The Hollywood Liberal

 

 

REBELS IN HELL

 

Part II

 

The Birth of Jovani

 

One Year Later — 2009:

 

EPISODE 6

It was a dark and cloudy day on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Miguel, the man once known as The Assassin sat on his patio. It was the kind of day when he would have worked on his wall. Only now there was no wall, and from where he sat under the coconut palm looking down below his right knee there was no leg. Gone also was the man he once was. The man who depended upon his physical agility and strength and deadly skills.

But that man was gone. Along with the missing leg.

Who is to say what it is in a person’s life that causes them to change? The death of a loved one? An unaccountable epiphany? A spiritual revelation brought about by a near death experience?

Upon their return to Costa Rica Miguel had spent two weeks in bed, the first three days of which his body fought the death-dealing infection. It was fortunate that he had wealth. That allowed him privacy and for Reynaldo to bring in the surgeon and nurse from Venezuela. He had succumbed and the leg was removed.

During his recuperation, when he could, he looked out his window to see the boy once known as Patrick with Reynaldo, or heard the boy moving throughout the house. But mostly what he knew of Patrick was of a boy now named Jovani to hide him from the assassins. It was Jovani then that was playing the electric guitar Reynaldo had purchased.

On occasion Jovani would come to see him, but his condition was so extreme that he could not respond with more than to nod or say “de nada” when Jovani thanked him for saving his life. Too he could see the sadness in the boy. But there was nothing he could do. He left that to Reynaldo who took the boy fishing or for rides on the coast. As it was summer, no question was asked of his schooling.

Over the year what he experienced of the boy was from what he heard: sometimes in the middle of the night he would hear the boy playing somber, moody blues pieces. Sometimes he would hear frenetic strumming. On two occasions the boy busted the guitar against the wall, once the floor.

He told Reynaldo to replace it each time. Reynaldo nodded his agreement. Better the walls, floor and guitar than himself.

Six months after their arrival Jovani had made friends at the international school and soon formed a band. His spirits began to rise. There were no more broken guitars.

By the time of his ambulatory state he was a weakened man, both physically and mentally. He knew he had changed, but he didn’t yet know how. And at times he was angry. Very angry. That was followed by depression. The new man he was had no life and he knew it.

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Homeland Security wants to come out with a shock bracelet that they can put on your wrist, and use on you if they feel like shocking you from a distance. So like if they are watching you on a street camera, and see you doing something they don’t like they can deliver a jolt that temporarily incompacitates you. Then they can slap the cuffs on you and have you in the car before you know what’s going on. Doesn’t that sound like something that the land of the free and the home of the brave can really use?
They also want to use them on planes, give one to every passenger as they get on. Prison Planet picks up the story.

The Department of Homeland Security is pursuing the introduction of a device known as the Security Bracelet, a wearable tag that would allow authorities to inflict pain compliance on suspects from a distance, while also recommending law enforcement applications and potential use in “crowd control situations”.

Introduced ostensibly to combat airline terrorism, a creepy promo video courtesy of the patent holders Lamperd FTS exploits shocking 9/11 imagery to push the torture device as a solution to countering potential hijackers by inflicting “Electro-Muscular Disruption” and presumably giving the rest of the passengers a debilitating shock at the same time.

Watch the clip.

H.L.s Take
So if Obama becomes President, (I say ‘if” despite the fact that probably two thirds of voters will cast thier ballot for him, and the fact that he is outraising McCain by a huge margin, but this is the democrats we are talking about so it’s a big “if”) so if Obama becomes President, does all the bullshit stop. Does Homeland Security stop acting like Hitlers strorm troopers? Do we stop getting hassled to death every time we get on a plane? Do we stop having the politics of fear of another terrorist attack? (Not that our own government wasn’t behind the last one) Do we stop having the cops tasering people for no reason? or will it all just be buisness as usual?

U.S. Pushed Allies on Iraq, Diplomat Writes

Washington Post

UNITED NATIONS — In the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean diplomat.

The rough-and-tumble diplomatic strategy has generated lasting “bitterness” and “deep mistrust” in Washington’s relations with allies in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, Heraldo Mu¿oz, Chile’s ambassador to the United Nations, writes in his book “A Solitary War: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons,” set for publication next month.

White House back pedals on Bush comments on Iran bomb

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House on Friday sought to back pedal on comments by President George W. Bush accusing Iran of having said it was seeking a nuclear bomb.

The Islamic regime has always denied in recent years trying to arm itself with an atomic bomb, saying its nuclear program was a peaceful, civilian effort to meet its electricity needs.

But Bush in an interview with a US-controlled Farsi-language radio station said Iran has declared it wants nuclear weapons “to destroy people.”

Hume dimisses McCain gaffe as ‘a blip’ and ‘a senior moment.’

This week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) repeatedly and falsely claimed that Iran was training al Qaeda in Iraq. Ignoring the fact that McCain made the error at least three separate times, Fox News’s Brit Hume dismissed the mistake today as simply “a blip” and “a senior moment.” Hume insisted that “we all” agree that McCain has understanding and knowledge of world affairs. Watch it:

Mayhem At Fox News: Anchor Walks Off Set, Wallace Rails Network For “Obama-Bashing”

Fox News’ very own anchors are speaking out — and walking off — over what they perceive to be “Obama-bashing” on their network.

This morning on “Fox and Friends,” Brian Kilmeade walked off the set after a dispute with his co-hosts Gretchen Carlson (she who celebrates deadly floods) and Steve Doocy over Obama’s comment that his grandmother is a “typical white person.” Kilmeade argued that the remark needed to be taken in context and eventually got so fed up with his co-hosts that he walked off set.

Later, “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace came on the show and railed against “Fox and Friends” for what he called “Obama-bashing.”

Is Bush the worst U.S. president ever?

Historians might argue over ranking, but there’s no doubt he has been an unmitigated disaster
Mar 22, 2008 04:30 AM
Thomas Walkom
Columnist

Historians will argue over whether George W. Bush is the worst president the United States has ever endured. But that is not the point. Five years after Bush’s ill-starred invasion of Iraq, three years after Hurricane Katrina and seven months into the unravelling of the U.S. financial system, the point is that the 43rd president of the United States – regardless of his ranking in the pantheon – is a unique and unmitigated disaster.

McCain’s ties to Airbus could cost him votes in Kansas

Excerpt
WASHINGTON — As a reliably red state, Kansas has backed a Republican in each of the last 10 presidential elections. But Democrats say things could be different in 2008.

With their economy strongly tied to aviation and defense jobs, Kansans are riled over the Air Force’s decision Feb. 29 to give a $35 billion aerial-tanker contract to a partnership with ties to France, rejecting a bid by Boeing, which would have done final assembly and testing of the planes in Wichita.

As the anger builds, Democrats are reminding voters that Arizona Sen. John McCain, this year’s presumed Republican presidential nominee, has a history of sparring with Boeing, which promised to bring 3,800 jobs to Wichita if it won the contract.

Cheney’s “peace” trip to Middle East prepares new wars

Excerpt
US Vice President Dick Cheney, during a trip to the Middle East aimed at consolidating Washington’s position in its ongoing wars of aggression and preparing new ones, gave vent Wednesday to his utter contempt for the will of the American people.

In the course of an extended interview with Cheney conducted in Oman, Martha Raddatz of ABC News noted, speaking of the Iraq war, “Two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting, and they’re looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.”

The vice president replied, “So?”

Raddatz continued, “So—you don’t care what the American people think?” Cheney responded, “No, I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”

Excerpt
WASHINGTON — As a reliably red state, Kansas has backed a Republican in each of the last 10 presidential elections. But Democrats say things could be different in 2008.

With their economy strongly tied to aviation and defense jobs, Kansans are riled over the Air Force’s decision Feb. 29 to give a $35 billion aerial-tanker contract to a partnership with ties to France, rejecting a bid by Boeing, which would have done final assembly and testing of the planes in Wichita.

As the anger builds, Democrats are reminding voters that Arizona Sen. John McCain, this year’s presumed Republican presidential nominee, has a history of sparring with Boeing, which promised to bring 3,800 jobs to Wichita if it won the contract.

Were Karl Rove’s Emails Destroyed?

Excerpt
Another round in the saga of the vanished . . . reappeared . . . no–vanished White House emails. As last noted, U.S. magistrate John Facciola has now twice given the White House short deadlines to produce the missing emails or explain why they could not be produced.

On Friday afternoon, the White House stated that it had destroyed old email hard-disk drives, and that the traffic on them couldn’t be recovered. It provided evasive responses on a number of other queries, including whether emails were lost or could be retrieved. This marks a continuation of White House evasions that now stretch over almost a year. Here is Pete Yost’s account for the Associated Press:

Older White House computer hard drives have been destroyed, the White House disclosed to a federal court Friday in a controversy over millions of possibly missing e-mails from 2003 to 2005. The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed.

Here is a story from Paul Craig Roberts. No wonder the cauality rate in Iraq had gone down for a while (it’s not back up). Bush and Cheney must really be making a lot of money of this war (duh!) if they can afford to pay the insurgents $800 large every day and still make a profit. I guess Bush isn’t such a bad business man afterall.

VDARE.com
It is impossible to keep up with all the Bush regime’s lies. There are simply too many. Among the recent crop, one of the biggest is that the “surge” is working.

Launched last year, the “surge” was the extra 20,000-30,000 US troops sent to Iraq. These few extra troops, Americans were told, would finally supply the necessary forces to pacify Iraq.

HL’s Take
Did you see todays headline on the 5 year anniversary. No reservations whatsoever, and unqualified success. Man what an A$$hole.

This claim never made any sense. The extra troops didn’t raise the total number of US soldiers to more than one-third the number every expert has said is necessary in order to successfully occupy Iraq.

The real purpose of the “surge” was to hide another deception. The Bush regime is paying Sunni insurgents $800,000 a day not to attack US forces. That’s right, 80,000 members of an “Awakening group,” the “Sons of Iraq,” a newly formed “US-allied security force” consisting of Sunni insurgents, are being paid $10 a day each not to attack US troops. Allegedly, the Sons of Iraq are now at work fighting al Qaeda.

The German magazine Stern did an interview with Lynndie England. The woman from Abu Gharib in the picture with the prisoner on the leash, here are a couple of excerpts:

Why did you join the army at the age of 17 and against the express wishes of your mother?
I always wanted to be in the military. My whole life. I just didn’t know what branch - Navy, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, Air Force. I just wanted to serve my country and be a patriot, I guess. As a child I mainly grew up on military gung-ho movies so that’s where I got the idea. Old Chuck Norris movies, “Delta Force”, “Rambo”, “Missing in Action”, “Platoon”…..

The former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, called you and your colleagues the “rotten apples” of the military. Bush claimed to be ashamed of what you did.
Well, back then I thought: How can they say that when it was happening all over Iraq. The same thing is happening in Guantanamo now and other places. We knew that our officers knew about it and our sergeants. We thought if they know then somebody else knows. And I really do still think that Rumsfeld knew what was going on. I mean he had been there while I was there at that prison. And if he was there I know he knew what was going on. How could he have not known? And Bush? He’s the headman.

There is talk about new pictures that are even harsher than the ones we know.
I know there were some harsher pictures they had at the time of the trial that the media decided not to expose.

What was on those pictures?
You see the dogs biting the prisoners. Or you see bite marks from the dogs. You can see MPs holding down a prisoner so a medic can give him a shot. If those had been made public at the time, then the whole world would have looked at those and not at mine.

H.L.s Take
Of course Rumsfeld knew, probably Bush too. They will never be punished for it though, only the low level grunts that were ordered to carry it out. What she did was wrong but I don’t blame her as much as I do the people higher up on the chain of command. When you take a uneducated kid from the sticks, who was brought up to believe “my country right or wrong” and put them in a place where they think they must obey any order, of course you are going to have things like this happen. It’s not like Ms. England spent time studying the ramifications of the Nuremberg defense. You can read the whole interview Here

Barack Obama gave a speech today which may be the final key to his nomination.

Republicans See Storm Clouds Gathering

Week of Bad News Highlights Difficult Challenges for GOP in Fall Elections
Excerpt
The latest blow came with the revelation that the former treasurer of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) had allegedly diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars — and possibly as much as $1 million — from the organization’s depleted coffers to his own bank accounts.

If Republicans needed any more evidence of how difficult this fall may be, the past week had it all, analysts said. The Illinois race demonstrated new levels of disaffection, the party’s efforts to go on offense elsewhere were thwarted by recruiting failures, and the NRCC scandal will divert campaign resources and could frighten off badly needed contributors, they said.

"It’s no mystery," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.). "You have a very unhappy electorate, which is no surprise, with oil at $108 a barrel, stocks down a few thousand points, a war in Iraq with no end in sight and a president who is still very, very unpopular. He’s just killed the Republican brand."

Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan analyst of congressional politics, said: "The math is against them. The environment is against them. The money is against them. This is one of those cycles that if you’re a Republican strategist, you just want to go into the bomb shelter."

H.L.s Take
Mr. Rothenberg is forgetting one thing; The Democrats are also against them, and as long as the democrats are against them The Republicans have at least a 50-50 chance at winning. The pathetic Democrats will do everything in their power to make sure that the Bush/McCain reign of terror goes on forever.
The Gun is out, it is pointed at their feet, all they have to do is pull the trigger. So how will they blow it this time. Guess we will have to wait and see.

“THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST”

 

… And so have the clowns… “bring in the clowns…”

Michael O’McCarthy

Malcolm X said it first of most recent: “The chickens have come home to roost.” At the time he was speaking on the occasion of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While there is speculation that he was speaking to the issue of foreign policy regarding Cuba and the Kennedy’(s) ongoing attempt to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, or the “payback” by the Mafia for Kennedy’s betrayal of promises made for their help in rigging the 1960 election, or speaking of the ill brewing stewpot of imperialist rape of the third world, really doesn’t matter.

Both he and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. were correct.

And the only thing faster than the corporate news to jump on this truth and turn it to an “outrage” was Barack Obama’s race from that truth. This is because he is not running to be President of the United States, but running to be the President of the White People’s United States.

With rare exception, if candor and anonymity is allowed for, people of color specifically, and poor and working people with anything other than a jingoist, dependent mental frame of reference know that both he and Malcolm X were right. Clearly, more so today than in Malcolm’s day.

As Marjorie Cohn pointed out back in December 2004, in Truthout,

“Throughout the last three years, Bush has continued to disingenuously claim that the terrorists hate us for our freedom, instead of providing an honest analysis of why were attacked on September 11.

“The day before Thanksgiving, (2004) the Defense Department released a report by the Defense Science Board that, for the first time, critically examines Bush’s “war on terror.” The report candidly admits: “Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies.”’

(Allowing that there was no White House collusion with Ben Laden … and as in the Kennedy assassination we may never know,) its prima facie that no rational person would choose the religious fanatic Ben Laden as a revolutionary leader in the battle against imperialism. Yet in a world devoid of a rational program of revolutionary change the overwhelmingly universal anger that the Third World feels towards the war-driven foreign policy of the US will take any course given it. 9/11 was a course albeit an irrational response.

I say irrational in that terrorism like torture is counterproductive. Period. Successful revolutions have at their root popular, mass action, and even then, they often turn despotic. But terrorism directed at civilians is inhumane and a war crime. Period. Whether in the United States or in Iraq. The end result of terrorism as revolution is a nation governed by a military terrorist minority.

That the Ben Ladenists choose the World Trade Towers, bastions of US imperialism; the Pentagon, headquarters for the corporate state’s enforcement arm; the White House, the house Of Bush, rather than a mall in Des Moines, Iowa, or a Sunday church carnival in Ringgold, Georgia speaks to knowing where the enemy of the people of the world reside. Period.

It is not a race or a gender issue, this contest for President of the US. This is a pathetic farce worthy of Shakespeare … perhaps the greatest of Orwellian irony, that in a time when the democracy promised in the occasion of the American revolution is in the greatest dangers in its short history that the powers that be would “send in the clowns” dressed in the drag of a faux feminism, black face and fortune 100 executive suit, and the in the face mask of Dwight David Eisenhower brought back to save the white men’s God given America in the costume of a has been war criminal posing as a war hero.

Post Script: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 – the Post Obama Philadelphia Speech:

The Great Democratic – Liberal - Obama Dilemma:

 

What a grand “civil rights” speech Obama gave; some commentators likening it, (inappropriately I suggest,) to the “I Have A Dream” MLK speech of 1968.

If the Obama recovery speech was given in 1968 – or 1970 – or even as late as the pre-Reagan era ushering in of the Corporate State coup de tat that would finalize itself under his Predecessor, George W. Bush, then the wonderful sentiment, the shallow but precise itemization of a few of the resentments felt by white and black workers and citizens alike would have been a worthwhile rallying cry for all Americans, White and Black (and Latino and Asian,) to Unite. Whether the country was in a mood to rise up to that promise in the post Vietnam era, and “throw the bums out,” is a vacuum in history.

But the speech was today. And despite Hillary Clinton’s ebullient joy at finally racially targeting Obama, there are more important issues:

While America may not be static, it is highly questionable about how much Americans are prepared to move progressively in their own interest given the less than raging support for the insurgent politics of Kucinich, and even more important, that of the open populist sounding campaign of John Edwards. There are two assumptions in this world of posturing politics:

1. There is a tacit assumption in Obama’s speech that, as Edwards pointed out time and time again, Obama would have us believe that he can sit down at the negotiating table with the corporate state, international robber barons, their paid politicians in the White House and Congress and ruling puppets internationally. This ruling class of carnivores has been ruling through the White House of Bush and Cheney and with the support of the Congress and the people of the US. \

For eight years they have done so by armed terrorism abroad, plunder and rape of the Third World, and continued exploitation of American people. Despite the apparent desire for change as interpreted via the 2006 elections, NOTHING has changed. NOTHING. Further, there is no basis, apparent or in evidence that yet another democratic politician with both political and economic ties to the corporate state and its imperialist allies abroad, from Great Britain to Israel, will do any more than window dressing reform to pacify where pacification works and repression where it doesn’t.

2. But there is another even more dangerous assumption than whether this ruling class will give “negotiate” away power. It is where the American people, Black and White, Latino and Asian alike, see their role as agents of change in the status quo domestic and internationally. Or, whether the American pubic want an agent of change that does not continue to serve up the immediate deserts from its foreign policy while enduring yet more poor treatment at the hands of their corporate masters. And I suggest that this desert of unending gross consumption feeding the greedy dog dressed in American skin privilege at home turned carnivore abroad, must be done away in the process of change.

This is asking the American to understand that the Alamo is a point of shame for America. That Viet Nam was a criminal war. That slavery was more than historical and ancestral racism: it was the engine that financed the building of the nation in which their elders prospered and established the corporate structure that controls them, institutionally and personally to this very day.Asking them to understand that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were neither necessary in ending the war or saving of “millions” of American lives, but an act of war to announce it world supremacy. That the genocide laid upon the society of Native Americans was more than “some contaminated blankets,” but was a social, personal and government policy of massacre and conquer second only to that leveled at Jews in Europe.Lastly, it is worse than the fantasy of “hope” to believe that Barack Obama’s projected vision of his and the people’s role “will let us all get along.” There is no magic wand that will wave away the ills we have brought upon this national and this planet. Great effort, great thought and great sacrifice will be part and parcel of the process of “change.”

And what is more absurd than anything else in this ongoing farce called electoral politics, is that in this election for “change” once again the American people, despite themselves or in bizarre complicit dependency with the powers that be, are going to believe that anything they do in 2008 will better their lives. It’s a lie, compounded by yet another series of lies, the last of which is that our country is not afflicted by the racism of our ancestors and infects every aspect of today and that 9/11 occurred only because Ben Laden and company hate American freedoms.

The Existentialist Cowboy
Republicans benefit from the fact that recessions are class conscious, affecting worse those who can least afford them. An era of highly leveraged US economic expansion and empire is about to come crashing down and swept away. Count on the GOP to make out like bandits.

It seems like ages ago, the US was at peace, there was a budget surplus, the economy was growing, and the unemployment rate was very low. But not everyone was happy. There was an entire group of people who harbor not good, but ill will; an entire class wished for bad times and got it.

Until now, China had an interest in keeping the US ponzi scheme propped up –they sold billions to US citizens via Wal-Mart, the economic Kudzu that ate America. But since a Chinese sub popped up undetected in the middle of the US fifth fleet, it has been apparent that the honeymoon is over. China now leads the world in dumping dollars. Everywhere, it seems, it has become a habit.

Read The Rest of The Story Here

HL’s Take:
It’s looking more and more like an economic collapse is coming. Gas prices are at an all time high, food prices are going up. Diesel prices are so high that truck drivers can’t afford to drive anymore, which causes food prices to go even higher. Housing prices are plunging, Bear Sterns just collapsed. It is all coming down hard. This is Bush’s final F&%k You to America. He is letting his buddies run rampant while they still can. After it is over he will retire to Paraguay, while the nation he ruined fights to survive.

Bread and Roses: The Right Thing To Do

By: Jennifer Lynne Ziemann

The first time I voted for George W. Bush, I was twenty-six years old. It was probably the first time I had ever truly taken an interest in politics having been too wrapped up in my own personal trauma to look much further than a sideways glance to the right or left. I was raised Republican, my Daddy voted for Reagan and Bush I. I was so excited to finally take an active interest in politics. I was two years into being single again, making my own life with my two boys and I thought this was the “grown-up” stance to take. I did not know the social issues at stake. I only thought that “W” would bring tax-cuts. What else could a single mom want?

The second time, I was just plain stupid. I was already beginning my disenchantment with this administration, but I still believed they could somehow make it right. I believed you did not change Presidents during a time of war. I thought “they” are in charge and know what is going on, “they” will fix things.

In the last three years, I have learned Republicans are not “grown-up” but neither are Democrats. I realized violence is not “grown-up”. Neither party takes any responsibility. Dick Cheney said the elections do not matter. Whether or not the war is popular, again does not matter. They (the administration) will continue to do what they think is right. I do not believe Democrats have the courage to do any better. Until the Cold War mentality of our governing generation changes, American policies will stay the same.

I received an email the other day from a family member that stated, “We hear that Bush is a war monger, but no one has come up with a sound solution on what to do with those that want to bring down not only the United States but any country that does not believe in their ideology”, (that is fear talking). “Talk doesn’t work anymore”, (so says the Bush administration, you know the whole we will not enter into bi-lateral talks with North Korea or Iran), “ There are those in this country that want to bring down our democratic way of life also; we don’t attack them because the government has a responsibility to protect all Americans no matter what their beliefs. But when we are threatened by outsiders and that includes those that cross our borders and those on foreign soil that wish to do harm to us we should do all what is in our power to prevent them from succeeding. I don’t want to read in the papers in 2010 that the president signed into law a national health care plan and also in the news there was anther car bomb explosion in Chicago this morning…”

This is the fear mentality of the generation that leads our country today. They grew up Cold War kids during the McCarthy period of the “Red Scare.” They lived under air raid drills, “duck and cover,” “stop ‘em all at the 38th parallel, blow those yellow reds to hell” (Billy Joel Leningrad). The United States believed that they were the Big Dick on the block after Little Boy and Fat Man. The rest of the world better stand up and recognize. No country and I mean not a single one better make a change in their government without the blessing of the United States of America.

Cold War kids lived through the Korean War and saw revolution in Cuba. The Bay of Pigs occurred because of an unsuccessful attempt by the United States to assert their will on a country that was not a threat to us. The threat was created with our “attempted” invasion bringing on the Cuban Missile Crisis and “omigod” the commies are in our backyard. Did it ever occur to the United States that Cuba would have made a peaceful transition to a more socialistic government had WE STAYED OUT OF IT?

Next was the Vietnam War. Again, everyone run and hide! Communism is striking again. Hi-ho the United States of America to the rescue. By this time these children of the Cold War weren’t hiding under their desks during an air raid drill, they were being sent into the line of fire under the premise that American freedom was yet again in jeopardy (from the Vietcong who possessed no nuclear weapons). They fought bravely for an ideal they had been raised on: spreading democracy. Sometimes they did not even know who the enemy was. I cannot even begin to understand their fears or describe the bravery it took to fight in a jungle across an ocean against people who were willing to die for what they believed in, too.

I have seen two wars now in my lifetime, the Persian Gulf War and now the “War on Terror” AKA, the war in Iraq. During the Persian Gulf War, I was eighteen years old, homeless, expecting my first son and with a husband that believed I was his country and he was the dictator. I was clueless at the time to what impact if any the Persian Gulf War had to the American way of life. Now, with the so-called “War on Terror” my understanding to war has been honed to a cold realistic view of the United States of America and the current administration. Where is the threat to the United States of America? I do not see any.

Since WWII we have had the atomic bomb, the ability to wage nuclear warfare. Russia, North Korea, Cuba, the Vietcong, Iraq, Iran they were never a threat to the American way of life. It is one thing for the U.S. to work unilaterally for democracy in nations where the overwhelming populace is screaming for freedom under tyrannical dictatorship but quite another to invade a country for corporate gain, (oil). Our country is the subject of terrorism because we seek in the name of corporate gain to rule the world not spread democracy.

Why would I come to that conclusion?

Because the United States of America only invades in the name of spreading democracy to those small countries that will bring us corporate domination and corporate gain. We are not stopping genocide in Darfur. We did not stop North Korea from obtaining nuclear power. We did not step in and help during the Tiananmen Square revolt in China. We did not stop Great Britain from oppressing the greater populace of Ireland. We did not stop France from invading Algeria.
To the contrary forty-eight nations have received overt military action and twenty-two nations have received covert action from the United States to further our corporate interests since World War II.

As long as small nations feel threatened by the United States of America, terrorism will continue. As long as we continue to assert our power world wide instead of taking our money and resources and investing them back into our own country (as in Costa Rica, Switzerland, Finland, Austria, Sweden, Liechtenstein, and the Republic of Ireland); smaller nations will continue to feel the need to develop nuclear weapons in order to stave off the threat of an invasion from the United States of America. In the past when we began to disarm, others disarmed.

It took me two wars to realize that there is a better way. Two wars to realize that violence is not the answer. Two wars to realize that the citizens of the United States deserve better, deserve to be taken care of, deserve to no longer live in the fear propagandized by Corporate America. The Cold War kids that lead our nation have been through seven wars and still have not changed their fear mentality. It is simply not going to change by mere election of a different party. The people of the United States of America need to stand up and demand, yes demand, a revolution of peaceful change.

Now she is saying the Obama campaign is attacking her for being white

Geraldine Ferraro the 1984 Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, and current Hillary supporter and fundraiser has been getting herself deeper and deeper into hot water. She blatantly came out and said that the only reason Obama is beating her girl in the race is because he is black. Ouch. Has this woman been living under a rock for the last 20 years? Did she really think she could get away with that. She has twice had a chance to recant her statement but is standing firm. Yesterday when she was asked if she really meant that she said “of course, the truth, is the truth is the truth”. So I guess she really does beleive it, but doesn’t she know that you can’t say that in a political campaign even if you really believe it is true.
Hillary, making like Bush is standing by Ferraro even though she “disagrees” with what she said. I guess Hillary wouldn’t mind if Obama said that she was only in the race because she is a woman. (or because Bill Clinton got a BJ from Monica) Ms. Clinton refuses to fire Ferraro despite the racially tinged remark. She is doing what Bush did when his countless minions screwed up. Just letting it slide.
Last week when one of Obamas key people called Hillary a monster, she was immediately fired. See it’s all about ethics. Some candidates have them, some don’t. Now Ferraro is saying that they are attacking her because she is white. Check out the video.

Polidics.com
BBC’s killer documentary called “The Power of Nightmares“. Top CIA officials openly admit, Al-qaeda is a total and complete fabrication, never having existed at any time. The Bush administration needed a reason that complied with the Laws so they could go after “the bad guy of their choice” namely laws that had been set in place to protect us from mobs and “criminal organizations” such as the Mafia. They paid Jamal al Fadl, hundreds of thousands of dollars to back the U.S. Government’s story of Al-qaeda, a “group” or criminal organization they could “legally” go after. This video documentary is off the hook…

FOX NEWS Interview with Ian Blair (THIS IS A LINK NOT RELATED TO THE VIDEO):Blair said, “Al Qaeda is not an organization. Al Qaeda is a way of working … but this has the hallmark of that approach.”

HLs Take
The closer we get to the election, the more warnings we get from Bush that this fake terrorist is going to stage another fake attack. Spooky.

Dennis Kucinich has done it. He beat the combined forces of evil that were doing whatever they could to get him out of office. The last good politician is still in office, and impeachment is still on the table. AIPAC and Pelosi did what they could to remove the last roadblock to thier elitist takeover of the US Government, but they failed. Welcome to Pottersville picks up the story.

Well, it wasn’t the big one, Elizabeth, but your husband grabbing 50% of the vote in a five-way contest in OH 10’s Democratic primary was still a welcome sight.

Ya gotta love Cleveland. They stuck by their man, which I interpret as so many votes to impeach Dick Cheney. Kucinich was forced to abandon his presidential quest when he’d learned about City Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose war chest had swelled to half a million dollars virtually overnight thanks to corporate interests. What Cimperman didn’t count on was that Kucinich, thanks in large part to his huge netroots fanship, was able to raise a couple of hundred thou more than that.

Kucinich, the story goes, was told by representatives from AIPAC and Nancy Pelosi during his presidential race that if he would drop HR 333, the bill that would impeach Dick Cheney, they would “guarantee” him re-election to the House. This came from high up in the Kucinich campaign, which automatically elevates it from a mere rumor. So Kucinich is well on his way to getting re-elected for the sixth time and HR 333 is still on the table, to paraphrase Scarecrow of the House Pelosi. So hats off to Kucinich’s base.

HL’s Take
Fight on Dennis, You’re all we have left.

Hillary Clinton sure knows how to play a joke; she got back at all those nasty members of the press for not treating her like Bush yesterday. She is pissed off (poor choice of words) becuase they actually ask questions and report what they see of her campaign. True they may not be doing the same for Obama, but Hillary wants the Bush treatment. That is, no matter how bad you screw up, no matter how much you lie, cheat and steal, no matter how abhorrent a person you are the press always treats you like a Saint. Anyway she got back at them good yesterday by making them work out a foul urine stinking, $hit stained mens room. Is this how she will treat the American people the first time she is not happy with her ratings? Huffington Post picks up the story.

Is the Hillary Clinton campaign staffed with morons or do they just not care anymore? It is unbelievable that on the night before the Texas and Ohio (and Vermont and Rhode Island) primaries they would set up an impromptu press room in a freaking men’s bathroom, complete with urinals. Yes. It’s true. The WSJ’s Jackie Calmes posted an account of the scene last night, including the tidbit that former New Yorker and Talk editor, Diana-tome authoress and journalistic grande dame Tina Brown was stuck “gamely typing away close to a toilet” — and not just any toilet: ETP was able to confirm from someone present that Brown was “literally inches from a urinal.” According to the LAT’s Andrew Malcolm, many of the press corps had begun their day with Clinton at 5 a.m. in Toledo, Ohio before crossing the country with her to cover her in Austin, Texas. No doubt they were thrilled — especially since they also got to enjoy dinner in the men’s room, too. Tamales. Yes, tamales…..

Clinton spokesman Doug Hattaway denied that any message was being sent, saying, “These accommodations should in no way be taken as a comment on the quality of our media coverage.” Perhaps, but it sent a different message: That whoever was responsible for organizing this particular press filing center was an idiot.

Whatever the message was meant to be, whoever on the campaign knew about this and let it happen had to have known this would get negative attention and make the campaign seem churlish and vengeful. The bathroom in question was located in the Tony Burger Activity Center in Austin, Texas and is described as hosting “basketball, volleyball, drill team, musical events and graduations.” Do y’think on the night before a hugely important primary they might’ve been able to do a little better?

H.L.s Take:
Thank god Senator Larry Craig of Ohio wasn’t there. Now that would have been a story

EPISODE 5

The Killer read the coded text message on her cell phone. “Healey and Patrick first” was all it said. That was a problem. She was reading it in the Grand Hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Her outfit was typical American tourist woman. Gone were the studs; the spiked hair was blonde and curly. Her brown eyes, covered with blue contact lenses. Her nails long and polished red. She wore jeans and a halter with sandals. She was headed, according to her reservations, to Tamarindo, on the northwestern Pacific coast.

Read The Whole Episode Here

I blame Bush for this. If this guy wasn’t on his third tour maybe he wouldn’t have “snapped.” If he was already a psycho to start with, then he never should have been there in the first place, but they will take anyone now because of Bush’s insanity.
(You Tube keeps taking this video down, but people keep putting it back up. Here is another version I found)

Jack Nicholson just released a commercial for Hillary Clinton in which he cuts together clips of some of his most famous movie characters. It’s very entertaining. Don’t know if I necessarily agree with him. Check out Jack

Here is an interview with Dennis Kucinich, that was conducted on NPR Radio. Dennis is currently running to keep his seat in Ohio’s 10th Congressional District. Republican business interests are putting up a lot of money for Dennis’ Democratic challenger. Dennis also discusses endorsing a candidate, and the Ralph Nader run.

Listen to The Interview Here