was ridiculing her.

The combination of Sen. Obama’s ability to mesmerize a crowd, and Gov. Palin’s endearing personality almost-instantaneously revived a once-moribund market in domestic animal beauty products.

So, while the debate over whether Sen. Obama meant the comment as a slap at Gov. Palin continues, at least one maker of cosmetics for horses, cows, sheep and pigs — Wisconsin-based Haybelline — is wallowing in record sales, not only of pig lipstick, but of porcine cosmetics in general.

“We’ve been flooded with calls from retailers,” said an unnamed Haybelline spokesman. “All of the lipstick in our Passionate Pigment line is just gone, and stores are dangerously low on stocks of other products like mascara, blush and our classic sparkling snoutliner.”

The Haybelline source said “the timing couldn’t be better” because the firm is about to launch a complete line of beauty products for use on wild animals, slain by hunters, which appear in trophy photos.

“I just got off the phone with our plant manager,” he said, “I told him to go round the clock on production of Magnificent Moose Mousse. I just have a gut feeling this is going to be big.”


Tuesday, September 09, 2008

WORDS IN THE NUDE







"I understand that he just GOOGLED the woman."

Joy Behar (on Larry King Tuesday night 9/9/08) after saying that John McCain did not even vet Sarah Palin.




John McCain has accused Barack Obama of:
“…élitism and talking down to working-class voters.”


John McCain said he is in favor of:
“…reforming the wasteful Federal Government.”






Sarah Palin said:

“My mom and dad both worked at the local elementary school. And my husband and I, we both grew up working with our hands.”


“I never really set out to be involved in public affairs, much less to run for this office."


“The United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a task that is from God.”


“Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."





Adrianna Huffington wrote:

“Palin, and the circus she's brought to town, are simply a bountiful collection of small lies deliberately designed to distract the country from one big truth: the havoc that George Bush and the Republican Party have wrought, and that John McCain is committed to continuing.”
“Every second of this campaign not spent talking about the Republican Party's record, and John McCain's role in that record, is a victory for John McCain.”
“Her critics like to say that Palin hasn't accomplished anything. I disagree: in the space of ten days she's succeeded in distracting the entire country from the horrific Bush record -- and McCain's complicity in it. My friends, that's accomplishment we can believe in.”





TIME magazine wrote about Iraq:

"In spite of the high-level political anxiety, however, many ordinary people across the war-ravaged capital say that while elections would be nice, regular power and clean water is what they really want. Few feel that local elections will improve their lot.”
“Five years after the fall of Saddam Hussein's dictatorial regime, the novelty of elections has worn off, and Baghdad's war-weary citizens are still hoping for basic services."


IT’S THE OIL STUPID!

Sunday, September 07, 2008

CAPTIONS


"WE'RE CONNECTED AT THE HIP."



"MY RIGHT HAND WILL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT MY LEFT HAND IS DOING."



"GoO-GoO-EyEd GiULiANi"



"PUT YOUR HANDS ON A HOT STOVE FOR A MINUTE AND IT SEEMS LIKE AN HOUR. SIT WITH A PRETTY GIRL FOR AN HOUR, AND IT SEEMS LIKE A MINUTE."




"GoO-GoO-EyEd WiTh A HaNgiNg ChAd"



"THERE IS A PLAN AND THAT PLAN IS GOD'S PLAN. VOTE FOR ME."




IT'S THE OIL STUPID!




Saturday, September 06, 2008

HISTORICAL INEVITABILITY?


NOTE: I wrote the following right after I read the essay (pasted at the bottom of this page.) I do not know who the author is, nor do I subscribe to or believe everything that has been expressed; but it produced a sufficient impetus to write what I did.
Mad Plato




Forget about the legacy of President George W. Bush.

Let us concentrate on the legacy of the Human Race.

We bi-pedal paragons of the animal kingdom will likely be remembered for our destruction of Earth and each other---
NOT for for our wonderful and wicked technology.

When I was growing up at home, dinnertime became the Hour of Revelation.

At the dinner table my dad declared at least once per month that an inevitable 3rd World War was coming.
“O.K. Dad…we know…you don’t have to keep telling us.”

Well, maybe he did.

And maybe everyone should start repeating the same portent to each other.

Maybe repetition of this reminder will help us in our words and actions to prevent such historical inevitability.

I remain hopeful that Good E.T.’s will intervene to save us from the destruction of ourselves and the Earth.

But first (in the intervening and timorous interim) I will carefully listen to what Mr. Obama, Mr. McCain, Mr. Biden, and Ms. Palin say at their upcoming debates.



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!


***



The Iran War - How
It Will Begin

By The Earl of Stirling
9-6-8

I have served as a consultant to three very high tech aerospace firms. My specialty is conceptualizing advanced warfare especially as it relates to new cutting edge advanced weapon systems. What I see unfolding with a war on Iran is the most frightening set of circumstances I have ever seen; and I have been involved in advanced theoretical weaponry strategy and design for over 20 years.

Sometime in the weeks to months ahead, there will be a war launched against Iran. The war may be started by Israel, or by the United States, or by a NATO/EU/US embargo, or by some 'false flag' attack. What matters is that it will begin; and where it will take the world.

Regardless if the war begins with a limited number of air strikes against Iranian military and nuclear targets, or if an all-out several thousand target attack begins from day one the probabilities of the war becoming a major regional war within 48 hours are 90% or higher.

The Iranians will simply not allow Israeli and/or American military forces to attack its territory without a major response. Any significant counter-attack on Israel and/or American regional bases will trigger a much greater counter-response.

The Iranians have equipped and paid for, and trained, a massive unguided rocket and guided missile force in Lebanon (the largest such force in human history). These missiles are in-place as a MAD force (a MAD ~ mutually assured destruction ~ force is one that is a doomsday force; established to prevent the use of overwhelming military force by allowing a return "punch" of overwhelming military destructive force upon one's enemy). The total number of missiles and rockets in Lebanon are variously estimated at between 40,000 and 110,000. While many are unguided Katyusha rockets, many are longer ranged guided missiles. All are operated by Hezbollah Special Forces launch teams.

The Hezbollah Special Forces are in-effect a highly trained and well-equipped Iranian commando force of at least a Brigade in size. They man and protect a large number of mostly unguided and rather crude rockets, generally Katyusha 122mm artillery rockets with a 19 mile/30km range and capable of delivering approximately 66 pounds/30kg of warheads. Additionally, Hezbollah are known to possess a considerable number of more advanced and longer range missiles. During the 2006 war Hezbollah fired approximately 4,000 rockets (95% of which were Katyshas) all utilizing only "dumb" high explosive warheads. Some Iranian build and supplied Fajr-3 and Ra'ad 1 liquid-fueled missiles were also fired. It is believed that the larger and longer range missiles are directly under the control of Syrian and Iranian officers.

The combination of short to medium range rockets and guided missiles in Lebanon, and the longer range guided missiles in Syria, the smaller number of rockets and missiles in the West Bank and Gaza, and the longer range guided missiles in Iran present a massive throw weight of warheads aimed at Israel.

The 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War (called the Second Lebanon War in Israel) was an attempt by Israel at eliminating the MAD counter-force in Lebanon. It was an attempt that failed. The Syrians had purchased (and supplied to Hezbollah) a large number of very nasty, relatively low cost Russian AT-14 Kornet solid fuel anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and the Iranian trained Hezbollah commandos dug in massive numbers of concrete bunkers and firing positions. After over 50 Merkava main battle tanks were hit, and the high tech American made warplanes and pinpoint weapons proved ineffective, the handwriting was on the wall. Either use neutron bombs or lose a large number of Israeli solders to remove the Hezbollah threat; or declare peace and walk away for the time being ~ the Israelis chose the latter.

It now appears that Israel has given up on the idea of a ground assault to remove the many rocket and missile launchers in Lebanon. A senior Israeli general has resigned with the complaint that the Army is not training sufficiently to fight in Lebanon. The alternative is the use of FAE (fuel air explosive) technology weapons and neutron bombs (a type of nuclear weapon that produces a higher short term radiological output and less blast output than normal nuclear weapons).

Any use of such WMD by the Israeli Army on the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon will likely automatically trigger the use of WMD warheads on whatever rockets/missiles remain operational (if their use has not already been authorized due to the nature and scope of Israeli and/or American attacks on Iran).

The bottom line of this is that Israel will face a truly massive number of rockets and missiles from Lebanon with radiological, chemical, biological and FAE weapons of mass destruction warheads. Additionally, a sizable number of such weapons/warheads will be fired from Gaza and the West Bank. The Syrians will be using larger more accurate guided missiles to shower WMD upon Israel as will the Iranians. To counter this, the Israelis will be using their Green Pine Radar system and a combination of Israeli and American anti-missile missiles. They will have good success in knocking down many incoming missiles but the sheer number of incoming weapons will totally overload all defensive measures.

Large parts of Israel will be contaminated with radiation with extremely long half-lives (many tens of thousands of years in some cases), with a mix of chemical, FAE, and biological nightmares thrown in for good measure. Total deaths will amount to one-third to one-half of the Israeli population with a large additional number being injured.

The Israeli response will be the nuclear annihilation of Syria, Iran, and parts of Lebanon with many tens of millions killed. Expect to see every city of any size destroyed. There will be insufficient people left in Syria, Iran, and large parts of Lebanon to even bury the dead. Radiation will spread around the world from the nuclear bombs.

Iranian sleeper teams in North America and western Europe will begin to "seed" the populations of these areas with a number (perhaps in the several dozens) of different man made killer viruses. People in movie theaters, churches, synagogues, shopping malls, subway stations, airports, etc., will be exposed without anyone knowing it at the time, to these advanced biowar viruses. About nine to ten days later the computer reporting systems in the western countries will begin to report back strange illnesses. That will trigger a host of measures to contain the advanced biowar viruses but it will simply be too late to prevent a massive outbreak of horrific illnesses. International travel and trade will effectively stop. People will be ordered to stay home from work and school with only critical job holders being allowed on the streets. Hospitals will be overcome with sick and dying people of all ages. The medical community will be among the first to die off. Where temporary hospitals are established in school gyms and other areas, the cross infection of several different genetically engineered viruses will ensure 100% morality of everyone in the temporary hospitals.

In the event that the neo-con nations have sought to expand the Georgia war by new attacks on Russian forces or by creating some naval incident in the Black Sea the probabilities of an quick expansion into a all-out Third World War involving Russian and NATO nuclear weapons will be at approximately 50%. Even without a global total war being initiated, Russia is apt to "sweep" the Black Sea of NATO ships with considerable loss of life on both sides.

The world will be in the worst economic depression in history as global trade will be halted for at least several months due to fears of the spread of the various advanced biowar viruses. If Israel releases the Arab specific designer advanced biowar viruses, that many claim she has, the Saudis are apt to fire their Chinese IRBMs (intermediate range ballistic missiles) and send their very well equipped air force against Israel with the small number of nuclear weapons that they possess (they have funded the Pakistani nuclear weapon program and have several Pakistani made nuclear devices). Of course, what is left of the Israeli forces will respond with additional nuclear attacks, this time on Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations for good measure.

In North America and western Europe the total number of civilians, after two months of advanced biowar illnesses, is apt to be at least a third of the population ~ a total death count of well over 200 million persons. Despite the best efforts of all nations, the man engineered super killer mutant viruses will spread throughout the world causing total numbers of perhaps a billion or more to die.

The after effect of all of this may well lead to even more war as the non-neo-con nations will be so incensed at the massive lost of life of their citizens that total global war may be unstoppable.

Stirling



Thursday, September 04, 2008

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK AND JOHN McCain SPEAKS



U.S.A.!
U.S.A.!
U.S.A.!
VICTORY!
VICTORY!
VICTORY!
OIL!
OIL!
OIL!
WAR!
WAR!
WAR!
VICTORY!
VICTORY!
VICTORY!
WAR!
WAR!
WAR!
VICTORY!
VICTORY!
VICTORY!
U.S.A.!
U.S.A.!
U.S.A.!

By Mad Plato



***



“I’M PROUD OF THIS PRESIDENT LEADING US IN THESE DARKEST OF DAYS.”

"GET THIS COUNTRY BACK ON THE ROAD TO PEACE AND PROSPERITY.”

“PLEASE DON’T BE DIVERTED BY THE GROUND NOISE AND STATIC.”

“AMERICANS WANT US TO STOP YELLING AT EACH OTHER.”

“I KNOW THESE ARE TOUGH TIMES.”

“I INTEND TO STAND ON YOUR SIDE AND FIGHT FOR YOUR FUTURE.”

“SHE’S WORKED WITH HER HANDS AND NOSE.”

“SHE DOESN’T LET ANYONE TELL HER TO SIT DOWN.”

By John McCain


***



IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID!




***



And this from www.counterpunch.org:

The September 3 Attack on Pakistan

By GARY LEUPP

In the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, September 3, three U.S. helicopters carrying U.S. Special Operations Forces swooped down onto the Pakistani village of Musa Nika, in South Waziristan, killing fifteen to twenty people according to early reports. The U.S. press noted that this is the first known ground assault of U.S. troops in Pakistan. The provincial governor said twenty civilians including women and children were killed. The Foreign Minister denounced the attack, declaring that “no important terrorist or high-value target” was hit. The chief spokesman for the Pakistani Army registered its “strong objection.” Gen. Athar Abbas declared that the attack could provoke a general rebellion of local tribes against his government, and threaten NATO supply lines from Karachi into Afghanistan. The Foreign Minister angrily declared that “no important terrorist or high-value target” was hit. The U.S. ambassador was summoned to receive Islamabad’s official protest.

This is heavy stuff. But this news got sidelined by the star coverage conferred by the mainstream media on Sarah Palin, whose ringing oration, dripping with ignorance and contempt for the world, brought down the house Wednesday night in that celebration of stupidity in St. Paul. That speech, authored by George W. Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully for whatever vice presidential candidate McCain selected, asserted among other things that Bush’s “surge” had prevented al-Qaeda from taking over Iraq. The message is clear: all U.S. military action is designed to protect the U.S. from al-Qaeda terror.

Why would the mainstream media, pronouncing “a star is born,” want to highlight the little news story about remote Waziristan? Palin was splashed all over the front page of the Boston Globe on Thursday; the Pakistan story was on page A-3. On Friday a follow-up AP story made page A-26. It emphasized how the raid had “complicated life for presidential front-runner Asif Ali Zardari.”

But this largely ignored event holds potentially horrifying significance. “Top American officials” have told the New York Times that this raid “could be the opening salvo in a much broader campaign by Special Operations forces against the Taliban and Al Qaeda inside Pakistan, a secret plan that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has been advocating for months within President Bush’s war council.” The plan of course enjoys the support of John McCain, who never met a warlike action he didn’t like, as well as his opponent in the presidential race. Barack Obama has been saying for over a year that is the U.S. has “actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets” in Pakistan and the chance to hit them, it should do so. The hell with Pakistani sovereignty! Why should such a detail matter after “we were attacked”?

Why should the outraged opposition of the Pakistani government constitute a major news story? Pakistan’s only a nuclear-armed Muslim country of 165 million people, which has at great cost to itself agreed---under duress, indeed the threat of being “bombed back into the Stone Age”---to abet U.S. objectives in neighboring Afghanistan. It’s just a country that having helped create and nurture the Taliban in order to stabilize Afghanistan, broke with that organization at the demand of the U.S. in 2001 and then found its frontier provinces flooded with Islamist militants fleeing across the border.

According to a White House “fact sheet” issued in August 2007:

    • Pakistan has worked closely with the United States to secure the arrest of terrorists like Khalid Shaykh Mohammad, Abu Zubaydah, and Ramzi bin al Shibh. Pakistan has killed or captured hundreds of suspected and known terrorists, including Mullah Obaidullah, who ranked second in the Taliban hierarchy at the time of his capture.
    • About 100,000 Pakistani troops are deployed in the region near the Afghan border, and hundreds of Pakistani security forces have given their lives in the battle to combat terrorism post-9/11.
    • Pakistan provides vital logistical support to coalition forces in Afghanistan.
    • President Musharraf has a comprehensive strategy that combines three critical components--strengthened governance, increased economic development, and improved security--aimed at eradicating extremism in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

No government has provided more assistance to Washington as it pursues its goals in Southwest Asia. No country has been more dramatically destabilized as the price of its cooperation. But not only does the U.S. political class take this disasterous compliance for granted, it wants to further emphasize Islamabad’s irrelevance by attacking the border area at will. It insults the sensibilities of a population that holds bin Laden in far greater esteem than the U.S. president. It provokes the powerful Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), originally the creation of the CIA, once a close partner with the U.S. in the project of destroying the secular pro-Soviet state that existed in Afghanistan from 1978 to 1993. (The ISI, a power unto itself, is already annoyed that Afghanistan, where anti-Indian Kashmiri jihadis used to hone their skills in training camps, has been cozying up to India.) Its embrace undermines any leader who seeks nationalist and religious credentials in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

“There’s potential to see more [attacks on Pakistan],” an unnamed U.S. official told the New York Times. Who do these people think they’re dealing with?

It is one thing to ignore the government of Iraq, placed in power by the U.S. invasion, when it says no to a permanent U.S. military presence, U.S. forces’ immunity from Iraqi law, or the privatization of Iraq’s petroleum resources. It’s one thing to laugh at al-Maliki & Co. and say, “Well, they don’t mean that,” confident that they’ll eventually knuckle under. It’s another thing to suppose that the Pakistanis, when they say “No,” mean anything other than “No” and will simply burn with quiet resentment indefinitely as U.S. forces violate their sovereignty. But that sort of insane arrogance stems naturally from the post 9-11 “us vs. them” mentality of U.S. leaders. Not just the neocons, mind you, but the entire political mainstream.

Pakistan, these leaders will note, is not doing enough to prevent militants from crossing over the border to attack U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. One should respond to this assertion with the following points:

  • The U.S. is conflating Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. But these are not the same thing. (This is perhaps the most obvious but obviously neglected point of fact in the post 9-11 era.) The Taliban is an indigenous Afghan movement and--however unsavory--unquestionably enjoys a social base. Al-Qaeda is a mostly Arab force rooted in the U.S.-sponsored anti-Soviet Mujahadeen of the 1980s.
  • Nobody in Afghanistan asked the U.S. to invade, bomb, or continue bombing Afghanistan for seven years. Nor did the Pakistanis.
  • The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, against the advice and will of Pakistan, and the failure of that invasion to crush al-Qaeda, pushed al-Qaeda and Taliban forces into Pakistan. It’s likely the latter far outnumber the former.
  • Pakistan’s government had never firmly controlled the frontier provinces or deployed large-scale military forces there in deference to the sensibilities of local tribes. Washington, oblivious to Pakistan’s realities, demanded that Islamabad suppress the al-Qaeda and Taliban forces that fled into the region. In effect, it demanded that Pakistan clean up a mess that the U.S. invasion had created.
  • Pakistan’s efforts to obey Washington have taken a terrible toll on the Pakistani Army, solidified local resistance to the central government, and in fact produced a Pakistani Taliban rooted in the local Pashtuns who identify with the Afghan Pashtuns and have no use for the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan drawn by colonialists who never consulted with them in drawing the map.
  • Faced with the prospect of a general tribal-based rebellion, Islamabad has cut deals with local Taliban-linked groups. Washington has expressed its disapproval, claiming such deals continue to allow militants to cross back and forth across the border attacking its forces and their allies in Afghanistan. Washington is, in effect, asking Pakistan’s government to risk civil war and its own collapse to prevent Afghans from attacking its forces in Afghanistan whose deployment Pakistan opposed in the first place.
  • Washington is saying to this nuclear power, Pakistan: “You must obey!” And some in Pakistan are saying: “You do not know this region. You’ve responded to 9-11 by lashing out in all directions, creating enemies you never had before. You created this problem, our headache, in Waziristan and adjoining regions. And you make it worse by saying that since we’re not handling it to your satisfaction, you’re going to start landing your troops in our villages, shooting on our civilians. And you’re expecting us to say, ‘Ok, no problem, boss?’ You’re crazy.”

It is crazy, even for a cocky hyper-imperialist power, to manifest such arrogance and contempt. Such attacks on Pakistan say to the Muslims of the world: “You are the problem and we reserve the right to slaughter you, because back home, we have powerful politicians who respond to a mass base that thinks fighting you all is, as Sarah Palin put it, ‘a task from God.’ (USA! USA! USA! USA!) If you don’t agree with our program to restructure your region, supporting our misogynistic fanatical Islamists in the Northern Alliance as opposed to the Taliban misogynistic fanatical Islamists you used to sponsor, we’ll invade you and take care of the problem ourselves. (USA! USA! USA! USA!) Get used to it. It’s not just the Bush crowd. We’ve got Obama on board now too. We will strike Pakistani targets as we see fit. Screw international law, which we invoke when it serves our needs and ignore when it might restrain us. Nobody is allowed to cross any border to attack our brave Americans, no matter where we invade, or why. Just accept that, world, and avoid our wrath. (USA! USA! USA!)”

That’s indeed the message to Pakistan. If there were a free press in this country, honest education and genuine discussion, the people would recoil in horror from the crimes committed in their name and the premises---largely lies---behind those crimes. But we have none of that, just some posts on the internet. The outlook is grim.

Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial Crusades.






Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Q & A

Was Governor Sarah Palin properly vetted before being named John McCain’s V.P.?


John McCain might be handing the election to Obama and Biden--or Karl Rove--- once again sitting on his “Trojan Horse”---has “done the math”, and believes that the Palin choice is going to win the White House for McCain.
Sarah Palin as McCain’s choice for his Vice President is a gaffe, a huge error, or a brilliant decision.
Joe Liebermann was obviously not standing at McCain’s side to correct this mistake---if it was a mistake.
Palin’s pregnant 17 year-old daughter is not as important as Mrs. Palin’s record or her I.Q.
Being a woman is not enough.
Being good-looking is not enough.
Being black is not enough.
Being experienced is not enough
But being intelligent, inspirational, and rational are quite important in the current dangerous---cold and hot---warring world.

Does President Bush’s speaking to the Republican Convention help or hurt John McCain?

If Bush fell off of the Empire State Building, would it hurt?
Bush will hurt John McCain just as he has hurt Iraq, the U.S. economy, the U.S. Constitution, our Privacy…and there isn’t time or space here to list all of the damage that has been done by King George.
Liars and murderers have never been respected, have they?
It would have helped McCain if Bush had been out of town with Cheney at some undisclosed location.


How important will the Iraq war be to voters come November?

It will be important to re-remind voters that the war was unnecessary, wrong, built upon lies---that this misbegotten war will continue to plague our children and grandchildren with its consumption of tax dollars in the trillions of dollars---that this war’s horrific, physical, and psychological injuries will exist long after the U.S. finally leaves---
that this war has produced NOT JUST HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DEAD IRAQIS---
But a million+.
Since the Congress---Democrats and Republicans!---haven’t impeached Bush and Cheney (yet), the voters must be reminded over and over and over what crimes and misdemeanors this duplicitous and secretive administration has committed, even if conditions in Iraq have improved---and even when NOTHING is done by way of public investigation of the Bush administration.
It is disgusting for me to read the statement that “The situation has come a long way from the darkest days when millions of Iraqis became refugees, hundreds of thousands were killed…”
This sounds like the Republican line, and the sad part is that voters believe it.
Tell Iraqis that they have come a long way.
Well, I guess millions will have come a long way when they return to their damaged and invaded homeland.