I believe the 2012 elections will be hailed as the greatest tragi-comedy in American history…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:54 PM Permalink

…And writing of the political scene over the seemingly interminable period of time up to the elections will be even easier than time travel. I mean there are what, about two-thousand and three republican candidates for the teabagger-gop-ers to lay waste to before they even get around to lashing out against Obama with the renewed vigor of a rabid squirrel trying to crack his nuts or the nuts of someone else. It is laughable and thoroughly entertaining to see so many clowns taking themselves so seriously as they try to hold two inapposite positions on almost every issue.

I am slightly disappointed, as I'm certain Tina Fey is as well, that Sawah Pawin has not entered the race for the conservative, über righteous religious rightwingers who believe her entirely and without question when she recounts the heroic tale of Paul Revere and his stern, shouted, and megaphoned warnings to the British that they had better not even attempt to take away our arms. Let this edify those insipid liberals who actually believed the contrived claptrap of that flaming liberal Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) when he wrote in part:

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,–
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."
…

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Now I ask you, who the hell would lend any credence to a twisted tale of a legendary event until it has been subjected to review and correction by a historian of Sawah's standing and obvious all-encompassing knowledge and ability to correctly interpret American History? Just because she might have a different understanding of the words "wadsworth" and "longfellow" doesn't mean that she can't shoot wolves, foxes, and small harmless creatures from the comfort of a low and slow flying aircraft using the high powered rifles that Paul Revere warned the British we would not relinquish until the very last liberal was dead.

It is regrettable that old Huckabee and his revisionist comedic rewriting of history to reveal Ronnie Raygun as the true pioneer that discovered America, settled it, expanded it, and wiped out most of the trespassing indigenous populations of Native Americans unable to provide birth certificates and thus prove themselves citizens and landowners won't be running for the nomination. The sheer heroism of Reagan is certain to be revered in comic books everywhere since that medium, also referred to as graphic novels, is the chosen means by which Huckabee has chosen to educate our children, the handicapped, the ill, the infirm, the elderly, and the homeless who perpetuate those lifestyles out of laziness and the desire for America to be a welfare state. Yes sir, he will soon disabuse all the unfortunate and persons in need of the notion that Jesus would do anything whatever to alleviate their plight and aid them in rising out of poverty and into the now perilously-hanging-on-by-the-skin-of-their-teeth "middle class" while simultaneously espousing the destructive policies that are and will continue to ravage that very same middle class.

See what I mean when I say republican teabagger-gop-ers are fully able to hold two inapposite positions at the same time?

And speaking of time, I'm going time traveling for a while now so I'll undoubtedly see you before you see me again.

Ciao, bella ámi.

QUERY: What kind of statement or comment does it make regarding Dylan Ratigan in view of the fact that the theme music for his show is a short track of Uriah Heep's 1972 song Easy Living? He may be living easy but the reality that the majority of his viewers probably aren't just strikes me as ironic. Really, moog synthesizers playing the intro to a serious news program?

Labels: birthers, citizenship, class warfare, fear mongering, flip-flops, hypocrisy, mickey rourke, military tales, revisionist history, snark, teabagger-gop-er

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Rolling Stone reveals Jedi mind tricks being used to finance Afghanistan War…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:12 PM Permalink

…and has even gone to the extent of naming names, such as Sen. John McCain (need I say more?), Sen. Joe Lieberman (cain't keep an old, well slavered, warhorse like Smokin' Joe from smokin' 'em up on his submarine port), Sen. Jack Reed (some people just need to retire), Rep. Steve Israel (they take 'em young and dumb, too), Sen. Carl Levin and Admiral Mike Mullen (there's that need to retire thing again), and, last on my list and the only dubious candidate, Sen. Al Franken, the only man in the Senate to have watched all six Star Wars flicks and way too smart to fall for an old Jedi mind trick.

I watched Senator Franken (on a speeded-up tape probably two-three minutes long of a much longer event) where, while joking with and responding to the comments of those close to him, he drew a complete map of the United States of America from memory (I actually frantically dug out a map of the U.S. for comparison. 'Twas perfect as hand drawn can be); one of the single-most amazing thing I ever saw and I would bet hard money that no other member of the legislative, judicial, or executive branches of government could duplicate.

I can just see military men in camouflaged ponchos darting from one potted plant to another calling gently, "Joe Lieber-m-a-n-n-n…(slowly trailing off into what sounds like the hiss of a snake).

Sen Lieberman would turn toward the potted plant and kneel in deference, though he would seem to be tying is shoes, and say, "Command me, my Dark Master, bend my mind, my will, my body in any way that you desire…"

"There will be a committee meeting today discussing reducing the funding of our sacred, holy war against simple Afghani people that will impact severely on the heroin trade there."

"What do you desire, my Dark Master, and where did you get that camouflaged poncho? That's slammin', my Master."

"I'll order you one, now shut up and listen, you will do whatever it takes to sustain our funding level…remember, grasshopper, there is no fun without funding, so take one for the team, even if you must abandon the democratic party…do you understand?"

"Yes, my mother…uh…Master, yeah, that's it, my Dark Master, I shall obey gladly."

"Great! Now when you stand up from worsh - tying your shoe grab Admiral Mike Mullen and send him to tie his boots here so we can chat long."

"As you command, my Dark Master." Lieberman turns, sees Mullen coming down the hall, and congenially calls him over.

"Well, hey, Joe, what can I do for you," asked the Admiral.

Joe walked over, grabbed Mullen's "package", squeezing it twice, causing the Admiral's eyes to glaze over and his posture to become relaxed. Then Joe told him, "It's your turn at the potted plants, Mike…make it so."

The Admiral slowly replied, as if in a trance, "Yes, Joe, I will go to the plant to tie my boots and I will listen and follow all orders from our Dark Master."

Joe, eyes still glazed gives a simple wave of his hand as the Admiral knelt in supplication to the plant with the soldier in a completely camouflaged poncho.

And you wondered how we finance our wars.

Ciao, bella ámi.

Labels: betrayal, bush war doctrine, disinformation, DOJ liars, hypocrisy, Iraq war crimes, iraq war fraud, lieberman, lies, propaganda, rant

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But hey, look at how stirred up (I think the word is "incited") people are getting all over the place courtesy of the teabaggers…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:19 PM Permalink

…whom somehow have discovered the secret to releasing their oral death-grip on the particular teabag they happened to be sucking on and taking all that energy to continue wreakin', freakin', tweakin', and creatin' the mayhem and misery that is their stock in trade. They have become so expert at sucking that blowing hot air gives them both respite and the time for large groups of teabaggers to string together a grammatically correct sentence of more than four words, provided those four words have nothing to do with honesty, commonsense, nor morality.

Let's showcase a fine example of how mean-spirited, cruel, unpatriotic, stupid, shortsighted, and foul these bastards are:

1: The teabagging-rethug-gop-ers were just days ago crowing from the rooftops that the House had succeeded in repealing that awful, communistic, socialist, Satanist health law of the despotic, wanna-be-President/Dictator/Muslim sympathizer Hussein Obama and his surreptitious democratic health care co-conspirators. A teabagger-rethug-gop-er activist judge managed to declare the legislation unconstitutional and thus ensured that 33 Million more of their fellow Americans, the mortal enemies they wish to crush, see driven before them (into the Gulf of Mexico if it's still there), and to hear the lamentations of democratic women as they, their children, and families die horrible deaths choking on the oil the teabaggers-rethugs-gop-ers are all too happy to provide at any cost.

The reason for the overturning of the statute? The courts claim that the government cannot force people to PAY for that insurance!

2. Within two days these same teabagger-rethugs-gop-ers proposed legislation that would not only require EVERYBODY to have a gun, THE LAW STATES CITIZENS HAVE TO PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW! PRECISELY the grounds that merited overturning health care reform. AND citizens would have to break their already-stretched budgets to buy very expensive guns!

Now, now. I don't want any teabaggers out there to drop into their characteristically insipid and rapidly disappearing intelligence mode (as if they ever possessed any intelligence in the first place) and start talking that wild-eyed crazy bat shit that the governments (federal and state) can't and don't make citizens pay for everything the government does, i.e., taxes for infrastructure, licenses for hunting, driving a car, licensing a car, boat, or motorcycle, getting a driver's license, sales taxes on virtually everything that is bought or sold, food, gas, electricity, water, ever higher tuitions to pursue a decent education. Hell one of their major sources of income are the fines, levies, and assessments ordered everyday by courts just like the courts where this teabagging piece of shit judge sit, and thousands of other like-minded jurists breathing our air in their sandcastles in the sky and trying to figure out how to tax oxygen.

Hello…hello…anyone home? bueller…buellar…bueller…oh hell, he's out with his girlfriend so we can levy even more fines, penalties, and he's having unprotected sex so his girl will become just another welfare queen driving her 1973 Buick down to pick up her Midas-like check and blow it on all the many, many drugs we have to bust her on now and in the future when she buys her state-ordered Cadillac at taxpayers expense. She'll be a permanent cog in the government money making schemes run by the courts that rule against her and her family.

What? Say it can't happen? Shit it was the God of the rethuglican party, Ronnie Raygun, that identified this existential threat to our republic. And everyone knows he was just kidding when, on national television, he admitted trading military-grade weaponry to TERRORISTS in order to get the Iranians to hold all the hostages so Ronnie would become a mythic, god-like…no…better than god-like statesman when immediately after Carter left office all the hostages were released on inauguration day after Ronnie was erected…uh, ELECTED, that's it! The erection came later when he was alone in the Oval Office…and he didn't need no Monica!

This is a neat little paradox or dichotomy or paradoxical dichotomy or whatever. Never could get the relationship of those words. It'll be fun watching those teabaggers talk out both sides of their mouth at the same time, dontchaknow.

Ciao, bella ámi.

Labels: activism, corruption, Courts, foreign policy, freedom from religion, freedom of religion, Freedom of speech, gutless cowards, health care reform, hypocrisy, war crimes, worthless teabaggers

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Let's try this again: R-E-M-O-R-S-E!

posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:40 PM Permalink

Those dry Martinis did the work for me;
Last night at twelve I felt immense,
Today I feel like thirty cents.
My eyes were bleared, my coppers hot,
I'll try to eat, but I cannot.
It is no time for mirth and laughter,
The cold, gray dawn of the morning after.
Sultan of Sulu (1903) act 2, p. 63 [not the Star Trek guy, Bill]
by George Ade 1866-1944

Got that? It is no time for mirth and laughter, (T)he cold, gray dawn of the morning after. We have arrived, as I expected we would, at the cold, gray dawn of the morning of Obama's presidency. It ain't a pretty sight, is it, watching a president humble and abase himself before his republican masters? Kissing ass has been the signature hallmark of his tenure, so HE learned something, unlike the hundred of thousands of students who probably have been priced right out of the classroom and have only learned that NO ONE, NO ONE, NO ONE can be trusted to keep even the simplest or innocently-made promise once they actually enter office.

"A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer." (Dean Acheson 1893-1971, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Sept 8, 1977.) They need to change the song to, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas," to I'm Dreaming of a Pink and Yellow Christmas" so all the little chirrun will understand that the shredding and consequent blizzard of shredded memoranda copies is now a quaint, though relatively new, holiday tradition in America started by those blessed luminaries of American politics, gwb and the big Dick, who at last count STILL had truckload after truckload of shredded memos being removed from an address that officially doesn't exist. Now what could be more Christmas-e that a fat old bald, filthy rich guy dumping 300,000 pounds of confetti in your yard from a guy who's address you are not authorized to know - under penalty of water boarding and unlawful confinement in a third world country still willing to torture and maim in the name of democracy?

"The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot." (William Ralph Enge (Dean Inge) 1860-1954, in End of an Age (1948) ch. 2.) Wow! Is it just me or does this last quotation nail the teabagging-gop-ers to the cross they so falsely worship and represents everything which the rethugs are AGAINST?

"Power to the people." (Black Party Slogan circa 1961-1968 Weren't true then. Weren't true when John Lennon (IMHO the greatest songwriter of my time) said it. Ain't true now. Power accrues to the rich! Bill Arnett 1953- , s'okay I wanted to see my name in parentheses, ain't no thang, man.)

I guess for the rest of the time I exist, or not, in one of the most despised, ridiculed countries extant today and run with a malevolent malfeasance that only the gang-that-not-only-can't-shoot-straight-but-can-only-shoot-themselves-in-the-ass can muster.

It ain't much. But it's the New Democratic Party. The line for the knee pads and prophylactics…uh…late breaking news, the teabagging-gop-ers, fully supported by pResident Obama, has outlawed prophylactics as part of new legislation to increase forced enlistment of all the poor into both the republican party and, simultaneously, the U.S. Armed Forces, in preparation for World Domination by the Teabagger-gop-er Party.

Reminds me of an old high school cheer: "REGURGITATE! REGURGITATE! THROW UP ALL THE FOOD YOU ATE! V-O-M-I-T, VOMIT - BLEHHH!

Labels: Barack Obama, blackmail, Conservatives, GOP, hypocrisy, neocons, rant

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Skating away, skating away, skating away on the thin ice of a new day…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:27 PM Permalink

…(Jethro Tull)

The thin ice upon which America has been skating for decades has grown very thin indeed. Our legislative branch of the government is essentially useless, the same faces spouting the same rhetoric about phony bipartisanship has created a total gridlock. Our judicial branch is still aiding in this perfidy by hearing ever more bogus charges of vote-fixing or voter fraud, Obama's citizenship, don't ask-don't tell, and, during the bush era, seemed to tailor their rulings to conform with bush's desire to return to the Nixon days where, "…if the president does it it's not illegal…," and, further, aided the bush administration by allowing draconian legislation limiting our civil rights, rights to privacy, the right to expect that our homes will be inviolate unless a valid bench warrant has been approved by a judge after a review to assure there is probable cause for that entry into our domain, and the wiretapping of our calls overseas and observing our internet usage.

Now the teabagger-gop-ers have devolved to outright blackmail: If you won't blow up the budget with another 700 billion dollar shortage caused directly by more tax breaks for the wealthiest class in America, we will make sure all the unemployed will starve over Christmas by refusing to pass the legislation necessary to keep their benefit checks coming in.

I'm sure in the idyllic little vermin minds of republican leaders all those collecting benefits must be illegal aliens and democrats too used to the welfare state to go out and find a non-existant job that will support a family, but I think (hope) that the republicans standing out there in the dole lines will certainly recognize that that is not the case at all.

So for all the republicans returning to office asinine leadership that values your worth at ZERO, that would rather see you starve instead of living on the pittance the government might mete out, may you finally realize that a vote for a republican is a vote for misery and suffering for the poor, the infirm, those choosing between medicine and food, those losing their homes and all the rest of the seeming punishment of the poor for having defied the will of the rich, old, white man party called the KKK…er…gop.

Yes the Grand Old Party working hard with their allies, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Oil, and Big Assholes is blackmailing America without regard to the disaster brought upon this once proud nation that has been reduced to the playground of a political part that doesn't want to rule. They don't give a damn about ruling; witness the bush train wreck that almost destroyed America, made us the laughingstock of the world and, now, the Wikileaks show that other world leaders view us as their lapdog, easily goading our leaders into ever more terrible adventures.

No, they give not a twit for leading a formerly great nation back to greatness. No, they want to get the nation so drunk on the swill they produce that they can bend Lady America over a park bench, ravish and ravage her as they continue to loot America.

I do have just one question for these nutjobs: When the government of America collapses from within do you honestly believe all those dollars you are amassing at the expense of every citizen will be worth damn? That other nations will go crazy buying up more and more of America until the day our new foreign masters cast you aside like the used whore, Ameria, that you have kicked aside time and time again.

Labels: elections, hegemony, hypocrisy, inequality, rant

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"Well I can tell by your rusty zipper and the yella stains on your boots…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:55 PM Permalink

…that you either still have a bladder infection or a teabagger/gop problem. Either way ya got a problem. One is easy to handle with a regimen of penicillin, the other, apparently like a lingering infection of penicillin-resistant gonorrhea carried by and passed about among the teabaggers and gop-ers who cheat on their wives, mistresses, teenage boys and girls, and half-crazed, mutant, family-only bunny rabbit-like rapid breeders, and those who breathe through their mouths.

The gop-ers are already back-peddling and beginning to back away from the teabaggers, something I very much wish they would not do unless they continue with their ridiculous desire that Sawah Pale-one be their presidential candidate in 2012. I believe all Americans owe it to themselves to pledge to do everything within their power to insure the Pale-one is the candidate to which all the religious right-wing nuts, bigots, racists, misogynous, homophobic followers are sure to pledge their loyalty.

In 2012, switch parties briefly in order to vote for Sawah's nomination and then change back at your voter's registrar's office or simply vote against every republican on the ticket, starting at the top. Tell every pollster that might call that your rootin' tootin' fer sure voting for Sawah, no one else can save us.

gop-er leaders are ready making their contributions to enshrine Sawah and erect statues in her honor with all the brick-shitting they are doing now at the very though of such a scenario.

So get the word out that it's Sawah all the way and help a hardworking comedienne, Miss Tina Fey, continue to prosper leading up to the election and Sawah's crushing defeat (and no, "crushing de-feat is NOT a new big brave hunter's trick to disable wolves by crushing their feet so they can only hobble, and therefor, make an easier target of the wolfs to be shot from the safety of small airplanes in order to live as our ancient ancestors did).

Labels: elections, hypocrisy, mickey rourke, rant

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The new sophistry of using the word murder instead of kill to ascribe the death penalty…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:03 PM Permalink

…most, if not all, of our astute readers have heard in the MSM of the home invasion killings in Connecticut that has just resulted in the conviction of one for the killing of three. Ordinarily such a matter would not concern me - that's life and it ain't always pretty - but the comments of an elderly family member (who's relationship or right to speak on this matter would never be infringed upon by me) made what to me was a jaw-dropping point without a distinction while falsely claiming that American Law is based upon the Ten Commandments.

Paraphrasing slightly, but very close to what the gentleman said, "It's time to prove now that our laws are based on the Ten Commandments. The first Commandment says, 'Thou shalt not kill…" but I have learned through my readings that the Jewish word for kill is exactly the same as the Jewish word for murder, so what the First Commandment is really saying is that, "Thou shalt not murder," and not that thou shalt not kill.

My first thought was, "Wow! What a way to weasel your way around being 'pro-life' never-abort-a-baby-for-any-reason-even-if-the-mother's-health-is-in-dire-straights-and-or-the-baby-is-the-result-of-rape-or-incest and yet still reconcile a belief that "murderers" should die, leaving the clear implication that not all 'killings' are murders.

I have long wondered how people could hold two completely opposite principles, claim to support them both, yet ignore the fact that it matters not who does the killing or the murdering, another member of society is dead at the hands of society's agent or an independently acting agent.

So, though it's not necessarily germane here, I can only suppose this is the new rationale of the right that all baby-murderers MUST be 'killed' (not 'murdered'); a point without a distinction if I ever heard one.

I know that I am mixing together two entirely different matters, murder vs. abortion, but it's interesting to me to witness the sophistry used by teabaggers, gop-ers, the conservative religious right, and people personally affected by atrocious events not of their doing.

NOTE: Please don't get me wrong. I personally believe in both the right of a woman to choose to do as she will with her body and the death penalty. My stance on the death penalty is shocking to some people as I not only believe in it's use I believe it should be expanded to cover many, many more crimes than it does now. To me any crime of moral turpitude against children and women should result in the offenders death simply to remove the offender from the gene pool if for no other reason. Why should they live, be allowed to procreate, and make more monsters?

Ciao, bella ámi.

Labels: death penalty, disclosure, discourse, disinformation, hypocrisy, mickey rourke, politics, religious stupidity, republican lies

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Fear and (self) Loathing in the Voting Booth and the remarkable gutlessness of the GOP and the Teabaggers…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:19 PM Permalink

WARNING: I will be using racial epithets in writing this post, words that can be hurtful depending on context, but I am doing this to make a point I would find it difficult make otherwise. The reasons for use of these epithets is two-fold: first, to show the cowardice of the two above-mentioned political parties and, second, to show how the demonization of President Obama by any means possible borders on the insane, borrows the epithets of yesteryear, and makes only the most superficial changes in form or application to try to remain free of accusations that they are still naught but bigots, racists, and homophobes who find it easier to slander, insult, brand as evil, and use slightly modified epithets to make the same old Jim Crow thinly veiled threats, denigrate our fellow citizens, make their false projections as to where a candidate stands on issues, and to run yet another "Be afraid, be very afraid…" election, a GOP specialty.

The Con Game: It has been crystal clear that the only way the GOP/Teabaggers can win elections is not based upon legislation they wish to implement to benefit the least of us, restore fiscal sanity, rein in Big Banking, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Corporations, and, in general, do something good for the party.

They are exactly the same scams as the GOP used for self-aggrandizement, the rape and plunder of America, conducting illegal wars and bigger and better genocides. They're "clean", WASPs, and they aren't concerned with the fact that the GOP as led by bush/cheney made America the laughingstock of the world, got America rated as the top terrorist threat to the world, bankrupted the country with policies that called for stealing the resources of Iraq when they could have purchased them on the open market, tried to bring back the Nixon axiom that if a president does it, it's not illegal, and they sat and did nothing as our rights were so narrowed as to render many of those rights moot.

The 'code words' regarding racial issues continue to be used in demonizing an opponent that can outthink them any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Lie about any democrats intentions, deny the lie when caught and proven wrong, then go back to telling the same lies to be picked up and magnified by the media until the lie becomes 'common wisdom.'

Think of the things you hear virtually everyday and compare them to the epithets of old which these new code words have replaced.

Image: A dead monkey, shot several times by police, and a comment to the effect that someone else will have to be found to pitch health care because the dead monkey, in every bigot's mind signifies, "The Nigger is dead! The Nigger is dead! Oh, and this is so, so funny because we can display all the naked racial bigotry we want 'cause when them goddamn liberals accuses us of hating niggers we can tell 'em that it's only (snort, snort) a monkey, not our nigger president."

Open calls from GOP and teabaggers to do anything possible to make Obama fail and be a one-term nigger president thrown out onto the trash heap of history, up to and including actually shooting the nigger, and preparing for it by carrying guns to Obama rallies just in case they get a clear shot. Radical churches have openly prayed for Obama to be killed while the GOP and teabaggers openly state they wish to commit treason by assassinating Obama and operating to block every effort he makes to better the country, not because he's wrong necessarily, but because he's not a WASP and is therefore an uppity nigger. (Remember how the MSM went nuts when Obama appeared with the OHIO STATE FLAG behind him, a white flag with an 'O' with a rainbow running through the 'O' and openly breathlessly reported that obviously only a socialist despot would design his very own flag and flout it on national TV. Many faces were awfully red when it was revealed that Obama had nothing to do with the design or display of the Ohio State flag. I believe this marked a turning point for these two pernicious parties as they learned quickly that the nigger and related epithets were not going to be politically palatable with voters.

This is a real dilemma for these two parties. They can only conduct a whisper campaign about how this nigger is 1) not a citizen, 2) a practicing radical Muslim, and 3) a socialist on par with the worst despots in history. These became the new substitutes for 'those in the know' to use instead of the politically incompatible word nigger.

Images: Hitler in white-face or Obama in white face with a Hitler-type mustache. Intent: Tie the nigger to one of the most evil despots of last century and hope the use of the white-face will quell accusations of racism. Wink, wink.

Declare that Obama is not only not a citizen, but a radical Muslim educated in some of the most vile Muslim schools in existence. Oh, boy! This is almost as good as being able to openly call the president a nigger terrorist wanna-be, as the associations they sought to make were that Obama was not American at all, owed his allegiance to the Muslim world, and that every act of his was to undermine our democracy and take over as dictator.

Image: Lacking any genuine proof of any of the vile accusations they have made the rightwing then chooses to use the "Obama as The Joker" posters at rallies, getting the signs shown on TV as often as possible. It's so fucking ridiculous to people with a modicum of commonsense to portray Obama, again in white face, a la Al Jolson in blackface, as being as evil as an entirely fictional character, but it demonstrates again the desperation of the GOP/teabaggers to imply, "No nigger can run a country founded by white christian men and just to prove it we'll put the nigger in white-face to suffer derision and disgust at the thought of Obama being a cartoon bad guy."

Tactic: Smear Obama's wife and children as much as possible. "Oh, horrors! That bitch Michelle wore a sleeveless dress to a state function! Shows you niggers know nothing of maintaining even false pretensions when it comes to State affairs! Not only that, but they allowed, and Michelle physically helped, the kids plant a garden, a fucking garden, on some of the most hallowed ground in America! Only a nigger would so degrade the Whitehouse, but is it still the 'Whitehouse' when niggers move in?" (Actually asked by GOP/teabagger affiliated groups.)

My hunch, my beliefs, about the results to soon be forthcoming from the elections: Teabaggers have assumed an ever greater load of pure bigotry to do some heavy lifting for the GOP. Now the election time grows near and the teabaggers have, they believe, smeared, slimed, and set the stage for a massive turnover favoring them and the GOP.

I see it differently. Saner heads, and yes, there are some, within the GOP recognizes the threat presented by the teabaggers. The two parties will split the vote as sane conservatives realize that even THEY don't want the teabaggers in charge, as the vicious, insidious policies they would pursue (reversing health care, destroying social security, eliminating Medicare, etc.) would not only be detrimental for America but could be the straw that broke the proverbial camels back insofar as Americans finally and forever abandoning a party too mean, ugly, and self-serving to ever effectively lead a nation.

One, but not all, of the reasons I believe this is a recent poll that showed 11% of respondents to the poll thought the teabaggers could solve America's problems while 77% believe that there is no way teabaggers will ever be able to run and solve the problems of government. This means that over half of the existing teabagger party members themselves believe that their party is not going to help America solve any problems.

How the teabaggers and GOP can believe that, combined, they represent salvation for America in the face of statistics like that simply marks them for the fools and simpletons they are. If the teabaggers win two or three seats, drawing votes away from serious GOP candidates, they will never gain a majority in either house. I actually expect that the more people think about the consequences of returning America to the Dark Ages by electing any combination of GOP/teabaggers the more inclined they will be to vote democratic party candidates.

Serious GOP elders running the party already see the handwriting on the wall and have started backing away from the teabaggers, not appearing with teabaggers, not donating money to teabaggers or providing other support, and, now, recognizing that the split vote between the GOP and the teabaggers could likely result in democrats GAINING seats, not losing them.

Well, we'll find out next week, so if you will excuse me please it's time for me to send in my absentee ballot.

Note: It is best to NOT use a party line vote. If there is no democratic candidate for an office no vote would be recorded for you. I believe it more important to vote for every office, and to vote against any GOP or teabagger and vote for an independent, Green Party candidate; anyone but GOP or teabagger. I will be very interested in hearing counterarguments or differing opinions. Especially about the undercurrent of racism and bigotry.

Labels: elections, GOP, homophobia, hypocrisy, tea baggers

8 comments

Who ya gonna call - Joe Sestak! A Virginia Senate seat aspirant…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:34 PM Permalink

…who, in an interview on MSNBC, told it like it is: even though we have won a superficial victory in Iraq and have, supposedly, withdrawn the last of our combat troops, the cost of this war, estimated to be between $900,000,000 to $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars) does not yet include the massive health dollars that will be needed to provide even adequate, not great, medical care for the soldiers returning from this illegal war with Iraq. He estimates that it will require ANOTHER trillion dollars or so to provide that care as 25% of combat soldiers returning are suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain damage, and various maladies America is not yet prepared to treat.

I believe that this statement (loosely rewritten, but, I believe, substantially accurate) made by the Democratic candidate for the Virginia Senate Seat was also very bold in pointing out that Iraq was not a war of necessity and has caused a depletion of forces now and in the future, whom will need to be trained and equipped to handle any new threat that arises. He correctly notes that the Afghanistan War was necessary but that bush dropped the ball entirely when he diverted our limited resources to Iraq for a mythical weapons of mass destruction hunt (Old Boy Scouts will remember going out on 'snipe hunts' every bit as real as the search for WMDs.

Of course then the newsreader had to go to Douglas Feith, one of the lead former White House sycophants that broke every record, official or not, for blowing smoke up bush's ass with his entire head up there as well. This is not as easy as it sounds so I do wish to give him credit for performance of such an unsavory act eight years running.

And, just as expected, Feith defended bush with one of those tired, exhausted, dead-by-the-side-of-the-road-and-half-eaten-by-vultures-such-as-dick-cheney arguments that the pResident had weighed the possibility of Saddam having nuclear weapons, Saddam's propensity for attacking his neighbors (with weapons made by or in America' name and freely supplied to him, or supplied free to him, I can never keep that straight in my mind), read all the 'almost unanimous' intelligence reports, and decided that the middle east was a much more dangerous place than it would be without Saddam, thereby making it a matter of vital national security for America to attack Iraq. (My hands hurt too much today to spend much time researching and finding it again, but I have read credible reports that Saddam wrote bush a letter saying that for $1,000,000,000 [a billion bucks] and allowing Saddam to exit Iraq to a country from which he and his family could not be extradited, he would leave voluntarily. So for a paltry billions dollars we could have taken over Iraq in a bloodless coup, had control of all that oil, which was why we went there to begin with, and done it without the loss of a single life on either side, without utterly destroying the country, without creating one of the greatest displacements of a civilization ever, and without creating human suffering on such a grand scale: millions dead, millions more driven from their ancestral lands. All so mas macho bush could kill the guy who tried to kill his daddy, president during the first Gulf War.

Doesn't anyone besides me find this to be reprehensible and the ultimate in vile, evil, conduct?

Anywho, the people of Virginia would be well-served by having Joe Sestak as their Senator, a retired three star general and a man who knows whereof he speaks when it comes to war; that's my opinion and I'm stickin' to it.

It also reaffirmed, to me anyway, that everyone who sycophantically sucked ass in the bush maladministration are sill too embarrassed, or stupid, to recognize what a waste of skin they are. Unbelievable jerkoffs and the remnants of the most corrupt and lawbreaking administration the world has ever seen.

We could have made it just fine without them, thank you very much.

Ciao, bella ami.

Labels: Afghanistan war, bush hypocrisy, bush war doctrine, cheney, GOP, hypocrisy, Iraq war, Iraq war crimes, Oil, politics, snark.

5 comments

With so much going on in so many areas, reported in so many media venues, and the serious problems…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:50 PM Permalink

…plaguing America today, problems, people, political groups and hatred run amok (a word of Philippine origins as it happens; commonly used in a sentence such as, "My Warrior Woman ran so amok to protect, shelter and seek aid for me that the VA Clinic Staff kept a wide, wide, distance from her and the doctors she corralled to assist me and did not dare get in her way.") that are so rapidly destroying America and its ideals that the speed with which they are dismantling our institutions seem to be increasing exponentially by orders of magnitude.

Last week or sometime before (I have no functioning time frame of reference- coulda been last week or two years ago) I wrote of my feelings about the anger, hatred, angry hatred, hateful anger and any combination thereof that was further seriously damaging my already severely damaged psyche.

This, too, concerns me greatly. The destructions of our seas, the engine that drives our planet and allows it to function is becoming seriously impaired, possibly to the point from which there can be no return.

Having seen the folly of believing an undersea oil spill can be contained it still doesn't, won't, can't seem to be understood that once our seas are so damaged they can no longer perform their functions that acid and otherwise polluted rain will fall to begin the final destruction of our planet.

Small example: The Japanese and others in that region have so overwhelmed the whale populations, whales that would have consumed vast quantities of nutritious plankton that the sheer number of plankton available that would otherwise be consumed by whales is now be eaten by hugh jellyfish, growing up to five feet wide and weighing several hundred pounds that is crowding out many other fish and alone now migrate up the coast of Japan rending and tearing so many fishing nets that the fisherman cannot keep up replacing them. Other fleets go out, and with all the plankton consumed by jellyfish, come back with loads of fish insufficient to support their own families, much less any one else. Almost two-thirds of Japan is now surrounded by these jellyfish, tearing net and rendering fishing impossible.

I believe this to be a direct consequence of overfishing the whales that would ordinarily have eaten the plankton and thus stopped the jellyfish migration from the China Sea to the Sea of Japan as the whales and other fish would have consumed that source of food.

In Europe, especially Spain and Portugal, the absence of open ocean food has brought swarm after swarm of jellyfish, most of them, unfortunately being box jellyfish, which sting with the most powerful poison that exists in the natural world. Strong enough to kill a heavy, but healthy, adult in under two minutes. And that from a box jellyfish less than five inches across; they grow to several feet in dome-size with tentacle trails of a hundred feet or more.

These things are happening for a reason and that reason is man. These radical groups spouting now are the jellyfish of America and will kill America just as their sea bound relatives destroy human life.

But this is just my opinion and I could be wrong.

Ciao, bella âmi.

Labels: environment, government, hypocrisy, rant

0 comments

"Look, if we are to break free of foreign oil we must drill, baby, drill…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:05 PM Permalink

…and all those people who don't believe we can do this without disastrous accidents are wild-eyed lunatics. With our modern technology such an event just isn't going to happen. Harumph! Harumph!

Labels: ecological disaster, environment, hypocrisy

1 comments

Memories, spread between the cheeks of their…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:18 PM Permalink

…well, you know what I mean.

HOW QUICKLY THEY FORGET. Republicans are screaming the heebie-jeebies over the alleged corruption of the Democratic Party due to the actions of a fool, that Massa guy that even Glenn Beck said was a waste of time [and skin. Bill], and Charlie Rangel over allegations of accepting bribes in return for political patronage. How soon they do forget, so let's take a stroll down memory lane [remembering that mine has many potholes, broken bridges, sinkholes, and other deficiencies. Bill]

Let's start with the biggies first, the 'top men,' the best of the best of the best, those upon whom republicans look, or looked to, as veritable gods, Presidents and their partners in crime. Let's see:

Richard Nixon, still the kingpin of crime in office as president, surrounded by paragons of virtue, and his plumbers Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Frank Sturgis, and James W. McCord Jr, E. Howard Hunt, HR Halderman, and the cover-up team led by Jeb Magruder, McCord and Liddy. Spiro Agnew and his tax evasion conviction, leaving the office of VP in disgrace. Too far back?

Think Republican god, whose picture would be on all our currency, damned near every public building, airport, park, mountain, every public monument, or choo-choo train: Rockin' Ronnie Raygun! Who promised weapons in the future to the Ayatollah of Iran with the promise that they would release the 80 or so American hostages they held ONLY AFTER Ronnie was elected president, Carter defeated. Rethugs still deny this even though Ronnie himself went on national TV and admitted it; he had been trading weapons with Iran, known terrorists, to help them fight Iraq. He was of course assisted by many other republicans, the only conviction for wrongdoing being that of Casper Weinberger, but former CIA chief, vice-president, and then president George HW Bush swept away one conviction, three guilty pleas and two pending cases in a wild party spree of pardons. Whoopee! Fine republicans all!

Mark Foley! Trent Lott! Bob Ney! Denny Hastert! Randy Cunningham! Tom Foley! And lest we forget the lates and greatest, The Big Dick himself, Richard Cheney and his snot-nosed little buddy, the number one war criminal, threat to world peace, and considered by most of the world to be the Number One Terrorist who ever lived: G-e-o-r-g-e w b-u-s-h, reigning champion of wicked rethuglicans, even counting others like David Vitter and all those many, many others embroiled still in the Jack Abramoff scandal!

So, yes, oh, yes, before the elections let all of America here a loud chorus of voices singing the praises of the republican leader's way of life: lies, obstructions, praying for the president, and therefore the country, to fail.Actually advocating and praying for the death of a president, the corrupt acts of treasonous actors and those whose interests do not coincide with the important historical perspective of true Americans who still want the American dream.

Labels: elections, fear mongering, Fiscal irresponsibility, hypocrisy, republican hypocrisy, republican lies, republican party

0 comments

It's not that difficult to get free health care here in…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:34 PM Permalink

…America. Actually it's quite easy.

The purpose of radical neck dissection is to remove lymph nodes and other structures in the head and neck that are likely or known to be malignant. Variations on neck dissections exist, depending on the extent of the cancer. A radical neck dissection removes the most tissue. It is performed when the cancer has spread widely in the neck.…

Where they also happen to irrevocably sever the fifth cranial nerve:

The trigeminal nerve is quite complex. It functions both as the chief nerve of sensation for the face and the motor nerve controlling the muscles of mastication (chewing).

Problems with the sensory part of the trigeminal nerve result in pain or loss of sensation in the face. Problems with the motor root of the trigeminal nerve result in deviation of the jaw toward the affected side and trouble chewing.

The cranial nerves, the trigeminal nerve included, emerge from or enter the skull (the cranium), as opposed to the spinal nerves which emerge from the vertebral column. …

and the 11th cranial nerve:

The 11th cranial nerve. The accessory nerve originates from neurons in the medulla and in the cervical spinal cord. It has a cranial root, which joins the vagus (10th cranial) nerve and sends motor fibers to the muscles of the larynx, and a spinal root, which sends motor fibers to the trapezius and the sternocleidomastoid muscles. Damage to the nerve produces weakness in head rotation and shoulder elevation.

along with the long thoracic nerve:

Injury to the long thoracic nerve causing paralysis or weakness of the serratus anterior muscle can be disabling. Patients with serratus palsy may present with pain, weakness, limitation of shoulder elevation, and scapular winging with medial translation of the scapula, rotation of the inferior angle toward the midline, and prominence of the vertebral border. Long thoracic nerve dysfunction may result from trauma or may occur without injury.

and combine them all with permanent damage to every cartilaginous structure of your throat and neck from radiation scarring they don't tell you about, making not only breathing difficult and swallowing ever harder (it's a bitch to cough up a piece of food you ate hours ago because it went into your lungs rather than the esophagus)but escalating pain levels to the point of sheer torture. And that's without even mentioning the necrotic (dead) jawbone and loss of teeth.

Well, that's how I did it and if it worked for me, it can work for you, too!

Labels: Agent Orange, health care, health care reform, hypocrisy, indiscriminate bombing

4 comments

Lets those that legislate not forget, it's pretty basic…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:32 PM Permalink

Juris praecepta sunt haec:

Honeste vivere

Alterum non laedere

Suum cuique tribuere

The precepts of the law are these:

To live honorably

To hurt nobody

To render to everyone his due

Right does not rise out of wrong.

Labels: bad laws, hypocrisy, I'm only just one man., irony, lazy uncaring legislators, liars

0 comments

Tell me what it is that makes a republican wonder why a person…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 7:32 PM Permalink

…is deserving of better treatment than me, just an ordinary person holding no personal religious beliefs of a particular religious bent?

Is it because daily I see examples of republican,and democrats, but primarily republicans, leading lives and setting examples of crass bigotry, living the lies that they are morally superior to democrats and others who would seek to lend a hand to the least of us?

They, and the churches they so regularly attend to further the front that they and their families are religiously superior to the lesser persons not allowed to attend the church because the cardboard boxes in which they have been reduced to sleeping in are, heavens!, blocking the ventilation vents of the church, making it uncomfortable for the paying parishioners. (Tithe payers, don't you know, Gods demand money for their time, millions of dollars a year.)

When these same churches suffer a severe setback, such as a conviction of several of their Holy Men for teaching children how to kneel and pray in the manner god intended, do these churches dip into the Midas-like fortunes of cold hard case to make those churches into sanctuaries for the poor and needy? Oh, beg your pardon, they will instead sell that land upon which they have never paid a penny in land, water, or other usage tax to which their :subjects have always paid, and use that money to settle for pennies on the dollar without compunction, sorrow, misgivings, or any thought as to why their god, their Supreme Being, their Moral Compass whose teaching they espouse, could have sat back with a bag of chips, soft drink sitting aside a bottle of bourbon, gathering his Angels to his sided, turning on his infinitely large TV screen with glasses free 3-D, so they he and the mortals whom have served him, many years past and those many years, hence, in training as Acolytes to him, the Supreme Leader, who loves all men (and occasional a pretty young thing, under 12 preferably).

And in return for Man's stupid willingness, without a shred of proof, not one iota of empirical evidence, seeks World Domination for all time and an inexhaustible supply of young, the most gullible of all, who believe and trust the most outrageous of fantasy stories, just as much as they wonder at Avatar, Spiderman, Wolverine, the X-men, the incredible HULK, and so many others that…uh…wait!…wait!… those allegorical characters with their personal flaws and failings, not a single one of them have raped children, had daughters whom they engaged in 'marriage' ceremonies swearing they would have no sex without anyone but their Creators, their fathers.

Maybe that's where man went wrong, seeking themselves to be Deities since they all know that if religion were true they would certainly burn in hell.

NOTE: The contents of this post are mine, admittedly growing ever more insane, but I'll see your Lord and raise by two Hulks.

Labels: armegeddon, bad Religion, blackmail, blogs, disinformation, hypocrisy, I'm just an entertainer, republican hypocrisy, snark.

3 comments

Stupid movie reviews my dog, Xanatos, could have written…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:58 PM Permalink

…with greater intelligence, lucidity, thoughtfulness and vision than David Brooks [I never link to Brooks, people are suffering enough nowadays. Bill], who wrote of the movie "Avatar":

Every age produces its own sort of fables, and our age seems to have produced The White Messiah fable

This is the oft-repeated story about a manly young adventurer who goes into the wilderness in search of thrills and profit. But, once there, he meets the native people and finds that they are noble and spiritual and pure. And so he emerges as their Messiah, leading them on a righteous crusade against his own rotten civilization.[…]

Still, would it be totally annoying to point out that the whole White Messiah fable, especially as Cameron applies it, is kind of offensive?

It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic. It rests on the assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is the path to grace. It also creates a sort of two-edged cultural imperialism. Natives can either have their history shaped by cruel imperialists or benevolent ones, but either way, they are going to be supporting actors in our journey to self-admiration.

It’s just escapism, obviously, but benevolent romanticism can be just as condescending as the malevolent kind — even when you surround it with pop-up ferns and floating mountains.

Xanatos tells me Brooks has it all wrong, that most real life stories and fables end with the White Man overwhelming the foreign civilization, if not with open warfare then with blankets used by smallpox infected invaders, razing their crops, killing their women and children, and utterly destroying their civilization.

But, hey, what does Xanatos know (that's his thumbnail picture next to my comments with his favorite green tug-toy in his mouth) as he is just a vewy, vewy smart dog and thus has a clearcut advantage over David Brooks, who is, after all only…David Brooks.

Labels: disinformation, hypocrisy, propaganda, snark

0 comments

A reminder for all the cowardly pukes currently occupying our congress and senate…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:34 AM Permalink

…not a reminder from me, but from a speech given by Osama bin Laden in 2004, which has proven to not only be true, but downright prescient:

"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedin to the furthest point East to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaeda, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies.

"This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers, as we, alongside the mujahedin, bled Russia for ten years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat... So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy."

Osama thought it was funny that his interests and Bush's converged so closely:

"That being said, those who say that al-Qaeda has won against the administration in the White House or that the administration has lost in this war have not been precise, because when one scrutinizes the results, one cannot say that al-Qaeda is the sole factor in achieving those spectacular gains.

"Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations – whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction – has helped al-Qaeda to achieve these enormous results.

"And so it has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the White House and us are playing as one team toward the economic goals of the United States, even if the intentions differ."

The analysis of this speech continued:

Although Osama bin Laden's (quite successful) tactics certainly represent the fringe, it would be a mistake to think that his opinion of American policy does as well. His view of U.S. aims is shared broadly in the Middle East. The more violently the U.S. government behaves, the more people are going to join up with the suicide bombers. The benefits of our policy to jihad recruiters everywhere and the American warfare state are nearly endless. The new terrorists we've created help to justify the reach of the national security state into the pockets and lives of the American public. They also create pressure to allow the "former" radical intellectuals to have their creatively destructive world revolution, Bush his legacy, the Army their permanent bases, Ariel Sharon his undisputed role as regional hegemon, the oil companies their continued delay in bringing Iraq's oil to market, and militaristic conservatives their feeling of toughness that comes with bombing faraway lands.

This speech and the following interpretation remain every bit as valid today as when it, and the subsequent comments, were made in 2004, and apparently will remain so forever, as we have not learned the lessons of the past and are therefore doomed to repeat them over and over and over again.

This posting was prompted by my response in a comment below titled, "Just how stupid do you have to be to blame people, criticize people…."

I thought it important to remind ourselves why and how bin Laden has won and continues to win the "war on terra," so people understand why the supposedly "richest" country on earth is sinking ever deeper into the mire of the swamp into which al Oaede leads us for a couple of thousand dollars and how America has been almost bankrupted by bin Laden's cheap, cheap, cheap. but superior planning and has literally transformed the panicked America, from the "home of the brave," into America, "afraid of its own shadow."

'Specially if that shadow has a turban on it.

NOTE: I used to tell all the terrified congress critters and others, and it is still as valid today, that if you are so terrified of bin Laden and his rag-tag band of bandits, while you are hiding under your beds, quivering in fear, the collecting, sorting by size and color, and the naming of dust bunnies can be an absolutely fascinating hobby to pursue. (Look for the the light gray ones; I understand they respond to blowing puffs of air on them better than the heavier, denser, dark ones. Just a tip, I have no personal experience.)

Ciao.

Labels: bad politicians, Barrack Obama, bigotry run amok, bush war doctrine, christian hypocrisy, Conservatives, GOP, hypocrisy, republican lies, US hegemony, war crimes

2 comments

Just how stupid do you have to be to blame people, criticize people

posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:53 AM Permalink

…relentlessly, lay blame on those not responsible for a security breach, start calling a President weak on security, and declaring that Janet Napolitino is incapable of securing our border using security measures devised and implemented by the bush /cheney maladministration?

And why are they now going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for new machines when a well-trained bomb dog, for a tiny, tiny, fraction of the cost, would have smelled he explosive power being carried by the alleged bomber?

Have we abandoned all commonsense?

Do we now believe that in this time of fiscal austerity we have billions of dollars more to spend on machines that don't work, staffed by people ill-trained and unable to make them work properly?

Are president Obama and Jane Napolitino to be endlessly criticized because the security systems devised by bush/cheney didn't work? To still be endlessly criticized by cheney, who just loves the roll of the big talking Dick?

Doesn't the fact that it was a foreign airport that allowed the bomber on the plane despite the many warning signs that an ignorant fool could plainly see carry any weight? And how can Obama and Napolitino be faulted for the obvious failure of people over whom Omana and Napolitino exercised zero control at of the foreign airport that allowed the bomber on a plane count for nothing?

All we'll hear for weeks now on cable TV is how Obama screwed up, how Obama should ignore deficits to make us safe (not healthier, oh no, not healthier) to buy evermore expensive machines when our four-footed friends of the canine variety would do a better job?

True story: A cargo plane was ready to leave Ubon, Thailand. The dogs giving it a last check gave their signal for a drug alert. The plane was emptied and searched to the last bolt. No Drugs were found, so the plane took off and landed at Clark AB, Philippines. The drug dogs went nuts, clearly alerting to the scent of drugs. The plane was again emptied and inspected to the very last bolt; no drugs were found, plane reloaded and sent on its way. When it landed at Travis AFB, California, the dogs again went crazy with drug alerts, so the Air Force decided to find out why. They stripped the plane, opened every crate being transported, inspected it to the last bolt, and the dogs were still going nuts. The plane's commander ordered all fuel and oil tanks drained so they could be inspected. With the fuel, no hit. The oil, on the other, made the dogs go nuts. They finally figured out that some drug smuggler had found a way to dissolve heroin into the oil, where, on the other end, it was extracted using a highly sophisticated filtering system and returned to it's natural state of 99% pure heroin.

It's a known and proven fact that if you train a german shephard to find salt, a not too odiferous substance, put five 55-gallon barrels of water side-by-side, put one teaspoon of salt into ONE drum (a ratio of one million to one), that dog will correctly identify the barrel with the salt in it EVERY TIME.

So don't tell me a properly trained dog, at a cost of a few thousand dollars, can't outperform million dollar machines with a very high failure rate.

See:

Efforts to fit major airports with devices capable of ferreting out the best-concealed bombs have a long way to go. Even state of the art bomb detectors suffer from a welter of drawbacks, ranging from frustratingly slow operation to astronomical cost and, in some cases, an all-too-high failure rate.[…]

The problem, as Graseby's sales manager, Geoffrey Greenhough, readily concedes, is that Plastec can never be a first line of defense.

"X-ray machines will always be the primary screening devices," he said. "They can process things like carry-on bags far faster as they roll along a conveyor belt." If the X-ray picture raises suspicions, the bag can be re-tested for explosives.

Take a look here also:

On Monday morning, September 14, 2009, the Joint Terrorism Task Force executed multiple search warrants in the Borough of Queens, New York. A Denver man was arrested and then released in connection with the terrorism raids. He had recently traveled to Pakistan and then, according to ABC News, showed up in New York last Thursday, September 10, with bomb-making documents. The question no one has asked is how was he able to fly around the world and in the United States unchallenged when thousands of innocent Americans are hassled by Transportation Security Administration agents every day.

If you think you’re safe getting on a plane in the United States — think again. The hundreds of billions of dollars we have spent on security and the huge Homeland Security workforce we have added to the federal payroll make for a feel-good marketing strategy that only fools us into believing we are safer. The truth is, the weaknesses in aviation security that were there prior to 9/11 are still there today.

The biggest danger we face is government agencies so sloppy and arrogant in their collection and distribution of intelligence that huge selectee and no-fly lists do not include some of the most dangerous terrorists. At the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency certain names and aliases are kept from the airlines and off the no-fly list to protect intelligence assets who are suspected or known terrorists. In other instances our intelligence agencies keep names off the list at the request of allies such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

So whether it be from millions of dollars of equipment that doesn't work, to the lack of use of "old-fashioned" equipment like dogs that do work, well-trained personnel replaced with ill-trained, sometimes convicted felons, well, it's plain that the hugh sums of money recklessly borrowed and spent by bush/cheney haven't done a damned thing to make us any safer,

Regardless of what Big Dick Cheney says,

Labels: aviation safety, cheney secrecy, Conservatives, conspiracy, Fiscal irresponsibility, hypocrisy, propaganda

3 comments

I suppose I just look at many things with a jaundiced eye in light of my life experience and the choices I've made…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:46 AM Permalink

…but slowly, through the years, Christmas and those so-called, "Spirit of the holidays…" that prompts people to go out and spend more than they can afford to try and bring a little semblance of peace, happiness, and celebrate the birth of their Savior by partying, going further into debt to buy gifts, and who think not at all of what Christmas is supposed to really be about.

Even I participated in the charade and parade of decadence in the past, especially when my son, Jesse, was just a youngster. We never went to church (I haven't been inside a church since 1966), but I always wanted my son to participate in the fun of a Christmas morning, the hugh trees, tons of presents (I never used credit cards then, didn't have any. If you can't afford to pay cash, you can't afford it), and the fun and camaraderie of his peers as they showed off their gifts, played with their toys, and just had nothing but fun on Christmas Day. I have to admit I enjoyed that part of the holiday.

Another benefit of the holidays were the personal visits or the calls home to momma made by my bail skips. Mother's Day, Father's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas, the quartet that would allow me to make money hand over fist from just pulling phone bills in the days after and chasing down the collect calls.

Through the years it slowly dawned on me that I wasn't really that much different than the retailers that have so bastardized all the holidays, but especially Christmas, as I recognized that these holidays weren't to celebrate the birth of Christ. Christ would have wanted people to love ALL the other people, peace on earth, and to see that the very least amongst us had the means to join in the celebration.

I used to imagine Jesus, if he exists, watching from above, weeping that the tenants for which he gave his mortal life had disappeared, swallowed by greed, avarice, and the giving among people the gifts that would just turn into a mantlepiece, a broken toy never played with, bountiful foods served to people who didn't need it and blessing only those who sacrificed in their personal life to work distributing food to the poor, cooking for the poor, donating to the poor.

And I guess that's when I stopped believing in Jesus, God, and the Holy Ghost (did they ever find a name for him?). There can be no omnipotent God overlooking this planet filled with disease, famine, millions killed and displaced in illegal wars, the aids academic in Africa, and all the children living in poverty here, in the richest country on earth (although I don't believe we're th richest to be true anymore either) much less elswhere, the ill and infirm, the poor having to chose between opening a fresh can of dog or cat food or breaking in half one of the pills vital to their health and maybe doing a half-dose which only serves to prolong their suffering instead of making them well.

No one will ever convince me that there is a kind and merciful god overlooking humanity that could possibly like what he sees, his creation, the evil running rampant in the world that will sooner or later end all life on this planet and, after a few hundred million years from now have passed, maybe then the god that so many people worship under various names and differing religions would give humanity another chance.

I'm betting that the reptiles would come back and rule the earth for another 125,000,000 years or so, or maybe just permanently. Mankind has sure turned out to be a bust.

But for our readers who believe in Christ, I do wish you a happy holiday; I just wish everyone lived as they know they should, share as they know they should, and cared for the least of us as they should.

As to me, I, too, completely lost sight of what the celebration of Christmas was for and used this holiday, among others, to make money. I guess the main difference between me and retailers was that retailers were trying to make their nut for the whole year, while I used it to return scumbags, fugitives, absconds, bail skips, ascribe whatever appellation to them you will, to return them to custody where many, many of them deserved to be.

So while I am in no position to judge anyone else for the beliefs they hold, I feel they should be equally respectful of the belief I hold as to there being absolutely no all powerful, all knowing deity, whose praises are sung while evil men with evil intent work ever harder to marginalize even more of society, close the doors to education, health care, feeding the poor whose numbers grow greater each and every year, and improving anyone's quality of life and enriching even more the lives of those already rich.

As unemployment keeps increasing, does anyone doubt that we will eventually be seeing food riots? Anyone doubt our Emergency Rooms will only grow further swamped by people with no insurance, driving up health care costs to the point only the very, very wealthy will have their own physicians to monitor and extend their lives? Any doubt more and more homeless, thousands of them war veterans unable to readjust, will die from exposure to the elements, starvation, ill-health and a raft of other reasons?

I used to stop almost every time I'd see one of these poor people living in the street, and if I had $5 on me I'd give it to them with the admonition to go eat and not spend it on booze. C'mon people, can it really hurt you that much to give a lousy five dollars to a food kitchen, charitable organizations, those churches that actually do get out there and do good works. Or drop off a bag of food, a turkey or a ham, lots of canned nonperishables, distribute jackets, blankets and clothing? That, to me, is what Christmas should be about. Take the other 364 days to gorge yourself, spoil yourself, spoil others, and spread wealth to people who don't need it, don't use it in vain of him whom you worship. That's hypocrisy walking a tightrope at 100,000 feet without a net, or at least more net than the rest of us can afford.

This is a country of over 300,000,000, a donation of five dollars per person in a household would pay for so much with the 1.5 billion dollars resulting paying for our direst needs. Health care for every American from cradle to grave. Infrastructure repair that the government could order started tomorrow would provide hundreds of thousands of jobs. Banks snivel that they can't fill positions without $500,000 salaries and millions in bonuses. Bullshit! Tell that to all the college students that can't find a job. They'll find plenty of people more than willing to work for that kind of money. if they would look for employees instead of government handouts.

Aw, that's enough. I'm telling you things you already know now, and with less eloquence than many who came before me.

If you celebrate Christmas, please take just a few minutes to contemplate how Jesus would really like to see his birth celebrated. If he ever existed at all. And remember, there will be lots and lots of people, like I used to be, out making arrests, gathering intel for future busts, and those that don't necessarily serve man as a whole, but whose benefit to society in general cannot be denied.

Ciao.

Labels: avarice, conspiracy, corporate greed, disinformation, hypocrisy, inequality, money, political prisoners, propaganda, rant

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Medical care for everyone is a pipe dream, the kind that robs people who aren't…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:59 PM Permalink

…even poor of their dreams, financial security, dignity, and their ability to lead ordinary lives not subjugated by back-breaking medical bills that have gone absolutely, insanely, out of control.

I'm one of the "lucky" ones I guess, if you call years of suffering from Agent Orange caused cancers, months of chemo, six weeks and 6,000 rads of radiation therapy, ending with a radical neck dissection (a term of art in the medical field) meaning they put me out, opened the left side of my face, neck, and shoulder with a single l-o-o-o-n-n-g cut from up behind my left ear down to my collar bone and then started cutting out cancerous-looking material, sending it to the lab, and kept doing this until 8 1/2 hours later the lab sent back word that the sample was cancer-free. They removed almost everything, closed off several veins, severed irrevocably my fifth and 11th cranial nerves and the long thoracic nerves, leaving me in eternal pain. I have a block of muscles beneath the "winged scapula" on my left side that are permanently cramped and cannot receive a reciprocal signal from my brain that everything's o.k., relax, because of the severed nerves the lines are down. Imagine Barry Bond whacking you at the bottom of your left scapula repeatedly over and over, never stopping. The severing of the fifth cranial nerve has resulted in a necrotic (dead) jawbone and they told me I would probably lose all my teeth by age 50. Ha! I fooled them, I still have almost 16 complete teeth left!

And I'm one of the lucky ones. I still have many issues of the mental kind, but I AM one of the lucky ones and here's why:

About two weeks ago I was having trouble breathing, something not unusual in light of every cartilaginous structure in my throat suffering from radiation scarring, but usually manifesting itself as difficulties swallowing.

My Warrior Woman wife, Mila, wouldn't let me rest until I went to the VA clinic to see my doctor. My doctor immediately sent me to urgent care, urgent care doctors there sent me to our County Hospital. I was put into a private room (received all my morphine intravenously. Yee haw! first true relief from pain in months). I'm one of the lucky ones.

Double pneumonia was the diagnosis, so loads and loads of medicines through the I.V. and a 'script for some very powerful antibiotics and I was sent home.

I m one of the lucky ones. In today's mail I received a copy of the billing to the V.A. from the County Hospital, which caused my heart to drop to somewhere around my ankles until I read the admonitions that they were not to bother me or attempt to collect the bill from me, that the V.A. was picking up the whole tab. I really was one of the lucky ones.

The total tab: $17,500.00 (seventeen thousand five hundred dollars) One night in the hospital that would have broken me even if I was healthy and working. How do people pay these bills? Do the hospitals really pack the bill when they know they are going to get paid by a government entity? The destitute would not have gotten either the quality of care, the individual room, nurses checking them every twenty-thirty minutes, in fact, the only thing that would have been equal(ly) bad would have been the disgusting food, half of which I could not identify. This one night would have bankrupted every single friend I have, and many of those are affluent, but, as with most of the affluent, their money sunk into mortgages, swimming pools, BMWs or Mercedes, plummeting stock markets and sinking money market accounts, and the two or three of them I've talked to said this would be a major, major setback for them and probably catastrophic.

I'm one of the lucky ones. Cradle to grave free or even low cost health insurance as provided by every major industrial country on earth to its citizens is a pipe dream, a fantasy, a fairy tale told to help subjugate, pacify, and keep the masses from learning the true cost of health care and the reasons for which universal health can NEVER come to fruition in America, despite anything our "elected representatives" say to the contrary Big Medicine charging a years salary or more for a one night stay and Big Pharma, which sells cheap drugs everywhere and to anybody but the poor bastards living in America, you know, those of us close enough to be told to drop our drawers, bend over, and grab our ankles while we get screwed without a kiss, dinner, or a movie.

I'm one of the lucky ones, although I paid a terrible cost in the past that gave me the entitlement to future care, I am one of the lucky ones.

Lucky. Ones. My country being destroyed by the millionaire white man's club (the senate) and other politicians without a care other than safeguarding their jobs, no matter how awfully they sell out the people who sent them there. After all, when a politician has been bought that S.O.B. HAD BETTER STAY BOUGHT, without regard to the destruction of our beloved country, one interest group at a time, and with republicans praying for Obama to fail and doing everything in their power, these meager, sub-standard, ugly-spirited, uncaring, mindless cowardly traitors to America and Americans.

I. Am. One. Of. The. Lucky. Ones. Somehow. That. Gives. Me. No. Comfort.

Labels: Barrack Obama, betrayal, big medicine, big oil, big pharmaceutical, hypocrisy, rant

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