Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Hillary is NOT a change agent

According to Rick Spilman:

Her [Hillary Clinton's] latest reference to RFK's assassination is just another reminder of the self-involved perspective-free bubble which
seems to typify her campaign. Her inability or unwillingness to face reality and her absolute relentlessness to push on to victory, consequences be damned, disqualifies her as a worthy candidate for the presidency. Hillary Clinton simply lacks the judgment and perspective to be a good president. Toughness and relentlessness is not enough. We
have eight years of tough and relentless. What we need now is vision and a willingness to change.

The entire article is here.

I am "cheating" on my sabbatical "too." But it's an easy cheat...I really agreed with Spillman.

Monday, May 26, 2008

John Pilger - The War On Democracy - Part 5 & 6 of 10





Here are Part 5 and 6 of War on Democracy by John Pilger, the award-winning Australian journalist and filmmaker, a documentary that has been making its way through the Internet.

Part 5 begins with an expose of how the CIA overthrew the Arbenz government in Guatemala back in the 50s, ushering in decades of Fascist rule, civil war and genocide against the Mayan Indians. Also covered in 5 and 6 is the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile and his replacement by the Fascist dictator, General Pinochet.

For the earlier posts:

click here for Part 1

click here for Part 2

click here for Part 3

click here for Part 4

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Hillary Clinton---SOC

I am enjoying my sabbatical....I planned this sabbatical for a variety of reasons...including anger with the Hillary Clinton antics and the typical Dem indecisive passivity. So now for my SOC--stream of consciousness--Hillary rant.

I am drawn to comment on the latest situation. If ever a statement was uttered that deserved a genuine sincere apology it is this. Amazingly Hillary Clinton seems to share many of the same character flaws that George Bush possesses....one of these being the inability to apologize. It's like she feels no remorse from how her actions affect others. Pile that on top of the fact that (maybe it's that cult religion she belongs to with the other neocons...you know the "religion of the world's elites"--the fellowship, the family...that operates in "secret cells" around the world....the one where the elite members are anointed by God to rule the masses...maybe that's why...) Hillary believes this presidency is supposed to be hers.

Then there's the hypocrisy of the Clintons. Hillary easily made a contract with the Democratic party to prevent the FLA and MI delegates from voting for this year's presidential nominee...at least while she was the presumed nominee. Clinton starts losing...now Hillary "needs" these delegates for her own personal gain. WE see a genuine flip flop for personal gain...Hillary is now fighting for these delegates rights....the same rights she previously signed away.....Jeesh.

Hillary may be more conservative than John McCain. There's good reason she did not receive the NARAL endorsement. Her new neocon religion--The Fellowship--takes credit for Hillary voting for a bill that would allow professionals like Pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control for women (even if they were the only pharmacist in a small town) and for police officers to refuse to protect abortion clinics from violent acts.....definitely not a pro womans's choice bill that's for sure.

And then there is Hillary's continuing to change the rules....It would be like a football team suddenly demanding that the preseason games should now be counted. This would not be tolerated in football why is it tolerated in our presidential primary.

Unlike Hillary I believe that the majority of the press has given "her" the free ride. The lamestream corporate media press has never covered her religion, which could genuinely be called a cult with serious implications. The corporate press has never really covered the fact that her campaign manager is a lobbyist with the same firm as McCain's (oops...I think that guy recently resigned for lobbying in Columbia while campaigning with McCain).....

The bottom line is that Hillary does not have the delegates to win this nomination...she almost 150% of the remaining delegates to win and that is a mathematical impossibility. It true others have campaigned until June BUT HILLARY DOES NOT MENTION THE FACT THAT IT WAS STILL POSSIBLE FOR THOSE CAMPAIGNS TO WIN....NONE OF THEM WERE FACING A MATHEMATICAL IMPOSSIBILITY.

So the next time Hillary tries to use the "campaigns going into June" rationale I hope some reporter somewhere will do their job and ask the question, "How many have continued to campaign until June when it has become a mathematical impossibility for them to win the nomination." Enough of the ridiculous Clinton spin. This is as bad as there "don't ask don't tell" program that they substituted for their campaign promise to give gays and lesbians the right to serve "equally" in the military.

There is no reason for any candidate to remain in a primary race when winning becomes mathematically impossible. UNLESS maybe Hillary feels entitled to the presidency...like a Queen...and like George Bush she has a terrific DENIAL mechanism....something I hope this nation never has to endure in another president. We need someone who can make decisions based on reality not denial.

The bottom line comes to this--candidates who support their party and their party's nominee gracefully bow out when it becomes impossible to play by the rules and win the nomination. This is what Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, Bill Huckabee, Romney, etc......all did.

There appears to be no reasoning with Hillary Clinton or her "ardent" supporters. We only get excuses and rationales from them. It looks like they will forgive Hilalry "anything..." distorting the truth and even using racist words and thoughts to win the office.

So it's past time for the super delegates to step forth and end this thing.....They need to step by June 7th at the latest and end this thing now. We have a presidency that needs winning. It would be a disaster of major proportions to set up a self-destructive scenario that allows McCain to continue the Bush policies in our land.

So we need to demand that the super delegates do their duty and do it asap.

And for the record....Hillary's slip up is a scenario that has been on her mind for some time...it's not the first time she has brought up the Robert Kennedy campaign and assasination. I'm with Keith Olberman...it's unforgiveable to publicly bring up that situation for obvious reasons.

So I decided to simply do a pleasurable rant today...now back to my summer projects....

Buzz...Buzz...

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Pakistani Daily: George W Bush Authorized 911 Attacks Says Government Insider


Could this kind of scenario actually take place someday? Not impossible if Stanley Hilton turns out to be correct.

This kind of article is not going to be touched by corporate media in this country, even if Moses came down from Mt Sinai with it etched on tablets. But in Pakistan, there is no such blind allegiance to the American government. Who is Stanley Hilton, and is what he is saying true? You be the judge. Here is an excerpt:

Tuesday, 20 May 2008 06:20

Pakistan Daily
(click here for original article)

Keep in mind when reading this, that the man being interviewed is no two-bit internet conspiracy buff.

Stanley Hilton was a senior advisor to Sen Bob Dole (R) and has personally known Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz for decades. This courageous man has risked his professional reputation, and possibly his life, to get this information out to people.


The following is from his latest visit to Alex Jones' radio show.


Note: All honor to Stanley Hilton for risking his life so that we may know the truth of 9/11.


The Bush Junta Unmasked


"This (9/11) was all planned. This was a government-ordered operation. Bush personally signed the order. He personally authorized the attacks. He is guilty of treason and mass murder." --Stanley Hilton


Alex Jones interview of Stanley Hilton, attorney for 911 taxpayers' lawsuit


AJ: He is back with us. He is former Bob Dole's chief of staff, very successful counselor, lawyer. He represents hundreds of the victims families of 9/11. He is suing Bush for involvement in 9/11. Now a major Zogby poll out - half of New Yorkers think the government was involved in 9/11. And joining us for the next 35 minutes, into the next hour, is Stanley Hilton. Stanley, it's great to have you on with us.


SH: Glad to be on.


AJ: We'll have to recap this when we start the next hour, but just in a nutshell, you have a lawsuit going, you've deposed a lot of military officers. You know the truth of 9/11. Just in a nutshell, what is your case alleging?


SH: Our case is alleging that Bush and his puppets Rice and Cheney and Mueller and Rumsfeld and so forth, Tenet, were all involved not only in aiding and abetting and allowing 9/11 to happen but in actually ordering it to happen. Bush personally ordered it to happen. We have some very incriminating documents as well as eye-witnesses, that Bush personally ordered this event to happen in order to gain political advantage, to pursue a bogus political agenda on behalf of the neocons and their deluded thinking in the Middle East. I also wanted to point out that, just quickly, I went to school with some of these neocons. At the University of Chicago, in the late 60s with Wolfowitz and Feith and several of the others and so I know these people personally. And we used to talk about this stuff all of the time. And I did my senior thesis on this very subject - how to turn the U.S. into a presidential dictatorship by manufacturing a bogus Pearl Harbor event. So, technically this has been in the planning at least 35 years.


AJ: That's right. They were all Straussian followers of a Nazi-like professor. And now they are setting it up here in America. Stanley, I know you deposed a lot of people and you've got your $7 million dollar lawsuit with hundreds of the victim's families involved.


SH: 7 billion, 7 billion


AJ: Yeah, 7 billion. Can you go over some of the new and incriminating evidence you've got of them ordering the attack?


SH: Yes, let me just say that this is a taxpayers' class action lawsuit as well as a suit on behalf of the families and the basic three arguments are they violated the Constitution by ordering this event. And secondly that they [garbled] fraudulent Federal Claims Act, Title 31 of the U.S. Code in which Bush presented false and fraudulent evidence to Congress to get the Iraq war authorization. And, of course, he related it to 9/11 and claimed that Saddam was involved with that, and all these lies.


AJ: Tell you what, stay there. Stanley, we've got to break. Let's come back and get into the evidence. BREAK


AJ: All right my friends, second hour, the anniversary of the globalist attack coming up. It's an amazing individual we have on the line. Bob Dole's former chief of staff, political scientist, a lawyer, he went to school with Rumsfeld and others, he wrote his thesis about how to turn America into a dictatorship using a fake Pearl Harbor attack. He's suing the U.S. government for carrying out 9/11. He has hundreds of the victims' families signing onto it - it's a $7 billion lawsuit. And he is Stanley Hilton. I know that a lot of stations just joined us in Los Angeles and Rhode Island and Missouri and Florida and all over. Please sir, recap what you were just stating and then let's get into the new evidence. And then we'll get into why you are being harassed by the FBI, as other FBI people are being harassed who have been blowing the whistle on this. So, this is really getting serious. Stanley, tell us all about it.


SH: Yeah, we are suing Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Mueller, etc. for complicity in personally not only allowing 9/11 to happen but in ordering it. The hijackers we retained and we had a witness who is married to one of them. The hijackers were U.S. undercover agents. They were double agents, paid by the FBI and the CIA to spy on Arab groups in this country. They were controlled. Their landlord was an FBI informant in San Diego and other places. And this was a direct, covert operation ordered, personally ordered by George W. Bush. Personally ordered. We have incriminating evidence, documents as well as witnesses, to this effect. It's not just incompetence - in spite of the fact that he is incompetent. The fact is he personally ordered this, knew about it. He, at one point, there were rehearsals of this. The reason why he appeared to be uninterested and nonchalant on September 11th - when those videos showed that Andrew Card whispered in his ear the [garbled] words about this he listened to kids reading the pet goat story, is that he thought this was another rehearsal. These people had dress-rehearsed this many times. He had seen simulated videos of this. In fact, he even made a Freudian slip a few months later at a California press conference when he said he had, quote, "seen on television the first plane attack the first tower." And that could not be possible because there was no video. What it was was the simulated video that he had gone over. So this was a personally government-ordered thing. We are suing them under the Constitution for violating Americans' rights, as well as under the federal Fraudulent Claims Act, for presenting a fraudulent claim to Congress to justify the bogus Iraq boondoggle war, for political gains. And also, under the RICO statute, under the Racketeering Corrupt Organization Act, for being a corrupt entity. And I've been harassed personally by the chief judge of the federal court who is instructing me personally to drop this suit, threatened to kick me off the court, after 30 years on the court. I've been harassed by the FBI. My staff has been harassed and threatened. My office has been broken into and this is the kind of government we are dealing with.


AJ: Absolutely and now it has come out - five separate drills of flying hijacked jets into buildings that morning - which you told us about before it even broke in the Associated Press. They were trying to get out ahead of you. You talked about how you interviewed military people who were told it was a drill that morning. Then to get out ahead of that, the news finally reported on it. Now, we've learned that all these operations - I want to get into that, I want to talk about the new incriminating evidence of ordering it and how they had drilled on this, how Cheney was in the bunker controlling this. That has even come out in the mainstream news but they won't release the details of that, Stanley. But what type of FBI harassment are you going through? SH: First of all, my office was burglarized in San Francisco several months ago. Files were gone through and some files were seized - particularly the ones dealing with the lady that was married to one of the hijackers. Fortunately, I had spare copies in a hidden place so nothing disappeared permanently. But more significantly, FBI agents have been harassing one of my staff members and threatening them with vague but frightening threats of indicting them. And it's just total harassment. They have planted a spy, an undercover agent, in my organization, as we just recently discovered. In other words, these are Nazi Germany tactics. This is the kind of government you have in this country. This is what Bush is all about.


AJ: Stay there, Stanley, Bob Dole's former chief of staff. We'll come back after this quick break. Please stay with us. BREAK


AJ: All right, eight minutes, 25 seconds into the second hour. Stanley Hilton, political scientist, lawyer, Bob Dole's former chief of staff, is suing the government for 7 billion dollars for carrying out 9/11 and for racketeering. And he joins us now. During the break, I first really did the big interview with Stanley Hilton after I saw him attacked on Fox News. And that interview got massive attention. And then he kind of went underground for a while because a judge, we're going to talk about that, ordered him to not do any more interviews. And now he's back doing interviews. He's had his office broken into, FBI threats and harassment. Bottom line, he has deposed military individuals, wives of hijackers, you name it, it was a government operation. It has even come out in mainstream news, a piece here, a piece there. They had drills on 9/11, that's why NORAD stood down. Cheney was in control of the whole thing. Stanley Hilton has now gotten documents about how Bush ordered the whole operation. And I'll tell you right now, his life is in danger, folks. And he's got so much courage. He went to school with these neocons at the University of Chicago. He wrote his thesis on how the government could use terrorist attacks to set up martial law. He is the man for the time and folks wondered why he disappeared for a while and just did his lawsuit and wasn't doing interviews, it was because he was ordered to. Stanley, can you get into that for us?


SH: I did an interview with you, Alex, about a year and a half ago, and literally two weeks after that, I was contacted by the emissary of the chief judge of the federal court where I have the lawsuit. And I was warned not to publicize it but to keep it quiet and threatened with discipline. And it remained quiet until a couple of months ago and then I got on the air on some programs and some publicity and July 1st, I was threatened directly by the chief judge here, threatened with court discipline. This particular judge has been circulating communiqués to the other federal judges seeking anything negative she can get against me to try and discipline me after I've been on the court here for 30 years with no disciplinary problems at all. This is suddenly happening. And her assistants who are on the committee of the court met with me on July 1st in Palo Alto, California, and threatened me directly. They handed me a copy of the lawsuit and said that the judge wants me to dismiss this. What's this? She doesn't like the content of it. This is politically incorrect. This is outside the norm. I said I represented more than 400 plaintiffs, how am I going to dismiss this case? And they threatened me directly and they said, "the next time you'll be disciplined." And also they've threatened me not to go public, etc. And this is just outrageous.


AJ: It's all color of law. No direct orders, just all in your face.


SH: They sent a letter out, and of course they deny it's because of the political content of the suit but they told me directly on the phone that it is because of this suit and this judge is very, very angry, apparently has been in contact with Ashcroft's Justice Department. I got a call from Ashcroft's Justice Department a few months ago about this, demanding that I drop the suit, threatening sanctions and all kinds of things. I refused to drop it. AJ: Now let's go back over, you had them break into your office, harassment. Let's go over that in detail.


SH: My office was broken into about 6 months ago. The file cabinets - it was obvious they had been rifled through. Files were stolen. Files dealing with this particular case and particularly with the documents I had regarding the fact that the - some of these hijackers, at least some of them were on the payroll of the U.S. government as undercover FBI, CIA, double agents. They are spying on Arab groups in the U.S. And, in effect, all this led up to the effect that al Qaeda is a creation of the George Bush administration, basically. That the entity that he called al Qaeda is directly linked to George Bush. And all this stuff was stolen. Fortunately, I had copies. But this was just part of the harassment. The FBI has also been harassing some of my assistants and has planted a spy in our midst. And it is just outrageous that these Nazi tactics are being used - and the obstruction of justice, these people are criminals. And that's what's happening under the tremendous pressure here to just drop it. Or to shut up now and just go away.


AJ: Now, let's talk about what they want you to drop. Let's talk about, without giving names, the people you deposed, what really happened, the picture you've got. You said earlier that Bush ordered this, they were simulating this which they now admit there were simulations on that morning. Let's go over what they don't want you to talk about, Stanley.


SH: We have evidence both documentary as well as witness sworn statements from undercover former FBI agents, FBI informants, etc., that other officials in the Pentagon and the military and the Air Force that deal with the fact that there were many drills, many rehearsals for 9/11 before it happened. Bush had seen this simulated on TV many times. He blurted this out at a press conference in California a few months after 9/11 where he said he had, quote, seen the first plane hit the first building on the video. And that's not possible because there was no official video of that. There was one of the second plane not the first one. He had seen the first one. We do have some incriminating documents that Bush personally ordered 9/11 events. It was well planned. A FEMA official has admitted on tape that he was there the night before - September 10th, that is


AJ: And now Mayor Giuliani, a few months ago in the 911 Commission, admitted that - Tripod II. They had their whole command post already moved out of Building 7. Now, this is very, very important. This is a key area of this whole event. You said months before it came out on the CIA's own website and the Associated Press, you said I deposed people. They said there were drills that morning and exactly what happened, happening - that was the smoke-screen for the stand-down. And then to get out ahead of it, the CIA comes out and said yeah we were running a drill that morning. Now, we've learned that five, possibly six, were confirmed. Five of these - one drill with the exact same thing happening that actually happened, at the exact same time in the morning. That's why NORAD stood down with 24 different blips on the screen. You've said this. You brought this up first. Now, I know you can't get too much into detail but can you tell us how you learned of this?


SH: I have interviewed individuals in NORAD and the Air Force. I personally toured NORAD many years ago around the time that I worked for Dole. I'm very familiar with the operations at Cheyenne Mountain at Colorado Springs, where NORAD is. Individuals that work in NORAD as well as the Air Force have stated this, off the record, but the point is, yes, this was not just five drills but at least 35 drills over at least two months before September 11th. Everything was planned, the exact location


AJ: But five drills that day.


SH: That day, that day, and Bush thought it was a drill. That's the only explanation for why he appeared nonchalant


AJ: We also had NORAD officers and civilian air traffic controllers going, "Is this part of the exercise? Is this a drill?"


SH: Yes.


AJ: On the tapes and in TV interviews, they thought it was, quote, a drill.


SH: That's right. That's exactly what I said long before it became public. I've known about this since earlier in March of '03, as I stated before. This was all planned. This was a government-ordered operation. Bush personally signed the order. He personally authorized the attacks. He is guilty of treason and mass murder. And now, obstruction of justice by attempting to use a federal judge and FBI agents to inhibit a legitimate civil lawsuit in this country, in federal court. Even a chief judge in this court tried to harass and threaten me personally for representing legitimate plaintiffs. And they got Clinton for allegedly lying under oath about Paula Jones and now - look what's happening now. And Ken Starr used to be across from me in Duke Law School in the early `70s and it´s interesting that he got away with trying to get Clinton impeached, so we have a far worse criminal sitting in the oval office today - somebody guilty of mass murder as well as obstruction of justice.

(source)

To read the full article, click here.

Friday, May 16, 2008

John Pilger - The War On Democracy - Part 4 of 10



Here is Part 4 of War on Democracy by John Pilger, the award-winning Australian journalist and filmmaker, a documentary that has been making its way through the Internet.

Part 4 ties up the failed ending of the coup against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the official American denials of any involvement in the coup.

For the earlier posts:

click here for Part 1

click here for Part 2

click here for Part 3

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Clinton Breaks Campaign law in Oregon

Or maybe it's not going to be "enforceable" b/c a 527 organization is technically responsible for this advertisement.



So what is illegal about this ad....Call the number and you will be connected to Hillary Clinton's Senate office. WOW...what a way to run a campaign....illegally....we don't need any more antics like this in the White House.

Wonder how "complicated" this will be to unravel and enforce since it's a 527 Clinton friendly organization running this ad?

This blatent violation of the law maybe an indicator of a mistake that is caused by a desperate campaign operating on limited resources...but then again I seem to remember that there were often questions of White House resources being utilized during Clinton's term....so it just maybe business as usual in Clintonland.....

Thanks to TPM Election Central website for posting the you tube of the ad.

I know I'm technically on break.....buzz buzz....

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

John Pilger - The War On Democracy - Part 3 of 10



Here is Part 3 of War on Democracy by John Pilger, the award-winning Australian journalist and filmmaker, a documentary that has been making its way through the Internet.

For the earlier posts:

click here for Part 1

click here for Part 2

Monday, May 12, 2008

John Pilger - The War On Democracy - Part 2 of 10



Here is Part 2 of War on Democracy by John Pilger, the award-winning Australian journalist and filmmaker, a documentary that has been making its way through the Internet. Part 1 is just below in the previous post.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

John Pilger - The War On Democracy - Part 1 of 10



This documentary by John Pilger, the award-winning Australian born journalist and documentary filmmaker from Sydney, has been making its way through the Internet. It is perhaps the most penetrating history of official and clandestine U.S. government policies, strategies and operations to bend Latin America to its will ever produced. You cannot understand our relationship with Latin America, nor what is going on in Latin America, without knowing this history. So here is Part 1 of 10, with more to follow.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Hundreds killed by US strikes in Sadr City



Geneva Conventions against making war in populated, civilian areas? Fu*k 'em, indicates the Pentagon, we're God here. The perception in Moslem countries is, increasingly, that what the White House and Pentagon are all about is killing Moslems, period. You just have to put an adjective next to the noun to justify it: extremist, Jihadist, militant, terrorist, insurgent. The adjective, by the way, doesn't have to bear any relationship to reality.

What happens when the world's leading military power goes psycho?

Thousands, millions die.

For the original Real News version of this video, click here.

Transcript:

PEPE ESCOBAR, THE REAL NEWS ANALYST:

It’s been five years since George W. Bush proclaimed Mission Accomplished in Iraq. Now take a very good look at these images. Yes, they are disturbing. You won’t see them on Western TV networks. And no, there’s not a hint of mission accomplished about them. These are innocent civilians-– poor Shi’ite Arabs living in the three million-strong Sadr City in Baghdad, one of the largest slums in the world. As The Real News has reported Sadr City is being walled in–- transformed into a gulag, and pounded relentlessly by US air strikes. The Pentagon-–and the Iraqi government–-say they are “protecting the Green Zone” by attacking Sadr City.

As if that traumatic scene of the helicopter leaving the roof of the US embassy in Saigon in 1975 was rattling too many military minds. 1745 Iraqi civilians were killed in April-– against 159 policemen and 104 soldiers. Over 400 people were killed in Sadr City alone. Only 10% were guerrillas. This carnage is a direct consequence of Dick Cheney’s recent tour of the Middle East, Iraq included. This carnage is a direct consequence of Gen. David Petraeus’ surge. These are victims of a vicious political battle between the al-Maliki government in Baghdad, supported by the al-Hakim family, and the US, against Muqtada al-Sadr, who they fear will win the next elections in October-–because, of course, he is immensely popular. And in the big picture, these deaths are a graphic example of how the sophisticated Pentagon machine plans to deal with “problematic” urban slums in the future. We wall them, we isolate them, and we bomb the hell out of them. Who cares about collateral damage? It may be very harsh to say, but that's how it is.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Time to Get Real about War's True Nature: "For Eli" by Andrea Gibson



Andrea Gibson at the 2006 poetry slam, performing "For Eli"

For Eli

Eli came back from Iraq
and tattooed a teddy bear onto the inside of his wrist
above that a medic with an IV bag
above that an angel
but Eli says the teddy bear won't live
and I know I don't know but I say, "I know"
cause Eli's only twenty-four and I've never seen eyes
further away from childhood than his
eyes old with a wisdom
he knows I'd rather not have
Eli's mother traces a teddy bear onto the inside of my arm
and says, "not all casualties come home in body bags"
and I swear
I'd spend the rest of my life writing nothing
but the word light at the end of this tunnel
if I could find the fucking tunnel
I'd write nothing but white flags
somebody pray for the soldiers
somebody pray for what's lost
somebody pray for the mailbox
that holds the official letters
to the mothers,
--------------fathers,
--------------------sisters,
and little brothers
of Micheal 19... Steven 21... John 33
how ironic that their deaths sound like bible verses
the hearse is parked in the halls of the high school
recruiting black, brown and poor
while anti-war activists
outside walter reed army hospital scream
100, 000 slain
as an amputee on the third floor
breathes forget-me-nots onto the window pain
but how can we forget what we never knew
our sky is so perfectly blue it's repulsive
somebody tell me where god lives
cause if god is truth god doesn't live here
our lies have seared the sun too hot to live by
there are ghosts of kids who are still alive
touting M16s with trembling hands
while we dream ourselves stars on Survivor
another missile sets fire to the face in the locket
of a mother who's son needed money for college
and she swears she can feel his photograph burn
how many wars will it take us to learn
that only the dead return
the rest remain forever caught between worlds of
shrapnel shatters body of three year old girl
to
welcome to McDonalds can I take your order?
the mortar of sanity crumbling
stumbling back home to a home that will never be home again
Eli doesn't know if he can ever write a poem again
one third of the homeless men in this country are veterans
and we have the nerve to Support Our Troops
with pretty yellow ribbons
while giving nothing but dirty looks to their outstretched hands
tell me what land of the free
sets free its eighteen-year-old kids into greedy war zones
hones them like missiles
then returns their bones in the middle of the night
so no one can see
each death swept beneath the carpet and hidden like dirt
each life a promise we never kept
Jeff Lucey came back from Iraq
and hung himself in his parents basement with a garden hose
the night before he died he spent forty five minutes on his fathers lap
rocking like a baby
rocking like daddy, save me
and don't think for a minute he too isn't collateral damage
in the mansions of washington they are watching them burn
and hoarding the water
no senators' sons are being sent out to slaughter
no presidents' daughters are licking ashes from their lips
or dreaming up ropes to wrap around their necks
in case they ever make it home alive
our eyes are closed
america
there are souls in
the boots of the soldiers
america
fuck your yellow ribbon
you wanna support our troops
bring them home
and hold them tight when they get here

Monday, April 28, 2008

Rev. Jeremiah Wright vs the Sound Bites

When all of a sudden soundbites from the past sermons of Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, began to surface, it took me five minutes to figure out what was going on, an emotionally-charged character assassination of Rev. Wright meant to torpedo Barack Obama's candidacy. The basic strategy is to paint Wright as a hate-America, Black-Muslim type ideological extremist and to damage Obama with the old guilt through association routine.

But is Rev. Wright this one-dimensional stereotype? Does he warrant all these tempests of abuse across America? You be the judge, because here is Rev. Wright in the raw in last Friday evening's hour-long interview (April 25) with Bill Moyers on PBS, complete with transcript:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04252008/watch.html

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Explanatory Buzz

I confess.....Without any warning our posting went into serious decline over here at mosquito blog. (Mac, kindly posted our latest post 12 days ago....) This has not been a planned thing...to take a break it just has sort of descended upon us for a variety of reasons.

Star and I decided in March that we were sick and tired of Hillary Clinton. We concluded that she will probably still be around on inauguration day laying out spiking strips to derail Obama's victory lap in the presidential limousine. We both were tired of wasting our time covering Hillary's latest antics. We believe she cannot win and though she entered this race as the "favorite' with all the resources, etc....the people have soundly rejected her. No matter how much the corporate media backs her campaign now (and she wouldn't still be around if corporate media wasn't backing her now.....unfortunately, the corporate media is supplying Hillary with the air time, she can no longer afford, to allowing her to evolve into a sort of "Terminator" presidential candidate. Seems to me the last thing our country needs is to replace Darth Vader with the Terminator.....

Well Hillary is as delusional as ever and I just can't bring myself to write about her. Then Star has had some stuff come up so she is going on a sabbatical until August/September. She may post something here and there but she will not be posting on a regular basis.

I have also decided that I am going to take a sabbatical until August/September. Quite frankly, this news junkie has to turn the channel every time Hillary Clinton's face appears on the Boob Tube. I can no longer stand the deceitful way the corporate media is playing this and I'm even more disgusted with the Democratic party. I have a relative that used to be "big" in the Democratic party. She would often say--"The Democratic party would screw up a two car funeral. " I am seriously looking at other options for my future community service work. I am so disgusted with the Democrats....unfortunately it's becoming more difficult to tell the difference between a democrat and a republican....especially with Hillary Clinton's negative campaign and her crazy plans to "nuke" the Middle East.

(I may post something occassionally) but I want to free up some time and resources to get a home renovation project underway and give some serious thought to local community projects I may wish to work on.

I haven't had a chance to speak with Mac about his plans for the summer so I can't give you any idea of what to expect from him over the summer.

I plan to continue to support Barack Obama financially, and if the Democratic party does not self-destruct, I plan on volunteering to volunteer to assist Obama's Presidential campaign in the fall.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Honors Choir of South Africa Performing at the Historic First Baptist Church - Sunday April 6

Earlier this month, on Sunday, April 6, a unique cultural event took place in Norfolk that didn’t receive much, if any media attention that I am aware of. The 24 youth (12 boys/12 girls) Honors Choir of South Africa performed at the Historic First Baptist Church on Bute Street in Norfolk. This choir, representing some of the most talented youth from South Africa’s high schools, has begun a brief tour of America, what is known as the Ubungane Tour. Their overall, international sponsor is the International Children's Outreach Ministry, while many other sponsors have contributed locally. The choir was headed to Brooklyn next after their performance here.

It was almost a full house at this beautiful old church with a large balcony, so there must have been at least 500 people there by my estimate, maybe more. The choir performed three exciting sets, the first one with the choir dressed in uniform attire reflecting the South African Nation's official colors, green, blue, red, yellow and white, a set in which they sang traditional African chants and songs with religious themes.

The second set saw them return in tribal costumes of South Africa, to sing and dance three powerful songs associated with play, weddings and courtship, very vigorous and exciting, the dances displaying colorful ceremony, powerful rhythms enhanced by drumming, and some very dynamic, at times lighting fast, movement.

During both intermissions, I might add, soloists from the church’s musical talents performed rousing gospel numbers to standing ovations.

For their third set, the Youth Choir returned in black gowns and suits formal enough for the New York Met to display their musical versatility. They sang various Opera arias and chorus pieces, finally ending with the South African National Anthem, while the audience went wild once again, giving them a lengthy standing ovation.

My small camera was rather challenged, with only an average zoom, to get good shots. Lighting was not very high, so when I took shots of the dancing, the lens, which had to stay open longer to capture enough light, was not shutting fast enough to prevent some blurring of motion, so some of the photos of the dancing are blurred. Consider this special effects.

Enjoy the photos. I have more if anyone is interested. Some of you may want to contact the Historic First Baptist Church at 622-6701 about DVD's, CD's, future events and tours. Some of you might consider jumping on the sponsorship bandwagon, truly a worthy cause.



















The Choir did various religious, African songs popular in South Africa, such as Shosholoza (Song Sang in Bondage), Vuma Nawe (Believe), KaeleKae (Anywhere with Jesus). They would act out some songs.




















They finished the first set with We Shall Overcome.



















For the second set they came back in tribal costumes to do three sung and danced African melodies in a medley.



















The first dance song was Idani re Tambe (Come let's Play).



















The dancing got faster and faster.





















I think this is where the second dance began. It is called Tihomu (Wedding Song).























For the third set, they came back in formal attire to do Italian and other opera arias and choruses. Tremendous versatility!





















A quintet doing Non v'e pui tempo & Di Scrivemo.



















The choir ended with a powerfully felt rendition of the South African National Anthem.

Monday, April 14, 2008

U.N. Official calls for UN investigation of 9/11

A United Nations (UN) official is calling for an official UN commission to study te U.S. government's involvement in the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. The UN official requesting the study is none other than Richard Falk, Milbank professor of international law emeritus at Princeton University. It appears that government officials in Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and Belgium are also noted to have questions regarding U.S. government involvement in 9/11.

It is long past time for us to have answers to important questions concerning 9/11. Hopefully the UN will appoint a commission who will independently study the issue.

Sunday, April 13, 2008



Five Buzzes to the Highway Blogger!!

The Thurmond Rule

The ‘Thurmond Rule,’ a longstanding Senate practice, dictates that only non-controversial judicial nominees should be processed by the Senate in the months preceding a presidential election. (Source) Now is the time that the Senate should have stated "enough" and refused to confirm Bush's nominee, Catharina Haynes. Instead, the "Democratic" Senate approved a nomination to the Fifth District Court that does not meet the criteria for the Thurmond Rule.

Why are the Dems so self-destructive. It's actions like these that keep their approval ratings in the basement. Buzz....Buzz....

Food for Thought on 9/11

Check this out, from George Washington's Blog, who is known as a heavy-duty 9/11 Truth Advocate, so he would attract the kind of statement you are about to read. Whether or not you want to believe it is up to you. It might have been made up, but what if it wasn't? That would certainly explain why Flight 93 debris was scattered for miles and no fuselage or engines were found. And it would confirm what several eye-witnesses on the ground claimed to have seen, what looked to them like a missile attack by another plane. From George Washington's Blog:

"The US Air Force Shot Down Flight 93"

The following comment was posted to my blog today (I do not know who the author is -- he posted semi-anonymously; so decide for yourself whether or not you believe him):

"I am an Air Force veteran. I was serving at Langley AFB, Virginia on Sept. 11. (not to be confused with CIA headquarters at Langley, VA). The "Alert Squadron" of 4 F-16 Falcons also stationed at Langley AFB was scrambled AFTER the "plane" crashed into the Pentagon. Because of my position as a ground equipment mechanic, I had access to the flightline operations that day. My friends were Crew Cheifs and Weapons Loaders, among other professions on the flightline that day. One of my [unusual] duties that day was to drive a Loader (personal friend) along with a rack of live missiles (AIM-9's and AIM-120's) across the active runway to the Alert Squadron and drop them off. I was towing equipment to the flightline, so when it was time to go back and pick up the Loader (and our missile trailer) I was unable to do so, but another member of my Flight (a good friend, and later roommate) did go. According to my roommate (and I later confirmed with the Loader) the Loader was completely silent most of the trip back to our side of the base, after they crossed the active, he spoke. "They shot one down." JJ replied "WHAT?" Loader:"One of those 16's came back with one less missile than it left with" That was all. As they pulled back in to the squadron area, The loader was whisked away by his commanders for debriefing. I didn't see him for a few days, but when I did, he said he couldn't talk about it, but he confirmed that what my roommate had told me was true.

The US Air Force shot down Flight 93. I haven't told this to many people. I told my parents and other family members shortly after I left the military. They didn't believe it. I figured no one else would either. I kept my mouth shut. Everyone was dedicated to the president and the country (not really) And anything that went against the Official, media delivered story was viewed as unpatriotic. I knew that I loved this country, so I kept my mouth shut. I just can't do that anymore. I know that I don't have any documents to prove it, and I have no way of knowing where the others involved are now days, so I can't prove anything. All I have is my word. and with God as my witness that is the truth."

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Americans won't vote for this....

McCain Gets It Wrong Again....Will the rest of US follow him?



Think Progress reports:
In fact, it was members of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government who brokered the ceasefire, to which Sadr agreed. Experts agree that Sadr’s influence was strengthened — rather than diminished — by the Basra battle.
When is McCain going to get it right? Maybe in his next lifetime? According to his own logic, things are going worse not better in Iraq.

In the "mean"time...watch Bush, Cheney, "Petraeus," Crocker, and McCain beat the drums of war next week....Time to bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran!! Once again watch "our" corporate media once again become cheerleaders for another ILLEGAL Invasion. Guess what....most folks think Intelligence got it right this time...but the "Intelligence" counters the lies that Bush et al are building their new war plan on. So.....Bush is NOT allowing this Intelligence report to be part of the discussion. Yikes!!

Will the American people stand by and allow another country and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian families to be massacred and torn apart?? Iran intervened and assisted Iraq's prime minister so that a cease fire could be negotiated. This was not "stirring up trouble" but brokering a peace that Bush folks were failing to do. So Iran's "good deed" is not going to be rewarded with some masterful diplomacy...instead Bush, Cheney, and McCain want to bomb Iran?

Will our "Democratic" Congress go along this time. According to Paul Craig Roberts:
Don't expect Congress to do anything except to egg on the attack. On April 3 the International Herald Tribune reported that senators and representatives have made millions of dollars from their investments in defense companies totaling $196 million. Rep. Ike Skelton, the Democrat chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is already on board with the attack on Iran. The London Telegraph quotes Skelton: "Iran is the bull in the china shop. In all of this, they seem to have links to all of the Shi'ite groups, whether they be political or military.
We don't have to go here again....Check YOUR elected officials...are they war profiteers like Bush and Cheney or are they representing the 80% of their constituents who what a drastic change in this horrible, immoral, destructive, continuous march to make war on the world?

Buzz...Buzz...