...everyone you meet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqP3wT5lpa4

The Bleat Goes On

As has been widely and sheepishly reported by the cable yackers, Rush Limbaugh is conducting "Operation Chaos". This brilliant plan, as its "commander" Limbaugh states, has as its goal the disruption of the Democratic primary process. He claims to be directing his Dittoheads to keep the primary process going as long as possible in order to cause internal bleeding within the Democratic Party.

This strategem has even received a nod of validation from the upper ranks of punditry. It has been seriously discussed by the likes of NBC's Tim Russert as a factor in Hillary Clinton's continued strength. I believe Fat Head is being given way too much credit and credence.

At any rate, the Master of the A.M. dial has issued new orders. He said yesterday,"I now believe he (Obama) would be the weakest of the Democrat(sic) nominees. I now urge the Democrat(sic) superdelegates to make your mind up and publicly go for Obama."

In a related item, Limbaugh then went on to urge the Sun to rise tomorrow, along with a call for the continued application of the Law of Gravity.

Harking back to the evil nemesis of Maxwell Smart, the other KAOS, isn't it way past time to put Limbaugh under the "Cone of Silence"?

Derby Day Politics

Baron Hill at Riverview Towers, Saturday May 3, 2008
Lee Hamilton at Riverview Towers May 3, 2008


The past and present Ninth District Congressmen spoke Saturday, near post time, on behalf of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Was it raucus? No.
Was it a packed house? No.
Was it inspiring? Yes.

The crowd was mainly comprised of the elderly residents of Riverview Towers. Frankly, many of them came for the pizza provided by the Obama campaign. They got that, to be sure, but they also got an impassioned plea from both men on the significance of the Obama campaign for America.

Hill spoke first and then introduced Hamilton. Hill talked about the psychological barrier that had kept humans from running a mile in a time faster than four minutes. That barrier came down on May 6, 1954 as Roger Bannister beat the clock. Hill said we, as a nation, could not conceive of a black man having an honest chance of winning the presidency until recently. That psychological barrier is coming down, win or lose, because Obama is in the race. He is elevating the level of the debate by running a positive campaign. His very presence in the race brings the hope of transformational change.

Hamilton spoke also about the hope of real transforming change. As he put it, it's time for a new generation to start leading this country. It is time, he said, to leave behind the back room deals and lobbyist-driven legislation. Neither he nor Hill glossed over the difficulty of playing the game with new rules. Neither said it is a certainty that it can be done. But both said it is imperative that we try, and now, because our stature in the world has been so terribly damaged by Bush and Cheney.

The inspiring thing about the day's event was the fact that Hamilton and Hill but especially Hamilton came out on Derby Day to address a relatively sparse and slightly less than entusiastic crowd. This was an opportunity to phone it in; say something about making sure you get out to vote Tuesday, tell your friends to vote and isn't this a great country we live in? Hamilton could have done that but he didn't. The former Representative with 34 years under his belt spoke with conviction and passion about how the eyes of the world are on, and will be on, Indiana Tuesday. Will we let the opportunity to chart a new course pass us by? Will we show the world that we want to continue on the same path we've been following or that we want to join the rest of the world and somehow make amends for the disasters that Bush has wrought?

Hamilton closed his remarks by pointing out that one man in the back of the room had nodded out and another had spent much of the time checking his watch. It easy to figure why they were not too engaged. After all, it's time for new hands to take the wheel.

I am disappointed in the turn the Democratic campaign has taken and, frankly, I feel that Senator Clinton and or her operatives are to blame for it. Not the Jeremiah Wright mess; that was a self-inflicted wound. What is most disturbing for me is the tone struck by the Clinton camp through the incessant harping on the remark a few weeks ago that Pennsylvanians were "bitter". (I addressed that point in a post here titled "Bitter. Who's Bitter?")

Now we have the goofy suggestion that the U.S. take a summer vacation from gasoline taxes. That is precisely the kind of pandering which results in cynicism about the political system. Don't worry about global warming. Don't try to think about why we've allowed ourselves to be tied to an unsustainable transportation system. And by the way, don't think about the fact that the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi both say they won't bring the proposal up for a vote. And don't think about the fact that most economists think it's a goofy idea.

Today, on This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Sen. Clinton was in Indianapolis taking questions from an audience. She derided Sen. Obama's opposition to the gas tax holiday, in what must be a newly settled-on wedgeword for the campaign "elite" and its many variants, for being a dealer in "elite opinion". The irony in that is rich. Who is the real elitist Sen. Clinton, when the "common man" is assumed to be too unsophisticated, or thick-headed to realize that a temporary tax break on fuel is only an election gimmick? (kind of like the election-time pledge that Republicans will return us to the days of strong moral values and illegal abortions, when in reality they only want to deliver tax cuts for the real elites)

I'll grant that because of the economic situation we are in, some may be desparate and may see hope in that illusory savings. But the true holder of the elitist label should be Bush Inc., not fellow Democrat Barack Obama. Senator Clinton knows this, and her continued flailing attacks threaten the ultimate goal in November: preventing a third Bush term under John McCain.

Channeling Jack Powers

Green Mouse says: Look for an addition to the Obama super-delegate ledger tonight in Bloomington, thanks to a high profile hoosier.

With the latest Wright eruption behind him, does anyone else sense a momemtum shift back towards Obama?

Obama is criticized for not quitting the church when Jeremiah Wright uttered his hot rhetoric. Who has a count on the number of Catholics who left the Church in response to actual behavior from reprehensible members of the cloth, as well as the cover up by the hierarchy?

What office is Jeremiah Wright seeking? Perhaps he'll agree to debate Mrs. Clinton.

Senator Durbin in New Albany Friday for Barack

The senior senator from Illinois will be in town Friday for a town hall meeting on behalf of that state's junior senator's presidential campaign.

Dick Durbin, one of the Democrats who opposed Bush's war in Iraq from the start, will speak at the Obama headquarters. Senator Durbin will be at the Parthenon at 11:30 AM this Friday, April 18.

This is an opportunity to meet one of the Senate's most distinguished members. It is also an opportunity to show your support for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Stop by the headquarters, or call Megan Maher at (317)503-9772 for additional information .

Bitter? Who's Bitter?

As one who is not put off by the idea that the President of the United States of America, the most powerful office in the history of the human race, should be just a cut above the rest of us, I guess I'm buying into the "elitist" view. The recent flap over Barack Obama's comment that Pennsylvanians are "bitter", however, to me, illustrates the danger posed by a shallow news media.

Perhaps Obama used a poor choice of words which may have rubbed people the wrong way when he said these bitter voters "cling" to religion. "Rallied to defend" may have worked better in reference to Ohio voters, who in 2004 came out in droves to protect that state against gay marriage because it offended God's plan of marriage. Whatever word you choose, fundamentalist voters were exhorted to come to the polls to vote down the amendment and since they were in a voting booth anyhow, they might as well go ahead and vote for president; two birds one stone.

That linkage of deeply held religious views and craven political motive was taken from the playbook of Carl Rove,incidentally, the son of a gay man. Is it possible that our nation has to be split like a Spanish dubloon to help exorcise his inner turmoil? Or, is it simply Machiavellian S.O.P.?

Whatever the reason, recent political history has shown that many people vote against their secular interests in defense against perceived attacks of their cultural or religious beliefs. That was the essence of Thomas Frank's 2005 book, "What's the Matter With Kansas?"

Our nation was founded on the notion that an ideal is more valuable than "our lives, our fortunes our sacred honor". When speaking philosophically, is it really a stretch to say that people "cling" to their religion or their right to own guns? Is such a construction truly an example of elitism or is it, rather, a display of desperation by a candidate who's on the ropes and a news media trying to fill a page or a 24 hour news cycle?

Below are lyrics from Bruce Sprinsteen's 2001 ballad "Youngstown". I think they express the sense of alienation and betrayal felt by many of our fellow Americans. Some might call it bitterness.


Here in north east Ohio
Back in eighteen-o-three
James and Danny Heaton
Found the ore that was linin' yellow creek
They built a blast furnace
Here along the shore
And they made the cannon balls
That helped the union win the war
Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown
Well my daddy worked the furnaces
Kept 'em hotter than hell
I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer
A job that'd suit the devil as well
Taconite, coke and limestone
Fed my children and made my pay
Then smokestacks reachin' like the arms of god
Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay
Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown
Well my daddy come on the 0hio works
When he come home from world war two
Now the yards just scrap and rubble
He said, "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do
"These mills they built the tanks and bombs
That won this country's wars
We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam
Now we're wondering what they were dyin' for
Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown
From the Monongaleh valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalacchia
The story's always the same
Seven-hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name
In Youngstown
In Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown
When I die I don't want no part of heaven
I would not do heavens work well
I pray the devil comes and takes me
To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell

Copyright © Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP)

"Elections" Have Consequences

Remember: They Are Liars By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t Columnist
Tuesday 08 April 2008
___________________________

No one is such a liar as the indignant man.- Friedrich Nietzsche
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, along with a slew of administration underlings and a revolving-door cavalcade of brass hats from the Pentagon, have been making claims regarding Iraq for many years now.
They claimed Iraq was in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, "enough to kill several million people," according to a page on the White House web site titled Disarm Saddam Hussein.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq was in possession of 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq was in possession of 500 tons, which equals 1,000,000 pounds, of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq was in possession of nearly 30,000 munitions capable of delivering these agents.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq was in possession of several mobile biological weapons labs.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq was operating an "advanced" nuclear weapons program.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq had been seeking "significant quantities" of uranium from Africa for use in this "advanced" nuclear weapons program.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes "suitable for nuclear weapons."
They lied.
They claimed America needed to invade, overthrow and occupy Iraq in order to remove this menace from our world. "It would take just one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country," went the White House line, "to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known."
They lied.
"Simply stated," said Dick Cheney in August of 2002, "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
Liar.
"Right now," said George W. Bush in September of 2002, "Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of nuclear weapons."
Liar.
"We know for a fact," said White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer in January of 2003, "that there are weapons there."
Liar.
"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction," said Colin Powell in February of 2003, "is determined to make more."
Liar.
"We know where they are," said Donald Rumsfeld in March of 2003. "They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad, and east, south, west and north somewhat."
Liar.
"The Iraqi people understand what this crisis is about," said Paul Wolfowitz in March of 2003. "Like the people of France in the 1940s, they view us as their hoped-for liberator."
Liar.
"No one ever said that we knew precisely where all of these agents were," said Condoleezza Rice in June of 2003, "where they were stored."
Liar.
"I have absolute confidence that there are weapons of mass destruction inside this country," said Gen. Tommy Franks in April of 2003. "Whether we will turn out, at the end of the day, to find them in one of the 2,000 or 3,000 sites we already know about or whether contact with one of these officials who we may come in contact with will tell us, 'Oh, well, there's actually another site,' and we'll find it there, I'm not sure."
Wrong.
"Before the war," said Gen. Michael Hagee in May of 2003, "there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found."
Wrong.
"Given time," said Gen. Richard Myers in May of 2003, "given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction."
Wrong.
"Do I think we're going to find something? Yeah, I kind of do," said Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton in May of 2003, "because I think there's a lot of information out there."
Wrong.
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq, is about to give testimony before the Senate regarding the current state of affairs in that battle-savaged country. He is a political general, one of many America has seen and heard over the last five years, one who would leap nude from the Capitol dome before telling the real truth about matters in Iraq ... or who would speak using words fed to him by liars, and thus be wrong.
Remember: they lie. They all lie, from the top man down to the bottom. If their lips are moving, a lie is unfolding. If they say water is wet, get into the shower to make sure.
They lie.
Period.
End of file.


Gonder's note: Remember their lies have now cost 4,026 dead U.S. soldiers, at least 30,000 maimed and wounded and untold numbers of Iraqi citizens killed.

Question for the Little Mind: How do you sleep at night?