A Price Must Be Paid

The Wall Street Journal has the text of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. It is egregious.

Section 4 allows for only vague and infrequent reports to Congress.

Within three months of the first exercise of the authority granted in section 2(a), and semiannually thereafter, the Secretary shall report to the Committees on the Budget, Financial Services, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committees on the Budget, Finance, and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate with respect to the authorities exercised under this Act and the considerations required by section 3.

Improvement to Section 4
The Treasury Secretary must submit written reports under penalty of perjury to both houses of Congress on a monthly basis. The reports must be fully public with no information redacted. The reports must list all transactions under this plan, the book value of the debt being acquired, the current market value, and the price the Government paid for the debt.

All sales of assets under this Act must be similarly reported (book value, current value, price paid to the Government). If the price paid to the Government is less than the current value or the price the Government paid to purchase the asset the Treasury Sec. must explain to Congress in detail the reason for this discrepancy.

Section 8 grants absolute autonomous power to the Treasury Sec.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Improvement to Section 8
All existing laws apply to the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act. Congress has the absolute right to review the actions and decisions of the Secretary and to appoint such reviewing authorities Congress deems necessary.

(Stiff criminal penalties for defrauding the Government under this program must be stated in the law. Such defrauding to include misrepresenting the book or current value of the debt. Both the corporation and its responsible officers are legally responsible for the information provided by the corporation it must be provided under penalty of perjury.)

Additional Section
The accounting books for any corporation participating in this program are to be open in their entity to examination by the Treasury Department or the United States Congress for as long as the Federal Government holds the debt acquired.
*****
There is more I would like but the above are the minimum changes to make the Paulson Bank Bailout Act acceptable. My wish list improvements are:

• Every corporation participating in this program is restricted to the compensation it pays to all employees, individual consultants, and board members. For five years from first participation no individual may receive total compensation (salary, bonuses, stock options) in excess of twelve times the median household salary for the preceding years. In 2007 the median household salary was $50,233 meaning the highest compensation allowed for 2008 would be $602,796.
• The government is to receive equity in the corporation equal to some percentage (say 20%) of the difference between the book value and the price paid for the assets purchased by the Government. This equity to be used to help homeowners facing foreclosure.
  

McCain's Proposal: Make the Nation's Health Care Like the Banking System

I've known for some time that John McCain wanted to use banking deregulation as the pattern for reforming (by reform he means utterly destroy) health care. It was sort of his secret. He believed it, he'd share that belief with the right ultra-conservative crowd, but I didn't think him stupid enough to chat it up to the broader public. I was wrong.

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation. ~ John McCain in Contingencies Magazine Sept/Oct 2008

In one sentence McCain puts himself foursquare behind the policies that have caused the banking industry to dissolve and he has promised to do the very same thing to health insurance. What an astonishing toofer. And it is out there in print, available in many of the finer HMO waiting rooms.

Contingencies Magazine website

I Guess We're All Communists Now

What a week! The government nationalized the mortgage industry when it took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government nationalized the insurance industry with the forced acquisition of AIG. Now the government is building a garbage bank where all the lesser banks can sell their worthless bad paper - meaning, of course, that bankers now have absolutely no incentive to use due diligence while writing loans to their wasteful billionaire buddies.

Add in domestic spying and internal passports and we will have created a Communist government of a type Ronald Reagan used to denounce.

The United States government is Communist with a Chinese tint. The rich and connected know the government is always ready to help them if they stumble. It will pick them up and refill their pockets with gold. The poor and what is left of the middle class know they are on their own. Success is impossible. Should they fail, as they surely must, all they will receive is a lecture on Republican Self Reliance.

Call Them 'Bushvilles'

In a echo of the Depression era "Hoovervilles" the AP is reporting on modern tent cities populated by the thousands of Americans made homeless by the economic crisis.

For those people whose high school history instructions was derelict (Sarah Palin), "Hooverville" was the collective name for the homeless encampments that sprang up around American cities during the 1930's. They were named for President Herbert Hoover. Under that Republican president, as now, what assistance that was available went to the wealthy cronies of the politically powerful.

Palin-McCain Times Three

E-Mail:
Way back when e-mail was new and I was an adviser to an elected official I gave her some advice:

Never write anything in an e-mail you wouldn't want to see posted on the first floor bulletin board.

Palin used an insecure, public e-mail account and it got hacked. Of course it did. Grow up. That's why governments maintain highly secure accounts. Palin was stupid to use a Yahoo account.

Questions and Answers:
Sarah Palin actually tried to answer a question at a McCain townhall meeting. As her answer faded into a testy babble McCain had to come to her rescue.

Palin delivers speeches reasonably well but she is lost in a question-answer format. Like Bush, she has a problem understanding the subject-verb sentence structure concept. Unlike Bush she doesn't have a native, childlike wit to fall back on when she has to ad-lib.

Who Gets Top Billing:
Sarah today put herself at the top of the ticket. She's been upstaging Old Man John for some time, she is stealing top billing for herself now too. If they win I expect Sarah will lock John in the Lincoln Bedroom and just take over.

Two Snapshots of the Coming Depression

Maybe it means nothing. Maybe it means everything.

• Fine Dining is Kaput. I drove by Anthony's Fish Grotto here in San Diego at lunch time today. It's a mid-range eatery - somewhat pricey (dinner for two will cost about $60 without wine), but well below the most expensive hashhouses in town. They normally have about 25 cars in their parking lot for lunch. Today there were four.
  
• Empty Grocery Shelves. Later I went to Vons grocery store to buy some fresh vegetables. There were gapping holes in the fresh food aisles. There was no broccoli, no green beans, a slim selection of fresh meats, and the fruit look past its prime. The canned and packaged food aisles were full. It was as if anything with a long shelf life was still abundant while those things that have to be delivered fresh daily was in short supply. As if several suppliers stopped delivering.
  

Maybe I just caught a couple of anomalies. I hope so. Or, maybe I spotted the leading edge of the total collapse of the nation's economy. I hope I'm just being paranoid.

McCain: Deregulation Hawk

One could argue, quite accurately, that John McCain is responsible for the Nation's economic crisis. McCain has worked his entire career to deregulate the financial industry - with disastrous results.

• In the 1980's McCain was a key figure in deregulating the savings and loan industry. McCain parlayed it into highly profitable graft for himself. That led to wholesale theft and the collaspe of many S&Ls. McCain got caught in the the ensuing scandal but successfully used his POW line to wiggle free.
• McCain's economic guru, Phil Gramm, slipped the "Enron Loophole" into legislation in the year 2000. This deregulatory loophole was used by that infamous company to game the electricity markets so egregiously that it led to Enron's own collapse. Since then, McCain has blocked every effort to close the loophole which is now being used by energy traders to game gasoline prices.
• The current banking crisis traces back to the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. Again Phil Gramm get direct blame for deregulating banks. Again, John McCain followed Gramm like an servile puppy in the effort. The effect is an economic crisis the world has not seen in 75 years.
  
• McCain has said he will make Phil Gramm Treasury Secretary.
• McCain's son, Andrew, ran an Arizona bank into bankruptcy earlier this year under curious, at least, circumstances.
  
• Not content with fucking the nation's economy, McCain is campaigning on a platform of deregulating health care.

It is true that, as of today, John McCain is urging reregulating the financial markets. Of course that would mean undoing his life's work. But, John McCain wouldn't lie, would he? He wouldn't say one thing now to get elected and do another thing after he gets in office, would he?

Black Monday

The stock market is poised to fall off a cliff today. It will be an old fashioned Panic, a blood letting. But everything is okay because John McCain has declared the economy is fundamentally strong and he wouldn't lie, would he?

Palin Is a Chorine

He used to like to take me out and show me off. Ugly guys like to do that.

I've been wondering what Sarah Palin is. Not who she is, I know that, but what role she fills.

John McCain hardly goes anywhere anymore without Palin on his arm. She's more important than mere arm candy. She's more like a brunette chorine. Like a magician's assistant, her job is to wear a tight skirt, flash some leg, smile a lot, and distract the audience from the slight-of-hand going on. And I have to say she is doing a good job. Nobody is paying attention to anything McCain says anymore.

Another celebrity chorine, Roxie Hart.

Hunker Down

Tens of thousands of people are suffering in Houston because they listened to official advise to "Hunker Down."

Of course now those same officials who instructed Houstonians to stay in place because evacuating an American city is too difficult a tack for government to manage are now blaming the victims of the hurricane for not leaving.

Yet another example of government hypocrisy written in innocent blood.

Murdering Straight Talk

John McCain has murdered the concept of Straight Talk. His lies are bold and frequent. He has learned the teachings of a master that if he always lies and repeats the lies endlessly in the face of contradiction people will believe the lies. When caught lying he attacks - it is "disrespectful" to show he has lied.

This is not a ruthless Nazi reference, it is a pathological liar reference. As a liar, John McCain has exceeded the reach of George Bush and is equaling the skill of Hitler's Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels. As Goebbels knew, skillful pathological liars can gain ultimate power.

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. 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 is the greatest enemy of the State."

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."

And one for Sarah Palin. "Intellectual activity is a danger to the building of character."

A Time to Focus

Judging from what I'm seeing I don't think they need it, but here is some advice for the Obama campaign.

• Forget Sarah Palin. She is a meaningless celebrity. The newsmedia is going to spend way too much space on her, she doesn't deserve a breath from the campaign except to denounce her whenever some vile noise emits from her mouth. The opponent is John McCain.
• Ignore the published polls. According to the published polls (Rasmussen, Gallup, etc.) some 90+ percent of the public is solidly behind one candidate or the other. That's hogwash. The truth is 40% of the electorate, mas or menos, is persuadable. The published polls are advertising for the polling companies so they want to appear definitive when accurate polling would show it still a general mishmash.
• Never apologize. Double down on any attack that draws blood. For example: "That lipstick wearing pig I'm talking about is John McCain."
• Fight for the right to vote. Republicans are currently working to prevent Democrats from voting in battleground states like Ohio, Florida, and Virginia. Many states will be won or lost depending on whether or not Republicans succeed in stealing the right to vote from the American people.
  

The Agony of de Feet

On a completely personal note, I am in pain (poor dear). Or at least my feet hurt. The right foot came first with Achilles tendonitis. Not wanting to be ignored, my left foot developed a really nasty case of plantar fasciitis. The result is that walking is a test of creative foot placement to minimizing the sharp, stabbing pain while I wait for my podiatry appointment.

Making Enemies Wherever We Go

Be sure you are right - then go ahead. ~ Davy Crockett

Everyone knows that the Taliban leadership and what's left of Bin Laden are hiding out in the lawless region of Pakistan. The problem with the recent attack by the United States into sovereign Pakistan was it was a monumental cockup. The attack may, or may not, have killed anyone important but it certainly killed a score of innocents.

Obviously timed to coincide with the Republican Convention, the September 3 attack probably failed since there was no bragging about it from the podium the following day. Instead the United States followed the attack by announcing we will be selling nuclear technology to Pakistan's enemy, India.

Clumsy, ham-handed, politically motivated, ill-considered, deadly, and a failure. It was Republican diplomacy at its best.

The Real Original Maverick

They used to say in vaudeville that you never want to follow an animal act. John McCain fell into that trap. Never a compelling speaker he was positively soporific last night following Palin's snarling attack dog performance.
But I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about Maverick, the REAL Maverick.

The real Maverick was a gambler, an inveterate poker player, and something of a con man. He was lazy and, above all else, a coward. As his Pappy always said, "He who fights and runs away lives to run away another day."

The real Maverick was Bret Maverick as played by James Garner in the 1950's television program. The entire series can be seen weekdays and 6 pm on the Encore Western cable channel.

As my old pappy used to say, 'work is fine for killin' time, but it's a shaky way to make a living.' ~ Bret Maverick

Pit Bull

The reviews are in and Sarah Palin is the new Spiro Agnew.

An attack dog skilled at reading other people's writings (Who will be her William Safire?), she has set her career path. It will be a ugly path never mitigated with pleasant prose. And it will likely end with her serving time in prison. Hopefully, I will not need to spend any additional time thinking about her.

Full creds to Jonathan Singer who saw this potential before anyone else.

Focus Grouping the Republican Convention

As I said earlier, the focus groups for conventions are both party's political junkies.

The reaction to Tuesday was, well, nothing. Virtually nobody, even right-wing blogs like Redstate had anything to say about the speeches. Up until now the Republican Convention is a non-event.

Everyone is waiting for Sarah Palin tonight. It is not that people have low expectations for her, they don't know what to expect. Unlike Dan Quayle, she has to do more than just be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. This is her roll-out for 99.95% of the American people. She has one chance, just this one single chance to impress.

What to expect. The cheering will be so loud early she won't be allowed to finish sentences without being interrupted. Expect her to spend an inordinate amount of time just smiling at the cameras. The cheering often will come at inappropriate moments as the crowd will be trying to protect her from looking lost or hesitant. The words themselves will be completely meaningless. Republicans at the end will be calling it the greatest oration since Cicero. Frankly, they will be thrilled if she doesn't get obvious flop sweat.

People will be watching in the same way they gawk at traffic accidents, hoping to see blood on the streets. Me? I've got the Discovery Channel.

John and Sarah, Sitting in a Tree

Please note in the video how John McCain can't stop staring at Sarah Palin's breasts. (Her eyes are up higher you old fart.) Also note how when McCain approaches Palin to kiss her she keeps backing away. As Rising Hegemon states, creepy.

Unencumbered by the Thought Process

I can't know for sure without getting into John McCain's mind. I'm not going to do that, it's a dark and frightening place. But, my gut is telling me that his veep pick was not a well thought out decision. Apparently McCain, only now, is getting around to vetting Sarah Palin.

McCain's first act as president, the selection of his running mate, was impulsive. He acted without thinking, without considering all of the ramifications. Impetuousness is just the personality trait you want in a man who wants war with Russia and has his finger on the nuclear button.

Throw 'em a Fake and a Finagle

They'll never know you're just a bagel
Razzle dazzle them
And they'll beg you for more ~ Razzle Dazzle, Chicago

John McCain's maneuvers over his veep pick is getting humorous. First its Mitt Romney, St. John's official rumor mill is all over that even though McCain hates Mitt's guts. Then, just joking before, the Chatty Cathys aboard the "Straight Talk Express" were all atwitter that the pick is Tim Pawlenty, a man who couldn't even get reelected in his home state today. But that was so yesterday.

Now the pick is Sarah Palin. Her twenty months experience as governor of Alaska (population 670,000) added to her years a mayor of Wasilla (population 6,000) makes her ideally suited to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Its a straight up play for the Hillaryites on the theory that they don't give a shit about politics and only care about the orentation of a candidate's gonads.

On the Convention(s)

I'm not liveblogging the Democratic Convention. I'm not even deadblogging it. I lost interest in Presidential Conventions decades ago when they no longer played any part in candidate selection. The conventions are just advertising these days, painfully long advertisements. As such they are only interesting in the reaction of the focus groups - both party's political junkies.

• The Clinton's played their parts well. They are both being praised from the left. The right has discarded its phony compassion towards Hillary and is in full Clinton hate mode.
• Joe Biden was a good choice. The left is happy if somewhat disappointed their favorite candidate (take your pick) was overlooked. The right is still hunting around for an appropriate response.
  
• The Hillaryites are grieving. They are still rending their clothes. They are still wailing. Some are still hoping that the entire nation collapses to punish it for the transgression of not worshiping the Goddess. Après nous, le déluge.

We will see about Barack tonight. No, he doesn't have to "close the deal." Whatever he says will be attacked by the right. No matter what he says the Hillaryites will whine that she would have said it better. Barack needs to present an inspiring vision with enough details to suggest there is meat on the bone but not so many that the vision bogs down into a laundry list. He needs to attack George Bush and John McCain with passion. And he needs some really nifty sound bites.

Why Isn't Bill Clinton Worshiped?

I'm reading a TalkLeft entry on how Hillary Clinton should be President, or Vice-President, or...I not sure what it is the Hillaryites want nowadays. It strikes me there are several self-described "older, educated women" who would rather be raped by John McCain than sit down on a bus next to Barack Obama.

Anyhow, I'm reading the comments and I come across this - Reagan is worshiped and [Bill] Clinton is dissed. Why? Good Question.

• Ronald Reagan defined the Republican party in the 1980's, something Bill Clinton never did in the 1990's.
  
• Bill Clinton abandoned party politics after 2000. He made no effort to set the agenda of a party in need of leadership. Never was there a word from him criticizing the illegal actions of the Bush II Administration.
• Bill Clinton shilled for anyone willing to pony up his speaking fee. He reminded me of former baseball great Pete Rose by showing up at any demeaning gathering that promised to cheer him and give him lots of money.
• Bill Clinton spent far too much of the 2000's behaving like George Bush Sr.'s adopted son. They started appearing everywhere together. It hard to be the Hero of the Democratic Party if your BFF is Republican First Daddy.

Political deification is not a right, it is bestowed by the people upon those rare individuals who create a movement that lives after their short time in office. Bill Clinton created nothing. He isn't worshiped because is hasn't earned it.

Is McCain Swiftboating Himself?

John McCain's campaign is quickly becoming a one-note symphony. Vote for me, he is saying with increasing shrillness, because I was once a POW. Every answer to every issue is "because I was in prison."

• He says he is a foreign policy genius because he was once in a foreign prison.
• He's an expert on war because he was once a prisoner of war.
• His personal history of corruption is excusable because he was a POW.
  
• His personal infidelity is understandable because he was a POW.
  
• He should not be expected to understand his own family finances because he was once a POW.
• It's okay if he lies or cheats because he was once a POW.

It's as if his personal history stopped 35 years ago. Hanlon calls it POW Tourrette's.

The Polish Missile Crisis

In 1962 the Soviet Union placed missiles in Cuba that were capable of carrying nuclear warheads. This was a deliberately provocative act responding to the attempted United States invasion of Cuba the previous year as well as the United States placing nuclear missiles on Russia's border in Turkey. The ensuing crisis led us to the brink of World War III.

(Aside: I still remember being in school discussing geopolitics with my fellow third graders. We concluded that the duck-and-cover drills were worthless and were being done so the adults could feel like they were doing something. We knew we could not survive nuclear war by hiding under a desk and even if we did we wouldn't want to.)

The current stimulus for the United States placing (defensive) missiles in Poland is the 2008 Presidential election (the Russian action against Georgia is a red herring). The White House is hoping to generate an international crisis with Russia that McCain can use to campaign for the need for a warrior president.

If this campaign tactic leads to war, well, that's just the price of victory.

John McCain will do anything to win election, even starting a war with Russia.

Dedicated Republican Idiot

I'm having lunch on the sidewalk outside my grocery store. A young guy drops off his wife so she can shop. He's driving one of those big-ass pickup truck that are marginally useful if you habitually have to haul a ton of masonry to the worksite but are worthless if the most you ever carry, beyond your own fat ass, is a twelve-pack of brewskies.

This guy drops off his wife and starts driving slowly around the grocery store parking lot. Lap after lap, for twenty minutes, he slowly tours the lot. It's like he's addicted to the smell of poorly burned hydrocarbons.

I know this dullard is a Republican from his Duncan Hunter bumpersticker. I know this cretin is dedicated because of his personalized license plate that spells "Hoonter." He is either a fan of the corrupt congressman from California's 52nd Congressional District or he loves Duncan Jr., the son of said congressman who is running to replace his daddy, for his massive man-boobs.

Human Organ Mining

The film The Island posits a near future where the very rich can have human clones of themselves manufactured and maintained. It is a form of health insurance, a ready supply of perfectly matched organs for transplanting. Their cloned replicas are kept blissfully unaware of the reason they exist. They don't know their fate is to be cut up for parts. It's a good movie, although frightening.

Friday's Slate Magazine has an article by Sally Satel calling for a commodities market for human transplant organs. Satel is a kidney transplant recipient and I don't doubt she is sincere in her desire to increase the amount of available organs for transplant by offering cash payments for human organs. Unfortunately, the practice of paying for human body parts has a long mostly gory history.

Ghouls
In the 19th Century a thriving industry grew up around communities with teaching hospitals to provide fresh cadavers for the study of anatomy. Body-snatchers, often called ghouls, would dig up the corpses of the recently deceased and sell them to medical schools. These ghouls were willing to resort to murder to provide the freshest, most valuable bodies.

Organ Harvesters
Today, there is a flourishing trade in organs. Will Saletan, also in Slate, described the state of the underground trade in body parts in an 2007 article. Forty percent of people in some Pakistan villages are missing a kidney. Fresh organs extracted from living "donors" have the best chances of successful transplant. Egypt, India, the Philippines, the Ukraine, American prisons, everywhere that jobs are impossible to find there are people willing to sell and buy irreplaceable body parts for money. Often, if a deal can not be made the organ brokers will simply steal it. Forced organ harvesting is happening throughout much of the Third World. In China prisoners are having their organs extracted without consent. In large cities modern ghouls are kidnapping people off the street to steal their organs.

Satel believes that a formal, legalized trade in body parts will end the worse excesses of the underground trade. Perhaps. It will also increase and legalize the gap between the social castes. The rich are no longer simply seeing the poor as a source of cheap labor, the poor are becoming consumables. Less even than slaves, the poorest of our planet are being cut up and consumed by the rich. They are becoming more like cattle than men.

Five Invasive Species in California

I'm sitting at my computer enjoying the cacophony of our local flock of parrots thinking about invasive species. Here are five.

House Sparrow
There's special providence in the fall of a sparrow.

~ Hamlet

In the 19th Century literary societies in the United States got it into their pretty little heads to import all of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare. The birds loved it. House sparrows are now feature performers at every outdoor restaurant in the state.

Argentine Ant
aka grease ant. Another 19th Century import. These are usually the ants that invade your home. The weird thing about these ants is that the trillions upon trillions of them stretching the length of California from San Diego to Ukiah compose a single, gigantic colony.

Eucalyptus
Introduced by ignorant loggers to replace clearcut redwood forests. While eucalyptus grow quickly it takes centuries for the trees to mature into usable lumber. So they are really just California's biggest weed. But they are more than just a weed, they encourage fire. Native redwoods and oaks are fire resistant while eucalyptus are highly combustible. Firefighters call them "gasoline trees." They are also water hogs that are aggravating the effect of California's prolonged drought.

Jumping Frogs
The jumping frogs celebrated in Mark Twain's short story were the California red-legged frog. They are endangered today in large part because of that story. Every year the Calaveras County Fair hosts a Jumping Frog Jubilee. People imported the far bigger eastern bullfrog to compete and then released those frogs into local waters. Where they would eat the smaller red-legged frogs. Local officials are fighting to protect bullfrogs from the little red-legged frog.

Red Crown Parrot
Fifty years ago the only parrots in California were in cages. Today there are a half-dozen species, thousands of birds, flocking throughout much of the state. Nobody really knows why. The most common tale is they are descended from escaped pets. Some believe increasingly subtropical climate in Southern California has sparked an increase in their natural range.

McCain's Poor Ad Messaging

Way back in the day I was working on an underfunded campaign against a Republican incumbent with more money than could be wisely spend in an election. He mailed a 20-page(!) four-color flyer to every home in the district detailing the attacks against him so each could be explained. On the cover of this flyer was a photo of the Republican covered in mud rising out of a bucket of ooze.

I was thrilled. The cover was exactly the image I had wanted to send out in a one-sheet if we had only had the money. No one beyond a handful of political addicts were going to read the whole thing. The only image the voters were going to take was that cover which made him look hopelessly corrupt. The Republican had spent an ungodly amount of money doing our job for us.

On To McCain
I told that story to tell you this one. McCain has an ad running frequently during the Olympics. It starts by saying, "Washington’s broken. John McCain knows it. We’re worse off than we were four years ago.” while showing a black-and-white image of McCain. I love this ad.

Unless a television commercial is funny or has beautiful people in it, most viewers only pay attention until they get the basic message of the ad or until they can find the mute button. The first five seconds sells the basic message - "John McCain, we're worse off." The subliminal meaning of the black-and-white images reinforces the badness message. Except for political addicts, that is all most people are going to take from the ad.

So, McCain is paying good money to attach himself to a "things are horrible" message but few people are going to stick around for his "but I'm not responsible" defense. I love it. Couldn't have done better myself.

If John McCain Were President

The United States would be in a shooting war with Russia before the end of his first term.

The Bible as Porn

If you are of a mind to look for it, the Bible's Old Testament is just brimming with sexy passages. Cracked.com found the Six Raunchiest.

Incest
In Genesis (19:30-36), Lot's two daughters get their old man drunk and have sex with him. Not just any random sex either but Let's Get Preggers by Daddy sex. This is the same Lot who offered up these same daughters for gang rape in Sodom (Gen. 19:8) but the girls were so ugly the mob didn't want them.

Masturbation
Onan's daddy ordered him to marry his own dead brother's wife, Tamar (Judah 38:8-10). Onan did as ordered but chose masturbation over putting a loaf in Tamar's oven. God was so pissed at this he smote Onan. Forget going blind, jerking off can get a guy killed.

More Incest
Tamar, frustrated by the whole Onan affair, dressed up as a whore, went into a brothel, and bedded Onan's dad, her own father-in-law (Gen 38:15-16). From this incestuous hook up begins the line that leads to King David and Jesus Christ.

Biblical Soft Core
The Song of Solomon is all about a guy and a girl having hot, Middle Eastern sex. It is straight up soft core pornography dating back to 965 BC. We don't know who the woman is giving that the author, King Solomon, had 700 wives and 300 hundred concubines.

Gay Incest
Cracked missed this one. After the Flood, Noah tied one on and passed out naked in his tent (Gen. 9:21-25). Noah's youngest son, Ham, entered the tent and saw his naked dad. Biblical scholars disagree on what happened next. At best, Ham fetched his brothers and they played peek-a-boo with Noah's Johnson. At worst, Ham took a more hands-on examination of Noah's pecker. Anyway, Noah was angry and cursed Ham's child, Canaan. The poor kid didn't do anything wrong but he's the one who got the curse.

Note: I am not so much lazy as preoccupied I really don't feel like doing any independent research or political reading so I just stole (that's the right word) from the research done by Cracked.com.

Bush on Unacceptable War

Did you notice the subtle distinction in George Bush's comments regarding the Russo-Georgian War?

Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state...Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century. ~ Bush, August 11, 2008

Invading a neighboring state is bad. Invading sovereign states which are not neighboring (such as, say, the United States invading Iraq) is perfectly acceptable. I don't often praise Bush's elocution but this construction is elegant in its psychopathy.

In Search of the New Hitler

You have to hand it to Republican warmongers, they will keep comparing every country they dislike with Nazi Germany until it sticks and they can have war, any war.

The latest incarnation of Adolph is Vladimir Putin. Dick Morris today draws a direct, albeit entirely fictional, connection between the German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938 and Russia's attack on Georgia today. Of course, he ends by demanding that NATO troops be sent into the area to fight against the Russians. John McCain has also called for a NATO-Russian war over Georgia.

Putin has replaced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has for years now been our modern Hitler substitute while Iran was called Nazi Germany. The neo-con solution then as well was urging war with Iran.

Before either Putin or Ahmadinejad there was Saddam Hussein, the Iraq War was supposed to remove that pseudo-Nazi. It worked, not the war removing a new Hitler but using phony comparisons to encourage a stupid and pointless war. But the Iraq War is boring now and so the neo-cons are jonesing for another noble conflict to send other people to die in.

NBC and Bush

If NBC wants me to stop watching the Olympics and do something more productive they only need to continue showing those innumerable clips of George Bush Jr. behaving like the village idiot in Beijing.

Thought For the Day

Needless war. Economic collapse. Assault on basic liberties. Torture.

People who believes the past eight years has been good for the United States of America and the policies that have brought us here should be continued into the future are, by holding those beliefs, Unpatriotic. They have enjoyed seeing the nation suffer this past decade and wish the suffering to continue unabated.

Paris Hilton for Prez is, like, Totally Hot

Paris Hilton has a brilliant reply to John McCain's attack ad.

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Sturgis: McCain's Appeal to Women Voters

The Obama campaign should make sure every woman from Bangor, Maine to Santa Barbara knows about who John McCain associated with during his appearance at the Sturgis Biker Rally.

How he appealed to the wannabe Hell's Angels gathered there. How McCain pimped his wife to the amateur stripper parade known as the Miss Buffalo Chip contest. How McCain was billed next to the Wet and Wild twice daily oil wrestling matches including porn star Vanessa Harding (not office/child/wife friendly website).

Let every woman in America know what kind woman voter John McCain prefers.
photo source

Petty Thugs in the DHS

The Department of Homeland Security has become a popular employment opportunity for people who used to torment small children and despaired they could never earn a living doing what they love. The DHS has more pure thugs per capita than any government agency since the Stasi. People who used to content themselves joining outlaw motorcycle gangs have discovered that their anti-social personalities are not only welcome in the DHS they are actually in the job descriptions.

Google dhs thugs and you'll find almost a half-million hits. Take this man at DailyKos, who was harassed and threatened for the crime of daytripping to Canada. The DHS "deputizing" Americans to spy against their neighbors. Or even just arresting people because they can, because there are no laws restraining them. Or just threaten people because they can.

What they want is even worse. If the DHS has its way Americans will have to carry internal passports even to enter American National Parks.

Dirty Politics

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. ~ H. L. Mencken

The Obama campaign has opened the Low Road Express website to reveal the slime emanating from St. John McCain. It is going to be a busy site. McCain has nothing to sell but sleaze. McCain will find new ways to call him a gay muslim terrorist who is also a radical Christian and an uppity nigger.

I expect, by October, Jon McCain will be running the most obscene campaign in our nation's history.

Can We Belive the Stats?

Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version. A great deal of the time you were expected to make them up out of your head. ~ George Orwell, 1984

The statistics say the economy is growing, the experiences of people in their everyday lives say different. Which is true - what people see with their own eyes or what the Bush Administration claims?

• Averaging up: Put Bill Gates in a room with a thousand homeless people and, according to statisticians, you have a room filled with millionaires, on average. As the disparity between the ultra-rich and everyone else grows wider and wider it is possible that the whole of the nation is in a recession except for a few thousand oil barons and their ilk. So on average the nation is doing fine.
• Inflation: On reason bad governments love inflation is that it gives the appearance of growth. The numbers of, say, the GNP look like they are going up when it is only an illusion caused by debasing the currency. Of course, it is important for the government to lie about the real rate of inflation.
• Statistical Fantasies: Which brings us back to the Orwell quote. Life for an unscrupulous government is easier if you just lie about such things as the GNP and CPI. I mean, who has the resources to prove those lies? Of course, George Bush and his crew wouldn't lie, would they? They are all such honorable men.
  

Earthquakes Large and Small

Alaskan Temblor
All descent Alaskans, I know at least two, are thrilled down to their toenails by the quake that struck Sen. Ted Stevens. Like an old tree, dead at its root and rotten to its core, Stevens fall was a predictable as the sun setting in Nome in December. It was a welcome, damn enjoyable sight.

California's Big One
Mid-sized earthquakes the size of the one that hit near Los Angeles yesterday happen somewhere in California of average on one per year. People who don't know shit about California (journalists) immediately start asking the experts, "Was that the Big One?" I love the restraint of these experts not laughing in the face of the reporters. The Big One won't knock down cans of fruit from grocery store shelves, it will knock down entire grocery stores. The Big One will rend California's water aqueducts and tear down her freeways. Think Anchorage in 1964, San Francisco in 1906, or China in 2008. If The Big One is like dropping a hundred pound weight on your foot, yesterday's earthquake was like dropping an apple.

Upside Down Housing

This is a crippling thing for any economy. Billions of dollars of home equity has disappeared in a puff of proverbial smoke. Millions of Americans owe more on their homes than they are worth.

In San Diego just one year ago, homes were selling on average for nearly $500,000. Today the values have dropped on average by over 25%. Home prices have dropped similarly across the country. According to Bloomberg, one in four households, about 25 million families, risk owing more on their homes than the homes are worth. In the last year over one million families have lost their homes to foreclosure. Millions more are at risk.

This is the equivalent of scores of hurricanes and earthquakes ravaging the nation. By any reckoning it is a national disaster.

The photo, by the way, is of a real building in Poland.

How Odd Is Western Civilization? This Odd:

I have been doing a lot of research recently on things decidedly nonpolitical and have stumbled upon a couple of significant signs of the fall of Western Civilization.

Bag Borrow or Steal
This internet store rents used designer handbags, sunglasses, and jewelry at incredible prices. For example, they rent a Hermes Crocodile bag (with a missing lock) for only $6,000 a month. The bags retail new for $25,000. I don't know what is worse - that someone actually sells a purse for a price that could feed and provide health care for entire African villages, or that someone else would spend a month's salary to rent said purse just to look more classier than she really is for a few nights.

The Bunny Boiler

Bunny Boiler is a term referring to that scene in Fatal Attraction where Glenn Close cooked Michael Douglas' family pet on their own stove. The Bunny Boiler is also a regular segment on the British television series Balls of Steel. The beautiful Thalia Zucchi takes her hidden cameras into the world to hunt down some poor, hapless man out for an afternoon with his sweetie. She shamelessly chats up the guy right in front of his girlfriend. It's evil and very addictive.

Please McCain, Keep At It

St. John McCain has announced today that he has a secret plan to capture Osama Bin Laden. McCain refuses to disclose why he has withheld this knowledge from President Bush these past seven years. McCain did say, "Look, I know the area, I've been there." McCain proved his unique knowledge of the region recently when he disclosed that Pakistan borders Iraq when less knowledgeable people had been deluded into believing that Pakistan shares a border with Afghanistan.

Also today, his staff is rumorizing that McCain will be announcing his vice-presidential pick in the next couple of weeks in a desperate attempt to get some press between now and September. Let's hope he does. If he does he will be playing one of his few trump cards too early, during the dog days of summer when most voters are barely paying attention and only developing vague impressions of the candidates. Rolling out him or her (I still say it will be Carly) this early makes the veep choice non-news when the election finally reached the voters radar. Also, shortcutting the vetting process makes it more likely they will miss a significant skeleton in the choice's closet that will make a juicy disclosure in October when people are watching.

These dog days were the perfect time for Obama's foreign trip. He could have delivered his Berlin speech in Pig Latin and few people would have noticed. What voters got was the general images - Obama being received as an equal by every head of state he meet, Obama being cheered by enough Europeans to fill the Rose Bowl twice. These are the kind of images that won't register immediately in polling data but will have a lingering positive impact on people's perceptions.

Underwhelmed

If I were running a local city council campaign and my big press event of the day was lunch at a German bistro I would expect to get fired before the sun set. McCain's staff sucks.

Making McCain Interesting

Stephen Colbert, bless him, is doing everything he can to enlist the nation's help in making St. John McCain interesting. The best of the efforts pairs Johnny Mac with Madonna, certainly a better Vice-Presidential choice than Bobby Jindal.

Not a Good Sign for St. John

John McCain is going MIA this week. He is canceling pressers and canceling public appearances. One thing I learned from my time in politics is there are only a handful of reasons for a candidate to start canceling public appearances - and all of them are bad.

• Ill Health - The candidate is sick but not the kind of illness that will that the public would understand and accept. Everyone gets a cold or sore throat. That is universally forgiven. Cancer, uncontrollable tremors, drunkenness, these diseases are not forgiven and the campaign staff will do everything in its power to hide them.
• Depression - Politicians are prone to manic-depression, a lot of Lyndon Johnson's and Bill Clinton's erratic behavior looked like these massive mood swings. Sometimes a candidate who is getting his ass kicks falls into a morbid depression where they can't even get out of bed. Usually the staff can wheedle, or drug up, the candidate to do a few minor events but mostly they have to keep him out of sight until the mood passes.
• Staff Disarray - When the staff is a collection of fuck-ups the candidate has to stop doing what he should be doing, gathering money and votes, and devote his time straightening out his employees.
• Fear - I've seen this. The candidate is afraid to go to an event because he is afraid he will be embarrassed. He is afraid to talk to the media because he is afraid of the questions they will ask.
  

I suspect McCain's reluctance to appear in public this week is fear. He feared being embarrassed and he feared reporters asking him about Iraq and Obama yet again.

The Iraq-Pakistan Border and Other McCain Fantasies

It is difficult to comprehend the utter lack of foreign policy knowledge in what remains of St. John McCain's brain. I refuse to call these gaffes because that assumes he knew better and just made a mistake. If you string these together you realize McCain isn't just mistake prone, a man who might accidentally bomb Latvia because he mistook it for Libya, he is actually ignorant.

Iraq-Pakistan Border
McCain's latest is his referring to the difficult situation along the Iraq-Pakistan border. Of course those two countries are separated by 1000 miles of mountains and desert called Iran. McCain doesn't understand that Iraq and Afghanistan are different countries. In this Today Show interview McCain consistently answers questions about Afghanistan by referring to Iraq and the reverse.

Sunni and Shi'ites
No one can successfully navigate five feet in the Middle East without a basic understanding of the differences between these two Muslim sects. Basically, they loath each other, each considers the other apostate. So when McCain says, repeatedly, that it is common knowledge Iran is training al Qaeda he is being an ignorant fart. The fact is they would sooner cut each others heads off.

Who Are We Talking To?
Back in May McCain claimed that the United States has twenty year history of negotiating with North Korea and Iran. In fact we have an multi-generational history of pretending neither country exists except as potential target practice.

Check those Czechs
Czechoslovakia has not existed for 15 years, it broke into Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 1993. Only in the addled mind of John McCain are those two countries still enjoying wedded bliss.

Objectivism as Seen in the Mortgage Industry Bailout

Objectivists value other people in proportion to how much that person is productive. ~ Richard (in comments)

Or, to put it another way, if the Good Samaritan sees a rich man lying by the road who had been mugged for his purse the Objectivist will help him because such a man is worthy of being helped. If, however, the man by the road is poor and was robbed of his last two quarters that man is of no value and it is a sin to help such a person.

As it has been practiced by conservatives and the Republican Party, compassion is a limited virtue. If a banker while trying to exploit less sophisticated borrowers finds himself in financial distress then it is incumbent upon the government to help him because the banker is a man of worth, he is important. The less sophisticated borrowers, being less worthy, ought to be made to suffer for their poor decisions.

So the borrower, victimized by the sub-prime mortgage shell game, loses his home. The banker, the man of worth too big to fail, finds ready cash at the Fed window and every effort take to make him whole. This is how Objectivism is practiced in the real world. Some charity is needed to prevent collapse of the economy but the charity goes only to the most wealthy, to the most worthy.

The True Objectivist is far more heartless. He wants the economy to dissolve into chaos if that is to be its fate. For it is only from this cleansing that the truly worthy can rise. Better the Götterdämmerung than compassion.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread. ~ Anatole France

Republicans and Objectivism

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. ~ John Donne

The moral crime of conservative philosophy is Objectivism as embodied in the writings of Ayn Rand. At its core, Objectivism is the antithesis of Donne's words. It believes that all men are islands. That every man is an end entirely unto himself, as uncaring for others as he is uncared for himself.

It is a cruel and pitiless philosophy. If I see someone lying by the side of the road it expects me to walk on by unless I stand to profit by it. Altruism, the Good Samaritan, is evil. Caring for others is likened to slavery.

Altruism is incompatible with freedom, with capitalism and with individual rights. One cannot combine the pursuit of happiness with the moral status of a sacrificial animal. ~ Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

Every aspect of conservative politics is tainted with this foul brew.

• Protecting the global climate is evil because someone might benefit from the effort who is not me.
• Enron had the right to defraud the public because it was acting in its own self interest (their only crime was getting caught).
  
• Universal health care is evil because only those people who have earned enough money to afford health care should receive it. (The disease-ridden world conservatives prefer was described by Edger Allen Poe.)
• All non-wars are appeasement or compromise, ergo all wars are good. (see also)

I could go on all night but I grow weary of reading conservative excuses for selfishness.

Note: I am posting less frequently, and often less intelligently, because I am involved in a writing project that is consuming much of my creativity.

Bush on the Economy

It's as if Herbert Hoover has been reincarnated in the body of a Texas yokel.

With the nation's banking system on the verge of collapse, with scores of banks in financial distress, its president calls things "sound." With food and fuel inflation the only things driving economic statistics, the president believes inflation is the same as economic growth.

When the nation needs decisive action it gets "To the extent that we find weakness, we'll move." And consequence immobility. Bush's press conference today was like the captain of the Titanic whistling a jaunty tune while the wheelhouse floods.

We are six months and five days until a new president is inaugurated. The only remaining question is whether the nation will survive until January 20, 2009.

Republican Veep Derby

St. John McCain needs to pick a Vice-President. It may be a useless exercise but its tradition. His choice needs to be competent enough that people won't develop cold sweats whenever they remember that McCain is an actuarial nightmare. Conversely, he can't choose someone who will be a constant reminder that McCain himself is an incompetent old fart.

Carly Fiorina
I rank Carly as the favorite right now. She the unconventional choice, which would appeal to McCain.
Upside: A smart, articulate, attractive (by Republican standards) woman. If McCain thinks the Hillary vote is in play Carly is the choice.
Downside: In her last job as CEO of Hewlett-Packard she nearly destroyed the company. She was fired from that job and has been unemployed since. No political experience and a tendency to contradict McCain's position. Her political philosophies such as being pro-immigration are decidedly liberal by Republican standards.

Charlie Crist
The conventional choice. The fact he is getting married is proof Crist is on the short list.
Upside: Governor of Florida, a large, marginal state. They are friends and he would be a loyal lapdog.
Downside: He's gay.

The second tier choices are:

Mitt Romney
Had a better chance in April than he does now.
Upside: A better campaigner than McCain (not saying much).
Downside: Still comes off as a robot. Still a Mormon. Doesn't help in any states. Neither Utah nor Massachusetts is in play.

Bobby Jindal
Upside: One of the few Republicans of color. Young.
Downside: Too young, only 37. A complete unknown. Too inexperienced, just three years political experience. Jindal is the Dan Quayle choice.

Lindsey Graham
Upside: McCain's doppelganger. His bestest best friend.
Downside: Anybody who hates McCain also hates Graham. He's also gay.

There is a new posting, Christian Cannibalism, over at Where God Went Wrong.

Dealing With Disaster

This news story says more than I can about the disaster America has been facing.

I've been busy so the best I can do to help is offer a tip o' the hat to Jesus' General.

Proud of Who He Is

George Bush has come to realize that he is the biggest asshole in Christendom. Some people would be disturbed by that self-knowledge. Not Georgie. He is actually proud of his assholery.

Name one world leader in modern history who would treat the gathered at the G-8 conference more inelegantly. Hell, name any human being who would behave like GWB did without being totally shitfaced on the fine cognac they were serving.

If Hillary Had Only...

NOT being a candidate for President is so liberating.

A year ago Hillary Clinton was consumed with ambition and her voting record as a Bush-enabler was solidly pro-war and pro-domestic spying. She was more Joe Lieberman than Russ Feingold. She was so determined to "look presidential" (the apparent definition of looking presidential for the media is being a neo-conservative) she routinely spat in the faces of Democratic party regulars and party activists.

Now she is free, free I say to vote her conscious. She voted against the FISA sellout. She voted with the minority as the majority acted to trash the Constitution. She did the right thing. Had she only voted her conscious occasionally in the past few years Hillary would be the Democratic nominee for President today.

As I wipe the loogie from between my eyes that came from Barack Obama I am reduced to hoping his FISA vote is just political gamesmanship.

How a Colony Works - Arthur Miller Way

There is a dance that a colony and her colonial masters engage in. The American colony of Iraq is displaying that dance now.

The Time Step Reverse Turn. Iraq "Prime Minister" Nuri al-Maliki has demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops be written into any new security agreement between Iraq and the United States.

The Chaines Turn. George Bush has responded by rejecting any arbitrary a timetable.

The Dos-i-do Two Step. The next step in this dance will be a bribe from the US to al-Maliki followed by his forgetting the whole timetable question.

Give and take working in concert. The secret of fine dance.

John McCain's Campaign Theme Song

As far as I know St. John hasn't picked an official theme song. He market tested "Bomb...Bomb...Bomb...Iran" but that landed like a, well, bomb. He wanted to use a couple of John Mellencamp songs but having the music's composer and singer going around denying the campaign the right to use his music kind of stifled McCain's enthusiasm for Mellencamp.

He tried ABBA's "Take a Chance on Me" until someone explained to him that ABBA music was popular with gays. Maybe they have some geezer humming "Ballad of the Green Beret" when McCain enters but I doubt it.

Since the campaign will center on the economy I may have found the song that goes perfectly with his position on the economy. McCain's economic policy is simple. Win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by wishing for victory (because heaven knows we haven't been trying to win up until now). Use the savings to cut the deficit and hope that, somehow, this will magically solve the credit squeeze and collapse of the nation's infrastructure that is combining to suck the nation's economy into a giant sewer. A leaking sewer, that is.

Wishing and Hoping. John McCain's campaign in a nutshell.

The Good Old Days of Journalistic Integrity

St. John McCain has set aside special, privileged seating on his campaign plane for "good" reporters who "earn it." You earn it by being an obsequious toady.

There was a time not too many years ago that any journalist would have been insulted to be told he had "earned" such seating. No exclusive interview would be worth the ridicule his peers would heap upon him for being a servile dog instead of a principled reporter.

That was then. This is now. I expect stiff competition for the suck up seats among the McCain press corps.

Who's Bin Laden's Best Friend?

I said many times that Osama Bin Laden's best friend in the whole wide world is George W. Bush. Here's the proof.

• Bush oversaw the only success in the history of Bin Laden's pathetic little anarchist movement (9-11).
  
• Bush has elevated it into a world power by failing to defeat it in two wars. The first war we should not be losing but are (Afghanistan); the second we should have never started (Iraq).
• Bush has helped Bin Laden achieve his major economic goal, $144 per barrel oil.
  

Were it not for George W. Bush, al Qaeda would still an annoying but manageable problem. Bush's friendship and support for al Qaeda and Bin Laden has been incalculable.

What is Patriotism?

Is it patriotic to promote a tax system that allows the nation's infrastructure, her bridges and levees, to fall into disrepair, killing decent, hard working Americans? (Left: a bridge in Minnesota)

Is it patriotic for the country to reward a handful of wealthy elite while their businesses and employees suffer? (Note: there is a direct relationship between the opulence of a CEO's mansion the failure of his company.)

Is it patriotism to "honor the sacrifice" of soldiers while foreclosing on their homes while they are fighting? What about taking a woman's child while she is in Iraq? (Few things make me angrier than the right-wing meme "I honor your service." It is usually shorthand for "shut up and die.")

Is it patriotism to salute the flag while trashing the Constitution? (A question to ask Republicans, "Do you pledge allegiance to the flag or to the Constitution?")

Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper. ~ President George W. Bush

Is it patriotism to remain quiet while the nation is being bleed white by a endless, meaningless war? (The money wasted on the Iraq War could have provided health coverage for over 40 million Americans.)

There is more to patriotism than fireworks and flag pins. Placing a hand over your heart during the anthem is worthless if your heart is empty of compassion for your fellow citizens. Patriotism is love of country not love for a scrap of colored fabric. Patriotism is not some patch of dirt I happen to live on but a principal of government.

The worst anti-patriotic slogan is "My country, right or wrong." The best...

My Country! When right keep it right; when wrong, set it right! ~ Carl Schurz

Someone Has to Say It

Reporter: "Why did you rob banks?"
Sutton: "Because that's where the money is." ~ Willie Sutton (1901-1980)

Thieves are stealing whole ATMs, planning to break into them at their leisure. "No one really knows why ATMs have become such a popular target." (MSNBC)

Ah, guys, because that's where the money is. Duh.

Photo is from Mansfield College, Oxford, England.

Iraq War: Quarterly Update

The equilibrium of the Iraq colonial occupation continues unchanged. Occupation forces continue to die at a rate of over one per day. A dozen soldiers a day are wounded. Barring a military attack upon Iran, we can expect this death rate to continue for the foreseeable future. The next few months...years...decades.

The cost in blood is beginning to show up as profit on the balance sheets of American oil companies, the FOD (Friends of Dick Cheney). The goal of the war is being fulfilled with the wholesale theft of Iraq's oil resources by the big oil corporations (Read Asia Times). The United States will maintain its military occupation of Iraq as long as a drop of wealth can be squeezed from her sands. And American soldiers will continue to die at this "acceptable" rate to increase the income of a handful of corporate giants.

American Military Deaths
2nd quarter 2008 .... 100
1st quarter 2008 .... 107
War Total .......... 4,113

source
tag: Iraq, War

We're #1 - Torture Division

The United States is the worldwide leader in the application of torture. We have learned from the best and have surpassed their skills.

What impresses me more is the generosity with which we Americans share our knowledge. American advisers are in Mexico training the local police in new techniques to torture their citizens.

Some of the techniques, like waterboarding, have been perfected at Gitmo. Others appear to be new skills. The video opens with the torturers laughing hysterically. This shows we are not only teaching the techniques but we are teaching Mexican police to love the art of pain infliction.

The American "unidentified" torture trainer is with a private U.S. security company. He may be from our beloved BlackWaterUSA, or he may torture for IES-USA, mentioned in the article.

Pain and suffering, America's most valuable export commodity.

Swift Boat Blacks

The Republican Swift Boat slander group for 2008 will be a weird little organization called the National Black Republican Association.

• They are such a tiny group their website trumpets erecting a billboard off I-26 near Orangeburg, South Carolina as a major accomplishment.
• Their Board of Directors, if they have one, is a secret nowhere to be found.
  
• Most of their contributing writers are non-Blacks like David Barton, Cal Thomas, Jonah Goldberg, Michelle Malkin, Jack Kemp, and Karl Rove.
• The few actual, prominent Black Republicans like Colin Powell, J. C. Watts, and Condi Rice appear to have nothing to do with this group.

The NBRA has a short, bizarre history. Shortly after their were created in 2005 the majority of the founding directors resigned en mass. They are obsessed with an incomplete and distorted knowledge of history. Their hate-filled radio ads to date have been written using that non-existent jargon that white folk think black people speak in.

The Republicans have been looking for ways to get free publicity for their slanderous attacks on the cable news channels. They need some group to spread their racist attacks that will, to the undiscerning eye, appear credible. Hence a group of "Black Republicans" whose funding is 99% white. Whose media personnel are clearly all white. And whose leadership, were it ever accurately revealed, would resemble a Southern country club - a couple of token black members to color a lily-white base.