Bush Pardons Turkeys; Sheds Crocodile Tear

You gotta hand it to Bush & Co. First the President pardoned two, not one, turkeys for Thanksgiving - Stars and Stripes. Interesting choice of names. And then the President shows up unannounced at Baghdad Airport to say a few words, serve up some turkey with a side of mashed potatos and propaganda salad, then meet with Paul Bremer and Condi Rice.

Bush strode forth from the wings in an Army track suit emblazoned with a 1st Armored Division patch. The bored crowd shot immediately from their seats and whooped. As he surveyed the crowd, a tear dripped down the president's cheek.

"I was just looking for a warm meal somewhere," Bush said, to another whoop. "Thanks for inviting me to dinner."

And to think, I was content to just spend the day eating and watching football.

There are some of us who can't do this

Contact George Bush
Contact Dick Cheney
Contact your Congressman/woman

Tell them what you think. Flood their faxes. Leave messages. This is illiegal for some of us.

Is the Future of America in Texas?

If such disparate sources as the Economist and the Nation agree on something, every thinking man and woman should listen closely to what they’re saying.

The Economist’s 2002 Christmas Issue featured a cowboy riding a champagne bottle, with the accompanying article, “The future is – Texas.”

Texas led the charge away from the Great Society (introduced by a Texan, Lyndon Baines Johnson) to today's conservative Republicanism, with its enthusiasm for business, religion, rolling back the state, muscular nationalism and open borders.

Molly Ivins, herself a Texan, writes less favorably about her state’s brand of politics in the latest issue of the Nation.

We have an antiquated and regressive tax structure--high property, high sales, no income tax. We consistently rank near the bottom by every measure of social service, education and quality of life (leading to one of our state mottoes, "Thank God for Mississippi").

It is widely believed in Texas that the highest purpose of government is to create "a healthy bidness climate." The legislature is so dominated by special interests that the gallery where the lobbyists sit is called "the owners' box." The consequences of unregulated capitalism, of special interests being able to buy government through campaign contributions, are more evident here because Texas is "first and worst" in this area. That Enron was a Texas company is no accident: Texas was also Ground Zero in the savings-and-loan scandals, is continually the site of major ripoffs by the insurance industry and has a rich history of gigantic chicanery going way back. Leland Beatty, an agricultural consultant, calls Enron "Billie Sol Estes Goes to College." Economists call it "control fraud" when a corporation is rotten from the head down. I sometimes think Texas government is a case of control fraud too.

We are currently saddled with a right-wing ideologue sugar daddy, James Leininger out of San Antonio, who gives immense campaign contributions and wants school vouchers, abstinence education and the like in return. The result is a crew of breathtakingly right-wing legislators. This session, Representative Debbie Riddle of Houston said during a hearing, "Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education, free medical care, free whatever? It comes from Moscow, from Russia. It comes straight out of the pit of hell."

Listen up, friends. Bush and his cronies – all honorary Texans in my mind – are making a horrible mess of our country and our democracy. And don’t get me wrong. I grew up in Texas and still love the place and the people, it just angers me to see bad ideas get exported. By the way, some truths bear repeating: George Bush is the worst president in US history.

The Mutual Fund Scandal: In a Nutshell

The fallout of the mutual fund scandal has been swift and broad. I suspect that few Americans realize what all the fuss is about. New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer sums it up nicely, calling the practice of buying fund shares after the market closes analogous to "betting on a horse race after the horses have crossed the finish line." This has been going on for decades, on a grand scale.

George Bush is a Punk-Ass Chump

Please see the video at http://www.nathanadams.com/WeSupportU.htm

Now, consider the irony of this - George Bush's grandfather had his company and his assets seized by the U.S. government for trading with the Nazis, Bush himself went AWOL after doing drugs while in the Air National Guard, Bush has not attended a single funeral of soldiers who died in a war he LIED to the world to get us into, but he does plan to meet with families of British soldiers killed in action.


Chicken-shit lying-ass sons of bitches


An Army sergeant killed in a missile attack as he was returning home for his mother's funeral was buried along with her on Saturday.
Pentagon Limits Funeral Coverage - Arlington to Keep Reporters Away

Bush Administration Congratulates Election Thieves

George W. Bush knows something about stealing an election. So it comes as no surprise that his administration would be friendly with the newly "elected" authoritarian dictator of the oil-rich, former Soviet bloc nation of Georgia.

In August, Bush congratulated Ilham Aliev on his appointment to the post of prime minister and gave him a warm reception in Washington. Last month he was "elected" as the new President, to replace his ailing father. But given the opposition to his candidacy, extraordinary measures were necessary to insure "victory."

Human Rights Watch research found that the government has heavily intervened in the campaigning process in favor of Prime Minister Ilham Aliev, son of current President Heidar Aliev. The government has stacked the Central Election Commission and local election commission with its supporters, and banned local nongovernmental organizations from monitoring the vote. As the elections draw nearer, government officials have openly sided with the campaign of Ilham Aliev, constantly obstructing opposition rallies and attempting to limit public participation in opposition events. In some cases, local officials have closed all the roads into town during opposition rallies, or have extended working and school hours—on one occasion, even declaring a Sunday work day—to prevent participation in opposition rallies.

Police violence and arbitrary arrests have been endemic during the campaigning period. Police have beaten and arbitrarily detained hundreds of opposition activists, including a seventy-three-year-old woman. Several major opposition rallies have been violently dispersed by the police, with scores of injuries. Local officials have also participated in pre-election intimidation and attacks, beating opposition supporters with impunity.

Something to consider while reading Dubya's recent speech on democracy.

Bush is Evil - And Other Observations I've Made

George W. Bush is the worst president in the history of the United States. The fact that we even have to worry about his getting elected in 2004 is an indication of the lack of awareness of much of the population. It still surprises me to learn that there are still people who don't know the first thing about the treachery of this man.

One of my favorite "information hunts" starts with a portion of his military record. I share this with you so that you, too, may enjoy the enlightenment of others. However, I will caution you to avoid being overzealous. Like Morpheus explaining the matrix to Neo, you can cause people to freak out.

Step 1 - A cast of characters
* Memorize this web site: http://www.freedomrox.org/susp.jpg. Memorize it, because there's not really a good way to find it otherwise.
* Find the name in paragraph 6. Observe the circumstances in reference. (And, in fact, the inference of Bush's drug use while in the military is NOT the subject of our search here).
* Find the name in paragraph 7. Note the similarities. Remember the name. Write it down, if necessary.

Step 2 - Plot some points
* Do a google search for ["James Bath" Bush Harken]. (Harken is the energy company whose stock Bush dumped while on the board of directors and the audit committee, prompting two investigations by the SEC for insider trading. But this is NOT the subject of our search today)
* Look at a couple of the pages returned by google. This one is typical. This one is easier to read , but there are a couple of errors in it, which diminish its validity.
* Find the names you were looking for. Yes, you will come across several eyebrow raisers, but you're still looking for "Bath".

Step 3 - Let the seeds grow
* You will have seen documentation of suspension of Bush's flight status, and traced the events following it through associated individuals. There are many tangents you can take from here. I'll post more "bunny trails" later.
* Avoid the temptation to make judgements or even to interpret this information for your listener. Remember, people think Bush is a good man. You will be helping them see evidence that is very contrary to that notion. If you push too hard, they will end up rejecting the whole package ("breathe, Neo, just breathe"). Let them find the pages. Let them answer the questions. Let them stumble across the associations. Avoid drawing any conclusions for them. Reply simply that this is information that you thought was interesting and that you wanted to share. That's all - just something you might not have known.
* Don't overwater the seeds. They need time to germinate. Later, you will be able to tend to this garden sprouting from the fertile fields of minds filled with ... fertile stuff.

They say that all politics is local. For the next month I'll be putting much of my energy into local politics, specifically the Matt Gonzalez mayoral campaign. Matt Gonzalez will face Gavin Newsom in a December 9 runoff. Gonzalez is a Green Party candidate who represents what the Democratic Party used to stand for: labor, the environment, local business. Gavin Newsom is one of those Democrats who talks about helping out the little guy while making backroom deals with his well-financed benefactors. He is sure to continue Willie's legacy of the mayor's office as patronage. If Newsom is a rising star in the Democratic Party, as many think he is, then the Green Party offers the only true alternative to government for sale.

I'll be posting on a regular basis to Matt Gonzalez for San Francisco, while motivating my friends and colleagues to get involved and help make history on December 9th.

A Clash of Titans

Before you let any drooling ditto-heads criticize George Soros for coming out and saying he's committed to defeating Dumbya (and you know they will), make them tell you what THEY think of Richard Mellon Scaife. Do not even entertain their opinions until they can tell you who he is. If they don't know who Richard Mellon Scaife is, they are not informed enough to express any thoughts on Soros.

Scaife is to Clinton haters what the Medicis were to Michelangelo: the ultimate patron." (Time Magazine, April 13, 1998)

He's very rich and very partisan, but is he behind an anti-Clinton conspiracy?

Newt Gingrich once called him the father of modern conservatism.

Richard Mellon Scaife
He's considered the stupidest member of his extended family, and was kicked out of Yale, not once, but twice. The kindest description of his personality is ``dark and mysterious.'' He is known for never looking his own employees straight in the eye.

He has a long history of using the U.S. Justice Department to target his enemies.

He owns a network of newspapers, but he himself refuses to be interviewed by reporters from other publications. On one occasion, when a reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review tried to question him, he berated her as a ``f--king Communist c--nt.''

He gave a million dollars to Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), and he is the biggest funder of right-wing think-tanks in the United States today.

Meet ... Richard Mellon Scaife.


Oh yeah - George Bush is the worst president in the history of the United States.

Chris Nolan

Occasionally you come across a fellow blogger who just gets it. Everyone knows about the big guys, like Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo, but I was unfamiliar with Chris Nolan until tonight. I just found her blog through a Google ad, of all things, but I like what she has to say, and how she says it.

Take, for example, her scoop on Warren Buffet’s further comments on California’s Prop 13 in the context of the Schwarzenegger campaign:

the reporter with whom [Warren Buffet] spoke neglected to include a discussion of a third Buffet property in the story he wrote. ... The mishandling gave the charitable souls on the Journal's edit page a chance to vent their spleens about tax and spend billionaires. That wasn't good for the Schwarzenegger campaign and it embarrassed Buffett.

The third property, a house on which Buffet pays about $12,000 a year in property taxes, provide a better example of the inequities within the state's tax system, Buffet tells the Journal. And that -- not the difference between Omaha and Laguna Beach -- is the point.

Buffett maintains -- and he's right -- that this is the state's biggest problem. You can -- and you should -- go to Berkshire Hathaway's website to check out all the fine points.

This bit of wisdom illustrates one of the points I like to make about the blogosphere. As individuals, we can’t possibly stay current on everything that is going on in our world, but as a community we can increase our collective awareness by raising red flags for significant items such as this. I'm sure that I'll be checking in with Chris Nolan on a regular basis.

George Bush is the worst president in the history of the United States

Helen Thomas, George Akerlof, and many other respected individuals have said exactly that. George W. Bush is the worst president in the history of the United States.

George Bush is the worst president in the history of the United States. If the fascists can make the people believe a lie by constant repetition and exclusion of opposing information, how are we to help people know the truth? We must repeat this line again and again. George Bush is the worst president in the history of the United States.

George Bush is the worst president in the history of the United States. We know this. List out the functions of government and the role of the president in it. In EVERY area, every criteria of evaluation, you would be hard pressed to find any president who has a worse record on ANY criteria. The economy, defense, the environment, the budget, education, liberty, equality, justice, honesty, decency, drugs, crime, corporate governance, race relations, international relations. Individually or collectively, George Bush is the worst president in the history of the United States.

George Bush is the worst president in the history of the United States. But this is not the general perception. Bush approval ratings have dropped quite a bit, but they are dropping from unprecedented heights.

Bush still enjoys residual approval from the aftermath of Sept 11. How can we say he is the worst president in the history of the United States when so many people say they approve of his performance? The perception is "George Bush has shown great leadership since Sept 11.," "George Bush is a good man." By asserting that he is not only a bad president, but the worst president in history, you will be causing a high level of cognitive dissonance in your listener because their current beliefs are that Bush is a good man who shows good leadership. If you simply criticize him openly, whether true or not, your assertions will be dismissed simply because they are inconsistent with popularly held beliefs.

After you state that George Bush is the worst president in the history of the United States, challenge your listener to name 2 former presidents who had worse performance on one specific criteria. "Name two presidents who did more to damage America's reputation in the world view. Just two." Do not let your conversation partner pass with a "lots of them" retort. Make them actually name 2 presidents and explain how they were worse than Bush. By having to think of someone who is worse, they will not be able to dismiss the criticism outright. It's harder to dismiss the information when you are challenged to research it.

Impact of Cognitive Dissonance

When our beliefs come into conflict (are not consistent) with other beliefs or with newly discovered evidence, disharmony results. This disharmony causes discomfort, and we experience a powerful motivation to reduce this discomfort. I want to focus on the kinds techniques people use to alleviate the discomfort they experience when the evidence (presented by news, research, events, experience, or by you) is inconsistent with the "beliefs" they currently have. THE PEOPLE STILL DO NOT KNOW SO MUCH. By being aware of the impact of cognitive dissonance, you can present information in ways that make it more likely to be, if not accepted, then at least not immediately rejected.

Cognitive dissonance is a very powerful motivator which will often lead us to change one or other of the conflicting belief or action. The discomfort often feels like a tension between the two opposing thoughts. To release the tension we can take one of three actions:

Change our behavior.
Justify our behavior by changing the conflicting cognition.
Justify our behavior by adding new cognitions.

We know that this administration and its advocates use techniques and procedures so expertly demonstrated by the Nazis in Germany to manipulate the perceptions of truth among the population. Al Gore discusses this extensively in a speech at NYU (at time hack 27:20, he mentions "the administation has developed an effective propaganda machine to embed in the public mind mythologies.")

Automatic Believing
Assessment and decision takes time and energy, so the more tired people get or more distracted by other things, the more they are likely to believe false information.

Persuade people when they are tired distracted. Make them tired by spending a long time with them in exhausting activities, physical or mental. Distract them by giving them a lot of information or points of special interest and then slipping in the thing you really want them to believe.

These embedded myths become the very beliefs that are in place and against which contradictory evidence causes the cognitive dissonance which individuals are motivated to reduce.

Jessica Lynch Speaks Out

While the Bush administration continues to use her as a posterchild for its war propaganda machine, even claiming that she was raped and sodomized by her Iraqi captors, Jessica Lynch is finally speaking for herself.

"I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do," she said.

"I did not shoot - not a round, nothing. I went down praying to my knees - that's the last thing I remember."

Initial reports also suggested that Miss Lynch had been abused after she came round in the hospital. She says that again was untrue - there was no mistreatment, and one nurse used to sing to her.

She said she was grateful to the American special forces team which rescued her but, asked whether the Pentagon's subsequent portrayal of her rescue bothered her, she said: "Yes, it does. They used me as a way to symbolise all this stuff. It's wrong."

Achtung! Wir mochten Herr Goebel horen

“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State.”

Remember Goebel's motto in Germany: If you tell a lie long enough and repeat it over and over again, it will then be perceived as truth.

"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. When you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

"I'll bet you feel a bit like Alice, looking down the rabbit hole."

I haven't posted here in a while. I've been exploring the Wonderland of The Memory Hole. Amazing surprises await.