Senator Alzheimers

The self-professed candidate of “straight talk” and “experience” spent today changing his position on gay adoption, adopting Senator Obama’s position that we need more troops in Afghanistan after having resisted taking that position, flip flopping on whether he’d send U.S. or NATO troops (he actually offered three different explanations on where those additional troops would come from), and referring to a country that hasn’t existed since 1992 for the second time in two days.

Afghanistan
LAST WEEK: Christian Science Monitor Reported that McCain “Has Resisted Calls For More Troops In Afghanistan.” “McCain has resisted calls for more troops in Afghanistan and has rejected criticism that the Iraq war is detracting from efforts to secure Afghanistan. He labeled Barack Obama ‘naïve’ for saying he'd strike terrorist targets in Pakistan with or without the cooperation of President Pervez Musharraf. … Aides to the Arizona senator said Wednesday that he continued to view success in Iraq as the best chance for victory in the global war on terror. ‘As on many things, Senator Obama is not listening to our commanders, and Senator McCain is,’ says Kori Schake, a senior policy adviser to McCain. ‘General David Petraeus believes Iraq is the central front in the war on terror. Al Qaeda has even said it is.’ … Ms. Schake's comments came about two hours after Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said additional troops were needed in Afghanistan but that too many were tied down in Iraq to send more.” [Christian Science Monitor, 7/7/08]

MONDAY (MORNING): McCain Called for Sending Three Additional Brigades to Afghanistan and Suggests They Would Come From Iraq. According to a press release issued by the McCain campaign on Tuesday morning, McCain would announce in a speech that he now supports sending at least three additional brigades to Afghanistan: “The status quo in Afghanistan is unacceptable, and from the moment the next President walks into the Oval Office, he will face critical decisions about Afghanistan. … John McCain Supports Sending At Least Three Additional Brigades To Afghanistan. Our commanders on the ground say they need these troops, and thanks to the success of the surge, these forces are becoming available, and our commanders in Afghanistan must get them.” [McCain press release, 7/15/08]

MONDAY (AFTERNOON): McCain Clarifies His Proposal On Increasing the Number of Troops, Saying They Could Come From NATO. “Speaking to reporters on his bus after today's speech, McCain indicated that he'd be open to those additional troops coming from NATO.” [MSNBC, 7/15/08]

MONDAY (EVEN LATER IN THE AFTERNOON): McCain Campaign Further Clarifies Proposal, Saying The Troop Increase Would Be Comprised Of Both NATO And US Forces. “McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace said later that U.S. troops will compose some of the additional brigades McCain would send to Afghanistan, but not all of them. ‘Will we contribute? Of course we will,’ she said.” [Washington Post, 5/15/08]

GAY ADOPTION
SUNDAY: New York Times Quoted McCain Saying That He Doesn’t Believe In Gay Adoption. “Mr. McCain, who with his wife, Cindy, has an adopted daughter, said flatly that he opposed allowing gay couples to adopt. ‘I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption,’ he said.” [New York Times, 7/13/08]

MONDAY: McCain Campaign Clarified Position; Said It Was A State Issue And That McCain Believes “Caring Parental Figures Are Better For The Child Than The Alternative.” “On Tuesday, as criticism of McCain's comments spread, his campaign elaborated on the candidate's views. ‘John McCain could have been clearer in the interview in stating that his position on gay adoption is that it is a state issue. ... He was not endorsing any federal legislation,’ a campaign statement said. ‘Sen. McCain's expressed his personal preference for children to be raised by a mother and a father wherever possible,’ the statement added. ‘However, as an adoptive father himself, McCain believes children deserve loving and caring home environments, and he recognizes that there are many abandoned children who have yet to find homes. John McCain believes that in those situations that caring parental figures are better for the child than the alternative.’” [Associated Press, 7/15/08]

Czechoslovakia
For the Second Day In A Row, McCain Refers to Czechoslovakia – A Country That No Longer Exists. As MSNBC noted, “For the second time in two days, McCain has made a reference to ‘Czechoslovakia.’ His answers were about contemporary events, not history. McCain did not use the current name Czech Republic, the country formed in January 1993 when Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The first instance was yesterday during a media news availability and the second today during a town hall meeting.” [MSNBC’s First Read, 7/15/08, http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/15/1200003.aspx]

ABC News Noted That This Isn’t The First Time McCain Has Mistakenly Referred to Czechoslovakia. “In early 2000, then-Gov. George W. Bush told Roger Simon, then with U.S. News & World Report, that he was befuddled by how soft the media was on Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. ‘I don't think there is any plot; I hope there isn't,’ Bush said. "But it's an amazing phenomenon, I'll tell you that. It's like the flap over the foreign-leader deal. A guy gets up and quizzes me -- it's my fault for trying to answer -- but John McCain says something about the 'ambassador to Czechoslovakia.' Well, I know there is no Czechoslovakia (there's a Czech Republic and a Slovakia), but yet it didn't make the nightly national news.

I'm not going to gripe about it, but the media question is starting to pop up.’ Apparently that Czechoslovakia lesson never took, because McCain keeps making that mistake, eight years later.” [ABC News’ Political Punch, 7/15/08, http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/mccain-keeps-me.html]

Politico: McCain Campaign Released Statement Yesterday “Cleaning Up” The Reference to Czechoslovakia. As the Politico noted, “yesterday, McCain's campaign sent out a statement pointedly referring to the ‘Czech Republic,’ cleaning up his latest reference to the defunct state of Czechoslovakia.” [Politico, 5/15/08, http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0708/Jeste_jednou_Czechoslovakia.html]

There should be an age limitation for running for President. At least the candidates should be able to pass a mental test.

What a fucking joke this idiot is.

The Nightmare presidency Is Almost Over

As our nation readies itself to celebrate the end of an error in the failed bush presidency, discussion of his legacy fills the airwaves.

The usual suspects – the pro-Bush pundits, the PNACers, the moronic ditto heads, the air-headed teleprompter readers passed off as journalists – now gather together on the political talk shows, ready and more than willing to tackle the formidable task of rewriting history.

bush (the criminal's) legacy, according to those still reluctant to embrace reality, will be a presidency replete with incredible foresight and heroism, all recognized by the historians who, at some later date yet to be announced, will at last recognize the extraordinary vision of one delussional asshat president in the fullness of time.

However, what the dead-ender cheerleaders fail to take into account is that bush’s legacy, like that of all presidents, will be based on the facts and not the quickly cobbled-together fictions spun by his still adoring fans.

Perhaps the most glaring reality of bush’s presidency will be the fact that it was never a true presidency at all. The result of selection rather than election, it was marked not by sound strategy, but by stagecraft; not by purposeful action, but an endless array of photo-ops meant to capture merely an image of leadership in a constant attempt to obscure the truth that no such leadership ever existed.While the smoke-and-mirrors experts continue to proffer their own creation – the man with the bullhorn in the wreckage of the Twin Towers, the man landing on an aircraft carrier declaring that the mission had been accomplished, the man sharing Thanksgiving dinner with his troops – the reality lurking behind the curtain is less than heroic or honorable: a lackadaisical fool reading a children’s book in the midst of mayhem, a smirking coward parading around in a flight-suit, a mindless, uncaring clown offering a plastic turkey to the men and women he was about to send to their deaths.

From the beginning, bush surrounded himself with incompetent cronies, yes-men, and psycopaths with a lust for influence, and handed out positions of power to people whose blind loyalty was the only measure of their suitability.

Qualities like honesty and strength of character were never assessed, and were in fact an obvious hindrance for those who aspired to the inner circle.Once foisted on the world stage, bush invariably chose the role of the mindless puppet, a buffoon prone to inappropriate laughter, absurd remarks, displays of childish petulance, all washed in a thin veneer of down-home charm meant to hide the underlying ignorance, the lack of awareness, the inability to conduct himself as anything more than an over-indulged frat-boy who had no more respect for his office than qualification to hold it.

In the wake of the events of 9-11, the criminal bush administration touted itself as the protectorate of our national security, yet another meaningless slogan behind which to hide the already-in-place machinations of war, the suspension of citizen’s rights and freedoms, and the lining of those pockets deemed deserving by those in control of the purse-strings.

Despite the fact that the idiot’s policies have made us infinitely more vulnerable, the Protecting the Homeland banner still waves as though having some actual meaning behind it, another empty gesture in place of reality – like flag-pins meant to convey true patriotism, or Support the Troops bumper-stickers meant to convince the masses that our military is actually treated fairly and honorably.Americans are a forgiving people, and had the disastrous results of bush’s policies been due to a mistaken anticipation of their end result, or lofty ideals that ultimately proved to be misguided in their application, the absolution of his countrymen would have been offered without question.

But as we have all sadly seen, the suffering that we as a country, and the world at large, now endure is not the result of things gone inexplicably awry, but the single-minded pursuit of a political ideology whose sole purpose was to enrich the few at the expense of the many, and to place power into the hands of those who would stop at nothing to maintain it, all to be achieved while blithely ignoring the ensuing consequences; irreparable damage, escalating violence, economic instability, and the deaths of millions.

A large part of bush’s legacy will undoubtedly be his administration’s ability to spin the worst behavior into something noble, the most blatant lies into something too truthful to be questioned, the most heinous crimes into something heroic, all couched in language meant to divert the mind from reality, and the soul from guilt.

Terms like “executive privilege”, once used to protect the presidency from sharing sensitive information that could place us in jeopardy, have been twisted into poltically-convenient catch-all phrases behind which crimes can be covered-up and its perpetrators shielded from justice. The term “torture” has been replaced with “enhanced interrogation techniques”, a newly-coined soundbyte intended to mask the barbarism in which we now wallow with impunity.

Even the once respected term moral Christian has been forever tarnished, having now been attributed to a torturer, a warmonger, a widow-maker, a non-repentant creator of orphans, of limbless soldiers, of multitudes of homeless, hungry, sick and dying people whose fate is of no concern to he who is not ignorant of, but blatantly dismissive of the very teachings he pretends to follow and revere.Perhaps the most enduring part of any president’s legacy is the remembrance of their most obvious personal quality.

In this instance, surely bush will be best remembered for his arrogance – an arrogance born not of an overly-exuberant recognition of his own abilities or record of accomplishment, but merely reflective of a sense of entitlement to be praised for that which he never achieved, and rewarded with adulation and respect that was clearly never earned.

Ultimately, history is not written by scholars assessing the past from afar. It is passed down to children and grandchildren by those who experienced the events firsthand, an oral history that lives and breathes long after the pages of even the most well-researched tomes are reduced to dust. And the tales that will be told of bush’s failed presidency will be rife with tragedy; tales of soldiers who died fighting not for freedom but profit, of cities left to drown amid apathy and incompetence, of corporations given free rein to exploit the vulnerabilities of a nation’s people, of an administration that plundered our treasury, saddled us with unconscionable debt, circumvented the rule of law, and left our Constitution in tatters.

Despite the best efforts of the revisionists, the spinmeisters, the propagandists, and those simply unwilling to admit that they were hoodwinked by an inept scoundrel and his attendant snake-oil salesmen, it is the truths of George W. Bush’s failed presidency that will be the basis of his legacy.

In light of that fact, Worst President Ever might be the kindest title that history eventually confers.

Book #2 To Be Released Next Week

My second book is scheduled to be released next week and is titled:

How To Take Down A Fraudulent Internet Company

In doing my research and investigation into some of the article that I have written over the last year, I have seen a disturbing trend in people, especially overseas, being blatantly ripped off by fraudulent companies.

Most people think that the Better Business Bureau would be the best place to lodge a complaint but that is FAR from the truth. There are organizations out there that can actually help a consumer that has been ripped off that make the BBB as impotent as the STUPID republicans in the coming elections in November.

This book will outline everything, defining what exactly internet scams are and hold to get these companies attention by filing mail fraud charges against them, which can result in getting the business closed down and their owners and management put behind bars.

It gives serious advice to those that have been victims of their sleazy crimes.

So look for its release sometime next week. Those that email me within the next seven days will get a complimentary copy delivered straight to their inbox.

Send your request to mail@fedupamerican.com before midnight July 18.

Become a Fed Up American.

Twelve TRUE Patriots

What do these twelve democrats have in common?

Chris Dodd (CT)
Russ Feingold (WI)
Tom Allen (ME)
Tom Udall (NM)
Carol Shea-Porter (NH)
Doug Tudor (FL)
Dennis Shulman (NJ)
Andrew Rice (OK)
Rick Noriega (TX)
Darcy Burner (WA)
Jim Himes (CT)
Jon Tester (MT)

They are the ones that voted AGAINST the criminal provision in FISA that grants retroactive immunity to the telecoms, even though they claim they did nothing wrong.

So why the fuck do they need immunity?

Remember this list of twelve courageous patriots that stood up and said NO to this further destruction of our U.S. Constitution the next time you step foot in a voting booth.

Also, keep in mind the words of one of the most ruthless dictators the world has ever seen.

"To control the people, you must create an enemy in their minds so fearful,
that you bend the people's will."
-Adolf Hitler

Deal With It!

I realize it’s just my personal opinion, one that is shared by countless numbers of people, both republican and democrat and I damn sure have a right to express it.

Because EVERYONE is entitled to MY opinion..

Deal with it.

Barack Obama WILL be the next president of the United States.

Deal with it.

I trust his judgment, and his ability to navigate what are often troubling political waters without losing sight of our ultimate destination.

Deal with it.

I admire his determination, and believe it is focused not on achieving what is best for himself, or even what is best for me as an individual, but what is best for our country.

Deal with it.

I support not only his ideas, but his ideals – and wholeheartedly so. I want to see those ideas implemented and those ideals adopted, not as some radical new philosophy, but as the norm.

Deal with it.

I listen to his words and I take them to heart; I find them encouraging, hopeful, and truly inspiring.

I am NOT willing to let the American Dream die without a fight.

Deal with it..

I watch the way he moves, the way he reaches out, the way he invites dialogue and encourages participation, and I see something I haven’t seen in a very long time – someone who has a solid grasp on reality viewed through the lens of common sense, rather than a tenuous hold on undeliverable promises to be sold to the masses with political rhetoric.

Deal with it.

I see in him a sense of fairness, a sense of justice, a sense of purpose, and most importantly a sense of vision of what can be, and what will be – if only we have the necessary fortitude to do what must be done, and the strength to ignore the nay-sayers who say it can’t be done.

Deal with it.

I love my country, and most of my fellow countrymen. And more often than not, that love requires a little show of strength even you didn’t know you had, and a little willingness to put your trust in someone in the White House again.

I’ve put my trust in Barack Obama – not because of who he is, but because of what he stands for. I refuse to parse his every statement in hopes of unearthing a contradiction he can be skewered with; I refuse to second-guess his every move on the assumption that I somehow know better than he does how to move this nation forward. Most of all, I steadfastly refuse to hand the enemy an ounce of ammunition with which to shoot down the man who stands between real democracy and a continuation of the failed policies of the idiot in chief and the STUPID ASS republican party.

And he will WITHOUT A DOUBT be the next president of the United States.

Deal with it.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeee's Baaaaaaaaack!

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) returned to the Senate Wednesday to break a stalemate on critical stalled Medicare legislation, making his first appearance on the Hill since he was diagnosed with brain cancer two months ago

CNN reported earlier that the return was in doubt because his family was concerned the travel would be too strenuous.

Senate Republicans have been stalling legislation that would reverse a cut in doctors’ Medicare fees by reducing payments to insurance companies. Earlier, in an unusual move, House Republicans defied their leadership and supported the Democratic measure.

In addition to Kennedy’s vote, several Republican Senators switched their votes and the legislation moved past a procedural hurdle, 69-23.

Sen. John McCain skipped the vote. (Of couse the senile old fuck probably slept through his alarm




Today, the Senate chamber erupted into loud cheers when Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) returned to cast his vote on long-stalled Medicare legislation. Senators gave Kennedy, who has been battling a brain tumor, a long standing ovation. As he registered his vote, Kennedy said in a loud voice, “Aye,” and made a thumbs-up gesture.

And God love Pete Stark:

Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) puts out a statement ripping McCain: “Senator Kennedy managed to make it back from treatment for cancer, but Senator McCain couldn’t be bothered. Senator McCain, who wants to be our next President, has skipped this vote three times now. Clearly, he’d rather hide than face up to the insurance industry. You can do that when you’re in the U.S. Senate, maybe voters should leave him there.”

Riding The Short Bus To The White House

The hits keep on coming in the never ending list of scandals for the bush minions.

In today’s line up, we have the news that the UN mandate for the US presence in Iraq is expiring at the end of this year. To no one’s surprise, the White House wants to continue an indefinite country-to-country commitment with Iraq. However, Prime Minister Maliki has other plans.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday he is negotiating a deal with
Washington that will for the first time set a timetable for a withdrawal of
foreign forces as part of a framework for a US troop presence into next year.

Iraqi politicians have not only bristled at the duration of any continuing defence pact with the United States, they have also expressed reservations about how many bases Washington should retain, what powers the US military should continue to hold to detain Iraqi civilians, and what immunity US troops should have from US law.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has said that Washington has agreed to one key demand from Baghdad, the scrapping of immunity from prosecution in Iraq of the tens of thousands of foreign security contractors operating in the country.

Timetables for withdrawal?

What, does Maliki and the Iraqi government want the terrorists to "win"? (whatever the fuck THAT means)

Next up is the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which according to a recent investigation by the LA Times has refused to release any information on professional misconduct. However, with all we’ve learned about the leaking of Valerie Plame’s name, the US Attorneys purge, Monica Goodling’s hiring practices, not to mention the counsel sought by Mukasey and Gonzales on warrantless wiretapping, torture and terror detainees, does anyone have any doubt that the OPR is up to their gills in complaints?

And finally, there is the ultimate Slow Learner (retard) in Chief, who was told by Pres. Clinton and Richard Clarke in no uncertain terms that his biggest concern entering the Oval Office would be al Qaeda. Now it’s bush’s turn to get his successor up-to-date on the biggest threats. Guess what his report says?

Now bush has weighed in on his successor’s big problem: Not Iraq, but Pakistan. Pakistan, home of al Qaeda. Al Qaeda now back to its pre- 9/11 strength, plotting its next attacks, in a Pakistani safe haven that was created in a stunning act of appeasement, approved and defended by bush.

Heckuva job, (asshole) bushie.

THIS Is A War Hero?

The idiot son and grandson of admirals who, despite their diminutive statures, stood tall above John Sidney McCain III.Exhibit A: From Carl Bernstein in 1999: http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_mccain.php

When John Sidney McCain III was born. in 1936, there was little question that this grandson of an admiral and son of an admiral would attend the Naval Academy. At Episcopal High, the prep school across the Potomac from Washington, he seemed like anything but a clean-cut prospect for the academy. Fixated on women, as he would be for much of his life, McCain once managed to get arrested for shouting "Shove it up your ass!" at two older girls who judged his attempt to pick them up somewhat crude. McCain was "a hard-rock kind of guy, a tough, mean little fucker," according to an Episcopal classmate quoted in The Nightingale's Song, a book written by fellow Annapolis graduate and Vietnam veteran Robert Timberg. The book, about five graduates of the Naval Academy—McCain, Oliver North, John Poindexter, James Webb, and Robert McFarlane —is a generational classic and an indispensable source of material on McCain's life.

As for John McCain III's years at Annapolis, "I hated the place, and in fairness the place wasn't all that fond of me either," he has written m his memoir, Faith of My Fathers, published in September. As Timberg notes in his book, McCain was a mess—"shoes unshined. late for formation, talking in ranks, room in disorder, gear improperly stowed." He devoured literature which had nothing to do with his course-work, but "I was adept at cramming for exams, and blessed with friends who did not seem to mind too much my requests for urgent tutorials." He was a jock and—as he acknowledges today—"a wild one" who developed a reputation for escorting one beautiful woman after another off campus. He and his fellow Annapolis revelers were known as "the Bad Bunch."Always on the edge of flunking out, McCain finished fifth from last in his class. Poindexter—the future national-security adviser—finished first. After graduation, McCain went out of his way to choose a naval career that was as different from his father's as imaginable.

"Actually," he says, "I wanted to be a navy pilot, because I thought it was a pretty exciting life. I wasn't interested in being on a destroyer or a battleship or a submarine. I thought being a navy pilot would be a lot of fun. But that was the extent of my ambitions. It was not to reach higher rank or to advance up the ladder. I just thought it would be a great life, and it turned out indeed it was."But it was also extremely hazardous. Flight school at Pensacola was a riot of hard playing for the young flier, whose Corvette was most likely to be found parked by a beach or at Trader John's, a strip bar. He dated a dancer nicknamed "Marie, the Flame of Florida" before moving on to advanced flight training in Corpus Christi, where his carousing and womanizing evidently took a toll on his flying. He found himself literally underwater after his training jet stalled and he couldn't make land. Knocked out as his plane smacked into Corpus Christi Bay, he regained consciousness on the bottom and struggled to the surface. While deployed in the Mediterranean in the early 1960s, he hit some power lines while flying too low over Spain.

"I liked the squadron life," he recalls. "We'd be in port for a week, 10 days. I was single. I mean, it was wonderful. I was embarrassed to take my paycheck."McCain also renewed a friendship with Carol Shepp, a divorced mother of two who had been married to one of his Annapolis classmates. A tall, attractive former model, she was exactly what Mc-Cain's friends agreed he needed—someone smoother around the edges than he but full of life. In July 1965 they were married.

That fall he was flying back to Norfolk solo when the engine of his plane failed and he had to bail out just before it plowed into a tidal stand of trees. It was his third accident, but, miraculously, he floated onto a deserted beach with only minor injuries.Undeterred, he took his work more seriously and began steeling himself for Vietnam. In 1966, McCain was sent to Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin at a moment when the air war against North Vietnam was intensifying. His first combat missions were flown solo in an A-4 Skyhawk carrying 500- and 1,000-pound bombs. Each flight off the deck of the U.S.S. Forrestal was an hour of sheer excitement and unspeakable terror.

"The trick is to control fear," he explains. "You know, you should be afraid. You'd be crazy not to be. But the fear can help you because it heightens your awareness, it heightens your senses. But it's also exhilarating. When a surface-to-air missile misses you, you know, you're afraid. When you drop your bombs on the target and get back, you feel great."

FISA In Perspective

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the White House directed telecommunications carriers to cooperate with its efforts to bolster intelligence gathering and surveillance -- the administration's effort to do a better job of "connecting the dots" to prevent terrorist attacks.

LA Times Story

No, it actually started a few weeks after Bush took office. A time when the Bush administration was ignoring the terrorist threat. So it was about something else, and was a high enough priority to plan out during the transition.
Washington Post Story

One telecom company, Qwest, refused because it was flat-out illegal.

The bush administration punished them, blocked federal contracts, and in an early indicator of what was to come from the politicized bush Justice Department, they prosecuted Qwest's CEO on trumped-up charges.

The combination of the telecoms letting bush illegally spy on us BEFORE September 11, and the politicized bush Justice Department punishing the company that refused - refused because it was illegal - is the reason so many of us are so adamant that Democrats should not be passing a law giving these companies immunity.

The President can't spy on people without warrants, and the telecoms knew that. They knew it was illegal to spy on us without warrants but they went along with it. Why? Why didn't they ask the bush administration to just get warrants?

And why would Democrats vote to let them off the hook?

Remember Watergate was about republicans illegally wiretapping Democrats.

Don 't think they don't do it.

Don't think that republican's are NOT criminals.

Hold them accountable for their crimes.

Contact you senator and DEMAND they remove retroactive telecom immunity from FISA or strike the entire bill down.

READ MORE

Fred Phelps - Closet Fag

I don't care that he's gay.

I care that he's a fucking hypocrite.

Happy 4th Of

As our nation wakes up to celebrate its 232nd anniversary of independence from King George of England, let us not lose sight of what the true meaning of the holiday is.

Some view it as the first official party to kick off the summer which sees the remergent backyard chefs and people enjoying their backyards with family and friends and the consumption of your favorite beverage to refresh and innebriate.

Others, like the STUPID republican that graced my show last night with his presence in a futile attempt to take my joy of the holiday by saying that this country is fucked and we have no reason to feel we have gained independence, and throw in an attack on our next president Barack Obama, which he also failed at BTW.

You see, he KNOWS his party is on the precipice of extinction and it was his pathetic last ditch attempt to stay alive. He's not the only STUPID republican that feels the desperate need to do ANYTHING to save their doomed party of inbred, "Hills Have Eyes" losers.

So as we kick back with our loved ones this Forth of July, keep your guard up. We need to never let it down, until after the November elections that is. When Barack Obama WILL be elected as the American President.

But that gives these desperate losers on the right four months to attack.

Like a rabid animal trapped in a corner.

Have a GREAT 4th of!

The Dumbing Down Of America

Just how stupid are Americans?

Pretty stupid, it would seem, when we see more people concerned about American Idol, The Simpsons and whoever the paparazzi are chasing that day.

"The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms."

That’s 1/10th of 1%.

But what does it mean exactly to say that American voters are stupid?

About this there is unfortunately no consensus. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who confessed not knowing how to define pornography, we are apt simply to throw up our hands in frustration and say: We know it when we see it. But unless we attempt a definition of some sort, we risk incoherence, dooming our investigation of stupidity from the outset. Stupidity cannot mean, as Humpty Dumpty would have it, whatever we say it means.

Five defining characteristics of stupidity, it seems to me, are readily apparent.

First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who's in charge.

Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events.

Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts.

Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually contradictory, or contrary to the country's long-term interests.

Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.

http://www.alternet.org/democracy/90161/

To Serve and Protect

MY ASS!!!

I am putting the finishing touches on my first book as Fed Up American. It will be available to the public on JULY 4th.

INDEPENDENCE DAY!

This day this year will hold a bit of a different meaning for me because Fed Up American will be celebrating 1 year.

The website.

The radio show.

The attitude.

Will be one year old next month.

The book that I've written: To Serve and Protect? - MY ASS!was written to help combat the fascist police and law enforcement tactics with education. Something they fear.

It is the ultimate guide to dealing with law enforcement.

The price pont I'm looking at for the book is a $5 download and it will also be available as a hard copy but I haven't quite firgued out the price yet of that.

I hope you all will check it out because it contains knowledge that EVERY American should know about, whether they have police contact or not. The information contained in To Serve and Protect? - MY ASS! will be priceless when the information is needed most.

I'll keep you posted on the launch.

Shit Or Get Off The Pot

Why I'm Not A Christian

The Rotten Apple Does Not Fall Far

It's remarkably common for a grandson to take up his grandfather's major project.

This occurred to me when I read recently of Thor Heyerdahl's grandson taking up his mission to cross the Pacific on a raft. But what really struck me was the BBC story aired on July 23rd, 2007, documenting President George W. Bush's grandfather's involvement in a 1933 plot to overthrow the U.S. government and install a fascist dictatorship. I knew the story, but had not considered the possibility that the grandson was trying to accomplish what his grandfather had failed to achieve.

Prescott Sheldon Bush (1895 to 1972) attended Yale University and joined the secret society known as Skull and Bones. Prescott is widely reported to have stolen the skull of Native American leader Geronimo. As far as I know, this has not actually been confirmed. In fact, Prescott seems to have had a habit of making things up. He sent letters home from World War I claiming he'd received medals for heroism. After the letters were printed in newspapers, he had to retract his claims.

If this does not yet sound like the life of a George W. Bush ancestor, try this on for size: Prescott Bush's early business efforts tended to fail. He married the daughter of a very rich man named George Herbert Walker (the guy with the compound at Kennebunkport, Maine, that now belongs to the Bush family, and the origin of Dubya's middle initial). Walker installed Prescott Bush as an executive in Thyssen and Flick. From then on, Prescott's business dealings went better, and he entered politics.

Now, the name Thyssen comes from a German named Fritz Thyssen, major financial backer of the rise of Adolph Hitler. Thyssen was referred to in the New York Herald-Tribune as "Hitler's Angel." During the 1930s and early 1940s, and even as late as 1951, Prescott Bush was involved in business dealings with Thyssen, and was inevitably aware of both Thyssen's political activities and the fact that the companies involved were financially benefiting the nation of Germany. In addition, the companies Prescott Bush profited from included one engaged in mining operations in Poland using slave labor from Auschwitz. Two former slave laborers have sued the U.S. government and the heirs of Prescott Bush for $40 billion.

Until the United States entered World War II it was legal for Americans to do business with Germany, but in late 1942 Prescott Bush's businesses interests were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Among those businesses involved was the Hamburg America Lines, for which Prescott Bush served as a manager. A Congressional committee, in a report called the McCormack-Dickstein Report, found that Hamburg America Lines had offered free passage to Germany for journalists willing to write favorably about the Nazis, and had brought Nazi sympathizers to America. (Is this starting to remind anyone of our current president's relationship to the freedom of the press?)

The McCormack-Dickstein Committee was established to investigate a homegrown American fascist plot hatched in 1933. Here's how the BBC promoted its recent story:

"Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen. The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression. Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy."

Actually, if you listen to the 30-minute BBC story, there is not one word of so much as speculation as to why this story is so little known. I think a clue to the answer can be found by looking into why this BBC report has not led to any U.S. media outlets picking up the story this week.

The BBC report provides a good account of the basic story. Some of the wealthiest men in America approached Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, beloved of many World War I veterans, many of them embittered by the government's treatment of them. Prescott Bush's group asked Butler to lead 500,000 veterans in a take-over of Washington and the White House. Butler refused and recounted the affair to the congressional committee. His account was corroborated in part by a number of witnesses, and the committee concluded that the plot was real. But the names of wealthy backers of the plot were blacked out in the committee's records, and nobody was prosecuted. According to the BBC, President Roosevelt cut a deal. He refrained from prosecuting some of the wealthiest men in America for treason. They agreed to end Wall Street's opposition to the New Deal.

Clearly the lack of accountability in Washington, D.C., did not begin with Nancy Pelosi taking Dubya's impeachment off the table, or with Congress' decision to avoid impeachment for President Ronald Reagan (a decision that arguably played a large role in installing Prescott Bush's son George H.W. Bush as president), or with the failure to investigate the apparent deal that George H.W. Bush and others made with Iran to not release American hostages until Reagan was made president, or with the failure to prosecute Richard Nixon after he resigned. Lack of accountability is a proud tradition in our nation's capital. Or maybe I should say our former nation's capital. I don't recognize the place anymore, and I credit that to George W. Bush's efforts to fulfill his grandfather's dream using far subtler and more effective means than a military coup.

bush the idiot grandson took office through a highly fraudulent election that he nonetheless lost. The Supreme Court blocked a recount of the vote and installed Dubya.

Prescott's grandson proceeded to weaken or eliminate most of the Bill of Rights in the name of protection from a dark foreign enemy. He even tossed out habeas corpus. The grandson of Prescott, that dreamer of the 1930s, established with very little resistance that the U.S. government can kidnap, detain indefinitely on no charge, torture, and murder. The United States under Prescott Bush's grandson adopted policies that heretofore had been considered only Nazi policies, most strikingly the willingness to openly plan and engage in aggressive wars on other nations.

At the same time, Dubya has accomplished a huge transfer of wealth within the United States from the rest of us to the extremely wealthy. He's also effected a major privatization of public operations, including the military. And he's kept tight control over the media.

Dubya has given himself the power to rewrite all laws with signing statements. He's established that intentionally misleading the Congress about the need for a war is not a crime that carries any penalty. He's given himself the right (just as Hitler did) to open anyone's mail. He's created illegal spying programs and then proposed to legalize them. Prescott would be so proud!

The current bush has accomplished much more smoothly than his grandfather could have imagined a feat that was one of the goals of Prescott's gang, namely the elimination of Congress.

Fuck bush and his criminal family.

Stupid Republican Criminals

If you or I refused to obey a subpoena we would certainly be under punishment.

In fact, it used to be that laws in this country could be applied to everyone, even presidents. When President Richard Nixon refused to comply with subpoenas from a prosecutor, the Supreme Court told him he had to.

When Nixon refused to comply with subpoenas from Congress, the House Judiciary Committee passed an article of impeachment against him. Nixon claimed "executive privilege," and the Supreme Court and Congress both told him to take his privilege and stick it in a helicopter home.

bush and Cheney have refused to comply with numerous subpoenas, have instructed current and former staff not to comply, and have refused to enforce contempt citations arising out of their refusal to comply with subpoenas. They have also instructed current and former staffers who testified to refuse to answer certain questions, and to claim "executive privilege."

When the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed White House Political Director Sara Taylor and Deputy Political Director J. Scott Jennings a year ago, they showed up and refused to answer questions. A complete list of witnesses who have thus refused would be quite long.In many other cases, the Bush-Cheney gang has simply refused to produce documents or witnesses at all.

Subpoenas not complied with at all include:--A House Judiciary Committee subpoena for documents from the Department of Justice, issued April 10, 2007;--A House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoena for the testimony of the Secretary of State, issued April 25, 2007;--A House Judiciary Committee subpoena for documents and testimony of former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, issued June 13, 2007;--A Senate Judiciary Committee subpoena for documents and testimony of White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, issued June 13, 2007;--A Senate Judiciary Committee subpoena for documents and testimony of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, issued June 26, 2007;--A Senate Judiciary Committee subpoena for documents from the White House, Vice President Richard Cheney, the Department of Justice, and the National Security Council. If the documents are not produced, the subpoena requires the testimony of White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Chief of Staff to the Vice President David Addington, and National Security Council executive director V. Philip Lago, issued June 27, 2007;--A House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoena for testimony of Lt. General Kensinger;--A House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoena for documents from the Environmental Protection Agency, issued April 16, 2008.

This is a partial list based on no sort of thorough research whatsoever, and not all subpoenas are ever publicized.

So, who knows what the full extent of this pattern of behavior comes to?

The list already dwarfs Nixon's and is probably much longer. And, remember, these are actual subpoenas. These don't include rejected requests not in the form of subpoenas, or votes by committees to approve subpoenas that the chairman never bothers to send. And remember, too, that a number of these subpoenas are for unnecessary evidence related to crimes and offenses already solidly documented.

Congress members, afraid to produce articles of impeachment, have produced subpoenas instead, and then discovered that with impeachment removed from the table, the subpoenas have no teeth.We are in completely uncharted waters.

The White House has reduced the Congress to a debate club or a gang of court jesters, and Congress has gone along with the complete removal of its power.

But do Republicans want the power to subpoena the Obama administration? Do Democrats want the power to subpoena the McCain administration? Do any congress members with decency that reaches outside a party want the power to hold any future administration in check?

If so, then we need impeachment, even if it's on this issue alone. When your Congress member comes home next week, ask them to introduce this article of impeachment. They can copy Congressman Dennis Kucinich's 27th article already introduced. Or they can borrow from the third article passed against Nixon. Or they can give up the pretense of being an actual member of the U.S. government. Perhaps you can begin your conversations this way:"

So, Congressman, how does it feel to be impotent?"

Fight FISA

They were passed even as we in the Democratic party...activists we are called...were fighting back.

We were ignored.

They paid no attention at all.

We went to Iraq, the terrible bankruptcy bill was forced on us, the press conferences on the trade deals were held before the labor friendly Democrats even knew about what was happening.

Now FISA immunity is being forced through for no reason. It could have waited until we had a new president. There is no real reason for this to be happening now.

Again, we are as a party doing what makes the right wing 25% happy. (Actually it is less than 25% now) There is no listening to the ones in our own party who are speaking up. Even at Democratic forums, there are people saying don't be alarmed...there is nothing to the FISA bill at all. We are making too big a deal, they say. Just because they can now legally spy on us for 7 days before getting a warrant...no problem. Give this administration a big pass on the war lies...no problem.

We are told not to be alarmed just because spying can continue even if denied by the court.

We are told not to be alarmed that none of the spying on us prior to this time can be prosecuted....or even questioned. It is done, it is over.

• H.R. 6304 further trivializes court review by explicitly permitting the
government to continue surveillance programs even if the application is denied
by the court. The government has the authority to wiretap through the entire
appeals process, and then keep and use whatever it gathered in the meantime.

• H.R. 6304 ensures the dismissal of all cases pending against the
telecommunication companies that facilitated the warrantless wiretapping
programs over the last 7 years. The test in the bill is not whether the
government certifications were actually legal – only whether they were issued.
Because it is public knowledge that they were, all the cases seeking to find out
what these companies and the government did with our communications will be
killed.

Remember the rush to get the bankruptcy bill through? I will never forget this CNN interview which made me realize that our Democrats had the wool pulled over their eyes, just like before Iraq...supposedly. Just like now with FISA..supposedly.

CNN transcript

"SCURLOCK: Well, you know, if you the numbers, and you look at why people
declare bankruptcy and you look at why people are in debt, the only real
solution is to never go to the hospital, never get divorced and never lose your
job, which I don't I think is that realistic for most people -- and probably
never go to college.

...WASTLER: James, bang on Congress a little bit.
There was a big hearing...

SCURLOCK: OK.

WASTLER: ... this week
and everything. And they had all the big boy credit card companies come. Oh yes,
we promise, we're going to be more transparent with our customers, which is a
bunch of malarkey, quite frankly. I know you've been following it carefully, but
all of these banks have big lobbying organizations that help get their point of
view across in Washington. Is there any realistic chance that we'll get some
sort of change out of D.C.?

SCURLOCK: Well, I think the congressmen are
still sort of stinging from this bait and switch with bankruptcy reform where
they were told that if they passed the bill, about a year-and-a-half ago, that
all Americans would get this dividend in the form of lower interest rates. I
think they said it was $500 or $600 we were all paying because people were
gaming in the bankruptcy system.

And nobody has gotten a dividend check
yet and I don't think interest rates have come down. So and I think Congress is
very angry about this. And you have new -- the Democrats in charge of the
committees and oversight are they are really taking these guys to task.


Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have been pushing this FISA bill with
immunity for ages. The "policy shop" has advised this issue be pushed. It shows
who controls the message.

PPI says Democrats should allow immunity for
telecoms


..."However, it makes little sense to hold up progress on
modernizing the FISA bill to punish private companies that responded to White
House requests for information. Senator John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) has done
yeoman's work as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to forge this
compromise, and offered an explanation of his support for an immunity clause in
an October 31 Washington Post editorial: "These companies were assured that
their cooperation was not only legal but also necessary because of their unique
technical capabilities. They were also told it was their patriotic duty to help
protect the country after the devastating attacks on our homeland."

In a
separate editorial for The Hill on November 8, former senator Bob Kerrey stated,
"We cannot hope to achieve such unity of effort (to defeat the enemy) if on the
one hand we call upon private industry to aid us in this fight, and on the other
allow them to be sued for their good-faith efforts to help."

In sum,
since the telecommunications companies had no way of independently verifying the
program's legality and were pressured by White House invocations of the national
interest, efforts to punish them fail to address the real cause of the problem.

This was from November 2007. It is obvious who got the attention of Congress.

They listened to their think tank instead of listening to the people of the party.

Now we are told to not be upset. Just like we were told after the immoral invasion of Iraq, just like we were told after the passage of the bankruptcy bill which hurts elderly and the sick. Just like we were told after the trade deals were passed.

A Legend Is Gone

But he will never be forgotten.

The gifts that he gave the world will live on.

Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines
about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a
Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday. He was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems, died at
Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. EDT) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.

Known for his edgy, provocative material developed over 50 years, the bald, bearded Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine called "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television." A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of the routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 1978 case, Federal Communications Commission vs. Pacifica Foundation, the top U.S. court ruled that the words cited in Carlin's routine were indecent, and that the government's broadcast regulator could ban them from being aired at times when children might be listening.

The Grammy-winning Carlin remained an active presence on the comedy circuit. Carlin was scheduled to receive the John F. Kennedy Center's prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in November and his publicist said Carlin performed in Las Vegas this month.

His comedic sensibility revolved around a central theme: humanity is a cursed, doomed species.

"I don't have any beliefs or allegiances. I don't believe in this
country, I don't believe in religion, or a god, and I don't believe in all these man-made institutional ideas," he told Reuters in a 2001 interview.

Carlin told Playboy in 2005 that he looked forward to an afterlife where he could watch the decline of civilization on a "heavenly CNN."

"The world is a big theater-in-the round as far as I'm concerned, and I'd love to watch it spin itself into oblivion," he said. "Tune in and watch the human adventure."

Carlin is survived by his second wife Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; and brother Patrick. His first wife, Brenda, died of cancer in
1997.

Cindy McCain - Drug Addled Cunt

It's sleazy as hell for one candidate to attack the other's wife.

But it's even weirder for him to use his own scandal-ridden wife to do it. What moral authority does Cindy McCain have to start throwing stones at Mrs. Obama? Only one candidate's wife is a drug addict who actually stole drugs from poor children in order to feed her addiction.

And that candidate is John McCain.

People who live in glass pill boxes shouldn't cast stones.

Cindy McCain is a drug addict and has stole drugs from children.

The non-partisan Web site, Snopes.com, had this to say about Mrs. McCain's illicit drug addiction:

In 1989, following two back surgeries, Cindy McCain became addicted to the
painkillers Vicodin and Percocet. To keep up with her daily need of 10 to 15
pills, she used other people's names for prescriptions and stole drugs from the
American Voluntary Medical Team, a mobile surgical unit she'd begun in 1988 to
provide emergency medical services around the world. A 1993 DEA audit of the
amount of painkillers her charity had obtained quickly uncovered her thefts. She
avoided prosecution for those crimes through an agreement with the Justice
Department in which she submitted to drug testing, paid a fine, performed
community service in a soup kitchen, and joined Narcotics Anonymous and her
medical charity was closed.

True Americans DO NOT steal medicine from children.

Neither should their wives.

The American Dream *revisited*

Growing up as a child in America, I kept hearing about “the American dream”.

I had it driven into my brain that America was the greatest, most powerful and richest nation in the world and that people from other lands would do anything to be American. To live the American dream.

For the estimated 3.5 billion homeless people living in America, that dream has become a nightmare.

Let’s look at some statistics:

• 40% are families with children—the fastest growing segment


• 41% are single males.


• 14% are single females.
  
• 5% are minors unaccompanied by adults.
  (this means that nearly 1.5 million of homeless people are under 18 – I bet all you parents are quite proud)

The mobile and often hidden nature of homelessness makes this group difficult to accurately survey and completely accurate and comprehensive statistics are difficult to acquire, however, these figures seem to be reasonably accurate.

• 49% are African American


• 35% are Caucasian


• 23% are veterans


• 28% have more than a High School education

These are people like you and me. They could be your neighbors, your friends, your family but they are looked at as the dregs of society and a burden to the communities they wander, asking a passer by for some change in the hopes that their next meal can come from somewhere other than the garbage.

Contrary to some people’s beliefs they are not all lazy and shiftless. They are not all drug addicts or drunks. They are not all mentally ill.

These are people that have become victims of years of failed mismanagement of their country, where livable wages get left in the dust of runaway cost of living expenses. That is IF they’re fortunate enough to still have a job.

How long do you think you and YOUR family could survive if your job was cut? Especially in an unstable economy where the job market offers even LESS than the meager salary you once had, making it even MORE difficult to survive. That is IF you are fortunate enough to find another job quickly.

So if you think that it can’t possibly happen to you, think again.

Look around you and see what has become of the American Dream. Look at the prices you pay at the pump and the grocery store. Compare the cost of living today to the same time last year.
Now do the same with your income.

Has your income increased at the same percentage as your cost of living?
If you are like the 90% of the American population the answer is: no. You are moving backwards. Falling behind.

But there IS one thing that has been saving people from becoming homeless, at least for a while, and that one thing is debt. Credit cards. Buying now and paying later. The American way.

But that is merely an illusion.

A temporary fix.

The band aid on the cancerous tumor.

Because in reality, this is just putting you more behind. Burying you further. Enslaving you. Holding you hostage.

Being a slave and a hostage is NOT the American Dream.

Not MY American Dream anyway.

Why is it yours?

Perhaps We Need To Speak Louder

Dennis Kucinich, this past week, released 35 criminal counts against george bush, calling for Impeachment, spending about five hours of the House floor outlining the charges.

35 criminal acts against America. Terrorist acts pulled off by the biggest "homegrown" domestic terrorist in America today.

He is being ignored by the media.

We all need to condemn the corporate media for their continued betrayal of the public trust by its silence on this. This betrayal is even worse than the corporate media aiding bush lies that got us into the illegal, immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq.

It is true that the brave Representative from Ohio has been marginalized and demonized by those in the corporate media. However, we must remember that that marginalization and demonization have not just been by the corporate media. There have been many willing partners in crime from within the political establishment.

More specifically, those within the democratic party.

People like Nancy Pelosi, the republican shill that pretends to be a democrat. Like Harry Reid, someone that has apparently been AWOL lately.

The corporate media blackout has had allies. For this blackout to be broken, Progressive Democrats of America, Move On and every other progressive group need to call for Senator Obama to publicly call for Impeachment. Make it clear that if he does not do so, right now,

We need to make the same case for every politician running. That if they do not support Kucinich that we will publicly not support them and will indeed support a more suitable candidate. One that hears the voices of We The People that allow them to have the job that they hold so dear.

Most importantly, having Senator Obama and others making it clear that they support an Impeachment investigation will force the corporate media to cover the story. This will then provide the evidence needed to convince the American public just how deep and insidious the crimes of the Bush Administration are.

This simple act of courage by progressive groups could propel Impeachment into the minds and consciousness of the public of our country. It can make the oft-heard term "holding their feet to the fire" have real meaning and relevance.

On the other hand, to not push this will do one thing and one thing only. It is unarguable that the democratic majority has proven to be worse than spineless. For progressives to not publicly pressure their leadership in this manner will actually reward them for their cowardice.

At this stage, this is the only leverage we have left.

Impeachment really is this important, and you all know it.

Make them prove that Impeachment was not taken off the table because they had something to hide under the table. Or we can assume that they did have something to hide, in which case, they do not deserve our support. It will be proof positive of their complicity, the fact that they are coconspirators in the crimes of the bush administration

If we all come to that horrifying reality, we can then be truly aware of how bad the situation is that we find ourselves in. It also gives We The People the responsibility to create real and lasting change for ourselves and the world in which we live.

This is America's opportunity to shine. To regain that respect we once had as a nation. We can once again say that we are proud to be an American.

Or we can allow these crimes to go unpunished. Ignored. We can send a clear message to all future administrations that they can do whatever, whenever they want to us regardless of constitutional laws that were meant to protect our rights.

The choice is ours to make.

Moral Values?

OK, so now I’ve seen everything.

I almost spit my coffee through my nose from the absurdity of the statement that I just read.

“Pope Benedict XVI personally thanked US President George W. Bush on Friday for his defense of fundamental moral values".

The more I thought about it, I began to see the irony.

Let’s take a look at these “moral values.”

To achieve his presidential goals, bush has deliberately mislead the world for the reasons to invade Iraq. His lies have caused the deaths of American citizens, the destruction of lives, mangled American bodies and minds. In Iraq, depending on whose numbers you believe, he is responsible for killing over one million people.

Of the seven deadly sins, greed seems to be bush’s favorite, as we see billions and billions of dollars going unaccounted for that was earmarked to rebuild Iraq, the nation he destroyed. His invasion has destabilized an already unstable region and oil prices have nearly tripled since bush took office.

The bush family fortune comes from oil company profits.

Did I mention how this invasion was the result of his lies?

The pope has some rather interesting “moral values” too. Not only does he actively participate in the covering up of sex abuse at the hands of his priests, but he goes as far as blaming society for the problem in the first place.

This is the same guy that once said that Buddhist meditation was actually a form of masturbation. He further stated that abortion and homosexuality were “obstacles” to world peace. This guys seems a little preoccupied with sex issues.

So it appears that these two men, these fine christian men, seem to have some of the same values after all.

Both are delusional. Believing in fantasy.

Both are hypocrites.

Both are in positions of ultimate power.

Both are liars. Both are guilty of aiding and abetting crimes.

But these are hardly what I would call “moral values.”

So as bush and the pope lay down in bed together tonight, doing the things they have fantasized about in their rise for power, know full well that the morals that they exhibit, the beliefs that they hold, the crimes they commit, are transparent and expose them for the corrupt charlatan liars that they are.

Return The American Dream

To preface the point, I would like to first define what the American Dream is (was).

It can mean different things to different people. I, for one, think that the American Dream is grounded on being an entrepreneur. Living life on your own terms, which can be a good topic for another article.

To others, the American Dream can be a house in the suburbs with a doting wife and 2.3 children or it can mean owning a convenience store or a donut shop.

To others still, it could mean just being happy.

Enjoying life.

Sharing.

Caring.

It is this American Dream that I am referring to here. Our standards as a nation have been compromised. Let me explain:

People today may “appear” to be happy and content on the outside but when you look at what they have come to accept as “living” is actually quite pathetic.

When looked at realistically, their lives consist of going to a job that they hate and are grossly underpaid at, their salaries being left in the dust as the cost of living raises much quicker than their wage. This forces them to perhaps take on second and even third jobs to accomplish the same things they have done before and sometimes even less.

There is really no such thing, any more, as a one income household like we had when I was growing up. More and more of the children everyone claims to care about are going home after school to an empty house because mom and dad are both at work. That is if dad is even in the picture any more.

It’s no wonder crime is raising across America at such an alarming rate. Kids are killing kids, not just in an unjust war, but right here in America. Right in our own back yards.

But we can always trust our government to help us, right? Surely they will help keep the American Dream alive. However, their actions and inactions, as well as the facts, shine a different light of truth on their intentions.

We feel it first at the pump, where gas prices have sharply risen to ridiculous levels, which has an escalating effect on damn near everything that can be purchased. From groceries to __________________ . (FILL IN THE BLANK)

This is going on at the same time that billions and billions of dollars are being shipped off to fund a corrupt presidents war in Iraq, which by the way a significant portion of these AMERICAN DOLLARS has gone unaccounted for.

While the American economy seems to be crumbling all around us, with recessionlike retail numbers and more and more small business closing their doors unable to compete with the WalMart mentality of doing business.

We see our friends, family and neighbors in near panic mode, not knowing what to do about the downward spiral they seem to have found themselves in, seemingly losing the ability to think logically and become stupid, complacent sheep, blindly following what they hear on the nightly news about Hillary dodging sniper fire in Bosnia or what Obama’s former pastor has said or who the new American Idol is going to be.

We have become a nation steeped in stupidity and ignorance and those fortunate enough to still have possession of a functioning brain are becoming disenchanted with the way things are.

Things aren’t supposed to be this way. What happened?

What happened to the American Dream of, at the very least, being happy?

Have our standards of being happy lowered to THIS level?

Join us tonight on my blogatalk show where this topic will be discussed in greater detail. The show starts at 8PM CST and the call in number, if you feel compelled to call in, is 347-215-8200.

Feel free to post comments below.

A TRUE Patriot Act

Yesterday House Representative Dennis Kucinich stood on the floor of congress introducing a 35 count resolution to impeach bush.

Citing bush administration crime after crime after crime.

Kucinich claimed bush "fraudulently" justified the war on Iraq and misled "the American people and members of Congress to believe Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction so as to manufacture a false case for war." A fact that everyone with a brain seems to know true.

Kucinich said. ”by such conduct, bush is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office,"

Which on the surface might seem like a moot point at this time. bush will soon be out of a job. Nothing but a bad memory, annoying as morning mouth flem. But think about this for a second.

For one reason or another, which we won’t discuss just yet, people have been letting bush and his minions get away with being the crime family in America far too long. If the crimes of this administration go unchecked and unpunished, it sends a very dangerous message to future administrations.

Kucinich said in January that he planned to launch an impeachment effort against bush, but delayed his effort after meeting with members of the House Judiciary Committee. Its time John Conyers hears the voice of the people and acts on in the best interests of those that elected him into office. The Judiciary Committee hasn't acted on a bid Kucinich launched last year to impeach cheney.

Nancy Pelosi has said time and time again that impeachment was “off the table.”

Perhaps this is a problem with the system. We have elected leaders, public servants, that are doing very little, if anything, in the best interests of the people.

I mean shit, have you ever heard Conyers speak?

I can’t make it through two or three sentences before I fall asleep. The man is NOT what I would consider a great orator.

I would suggest everyone give Mr Conyers office a call and tell him to get off his ass, open his ears and do the bidding of the people, a position he has been hired by US to do, or he will soon be looking for a job himself.

DC Address:
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.

United States House of Representatives

2426 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515-2214

DC Phone:
202-225-5126

DC Fax:
202-225-0072

Email Address:
http://www.house.gov/conyers/contactform_zipcheck.shtml
WWW Homepage:
http://www.house.gov/conyers/

And while you’re at it, give that OTHER hose bag bitch, Nancy Pelosi a call too.

In my attempts to locate contact information for her I was greeted by a contact form with an email address and the warning that if you’re not a constituent in her ward, she’ll probably never even look at it.

Perhaps she could soon be on the unemployment line too.

So the ultimate responsibility fall right back in our own laps.

We The People decide what goes on in America, at least that’s how its supposed to be. It is We The People that give these people their jobs in the first place. It is We The People that give them their power.

And it is We The People that have sat back and allowed it too long.

It is time that We The People become Fed Up Americans.

Never Going To Leave

Dick Cheney wants the Iraqi government installed by the U.S. occupation to sign a “security pact” with Washington by the end of July. (The pact, including a status-of-forces agreement, would be signed by the U.S. president but not constitute a treaty requiring Congressional approval.)

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker has been feverishly struggling to meet the deadline and to commit the next administration to the agreement’s terms. But that may be a tall order. Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki says negotiations are only in a beginning stage; public opinion is opposed to the pact based on leaked information about its content; and a majority of members of the Iraqi parliament have endorsed a letter to the U.S. government demanding U.S. withdrawal as the condition for “any commercial, agricultural, investment or political agreement with the United States.”

Few Americans are familiar with the proposed treaty. If they were, they might be shocked at its provisions, ashamed about its naked sadism.

It:

• grants the U.S. long-term rights to maintain over 50 military bases in their California-sized country
• allows the U.S. to strike any other country from within Iraqi territory without the permission of the Iraqi government
• allows the U.S. to conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting with the local government
• allows U.S. forces to arrest any Iraqi without consulting with Iraqi authorities
• extends to U.S. troops and contracters immunity from Iraqi law
• gives U.S. forces control of Iraqi airspace below 29,000ft.
• places the Iraqi Defense, Interior and National Security ministries, under American supervision for ten years
• gives the U.S. responsibility for Iraqi armament contracts for ten years

But Iranian political leader Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani hardly exaggerates in saying the proposed deal is designed “to turn the Iraqis into slaves of the Americans” and to create “a permanent occupation.” Many Iraqis use similar language. “The agreement wants to put an American in each house,” claimed a supporter of Shiite cleric and nationalist firebrand Mutada al-Sadr. “This agreement is poison mixed in poison, not poison in honey because there is no honey at all.” “Why,” he asks, “do they want to break the backbone of Iraq?”

The mainstream Shiite cleric and politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC; formerly the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq or SCIRI), agrees that the proposed agreement would “violate Iraq's national sovereignty.” He claims a “national consensus” against it has developed. (President Bush in December 2006 met with al-Hakim, calling his “one of the distinguished leaders of a free Iraq,” and he is sometimes mentioned as Washington’s first choice for prime minister if al-Maliki doesn’t adequately put out. So his opposition is especially significant.)

Al-Hakim is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most widely respected Shiite cleric in 60% Shiite Iraq. The ayatollah is thought to oppose the pact but has not yet made a pronouncement about it. Meanwhile the Association of Muslim Scholars, the largest Sunni political group in the parliament, warns that the pact paves the way for "military, economic and cultural domination” by the Americans.

Al-Sadr’s followers staged rallies around the country after prayers last Friday and plan to continue weekly peaceful demonstrations demanding that the Baghdad government hold a national referendum on the security treaty issue. The U.S. opposes such a referendum, aware that pact opponents would surely win.

SOURCE

Police Fascism

WOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

The summer music festival season is FINALLY upon us.

And with it, special drug law enforcement aimed at festival goers in what could be called a form of cultural profiling. If years past are any indicator, music lovers should be prepared to encounter everything from announced "Drug Checkpoints" that aren't -- they are instead traps to lure the freaked out -- to real, unconstitutional, highway drug checkpoints masquerading as "safety checks" (complete with drug dogs) to undercover cops working inside the festival grounds themselves.

Nationally known festivals like Bonaroo in Tennessee and Wakarusa in Kansas, as well as countless lesser festivals, especially in rural areas, have drawn special law enforcement efforts in the past. With this year unlikely to be any different, festival goers will need to know their rights and how to exercise them when they encounter the cops.

The police enforcement actions are already getting underway. Last weekend, the 2008 Summer Camp Festival in Chillicothe, Illinois, drew some 13,000 fans to hear a diverse line-up of bands including the Flaming Lips, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Blind Melon, the Roots, and the New Pornographers. It also drew city and state police, who claimed 20 drug arrests -- for marijuana, ecstasy, and LSD -- between them in and around the festival.

The police were pleased.

"I think a lot of it had to do with all of the agencies getting together before the event and really planning out our attack (????)," Chillicothe Police Chief Steven Maurer. "Our goal is to prevent it from coming in and that's what we did a lot of."

Meanwhile, down in northeast Georgia, some other law enforcement agencies had also gotten together to plan an attack. This one wasn't aimed directly at concert-goers, but at the highway-traveling public in general. In what the Northeast Georgian described as "one of the county's largest highway interdiction and safety checks in at least five years," personnel from the Habersham County Sheriff's Office, Northeast Georgia Drug Task Force, Georgia National Guard Counter Drug Task Force, Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Department of Public Safety Motor Carrier Compliance Unit, Lee Arrendale State Prison, Phillips State Prison and Cornelia Police Department participated in a 24-hour checkpoint on a local highway.

Police bragged about the success of their checkpoint, which netted 74 arrests, 31 of them for drug offenses. "It worked well, I thought," said Habersham County Sheriff De Ray Fincher. "The operation resulted in a seizure of $36,000 in illegal drugs. And a total amount of currency, drugs and vehicles seized is estimated to have a value of $82,000."

Police did write some tickets for traffic offenses, Fincher told WNEG-TV 32 News. "We got a lot of people with no insurance, no driver's license or suspended license," he said. And some pot smokers: "The majority of our cases were marijuana cases; however, we did get several methamphetamine and we got one case of cocaine," Fincher explained.

In a 2000 Supreme Court decision, Indianapolis v. Edmonds, the high court held that indiscriminate highway drug checkpoints were unconstitutional since motorists were being stopped without suspicion for a law enforcement -- not a public safety -- purpose.

But Fincher was open about his constitutionally-suspect highway checkpoint. "We are trying to do everything we can to prevent drug activity in Habersham County, whether it's just passing through or stopping here," he said, noting that drug arrests in the county were on the rise. "That just means we've taken a real aggressive approach to drug enforcement."

"In the wake of the Indianapolis case, law enforcement has tried to figure out ways to still conduct drug checkpoints that comport with that ruling," said Adam Wolf of the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project. "Intent is the name of the game. If the intent is to conduct a checkpoint basically for law enforcement purposes, that's not okay. If it's for public safety purposes, such as sobriety checkpoints, that is okay."

A constitutional challenge to any given checkpoint would turn on intent, said Wolf. "If it turns out the intent was primarily to be a drug checkpoint, that would be an unreasonable search and not comply with the Constitution," he said. "That kind of checkpoint should be shut down, but it would take someone to challenge it."

Noting Sheriff Fincher's report of cash and goods seized, Wolf suggested the purpose of the checkpoints could really be about something other than law enforcement or public safety.

"So often these things are being done to fund law enforcement agencies. Asset forfeiture is really a cash cow," he said.

Whether the checkpoints or other special law enforcement tactics are to raise money, wage the drug war, or indeed for "public safety," experts consulted by the Chronicle sang a remarkably similar song: Be prepared, don't be stupid, and don't give away your rights.

"The most efficient way to get arrested for marijuana possession short of blowing pot smoke in an officer's face is to smoke marijuana while driving or parked in your car, especially on the way to a festival," said Steven Silverman of the civil liberties group Flex Your Rights, which has released a video instructing people how to flex theirs. "You have a minimal expectation of privacy, and it reeks. Officers can smell it, and if they can smell it, that's probable cause to search you."

"Keep your private items out of view," recommended the ACLU's Wolf. A baggie full of weed on the front seat is all the probable cause an officer needs to search the vehicle and arrest the owner.

"The only sure thing to do is not to carry," said Keith Stroup, founder and currently senior counsel for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). "But the problem with that is there may or may not be good marijuana available at the festivals. If you're going to bring something with you, keep the quantity as small as possible, and for God's sake, don't smoke in the car!"

If you are stopped at a checkpoint (or pulled over for any reason) and you haven't provided police probable cause to search you or your vehicle, now is the time to exercise your rights. People in such situations should be polite but assertive, the experts said.

"If you are pulled over by police for any reason, the officers are very likely to ask you to consent to a search," said Silverman. "Don't do it. Never, ever consent under any circumstances. It might be couched in terms of a command, but it is a request. If you consent, you are waiving your Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. They won't 'go easier' on you; anything they find, they will confiscate, and arrest you and put you in jail. Don't do their job for them."

"There is no circumstance I can imagine where you should ever consent to a search," agreed NORML's Stroup. "If you give permission, you waive your Fourth Amendment protections. They may say it'll go easier if you cooperate, but that's bullshit. Their only reason for being there is to see if you have contraband and arrest you and put you in jail if you do."

"Just say no to warrantless searches," echoed the ACLU's Wolf. "Officers won't tell you you have the right not to consent, but you do, and it is one that people have held dear since the founding of the Republic."

There are other highway hazards for the unwary festival-goer. Law enforcement can be creative in its unending war on drug users and sellers.

"Anybody driving to see his favorite band should also be aware of fake drug checkpoints," said Silverman. "Drug checkpoints are unconstitutional, but what some sheriffs will do close to festival sites is set up a big 'Drug Checkpoint Ahead' sign, and then watch who turns off the highway at the next ramp or who throws something out his car window. Then they pull them over for littering or failure to signal a lane change or something. If you see such a sign, keep driving -- it's a bluff designed to see who it scares."

"When you see a sign like that, proceed ahead within the speed limit, driving safely through the area," advised Wolf.

Wolf has problems with the harassment of festival-goers that run deeper than particular law enforcement tactics. "Profiling based on race is not okay, profiling based on gender is not okay, and profiling based on the type of concert you attend is not okay," he said. "It's unreasonable and unjustifiable for police to target a group of people because they are going to any particular type of concert."

"Simply having a Grateful Dead sticker or dreadlocks doesn't constitute reasonable suspicion of anything," agreed Silverman.

But in the real world, it can. Festival-goers and other highway travelers need to be aware of their rights, as well as the realities of life in the contemporary US, as they hit the highway this summer.

And one last thing once you actually make it to the festival. "There's a big myth out there that police officers must reveal if they're an undercover cop," said Silverman. "That's wrong, and it's stupid to believe that. Police officers can and do legally lie in doing their jobs. Believing that has probably led to thousands of people being arrested."

SOURCE