Not Going Away

WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.

Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

Natural-born citizen.

Yeah, confusing alright. Could that mean that a person born in America by a C-section can't run for president?

Watch the high-paid lawyers run with this one.

A Panamanian-born American president. Manuel Noreiga just didn't aim high enough.

The mind boggles.

No News Here

So who's surprised?

WASHINGTON (AP) - Civil rights leader John Lewis dropped his support for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid Wednesday in favor of Barack Obama. Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Atlanta, is the most prominent black leader to defect from Clinton's campaign in the face of near-unanimous black support for Obama in recent voting.

"Near unanimous black support for Obama".

I can imagine that almost about every black politician at every level going for Obama just as soon as they can without appearing too obviously racist. Even if they claim to support Clinton, odds are they will vote for Obama.

Doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

SURPRISE...Virtual border Fence Fails

The much touted "Virtual Fence" has failed. So the Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear, federal officials said yesterday.

As the Border Patrol took over that initial stretch Friday from Boeing, authorities confirmed that Project 28, the initial deployment of the Secure Border Initiative network, did not work as planned or meet the needs of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Translation: it failed to work.

So Bush and his gang of neocons are now "shifting away" from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear to... what? At least three more years of nothing.

In a nation where we have TV cameras on every street corner and in every Mall, a nation where we can watch cop chases from the police car TV systems, a place where we can capture just about anything at anytime on our cell phones and spread it across the Internet, how is it a "network" of TV cameras and remote monitors built by a heavyweight like Boeing failed?

Pardon my cynicism, but I would bet serious money that it was supposed to fail. Bush no more wants an effective border fence than he wants an effective U.S. Constitution, or a law-abiding presidency.

Diversity At Work

A black Brit speaks out:

One of Britain’s most influential black figures today accused Barack Obama of cynically exploiting America’s racial divide and gave warning that he could prolong, rather than heal the rift.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, claimed that the Democratic front-runner would ultimately disappoint the African-American community and dismissed the notion that he would be "the harbinger of a post-racial America" if he becomes the country’s first black President.

Writing in Prospect, the monthly current affairs magazine, Mr. Phillips suggested that guilt over transatlantic slavery was behind Mr Obama’s support from middle class whites.

"If Obama can succeed, then maybe they can imagine that [Martin Luther] King's post-racial nirvana has arrived. A vote for Obama is a pain-free negation of their own racism. So long as they don't have to live next door to him; Obama has yet to win convincingly in white districts adjacent to black communities," he wrote.

Or would that be an "African American" Brit?

At any rate, it's exactly what the likes of Louis Ferrican and his "Nation of Islam" wants... to increase the racial rift to the point It will divide America all the way into two nations... three, if the Mexicans can get their "Mexican American " foot in the door. Or would that be "Brown American"?

What a great future we are facing. Diversity and multi-culturism, the all new way to nation building. Or would that be nation destroying?

The Hague Again

Those unelected and power crazy European bastards are at it again:

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union's longest-running fight with Microsoft Corp. neared an end Wednesday as regulators imposed a record $1.3 billion fine on the world's largest software company for failing to fully comply with a 2004 antitrust order.

Microsoft has not decided whether to appeal the penalty, which amounts to a fraction of the $14.07 billion it earned in fiscal 2007. In all, the company has been fined just under $2.4 billion by European antitrust regulators over the years.

Barring an appeal, the fine shuts the door on an investigation into Microsoft's behavior that was triggered by a 1998 complaint by Sun Microsystems Inc. It alleged Microsoft was refusing to supply information that servers need to work with its market-dominating Windows operating system.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Microsoft now appears to have finally complied with the 2004 EU antitrust order. But she warned that the company was not yet in the clear because the EU last month launched new probes into its Office software and Windows' Internet browser.

Sun Microsystems complained about Microsoft and the European Union issues a EU antitrust order. And just where were the American courts in all this?

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes? Tell her to go after the big oil cartels if she's looking for corporations stifling competition.

Maybe now bill Gates will back away from his goal of globalizing the world, seeing's how he must now realize he will be just another victim of these unelected one-world dictators. For Pete's sake, they're not even American citizens.

If I was Bill Gates, I would tell EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes to go to hell.

I, Robot

Consider this:

There are more than 4,000 US military robots on the ground in Iraq, as well as unmanned aircraft that have logged hundreds of thousands of flight hours.

These "intelligent" machines have been deployed on battlefields around the world -- from mobile grenade launchers to rocket-firing drones -- and already have the built-in ability to identify and lock onto targets without human help.

Increasingly autonomous, these gun-totting robots being developed today for warfare have so far required a human being to push the button or pull the trigger.

But - and it's a BIG but - Military leaders are quite clear that they want autonomous robots as soon as possible, because they are more cost-effective and give a risk-free war.

Many of us are quite familiar with Isaac Asimov's robots, robots that possessed incredibly advanced "positronic" brains and had the three laws of robotics ingrained into them, laws that would prevent a robot from harming a human or allow a human to come to harm.

Not so the robots that our military is lusting after. These military robots will have no qualms about shooting down humans... that's exactly what they are being built to do.

Asimov's robots were built to serve humankind... our military wants robots that will hunt down and kill humankind, and I have no doubt whatever that our military - and then our police - will eventually have this kind of weapon.

A bit frightening... should someday you be in the way of one of these robotic monsters that will consider you as nothing more than another target to be neutralized.

Of course they will be used on the streets of America. After all, it's the citizens on those very streets that this federal government fears the most.

And what in the hell do they mean by "a risk-free" war?

A "Must See" Movie On The Way

This just may be an all-new Hollywood low point:

A movie about to be filmed in Pittsburgh is casting Gothic characters -- including an albino-like girl and deformed people -- to depict West Virginia mountain people.Regular-looking" children need not apply.

Just might make "Deliverance" take a back seat.

Explain This, Please

Jose Antonio Ortiz allegedly stabbed his brother-in-law in the stomach after the pair quarreled about their respective support of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Two Mexicans get in a knife fight over a white woman and a black man?

It's always been my understanding that the Mexicans want to take over the entire southwest and make it a part of Mexico, something the blacks wouldn't give a damn about, except for maybe a few Watts/Los Angeles denizens. The blacks want to grab off the entire south and make a new nation run exclusively by themselves, something the Mexicans wouldn't give a damn about, except for maybe a few Cuban refugees, who would then move to Monterrey and try kick out all the Asians, resulting in the first Asian/Cuban war in American history.

Hillary only gives a damn about the northeast and could care less what happens to the southwest or the south. If either Hillary or Obama get the presidential nod, they'll both drop the southwest like a brick, and let the Mexicans continue their "reconquista" undisturbed.

So what was their argument about?

The Bush(cracked) Crystal Ball

Here's a real howler for you:

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush predicted Monday that voters will replace him with a Republican president who will "keep up the fight" in Iraq. "I'm confident we'll hold the White House in 2008," Bush told donors at the Republican Governors Association annual dinner, which raised a record $10.6 million for GOP gubernatorial candidates.

Isn't Bush the world-class Pollyanna who thought we would be out of Iraq in two weeks, or something like that?

Now he tells us he thinks Mr. Hundred-Year-War McCain is going to be the next president. No chance in hell for that happening.

I agree with Vox, it's the lizard queen for us, because folks are going to figure out that Obama as president would be the catalyst for the next American Civil War.

You Gotta Be Kiddng

This bombshell from WND:

In a ceremony that received virtually no attention in the American media, the United States and Canada signed a military agreement Feb. 14 allowing the armed forces from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a domestic civil emergency, even one that does not involve a cross-border crisis.

The agreement, defined as a Civil Assistance Plan, was not submitted to Congress for approval, nor did Congress pass any law or treaty specifically authorizing this military agreement to combine the operations of the armed forces of the United States and Canada in the event of a wide range of domestic civil disturbances ranging from violent storms, to health epidemics, to civil riots or terrorist attacks.

The agreement was signed at U.S. Army North headquarters, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, by U.S. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, or USNORTHCOM, and by Canadian Air Force Lt. Gen. Marc Dumais, commander of Canada Command.

Since when can a run-of-the-mill armchair general sign an international agreement with another nation? One that will give control of our forces - in time of emergency they say - to another nation?

Obviously, the United States and Canada signed nothing, but one of our Air Force generals signed something without Congressional approval or authority, and no doubt illegal.

And Congress sits on its thumbs and does nothing.

Michelle Obama And Her Thesis

Michelle Obama's Senior thesis at Princeton has surfaced, in which she wrote:

My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before," the future Mrs. Obama wrote in her thesis introduction. "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second.

A bit of pent-up resentment there towards whites, wouldn't you think?

Michelle wrote that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to her "further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant."

The words of an angry, but under control individual, well schooled in the art of using words as weapons. She definitely has a real problem with whites and white society.

The idea of an possible black racist in the White House with massive influence on a black president is quite worrisome.

A Few Brain Cells Must Have Survived

Somebody is showing a bit of intelligence:

Having long played down the idea that she might someday run for president, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday said she had no plans to serve as a vice president either.

Since so many people already know her to be a complete failure and international buffoon, I suppose she has concluded that holding another public office for four more years would allow everyone else to reach that conclusion also.

Or, perhaps she is another of the Bush bunch that has or will quit while they are still ahead of the game... and still out of jail.

McCain And His Women

Did John McCain have a sexual affair with an intern named Vicki Iseman? McCain refuses to deny such an encounter. His team offered this carefully-worded response:

He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.

Translated... Yes, but he refuses to deny it, because that would make him a liar like Bill Clinton.

We are told that McCain did cheat on his first wife with the(very rich) woman he's married to now.

Do you recall the last time this man ran for president he was accused of fathering a black child in another one of those sordid little affairs? He refused to deny or discuss that also.

Clinton's famous words:

I did not have sex with that woman.

That was a bald-faced lie from yet another Washington skirt chaser, so even if McCain does deny it all, what is there in his less-than-sterling past conduct to make us believe him?

Seems to me that one of the "issues at stake in this election" is whether or not this man is a womanizing adulterer who has violated his marriage vows repeatedly, and if violating vows he has taken is a ho-hum everyday occurance to him, sort of like the oath of office we would need to take?

That's the real issue his reported womanizing brings up... could we ever believe him or trust him to honor his oath of office he will have to take as president?

Keep in mind this man is no hero. He signed confessions and statements accusing the United States of all manner of vile deeds, papers the North vietnamese still have. A hero would have resisted, just like the other pilots in his identical situation did.

I think we already know the answer.

Gee Whiz.... 300 Hours!

There's an ad on TV right now about an outboard motor that will run for 300 HOURS before any required scheduled maintenance. That's 12 1/2 days, a day being 24 hours long.

Got me to thinking about that sort of thing. You're supposed to change the oil in your car engine every 3,000 miles. How many hours of operation does that represent?

If you drive an average of 50MPH, thats only sixty hours of driving.

At an average of 50MPH, an automobile with a 100,000 mile warranty is warranteed for 2,000 hours. That's only 83.3 twenty-four-hour days.

So... those automobiles we pay tens of thousands of dollars for? Maybe not the great deals we think they are.

Moo

The USDA has just ordered the nation's largest beef recall, 143 million pounds of beef from a California slaughterhouse.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a California slaughterhouse, the subject of an animal-abuse investigation, that provided meat to school lunch programs.

TV provided us with a video clip taken by an undercover agent, showing "animal cruelty", as a fork lift carried around and shoved a cow along the floor.

Do you actually think the USDA would recall 143 million pounds of beef becaus some idiot fork lifted a cow?

He was forklifting the cow because it couldn't move itself, or even stand up by itself as seen in the video. The cow was showing some classic signs of Mad Cow disease.

And THAT would be a much more plausable reason why the USDA recalled 143 million pounds of beef.

Just How Stupid Are We?

In alphabetical order:

Senator Hillary Clinton
Senator John McCain
Senator Barack Obama

Notice the connection? All three are members in good standing of the United States Senate, one of the two governmental bodies most responsible for:

-1) The huge loss of American jobs to overseas competitors.
-2) Our multi-trillion dollar debt and fast approaching national bankrupsy.
-3) Our wide open and broken borders.
-4) Two wholly illegal wars.
-5) The loss Of American stature and influence worldwide.

Oh, you say, it was Bush that did it all?

Bush could not have done a thing without the approval and support of the House and Senate. Well no, he could have run our foreign policy without their approval, which - by golly - he did, the worst foreign policy in a century, with his shoot-from-the-hip "bring em on" and spit-in-their-face cowboy diplomacy.

And now we have three Senators, three entrenched insiders, wanting us to believe that they are going to solve all those problems by stepping out of the Senate building and into the White House.

No time will be wasted by a new, untrained and possibly uncontrolled president, making unfortunate decisions that might lessen the deadly stranglehold on our federal government and our country by foreign nations and the international conglomerates.

Take Hillary: She will turn our medical system into an unworkable bureaucratic nightmare, while at the same time taking one-seventh of our annual revenues and handing it over to the drug cartels and their manipulators, all in the name of health. And thats just for starters... she has even told us so.

Or how about McCain: He will guarantee the continued and never-ending occupation of Iraq, will attack Iran and perhaps other Arab nations, gleefully embroiling us in endless confict and turn over countless billions of our dollars to the military/industrial complex, all in the name of security. He may be the man responsible for WW3.

Or that new-kid-on-the-block 100% socialist Obama: He will strip our national treasury and squander it around the world in an attempt to feed and support those who will not do so themselves, especially Africa, a continent full of vanishing nations and dying peoples, the invetable result of unparalled corruption and disease. He will be our worst do-nothing (for us) president in history.

All three of these finely packaged Senatorial candidates will bankrupt this nation and will solve nothing. They are so entrenched into - and controlled by - the system that they will not be able to rise above it... not once. They will complete the destruction of the American Republic, replacing it with a system that will be indistingishable from that of Soviet Russia. It will be the usual lip service and finger-pointing we are so accustomed to, while the sound of the rushing drain draws ever nearer.

We will elect on of these three totally anti-American, pro-world corporate-controlled-government puppets.

Thats how stupid we really are.

But hey, not all is lost... we will have four Superbowls to look forward to during the next presidental term.

No Sir

Sen. Barack Obama, perhaps giving America a preview of priorities he would pursue if elected president, is rejoicing over the Senate committee passage of a plan that could end up costing taxpayers billions of dollars in an attempt to reduce poverty in other nations.

He wants to spend 845 Billion on global poverty. Above what we are already spending on global poverty.

That's our money he wants to give away, folks. That's money he wants to take out of our pockets and give away. Sounds like he wants to eliminate global poverty by tossing us all into the poorhouse.

845 billion dollars. Just shovel it out by the ton. Haul it over by the boatload. Drop it from airplanes. Then watch how many foreign politicans will get rich beyond avarice... on our money. And then see how little it really helps global poverty. You know as well as I do that the money never gets to those who need it.

Our infrastructure is collpasing. Our medical system is collapsing. Our schools are collapsing. Our military is depleted. Our manufacturing base is collapsing. Our financial system is collapsing, and we are trillions of dollars in debt, a debt that grows by millions every minute of every day. And this clown wants to give away even more money, tons of it. Is he going to borrow it from the Chinese? Is he just going to print more? Does he has a magic wand hidden away somewhere?

I wouldn't vote for him now in a thousand years.

I am sick to death of these freaking nutjob politicans who think we owe the world something, these witless nimrods who think that our money is theirs to throw away however they wish.

And now Obama has shown himself to be just another one of them.

Ain't it a crying shame? We all hoped for some real choices this coming election, but all we're getting is the same old crap, and the same old choice...to vote for the candidate we think will do less damage to our nation and our future.

A New AIDS Approach?

It would appear that the Egyptians consider HIV/AIDS as a deadly menace to the general population:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Egyptian police have stepped up arrests of persons suspected of having HIV, detaining four men this month in a crackdown that violates basic human rights, two international rights groups said Friday.

New York-based Human Rights Watch and London-based Amnesty International warned in a joint statement that the arrests could undermine HIV/AIDS prevention effort as people in Egypt become increasingly afraid to seek information on the subject.

The Egyptians may have a point. Since there is no cure for AIDS, and only a limited selection of drug cocktails to slow down the inevitable advance of HIV, it is - in reality - a death warrant if someone exposes you, so the Egyptians are locking up those who have the potential to spread this pandemic killer.

Human rights or not, exactly what are we supposed to do with people who have HIV/AIDS? Just let them continue wandering around in the general population without consequence? Or - at least until a cure is found - establish some sort of medical quarantine to keep this killer disease at bay? It continues to spread unabated worldwide, and we still have not yet seen it's full effect on the human race.

Except for the rare instances of contaminated needles or contaminated blood in transfusions, HIV/AIDS has been spread by unsafe or unnatural sex practices, plain and simple. It's not like cancer, which strikes out of the blue. It take an intentional act by an infected individual to spread this deadly stuff, and it keeps spreading.

I certainly have no answer. We have an advanced HIV victim in our extended family which makes a impartial decision impossible. But I do ask the question:

At what point will the rest of the world start following in Eqypt's footsteps?

Like it or not, it's probably going to happen, because at some point, protecting the health of the general population will outweigh the personel human rights of the individual.

Yet Another Vacation Getaway

Bush is off on another taxpayer funded airplane ride, more often referred to as a "junket":

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Unpopular at home and in much of the world during the last year of his presidency, George W. Bush is basking in rare adulation on his African tour.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete poured praise on Bush in Dar es Salaam on Sunday, the second day of his five-nation African tour, each compliment applauded warmly by members of the east African country's cabinet.

And of course, Bush the Betrayer is promising them all sorts of more aid, money, etc., which Congress will not approve. What those Tanzanians haven't figured out yet is that Bush - good ole boy that he is - considers them all as pets, inferior to boot, just like he considers the average American. But his American pets are getting way too unruly as of late, so it's "off in the big shiny airplane" time.

Well, if if you are not liked where you are - namely here - keep wandering around until you find a place where they will suck up to you big time - namely there.

Atta boy, Bush. I would not be displeased in the slightest if you just stayed there for the rest of your "presidency", but be sure to have Mighty Hunter Cheney join you.

Did he take along his Secretary of State?

Not Surprising

Quite predictable:

'£10 licence to smoke' proposed

Smokers would have to get a licence to light up under the plan
Smokers could be forced to pay £10 for a permit to buy tobacco if a government health advisory body gets its way.
No one would be able to buy cigarettes without the permit, under the idea proposed by Health England.

The one that will surprise y0u all is when they start charging for the air you breathe. It is - after all - a commodity in limited supply, something we must all have, and a zero-cost tax revenue.

Annual consumption based on body weight, or something simliar. Unlike drivers licences, this would be the first 100% participation revenue scheme ever. No exclusions, no exemptions, except for high-usage, long-winded politicans.

I can see it now... the earth is in peril! We are running out of oxygen! Breathe less, save the world and save money at the same time!

I'm just kidding... I think...

Days Of Yore

I've been going through all our photographs lately - trying to organize them into some semblance of order - and ran across these momentos of days gone by...

That's John Romero of DOOM fame and myself waiting for a table at the Kobe restrurant in Dallas. Those were the days when dining out was a pretty regular experience, and the Kobe eatery was a mighty fine place.

Then there were Richard Grey's famous "Levelord's Legendary Legion of Leaky Livers" parties which were always a major happening...


That's the Levelord himself enjoying some highly intellectual and uplifting conversation with a couple of the ladies.


And this one is me enjoying myself pehaps a bit more than I should have...

But it's all cool... the Mrs. was taking the pictures... heh.

Not Even a Bobble Head?

Or a talking head?

Russian Premier Putin said of Hillary Clinton:

At a minimum, a head of state should have a head.

That was in response to Hillary's jab about KGB officers having no soul, Putin having once been a KGB officer.

Oh yeah, that's just great. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how well Putin and Clinton will get along if she becomes president.

Four more years of increasing cold in the Bush generated new cold war.

How do we get stuck with such world-class fools and idiots as national leaders? Money will buy anything... except brains.

Super What?

All this talk about those democratic "super" delegates? The 800 king makers? How they are politicans, big wigs, governers, senators, etc.?

So how come we read about 27-year-old Chelsey Clinton having breakfast with a 21-year-old college student who is one of those "Super" delegates?

Somehow, a 21-year-old college student doesn't strike me as an acceptable "super" delegate.

You gotta wonder about his family connections.

Farah Finds The Bullseye

Thanks to Joe Farah over at WND for this photo. Take a close look at it:



It's a photo taken in an Obama campaign office. On the wall, large and prominent, is a photograph of Che Guevara, no doubt put there - and approved - by the office staff.

Is this part of Obama's support? Admirers of a communist terrorist?

Lord help us all in this election. Our choices are horrible.

Say WHAT?

I read something about John McCain being born in the Panama Canal zone, making him ineligible to be president of the United States.

Wow.

If that is indeed true, perhaps the dems are holding back until after he is nominated, and then plan to lower the boom.

Could also be why Romney quit actively campaiging but did not bow out... why waste the time, effort and money when McCain is going to be shot down anyway? Could explain Huckabe's stubborn stand on hanging in there also.

I can hardly believe that the Repub power brokers wouldn't know about this.

Revisionist History Revisited

Goggle tackles the Jewish version of Middle East history:

TEL AVIV – An Israeli town is suing Internet giant Google after surprised municipal officials discovered Google Earth, the popular, user-driven satellite map, labels their city as stolen Palestinian land.

"[The label] is simply complete nonsense," Yossi Ben-Artzi, a history professor at Israel's Haifa University told Yediot Ahronot, Israel's leading daily. "Kiryat Yam was built on sand dunes, and there wasn't any Palestinian village in the area. The lands were bought in 1939 by the Gav Yam construction company.

Nonsense?

Zionists love to refer to pre 1948 Palestine as the mythic "land without people for a people without land", but, as of 1919, the area was already home to 700,000 Palestinians, many with roots reaching back over 1,200 years, since the area had been Arabic since the seventh century A.D.

So, village or no village, the professor ignores the minor detail that those "empty sand dunes" that Kiryat Yam was built on was fact Arabian property for the previous 1,200 years, property handed over to the Jews by the United Nations in 1948 when it created the "new" state of Israel.

It would seem that Google Earth considers the United Nations act of confiscating Arabian property with it's U. N. Resolution 181 and giving it to the Jews as... stealing.

Not a hard concept to understand.

No New Scandals

Hillary Clinton was asked a question from a Politico.com reader in Santa Monica, Calif., who was seeking assurance that "no new business or personal scandal involving Bill Clinton" could erupt if she were in the White House and give fodder to Republicans. Said Hillary:

You know, I can assure this reader that that is not going to happen. You know, none of us can predict the future, no matter who we are and what we are running for, but I am very confident that that will not happen.

No hillary, we don't know, and neither do you.

But then again, she did sort of say that no new scandals would happen. What she didn't say is that Bll wouldn't be stirring up things with the same old scandals.

War Hero?

Said candidate Obama of John McCain recently:

He is a genuine American war hero.

How polite. How considerate. How inaccurate.

Let's review.

John McCain was a Naval pilot in the Viet Nam war. He would get into his aircraft, climb up to some pre-determined altitude, fly over a target, drop his bombs, and then return to his carrier. He would then have a good hot meal, retire to his cozy little bunk in his private room, and repeat the next day.

No heroics involved there.

Yes, yes... he would have to evade the anti-aircraft fire and the Russian surface-to-air missiles being shot off in all directions. Just part of the job. And keep in mind, our superior technology gave our pilots a real edge, and most of our pilots that got shot down had experienced some sort of system failure, or got nailed by a 100% pure-luck shot by the North Vietamese gunners.

No slogging through the jungle, no constant exposure to misquitoes, leeches, scorpions, all manner of biting and stinging things. No endless mud, humidity and rain. None of that endless misery endured by the average American foot soldier on the ground below. No being shot at day and night, no watching your buddies die before your eyes in some forsaken far-off rice paddie.

No, none of that. Stuff like that could break a man eventually.

McCain's neat and organized war consisted of rising in the morning, taking a nice hot shower, putting on clean clothes, then having coffee and a good breakfast in climate-controlled comfort. He would have numerous enlisted men to do his every bidding, then go fly off and drop a few bombs, return to the ship and repeat the next day.

Tough man, tough.

Then he got shot down and taken prisoner, just like many other American pilots. And no doubt that it was tough and nasty from there on. But unlike those many other American pilots in the same situation, he did not resist the vicious and inhumane treatment given all. He threw in the towel and signed confessions that condemned America. For that, he was awarded better treamtent and better conditions than his fellow American prisoners. It's all in the records.

No heroics there either.

I'm not claiming that I would do any differently. But I'm not running for president of the United States either, using my supposed "war hero" status as part of my credentials.

The real heroes are the pilots who held out, who didn't crack, who didn't sign those confessions, which - by the way - Hanoi still has on file, ready to be dragged out and used for any purpose they may desire, to embarrass America, to shame and make a laughing stock of a president McCain, to make us look the fools.

So what heroics is Obama refering to?

The Kiss Of Death

WASHINGTON (AP):

John McCain is a "true conservative," President Bush says...

Just like Bush is a "true conservative"?

The last thing we need in the White house is another Bush style "true conservative".

I hate the thought of voting for either Clinton or Obama, but at least they have promised to bring our troops home sooner than later, and have no McCain-style fantasys about a 100-year occupation of Iraq.

Total Exposure

Many thanks to Robert Bartos over at Shrapnel for this marvelous offering:



Same old corn, different flakes.

In my view, nothing could define the front runners for the presidency of the United States better than this one single picture.

These are the sideshow characters we Americans are being handed by the powers that be as prospects for our next president.

Now with added nuts.

Now we have to suffer the inane ramblings of yet another minor player, Senator Ken Salazer of Colorado, who is telling us on national TV that when we vote we make our voices heard... on the issues, on what counts to us.

Completely false.

In a presidental campaign, we don't vote on issues. We don't vote on what matters to us. We don't vote on any of the things that will affect the influence and reputation of our country, the public and private conduct of our government, or in what direction this nation will be taken.

We don't vote on what new laws will be signed into effect. We don't vote on what the new foreign policy will be. How many of us actually voted on the NAFTA superhighway?

We don't vote on anything that the president and the federal government will decide to do.

When we vote, we vote for a manufactured personality, a finely tuned and crafted personality that has little or no connection to the real individual or their true agenda. These are people who lie with ease. They are masters of mis-direction. They evade the real issues with all the skills of a seasoned actor. They say whatever they think wll help them get elected. They make whatever promises they think will get votes, not to become a dedicated servant of the people, but to win that greatest of prizes, the oval office.

So what we really vote on in a presidental election is the image that told us the best lies, made the best promises, the image that stirred up the most adrenaline, the one that gave us the best tingle up our spine.

CHANGE, they all shout. But regardless of whichever one does get there, nothing will change.

Same old corn, different flakes.

Bush the Lessor Speaks

Can you dig it:

George W. Bush has just called his presidency "a joyous experience" and said he wasn't worried about how history would judge him...

He better not be worried... history s going to grind him up into little pieces and spit him out.

I have no doubt that he considers his presidency as "a joyous experience".

For him, that is.

He did whatever he wanted. He started wars. He spit in the face of nations around the globe. He ignored Congress and the Supreme Court. He repeatedly violated the Constitution of the United States, something that many Americans have called treason, and rightly so. He has ignored the vast majority of Americans who despise him and his long list of failed policies. He has made secret agreements with leaders of other nations, agreements that are damaging to America's survival, and almost singlehandedly re-ignited the cold war.

Under his watch, the cost of gas has soared over 300%. Countless numbers of illegals have swarmed across our open borders. Millions of quality American jobs were lost to overseas interests. Thousands of American businesses packed up and vanished offshore. Under his watch, America's standing and stature around the world has been severely compromised, if not destroyed. He has shown our military to be a powerful but impotent paper dragon, incapable of eliminating the threat of a few ragtag terrorists in places hardly out of the 12th century.

And during all of this, those individuals identified as the religious right in America have supported this president, giving him that set-in-concrete 30% base which has enabled him - and his onerous conduct - from day one.

He will leave his presidency - along with his pals and buddies - a richer man, much richer. So no doubt he considers it a "joyous experience".

But for the rest of us - and for America - the presidency of George Walker Bush has been a disaster.

Now Comes The Maunder Minimum

Well now, this is revolting news:

Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.

Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.

This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.

No change has been measured in the sun's magnetic field so far this cycle, which means that if the sun remains quiet for another year or two, it can indicate a repeat of the previous period of the Maundar Minimum.

This could - possibly - result in a notable cooling of the Earth, bringing massive snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere.

Wow... crank up those carbon dioxide emissions! We humans may actually save the Earth from it's next mini-iceage if we act now!*

*Just a complete dramatization on how we are not going to change the weather a whit... if the sun decides differently.

Rambo Revisited

Sooner or later, ordinary people - sick and tired of onerous governmental interference at all levels - are going to run out of reasonable options:

KIRKWOOD, Mo. (AP) - A gunman with a history of acrimony against civic leaders stormed City Hall during a council meeting Thursday night, killing two police officers and three city officials before law enforcers fatally shot him, authorities said. The mayor was critically injured in the rampage.

Oops... looks like some have already run out.

There's most likely a lot more to this story than just the gun-crazed lunatic with "a history of acrimony against civic leaders" angle.

Like in the original Rambo, those officials probably "drew first blood" - perhaps repeatedly - supported and protected by the likes of that idiot Sheriff in the movie that prodded Rambo into a response none of them anticipated.

Just another sad example that in reality, there's always another option... another course of action.

That Would Be A Stunning Majority

Alan Fram, Associated Press Writer, has posted this little jewel:

WASHINGTON - It's almost as if people can barely stand the thought of President Bush and Congress anymore. Bush reached his lowest approval rating in The Associated Press-Ipsos poll on Friday as only 30 percent said they like the job he is doing, including an all-time low in his support by Republicans. Congress' approval fell to just 22 percent, equaling its poorest grade in the survey. Both marks dropped by 4 percentage points since early January

No Alan, it's not "almost" or "barely". It should read "Over seventy percent of the people cannot stand the thought of President Bush and Congress anymore", because that's the real truth.

But, I understand... Alan has his job to worry about.

Not Defeatism

Joseph Cannon, over at Cannonfire posts this tidbit:

I've run into it before, of course, in both the equally desperate '04 and '06 elections—the "I'm so disturbed by the state of general corruption throughout the world that I won't vote at all" schtick that veritably curdles the brain with its absolutist defeatism. But I still just—I can't believe there is anyone left who can claim his apathy is severe enough it prevents him from participating.

I think Joseph misses the real point here. I don't think it's the "absolutist defeatism" concept at work here as much as the reality that no matter who we vote for, they will end up not representing us.

Not a single front-running candidate in today's presidental elections is promising to enforce the will of the people, or support our Constitution. They are all jabbering away about how they will do what they want if elected.

Consider McCain... he is running for president because he wants to implement his ideas on how the government(which would be him of course) should run the country, not how it should be run, or even how we citizens - or the Congress - want things run, and he makes no bones about telling us that. He will steadfastly represent and execute his ideas... Period. And, his idea on how to run things is to use the old "iron fist in the iron glove" approach, thus the now popular "bomb bomb McCain" monicker he enjoys today.

Consider Hillary... She is running for president to make history, to be the first female president of the United States, to be the most powerful female in the history of the world. Shove off, Cleopatra... Step aside, Margaret Thatcher... Hit the road, Golda Meir... Hillery has arrived. Her pandering lip service aside, what we citizenss want or need is as far from her mind as the planet Mercury. Keep in mind, she wants your money, and will garnish your wages to get it if necessary. That's power, baby.

Consider Obama... please, get serious. If he is elected, he will be the first president to be elected by a wave of emotional outbreak only. He is a "do nothing" Senator, has no experience in anything but fine-sounding speeches, and would be a fine-talking "do-nothing" president. Just check his track record. Besides, Bill Clinton was our first "black" president, right?

All of today's leading candidates will no doubt do the bidding of the corporate conglomerates and the Israeli lobby, groups that really control the direction of our federal government and this nation.

So... not voting for any of these puppets is not a expression of "absolute defeatism", but more of a demonstration of understanding the reality that it will make no difference to the outcome.

Timing, Timing...

Announced today:

UNITED STATES Climate Summary January 2008

The average temperature in January 2008 was 30.5 F. This was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 49th coolest January in 114 years. The temperature trend for the period of record (1895 to present) is 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit per decade.

Also announced today:

Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), appeared on MSNBC on February 6 to discuss storms that have killed at least 50 people throughout the Southeastern United States. Predictably, Kerry used the platform to advance global warming alarmism. The former Democratic presidential nominee blames these 'intense storms' that have killed more than 50 on climate change.

So it's colder, and Kerry blames the tornado outbreak on climate change. OK, Kerry must believe that colder weather = more tornadoes. (Not really, he's just using global warming as a platform for recognition... like Gore)

Boy, Am I glad that idiot didn't get to the White House. It's a shame he is still a United States Senator.

Yawn

More of the same:

Senior al Qaeda leaders have diverted operatives from Iraq across the globe and are increasing preparations to strike the United States, senior intelligence officials told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday. They said the terrorists had plans to attack the White House as recently as 2006.

Somebody ought to tell those intelligence whiz kids that this is 2008, and their fear-mongering scare tactics about a plan years old that never materialized is counter-productive.

We have a few Mulsim loonies, hiding away in caves somewhere in the mountains of Afganistan and Pakistan endlessly making plans to attack the entire western world. So what? We will always have tiny little groups of screwballs planning attacks on everything from the Statue of Liberty to Hoover Dam. They will occasionally be successful, since the federal government has no plans to actually go eliminate these guys. That would leave us no enemies to fret over, nothing to keep us all scared with, no boogey man, no justification to spend billions and billions on defense yearly, no reason to occupy foreign nations.

The result of paying way too much attention to the rantings of these war-loving fear-mongers, or as Fred likes to call them, the PTL, the paranoid truculent male, is the totally unconstitutional Patriot Act, and the unfortunate rise of war dogs like McCain, who is energeticly wagging his tail over the prospect of a hundred-year occupation of Iraq.

Speaking of McCain, perhaps his compulsion to endlessly fight the enemy - any enemy - is a result of his possible collaboration with the enemy in viet Nam(mentioned in previous post), to finally prove his loyalty and fealty to America... to himself, if no one else. If so, we certainly don't want him in the White House.

We need to get a grip people - and start thinking for ourselves - instead of following the rantings of a few American style nutcases, and stop acting like well-sedated lemmings headed for the cliff.

Independent Dawn

Things are starting to get very interesting.

Now that McCain has a large lead in the delegate count and with Hillary still on track for the demonom, it looks like it will indeed be a contest between those two.

If so, the big guns may be let loose. The Clinton's big gun is the supposed CIA files of McCains collaboration with his Communist captors in Viet Nam, and McCains big gun is apprantly his potential threat to release information on Hillary's supposed lesbian affair with Saudi intelligence operative Huma Abedin.

None of this has to be true, or even close to truth. However, the initial impact of these stories would be immense, and that's what counts, not the denials and later counter-charges. Vast numbers of American "voters" would eat this stuff up like candy, and swear off both candidates, giving an independent third party candidate a real chance for the first time in history.

Yup... getting interesting.

Hillary Wants Your Money

And she's willing to steal it:

WASHINGTON - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans.

If she admits to being "willing to garnish" at ths time in the election process, you can bet the entire farm that if she is elected president it will be a done deal.

Garnish your wages to pay for her medical program. What else has she got up her sleeve?

This Is Good Advice?

Retired senior officers told Israelis on Saturday to prepare "rocket rooms" as protection against a rain of missiles expected to be fired at the Jewish state in any future conflict.
Speaking on radio as part of a military propaganda offensive, retired general Udi Shani said:

The next war will see a massive use of ballistic weapons against the whole of Israeli territory.

True.

But... That's just like the advice our government once gave us when facing a ballistic missile attack... duck and cover... like under a kitchen table or a school desk. Fat lot of good that would have done.

They talk of "The next war".

Bush - like so many presidents before him - had the stupid idea that he could bring about peace in the Middle East. That effort didn't last long, it turned out to be just a nice long plane ride for the pres and his on-board pack of admirers.

No, it's a war of absolutes they are fighting over there. There will be no end - no peace - until one side or the other is completely obliterated, annihilated, wiped from the face of the earth. At least the Jews know and understand this.

But it will be the peace found only in huge graveyards.

One Down, Many To Go

John McCain recently made the statement that he had no problem with the possibility of a hundred-year occupation of Iraq.

So, in his view, he sees no problem with my kids, grandkids, great-grandkids and great-great-grandkids being sent over there to be killed or maimed.

Yours either.

That sure takes him off my list...

If that doesn't disqualify him as a presidental possibiity, I can't imagine what does. Remember, he is no VietNam hero... he cracked and blabbed, saying whatever the VC wanted. There are many who didn't crack under the identical conditions, perhaps one of them should take his place as a presidental candidate.

I will vote for Hillary before I vote for McCain. Hell, I'll even vote for Obama, if it means preventing McCain from becoming Commander-In-Chief.

Not really... I'll just stay glued to the TV waiting for a newsflash that some nutcase took him out like the Kennedys.

War, war and more war. Where in hell do people like McCain come from?

More Oil Profiteering

Exxon Mobil just rang in with a 40.6 billion dollar profit for last year... $40,600,000,000.00.

My My. Forty point six billion dollars.

Who owns Exxon Mobil? Who is pocketing that mountain of cash?

I can hardly wait for the rest of these oil conglomerates to fess up about their profits last year.

Did you know we American tax payers are giving these oil companies billions in subsidies each and evey year?

Did you know Congress tried to eliminate all those subsidies last year? After previous reports of record profits by the same old gang of thieves?

And did you know that Bush(along with a few of his Republician buddies) promised to veto the bill? Effectively killing it?

Real question is... do you give a damn?

How About This?

Here's something I bet you didn't know...

On Feb 1, 1861, Texas seceded from the Union, becoming independent once again. Since the articles of statehood passed by the U.S. Congress give Texas that right, it was perhaps the only state whose secession was legal.

That means Texas could legally secede from the Union again... leaving the rest of you continue to contend with this maddog insane federal government along with it's wars of empire, it's incredible debt, it's rush towards socialism, and it's in-your-face attitude that has the rest of the world just about fed up with the United States.

At least Texas kids wouldn't be looking at over a $100,000.00 (per child nation wide) debt Bush and his cronies are going to leave behind.

And Texas has enough natural resources and industries to support itself. we could then handle the illegal alien problem ourselves any way we see fit, which would be to welcome any foreigner who wants to come here - roll up their sleeves, get to work and to make a life here - with open arms as long as they were legal, had no previous criminal record, and were disease free.They wouldn't have to learn to speak English, but they would have to learn to speak Texan.

Heh.