MEN LIKE GODS

Chimeras. Human-Animal Hybrids.
Lion-Goat-Serpents.
Welcome---once again---to Brave New World.
No need to be invaded by extraterrestrials.
This world is making its own aliens.
Men like gods will do as they want or need to do.
In this case, to create new creatures never before on the planet. A kind of New-age urban renewal.
"The technology is advancing quicker than the regulations," said Osagie Obasogie of the Oakland-based Center for Genetics and Society, which opposes the mixing of human and animal cells.
Of course, this genetic engineering is intended only to do good things.
But we all know about good intentions and where they sometimes go. Take as an example Mr. Atom.
Progress does not put on any brakes.
Tomorrow we might see ourselves in zoos and looking out at the new and improved creatures that we have created.
At least I can dream.

IT'S THE SAME OLD LYING (SHAME!)

President Bush knowingly or unknowingly permitted Vice-President Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice---and other NeoCons ("New Conmen")---to “find” and “cherry pick”, then accept and decimate the (mostly fabricated) information that could defend (and excuse) their decision to invade Iraq.
Now we know that Bush and his minions wanted to invade Iraq just days after September 11.
To compare World War II to the Iraq war (debacle) is not only wrong but inaccurate.
These were nations who were on the march to conquer the world.
But Iraq with its Butcher of Baghdad dictator was NOT an imminent threat to the United States.
But Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice lied when each said repeatedly (and falsely!)that Iraq was an imminent threat.
Gulf War I decimated Iraq.
It was contaminated, starved and weak.
Not much different from today.
President Bush and his war was a lie from the get-go.
The "War on Terror" did not achieve its present intensity without the invasion of Iraq.
Al Qaeda was not in Iraq.
It was in Afghanistan.
But President Bush (Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld) deserted Afghanistan in order to invade Iraq.
Anyone with a little horse sense can research why this administration invaded Iraq.
A majority of Americans now think the Shock and Awe invasion of Iraq should not have occurred.
And a majority wants redeployment and withdrawal.
We now know that this war was a big lie.
To support the troops who are fighting is a much different thing than criticizing and pointing out the lies which produced the war.
It is not a condemnation of the troops, but of the lying administration that put them in harm's way.
The Bush administration employed propaganda to sway the Congress and persuade the American public to support his war.
Now that we know the facts about what was done to invade Iraq (shown on Frontline in its documentary THE DARK SIDE) it is time to get out of Iraq.
The terror and civil war increase every day our soldiers remain in harm's way.
Retired Lieutenant General William Odom (director of the National Security Agency between 1985 and 1988) said "The U.S. invasion of Iraq may be the biggest strategic mistake in U.S. history"; and "There is a knee-jerk tendency to say, ‘Well, if we left, it would be a mess. Therefore, we can’t leave.’ That requires blinding oneself to the fact-the reality-that our presence is creating the mess, that we don’t keep a mess from happening by staying, and that we don’t have the alternative of not creating a mess. When we crossed the border of Iraq with the invasion, all these untoward outcomes were inexorably going to happen."
The Bush administration won't even pay $71 dollars for a padded helmet that would reduce the brain injuries from IEDs.
This Presidency is a lying shame!

THEY DID LIE!

"Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war." John Adams

I have just finished watching the documentary The Dark Side on the PBS program Frontline.
(I even interrupted the NBA playoffs to watch it).
I had the flu last Friday.
But now I am completely nauseous from what I have just heard and watched.
My Letters from Mad Plato about the Bush administration are vindicated.
THE PRESIDENT'S ADMINISTRATION DID LIE US INTO THIS UNNECESSARY WAR..
THE BUSH REGIME TOOK AMERICA AND ITS SOLDIERS INTO THIS UNNECESSARY WAR IN IRAQ.
THIS LYING BUNCH DEFINITELY DESERVES TO BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE FOR THEIR TREASON AND LIES.
IN NOVEMBER, LET US REMOVE THIS CABAL AND ALL THOSE WHO HAVE SUPPORTED THEIR LIES!

BLOOD IS RED AND THE SKY IS BLUE

"It's a number. Bush feels very deeply the pain that the families feel."
White House press secretary Tony Snow

The Long War President is full of beans once again.
The smirks and the swaggers of The Decider are back.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed.
Dubya took his secret flight to Iraq (so secret that even he didn’t know about it).
The Decider’s Brain, Karl Rove, was given a clean bill of health, but Mr. Rove is not without taint or involvement in the leak of Plame.
Somehow Patrick Fitzgerald gave Rove baby gloves treatment. Just why will remain another unsolved mystery.
But the facts do not change.
The truth is the same.
The Iraq war was wrong.
Period.
To prolong this illegal invasion and occupation is wrong.
More terrorism has been sown in Iraq. Dragon's teeth have been planted in Iraq and come up monsters.
More terrorists there and around the world have been produced.
The rhetoric from the White House can not hide this truth.
The American public is not swallowing the most recent candy treats from George W. Bush.
This is the good news.
The bad news is that this is only June.
There are still more surprises to come before November.
This administration will do anything to keep its stranglehold on the world and the American people.
And by the way…
DEATH IS NOT JUST A NUMBER!

MY BRAIN IS BACK

"Wilson's wife is fair game," Rove urged one TV commentator in a private conversation.

GWB: Hello. Karl? Yeah, it's me, Dubya.
KR: Hello Mr. President.
GWB: Such good news Karl...you weren't indicted! What a relief!
KR: That's correct, Mr. President.
GWB: MY BRAIN IS BACK!
KR: Yes sir.
GWB: Well, I bet you need to get back to your laboratory and figure out how to win in November.
KR: Yes, Mr. President.
GWB: Oh, Karl, would you do me a favor?
KR: Sure. Anything Mr. President.
GWB: Some hairy camels just arrived from Baghdad and I’ll need a camel jock to break them in so I can get my hands on one of the hairy fellows.
KR: Done Mr. President.

Fitzgerald has identified Karl Rove as one of Novak's sources. In fact, according to court filings, Rove was the person who told Scooter Libby that Novak was planning to write a story about Wilson before it was published. And as it turns out, Rove was Time Magazine's Matt Cooper's source as well.
On July 13, 2005, Matt Cooper testified before the grand jury and informed the panel that Rove was the first source that told him that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.

In an article discussing his testimony, in the July 17, 2005 Time Magazine, Cooper wrote: "Was it through my conversation with Rove that I learned for the first time that Wilson's wife worked at the C.I.A. and may have been responsible for sending him? Yes."
"Did Rove say that she worked at the 'agency' on 'W.M.D.'? Yes," Cooper asked and answered in the article.


June 14, 2006/counterpunch.org
Karl and George
The Teflon Partnership

By EVELYN PRINGLE

BAGHDAD BUSH

"Bush left after night fell to return to Washington. The plane left at a steep angle with its lights out and the shades drawn." [The last sentence is also a description of the Bush presidency.]

"No, I didn't bring a turkey this time. But thank you for the warm welcome...and for getting me safely into the Green Zone.
Does anyone see any WMD? (Giggling)
Trent Lott and Pat Buchanan said that my coming to Baghdad was 'a brilliant move' and 'brilliant'. Thank you Trent and Pat. I hope this visit increases my POLL....numbers.
Mr. Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, Iraq is now in your hands.
If your country wants peace and democracy, then it will get peace and democracy.
The U.S. will NOT cut and run from your oil or from our strategic position.
If the terrorists were not here before my Shock and Awe attack, they are here now. I can't undo history.
The terrorists must be killed here before they can kill anywhere else.
You have my word and the word of the United States of America.
O.K. I have to go now.
I'm going to have a hands-on-look at some camels.
I'm bringing a few back to my Crawford ranch.
Thank you."

WHY WE MEET AT CAMP DAVID

We meet at
Camp David
To discuss
Military
Strategy
To make
Some adjustments
In our
War
To win the
Hearts and minds
Of the people…
To win the
November election…
To convince the American public that
We have everything under control…
To win the
War on Terror…
To achieve
Victory…
To keep the
Well-oiled
War Machine
Well-fed and
Well-funded…
To keep our
Friends and
Corporations always
Happy...
We meet at
Camp David.

ODE ON ANN COULTER

Groups representing millions of Americans-veterans, labor, women, students, religionists, business, and others-asked to meet with President Bush before the invasion. The American Caesar turned them all down. He knew it all. Then he blew it all and millions of Iraqis and tens of thousands of Americans are paying a severe price for this pig-headed corporate militarist.
Ralph Nader



Cute Ann Coulter
(Verbal adulterer?)
Gives annoying sarcastic butts and blows
To all the left-wing liberal nuts and crows.
Cute Ann Coulter scoffs and laughs
At all those liberal kooks who
Give her the cold shoulder.
Cute Ann Coulter writes her books &
Sells them with her awful looks.

IEDS AND PLENIPEDES

IED.
Intermittent-Explosive-Disorder.
IED.
Improvised-Explosive-Device.
Both exist in Iraq.
Both were produced by the
Intermittent-PrE-Emptive-Explosive-Decider-Long War President George W. Bush.
And what about that millipede with 662 legs?
Now here's some other ("explosive") news to assuage our irritated minds and stressful souls:

The world's leggiest species -- a millipede that has up to 750 legs -- has been spotted for the first time in 80 years.
The last time Illacme plenipes was seen was in 1926, when it was discovered living in a tiny habitat measuring just 0.8 square kilometres (0.31 sq. miles) in San Benito County, California.
The adult females were nearly twice as long as the adult males, coming in at 33.20mm (1.31 inches) and bearing either 662 or 666 legs, arrayed on 170 or 171 segments. The adult males measured up to 16.15mm (0.64 inches) and up to 402 legs, on 105 segments.
There are around 10,000 species of millipedes, one of the world's oldest terrestrial animals.
Plenipedes can have up to 750 legs, making them the closest to having the 1,000 that millipedes according to folklore are supposed to have.

LATE NIGHT CONVERSATION BETWEEN GEORGE AND LAURA BUSH

LB: George, I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want to hear first?
GWB: Give me the good news first; I like to save bad news for last...you know, like my Iraq war and Katrina (Giggling).
LB: O.K. Here's the good news: Both of our daughters are lesbians.
GWB: O.K. And what's the bad news?
LB: I think I'm one too.
GWB: Bad...very bad news. {But GW is thinking: 'Well, maybe not. This could be the opening Condi and I have been waiting for.'}
LB: So George, what do we do now"
GWB: Give me the phone. I need to call My brain.
LB: Call who?
GWB: You know...My Brain...Karl Rove.
LB: And then what?
GWB: Karl will think of something. He always does.
LB: O.K. Give me the phone.
GWB: Who are you calling this time of night?
LB: My bit**... Ann Coulter.
GWB: Holy s***!

NO BERRIES PLEASE

Lieberry or Lyeberry?
Is this where there are berries of lye or where berries lie?
Neither.
I continue to hear many people pronounce this word as if it contained berries.
It has no berries.
Bury the thought.
Better yet...start practicing the correct pronunciation of this word.
Drop the berry sound.
Get rid of the berries.
Say:
Brrrr...air...ee...
Brrr...air...ee...
Lie-brair-ee.
LIBRARY!
Thank you.

SAY I R A N

Picture yourself as a pugilist.
Picture yourself as a pugilist getting pummeled to the pulp.
You are embarrassed.
You are tired.
You are feeling very lousy, indeed.
Are you going to do something nice...or something awful...if you can?
Now picture yourself as a president or king or dictator.
Then picture yourself as President George W. Bush.
How would you feel?
How would you act?
How might you react…
If you were getting pummeled to the pulp...
In the polls...
By your own political party...
By the war that you started and are now losing...
Are you going to do something nice...or something awful...if you can?
Now say just one word...
IRAN!

REMEMBERING HOW ENRON HELPED ELECT LONG WAR PRESIDENT BUSH

That Lay was instrumental in Bush’s rise to the presidency is indisputable. Since 1993, Lay and top Enron executives donated nearly $2 million to Bush. Lay also personally donated $326,000 in soft money to the Republican Party in the three years prior to Bush’s presidential bid, and he was one of the Republican “pioneers” who raised $100,000 in smaller contributions for Bush. Lay’s wife donated $100,000 for inauguration festivities.
As governor, Bush did what Enron wanted, cutting taxes and deregulating utilities. The deregulation ideology, which George W. long had adopted as gospel, allowed dubious bookkeeping and other acts of chicanery that shocked Wall Street and drove a $60-billion company, seventh on the Fortune 500 list, into bankruptcy.
This emerging scandal makes Whitewater seem puny in comparison; clearly there ought to be at least as aggressive a congressional inquiry into the connection between the Bush administration and the Enron debacle. Facts must be revealed, beginning with the content of Lay’s private meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney to create the administration’s energy policy.

The Enron Story Everyone Is Missing: The Bush-Ken Lay Connection

Written by truthdig.com/Robert Scheer
Thursday, 01 June 2006

WE ARE THE KILLERS: THE LEGACY OF GEORGE W. BUSH

For it is not the small-scale Haditha atrocity that should be compared to My Lai: it is the entire Iraq War itself. The whole operation from its inception in high-level mendacity to its execution in blood-soaked arrogance, folly, greed and incompetence is a war crime of almost unfathomable proportions: a My Lai writ large, a My Lai every single day, year after year after year.

The Marines who killed at Haditha were veterans of the much larger atrocity at Fallujah the year before. There they took part in one of the most savage demolitions of a city since World War II. Eight weeks of relentless bombing was followed by a cut-off of the city's water, electricity and food supplies. a clear war crime under the Geneva Conventions. More than two-thirds of the city's residents, some 200,000 people, fled the coming inferno, refugees in their own land. Those who remained were considered fair game in the house-by-house ravaging that followed. Among the Americans' first targets were the city's hospitals and clinics, as U.S. officers freely admitted to the New York Times: another blatant war crime. They were destroyed or shut down, with medical staff killed or imprisoned, to prevent bad publicity about civilian casualties from reaching the outside world, the officers said. Later, an investigation by the U.S.-backed Iraqi government found credible evidence of the use of chemical weapons against the city; yet another war crime. Up to 6,000 people were killed in the attack, most of them civilians.

Like Abu Ghraib, Haditha is not an aberration by a few "bad apples" but the emblem of a wider, systemic crime, the natural fruit of an outlaw regime that has made aggressive war, torture, indefinite detention, "extrajudicial killing," rendition and concentration camps official national policy. This moral rot is Bush's true historical legacy.

The Line Of Atrocity -
From The White House
To Haditha
By Chris Floyd


The Long War President’s wars have endangered the national security of the United States of America.
George W. Bush’s wars and tax cuts for the rich and super-rich have drained the Treasury of America and her children.
America’s military power has been drained and emasculated by George W. Bush’s wars.
Afghanistan is becoming a disaster. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are getting bolder and stronger---not weaker.
Respect for America has been drained by this Long War President’s wars and his indifference to Geneva Convention Protocols and other International Laws.
The health and welfare of the earth has been endangered by George W. Bush’s countless orders to kill environmental (protection) regulations.
The health and welfare of the earth has been endangered by George W. Bush’s mindless indifference to factual and scientific data on the environment and global warming.
The mindset of George W. Bush is:
"Let tomorrow's children and leaders clean up the planet and my mess in Iraq. I won't be here anyway."
Traditional allies of America have been alienated by George W. Bush’s dictatorial-like reign.
George W. Bush’s disregard to the opinions of mankind has endangered not only America…
BUT THE ENTIRE PLANET!
Now is the time for an extraterrestrial civilization to intervene and save America and the planet…from
GEORGE W. BUSH!
BUT FIRST, VOTE THE REPUBLICANS OUT IN NOVEMBER!

Mad Plato

IRAN IS ON THE TABLE (THE CHOPPING BLOCK!)

“Representatives of the five Permanent Members of the Council (Britain, China, France, the Russian Federation, and the United States) plus Germany very well could finalize an agreement on Iran's nuclear program that makes UN Charter- and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty-violating demands on Iran. Should this or any subsequent meeting among these powers produce a draft Security Council resolution that calls upon Iran to surrender its "inalienable right" under Article IV.1 of the NPT "to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discriminati on" (1970),[1] along with enforceable, Chapter VII-type penalties in case Iran resists their orders, the UN Charter and the NPT will have been overthrown, and the current crisis greatly heightened all in the name of maintaining ‘international peace and security.’"

“What responses Britain, France, Germany, and especially China and Russia summon will ultimately go a long way toward deciding whether the American crimes of Afghanistan and Iraq are extended to Iran.”
From “Iran: a Manufactured Crisis”
By DAVID PETERSON/counterpunch.com/6-1-06

Well, the votes are in and here are the results:

“Six world powers -- including all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Thursday agreed on a plan for resuming negotiations with Iran -- but only if Tehran agrees to suspend its manufacture of nuclear fuel. "We urge Iran to take the positive path... which would bring significant benefits to Iran," said British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, who announced the agreement.”
CNN.com/9:31 P.M./6-1-06

GEORGE W. BUSH WANTS A WAR WITH IRAN?


“The Bush administration has no intention of peacefully resolving the nuclear dispute with Iran. They have consistently blocked all attempts by Iran to negotiate in good faith or to establish diplomatic channels for discussion.”
“Controlling the oil resources of the Caspian Basin and removing regional rivals to Israel remain the fundamental goals of Bush's global resource war. This makes a military confrontation with Iran inevitable. It is absurd to expect the Bush administration will seriously negotiate when their final purpose is regime change.”
“U.S. carrier groups are already moving to the Gulf and the finishing touches are being put on the battle plans."


1 The IAEA has consistently said that there is "no evidence" that Iran has a nuclear weapons program or is diverting nuclear material from its research.
2 Iran has been in full compliance with all its treaty obligations for 3 years although it has undergone the most intensive inspection regime in the history of the IAEA.
3 The UN Security Council reaffirmed Iran's "inalienable right" to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and did not order Iran to suspend nuclear enrichment as was falsely reported in the news.
4 The United States has violated its obligations under the NPT by developing a new regime of "bunker busting" low yield nuclear weapons.
5 That the United States is violating the UN Charter by unilaterally threatening a sovereign nation which is not in breach of any UN resolution.
Mike Whitney/”Endgaming Iran”/counterpunch.com/6-1-06


IS THE UNITED STATES REALLY GOING TO INVADE Iran? Read this below. What do you think readers?

"Former CIA analyst and Presidential advisor Ray McGovern, fresh from his heated public confrontation with Donald Rumsfeld, fears that staged terror attacks across Europe and the US are probable in order to justify the Bush administration's plan to launch a military strike against Iran, which he thinks will take place in June or July.
Appearing on The Alex Jones Show, McGovern was asked about the timetable for war in Iran and said that behind the diplomatic smokescreen, the final chess pieces were being moved into position.
"There is already one carrier task force there in the Gulf, two are steaming toward it at the last report I have at least - they will all be there in another week or so."
"The propaganda has been laid, the aircraft carriers are in place, it doesn't take much to fly the bombers out of British and US bases - cruse missiles are at the ready, Israel is egging us on," said McGovern.
"The turmoil caused by such an action would lead the US to tap its so-called 'mini-nuke' arsenal said McGovern, "opening a new Pandora's box of chaos."
McGovern highlighted President Bush's all time record low approval ratings as a reason for launching an attack on Iran to again whip up false patriotic fervour.
"I can see Karl Rove saying, 'look what you need to do is become a war president again, get us involved with something pretty big here and then strut around and say you can't vote for a bunch of Democrats to pull the rug out from under me while there's a war going on'."

"McGovern entertained the notion that western governments and intelligence hierarchies could potentially stage terror attacks in Europe and the US either before or after an invasion of Iran.
"I would say even probable because they need some proximate cause, some casus belli to justify really unleashing things on Iran....I would put very little past this crew - their record of dissembling and disingenuousness is unparalleled.'
McGovern said that Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld, fearing impeachment and Enron-style criminal proceedings, are urging President Bush to launch a war in order to create a climate unconducive to lengthy investigations and impeachment proceedings."
Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | June 1 2006

A TON OF COFFEE AND A GALLON OF GAS

I remember the “energy crisis” of 1973.
I had already graduated from college with my degree in English (and my minor in Education).
I had gotten a teaching job right out of college, but I resigned after the first semester.
It was a situation where the “whites” were fighting the “browns”.
It was the time of Chicano power.
Parents came to school with guns.
The school was patrolled by policemen. Classrooms were locked.
I didn’t understand what all of the fighting was about, so I left. I wanted to be a teacher, not a referee.
That was 1971.
I “slipped into” a quiet one-room cottage in the mountains.
A creek was right behind my cottage.
It was winter.
I burned incense, listened to Cat Stevens and read a lot. My only companion was a black and white cat named Sam.
I waited for the spring to arrive and melt the frozen creek.
I lived on my final check from the school where I had taught.
But when winter was finished so was my money.
I got a job as a garbage collector.
The gig was hard, but the hours were short.
I started around 5:30 A.M. and finished at 1:00 P.M.
The driver (Don) was a soft-spoken guy in his early twenties. My co-worker on the back of the diesel-puffing garbage truck was a jolly Mexican in his late forties. He liked to point out the houses where he sometimes saw ladies wearing their nightgowns; but I never saw any ladies in such garb.
One cold and drizzly morning a man came out of his house and poured each of us a shot of whiskey. That hit the spot. My numb fingers inside my holy gloves became a little warmer.
I worked on the garbage truck until it got so cold that I couldn’t take it anymore, and I headed for Florida.
After I got tired of Florida I hitched back to Colorado.
I “landed” in Red River, New Mexico after a kid in a blue Karma Ghia picked me up in Amarillo, Texas.
It was a guitar that I was holding that got me the ride. I couldn’t even play it. I paid a $100 for it thinking that I might learn to play someday. I even gave it a name: April. I forget why. Maybe it was because of a woman that I had met with that name.
Anyway, Jim and I rented a small cabin and began looking for work in Red River the next day.
We became painters.
As I painted I listened to the ongoing Nixon impeachment hearings. They went on and on and on.
That was 1973.
I really didn’t feel affected by the “energy-oil” crisis because I didn’t drive, and I was living at a very low subsistence level.
I didn’t earn much money and I spent even less.
I remember one time I bumped into a friend at a local bar. I paid him with a poem I had written to buy me a beer. It was a good poem, but the beer was better.
Those were romantic days for me. I didn’t have responsibilities or attachments...I was just “afoot and lighthearted”.
I met some interesting people.
Then I moved on.
Geopolitics and I were as far apart as the moon and the stars.
I loved those days…Those good, old days.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

DEAR GEORGE W. BUSH

YOU DID NOT PULL THE TRIGGERS THAT MURDERED THE MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN HADITHA, BUT AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERY BULLET THAT WAS FIRED OR WILL BE FIRED TODAY AND TOMORROW.
You are culpable.
You are guilty.
It is your war.
You are ultimately responsible for the military and every soldier.
Stop your unnecessary war before it kills more innocent civilians.
YOUR WAR IS A FAILURE!
Bring the troops home!
America and the world do not want any more of your democracy spread.
Death AND Destruction are being spread...
Not DEMOCRACY!.

HYDROGEN AND THE SWEET SCIENCE

Eat, eat and eat those sweets!
Some new research has shown how certain bacteria can produce hydrogen when these bacteria are “fed” waste products from candy production.
How sweet it will be if our cars can operate because of the sweets we have just eaten.
Simple processes that produce a complicated product are cost-effective.
The Sheiks and oil CEOs will probably want to shut down the candy factories.
Dentists will be ecstatic.
The sweet science is no longer just boxing.

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 24.05.2006

Sweet success for pioneering hydrogen energy project

Bacteria that can munch through confectionery could be a valuable source of non-polluting energy in the years ahead, new research has shown.

In a feasibility study funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, bioscientists at the University of Birmingham have demonstrated that these bacteria give off hydrogen gas as they consume high-sugar waste produced by the confectionery industry.
The hydrogen has been used to generate clean electricity via a fuel cell (1). Looking to the future, it could also be used to power the hydrogen-fuelled road vehicles of tomorrow.

MEMORIAL DAY AND WAR

Controlled, universal disarmament is the imperative of our time. The demand for it by the hundreds of millions whose chief concern is the long future of themselves and their children will, I hope, become so universal and so insistent that no man, no government anywhere, can withstand it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. ~Ernest Hemingway

If you wish to be brothers, drop your weapons. ~Pope John Paul II

Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war. ~Otto Von Bismark

If we don't end war, war will end us. ~H.G. Wells, Things to Come, 1935

RAISINETTS POPCORN AND THE DA VINCI CODE

I saw The Da Vinci Code last night.
I fell asleep once or twice.
As usual the popcorn and Raisinetts were devoured before the movie began.
Anyway, I didn't recognize most events in the movie that were in Dan Brown's book.
I don't blame Ron Howard.
I read the book almost a year ago, but the memory’s hard drive isn't downloading as well as it should.
I'll give the film a B-.
I didn't expect much more than what I saw.
This is the first film I have seen in any theater since I went to see Master and Commander (when I fell asleep more than once or twice).
Maybe Harrison Ford or Bruce Willis could have played the part of Tom Hanks, but Hanks gave a good performance.
I look forward to watching the movie based on the more action-filled Angels and Demons.
Hire Tommy Lee Jones for this movie.

MELTING FACES

I know that my dish satellite was having reception problems.
But I still found the melting faces disturbing.
It was game two of the NBA East Finals.
The Miami Heat vs. the Detroit Pistons.
The scoreboard looked normal.
Ghosts.
Demons.
The Paranormal.
Poltergeist.
Aliens.
I am not that superstitious.
It was just my satellite dish…
Melting faces...

BLAIRING AND BUSHING

It was rehearsed and patent pabulum posing as sincere contrition.
His mission is still to complete the mission...
complete the mission...complete the mission...when the Iraqis
Stand up...stand up...stand up then the U.S. will stand down (and lay down more and more of the dead.)
The pundits keep saying, "Well...what if Iraq succeeds...and does become a democracy?"
George W. Bush would then be a hero and not what he is right now.
But what else can conquering kings and presidents say and do?
They cannot stand in front of the camera eye that is peering at the world's billions and admit any mistakes.
They came, they saw and they confabulated.

SOME PET PEEVES

1. Drivers who you almost hit because they don’t wait to make their turns, but turn right in front of you!
2. People who don’t replace the empty toilet roll in the bathroom!
3. People who don’t clean their body hair off of the soap bar!
4. People who don’t close the shower curtain after showering!
5. People who don’t screw lids on tight!
6. People who don’t clean up after they eat!
7. People who say---“Hi. How are you?”---but then just keep walking without waiting for your reply!
8. People who are always complaining!
9. People who snort and clean their nasal passages in close proximity!
10. People who don’t flush after they do their business!

IRAQ DECONSTRUCTION AND GEORGE W'S PALACE

How the Bush Administration Deconstructed Iraq
By Michael Schwartz
TomDispatch.com


"The image of the Bush administration in Iraq as a bumbling giant, overwhelmed by the destructive forces within Iraqi society, is a pernicious misrepresentation. A close look at the facts on the ground demonstrates that the American occupation itself has been the primary destructive force in Iraq as well as the direct or ultimate source of the bulk of the violence; that the American military, in its zealous pursuit of the resistance, still generates much destruction; and that American reconstruction efforts have -- through greed, corruption, and incompetence -- only deepened the infrastructural crisis."

"The American presence in Iraq continues to be a force for deconstruction."

"Most of the death, destruction, and disorganization in the country has, at least in its origins, been a direct consequence of U.S. efforts to forcibly institute an economic and social revolution, while using overwhelming force to suppress resistance to this project. Certainly, the insurgency, the ethno-religious jihadists, and the criminal gangs have all contributed to the descent of Iraqi cities and towns into chaos, but their roles have been secondary and in many cases reactive. The engine of deconstruction was -- and remains -- the U.S.-led occupation."


Michael Schwartz, Professor of Sociology and Faculty Director of the Undergraduate College of Global Studies at Stony Brook University, has written extensively on popular protest and insurgency, and on American business and government dynamics. His work on Iraq has appeared on numerous internet sites, including Tomdispatch, Asia Times, Mother Jones, and ZNet; and in print in Contexts, Against the Current, and Z Magazine. His books include Radical Protest and Social Structure, and Social Policy and the Conservative Agenda (edited, with Clarence Lo). His email address is Ms42@optonline.net.


Here is the construction taking place in Iraq:
It's called George W's Palace.
Price tag: Half Billion Dollars!
Your tax dollars at work.
The biggest embassy on the planet.
It doesn't sound like the U.S. is pulling out of Iraq any time soon.
The war in Iraq wasn't for liberation.
But you know this.
The war was to establish America's influence and presence (NOT PRESENTS!) in Iraq.
Oil was a big reason for the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. But you know this too.
With Iran and Syria nearby, the United States will have a better chance to conquer these other countries when necessary.
And China is not that far away.

THEY KILL PEOPLE THEN SAY I'M SORRY (Child in Iraq whose parents were killed)

What a joke.

After almost 5 years George W. Bush is making some hard right turns.

Call them Republican Ruses.

To bolster the Republican base (that is currently distancing itself from the Long War President), George W. Bush finally wants to secure the U.S.-Mexican Border.

How long was Rip Van Winkle asleep?

This president has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to the security of the borders.

He doesn't think about bin Laden any longer, so the Long War President has plenty of time to think about the security of America's borders.

But this latest stunt is just more window (bandage) dressing to divert the public's attention away from the tragic and devastating debacle in Iraq.

Here is information that’s not in your newspapers, or on your TVs and radios:

“Across central Iraq, there is an exodus of people fleeing for their lives as sectarian assassins and death squads hunt them down. At ground level, Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale.”
“The state of Iraq now resembles Bosnia at the height of the fighting in the 1990s when each community fled to places where its members were a majority and were able to defend themselves. ‘Be gone by evening prayers or we will kill you,’ warned one of four men who called at the house of Leila Mohammed, a pregnant mother of three children in the city of Baquba, in Diyala province north-east of Baghdad. He offered chocolate to one of her children to try to find out the names of the men in the family.”

Weekend Edition/www.CounterPunch.org

May 20 / 21, 2006

Ethnic Cleansing Takes Hold
Iraq is Disintegrating

By PATRICK COCKBURN

Khanaqin, North-East Iraq

“Iraq has had to wait over 5 months after the
December 15 elections for a government finally to be formed. The US intervened with local Iraqi parties to overturn the democratic vote of the United Iraqi Alliance for Ibrahim Jaafari. It got instead a long-time member of the Damascus politburo of the then-radical Islamic Dawa Party, which helped form Hizbullah in Lebanon. Nuri al-Maliki has finally been elected prime minister, but has not presented ministers for any of the key three cabinet posts having to do with national security.”

”Wouldn't you think that addressing national security might be the first priority? He has given us a minister of Tourism but not a Minister of Defense or a Minister of the Interior?”

”Of course, it probably doesn't matter that much. The Sunni Arab guerrilla movement will only redouble its efforts to overthrow this new government. And, there is no evidence that the troops and security forces of the new government can effectively curb the guerrillas, even if they had new leadership.”

There are now four distinct wars going on in Iraq simultaneously
1) The Sunni Arab guerrilla war to expel US troops from the Sunni heartland
2) The militant Shiite guerrilla war to expel the British from the south
3) The Sunni-Shiite civil war
4) The Kurdish war against Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk province, and the Arab and Turkmen guerrilla struggle against the encroaching Peshmerga (the Kurdish militia).

Informed Comment/www.juancole.com

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion/Juan Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

POLITICS AND CESSPOOLS

These two words do not rhyme.
They do not have any reason.
Well, a cesspool has a reason:
It's the abode for politics and politicians.
Rep. Peter King (R) N.Y. and Rep. Chris Shays (R) Conn. were on the Larry King program Thursday night [5/18/06].
Both King and Shays were honking the same broken tin horn (of Bush):
Mistakes were made in the Iraq war, but the war was the "right thing to do".
Both agreed that conditions were improving in Iraq.
(Do they live in a cesspool on the dark side of the moon?)
Like our Long War President, these two naked apes obviously don't use the Internet (or their Reason), or they would know what is really happening (and has happened) in Iraq.
Then, of course, both offered their compulsory crocodile tears and cliches of regret that soldiers have to die.
In November the American public flushed and cleaned the cesspool.
It was an excellent Christmas gift to the world.

SPEAK AMERICAN

English.
Not the people.
The language.
In America we speak...
American, of course.
The citizens of England speak English.
Our Long War President speaks...
well, he tries to speak...
the American language.
Senators and Representatives, please do not create a law that makes English the national or official language.
Americans speak the language of America.
English is the national language of England.
The truth is that anyone who comes to America WANTS TO LEARN English.
Yes, I was only pulling your chain about speaking "American"...
Or maybe not.
H.L. Mencken wrote a book called The American Language, and in one chapter he wrote the following:

IV. American and English Today
1. The Two Vocabularies

By way of preliminary to an examination of the American of today, here is a list of terms in everyday use that differ in American and English:
American English
can (noun) tin
checkers (game) draughts
cow-catcher plough
elevator lift
ferns bracken
hog-pen piggery
hood (automobile) bonnet
Methodist Wesleyan
molasses treacle
monkey-wrench spanner
oatmeal porridge
truck (vehicle) lorry
undershirt vest
vest waistcoat
warden (of a prison) governor

Everyone should learn English...I mean
American.
Even Yale graduates.

SEX AND PROFANITY ON TV

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate late on Thursday approved boosting fines tenfold to $325,000 on television and radio broadcast stations that violate rules on airing profanity or sexually explicit material. (May 18, 2006)

Here is the unofficial FINE List:

1. The F word is
$50,000 per letter.
For example, F*****G's FINE would be $350,000.

2. All other obscene words: $25,000 per letter.
For example, SH**'s FINE would be $100,000.

3. If the F word is conjoined with other profanity, then the FINE is doubled.
For example, F*****G SH**'s Fine would be $900,000.

4. For sexually explicit material and/or exposure of the body's anatomy:

Male member: $1,000,000
Female member: $2,000,000
Breasts: $250,000 each (Pasties will not reduce the FINE)

For all of the above, FINES are doubled when sizes are very big.

5. After three violations, all offenders will get their tongues AND exposed body parts removed and sold for charity.

DA VINCI JIMMY HOFFA AND IMMIGRATION

First, are you tired of seeing George W. Bush wiggle his hand when he walks in front of the camera eye?
What the hell is that?

Second, why do Karl Rove, Scott McClellan and General Michael V. Hayden (any others?) have those similar-looking fat, bald heads?
NeoCon Cabezas?

Third:
Da Vinci?
Straight or Queer?
Saint or Sinner?

Fourth:
Hoffa?
Dead or Alive?
Lost or Found?

Fifth:
Immigration?
???
???

NEW AND IMPROVED POISONS

I have become jaded and tired.
I know I will write tomorrow...
or the day after tomorrow.
But the fire...the faucet...the river...the muse...
You see what I mean.
I have grown tired of criticizing George W. Bush,
but I know my critiques will continue,
because the lies and cover-ups will continue to manifest
their base and baneful countenances.
The Long War President will fall
below his present (approval) poll number of 29%.
But Rove and Cheney are in their laboratories...
cooking up their new and improved potions
(or poisons).

STOP THE JUGGERNAUT

"Eventually we will win the campaign in Iraq."
"Iran is the centerpiece of our future."
"We need to control spending."
"This country has more than enough money to do what it needs to do."
"I think there are problems in both parties."
"I'm not ruling out running."
Newt Gingrich/MEET THE PRESS/5/14/06

Newt Gingrich for president?
That's a scary thought.
Hilary Clinton for president?
That's a scarier thought.
Condoleeza Rice for president?
That's an even more scary thought.
But closer to home and to the present moment is the 2006 Congressional election.
The Bush regime has two years to continue its erosion of
(in the words of George W. Bush)
that "Godamned piece of paper"...
called the Constitution of the United States.
The erosion can stop if voters vote overwhelmingly for Democrats to regain a majority in either the Senate or House of Representatives.
The Long War President is immune to censure and impeachment right now.
He will continue to smirk and shirk.
But the tsunami’s tide can change in November.
Vote to STOP THE IMPERIAL JUGGERNAUT!

GEORGE W. BUSH IS NOT A FUHRER

"So the issue is bigger than Bush. With military bases in 130 countries, it has become necessary for America's commander in chief to match the ambitions of a state aspiring toward full-spectrum dominance – and the unprecedented control of earth and space."

"Bush has, during his tenure so far, issued signing statements on 750 laws – and vetoed zero. He has thus revised over twice as many laws as did his father and Bill Clinton combined, while becoming the first president since Thomas Jefferson, over 200 years ago, to not veto a single bill."
May 8, 2006
Empire Breeds the Emperor
Bush's excesses and how to correct them
by Christopher Deliso
balkanalysis.com

All right, I know that George W. Bush is not a fuhrer.
I have pinned that word onto the Long War President as a result
of his words, actions and attitudes.
Cheney and the LWP do not admit ANY wrongs.
Nor does the cellophane-voiced Donald Rumsfeld or Miss ominous-eyed (mushroom cloud lady) Condoleeza Rice.
The whole bunch is an arrogant and imperial regime.
The American people now see clearly through the dark glass behind which these deceivers and malefactors have been hiding.
The Poll of Bush is approaching zero.
That number is the measure of this fuhrer's...
I mean of this president's stature and credibilty.
George Walker Bush is a pathetic and shameless naked ape .

TIM DUNCAN

I am amazed by the aplomb of Tim Duncan.
This star of the San Antonio Spurs rarely changes his staid facial expression.
And he rarely looks tired.
Duncan is as cool as ice when he's on fire.
O.K.
Sometimes he will show some irritation when a referee has made a bad call,
or if another player has played "dirty".
And he did show some emotion Saturday night in game 3 with the Dallas Mavericks when the Spurs finally took the lead in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
But Tim Duncan is mostly the epitome of equanimity.
I wonder what Mr. Duncan looks like when he chills.
A statue?

THE FUROR OF THE FUHRER

Here is Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on April 6, 2006:
Nadler: Number two, can you assure us that there is no warrantless surveillance of calls between two Americans within the United States?
Gonzales: That is not what the president has authorized.
Nadler: Can you assure us that it's not being done?
Gonzales: As I indicated in response to an earlier question, no technology is perfect.
Nadler: OK.
Gonzales: We do have minimization procedures in place...
Nadler: But you're not doing that deliberately?
Gonzales: That is correct.
-------
Here was the headline on the front page of USA TODAY Fri/Sat/Sun 12-14, 2006:
Furor erupts over NSA's secret phone call database.
I thought how the word Furor might be substituted with the word Fuhrer.
Wouldn't the headline make just as much sense?
More sense?:
Fuhrer erupts over NSA's secret phone call database.
George W. Bush, almost cowering at an unscheduled stop in front of cameras, said yesterday [5/11/06]:
"The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities''.
Our Long War President is now behaving more and more like an upset fuhrer.
Americans don't seem that upset...YET.
"Hey, I'm not doing anything wrong or illegal...Sure...Let the fuhrer and his agency record my phone number...
They aren't listening, so what's the harm?"
Ah...just what the Long War President and his regime like to hear.
Scare 'em...
Scare 'em some more..
And they will do what we say...
They’ll like what we do...
And accept what I DECIDE.
Well, maybe.
Maybe something traumatic will happen again.
The fuhrer and his regime will then tell us:
"See...we wanted to protect you...but the leakers and the media have been giving away our secrets...
And NOW YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH ANOTHER TRAGEDY!"
It's not the regime's fault.
It's the fault of the leakers and the fault-finding critics.
Who will you vote for now?

BUSH AND BIG BROTHER ARE LISTENING

"The NSA has been spying on Americans for decades and Echelon has had the capability to track every communication in real time for at least ten years."

Alex Jones & Paul Joseph Watson, 12/20/05, prisonplanet.com

Mad Plato has just learned that Homeland Security's TIA (or
Terrorist Information Awareness) has been monitoring some recent phone calls made by Mad Plato.
Words that are inside of TIA's computer database, which indicate some type of potential terrorist activity, will trigger the computers to cherry-pick such words out of the air from telephone conversations, and then store them inside of TIA computers for review and analysis.
Here are some pieces of conversations that have been intercepted by TIA:

"Hi Mad Plato. Boy, the party at Sharon's last week was a real bomb!"

"By the way, Bill, were you planning to fire any rockets this Fourth
of July?"

"Yes, Bill, I'll be heading with Aziz, Mark, and Robin to the retreat
next week."

"Wow! I bet you had a blast in Spain last weekend."

So, citizens, be careful what you say on the telephone. Homeland Security is listening to you.
What you say may reward you with a visit by an agent of Homeland Security.
Wait, I hear a knock at my door right nOw...and the phone is ringing.
I must go.
Goodbye.

TROLLING MINING AND BUSH'S BIG BLACK BOOK

The Long War President not only has a very long and wooden nose that is getting longer and longer by the lying minute, but he also has some VERY LARGE eyes and ears.
Very large ears...
a very small brain...
an even tinier soul!
The LWP is not mining or trolling…
or quail shooting.
CITIZENS!
ALL OF YOU ARE UNDER MY SCRUTINY.
DO NOT ASK WHAT I AM DOING.
I AM PROTECTING YOU FROM OSAMA AND AL QAEDA!
I DECIDED TO DO THAT AFTER 9/11.
I AM YOUR DECIDER!
I AM YOUR SPY-IN-CHIEF!
TRUST ME.
BELIEVE IN ME.
VICTORY WILL BE MINE!
GO AHEAD…MAKE THAT PHONE CALL!
IT IS GETTING EASIER AND EASIER TO BE A...
DICTATOR!

THUMBSUCKERS!

Donald Rumsfeld is no thumbsucker.
He is an arm and hand waver.
He is a joker...
But he's not a midnight toker.
(Can you hear Steve Miller singing?)
The roof could be falling down and the floor falling in, but Mr. Rumsfeld would still give us a smile and some laconic soundbite.
His feathers are not easily ruffled.
Generals come and go, but people such as Donald Rumsfeld stay.
Donald Rumsfeld might be (or do) some of the following:
He's a wolf in sheep's clothing.
He's a wooly and wily bureaucrat.
He's a nonplused "never make any mistakes" fellow.
He's an enigmatic speaker:
"But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."
He's sometimes dumb and dumber:
"I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won't last any longer than that."
Sometimes he can be right on the money:
"It is easier to get into something than to get out of it."
He's guilty of war crimes.

THE REAL UNREAL UNBELIEVABLE NEWS

"The real news, which is not reported in the CNN "mainstream", is that the Salvador Option has been invoked in Iraq. This is the campaign of terror by death squads armed and trained by the US, which attack Sunnis and Shias alike. The goal is the incitement of a real civil war and the breakup of Iraq, the original war aim of Bush's administration."

Return of the Death Squads: Iraq’s Hidden News
by John Pilger
www.dissidentvoice.org
May 5, 2006
First Published in The New Statesman

GEORGE W. BUSH DRUGS AND VICENTE FOX

GWB: Vicente, this is George W. Bush.
VF: Yes, Mr. President. Buenas dias.
GWB: Vicente, what did I say about speaking Spanish?
VF: Oh, si, Mr. President. I forgot.
GWB: O.K. But here's why I called. I don't want you to sign your new drug policy.
VF: But Mr. President, this is my decision.
GWB: No, Vicente, I AM THE DECIDER. You have to do what I decide.
VF: But this is my country and...
GWB: Do you want any foreign aid this year?
VF: Why of course.
GWB: Then don't make it legal for your people to use any pot, cocaine or heroin. Especially cocaine. I know what it can do.
VF: O.K.
GWB: Good. If you sign your permissive drug law, our citizens will flood into Mexico. I'm for free trade, but my people need to stay here and off of the drugs.
VF: Yes, Mr. President.
GWB: O.K. Fox. Sayonara and Adios.
Happy cinco de mayonnaise!

PICASSO

95.2 Million Dollars for a painting.
And we thought gas prices were high.
Picasso's "Boy With a Pipe" (1905) sold for $104.2 million in 2004.
This current canvas is titled "Dora Maar With Cat".
The cat is a little black thing. It looks real.
But Dora Maar looks like she's been in a bad accident.
Not a pretty face.
But that's the style of Picasso.
Twisting torsos---double chins and double noses---an eye here and an eye there.
One wonders what happened to Picasso that he started creating all of these strange-looking portraits.
His "Portrait of Olga in the Armchair" (1917) does not have all of thOse bizarre forms.
Picasso wrote: “I keep doing my best not to lose sight of nature. I want to aim at similarity, a profound similarity which is more real than reality, thus becoming surrealist.”
More real than reality.
Below is a short and rather inscrutable description that I wrote with Pablo Picasso in mind:
Cubism.
That stolid cucaracha
Of cubes and cuboids
Sitting and chewing its abstract cud
On a round cucking stool.
Cubism crawled into a cockeyed and curious cubbyhole
And came out of an ancient coughing cuckoo clock.
Who can ever calculate the damage done
By those who have cuddled this crazy
Cubic cucumber from Picasso's chain-smoking palette?

IMPEACHMENT

"Numerous religious organizations and interfaith groups have opposed the Bush administration's invasion and occupation of Iraq. The next prophetic step of these people of faith should also be to initiate their own movements to censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney and call for impeachment proceedings. For the sake of Iraq and Iran and North Korea-and America, it is time to stop President Bush from "praying for peace."

"Resolving disputes peacefully was the first thing out of President Bush's mouth and apparently the last thing on his mind. His pre-war public posture was that of a man of faith and peace. At his March 6, 2003 news conference, he said, "I pray daily. I pray for wisdom and guidance and strength. . . . I pray for peace. I pray for peace." (The New York Times, Mar. 7, 2003) Two weeks later he ordered the bombing of the Iraqi people and the invasion of their country."

"A growing body of evidence reveals that it is not about spreading freedom but falsehoods to deceive the American people and justify the war crimes being committed against the Iraqi people. The latest revelation was aired April 23, 2006 by CBS News television program "60 Minutes," in an interview with Tyler Drumheller, a top CIA officer. Drumheller headed an operation that established a covert relationship with a paid informant, Foreign Minister Naji Sabir, a member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle. "He told us that they have no active weapons of mass destruction program," Drumheller said.

"Some six months before America invaded Iraq, C.I.A. Director George Tenet delivered Foreign Minister Sabir's critical intelligence news at a meeting attended by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, then National Security Advisor. But they were only interested in intelligence that would justify their decision to invade Iraq. Drumheller stated, "The group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said, 'They're no longer interested.' And we said, 'Well, what about the intel?,' And they said. 'Well, this isn't isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.'"

Time for People of Faith to Censure Bush:
Praying for Peace or Preying on Peace?
By Rev. WILLIAM A. ALBERTS, Ph.D.
Weekend Edition/CounterPunch.com
April 29 / 30, 2006

"Well, so much for "fly-paper" or "fighting them over there" or attacking Iraq to end terror. The US government is now admitting that the Bush war in Iraq is generating anti-Western Terrorism. So far Madrid and London have been hit over it, and that is only the beginning. The jihadis getting training fighting Marines in Iraq will be a threat for decades, all over the world."
Informed Comment.com/Juan Cole, Professor of History University of Michigan


President Bush's Speech
6 October 2005:

[Words between brackets are by Mad Plato.]

The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity, and we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror.
[Of course, this was not true before I bombed Iraq!]

Evil men who want to use horrendous weapons against us are working in deadly earnest to gain them. And we're working urgently to keep weapons of mass destruction out of their hands.
[You may ask "What about North Korea and India?” They don’t have petroleum.]

With every random bombing and with every funeral of a child it becomes more clear that the extremists are not patriots or resistance fighters. They are murderers at war with the Iraqi people themselves.
[ But America is your liberator! America is your Freedom-Spreader! I am your Decider!]

In Iraq, there is no peace without victory. We will keep our nerve and we will win that victory.
[And there is no victory without war!]

Throughout history, tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that murder is justified to serve their grand vision. And they end up alienating decent people across the globe.
[I've alienated decent people across the globe.]

Tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that regimented societies are strong and pure until those societies collapse in corruption and decay.
[The U.S. is not far behind.]

We don't know the course of our own struggle, the course our own struggle will take, or the sacrifices that might lie ahead.
[But many lies lie behind us in my own struggle!]

We do know, however, that the defense of freedom is worth our sacrifice. We do know the love of freedom is the mightiest force of history. And we do know the cause of freedom will once again prevail.
[Do you hear me Iran?]

HOUSECLEANING TIME

Begin buying your boats and canoes.
Learn how to swim.
The water tables are rising.
The ice caps are melting.
Yes, the sky is falling.
You and I are at fault.
Our planet is heating up because we drive our cars to work and shop at Wal-Mart.
We make the machines and we demand the fuel!
Enjoy life while it's here.
Polar bears are in big trouble.
The dolphins are in trouble.
The human race is in trouble.
It's housecleaning time.
Mother earth is going to cleanse herself.
The filthy, CO2-spewing saps called humans have to shape up or ship out.
Cash in your chips.
Take that last vacation.
Pay the piper.
Party hard.
Kiss your gaseous butts goodbye!

COCONUTS AND ROCK AND ROLL

Keith Richards fell out of a coconut tree and suffered a concussion.
Maybe it's not a joke, but it's funny.
Mr. Richards had to climb the tree in order to fall out of it.
Was he climbing the coconut tree to get high?
Or was he high when he climbed it?
Picking coconuts?
Keith Richards is a 62 year-old rock and roller.
He started rocking and rolling with Mr. Jagger about fifty years ago.
Mr. Richards...stay on the ground...
Stay out of the trees!

NO MORE NUKES

"The Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon, the capacity to make a nuclear weapon, or the knowledge as to how to make a nuclear weapon." George W. Bush/April 28, 2006


And if Iran does have any of the above, the Long War President will drop his nuclear weapons on their batty and bombastic butts.
Of course, America's nuclear weapons will be utilized for the peace and security of the world.
And it won't matter if these pre-emptive nukes begin WORLD WAR III.
God is (still) on our side.
Allah is on the wrong side.
Onward Forward...

MILK AND GAS

I bought me a cow.
So I've got milk.
But I also have a gas station.
I put a contraption on the rear of my cow to trap the methane.
That gas goes to a nearby tank.
It takes about 24 hours to "capture" enough gas to fill up my vehicle's tank.
Gas and Milk...what a great combination!
O.K. I didn't buy a cow.
I don't have milk or gas.
But it's something to think about.

CONMEN AND OILMEN

Congressional Conmen want to give me a rebate.
$100.
Sure, I'll take it.
I can fill my 6-Cylinder truck two times with the C-note.
The frugal conmen don't want to offend the avaricious oilmen.
Having the Long War President and all the rest of the government wailing and whining about the rising gas prices is nothing less than pathetic and ostentatious window-dressing.
On second thought....forget that $100 rebate.
I don't want the conmen and the oilmen to feel as though they have wiped and assuaged the brow of one struggling taxpayer.
I don't want your breadcrumbs.
I don't want your patronizing and petty payoffs.
Do something real.
Convert your profit-sucking internal combustion engines into anti-global warming vehicles.
Think about your grandchildren and their grandchildren, and not just about your bulging bank accounts!

MY JOB IS TO MAKE DECISIONS

“George Bush has become something of an embarrassment.”
Tony Snow
11/11/05]

Welcome aboard Tony Snow.
But enter at your own peril.
You are the new spokesperson for a ship of fools.
You're a Fox recruit by the Long War President.
Your name is a fitting one for your new job: Giving Snow jobs.
Nothing personal.
But the Bush gang is slipping fast, going down for the last count, with nooses getting tighter and tighter around their collective and collusive collars.
And the glaciers and ice caps are rapidly melting.
More snow...more
Snow!

THERE'S NO MAGIC WAND TO WAVE AT BUSH ADDICTIONS

Bush's top officials openly assert that he can do anything he wants--including attacking another country--on his authority as Commander in Chief.
Attack Iran, Ignore the Constitution/Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith/The Nation


All words between quotation marks were spoken by our Long War President George W. Bush. Words between brackets are by Mad Plato.

1. "America is addicted to oil."
[I'm addicted to war.]
2. "America is addicted to oil."[I'm addicted to breaking laws.]
3. "America is addicted to oil."
[I'm addicted to using bad grammar.]
4. “It’ll take time to restore chaos...” - Washington, DC - White House South Lawn - Remarks upon Arrival from Camp David - 4/13/03 [I'm addicted to restoring chaos quickly.]
5. “Natural gas is...hemispheric...” - Austin, TX - President-Elect Press Conference - 12/20/2000
[I'm not.]
6. "Ethanol is good for the whole country." [I'm not.]
8. "We need an energy bill that encourages consumption." -Trenton, N.J., Sept. 23, 2002
[And I've given you one!]
9. "The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway." Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004
[I just help them out.]
10. "Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction." -Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003
[Is America a free nation?]
11. "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." -Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001
"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." -Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002
[I really don't know what the hell I'm saying.]

AND...
Journalists at a Columbia University event are worried that, Bush, Rove and Cheney, if they thought they were going to lose the House in November and face serious investigations into their crimes and deceits, would do something treasonous, like launching a war against Iran, or perhaps allowing another major terrorist attack against a U.S. target, so that they could then clamp down further on domestic freedom and ramp up jingoistic support among their wavering base.
Dave Lindorff


There is considerable evidence that military action against Iran has already started. Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner (ret.) told CNN that "the decision has been made and military operations are under way." He said the Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency recently told him that the Iranians have captured dissident units "and they've confessed to working with the Americans." Journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in The New Yorker that "American combat troops are now operating in Iran." He quotes a government consultant who told him that the units were not only identifying targets but "studying the terrain, and giving away walking-around money to ethnic tribes, and recruiting scouts from local tribes and shepherds.

article | posted April 21, 2006 (web only)
Attack Iran, Ignore the Constitution/Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith/The Nation

A VISIT TO THE PODIATRIST

I went to the foot doctor today.
The price was a hand and foot.
No, the price was both hands and both feet.
Feet are important, I know.
And the price to pay for their analysis and treatment is reflective of this importance.
Here's the price list of my visit:
X-Ray Foot 2 views: $55
X-Ray Ankle series: $150
Injection Fascia, Tendon: $115
Injection Hydrocortisone: $5
Strapping Foot/Ankle: $52
Diagnosis Plantar Fascitis/Fibromatosis: $728.71 (Why don't they just round off the price? Why the 71 cents?)
Total: $1105.71
Popcorn: Free
I'm going back to college.
I want to be a foot doctor.

KINGDUMB OF BUSH

George W. Bush
Humpty-Dumpty

Rice and Cheney
Jekyll & Hyde

Hoochie-coochie & Rigamarole

Riffraff & Razzle-Dazzle
Karl Rove

Razzmatazz & Mamby-pamby
Donald Rumsfeld

Colin Powell
Window dressing on Smoke and Mirrors

Torture Jails and Fairy Tales
Mazes and Labyrinths

United States of America
United States of Amnesia

Land of the Brave
Home of the Gas Guzzler

Bring 'em on
Smoke 'em out

Hide the secrets
Bury the lies

Bring 'em to Justice
Dead or Alive

Steal the oil
In the Global War
Against Terrorism!

VACATIONS

Congress is still on vacation.
But they have a lot more eggs to hide.
Maybe they should stay on vacation until Christmas.
Save the country some money.
The president ought to start a long vacation, too.
The Long War President should relax.
Mollify those motions (and emotions) to push any bomb-buttons.
Dick Cheney should go shoot some more birds.
Let those pent-up aggressions dissipate.
The "contemptuous, arrogant and dismissive" Rumsfeld (in the words of Ret. Major General John Batiste) should go on permanent vacation. Mr. Rumsfeld has lots of loot from his connections with Aspartame and Tamiflu.
Ms. Rice should go on tour and play the piano (and quit scaring other world leaders with her ominous orbs).
Finally, let our soldiers begin their vacation.

THE FIRST EARTH DAY

"We only have one earth, so we need to take care of her."
That's what Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin believed. He was disturbed that an issue as important as our environment was not addressed in politics or by the media, so he created the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended festivities that day. It was a truly astonishing grassroots explosion, leading eventually to national legislation such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.


I remember that first Earth Day.
I was living in Boulder, Colorado.
The most salient memory is of the many Geodesic Domes.
All of those triangles interconnected!
The dream-come-true of any hippie!
A couple of years later, when I was living alone in a quiet one-room "cottage" along Boulder Creek, I had an experience that truly put me in touch with the Earth.
It was a frosty white winter evening.
I was driving my Datsun truck and saw two people asking for a ride (their thumbs extended).
I stopped and asked where they needed to go.
They pointed ahead and said "Sugarloaf Road".
"Get in", I said.
His wife's name was Heidi. I forget his. But I won't forget his huge, red beard that was almost down to his knees.
When I stopped, they invited me to visit their home.
We walked through the snow-laden forest for about quarter of a mile.
"It's over there", said the long-bearded husband.
"Where?", I asked.
"That round circle on the ground", Heidi replied.
Her husband lifted a "door" and they invited me to come in.
Inside this hole dug into the earth was their home.
It was Z-shaped.
A small mattress sat on the top part of the Z. I sat here.
A treadle sewing machine was at the bottom of the Z.
"We put a Tepee on top when winter ends", Heidi said.
Then Heidi's husband showed me a round object covered with colorful "strings".
The strings were copper wires.
The round object was a small bicycle wheel.
"What is it?, I asked.
"It's this", he said.
And he handed me a small metal box.
"It's a bio-feedback machine".
I stared in disbelief at both objects.
"My company is called Psionics", he said.
It was the very first biofeedback machine. I felt honored.
I didn't stay long.
Heidi and her husband walked with me part way down the path from their home.
I was walking back to my truck astonished, when out of the cold blue evening sky a bolt of lightning struck just a few feet in front of me.
This thunderbolt out of Heaven was as remarkable as that meeting in the Earth.

OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES

It's the same vintage.
Just new vessels.
Scott McClellan was stumbling too much over Bush prevarications and had to resign.
Rove (allegedly) is now only in the Domestic hemisphere of Bush's brain.
The Iraq War is spending billions of citizens' tax dollars every 168 hours.
The rich pay far less for the Iraq occupation relative to what middle-class Americans pay.
The Petroleum industry, befriended by Bush from the very beginning of his occupation of the White House, is doing very nicely.
Gas shot up 17 cents in one day!
Oh, well.
Get used to it.
Bush & Company (or The Bush Crime Family according to some critics on the Left) wants to blow Iran off of the planet before it gets a nuke.
Some lefties are even alleging that Bush is taking drugs.
Let's hope that these drugs are the calming kind.
Peace on Earth...
Only 248 days until Christmas!

BAD DICTION

This post is from many years back.  I wanted to give myself some comic relief amidst the present political maelstrom.

"I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation.
But I'm the decider (not dictator [sic]) and I decide what's best." 
 Rose Garden, Washington D.C., April 18, 2006

The Long War President has spoken.

He hears the voices!

But the voices he hears are not delivering fine-tuned language.

Is decider an actual word in the English language?

Yes.

Is it a very good word?

Not really.

But the Long War President is in the habit of using bad words.

Not bad as in scatological. Just bad.

As in bad diction.

Examples:

1. "If the terriers and bariffs (barriers and tariffs) are torn down, this economy will grow." 
Rochester, New York, January 7, 2001

2. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." 
-Washington, D.C., 5 August 2004


3. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country." 
-Campaign speech at Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 6 September 2004

4. "I can only speak to myself." 
-George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005

5. "We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better do our job. That's what I'm telling you." 
-George W. Bush, Gulfport, Miss., Sept. 20, 2005

6. "I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep on the soil of a friend." 
-George W. Bush, on visiting Denmark, Washington D.C., June 29, 2005

7. "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." 
-George W. Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005

8. "It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way." 
-George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005

9. "But Iraq has - have got people there that are willing to kill, and they're hard-nosed killers. And we will work with the Iraqis to secure their future." 
-George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005

10. "Who could have possibly envisioned an erection - an election in Iraq at this point in history?" 
-George W. Bush, at the White House, Washington, D.C., Jan. 10, 2005

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND DICTION