Search This Blog

Monday, December 27, 2010

Any Remaining Questions On How The U.S. Government Has Blood On Its Hands?



When Barack Obama ran for president, he vowed his "unwavering support" for Israel.



Congratulations, Mister President.  Consistency at last.

IN MEMORIAM:  SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN-FUNDED ISRAELI MASSACRE OF GAZA, DECEMBER 27, 2008 - JANUARY 18, 2009 

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Come On Everybody -- It's High Time We Rally 'Round The Flag With Those Fun Freedom Lovin' Americans.....And Darlene!

Are you, by any chance, an Amurrrrr-i-can fur freeeedumb?

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not some drooling left-wing fanatic who enjoys bashing God and nation.

But I am put off by people shamelessly mangling the definition of freedom.  I'm not the slightest bit inspired by those parading around with American Exceptionalist flags, wanting to take the United States even deeper into a consumer crazed, militaristic, right-wing dystopia.

I don't want my country laying waste to other places in some mindless Nation Building Crusade that further radicalizes others while creating legions of weeping orphans and widows, as the military-industrial complex cheers and rakes in endless profits.

 
Anyone know Patrick Behan?  He's the one in the first photo, when he was serving our country or whatever war monger may have been running the place at the time.  He's currently a member of the "Americans For Freedom" (AFF) band of merry men & women.

You can find Pat and the rest of them on Facebook.  That's right.  Their "American Core Values" mission statement vows to "speak out in favor for Equal Opportunity, Liberty, Freedom, Capitalism (not Corporatism), Free Markets, to have the right to be honest, save, invest and work hard so we are financially independent of the Government, without the Government sponsoring income class and religious hate against our citizens.....to speak out against Progressive Socialism / Marxism in our schools, colleges and government....."


And here's their calling card, folks. I have a sneaking suspicion it may have been recycled, with some minor changes that included a previous patriotic quote from Sen. Joe McCarthy.


[Caption]  With the Patriot Act firmly in place, it is time to establish the Patriot Card as part of the gold standard for society. It already exists behind the scenes. This way it is voters ID too and helps address fraud. Integrity and Character still matter.

Impressive, oh yeah.  But nothing compared to AFF Warrior Behan's fire & brimstone message right under his Rambo portrait:

"A MOST NOBEL CAUSE. BUT WE NEED TO HOLD ELECTED OFFICIALS IE: CONGRESSMEN & SENATORS ACCOUNTABLE FOR TREASON WHEN THEY PROVIDE AID & COMFORT TO OUR ENEMIES DURING A TIME OF WAR WITH THEIR REMARKS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES AND THE U.S. ARMED FORCES AS A WHOLE. 60 YEARS AGO THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN HUNG FOR THEIR CRIMES. THE HARRY RIEDS-KENNEDY-MURTHA-PELOSI AND ON AND ON. AND IN COHESION WITH THE MAJOR NETWORK MEDIA, IM TALKING ABOUT THE DEMOCRAT SOCIALIST PARTY WHO UNDERMINED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF GEORGE W. BUSH FROM THE VERY OUTSET OF THE WAR.



HIGH CRIMES & TREASON PUNISHABLE BY DEATH. AND THEY ARE GUILTY WITH OUT QUESTION OF THESE CRIMES. UNBELIEVABLY THEY HAVE NOT BEEN TRIED. BUT STILL HOLD OFFICE. THIS COUNTRIES BRANCHES NEED TO RE-INSTATE THE U.S. CONSTITUTION THEY HAVE SO BLATENTLY IGNORED AND BROKE WITH OUT END. WE HAVE A RUNAWAY OVER STEPPING THEIR CONSTITUIONAL POWERS IN ALL THREE BRANCHES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. AND THE LONG TERM REPUBLICAN SENATORS BETTER GROW A SPINE AND HOLD THESE TRAITORS ACCOUNTABLE. OR DONT THINK FOR A SECOND WE WONT VOTE YOU OUT EITHER AND REPLACE YOU WITH ALL TEA PARTY MEMBERS. MEMBERS OF THE U.S. CONSTITUION. RET. IN THE LINE OF DUTY."

Got that rat, Patriot Pat.

If anybody can stop those traitors from "over stepping their Constituional powers," the Tea Party & Americans For Freedom can.

And Darlene McBride, too......she'll help us rescue Lady Liberty from ruin.  Sing it, Darlene!


Monday, December 20, 2010

With A Rasp And A Hiss, That Snake Has Given Us Some Vicious Bites


Our wildly voracious ruling class--corporations, millionaires, and the like--continue their feeding.

This rodent rampage always takes its toll.  And if that weren't bad enough, consider the devastating bite from one of these creatures.


The saw-scaled viper.  Never, ever turn your back on 'em.  Unquestionably one of the most lethal snakes on the planet.  In some regions, its bite kills more than 80 percent of its victims.  This viper's venom is "hemotoxic," meaning it'll make your wound bleed like crazy while excruciating pain gallops all over your body.

So why the name "saw-scaled"?  It's because of some serrated scales on its lower flanks that, when poised to strike, are dragged across each other producing a rasping sound, made all the more frightening with a loud, sinister hissing.

Too many of our politicians remind me all too much of the saw-scaled viper, but a special one that invariably harms the public and protects its rodent pals.  The worse part about this is how we so often get fooled into believing that viper, which always promises to protect us from those ravenous rodents, would never turn on us who took him in.

New York Times writer William Rivers Pitt had the same feeling almost exactly a year ago today when he wrote the following:

"I've been thinking a lot lately about the old story of the Lady and the Snake.  One day, so the story goes, a lady was walking down the road when she came across an injured snake.  The lady picked up the snake, brought it home, and nursed it back to health.  Over time, the lady and the snake became the best of friends.  One day, the lady was in her garden with the snake, when the snake lunged forward suddenly and bit her in the throat.  As the lady lay dying, she looked at the snake and said, 'Why did you kill me?  I was your friend! I took care of you!'  The snake looked at her and said, 'Lady, you knew I was a snake when you picked me up.'

This is how I'm feeling about the President of the United States these days."

Join the fast-growing club, pal.  Now consider that Pitt wrote this at the end of 2009, just after Pres. "Yes We Can" Obama had shamelessly lied about sticking with us in the fight against a blood-sucking medical/industrial complex which has turned health care into a criminally negligent, profit-crazed racket.

Obama was more than willing to settle for a few pitiful crumbs and then had the audacity to hoot over the "great victory."  Ah-huh.  Pitt continued:

"But I really don't like getting lied to, especially after everything this country has been through, after everything that was done by millions of Americans to clean house and get this ship of state back to some semblance of stability.  Obviously, a politician telling a lie is not big news - my personal theory, based on vast personal experience, is that if you've heard of a politician, odds are that person is a creep you wouldn't want to be in the same room with - but Obama's public option canard was exceptionally rank."

I can only imagine what Mr. Pitt has to say about yet another colossal Obama betrayal a year later, when he rolled over and doled out even more corporate welfare windfalls.  I know how Global Research writer Larry Chin reacted to it earlier this month.  With about as much joy as Pitt had over Barack's health care cut-and-run:

"Obama’s Orwellian embrace of all things corporate and politically rightward has been deliberate, forceful and consistent throughout his career; not the product of cowardice, weakness, incompetence, naïve idealism, or bad timing.  This is Barack Obama, as he has always been: a servile facilitator and protector of the political establishment; an insidious capitulator and “consensus man”; a sellout who piously sits back and lets others fight (while railing against their “bickering”), and then accepts whatever deal is politically expedient -- no matter what morals or principles he violates, no matter who or what he betrays.  To the pious, sanctimonious and self-serving Obama, it is wrong to be a “purist”, but good to be “impure”; a muddler.  A sellout."

Double ouch.


Hmmm, can't argue with either of them.  And I have little doubt there's more and more of us Obama voters now falling fast into the realm of the disillusioned and disgusted.

Which leads us back to the issue of this duplicitous saw-scaled viper.

What will he do--or not do--next?  Continue to sit idly as the Palestinians are massacred and cleansed from their homeland?  Make excuses while climate change ravages the earth to the point of no return?  Carry on Bush's insane $12,000,000,000 a month losing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq......and perhaps gear up for a suicidal third war against Iran??

"I'm no radical," remarked Pitt, "I just believe with all my heart in the idea that is America, an idea that has been poorly served for the entirety of this thankfully dying decade, an idea that has once again been sold down the river by another lying politician. That idea deserves better, as do we all, and if the Obama administration keeps this despicable behavior up, they are going to find themselves squared off with a legion of newly-radicalized people who will wonder why they ever picked this snake up in the first place."    
 Yeeeeppp.  That blasted snake.  

Oh what the hell, people.  This is Christmas week and it's a time for music and more music.  How about a song to get everybody singing along?

Here's a 1968 Al Wilson classic that will fit.  The melody's nothing short of mesmerizing and Wilson's vocal prowess has real, well, bite to it.  As it should.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

"If he were here now, I think he would have shouted so we can all hear it......"


"This year would have been the 70th birthday year for John if only he was here. But people are not questioning if he is here or not. They just love him and are keeping him alive with their love. I’ve received notes from all corners of the world to let me know that they were celebrating this year to thank John for having given us so much in his forty short years on earth.

The most important gift we received from him was not words, but deeds. He believed in Truth, and had dared to speak up. We all knew that he upset certain powerful people with it. But that was John. He couldn’t have been in any other way. If he were here now, I think he would have shouted so we can all hear it. That truth was important. Because without knowing all the truth of what we did, we could not achieve world peace.

On this day, the day he was assassinated for being a truth seeker and a communicator, what I remember is the night we both cracked up drinking tea.....my memory of us is that we were a couple who laughed."

                                     -- Eulogy from Yoko Ono
                                         December 8, 2010

11:07 tonight, exactly thirty years ago, from an emergency room in a New York hospital, he departed.  Like so many others, I remember where I was and how I got the news out on the West Coast:  The shrill yet palpably sad voice of Howard Cosell, who made the shocking announcement from his booth in the final minutes of Monday Night Football.



The whole world stopped in that moment.  What were we to do?

Like a big part of us had been torn right out.  Pain and grief and indescribable loss.

Yet one of those days that followed in that bleak December, weeping as I was driving, a familiar song that Lennon wrote hit a nerve that I'll never, ever forget.

You know the one.  About letting go.

Little by little, the grief slowly eased.  And the music continued, as it has since that awful night three decades ago.  Still, I sure do miss you, John.


 

When Will This Consecrating of Fanatics Left & Right Ever Come To An End??

Extremists are the bane of our existence.

Sadly enough naive people get taken in by their messages marketed by special interests, usually commercial ones craving for a buck.  A Republican mouth organ network grandstands crazed Glenn Beck, reeling in  ratings and fat profits.

Meanwhile left-wing directors and T-shirt companies hawk images of "heroic" communist gangsters.  You've seen those flashy red shirts with the noble face of Comandante Che Guevara.  Buttons, too.  There was also Steven Soderbergh's "Che," a 2008 biopic that shamelessly lionized this ruthless killer.

We well know about the twisted ideology of the far right.  But the far left is guilty of equally obscene promotions.  It's just that they seem a bit more problematic to expose.  Maybe it's the glamor of the "radical chic" making it harder to resist.  The Che Worship merchandise, however, is just as repugnant as those Saint Ronnie Reagan calendars on sale at the local mall.


The biggest point about this is the simple reminder about two wrongs never making the right.  In the case of Cuba, nothing justifies communism's murderous excesses and tyranny that followed the demise of murderously excessive right-wing tyrant  Fulgencio Batista.

Guevara may have been a brave guerrilla fighter but the glory ended when he joyfully worked overtime as Castro's drooling, hyperactive mass executioner.  Notably he was also was an amazing bumbling nitwit when it came time to mismanage the "new & improved" Cuba.

"The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara", observed Slate magazine's Paul Bermen, "is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian.  He achieved nothing but disaster....The present-day cult of Che--the t-shirts, the bars, the posters--has succeeded in obscuring this dreadful reality."

I see enduring salutes to this psychopath in places like Facebook and wonder just how many more people will be taken in.  Perhaps this report by Libertarian "Reason TV" will disabuse those of the myth.

I fervently disagree with Libertarians and their crackpot notions of "functioning anarchy."  But this presentation is dead-on correct,  unmasking the preposterous glorification of blood-thirsty despots, Marxist or otherwise.

See if you agree.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Joys Of "Doing Everything Possible For Those Hands".......

Anyone remember those delightfully inane ads about the magical green liquid that "softens hands while you do the dishes"?


There's a video some call "seriously creepy" now sweeping cyber space that seriously reminds me of the antics of our memorable "Madge."

But in this case, she's for real.  Take a peek and see what it does to your creep-out meter.


Those are some "look good naked" features, Ellen.  But that's not quite all.

After seeing this, alarm bells went off.  Yeah, that episode.  The one with George, perhaps most hilarious of everyone in "Seinfeld." 

George "I've Got Hand" Costanza now has honors.

The question:  Who in fact has the truly "look good naked" hands??  You decide......

   

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

"No Way Through"--Or Getting Around--America's Complicity In Today's Destruction Of A People


Stop and think for a moment:  What if this were taking place in your own neighborhood?

Your child, terrified, hauled away like an animal by brutal storm troopers.  Not to be seen again for weeks or months, locked up in some Israeli dungeon and subjected to torture and sexual abuse.

All because your child was a "suspect."  No charges need apply, however, to keep him there.  And when finally released, he's shattered.  And so are you.

Or just maybe your oldest daughter has had an accident and desperately needs medical care.  Here's a chilling scenario that happens every day in the American-supported illegal occupation of the West Bank.  The setting here is London.  But just imagine it's somewhere in Baltimore or Chicago or Denver or Los Angeles.

Could you live every day with this?



If you couldn't deal with it, American people, then WHY do you sit passively and allow $10 million of our tax dollars, daily, to fund Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?

Stop subsidizing this!

Support the Boycott/Divestment/Sanction Movement on Israel.  Put an end to the savagery.

Or do you prefer to just shrug and run off to purchase an Israeli commodity at the nearest day-after-Thanksgiving sale?

Monday, November 22, 2010

Israel: Palestinians Are "Like Drugged Cockroaches In A Bottle"


Political cartoons offer up the most potent commentary on corrupt,  evil phenomena in our world.  This particular one really sums up the attitude of our current president, which is a sordid continuation of all the AIPAC Oval Office puppets that have preceded him.

Utterly disgraceful would be an understatement to describe the American government's policy supporting Israeli war crimes.  The latest is that Obama & Congress are going to reward Tel Aviv's serial killing ethnic cleansers even more advanced weaponry, so that the war crimes may continue unabated.

I've asked this rhetorical question a thousand times and I'll go on asking it:

WHEN WILL IT ALL END??

Crusading journalist Chris Hedges provides a devastating commentary on the current status of the might-makes-right blood-letting.  If you have a conscience, you'll be simmering by the end of the video.



"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle." 
--Raphael Eitan
   Chief of Staff, Israeli Military
   New York Times, April 14, 1983

 Why do these Zionist gangsters continue not only getting away with this behavior but openly brag about it?

How about another one of those choice cartoons to address that problem:



Saturday, November 6, 2010

Verdict: "Real Populists Fight Corporate Power -- They Don't Hug It!"


"This is our moment!" the voice-over proudly snarls in a video reminiscent of the exact same Republican claptrap that's been shoveled up before, during, and after elections.

Few, however, can match the same cartoonish punch as Mama Grizzly Sarah. 


Just listen to that populist roaring now that GOP, Inc. has overrun our House of Representatives!

Hold on a second.  There appears to be something less than a complete consensus about all this.  Famed populist activist and commentator Jim Hightower has a strikingly different perspective from Tea Queen Palin.

It seems he finds all this hooey, ehhm, unbearable:

"The tea party spoke! Loudly, powerfully and proudly.

But besides, "Throw the bums out," what did it say? And now that the party part is over and the nasty business of governing begins, what does it all add up to? What's its governing agenda? How does it make anything positive out of the disparate mish-mash of issue positions within its own rank and file?

And then there's the big one -- the huge, grotesque, democracy-choking monster that the party invited into the center of its own movement: corporate money. Throughout the election, tea partiers demurely averted their eyes from this ugly dude, for the monster was lavishing millions of corporate dollars on their candidates. But now, whether they meant to or not, they've ensconced it as the unrivaled, controlling power in the new Congress. What will they do as it asserts its selfish interests over theirs, devouring their ideals and their pretension that they are in control?


The media establishment insists on referring to the tea party as a "populist" movement -- but real populists fight corporate power, they don't hug it! The party certainly is a popular uprising, and a successful one, but there's nothing populist about it. Indeed, its leaders and candidates have vociferously opposed the populist ideals of egalitarianism, social justice, cooperative action and the common good.

"Shrink the Government" sounds good as a campaign cry, but its substance, as expressed by many of the most prominent teabag nominees and electees, is to kill Social Security, privatize Medicare and Medicaid, eliminate unemployment compensation, strip away the regulatory reforms on Wall Street's big banks, undo the EPA and the Education Department, extend the privileged tax breaks of super-wealthy hedge fund speculators, cut food stamps, do away with minimum wage, cripple unions, take away the pensions of public employees ... etc., etc.


This reduced the election to a massive, despicable blitz of TV ads consisting of lies, shameless pandering and silliness. It was America's first $4 billion election, with the likes of the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, the Chamber of Commerce, Karl Rove, Dick Armey and other designers of corporate rule secretively channeling unprecedented, unconscionable (and, I believe, unconstitutional) sums of cash directly from corporate coffers to create a House majority obligated and dedicated to them."

Sounds pretty compelling.  "Rupert Murdoch....and other designers of corporate rule......"  Of course, one wouldn't see any of that in Palin's little fairy tale sound bite.  She's one of Murdoch's employees, after all.

We as a nation have weathered a lot worse than this.  Extremists and opportunists on both sides of the aisle have run amok before.  We'll survive, though, somehow, some way.

Just speak out, walk the walk, stand tough.

If you think the middle class is up against it, shudder to imagine Tea Party/GOP, Inc's attack plan against the working poor.  The images in this video are riveting.

Still, like the Trouble Man, "Ain't gon' let it sweat me, baby....."

 

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Around Us, Always, A Universe Of Stuff That These Are Made Of......

Dreams.  Magical wonders with manifold meaning.

 
They might be images passing through the mind during sleep.  Possibly visions willingly indulged in while awake.  Or simply people & places of surreal beauty and excellence.

Like love, though nowhere near the number, there's an abundance of songs, old and new, revolving on this theme.  And often enough, songs commingle the two.  For obvious reasons.

I'll bet you could call up the names of at least three or more dream ballads right now.  You've sung, swayed, hummed, or perhaps shared them with an intimate someone.

One of the most sublime is the 1994 song "Dreams" by The Cranberries.  The Irish band's lead vocalist Dolores O'Riordan has a stunning, ethereal voice, making this song all the more, shall we say, dreamy.

"Oh my life is changing everyday
Every possible way
Though my dreams, it’s never quite as it seems
Never quite as it seems

I know I felt like this before

But now I’m feeling it even more
Because it came from you

Then I open up and see

The person fumbling here is me
A different way to be

I want more, impossible to ignore

Impossible to ignore
They’ll come true, impossible not to do
Impossible not to do.....




.....Now I tell you openly
You have my heart so don’t hurt me
For what I couldn’t find

Talk to me amazing mind

So understanding and so kind
You’re everything to me

Oh my life is changing everyday

Every possible way
Though my dreams, it’s never quite as it seems
’cause you’re a dream to me
Dream to me"

Monday, November 1, 2010

America The Schizophrenic -- Sane Saturday, Twisted Tuesday


Let us pray, people:

May tomorrow's election day bring out enough Americans--no matter how angry, scared, and fed up they are--who won't lose the sanity we restored last Saturday in Washington.

Make them realize that while the Democrats' frying pan sizzles, the Republicans' flame will incinerate us as it always has.

Open the eyes of this incensed electorate so they'll realize they've been poisoned by the GOP mouth organ all along to hand over the keys to our city to marauding Huns.  Don't hand 'em over, please.  There's just too much at stake.   
Fear.  Just say no.  Again and again, loud as you can.  Narrow-minded, hate-spewing bigots masquerading about in tricorn hats want you to surrender to their insanity.  Transcend it.   

Amen.

Someone asked recently what was on my backside--of my "Restore Sanity Rally" shirt.  It was a message I delivered in the company of the 200,000 plus people flood in our nation's capital.  Something strident enough to show my disgust with right-wing demagogues who try to pervert the American Dream.  That  includes the one voiced at the Lincoln Memorial, not by some crazed Christian Reich boss, but by an Atlanta preacher in 1963 .

There were so many, many stinging, uproarious slogans flying in all directions that day.  I thought carefully and wrote one I could wear for years to come.  Wanted to be sure from this day forward any and all star spangled yahoos swaggering across my path will be served notice.

     
There were some detractors, notably, from the far left side of the aisle.  Journalist & socialist Chris Hedges was clearly not impressed and had this scathing, acid cynical take on the Big Rally:

"Politics in America has become spectacle. It is another form of show business. The crowd in Washington, well trained by television, was conditioned to play its role before the cameras. The signs —'The Rant is Too Damn High,' 'Real Patriots Can Handle a Difference of Opinion' or 'I Masturbate and I Vote'—reflected the hollowness of current political discourse and television’s perverse epistemology.

The rally spoke exclusively in the impoverished iconography and language of television. It was filled with meaningless political pieties, music and jokes. It was like any television variety program. Personalities were being sold, not political platforms. And this is what the society of spectacle is about.

The modern spectacle, as the theorist Guy Debord pointed out, is a potent tool for pacification and depoliticization. It is a “permanent opium war” which stupefies its viewers and disconnects them from the forces that control their lives. The spectacle diverts anger toward phantoms and away from the perpetrators of exploitation and injustice. It manufactures feelings of euphoria. It allows participants to confuse the spectacle itself with political action.

The celebrities from Comedy Central and the trash talk show hosts on Fox are in the same business. They are entertainers. They provide the empty, emotionally laden material that propels endless chatter back and forth on supposed left- and right-wing television programs. It is a national Punch and Judy show. But don’t be fooled. It is not politics. It is entertainment. It is spectacle.

All national debate on the airwaves is driven by the same empty gossip, the same absurd trivia, the same celebrity meltdowns and the same ridiculous posturing. It is presented with a different spin. But none of it is about ideas or truth. None of it is about being informed. It caters to emotions. It makes us confuse how we are made to feel with knowledge.

And in the end, for those who serve up this drivel, the game is about money in the form of ratings and advertising.  Beck, Colbert and Stewart all serve the same masters. And it is not us."

No question about it, Mr. Hedges was decidedly unimpressed with our noble attempt at sanity.  And maybe all the theatrics just made him go ape.
His points, however, are well-taken and many quite valid.  The grand corporate octopus has itself wrapped neatly around all of us in just about the same iron grip as a hundred years ago.  It's just that the stranglehold is so much more subtle, thanks to the sophistication of high tech thought control---ahhmm, I mean mass media.

No matter, really, which party rules, since the overall status quo remains the same.  But then it still always seems to turn out so much worse for civil liberties and working class conditions whenever the "smaller government/bigger business" Republicans call the shots.

Pollsters have already called it for tomorrow and the rage over the Bush-generated misery index is gonna get us tossed from fryer to the fire.  

We gave it our best, however, and got in the last word.  Stewart summed it up nicely at the finish Saturday.    


Monday, October 25, 2010

What Would These "Baby Eyes" have to say, Mr. Shaw?

"A miracle is an event which creates faith," observed George Bernard Shaw, "That is the purpose and nature of miracles.  Frauds deceive.  An event which creates faith does not deceive:  Therefore it is not a fraud but a miracle."

Just imagine the prose this phenomenal writer might have produced witnessing today's astonishing of fetal photography or even the ultrasound images that came along in 1957, just seven years after he died.

Would the brilliant but quirky Shaw have reacted with mixed feelings?  He reportedly had a pronounced aversion to the modern medicine of his day, calling it "quackery" and condemning the smallpox vaccine as a "particularly filthy piece of witchcraft."

On the other hand, this legendary poet was quite the photography buff and it's probably safe to say he watched (maybe enjoyed, too) cartoons in his senior years.  That's why this mind-boggling six minute animation is all the more intriguing.

What kind of poem would Shaw have created had he lived to witness "Genesis"?

 

Maybe something even more endearing than his "Baby Eyes" ballad:

"Large Baby eyes smiling joyfully at me,
Baby eyes as brown as can be.
Two deep pools most innocent and bright,
To me are symbols of sheer delight.
May I greet you every single day?
For you are sunshine on my way.
Other people see you smile so sweet,
All are happier when you they meet.
Eyes are the window to the soul,
No difficulties for you reaching your goal.
So sweet baby go on life's way,
Those Baby eyes have much to say."
 

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Will Our Public Really Surrender Congress Again To The Reactionary RiffRaff?



In just a little more than two weeks, a beleaguered country will go to the polls to decide whether the Grand Old Party Of The Plutocrats should be handed back control of Congress.

Because people are hurting so badly and the Democrats haven't been able yet to ease the pain created by Wall Street's robber barons, it's a good bet desperate, angry voters will do a throw-out-the-bums boogie.

And then we'll watch how things will be "so much better" when the legislative branch is delivered into the jaws of the Republicans.

Frying pan leap right into the fire -- THAT the idea?  

How about a nice cheery review of the official "Things Republicans Believe" litany, posted anonymously on the world web -- sometime in the not too distant past?  It sheds some light on the darkness that descends whenever the GOP seizes power:


 "Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime,
unless you're a
conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and
you need our prayers for
your recovery.

The United States should get out of the United
Nations, and our highest
national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions
against Iraq.

Government should relax regulation of Big Business
and Big Money but crack
down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the
pain of illness. 
 "Standing Tall for America" means firing your
workers and moving their jobs
to India.

A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her
own body, but
multi-national corporations can make decisions
affecting all mankind without
regulation.

Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of
homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

The best way to improve military morale is to praise
the troops in speeches
while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay. 
 Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless
you someday run for
governor of California as a Republican.

If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents
won't have sex.

A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our
long-time allies, then
demand their cooperation and money.

HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of
the public at heart. 
 Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy.
Providing health care
to all Americans is socialism. 
Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk
science, but
creationism should be taught in schools.

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad
guy when Bush's daddy
made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business
with him and a bad guy
when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden"
diversion.

A president lying about an extramarital affair is an
impeachable offense. A
president lying to enlist support for a war in which
thousands die is solid
defense policy.

Government should limit itself to the powers named
in the Constitution,
which include banning gay marriages and censoring
the Internet.

The public has a right to know about Hillary's
cattle trades, but George
Bush's driving record is none of our business.

You support states' rights, which means Attorney
General John Ashcroft can
tell states what local voter initiatives they have a
right to adopt. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital
national interest, but what
Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is
communist, but trade with
China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of
international harmony." 
Adorning all this are the breath-taking
pearls of wisdom from those Republican Blathering
Heads.  One of our very favorites, of course,
is Presidential wanna-be Mama Grizzly Palin's
declaration of foreign policy expertise.


Please, dear angry voters, try to remember all these deeds and voices before you decide pulling that Republican lever on election day.

Unless, of course,  you seriously think we have nothin' to lose with this greater of the two evils.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Happy Birthday, John


He would have turned 70 today.  Despite having lost him well before his time, his music, and the dream, endures.  But the departure of this great friend is never forgotten.

Or always remembered. 

"There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain......."


Anti-Israeli Bias In Our American Media?? Think Again......

The journalism professor's opening remarks in the video report are not only true but extremely compelling.


Think about it.  How many mainstream U.S. media groups really present a Palestinian as a suffering human being, rather than just a "unit" or some terrorist thug with face covered in Hamas green, holding AK-47 & RPG weapons?


And just how many images, streaming videos or simple pictures, do we see of the other terrorist thugs at work--those noble fellows  garbed in Israeli military green, using U.S.-funded automatic weapons and chemical WMD's to deliberately slaughter civilians at will??


Not a whole lot, as it turns out.  And there's a very significant reason for that.

Amazing things happen when one party in a conflict has a well-engineered stranglehold over the hearts & minds of the key targeted audience (which the U.S. military-industrial complex tried and failed miserably in Vietnam.)  They get away with murder.

Quite literally.  War crimes pulled off on a grand scale, in fact.




It doesn't have to be this way.

Does it?

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

"American Dream" Continues Going Up In Smoke.....Cup Of Tea, Anyone?



It's beyond shocking.

How about disgraceful, appalling, and unreal too.

But this little story should well serve as the flaming symbol of what ails us.

A official moment of silence, please, for all the right-wing Teabag cretins that screamed their reactionary heads off at last summer's hearings for universal public health care.  That's that "diabolical socialism" our fellow industrialized nations have--Canada, Great Britain, Australia--because they give a damn enough to really protect the lives of their citizens.

Not here, it seems.  And now that "compassionate conservatism" rears another of its compassionate hydra heads into another realm, the traditional socialism we've had for protection from fiery destruction.

Seems a county in Tennessee saw fit to demand a special fee to keep your house intact.  And as The Mob might say, "You don't pay for protection......you pay."




The next thing will be monthly law enforcement insurance premiums.  And if ya can't afford those, well, looks like your local police will just have to kick back in their patrol cars enjoying coffee and doughnuts while you're being robbed, raped, stabbed or shot by some violent criminal.

 
Is this where our "gloriously free enterprise" nation is sinking?

In that case, lets have the Teabaggers and the rest of the laissez faire imbeciles forever pay extra big fat monthly premiums on not just the health care they need but EVERY service, including fire, police, schools, libraries, roads, etc.  The Republican Congressional dirt bags and their lobbyist masters will have five or ten times the monthly premiums, as a reward for their rabid opposition to all this Bogeyman Socialism.

And when their homes burn down to the ground, let 'em head to the nearest town hall and vent to their hearts' content.


Should be an especially cathartic moment.....