Archives - May 2006

May 28, 2006

Little Stevie Wonder Bread continues to amaze. Just when I think he couldn't possibly try any harder to import the Bush Doctrine to Canada, he goes and proves me wrong. Maybe he and the Chimporer were twins separated at birth. BabsZilla, the Matriarch of the Bu$h Crime Family perhaps couldn't face dealing with twins and sent the smarter of the pair north, perhaps? Or there is always the possibility that he is some kind of Manchurian Candidate sent by the aforementioned criminal organization to be in place by the time the US had no option but to take over the water, oil and other resources of what used to be the Great White North, proud and free. You have to admit it is less hassle to just take over the government (especially a one man government like Harper seems to be trying to implement) than to invade militarily. The military option is quite problematic, especially today, what with Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and the Mexican Border all on their plate right now. Then again, maybe it's a multi-pronged attack, at least that would explain why the Americans seem to be killing more Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan than the enemy - whoever that is.

Bear with me a moment and I'll try to explain why these kinds of thoughts come to mind. Lets start with their background. They both "come" from western oil country - the Shrub from Texas and the Harp from the Texas of Canada - Alberta. Whoa there Randy, but doesn't Bush actually come from Connecticut (why is this state spelled this way, the middle "c", I can't hear it?) and/or Maine while our Shrub II actually comes from southern Ontario - both relatively urbane, civilized places compared to their more, shall we say, Wild West Freeper adopted homes. Neither have had their birth certificates destroyed (unlike Bush's military and criminal records), but both prefer to emphasize their adopted geographical identity. Hell they even both married gals from their adopted home. Nothing wrong with any of this, just eerily similar.

Then we could examine their religious side. It's difficult to find any difference between the two on this issue. Harper and Bush are like peas in a pod, both evangelicals, one who took the name of his church for his political party before he stole the better known brand name of the Conservatives with the help of Gumboot McKay's doublecross of David Orchard and the other who thinks the church (his church - of course) should take over as many governmental responsibilities as possible like education, sex education, scientific research, prison rehabilitation and social services to mention the first ones that come to mind.

On social issues it is hard to find any meaningful differences between the two, of course this tends to go with the above mentioned religious angle. Crime and punishment, gay marriage, a woman's freedom of choice - it seems they read (maybe the boy-King has it read to him) from the same play-book on these items. Harper seems to imply women should stay home with the family with his lowball bribe to families for childcare that they can only keep all of if the mommy stays home and has no taxable income. I wonder if Stephen is a little jealous of the shameful "record" that King George holds for number of executions under his watch in Texas. Of course now Bush can execute anyone he wants, anytime, for any reason, and doesn't even have to mention it, much less have any awkward legal process.

Then there's the one man rule approach to government, they both seem to think is best, as long as they are respectively that one man. Bush even said publicly that a dictatorship would be easier, as long as the dictator was him. They approach it differently though. Bush lets those silly folks over in Congress pass any laws they want, but before he signs them he basically vetoes them with "signing statements" that essentially say - yeah, I'll go along with this, unless I don't want to. Our Little Stevie has in my estimation surpassed his hero in this regard in a stunning usurption of the perogative of Parliament. In order to illegally invade Iraq, Bush had to lie his face off and get all his team to lie as well, Condi, Cheney, and Uncle Tom Colin Powell, not to mention most of the stenographers at the New York Times, Washington Post, Faux News and most of the rest of the so-called media. None of that "hard work" for our Stevie though, he just marches into Parliament and says "hey guys (oops and the odd woman) we're going to have a vote today on whether or not to extend our commitment to the Afghan mission for another two years, oh yeah, but it doesn't really matter how you vote, I'm gonna do it anyway." The next time the Neo-Con twins have a cozy get together like this spring at the Mayan pyramid Bush will probably be asking Stevie for tips about how to do that - it's hard work presidenting and Stephen's way would leave a lot more time and energy for clearing brush at Crawford.

Then of course Bush was appointed Preznit by the judges (I refuse to call them "justices") that were appointed by his daddy and his real daddy Ronnie Raygun, even though he lost that election. In 2004 if you believe the official vote count (which I don't) he "won" by the slimmest of margins, yet in both instances he has embarked on extreme radical social, economic and political agenda. Harper, likewise, is Prime Minister, by a razor thin minority, propped up by a party that doesn't even want to be part of Canada and he too is embarking on remaking Canada in the Right Wing Wingnut American image. I shudder at the thought of what he really wants to do, and will do if he manages to get elected with a majority.

Things like these are why I wasn't surprised when I opened the Vancouver Stun yesterday and saw that Stephen is going to implement fixed election dates. I've always thought that the old British style of not-fixed was one of the aspects of the Parliamentry model that shone compared to the ongoing political soap opera in the US totally geared to the cycle of midterms and then the Presidential election two years later. One of the only things that keeps politicians from just stealing money ALL of the time down there is the need to frame everything in consideration of how it plays in relation to this fall and then 2008. We in BC could only look on in amazement as the minor league Neo-Cons whose clubhouse is in Victoria proved how quick they were at learning to play this game. Last year, having already called the electon date four years in advance, they introduced a budget full of goodies and then dissolved the House so that instead of doing the peoples' business they could go on the campaign trail, traveling on the taxpayer's dime. Of course with a lapdog press and two women plus one member newly elected in a bye-election for opposition, Gordo's gang could pretty well do whatever they wanted as long as it didn't involve dead women or live boys.

Oh well, as Stephen likes to say, again following the lead of his partner in trying to make the whole rest of the world hate everything north of the Mexican border. "God Bless Canada."

I say, God Help Canada, it is so depressing to see this deep integration that is coming. Why is Canada - the wise, the resolute, the peacekeepers, the Gentle Giant, the country that voted Tommy Douglas the "Greatest Canadian" - hitching its wagon to the American nightmare just when almost the whole rest of the world is becoming aware of the true evil and greedy nature of America's current course?

May 23, 2006

This week starts a lot like last week. Karl Rove is still turning on the spit wondering if and when he will be indicted. According to MSNBC: Rove's legal team expects decision 'at any time.'

Immigration, especially illegals from Mexico, continues to be on the front burner. This is an issue that threatens to really split the Rethuglicans. Bush presented his "plan" last week on prime time TV. The Rethugs in the house though think Bush's plan smacks too much of "amnesty" and rewarding "criminal behavior." On the other hand many Rethug supporters don't want to lose the cheap and easily itimidated labor. Today's SFgate claims that one in seven Mexican workers are working in the US and sending money home.

Washington -- The current migration of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States is one of the largest diasporas in modern history, experts say.

Roughly 10 percent of Mexico's population of about 107 million is now living in the United States, estimates show. About 15 percent of Mexico's labor force is working in the United States. One in every 7 Mexican workers migrates to the United States.

Some wingnut Democrats running in the Alabama primary have proposed a rather drastic solution.

Harry Lyon, who wants to become the Democrats' gubernatorial candidate, has advocated killing illegal immigrants as a way to keep them out of Alabama.

Private prison companies are salivating after the billions in public money that will be spent on new superjails to hold immigrants for trial or deportation.

May 20, 2006

Excuse me if I say that sometimes Canada seems a little slow, but sometimes it seems we are too busy navigating our vast territory, hauling water or hewing wood for our neighbor to the south who then penalizes us, to notice what is happening beyond our borders, other than what the Coporate Media choose to tell us about. While most of the world is rejecting the Neo-Con dream turned nightmare, Canada chooses to elect a Dubya worshipping wanna-be and appears on the verge of joining the "reality" challenged war-mongering, climate change denying club of the United States and Australia. Our Stephen was the first, not counting Israel, to show the displaced people of Palestine that he only embraces democracy when the people vote the way his hero George prefers. Otherwise a dictator might be preferable, especially if some oil or strategic locations are involved.

Meanwhile the Coalition of the Bribed and Threatened continues to shrink as more members decide to jump ship on the criminal Iraq venture. Italy's new PM Brodi has promised to bring the Italian troops home, while Japan may begin withdrawing its non-combat troops from southern Iraq as early as next month. Of course our little Stevie "Wonder Bread" wants to commit Canadian forces to fighting in Afghanistan, for just what isn't clear, for two years longer for starters. It will really help the Bush Crime Family be able to kick ass on all the other bad guys, if Stevie and the Canadians hold down the fort in Afghanistan.

Stephen "doughboy" Harper demonstrated his fealty to boy-King George as he jumped all over the Iranian Badge Crisis ahead of the pack and anyone who felt the story might warrant some confirmation. The creation of the indicted Conrad Black that claims to be a newspaper the National Journal claimed Iran was enacting laws that would require non-Muslims (ie. Jews and Christians) to wear badges ala Nazi Germany. The original article has been removed from the Canada.Com site, while A colour code for Iran's 'infidels' was still available at my last visit. To learn more about Amir Taheri, author of this article, start at DailyKos posting here.

Meanwhile denials that Iran has any such intentions abound such as at news.com.au Maurice Motammed, a Jewish member of Iran's Parliament, dismissed the report as "a complete fabrication" and said: "It is a lie, and the people who invented it wanted to make political gain."

Iran's conservative-dominated Parliament is debating a draft law that would discourage women from wearing Western clothing and increase taxes on imported clothes and fund an advertising campaign to encourage citizens to wear Islamic-style garments.

---snip---

In Tehran, MP Emad Afroogh, who sponsored the bill and chairs the parliament's cultural committee, said today there was no truth to the Canadian newspaper report. "It's a sheer lie. The rumours about this are worthless," he said. "The bill is not related to minorities. It is only about clothing," he said. "Please tell them (in the West) to check the details of the bill. There is no mention of religious minorities and their clothing in the bill," he said.

The Doughboy takes no prisoners though as he displayed his razor-sharp understanding of the Bush Administration's position on all things including the colonization of Canada by uttering such words of wisdom as:

"Unfortunately, we've seen enough already from the Iranian regime to suggest that it is very capable of this kind of action,"

"We've seen a number of things from the Iranian regime that are along these lines . . ."

"It boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the Earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany."

Speaking of Hitler

President Jimmy Carter is a "Jew-hater" and a "war criminal" who "is like Hitler" because of his criticism of Israeli policies in the West Bank. Savage also called Carter a "communist, anti-American, anti-Semitic bastard."

When it comes to the question of all this comparing of people to Hitler, I think Bill Maher summed it up best when he said:

Don't call everyone you don't like, Hitler. Bush is not Hitler. For one thing, Hitler was a decorated frontline combat veteran. Also, in the election that brought him to power in 1933, Hitler got more votes than the other candidates.

May 19, 2006

When the question "Did you ever try (insert drug here - but usually marijuana) in college" starting to make its appearance in political discussion, I knew my generation was entering the political arena in numbers. Let's face it, John Kerry, Dubya, Bill Clinton, and I all went to college in the sixties. Some of us earlier than others, but all of us, during Vietnam,which most of us agree, today, went on far too long. When it came to Vietnam, John Kerry went to fight, Bill Clinton went to England as a Rhodes Scholar, George Dubya went to daddy and then went AWOL from the Southwestern Front and I went to fight in federal court in of all places San Diego.

I was actually frightened by those who answered the question with "...it never crossed my mind, I just KNEW it was bad...by gum, I never even came across the opportunity". Now I don't know about you, but thinking back to my college days, there were fellow students who never even tried pot, or if they did, didn't notice it. Many of those students were too busy drinking and too drunk to notice the more subtle effects of a natural herb. I'm not ready to give those whose drug of choice was huge amounts of alchohol at frequent intervals credit for being of a higher ethical calling but it is an acceptable excuse for not even trying say, marijuana.

Then there were those whose field of study filled them with such passion that they took time for nothing else, other than the necessities of eating, some rest and hygiene. Their studies filled their universe and took all of their time and energies. Very few of this type of individual became politicians. It takes a certain interest in society to enter politics, which these cerebral scholars probably lack unless they are in a social science, and then their interest is likely to be abstract. Here, I don't mean "applied" social sciences which contribute so much to advertising and media manipulation.

Bill Clinton admitted to smoking pot, but lawyer that he is, made it clear that it wasn't in US jurisdiction (during his student days in England) and he didn't inhale either, making the whole thing pretty well moot - at least it worked. Our current spoiled child who would be king, as far as anyone can tell, really liked pretty well all booze and drugs. But for him nothing counts if it happened before he made his deal with the devil---oops, I mean Jesus. Most evidence of illegal or unbecoming behavior by boy George has been disappeared through the powers of attorney-generals, governors and presidents. Any thing unflattering lingering in the public perview after all of the sealing and/or shredding of documents, has been ignored by a mainstream media more concerned about "access" to the White House and favorable legislation to their corporate goals than informing the public or acting in the public interest.

So many politicians are so corrupt that whether or not they ever, (in their life) smoked pot or snorted a line of coke is totally beyond relevance. That would be like giving Jack the Ripper a pardon for having good manicure habits. But I remember those students who never tried anything in college, who had no curiosity about the world, they were the ones that never tried pot or were even tempted. The idea of one of them with the codes to the nuclear football is something I find very scary. It would seem to me that he (or she) that never tried or thought about trying marijuana that were in college in the sixties qualify as abnormal.

Sixties get Bad Rap!

Astra Taylor is a writer and documentary filmmaker. Her first book, "Shadow of the Sixties," is forthcoming from the New Press in 2007. She has published How the Right Stole the '60s (And Why We Should Get Them Back) today at Alternet. She suggests that

"Conservatives are winning the battle over how the 1960s are remembered. But their version is far from the truth

---snip---

It's hard to overstate just how prominently the '60s figures on the conservative movement's cognitive map. Next to the Bible, George W. Bush's second favorite book is Myron Magnet's "The Dream and the Nightmare: the Sixties Legacy to the Underclass," which the president claims "crystallized for me the impact the failed culture of the sixties had on our values and society." In his introduction Magnet explains how Bush's "youthful fling with the culture of the sixties" gave him "firsthand knowledge of its destructiveness." Having learned the error of his ways Bush, Magnet assures us, will govern in as "un-sixties" a manner as possible, which means, among other things, cutting social services and rehabilitating good old-fashioned tradition and morality.

May 16, 2006

"We cannot build a unified country by inciting people to anger, or playing on anyone's fears, or exploiting the issue of immigration for political gain."
-----boy-king George

Jane Hamsher over at firedoglake zeroes in on this as the "money quote" of the idiot non-savant's speech from the Oval Office last night. This was the first time he has addressed the people from the Oval Office about anything other than war, yet even this has a "military" solution. For a man (using the term very loosely) who avoided military service at every opportunity this guy sure is an expert on how to "use" the military.

FBI Acknowledges: Journalists' Phone Records are Fair Game

From ABC News - the Blotter

The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is increasingly seeking reporters' phone records in leak investigations.

"It used to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush administration," said a senior federal official.

The acknowledgement followed our blotter item that ABC News reporters had been warned by a federal source that the government knew who we were calling.

I would pay to see this live, could this be the week?

May 15, 2006

I'm watching the idiot non-savant speaking from the Oval Office as I type. It's official, he intends to deploy the National Guard along the border with Mexico to assist the - to be expanded - border patrol. He insists that the deployment is only temporary and the National Guard will stand down as the Border Patrol stands up! He assured Americans that the National Guard could easily handle the War on Terror, natural disasters and the modern day Spanish American War with no problem. If you have any doubts, just remember how well Hurricane Katrina went and all the good news arriving daily from Iraq.

He really has to thread the needle on this issue without antagonizing the Neo-Con cronies who love the cheap, easily intimidated labor or the xenophobic base that hate anyone of a darker shade that speaks with an accent or (forbid) some other language. But he is the Commander-in-Chief and like the man with a hammer who thinks everything is a nail, the chimp who would be King knows that any problem has a military solution.

I've added an amazing clock that runs on JavaScript to the JavaScript Page. If you check it out and can't find it check where your cursor is, it follows the cursor. Sorry to say it only seems to run in Explorer, I can't make it work in FireFox.

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees ... Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."

Private communications revealed as a result of the Congressional enquiry into Scanlon and Abramoff's consulting business demonstrate a contemptuous attitude to both clients and supporters. Indian Clients were referred to as "troglodytes" and "monkeys", Christian Conservatives are considered gullible "wackos" who can be manipulated to vote on demand:

A Plague on Texas

...people will have like beads of sweat but it's black, black and tarry,...Sometimes little black specks that come out of the lesions and sometimes little fibers,...the worst symptom — strange fibers that pop out of your skin in different colors......He'd have attacks and fibers would come out of his hands and fingers, white, black and sometimes red. Very, very painful.

Why Texas? Maybe someone from Texas should talk to Earl, of the TeeVee show
My Name is Earl, about karma.

The Week to Come

It seems the plan is unrealistic, given the lenghty commute times between Iraq, Afghanistan and the American Southwest.

Of course this could be the week that Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove gets his well deserved and long awaited indictment, Jason Leopold perhaps jumps the gun over at Truthout, but it certainly makes a nice headline.

Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators

Russell Tice testifies to the Senate this week.

CongressDaily reports that former NSA staffer Russell Tice will testify to the Senate Armed Services Committee next week that not only do employees at the agency believe the activities they are being asked to perform are unlawful, but that what has been disclosed so far is only the tip of the iceberg.

May 14, 2006

"Americans are tired of investigations and scandal, and the best way to get rid of them is to elect a new president who will bring a new administration, who will restore honor and dignity to the White House."

It's okay that Dead-eye Dick is sleeping. He's already made all the plans and told the other three heads what to say! If Georgie boy thinks it's "hard" work pretending to be preznit, he should have to do Dick's job, actually really being preznit. It's no wonder Dick needs a new mechanical heart from time to time. Dick has to keep up with the journalist's and what they are saying about him, and annotate their columns so his staff, including the boy-king know how to intepret them.

Then he has all that data that he needs to go over, and it takes a lot of time to keep up with what everyone in America is doing. Hopefully the bar association is still mostly onside, it's hard work disciplining those lawyers, who just have to learn that only working for corporations is acceptable behavior.

It was interesting to notice that when the NSA came calling to the big Telecoms, sans warrants, and said "we need the phone records of everybody in the country, no matter where they're calling or being called from," that only Qwest refused to comply. They were worried about the legality of what they were being asked to do. I applaud them for taking this stance - even if it was only for selfish legal reasons - after all that is kinda what the law is for. I may be confused, but I think the law is what says you're not allowed to do certain things, even if they are to your advantage, if they violate the rights of other people. Who'da thunk Qwest and Joseph P. Nacchio would be assuming the role of standing up against the facists. I wrote them an email thanking them for their action (or refusal to act against the constitution).

May 8, 2006

Where's George Orwell when we need him? Because we Americans need him. We desperately need him. Consider: in August 2001, immediately after reading a memo entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US", President George Bush went bass fishing - and never called a meeting to discuss the issue. A month later, on September 11, when he was told that the terrorists had attacked, Bush spent the next seven minutes reading a children's book, The Pet Goat, with a group of schoolchildren.

In retrospect, perhaps the Chimp in Chief could have spent the next few days doing something more important than fishing in an artificial lake for probably planted fish. Something like protecting the people of America, being president and all. But then I'm personally tending away from thinking that this administration was negligent regarding 9/11 - yep, complicit is seeming more likely everyday. But then maybe I just didn't understand how really special fishing can be to the emotionally and mentally challenged leader of the free world. Last week while entertaining Angela Merkel at the White House the idiot non-savant granted Germany's Bild am Sonntag an interview. When they asked him what he felt was his greatest triumph as President he replied.

"I've experienced many great moments. It's hard for me to name the greatest." He went on: "I would say that the best moment of all came when I caught a seven-and-a-half pound perch while fishing on my lake."

There seems to be some confusion about whether this epic fish was a perch or a bass (as far as freshwater fish go, if it ain't a trout, does it matter)? They also had to translate the Chimporer's version of English into German and then back for us. I would imagine Dubya would make a great fisherman, I mean the only sport where lying is a time honored tradition. By the way Dubdub - I'll bet your fish was more like this one.