Barack Obama wants a U.N. Security Council resolution on the Gaza Strip to mention rocket attacks on Israel. The Democratic presidential candidate in a letter sent Tuesday to Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, urged the United States not to allow the resolution to pass unless it notes the rocket salvos.
The Security Council is in emergency session this week considering Israel's blockade of Gaza.
"All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families," wrote Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, in his letter to Khalilzad. "However, we have to understand why Israel is forced to do this. Gaza is governed by Hamas, which is a terrorist organization sworn to Israel's destruction, and Israeli civilians are being bombarded on an almost daily basis."
4 more years! - of Terror. Oh you stupid fucks. Thanks. thanks so fucking much. Nothing will change until we disarm Israel and stop them from their unending bombardment and murder of Palestinians, Lebanese, and oh, anyone else they decide to kill with impunity.
Obama won't interrupt his schedule to vote against wiretapping, but he does have time to defend the put-upon Israelis.
Oy fucking vey.
Jan 31, 2008
Did someone mention change?
Jan 30, 2008
Moving on...
Doc Biobrain takes notes on the sexist side of the sexist/racist feeding frenzy taking place with Hillary and Obama supporters....
Democratic Cannibalism
NOTE to Everyone:
The racists and the sexists are on the other side. They aren't at Obama rallies, or Clinton rallies or even John Edwards rallies (he's a white male! Egad!).
They are at Republican rallies. I might not know much, but I do know racism and sexism, and, as a partially white male, I've spread both from time to time. Mainly out of ignorance, but hey, I admit it, and I'm working on it. But I know how to recognize 'em and believe you me- they ain't Liberals. m'kay?
So chill the fuck out, people, just because the Democrats are currently winning doesn't mean they can't lose- especially now that 'the people' have spoken, and having spoken, have removed the strongest candidates who were speaking out against the real racists and sexists out there.
Well, we still have Gravel, right Old Hack?!
The Republican party has a fixed agenda: It goes something like this: Fuck minorities. Fuck Women. Fuck the poor. It's three things they ALL pretty much agree on. Liberals can pretty much agree that those three groups need to be treated equally, uplifted and supported where disparities rear their heads. But the minute we make some real gains against the truly bad people out there, I see us cannibalizing each other.
Hillary ain't a racist. Obama ain't a sexist. At least they're not any worse than anyone else out there on our side. We all have our issues to deal with. I would love to see the first woman President. I would love to see the first black President. Would it matter to NOW if that woman-elect was Ann Coulter? These achievements would be great to prove that America, as a country, is moving forward. But to vote for any woman or any minority, just to make the achievement and without regards to how this person would perform as a President is purely ignorant.
Now we are left with a black man and a white woman as our front runners, and honestly, beyond proving to the racists and sexists out there that it can be done, I don't give a damn what color our new president is or whether he/she pees standing up or sitting down. I want a liberal, progressive Democrat in office to help wipe out what remains of the crooked Republican Congress and the incumbent enabler Democrats who have allowed them to run our country into the ground.
And if we don't pull our heads out of each others asses while searching for racism and sexism - we will surely allow the REAL Racists and sexists to continue fucking over the country.
Jan 29, 2008
Hope is all that's left, unfortunately
Polishifter - on another 5 dead soldiers in Iraq
More kids die
More Women die
More Iraqis die
More of everyone dying
"Hillary is a fighter"
"Obama has a voice I can relate to"
Neither matters if they settle into office with all the faux tsunamic force of a Pelosi.
Damn it! Why in the flying fuck do today's progressives choose style, sex and race over a candidate who is promising to get our troops out of there?? Do you people believe that Edwards is a liar? Because Hillary and Obama aren't even TALKING about getting us out of Iraq.
Hillary with all of her AIPAC ties, and Obama "Everything's on the table" with starting NEW wars in Iran. What part of "WAKE THE FUCK UP!" Do you not understand?
Fucking Hell! I just can't understand it. Wake the Fuck up.
Please.
A vote for Hillary, a vote for Obama- is a vote for MORE DEATH in Iraq. There will 5000 dead troops and god knows how many civilians before Bush steps down from office. And after another 4 years of Hillary or Obama there will be 5,000 more.
Goddamnit, wake up.
UPDATE: MSNBC says Edwards is dropping out of the race...
My heart sinks-
Listening to NPR this morning, they had two soundbites of average joes talking about Obama. These voters in Florida explained their support for Obama as being tied to his ability to bring the country together. Well, pardon me, but the country is together, except for the insane 23% of the racist, sexist, Republican base who thinks that George Bush is the greatest person in the world.
They are wrong. And they have been wrong from the get-go. Most of those who supported Bush in the beginning now have seen the error of their way and have come to the light. This has been a dark time in American history and we have yet to see the full ramifications of the Bush presidency. The recession is just beginning and our foreign policy is in shambles. And guess what? I have NO Desire to move to the middle at this point!
We, the far left, have been right over and over. People want change from the ridiculousness of the present system. We were on the cusp of great change. Returning to the middle only serves the ignorance of the Republican base, who are completely happy with the system as is. As radical as real change might be, it is desperately needed. We don't need to shake the hand of our dumb ass Uncle the racist over dinner and say "Agree to disagree." We need to get in his face and say "You stupid fuck- how many soldiers died because you couldn't open your damn eyes? How much will OUR Family suffer because of this recession? How many times have you called ME a traitor as you worshipped at the altar of corporate oil?"
These stupid fuckers don't deserve to have us move closer to their ignorant mindset. Each and every one of them needs to be held down, choking, as we force feed them the truth, no matter how much they don't want to take their medicine. The Right has NO accountability. They are a full blown minority at this point, EXCEPT in the halls of Congress. But that is changing. And Republicans will become less and less powerful in the coming years as a direct result of how wrong they have been on EVERYTHING.
I HOPE Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton do not back down as so many other Democrats have done in recent days. I HOPE that they understand that this country is in dire straits and needs to implement some real change. I HOPE that they will reverse their mealy mouthed stance on Iraq as soon as they are elected and get our troops out of there, post-haste.
The thing is, I didn't HAVE to HOPE that Edwards understood these matters and would take action to correct them. I knew. It am glad he was able to move Hillary and Obama closer to the left on all these issues. I can only hope they ditch their pollsters and their popularity contests and show some real spine and perseverence. Hope, unfortunately, is what the American people are counting on. And now, with the best candidate out of the race, it's all I have as well.
teh Learnage
'Hmmm,' said Arthur. 'Well, thank you-'
Jan 28, 2008
Blog comment of the day
"No, shit-for-brains…I’m a military officer trying to keep our boys and girls alive in the midst of one of teh greatest foreign policy coups in our nation’s short history, while you sit on your overweight, fast-food-eating carcass of an arse in the US and act all indignant and patriotic and all that blah.
It’s ignorant citizens like you who let our politicians run afoul of international law and trash our credibility abroad, and then vote for them again so they can finish the job. And it’s citizens like you who put your little red, white and blue flags on your big shiny SUVs, while carefully placing your “No Dogs, Sailors or Soldiers on the Grass” sign on your front lawns.
And your comment about beheadings is putting the cart before the horse, I’m afraid.
You make me sick. I hate the fact that I swore an oath to defend and die for you."
GFY
Jan 25, 2008
News sources
Current TV
What's your preferred source of news? Since I am addicted to politics and news, period, I use as many sources as I can find on the net. The television in my office is dialed into CNBC and has to stay there during the day and I don't watch tv at home so the net is where I get all my news.
Crooks and Liars is usually my first morning stop, check out what's getting the most attention, have a brief laugh over whichever politician has gotten busted being a hypocrite that day, and to put in my two cents worth in the comments.
Then I hit Blue Herald, see what Question Girl and the gang have dug up. I have three monitors on my desk so I am absorbing several inputs at the same time. I usually have my stock news sites up on one monitor: Dedicated trader, Bloomberg, Yahoo finance, MSNBC finance. I am running spreadsheets and streaming stock charts on another. And surfing the blogs on the third.
I hit my favorites list after BH- Think Progress, Americablog, Media Matters, Informed Comment, Truthdig and Common dreams. After that I just randomly go down my blogroll, hitting up my favorite bloggers to see what they have going on.
If I have time I might check out Democracy Now!'s latest vid-news or hit Alternet and the Nation. The commenters at the Nation's website are the biggest group of neocon hitmen/trolls I've ever seen. I bet Cheney, Ari Fleischer and Rush Limbaugh are in there plastering people with their bullshit.
So how do you get your news of the day?
Jan 23, 2008
Nosedive, bitches!
Bet on the bounce with a totally oversold, cheap-as-hell American market?
Not so fast, with markets tanking globally and panic setting in (apparently everywhere but on CNBC, where they are still debating whether or not this may or may not, could possibly be, might be considered a - Recession).
Client money is off the table now. Too damn volatile. Money to be made, but money to be fucking lost, too. Check out this guy ... deyaaammmnnnnn... that video makes my stomach churn.
Dow @ 11730, the Nasdaq's doing worse (as far as a charting basis goes)... Barring news that Bush strikes the world's largest oil reservoir while cutting brush in Crawford, I think it's safe to assume there will be no bounce today. War in Iran, anyone? Just you know, to take your mind off visions of jumping off skyscrapers.
Roll the dice if you got the stones. I'd be long QID (Inverse Nasdaq) or short the Q's myself if I had any money to invest. But I'm not touching the paltry amount in my retirement account for THIS shit market. No thank you, sir.
Jan 22, 2008
Diversions, part 621
My Score: The Oracle
33% Extroversion, 100% Intuition, 44% Emotiveness, 80% Perceptiveness
Heuristic, detached, and analytical to a fault, you are most like The Oracle. You are able to tackle any subject with a fine toothed comb, and you possess an ability to pinpoint nuances and shades of meaning that other people do not have and cannot understand. Accomplishment and realization of ideas are, for you, secondary to the rigorous exploration of ideas and questions -- you are, first and foremost, a theorist. You hate authority, convention, tradition, and under no circumstances do you accept a leadership role (although, you will gladly advise leadership when they're going astray, whether they want you to or not). Abstraction and generalities are your interests, details and particulars are usually inconsequential and uninteresting. You excel at language, mathematics and philosophy. You are typically easy-going and non-confrontational until someone violates one of the very few principles that you deem sacred, at which point you can fly into a rage. Although you possess a much greater understanding of process and systems than the people around you, you are always conscious of the possibility that you've missed something or made a mistake. You don't tend to become attached to particular theories, and will immediately discard mistaken notions once they're revealed to be incorrect (but you don't tolerate iconoclasts who try to discredit validated theories through the use of fallacies and bad data). Despite being outwardly humble, you probably think of yourself as being smarter than most other people. That's because you are. In fact, in your dealings with people your understanding of their motives is so expansive that you know what they're going to say before they say it, and in world affairs, you usually know what is going to take place before it actually does. This ability would make you unbeatable in debates if only you were a little less pensive about your own conclusions, and a little more outgoing. Famous people like you: Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, John McWhorter, Ramanujan, Marie Curie, Kurt Godel
Stay clear of: Apollo, Icarus, Hermes, Aphrodite
Seek out: Atlas, Prometheus, Daedalus
Vidal on Bush, empire, and fall.
There's so much perfection in this post that I don't really know where to start...
You can read it all here but here are the choicest bits...
"But the analogy becomes even more precise when it comes to the plague of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico that led to the Curse of Katrina upon a plainly incompetent president, as well as one who has been plainly jinxed by whatever faith he cringes before. Witness the ongoing screw-up of, say, prescription drugs, and the revival of an ancient race war in Louisiana. Who knows what further disasters are in store for us thanks to the curse Jonah is under? As the sailors fed the original Jonah to a whale, thus lifting the storm that was about to drown them, perhaps we the people can persuade President Jonah to retire to his other Eden in Crawford, Texas, taking his jinx with him. We deserve a rest. Plainly, so does he. Look at Nixon’s radiant features after his resignation! One can see former President Jonah in his sumptuous presidential library happily catering to faith-based fans with animated scriptures rooted in “The Pet Goat.”
...
In fact, close observers of this odd presidency note that Bush, like his evangelical base, believes he is on a mission from God and that faith trumps empirical evidence. Berman quotes a senior White House adviser who disdains what he calls the “reality-based” community, to which Berman sensibly responds: “If a nation is unable to perceive reality correctly, and persists in operating on the basis of faith-based delusions, its ability to hold its own in the world is pretty much foreclosed.”
...
Meanwhile, the indoctrination of the people merrily continues. “In a ’State of the First Amendment Survey‘ conducted by the University of Connecticut in 2003, 34 percent of Americans polled said the First Amendment ‘goes too far’; 46 percent said there was too much freedom of the press; 28 percent felt that newspapers should not be able to publish articles without prior approval of the government; 31 percent wanted public protest of a war to be outlawed during that war; and 50 percent thought the government should have the right to infringe on the religious freedom of ‘certain religious groups’ in the name of the war on terror.”
...
It is usual in sad reports like Professor Berman’s to stop abruptly the litany of what has gone wrong and then declare, hand on heart, that once the people have been informed of what is happening, the truth will set them free and a quarter-billion candles will be lit and the darkness will flee in the presence of so much spontaneous light.
...
Meanwhile, millions of adult Americans, presumably undrugged, have no idea who our enemies were in World War II.
...
We are assured daily by advertisers and/or politicians that we are the richest, most envied people on Earth and, apparently, that is why so many awful, ill-groomed people want to blow us up. We live in an impermeable bubble without the sort of information that people living in real countries have access to when it comes to their own reality. But we are not actually people in the eyes of the national ownership: we are simply unreliable consumers comprising an overworked, underpaid labor force not in the best of health: The World Health Organization rates our healthcare system (sic—or sick?) as 37th-best in the world, far behind even Saudi Arabia, role model for the Texans.
...
Meanwhile, China, our favorite big-time future enemy, is the number one for worldwide foreign investments, with France, the bete noire of our apish neocons, in second place.
Well, we still have Kraft cheese as of today and, of course, the death penalty.
...
Berman makes the case that the Bretton-Woods agreement of 1944 institutionalized a system geared toward full employment and the maintenance of a social safety net for society’s less fortunate—the so-called welfare or interventionist state. It did this by establishing fixed but flexible exchange rates among world currencies, which were pegged to the U.S. dollar while the dollar, for its part, was pegged to gold. In a word, Bretton-Woods saved capitalism by making it more human. Nixon abandoned the agreement in 1971, which started, according to Berman, huge amounts of capital moving upward from the poor and the middle class to the rich and super-rich.
...
I often think of that wise emperor when I hear Republican members of Congress extolling the wisdom of Bush. Now that he has been caught illegally wiretapping fellow citizens he has taken to snarling about his powers as “a wartime president,” and so, in his own mind, he is above each and every law of the land. Oddly, no one in Congress has pointed out that he may well be a lunatic dreaming that he is another Lincoln but whatever he is or is not he is no wartime president. There is no war with any other nation...yet. There is no state called terror, an abstract noun like liar.
...
Although he has done a number of things that under the old republic might have got him impeached, our current system protects him: incumbency-for-life seats have made it possible for a Republican majority in the House not to do its duty and impeach him for his incompetence in handling, say, the natural disaster that befell Louisiana and then the U.S. military itself.
...
Reason requires that we explain to the media and to this self-anointed “war-time president” whose “inherent” powers, to hear him babble, transcend the Constitution itself. But they can’t: First, we are not at war with another country; second, presidential powers are enumerated in the constitution, not inherent--despite the weird legal misreadings by ambulance-proud White House lawyers.
...
This is what we call dictatorship. Dictatorship. Dictatorship. And it is time we objected before he shoves us into World War Three.
The Totalitarian Mindset
This article by J.R. Nyquist "Alien Minds" seems to both condemn and condone the totalitarian thought process.
My response:
Your article is an interesting one, and with a very sound premise. However, I have to rebuke you for considering "the West" as being an exception to the rule. This is laughable. There are many of us in the West who do indeed wish for a world that is not in a constant state of conflict. But that sentiment is not shared by our current leaders in the United States, who do indeed, live by the thought of future (and present) world war. On one hand, you dismiss and bemoan the thought processes of the Hitlers and Stalins, on the other, you prop up Tocqueville's words to the effect that the opposite of these minds is weakness and capitulation.
Totalitarianism does not except this nation as it expands it conquest- however failed the efforts of our current government.
"History teaches that totalitarian regimes cheat when it comes to arms control." And indeed, the United States and Russia have. Our regime will never give up its nuclear arms, only a fool would suggest this. More's the pity. Everything that you write about our enemies supposed goals from the holier-than-thou attitude of a Westerner can be also be said of the United States. And with the added evidence that we have the been the only aggressor nation in the past 10 years.
The tone of your article, and the emphasis on fear and aggression have indeed have an effect on the regimes of the past. You fail to recognize that in the face of the world's history - in contrast to the major powers of the world, that America has risen to the apex of its power by a history of appeasement, diplomacy, and controlled aggression. We did not rise to power by conquest or invasion or reckless aggression.
Congratulating Moscow on their so-called "stunning achievement" is ridiculous. Of course they would not dismantle their nuclear armaments, not as long as they have plenty of men like Mr. Nyquist, on their side, who are loudly crying that the United States is Russia's most dangerous enemy.
Russia and America own 95% of the world's nuclear weapons. Other countries will slowly gain these same weapons; not out of Nyquist's knee-jerk fear that "they" drool and chomp at the bit to use them against "us" in a suicidal attack- but as bargaining chips that bring them higher up the food chain militarily. We have all the steel - so those around us are only too happy to trade up from their bronze.
The same men who are "worried" that nuclear weapons “could” fall into dangerous hands are the Kissingers who make back room deals to give these weapons to other countries in trade for oil, trade agreements, and enriching themselves.
Mr. Nyquist makes a big point of : "As alien as this way of thinking is to normal people, it is second nature to a man like Vladimir Putin." The sad truth is that the Bush's, the Putin's, the Kissingers ALL own the totalitarian mindset. And Nyquist himself seems to own this mindset, as evidenced by the entire article and his belittling of the opposite - the mindset of the normal people with their "bourgeois morality".
“One death is a tragedy,” Stalin once said, “but one million deaths is a statistic.” Of course, you'd have to prove to me that these shallow power brokers believe that any death but their own is a tragedy.
Jan 20, 2008
I cant imagine
Some say the end is near Some say we'll see armageddon soon
I certainly hope we will I sure could use a vacation from this
Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of Freaks Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call USA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away Any fucking time. Any fucking day.Learn to swim, I'll see you down in the bottom of the bay
Fret for your figure and Fret for your latte and Fret for your race and Fret for your hairpiece and Fret for your prozac and Fret for your sex and Fret for your past and Fret for your car
Some say a comet will fall from the sky Followed by meteor showers and tidal wavesFollowed by faultlines that cannot sit stillFollowed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits
And Some say the end is near Some say we'll see armageddon soonI certainly hope we will cuz I sure could use a vacation from this Stupid shit, silly shit, stupid shit...
One great big festering neon distraction, I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied Learn to swim.Learn to swim.Learn to swim.
Mom is going to fix it all soon, Mom is coming round to put it back the way it oughtta be...Learn to swim
Fuck L Ron Hubbard and Fuck all his clones
Fuck all these gun-toting Hip gangster wannabes Fuck retro anything Fuck your tattoos
Fuck all you junkies and Fuck your short memory
Fuck smiley glad-hands With hidden agendas
Fuck these dysfunctional, Insecure leaders
Cuz I'm praying for rain And I'm praying for tidal waves I wanna see the ground give way. I wanna watch it all go down Mom please flush it all away I wanna see it go right in and down I wanna watch it go right in Watch you flush it all away Time to bring it down again
Don't just call me pessimist Try and read between the lines. I can't imagine why you wouldn't Welcome any change, my friend I wanna see it all come down suck it down flush it down.
Jan 18, 2008
The Incredible Hulkabee!
I was going to beg Frederick to make me a better pic of Hulkabee, but I couldn't wait....
The snake, fearing torture by the humans again, bit Huck as he made sweet christian love to the seductive elm. He then shuddered and died. The snake, not Huck.
Hulkabee fell into a dreamstate from the holy water moccasin venom and God came into his head and spoke to him.
“You are the chosen one. You will go to Washington and replace the constitution with the 10 commandments! If anyone gets in your way, the holy spirit will fill you and you will transform into HULKABEE!”
John Edwards 2008
Edwards articles at C&L - Vids, Political news concerning Edwards
Four Trials: Edwards Memoir, very well received - A different kind of political memoir, from a different kind of politician
Love me or hate me-
Jan 17, 2008
Conservatives hold the Economy Hostage
Sad but True over at Unruly Mob has an excellent post up- Conservative Ideology Deconstructed
'We won't help America unless we get our permanent tax cuts, waaa waaaa...'
Go Fuck Yourselves, you uppity rich cocksuckers. You ain't getting your fucking cuts made permanent.
Bush's horseshit has driven our economy into the ground by allowing corporations to do whatever they fucking want to and rip off America, both our government AND our citizens with their risky scams. Now, I know where your tax cuts money has gone... down the damn drain, along with your stock's account value. Damn the luck.
So YOUR money went to make some fat cat running a hedge fund somewhere that much fatter. Sorry 'bout ya. You aren't getting extra tax cuts that you can throw away funding the next Anthony Mozillo so he can exercise some good ole free market ass fucking on the rest of the country.
"Trickle down", my ass. Already the wing nuts are clamoring to blame the Clintons for the mess Bush has carefully crafted as he has funneled trillions into the Middle East.
Motherfucking Brilliant, right? And hey- let's give those freedom loving Saudis some guided missles. They'll NEVER use them against us, right? Goddamnit, is there ANYTHING you morons on the right WON'T let this mental midget do? Some Saudi Royal and an Exxon Mobil Exec now have matching 24k gold plated Rolls Royces. Woo Hoo Free market!
Meanwhile the only benefit you upper middle class brainiacs can understand is a few measely tax cuts, which are far surpassed on the downside by the inflationary costs and the devaluation of the dollar, among a thousand other factors. Take another look into your stock market valuations. Guess what? It's all tied together, brother.
Conservative Ideology Deconstructed
Please, read it all. It's good stuff, not as profanity laced, but no one's perfect.
Lurking at Five New Blogs
(like a big ole puppy dog...)Or these blogs are new to me, Anyway...
Blue Girl
Blind in Texas
One Good Thing and a moving post from Flea's blog from awhile back...
Distant Ocean has a breakdown on Cheney's Evolutionary cycle (Hat tip to Ice Station Tango )
The Fifth Estate 5th has a post concerning Tony Snow's book on how to Defeat Cancer. I haven't seen it in the bookstores yet, but here's what I imagine a rough draft looks like:
Tony Snow Cancer Help Rough draft:
Preface: Good American Healthcare Plan
First things first= Have you gotten yourself some good government healthcare prior to finding out you have cancer? You haven't? Well. Get Religion.Skip to Chapter 10.
Chapter 1: Bring it on, Cancer!
Everyone knows you defeat cancer just like you defeat Al Quaeda- you invade an organ near the cancer, nuke the entire system until the cancer dies (and hopefully not the organ or the whole system with it).
Chapter 2-6: How Republican conservatism prepared me to face cancer.
Tell everyone God and Bush has saved you from the cancerous threat.
Chapter 6: Waiting game
If the procedure actually works, its a triumph for democracy / medical science. If not,just when the bodies got no chance left- you surge in, cut away everything you can for one last ditch effort. If good cells are removed with bad, its just the price you pay.
Chapter 7-9: No one can predict the future
Don't listen to doctors or pay attention to their fancy-shmancy punditry. You'll know in your gut (especially if you have gut cancer) if the cancer is defeated.
Chapter 10: Thank you, George Bush
If god loves you and you aren't a freeloading liberal, the cancer's gone, just like Mine! Yay!
Jan 16, 2008
Daddy Kirk's 720
The Lady who Defended Clinton on 10/7/98 says a husband can receive "mouth jobs" from a woman besides his wife and it is okay. Apparently she and the president have the same views on marriage. However, Clinton finally admitted having "regular" sex with other women during his marriage. He first lied to his family and the public about all of them. He also lied about accepting illegal contributions from agents of the Chinese government. He also lied about doing drugs. He also lied about knowing nothing about Travelgate and Whitewater. I don't think he should be impeached ONLY for his dalliances with a Government employee on Government time on Government property. He should be removed from office for All of his numerous crimes against America and the American people. And By the way, I also think that we Clinton bashers could make good skunk catchers, after all, we caught HIM.
10/18/98
Untitled 8/14/96
Never again a broken heart,
and never again true love-
And when I relive those evil deeds,
I know this fate worse than ever dreamed of.
Wisdom comes hard, or not at all,
and Penance only allowed so many times
These words are my duty and my final debt
Here- My love borne of a few simple rhymes...
Arrogance is bliss
but is easily corrected
With the loss of your kiss
My soul was disconnected
I set aside the decay of pride
and dream the same daydream
holding you close by my side
and things become all they seem
I've never said that I wasn't lost
The only thing I liked about my life was you
The price of my selfishness now has an eternal cost...
And drifting here in Hell, I don't know what to do.
Pain IS a gift. But hopefully not one you have to receive forever.
Israel kills 17
...and seriously wounds an 8 year old boy, most likely using flechette weopons in civilian areas.
Bush sure is making headway in the Peace Process, isn't he? ISRAEL is the greatest terrorist nation in the world and should be disarmed and sanctioned... Neocon murderers WILL NEVER support peace. Vote in a President who will quit giving Israel weapons and money to continue spreading terror.
From Common Dreams IDF Kills...
and from the comments there...
It’s really too bad that seemingly all what israelis learned from their holocaust is how to oppress and exterminate their neighbors. Perhaps they should open the Torah.
Book of Leviticus:
‘You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God.’chapter 19, verse 34
Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. (chapter 19, verse 18)
peace
...
The Reich of Zion is predicated on the conviction that Israel owns the moral high ground in perpetuity– as if the Moral High Ground were conferred on the state of Israel as weregild by an abashed world in apology for the Holocaust.
Even if that were true, the government of the little Reich has long since been washed off that high ground in a deluge of blood shed by its wanton, genocidal violence against aboriginal societies which resists Zionist territorial aggression.
Israel and the US compose a binary system of rogue states run by ruthless deathmongers– not to put too fine a point on it.
...
So Bush went to Israel to give Olmert green light to steal and kill. Hamas again offered a truce which the murderous Olmert decided to ignore. Israel deserves every bad things coming its way!
And Bush is now exposed as another poodle for Israel! This is for folks who thinks that this is not the case
...
Israelis killed Palestinians? Oh that’s okay, as long as not one precious Israeli is killed. Israel and the U.S. might drop a bomb on the Palestinians if one of “God’s Chosen People” were killed, even accidentally. You could even blame the Iranians for it.
Good job on the “peace effort,” Chimp. We can see you and your buddies the Israelis have taken your visit seriously.
...
I agree, the Israelis don’t seem to have learned a thing from the Holocaust. They have no compassion, empathy, or any humane feelings for the people they are oppressing.
Did you see the Chimp wearing a Jewish skull cap when he was in Israel a few days ago? I guess he and Rice consider themselves Israelis. On her first trip to Israel, she gushed to the Israelis and said how she felt like it was “home” to her.
..
I see that the Jewish Nation has provided our Sadist-In-Chief with the human sacrifice that he needs to keep that coprophagous smirk on his face. I cringe to think what God and man will do to the American people to balance this and all the other Iseaeli atrocities commited in the name of their God of Cruelty and Avrice.
...
Thank you all for caring enough to comment on these latest horrors inflicted by the Israelis on the Palestinian people. I continue to be amazed at how little press Israeli aggression gets, although I’m sure that only shows my own naivety. The word needs to get out in as many ways as possible. I somehow think that if people at least KNEW what was going on, there might be a chance for justice. I’ll check out “boycott Israel” and will commit to post messages to as many news outlets as I can each time I hear of an assault like this. My question to them: Why aren’t you reporting terrorist actions by the Israelis?What other ideas do people have? How do we get the U.S. to quit supporting these crimes against humanity?
And as for some blowback, how about this comment....
"To kill a snake you’ve got to go for its head. America happens to be Israel’s head."
That sentiment is a large reason why Israel needs to be stopped, and stopped BY AMERICA, from murdering its neighbors on a wholesale basis year after year after year. Israel's actions and the retaliations of suicide bombers are both terrorist actions. To stop one, you've got to stop the other.
Murder is murder. Israel's actions sponsor more Israeli deaths. They will NEVER learn. It is time to stop giving the ignorant bastards more bombs and money with which they will continue the destruction.
Jan 14, 2008
Texas Politikin - No one likes a Populist
except those damn dirty masses...
And you thought all we had to worry about here in Texas wuz the Republicans.
Yeehaw! Circle the wagons and set em on fire~
from Brains and Eggs The whole article is a good read...
EXCERPTS
"Thanks to a state party establishment rented out to the Texas Trust, Rahm EMANUEL is effectively Speaker of the House and Joe LIEBERMAN is actually the Senate Majority Leader. Matt ANGLE is effectively State Chair(man) and Martin FROST is Cardinal-Protector of the PACs. Super-rich donors -- out of state or, in the case of property-managers and concession-tenders, foreign -- have now created a Congressional majority that mimics the SDEC: it is less popular than even George W. BUSH and a drag on all Democratic campaigns. But the TDP is going all out (a) to maintain that death grip on this party and (b) to tie up and deliver a delegation of mind hostages -- drones, if you prefer -- to the national convention.
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In 2008 the party elite are, again, protecting Craddick Democrats, leaving key GOP seats uncontested and remaining indifferent to, if not scared of, the populist uprising evident all across the country. They are using “McGovern Rules” (hard quotas) and sheer deception -- “rulesmanship” -- to hide control of the party by a handful of white male lawyers operating behind a velvet curtain of “inclusiveness”.
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The simple fact of the matter is that both the Democratic and GOP party establishments would rather lose elections than lose control of their respective parties."
Ah, nothing like the absence of Progress in the leaders of the progressive party. Parliamentary procedural bullshit, what a fucking joke. All is not yet lost, though Texas is the poster child for the sad shape that many states Democratic party leaderships are in...
"The latent majority of Democrats -- a huge majority in Texas –- are in fact intensely patriotic, more frustrated than angry, filled with hope and not hate, and constructive, patient, and considerate; not destructive, desperate, or violent. Yes, we are confused by and annoyed with our party establishment. Yes, we need to get smart, replace them quickly, and move on to competitive rather than collaborative politics. That takes a real party; not plush offices in Austin, not an official entourage of young, pretty personal assistants, not kickbacks of free hospitality suites and limousines at state and national conventions run as over-priced “beauty pageants”, not a two-bit “likely-voter” campaign tool, scaled for individual House races, where a statewide get-out-the-vote program should be.
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Once again the state party establishment is spending capital and mortgaging the future in a bid to boost its individual members up the patronage chain into state and federal appointed positions. They talk about winning elections, but all they are doing is currying favor with lobbies and aggrandizing themselves personally. Theirs is an exit strategy from politics that is, simply, more competitive than collaborative. The state party establishment is not really prepared or fit for competition.
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What this calls for is a progressive populist caucus that has a plan and resources to take over the state convention, to inform delegates, to manage their time competently, to exercise plenary power of the state party, to exploit historic developments well underway, and to restore republican democracy to a fine party.
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Our party is the first republican party in North America, the oldest democratic party in the world, but a decrepit and nearly inconsequential shell of its former self in Austin.
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Sad as that is, parties are very lightweight institutions. All the Presidential candidates are talking change -- the easiest change of all being the discarding of a state party establishment of sycophants, toads, and fools. Actually, it is a good thing to be on the fringe of a party so badly run as ours in this state.
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It makes the housecleaning more obvious and vital, for one thing."
Bush:We should have bombed Auschwitz
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Jan 11, 2008
Blogger Something day coming up...
Swiffer Reactions 8
Plastered Amnesty
Mad on the Mike Biologyst
frum Ze Swiffer:
"have reminded me that this February 3 is the first anniversary of one of the darkest days in the blogosphere, Blogroll Amnesty Day, the day that Atrios of Eschaton intitiated his bloody blogroll massacre, cutting a number of fine smaller blogs from his blogroll, including my good friend skippy, and a number of other big bloggers followed his lead. But a funny thing happened on the way to the bloodletting. A number of smaller bloggers decided they were tired of being pushed around by the A-Listers and decided to fight back by banding together and making their own blogrolls more inclusive instead of more exclusive. So I hope you will all join me, skippy, Barefoot Bum and anyone else who wants to get on board in remembering this great and terrible day and turn the weekend of February 1-3 into a celebration of the power of all the little blogs out there who deserve our support."
Jan 10, 2008
Together at last!
George Bush is bringing together the Middle East ....
Why can't Israeli Extremists get along with Palestinian Extremists? Well, at least they've got one thing in common.
Hillary - Why
Obama, even less, the Rock Star of Pandering and posing.
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American Investor Prosperity- Not.
In the investment industry in West Texas, I am very much alone in my position as a liberal Democrat . Most of the people I am surrounded by are die-hard Republicans and Libertarians. These are people who still use words like "Marxism" and "liberal media" with a straight face.
I find that the bedrock of their beliefs is mainly rooted in one thing and one thing alone- the ability of government to stay out of their business. The only thing they are interested in the government doing is cutting taxes, all day, every day no matter what. Terrorist threats be damned, axis of evil notwithstanding, they don't want to spend a penny of their money more than they already do for any reason at all for their country.
They also believe, with a zealot's fervor ,that the Republican party is good for business, investing, and their bottom line. Their patriotism stops at their account values. But although some specific industries and select friends of the Bush administration have made it big these past six years, most Americans have seen their account values stagnate.
There is an interesting letter to the Editor in a recent Wall street journal (Jan.9) The letter is obviously written from the standpoint of these types of people, however, this man has come to an interesting conclusion-
(from the Wall Street Journal)
I am the median-age voter (acutally, I am 46) as mentioned in Michael Barone's "The 16 Year Itch", The thing I remember about the 1992 election is that shortly after that inexperienced Arkansas governor was elected, my portfolio did a curious thing. . .it grew at a rapid rate. It continued to do so, right up to 2000, over doubling my net worth.
Since 2000, my portfolio has remained flat. Today's S&P 500 index is almost identical to the value it had when George W. Bush took office.
I don't really care about modest overseas wars, except that the hundreds of billions spent seem to depress the stock market. I don't care about terrorism, when drug dealers kill many more people than terrorists ever will. I don't care about health insurance, I have that. I don't care about social security, I am quite sure I won't collect much of it, if any. My income has not gone up in real terms. My tax burden is modest, and changes in tax rates affect me very little. But, a 100 point gain in the S&P 500 means about $50,000 in my pocket.
It is odd that so many people forget the stock market boom of the late 1990s.
I will vote for the candidate that has the best chance of getting the stock market heading up. George W. Bush failed to do that. The stock market is the only chance that millions of us have to create wealth. Journal readers - and writers- should remember that. John Callister, Ithaca, NY
Unfortunately a lot of the "Bush base" are simply people just like this- those who are unconcerned with anything beyond their personal wealth. They cannot see past their short-term account valuations to view the bigger picture. Most of them still believe, contrary to the evidence, that Republicans = good for business.
This man understands now, obviously, that contrary to popular business belief, the Republican majority and presidency has NOT been good for Wall street this decade. Make sure you remind the people you talk to that the Republicans have been a disaster for the economy, except for Big Oil, Big War, and Big Pharma. And the seeds of recession that Dubya has sown haven't even begun to fully sprout. Throwing away billions in foreign wars and funneling money to corporations in a thousand different ways hasn't been a good investment for the American people.
The account values of a hundred or so Multi-millionaires have risen. The account values of everyone else have went to hell in a handbasket. I heard the word depression yesterday, for the first time in a long while.
Depression?! Are you nuts, you ask?
Well, for the past two years, the Wall street cheerleaders have been denying a recession. This week, the worst new year start in the stock market for the Dow since 1932, they are all finally conceding to the fact that the recession is in. Who you elect this year may or may not make you a rich man. But your vote CAN work wonders if given to the person and the party who will implement something to stop the madness of the Republican corporate welfare machine.
You tell me if that person is more likely to be a Republican or a Democrat...
Totally Off-topic Link: Fear as Foreign Policy - The Mindset of Israel
Jan 7, 2008
Games Parties Play
Drinking Liberally - Superdelegates
From JobsAnger
"The Texas Democratic Party says Dennis Kucinich will not be on the party's primary ballot in March. Kucinich did file the necessary paperwork, but would not sign a loyalty oath to support the party's nominee in November."
Careful where you point that thing, from MCCS
Throwing support, away from Morning Martini
Kucinich backs Obama in Iowa...
No Quarter shoots, dissects, and mounts the head of Obama's campaign on the wall of the den
Larry Johnson explains about Obama's lobbyist ties and his ability to say anything that will get him on the road to , eventually, not being elected.
Jan 5, 2008
Blogging your own epitath...
Final Post
Andrew Olmsted, RIP
from an earlier post of his:
Asking the Hard Question
I have been reliably informed that my posting of late has been rather dark. That's probably true, in no small part because it seems that no matter where I turn, I end up reading things like this:
The goal of Democrats -- and their allies -- over the next two years should not and cannot be to stop the war cold turkey. The goal should be to politicize the issue in preparation for 2008.
I may not agree with the assessment of the far left, but at least they're honest. They think we've lost in Iraq and that we should get out now. Contrast that with those who see in Iraq a wonderful opportunity to win more seats for their party, like publius. It pleases me to no end that if I end up getting killed in Iraq, at least my wife can take comfort in knowing my death may help the Democrats win the White House in 2008. Really, that makes it all worthwhile.
Harsh? Absolutely. And I realize that publius' motives are sincere. But while the odds are pretty good I'll live through my trip to Iraq, the fact remains that too many of my comrades will die in Iraq between now and the day a new President takes office in January 2009. If people think that we have lost in Iraq, then they have a duty to say so and do what they can to get us out of Iraq, not position themselves to be in better shape to do so in two years. The idea that Congress cannot stop this war flies in the face of the facts. Congress can quite easily end the war within six months if they so choose. No money equals no war, and while the Democrats aren't strong enough to pass a resolution rescinding the Authorization to Use Military Force, they are certainly strong enough not to pass a budget funding further operations in Iraq. Yes, six months is a long time and more people will die, but that eighteen month window means perhaps 1,000 more dead soldiers and many times more soldiers whose lives will be forever changed by the wounds they receive there.
Of course, doing so would probably be politically devastating to the Democrats. The Republicans would use such a move as ammunition for scurrilous demagoguery, carefully avoiding the questions they've mostly been able to dodge over the past four years about their responsibility for the war. But the war would still end, and while it might hurt the Democrats initially, given that their actions would come roughly a year before the next election, who knows how they might look in the fall of 2008 when American soldiers are no longer coming home in caskets; President George H.W. Bush looked nigh-unbeatable a year before the 1992 election; I assume we all remember how that one turned out.
More to the point, it seems to me that it is the right thing to do, if you believe we should be getting out of Iraq. If you think the surge cannot work and that we've lost, I fail to see how you can justify waiting an additional 18 months because the politics aren't right. John Kerry once asked how you can ask someone to be the last man to die for a mistake. It would appear that for a lot of Democrats, that question is easier to answer than Kerry thought.
Unfortunately, Andrew Olmsted won't be the last good soldier to die for this mistake. Not by a long shot. Political expediency be damned! A Congress that respects our troops and their deaths would have stopped this mistake years ago, may not even have begun it in the first place.
Out of Iraq - NOW. Immediate withdrawal- and if Iraq falls into more chaos, so be it. The deaths belong on the heads of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and every neocon sycophant that profitted off this immoral invasion. It's time for an American presence in Iraq to end. To those of you in Congress, if you don't want more deaths to be on YOUR heads- you will do everything in your power to stop the Republican war profiteering machine.
And I sincerely believe that every one of you in Congress who would continue this "war" at this time, knowing what we all know now- deserves to be imprisoned for the rest of your life as a war criminal and a traitor to our military and our country by squandering them so needlessly.
