Wednesday, August 13, 2008

McCain's Self-Destruction

The following is a quote from John McCain re
the Georgia-Russia border crisis:

"In the 21st century nations do not invade
other nations."....John McCain

Now is not this the man who is presenting
himself as the intelligent choice for
Commander-in-Chief? The man who says his
foreign policy credentials are so much
above Obama that Obama can't be trusted to
be a leader.

How stupid can the man (McCain)be, to utter
the above quote? Where was this quote when
he called for war against Iraq, or where was
it when he tried to link the anthrax poisioning
to Iraq, and where was it when he voted to
instigate the Iraq War?

Then, today, the man who McCain says is his
best friend, a man with whom he has held very
important discussions with, who just yesterday
McCain told that "we are all Georgians", a world
leader McCain claims, Georgia?, in an interview
with CNN's early morning news pulls the rug out
from under McCain and wants to know why McCain
is letting Georgia suffer after Georgia paid
something like $800,000 for U.S. protection.
Can it get any more embarrassing for McCain that
this?

Yet, the crisis in the polls is benefiting
McCain. Go figure! MR, where do you think that
kool-aid punch bowl is, that all these dumbed
down citizens are getting their bamboozlement
from?

Hey, speaking of 'bamboozlement', I just about
fell out of my lazy-boy Friday evening when none
other than Bill Moyers used that key word in one
of his stories. Your fame is spreading, man.....

BREAKING NEWS

Did that get everyone's attention? LOL. Don't
you like the hype of the news media...They use
the above title to keep everyone tuned into their
programs. The fourth estate is truly apart of
the elitist conspiracy to destroy the U.S. of the
Founding Fathers.

All morning, CNN has been running the above banner.
First, it was Russia breaks the negotiated cease
fire..Oh, they are so evil....

Lately it has been the U.S. miliatary according to
the Georgian President is to control the seaport and
major airport. The Pentagon is now saying it is just
a relief and humanitarian operation. Sure, with the
U.S. military?

Don't we have enough problems here in the U.S. to
deal with than in some half ass country around the
world? We are bankrupt, home values are collapsing,
the dollar is weak, more unemployment, consumer
purchasing down again, health care impluding, wages
down and stagnant, infrastucture falling apart,
let the litney go one. Yet, the neoconservative
Republican Party insists on rattling sabres in
Georgia...Can't people see through this B. S.? Any
land that has oil under it is fair game for the
neoconservative Republican Party to pillage and
rape, even our own. We are to worry about Georgia,
who was the one doing the attacking, and now that
they got stomped on, they run to their new found ally
and demand protection, while we have all these
domestic problems to deal with...If the Obama campaign
cannot see through all this B.S., and show that the
Republican Party is about oil, religion and money. they
are missing the boat. They ought to tie McCain and his
bellocosity up in a knot. McCain is fit to lead alright,
right into another and large war at the expense of any
domestic reforms. Do U.S. citizens want another war?

Monday, August 11, 2008

Bush Rhetoric on Russia Mocks his Invasion of Iraq

How ironic that George W. Bush finds fault with Russia's interference in Georgia but cannot see how it mirrored his actions in Iraq in March 2003.

Here is what George Bush said this afternoon:

It now appears that an effort may be underway to depose Georgia's duly elected government. Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.

Sound familiar? It ought to. Simply change Georgia to Iraq and Russia to United States:

It now appears that an effort may be underway to depose Iraq's duly elected government. The United States has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.

Odd stuff, but then all 8 years have been odd [and scary].

By the way, Mr. Bush said 'Russia' rather than 'Georgia,' but we're used to gluing and pasting his words to make an accurate English sentence.

U.S., Russia, and Georgia

The Russo-Georgia war in bad timing for McCain.
He's out trying to make the most about it, but
it would have played much better for him as an
"October Surprise".

Why is George Bush and why was Bill Clinton
involved in Georgia in the first place. Well,
there is long oil pipeline that runs through
Georgia to its port on the Black Sea. Why are
meddling in the affairs of the Russian political
sphere? Georgia was part of Tsarist Russia, and
it was where Stalin was born and raised. To
think Russia is going to let the Clinton and Bush
meddle at their back door is ridiculous. Would
the U.S. let Russia meddle in Cuba again? So, one
reason is oil, but another reason is that Bush wanted
to make Georgia his prime example of spreading freedom
and democracy. This is not the Sudetenland or
Austria in the 1930s. When will the U.S. learn not
to meddle in the internal affairs of other nations. Bush
goes to the olympic games in China and scolds the Chinese
about their human rights violations and lack of freedom.
And, the Chinese ignore him...While it's no surprise
that McCain supports the U.S. position in Georgia, and,
since Obama is part and parcel of the elitist governing
class, no surprise that he does too....Not a dimes worth
of difference.

Tonight's Best Perseid Meteor Shower


"The time to look is during the dark hours before dawn on Tuesday, August 12th," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "There should be plenty of meteors--perhaps one or two every minute."


The best of the meteor shower is on August 12 [morning of]. After the first-quarter moon sets, around 2 a.m., meteors should be more easily visible until dawn. You may see dozens of meteors per hour.


Try to escape the city glow and find a dark, secluded spot where oncoming car headlights will not periodically ruin your sensitive night vision. Backyards are often ideal spots.



Once you have settled at your observing spot, lay back or position yourself so the horizon appears at the edge of your peripheral vision, with the stars and sky filling your field of view. Meteors will instantly grab your attention as they streak by.


Set the alarm and wake up your children to watch this natural fireworks. It may inspire a life-long interest in space and science. It's worth a few hours of lost sleep.



Sunday, August 10, 2008

Theocratic Republican Party

As I have mentioned in previous comments,
the tradition Republican Party prior to say
1976 has been transformed over the past 30
years into the neoconservative Republican
Party. Whereas the previous Republican Party
from 1854 to recent times(maybe 1980 with the
election of Reagan)was a secular national
Party, the neoconservative Republican Party
of 2000-2008 has adopted narrowly defined
theological beliefs to represent a rigid
agenda.

This is demonstrated by the following:
(1) The leader of the Republican Party, speaks to
God and tells the world that he does. God
"advises" him on the correct policy;
(2) The Party says that it is composed of true
believers and encourages religious institutions
to support and vote for its philosophy, programs,
and candidates;
(3) Republican Party says that all levels of
government structure should be guided by religion;
(4) Elected members of the Republican Party demand
that domestic and foreign policies should be
based on christian religious philosophy and
biblical views.

There it is - a first in United States history. We
have the first religious party in our history.
Is there little doubt then, why the neoconservative
Republican Party undermines the Constitution of the
United States? The Constitution of 1789 as written
by our Founding Fathers is inimical to a religious
national government. The change of the Republican
Party, 1975-2008, from traditional conservatisim
to the neoconservative Republican Party has meant an
important change in our domestic and foreign policy.
Domestic policy is now debated over christian religious
beliefs and foreign policy is based on evil vs. good
and who is to control the sacred lands of the bible.
In this concept of foreign affairs, diplomacy is not
needed. Military might and the use of surrogate
nations to form a "coalition of the willing" is used
to fight pre-emptive wars against any perceived "evil"
world nation.

The question now is will we let this stand, or will
the neoconservative Republican Party be seen for what
it is. Will the Democratic Party show this to the
people of the United States? So far, the record of
the Democratic Party, except for a few voices crying
in the wilderness(Kucinich comes to mind), has been
take an hands off position. Obama now waves the flag,
calls for maintaining and increasing federal funding
of faith based initiatives, an increased military
presence in Afghanistan, and possible interference in
the internal affairs of Pakistan. Where's the opposition?
Stiffled it seems!

The New American Empire and the White Rose





Mother Jones writer Justin Elliot penned an article, Don't Know Much About History, in this month's magazine that cries out at the American citizen. Lots of my generation read this title and start humming the Sam Cooke song from the 50's. Interestingly they knew much more history than did those born that year.

Elliot's piece discusses the 2002 Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (ONA) 85-page monograph called "Military Advantage in History". Many of the better teachers of history have already taught the 20 or so military advantages to their students, a lesson that many students find much more interesting than memorizing the kings of England.



Elliot notes: It examines four empires, or "pivotal hegemonic powers in history," to draw lessons about how the United States "should think about maintaining military advantage in the 21st century." And, more importantly, the author says:

"Though the report is far from revelatory, it provides a window into a mindset that unselfconsciously envisions the United States as the successor to some of history's most powerful empires."



This is the neocon philosophy in a nutshell [or bomb shell to be more exact.] The Mongols, Macedonians, Napoleon, and the Romans were cited as examples of one or more of the 'military advantages' that help them beat their competitors.



The author says, 'Several historians who reviewed the study differed on its quality and meaning. Walter Scheidel, a Stanford professor of classics and the coauthor of a forthcoming survey of ancient empires, called it "a successful distillation of relevant information and scholarship complemented by very interesting systematic analysis."'



Enter America as the newest candidate for 'pivotal hegemonic power' master of the world. The neocons who moved George W. Bush into identifying the three 'axis of evil' states and the invasion of Iraq, have forgotten one important difference in their lust for world power: the history book. Not only that but cinema as well.



Two movies have been made about the underground resistance movement in NAZI Germany- The White Rose, Die Weissen Rose, and Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. The films document the work of five German students who distributed leaflets to other students that called attention to the foolish propaganda that the Nazis were promulgating about German world power.


The 2nd White Rose leaflet stated: "Since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way ... The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals ... Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!"


A powerful indictment of the German people and a call to resistance. The White Rose members printed their explosive leaflets in secret knowing that what they were doing was considered espionage by the Nazis. One from the 1st leaflet says, "Nothing is so unworthy of a civilised nation as allowing itself to be governed without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes — crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure — reach the light of day?"


From the 5th leaflet: "Freedom and honour! For ten long years Hitler and his coadjutor have manhandled, squeezed, twisted, and debased these two splendid German words to the point of nausea, as only dilettantes can, casting the highest values of a nation before swine."
Some readers of this blog will readily see a connection between what these White Rose members bravely wrote in 1942 and the policies of the Bush Administration. It is frighteningly similar. Propaganda is powerful and Karl Rove clearly was a student of Joseph Goebbels.


The reason, I believe, that America will not become that pivotal hegemonic world-power is because there are many citizens who know history and are not afraid to speak their minds. After all, the First Amendment guarantees the right to speak freely. We do not have to print leaflets in dark rooms: the Internet is our leaflet-distributor system. This information outlet is the bane of scoundrels and dictators and it should keep this nation from moving to first place in world empire.

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