Hugo Chavez has message for Obama

Posted on April 18, 2009 by Eric Verlo

Hugo Chavez met Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas, and presented this gift to the American president: “The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano. At the United Nations General Assembly in 2006, Chavez held aloft Noam Chomsky’s “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance,” encouraging everyone to read it. Is there a common theme to the dark-skinned Chavez’s book recommendations? Chavez’ critics from the Venezuelan upper middle class think he’s no brighter than a monkey. His message, educate yourselves.

Eduardo Galeano was interviewed by Amy Goodman on the day Barack Obama learned he had won the election. Galeano had this hope for the first US President of color: that he never forget that the White House, his new home, had been built by black slaves.

By the way, Galeano’s classic, with which Hugo Chavez hopes to bring Obama up to speed, was published in 1971.

When Obama won the 2008 election, Eduardo Galeano wrote this essay: I HOPE.

10 November 2008

Will Obama prove, at the helm of government, that his threats of war against Iran and Pakistan were only words, broadcast to seduce difficult ears during the election campaign?

I hope. And I hope he will not fall, even for a moment, for the temptation to repeat the exploits of George W. Bush. After all, Obama had the dignity to vote against the Iraq war, while the Democratic and Republican parties were applauding the announcement of this carnage.

In his campaign, the word most often repeated in his speeches was leadership. In his administration, will he continue to believe that his country has been chosen to save the world, a toxic idea that he shares with almost all his colleagues? Will he insist on the United States’ global leadership and its messianic mission to take command?

I hope the current crisis, which is shaking the imperial foundations, will serve at least to give the new administration a bath of realism and humility.

Will Obama accept that racism is normal when it is used against the countries that his country invades? Isn’t it racism to count the deaths of invaders in Iraq, one by one, and arrogantly ignore the many dead among the invaded population? Isn’t this world racist, where there are first-, second-, and third-class citizens, and the first-. second-, and third-class dead?

Obama’s victory was universally hailed as a battle won against racism. I hope he will assume, in his acts of government, this great responsibility.

Will the Obama government confirm, once again, that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are two names of the same party?

I hope the desire for change, which these elections have established, will be more than a promise and more than a hope. I hope the new government has the courage to break with the tradition of the one and only party, disguised as two parties which at the moment of truth do more or less the same thing while simulating a fight.

Will Obama fulfill his promise to shut down the evil Guantánamo prison?

I hope, and I hope he will end the evil blockade of Cuba.

Will Obama continue to believe that it is great to have a wall that prevents Mexicans from crossing the border, while money moves without anyone asking for its passport?

During the election campaign, Obama never honestly confronted the subject of immigration. I hope, now that he is no longer in danger of scaring voters away, he can and wants to break down this wall, much longer and more embarrassing than the Berlin Wall, and all the walls that violate people’s right to free movement.

Will Obama, who so enthusiastically supported the recent little gift of 750 billion dollars to bankers, govern, as usual, to socialize losses and privatize profits?

I’m afraid so, but I hope not.

Will Obama sign and comply with the Kyoto Protocol, or will he continue to give the privilege of impunity to the nation that is poisoning the planet the most? Will he govern for cars or for people? Can he change the murderous course of the lifestyle of the few who are risking the fate of all?

I’m afraid not, but I hope so.

Will Obama, the first black president in the history of the United States, realize the dream of Martin Luther King or the nightmare of Condoleezza Rice?

The White House, which is now his house, was built by black slaves. I hope he won’t forget it, ever.

Activism heroics and roadkill

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Eric Verlo

This is by no means a complete list of contemporary populist heros, but I’d like to start with comedian Stephen Colbert, who roasted President Bush at a Washington Correspondents Association Dinner, like a court jester gone rabid. With celebrated White House correspondent Helen Thomas’s help, Colbert belittled the decider-in-chief to his face right in front of his friends.

Don’t Taser Me Bro
There was University of Florida student Andrew Meyer, who held his ground asking critical questions of Senator John Kerry. Meyer was tackled and tasered for his impertinence, while Kerry kept mumbling, to divert attention from “Don’t taser me Bro.”

Bidder 70
Then Utah environmentalist Tim DeChristopher disrupted a government land auction, driving up prices and buying several leases raising paddle number 70, until federal agents took him away. Extraction industry spokesperson Kathleen Sgamma may have miscalculated the degree of DeChristopher’s popular support. She earned no one’s sympathy when she complained: “There’s a democratic process in place if you don’t like what’s happening. If we all just decided we wanted to change the laws unilaterally, that would run counter to our democracy.”

The Shoes
And Iraqi Journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi is in jail for throwing his shoes at that dog Bush, when our president was making a farewell visit to Baghdad. (His trial date is fast approaching actually.) The shoes missed, but Bush was made to duck, which is the closest anyone’s come to getting reality to register with the cretinous bitch.

Barack’s first press conference
Let’s also mention Helen Thomas again, at Barack Obama’s first press conference a week ago. When Obama ceremoniously called on Thomas to lob the last question, Thomas asked the president to name who in the Middle East had nuclear weapons. It was something of a leading question, because the answer is known, but bears reminding when the argument is repeated that Iran acquiring nukes would lead to proliferation. Thomas put Obama in the position of having to utter recognition of Israel’s never-mentioned nuclear program, or very conspicuously avoid the subject. Which is what he did.

Israel Divestment Movement
Now the Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine have succeeded in getting their school to divest in Israel, just as Hampshire College led the way in the nationwide divestitures which contributed to the fall of Apartheid in South Africa. Board of trustees chairman Sigmund Roos tried to explain that the school’s actions were in no way a repudiation of Israel, and accused the students of falsely claiming otherwise. Of the 800-signature petition, Roos explained: “We never took it up. Students know that.”

Really? A petition signed by 800 of your students and faculty, and the Hampshire College board of trustees wouldn’t even read it? Roos doesn’t know what hit him.

Eric Holder, ‘First Black’ or just another reactionary appointee by Barack Obama?

Posted on February 3, 2009 by Tony Logan

corporate-lawyer
Another Black Face to cover up the reactionary government of Barack Obama, Eric Holder has just been appointed US Attorney General. He was Clinton’s Deputy Attorney General after Clinton picked him up from Ronald Reagan’s team where he was one of Ronnie’s appointed judges. He also was part of the George Bush Senior team as well.

According to the Washington Post, Holder obtained his ‘critical support from a broad base of federal and state law enforcement groups as well as a bipartisan coalition of former Justice Department leaders, including one time deputy attorney general James B. Comey, former FBI director Louis J. Freeh and President George W. Bush’s terrorism and homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend.’

Here he is talking in an interview 12 years ago in an interview with BNET Business Network…

Insight: What did you do to change the wave of violence that has overwhelmed the nation’s capital?

Eric Holder: I have taken a lot of grief for my attempt to make selling marijuana a felony in the district (Wash D.C.), not just a misdemeanor. I introduced the legislation in December that would make distribution and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana a five-year felony. I’ve been criticized for it by reporters in various publications, saying things like I have “reefer madness.” But what we found was that in 1991 about 11 percent of all juveniles who were arrested in the district tested positive for drugs. In 1996, we found that 62 percent of those who were arrested were now testing positive for drug use and that it was largely marijuana. And that is something we can change. Hearings are scheduled for April and I am hoping that we have enough support to push it through. (from A new sheriff at Justice)

As current Steering Committee member of The George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, Holder’s Black face will be seen as a key component of the effort by Barack Obama to convince the world that the illegality of the Bush Klan has come to a halt. But look at the policy statements, the links, and the structure of the Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) and you see clearly that Holder will be nothing more nor less than a continuation by Obama of ex-President George Dubya Bush’s so-called ‘Global War on Terrorism’ (GWOT) agenda. Minus Guantanamo perhaps?, but still with injustice for all. Eric Holder is nothing more than just another reactionary appointee by Barack Obama and a corporate lawyer (Covington & Burling LLP) whose presence will change very little.

Zionism is Nazism with a yarmulke

Posted on January 20, 2009 by Thomas Mc

Israel plans propaganda offensive, to convince the world that they were the victims of the Gaza genocide!

Visualize Nuremberg. Israel warns top military officers not to travel abroad, as they might be subject to arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity over the genocide in Gaza.

NeoNazi Zionist rally in NYC calls for “wiping out” the Palestinian people. The only real difference between Israel and Nazi Germany, is Nazi Germany only lasted 12 years.

Should the US Pull the Plug on Israel? by Chuck Spinney

They hanged Mussolini, didn’t they? If Obama ignores the crimes of the past, the GOP will just repeat them in 8 years. [video]

“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.”
–Mohandas Gandhi

I was tempted to headline today’s page with WE SURVIVED GEORGE W. BUSH, but sadly there are all too many of us just barely hanging on. How many of us will survive the disastrous course of the Bush administration remains to be seen. I’m cynical about Obama (having once been fooled into believing in Bill Clinton), but secretly I do desperately hope that he can change American politics.

w-years-comic

Excerpts from Thomas McCullock’s Jan 20 notes, thomasmc.com.

ZIONISM IS TERRORISM!

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Thomas Mc

“The current Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians. My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.” —Sir Gerald Kaufman, Jewish member of British Parliament

Jewish protesters shut down Israeli consulate in Los Angeles in support of Gaza.

Qatar and Mauritania expel Israeli diplomats and cut all diplomatic ties over NAZI genocide in Gaza.

PictorIal: Germany 1940 = Israel 2009? You decide.

Demonic Nazis use 9 year old boy for target practice.

Reich-wing terrorist Hal Turner threatens to attack crowds at inauguration!

Clueless. Obama says Bush was “a nice guy.”

The Satanic Party: RNC Chair candidate Blackwell (the guy who helped Bush steal the ’04 election in Ohio) says
GOP must block economic recovery, to help Republicans’ chances in the next election.

America organizes going away tribute for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Excerpts from Thomas McCullock’s Jan 19 notes, thomasmc.com.

Who has the famous al-Zaidi Bush shoes

Posted on December 23, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Everyone’s clamoring for the shoe heard around the world. The several
manufacturers who claim to have cobbled the offending black oxfords are deluged in orders. A Saudi man has offered ten million dollars for Muntadhar al-Zaidi’s original pair. But the NYT reports: “Explosives tests by investigators destroyed the offending footwear.” Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

I don’t believe that shit for a minute. If airport security can verify footwear inertness in a few seconds…

Not that a pair of worn leather shoes matters a whit. But there is more than shoe fetish at foot here. And I find something about the fate of this pair of shoes that’s awfully unlike a Skull and Bones man.

Idolatry
The Saudi who offered the king’s ransom for the “Medal of Freedom” shoes, may have been enraptured by idolatry, but he knows the magical allure which those shoes will always possess. How can any of us deny the mystical energy we attribute to baseballs marked by having been hit to home runs? All Americans take, or aspire to take, a pilgrimage to the Smithsonian to see the actual, for real, objects of their common heritage.

Museums of art and natural history, glean an idolatry all their own, but historical collections like the Smithsonian and the British Imperial War Museum, peddle in pure talisman mysticism.

The crown jewels come to mind, or any ordinary person’s diamond. Stones, crystals, runes, coins, fetishes, heirlooms, antiques, personal designer accessories, safety blankets. We swim in stuff which have meaning greater than their utility. Even poor Diogenes had his lantern.

Who are we kidding that mere objects don’t have enormous power over us? I myself keep everything. I frequently feel I’m drowning in remembrances and chanced-upon objects for which I aspire sentiment. Would that I could focus on strength-building empowering articles.

I’m reminded of last year’s sale of a copy of the Magna Carta, was it, to a modern Wall Street robber baron. I was not alone to surmise that he paid 21 million for the now-transgressed compact, probably to wipe his ass with it. As the great white hunters paid their safari guides in hope of being the last to personally vanquish whatever late species was next to be rendered extinct.

The al-Zaidi Shoes
This famous pair of shoes were thrown by Muntadhar al-Zaidi at President Bush, al-Zaidi being the first man to dare show defiance to the US Nero. Although, certain intellectuals do come to mind, for having voiced their discontent with his policies. I remember too, a certain brave Indonesian witch doctor who cast a magic curse on the universally despised Bush. Ki Gendeng Pamungkas placed a jinx to shorten Bush’s stay in Indonesia, it wasn’t a fatal voodoo spell, for that would have been just as illegal as making threats is in the US. I will always believe there must have been countless more who’ve cursed Bush to his face, if prudently under their breath.

But journalist al-Zaidi did the one act above all others. He showed open, physical defiance. At the bottom line, against an imperial oligarchy which dominates the world by military force, it’s the only defiance that really matters. And George Bush knows it.

Once subdued, was it necessary to bludgeon al-Zaidi? He had disarmed himself, and was now completely out of ammo. Was the rough apprehension in any manner appropriate? Everyone in the room had already been checked by security. What was the purpose of beating al-Zaidi in the next room? Or of the torture later?

Regicide
Would-be assassins of kings, in the times of kings, were drawn and quartered, made to suffer excruciating deaths, but their body parts desecrated as well. It wasn’t to insure their mortality.

From a historical perspective, I believe al-Zaidi’s projectile footwear represent an enormously momentous act, even more by being common objects. We all have shoes. And see, shoes have provide a ready aeronautic diversion from the path most taken. A significant number of common citizens can get close enough to our leader to lambast him with their shoes.

Do we approve of him or not? Does he listen to our protestations, or does he laugh them off as our America-given freedoms to disagree?

Is it a mere disagreement we have with Bush over his regime’s genocide, high crimes and theft from the American People?

I’m convinced that al-Zaidi’s shoes had to be drawn and quartered, lest they inspire further acts of bravery from the ranks of Bush’s subjects.

Is it time to throw our shoes? In this divide and conquer feudal age, by design an anti-social world which celebrates the individual lest a community spirit trounce the narcissism imperative to thwart organizing into collectives, a next shoe-thrower would be mocked for being a copy-cat. I can hope that we recognize the humility of extremely diminutive stature. We want to be voracious proponents of social justice, but have tragically impoverished resources, . The struggle against capitalist imperialism will require many foot soldiers. We can’t all be Che and al-Zaidi. We didn’t think to throw our shoes, we won’t be improvisers of the next gesture. For the better part of us, the most effective we can be is follow their lead.

Let’s imagine, for the populist courage they might ignite, that the al-Zaidi shoes were effaced from man’s heritage. Bush has done worse, he’s razed Iraq, cradle of civilization, the untold undiscovered archeological sites, the historic library, I can’t even go on, the losses were unthinkable.

Occult Talisman
Except, this is a man who like his father, and strangely like an odd many in his cabal, came out of the secret “Skull and Bones” club at Yale. The exclusive order was originated by a forefather, who amassed the Bush fortune with help from Hitler by the way, named for the club’s alleged possession of the remains of Sitting Bull. What, was Sitting Bull a famous Yalie? A forefather of modern empire building? Was he a banking/usury supremacist?

Sitting Bull was but one of the fiercest American indian leader to have defied the white man’s global conquest. Of course, it’s not uncommon for warring cannibals to feel that they gather strength from their opponents, even as they’ve defeated them.

The Bushes and their cadre of global elites are also members of Bohemian Grove. As occultist as blue-blood better-than-thous can get. I’ll not assert they celebrate witchcraft, but it’s more pagan than average churchgoers could comfortably countenance. Traditional religions hold it as false idolatry, academia dismisses it as mysticism.

Which brings me to the Lance of Longinus, allegedly the weapon which pierced Jesus’s side to deal the Coup de Grace. Though scholars have traced its existence to only 900 AD, the “Spear of Destiny” retains a tremendous occult allure, in particular the Nazi Third Reich. Other such talisman weapons have been sought by warrior leaders throughout history, as bestowing upon whoever possessed them, divine powers over challengers to their throne.

Let’s face it, since the success of the American industrial and banking driven democracy, in rising to dominate over all its WWII adversaries and allies, our elected leader has become absolute ruler of the known world. It wasn’t our intent, but it’s human nature.

Absolute Power Corrupts
We live again in a world of kings. Of moats, of food tasters, of royal jesters, of showing not just deference but fealty. We live in a world of a leisured class, where right to wealth and privilege is considered hereditary. A birthright to nobility is reinforced even by what we understand of genetics. Men are not created equal. Man at his highest is preordained. It’s no great leap to expect these men will search the firmament for signs to affirm that their supremacy is granted by divinity.

I expect earthly objects which defy a monarch’s impregnability have irresistible personal allure to kings for whom nothing remains but to divine their life’s purpose.

It’s not uncharted territory, there have been global empires before, except the world known to earlier supreme leaders had horizons closer in. Alexander ruled his whole known world. The Roman Emperors did, with the unconquered bits being just so much backwoods. Such leaders had no rivals in trade, power, or wealth. Charlemagne, Ghengis Khan, Shaka Zulu, ruled their entire known realms. While these leaders were empire builders, the related personages less lauded, were their progeny who succumbed to proving Lord Acton’s Dictum that “absolute power corrupts–” Each it seems resolved to challenge the last part “–absolutely.”

Now John Dalberg-Acton’s Essays on Freedom and Power is a scrap of paper I’d be surprised to find enshrined in a megalomaniac’s personal collection of power-emitting talisman keepsake chatchkes.

Throwing a shoe at Bush was not enough- Dubya and Cheney need to be tortured for National Security reasons

Posted on December 23, 2008 by Tony Logan

waterboarding
It seems to me that the wrong guy is being tortured right now, pre-Christmas.

I’m talking about the Iraqi reporter who threw the shoe at America’s smirking Clown President, George W. Bush. Why is he being tortured and not the clown named Dubya?

We all know, thanks to Dick Cheney, that torture is a useful ‘tool’ for pricks like Dick Cheney. It simply gives them a sense of worth. But let’s face it, these two, Dick and Dubya, endangered US National Security for eight years, and are hiding away in secret many more of their acts of international terrorism, many of which continue to endanger the American people ourselves. It looks to me that torture is just the right thing to do to obtain this vital information from these two criminals, and possibly stop yet more subversion from taking place even after they leave their criminal posts as head mafiosos.

Let’s face it, it would not take much to break down the clown Dubya’s resistance. He squeal like a pig if even the slightest pressure is applied to his nuts. Think of the amount of much needed information that could be obtained about his still hidden collaborators and their roles in spreading terrorism world wide. They’re still active you know, and America needs this information to stop yet more acts of terrorism from being committed by the US government in the days ahead.

Sure, I know! Squeezing Dubya’s nuts is an objectionable and dirty thing to do. Under normal circumstances it would be morally wrong to do it, but today National Security is at the stake. So let’s light the fire, squeeze the nuts, and get this useful information out of Dick and Dubya. It’s the right thing to do. Our country needs this information!

If they do not squeal after their nuts are squeezed (hard to imagine happening from pigs like them), then crush the nuts and light the fire around the stake! That’ll get them talking. Oh! And buy the way, this is not really torture at all, but just some rough handling, that’s all. But why do these criminals think that they have a right to be coddled?

Free Iraq! Free the Iraqi shoe thrower! Jail Bush, and go to work on him! It’s a National Security issue and we all need to write tot he Department of Homeland Security and demand that this information being obtained from Dubya and Dick… By any means necessary… it’s the pragmatic American way!

Democratic Party awash in corruption scandal

Posted on December 20, 2008 by Tony Logan

What do Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and Bernard Madoff have in common? They are both Democratic Party kingpins, the likes of which Barack Obama climbed his way to White House power with. Bernie Madoff ran a $50 billion ponzi scheme from Wall Street but he also poured money into the Democratic Senatorial Campaign war chest ($100,000 between 2005 and 2008) and made large contributions to important Democrats on the Finance Committees, like Rep Henry Waxman and Senator Charles Schumer.

See “It’s Kristallnacht Two!” An Ethnic Cleansing in America By ALEXANDER COCKBURN for more about Madoff. And keep your eye on Governor Blagojevich’s hair piece, too, since this scandal has hardly but just begun. His defense should be, that selling of favors is actually the standard in our 2 corporate party system of American corruption, not a deviation from it! That’s just the simple truth.

These 2 corruption scandals are just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the overall corruption that Barack Obama’s Administration represents and governs through. Barack Obama has yet to even take over the Presidency, yet he and his party have been cooperating with the Republican Party to give away literally trillions of US government money to be used in bailouts for the profit making of the super rich, more war making for the military industrial complex, and cover-up for the torture regime of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. These two criminal conspiracies, the Democrats and Republicans, co-govern this country, and it really is hard to distinguish the corruption of one group of these gangsters from the corruption of the other group. They are simply in it together.

Corruption is the element that is collapsing The Empire, and the whole world hopes the collapse comes sooner, instead of later. Meanwhile, at home here in the US, there has been no bailout from this corruption that our country has yet to pay the full price for. One thing is for sure, a Democratic Party awash in corruption itself can play little part in moving things forward for the American people. We are caught between a rock and a hard place. Simple as that. Time to get over our ‘lesser of two evils’ buy in to all this top dog corruption and criminality at the very top. Time for patience is coming to an end.

A Congressional resolution about the Wholesale Pardon of the Bush Criminal Cartel…

Posted on November 30, 2008 by Brother Jonah

It’s a start. Last year and the year before Pelosi refused to put impeachment on the table.”Oh, goodness gracious no! It would make us seem Petty and partisan if we were to ever actually, you know, Do Our Jobs and confront the Dictator”

Now at least there’s a start.

For those unfamiliar with Legalese, filing papers on somebody effectively stops the clock on any Statutes of Limitations.

Including “executive immunity”
And this is as good as any indictment or arrest warrant

It’s not too late to defend the Constitution

If the motion is tabled until after the inauguration it would be A) far more difficult for the RepubliKlans to delay or derail…
and B) it leaves the investigation very much open.

If for instance Rove or Cheney want to Arrogantly big-ass congress and refuse to answer subpoenas, then their Cowardly Lying asses can be arrested

And they won’t have their Regime in the White House or the Attorney Generals office to bail the pussies out.

Democrats.com, the Aggressive Progressives – 500,000 strong and growing!

Rep. Jerrold Nadler Leads Opposition to Bush Pardons

Dear Activist,

Congratulations! Just one week ago we asked you to launch a massive movement against pardons by signing a petition to your Representatives. Over 46,000 of you took action and Congress took notice.

On Friday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) introduced H.Res. 1531 urging President Bush not to pardon senior administration officials for crimes the President authorized. It notes:

President George W. Bush may have committed crimes involving the mistreatment of detainees, the extraordinary rendition of individuals to countries known to engage in torture, illegal surveillance of United States citizens, unlawful leaks of classified information, obstruction of justice, political interference with the conduct of the Justice Department, and other illegal acts

and that

Bush has been urged to grant preemptive pardons to senior administration officials who might face criminal prosecution for actions taken in the course of their official duties

Nadler’s resolution urges Congress to investigate those crimes and any pardons relating to them, and urges the Attorney General (current or future) to appoint an Independent Counsel to prosecute those crimes.

These are major steps towards holding George Bush, Dick Cheney, and other senior officials accountable for their crimes and thereby upholding the rule of law, rather than allowing Presidents to become dictators.

Rep. Nadler’s leadership is crucial because he chairs the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties and can use his credibility and clout to move the resolution forward either during the lame duck session in December or when the next Congress convenes on January 6.

So our next step is to persuade as many Representatives as possible to co-sponsor H.Res. 1531. Please sign our new petition:
http://www.democrats.com/nadler-pardons

We also encourage you to call your Representative at 202-224-3121 and speak with the Legislative Assistant who handles Judiciary matters.

If your Representative says (s)he will co-sponsor, please let us know by commenting on our resolution “whipping” page:
http://www.democrats.com/nadler-pardon-resolution

Thanks for all you do!

Bob Fertik

#####

Forward this message to everyone you know!

I know, I know, some readers would think it’s not as much fun doing it that way as simply waiting for Karl Rove as he’s heading for his Lame-o Limo and beating his face in to the back of his head with a jack handle…

But then, in Federal Penitentiary, just imagine ….

With all those people he and Bush had railroaded waiting for the Board of Pardons and Paroles to investigate their cases… Especially the ones who were tortured….

And no Secret Service or White House Marine Guards around to step between them….

Who did not play Faust for George Bush

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Eric Verlo

I’d like to compile a collection of letters from famous personages in which they decline to dance with the Bush Administration. Were there many?

Shouldn’t any artist/musician/author or intellectual/humanitarian of note have publicly refused to collaborate with the immoral tyrant and his saccharine-smile patronizing librarian wife?

I have some favorites:
Mr. Feiffer Regrets -by Jules Feiffer, 2002
Poets Against War -Sam Hamill, 2003
Statement of Conscience -by Jennifer Warn, 2003
Open Letter to Laura Bush -by Sharon Olds, 2005

Archived copies are below:

Mr. Feiffer Regrets

October 12, 2002

Mrs. George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC

Dear Mrs. Bush,

I wish that I could come to your National Book Festival breakfast at the White House on Saturday, but after giving it much thought, I can’t attend.

I was thrilled to be invited, along with other writers and illustrators, to help celebrate your campaign to inspire young people in the pleasures of reading.

But I find it unbearably ironic that, while the uses of language are celebrated by you and your renowned guests, elsewhere in the White House language is being traduced and transformed to nudge us into war.

There are honest arguments on both sides of the Iraq debate (such as it is), but it seems necessary on the occasion of a celebration of reading to press the point that words, at their finest, don’t set out to confuse or obscure. Their aim is to clarify.

But clarity is not what we’re getting from your husband’s White House. It seems that clarity would deny him a war.

I am a father and a grandfather. As every parent knows, most children can intuit whether the stories their parents tell them are true or if they’re making them up.

The American people are able to tell too.

I am delighted to participate in National Book Festival events scheduled for the Library of Congress and the Capitol grounds. But as for your breakfast, may I convey my regrets and best wishes to you and your guests.

Sincerely,
/s/Jules Feiffer

Sam Hamill

Dear Friends and Fellow Poets:

“When I picked up my mail and saw the letter marked “The White House,” I felt no joy. Rather I was overcome by a kind of nausea as I read the card enclosed:

Laura Bush requests the pleasure of your company at a reception and White House Symposium on “Poetry and the American Voice” on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 at one o’clock

Only the day before I had read a lengthy report on George Bush’s proposed “Shock and Awe” attack on Iraq, calling for saturation bombing that would be like the firebombing of Dresden or Tokyo, killing countless innocent civilians.

I believe the only legitimate response to such a morally bankrupt and unconscionable idea is to reconstitute a Poets Against the War movement like the one organized to speak out against the war in Vietnam.

I am asking every poet to speak up for the conscience of our country and lend his or her name to our petition against this war, and to make February 12 a day of Poetry Against the War. We will compile an anthology of protest to be presented to the White House on that afternoon…

Statement of Conscience -Jennifer Warn

February 12, 2003

Mrs. Laura Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.

Dear Laura Bush,

Thank you for inviting me to the White House symposium on Poetry and the American Voice. Your call to better understand and celebrate the poetry of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes led me and many thousands of American poets to find their voices of dissent.

Since January 30th poets in many countries have joined in an upsurge of conscience and compassion, submitting over [15,000] poems to the Poets Against the War web site (www.poetsagainstthewar.org), organizing hundreds of anti-war poetry readings around the world, and joining with millions of others in vigils, processions, prayers and intercessions, lobbying and rallying for peace.

You have inadvertently presented a gift to the American people and to the world by providing poets an opportunity to express their most passionately held beliefs about their vision for the world’s future. Your gesture has revealed the very relationship it was meant to deny: the connection between poetry and politics, between literature and reality. Another great American poet, Wallace Stevens, presented this relationship succinctly:

“In life what is most important is the truth as it is, while in arts and letters what is most important is the truth as we see it.”

This wisdom is excerpted from “Imagination as Value,” an essay in the long tradition of poets puzzling over the power of poetry and asserting its place in a world primarily shaped by the machinations of politics and money.

What is poetry’s power? Why should you, vested with the power of the White House as First Lady, pay attention to such a rush of words at this late hour?

Poetry’s power lies in its perceptive ability to describe both inner and outer realities. In reading a poem we experience the paradoxical delight and anguish of human life. Poetry holds a mirror to the reality that our political systems and values create and in doing so reveals both the limitations of our current state and life’s endless possibilities. In its refracted light we see our intangible connections, the irrefutable unity of all people and beings on the planet.

We invite you to read this selection of poems which represents some of the most powerful in the Poetry Against the War Anthology. These poems were written by Pulitzer Prize winners, former U.S. poets laureate, and poets who work as professors, business people, homemakers and veterans. Those who have submitted poems or personal statements to register their opposition to ill-considered military action, including a pre-emptive strike on Iraq, honor a long and rich tradition of thoughtful and moral opposition by poets and other artists to senseless and murderous policies, including those of our own government.

We believe that the world is poised on the knife-edge of a decision between war and peace. It is our hope and conviction that peaceful American voices, conveyed in part and without historical precedent by the poets of this country, may help to avert a disaster of tragic proportions.

We call upon the Bush administration to halt the headlong rush toward war, to heed the voices of the people of the world, and to seek peaceful means of resolving conflicts in company with the world community.

Never before in history have so many poets gathered to speak in a single voice.

Sincerely,

Emily Warn
Poets Against the War

Open letter to Laura Bush -Sharon Olds

September 19, 2005

Laura Bush
First Lady
The White House

Dear Mrs. Bush,

I am writing to let you know why I am not able to accept your kind invitation to give a presentation at the National Book Festival on September 24, or to attend your dinner at the Library of Congress or the breakfast at the White House.

In one way, it’s a very appealing invitation. The idea of speaking at a festival attended by 85,000 people is inspiring! The possibility of finding new readers is exciting for a poet in personal terms, and in terms of the desire that poetry serve its constituents–all of us who need the pleasure, and the inner and outer news, it delivers.

And the concept of a community of readers and writers has long been dear to my heart. As a professor of creative writing in the graduate school of a major university, I have had the chance to be a part of some magnificent outreach writing workshops in which our students have become teachers. Over the years, they have taught in a variety of settings: a women’s prison, several New York City public high schools, an oncology ward for children. Our initial program, at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely physically challenged, has been running now for twenty years, creating along the way lasting friendships between young MFA candidates and their students–long-term residents at the hospital who, in their humor, courage and wisdom, become our teachers.

When you have witnessed someone nonspeaking and almost nonmoving spell out, with a toe, on a big plastic alphabet chart, letter by letter, his new poem, you have experienced, close up, the passion and essentialness of writing. When you have held up a small cardboard alphabet card for a writer who is completely nonspeaking and nonmoving (except for the eyes), and pointed first to the A, then the B, then C, then D, until you get to the first letter of the first word of the first line of the poem she has been composing in her head all week, and she lifts her eyes when that letter is touched to say yes, you feel with a fresh immediacy the human drive for creation, self-expression, accuracy, honesty and wit–and the importance of writing, which celebrates the value of each person’s unique story and song.

So the prospect of a festival of books seemed wonderful to me. I thought of the opportunity to talk about how to start up an outreach program. I thought of the chance to sell some books, sign some books and meet some of the citizens of Washington, DC. I thought that I could try to find a way, even as your guest, with respect, to speak about my deep feeling that we should not have invaded Iraq, and to declare my belief that the wish to invade another culture and another country–with the resultant loss of life and limb for our brave soldiers, and for the noncombatants in their home terrain–did not come out of our democracy but was instead a decision made “at the top” and forced on the people by distorted language, and by untruths. I hoped to express the fear that we have begun to live in the shadows of tyranny and religious chauvinism–the opposites of the liberty, tolerance and diversity our nation aspires to.

I tried to see my way clear to attend the festival in order to bear witness–as an American who loves her country and its principles and its writing–against this undeclared and devastating war.

But I could not face the idea of breaking bread with you. I knew that if I sat down to eat with you, it would feel to me as if I were condoning what I see to be the wild, highhanded actions of the Bush Administration.

What kept coming to the fore of my mind was that I would be taking food from the hand of the First Lady who represents the Administration that unleashed this war and that wills its continuation, even to the extent of permitting “extraordinary rendition”: flying people to other countries where they will be tortured for us.

So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought of the clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the flames of the candles, and I could not stomach it.

Sincerely,
SHARON OLDS

Put IMPEACHMENT back on the table

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Eric Verlo

President-elect Barack Obama could begin work today, and not just choosing his cabinet. As de-facto head of the Democratic Party, Obama should put the impeachment of George W. Bush straight unto the table. Read an insult into this too, but Bush is a lame duck. Shoot it.

Technically a lame duck president is left with not much room to swing. But a drunk in a padded room is still a threat if he’s got the red phone.

What excuse could Speaker Nancy Pelosi give for avoiding taking on the sitting president this time? It imperils what priorities now? The political battle’s won. The Dems are in charge. Is Dubya holding the world hostage until he’s paid a ransom and given a plane to escape to Paraguay?

Bush has proved that in the space of two weeks his team can summon the greatest economic crisis from an economy whose “fundamentals are strong” and raise a tab of possibly five trillion dollars. He’s got an economic summit coming up, and an itch to scratch with his own weapons of mass destruction. Distract him before he pokes somebody’s eye out.

And how better to get a jump on the upcoming challenges than to bring President Bush right to the mat, before the clock is ticking on congressional sessions which everybody should hope can be addressing America’s pressing problems problems.

Too, Joseph Lieberman should be stripped of his leadership roles on Senate subcommittees, and right wing media pundits need to lose their access to Washington.

Canadian Palin prank call over our heads

Posted on November 2, 2008 by Eric Verlo

American media outlets are distributing an expurgated transcript of the CKOI prank call to Governor Sarah Palin. Lots of the jokes made for International listeners were apparently lost on American reporters, as obviously on Palin. Prank caller assistant “Frank the Worker” introduces French President “Sarkozy” who then refers to French faux-ex-pat pop icon Johnny Hallyday as his American adviser, and the Quebec pop country buffoon Stef Carse as the Prime Minister of Canada, not Stephan Harper, the single Canadian we might know, in particular if we were governor of Alaska. Then the Masked Avenger tells Palin that his wife Carla Bruni wrote a song for her, “De rouge a levre sur un cochon” which means “lipstick on a pig!”

To be sure he speaks the phrase quickly, as if disbelieving himself that anyone would not recognize the joke.

The Masked Avengers, comedians Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel, often make fun of the typical American’s complete ignorance of Canadian politics. This prank call refers to the Prime Minister of Quebec Jean Charest, whom the caller assumes Palin would know, being “so next to him.” But they pretend his name is Richard Z. Sirois, who Canadian listeners would recognize is their CKOI cohost of “Les Cerveaux de l’info” (their radio show “The Info Brains”). It might be noted that the duo pulled an identical prank call on George W. Bush in 2000.

Here’s the full unexpurgated transcript of the CKOI prank call made to Governor Sarah Palin. Corrections are in bold. Notes and translations are in brackets.

HANDLER: This is Betsy.

RADIO HOST: Hello, Betsy.

HANDLER: Hi

RADIO HOST: Hi, this is Franc L’ouvrier, [trans. Frank the factory worker, a pun on Joe the Plumber] I am with president Sarkozy, on the line for Gov. Palin

HANDLER: Yes, one second please. Can you hold on one second, please?

RADIO HOST: Yeah, no problem.

HANDLER: Alright, thanks.

HANDLER 2: Hi, I’m gonna hand the phone over to her.

RADIO HOST: OK, thank you very much, I’m gonna put the president on the line

GOV. SARAH PALIN: This is Sarah.

RADIO HOST: Uh yeah, Gov. Palin?

GOV. PALIN: Hello.

RADIO HOST: Just hold on for President Sarkozy, one moment.

GOV. PALIN: [off line] Oh, it’s not him yet. I always do that.

FAKE SARKOZY: Yes, hello, Gov. Palin.

GOV. PALIN: [off line] I’ll just have people hand it to me right when it’s him.

FAKE SARKOZY: Yes, hello, Mrs. Governor?

GOV. PALIN: Hello, this is Sarah. How are you?

FAKE SARKOZY: Fine, and you? This is Nikolas Sarkozy speaking. How are you?

GOV. PALIN: Oh, so good, it’s so good to hear you. Thank you for calling us.

FAKE SARKOZY: Oh, it’s a pleasure.

GOV. PALIN: Thank you sir. We have such great respect for you, John McCain and I. We love you, and thank you for taking a few minutes to talk to me.

FAKE SARKOZY: I followed your campaigns very closely with my special American advisor, Johnny Hallyday.

GOV. PALIN: Yes, good.

FAKE SARKOZY: Excellent, are you confident?

GOV. PALIN: Very confident, and we’re thankful that polls are showing that the race is tightening.

FAKE SARKOZY: Well, I know very well that the campaign can be exhausting. How do you feel right now, my dear?

GOV. PALIN: I feel so good, I feel like we’re in a marathon and at the very end of the marathon you get your second wind and you plow through the finish.

FAKE SARKOZY: You see, I got elected in France because I’m real, and you seem to be someone who’s real as well.

GOV. PALIN: Yes, Nikolas we so appreciate this opportunity.

FAKE SARKOZY: You know, I see you as a president one day too.

GOV. PALIN: Haha, maybe in eight years.

FAKE SARKOZY: Well, I hope for you, you know we have a lot on common because personally, one of my favorite activities is to hunt, too.

GOV. PALIN: Oh, very good, we should go hunting together.

FAKE SARKOZY: Exactly, we could go try hunting by helicopter like you did. I never did that. Like we say in France, “on pourrait tuer des bebe phoques aussi.” [trans. “We could kill some baby seals too.”]

GOV. PALIN: Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together as we’re getting work done. We could kill two birds with one stone that way.

FAKE SARKOZY: I just love killing those animals, mm mm, take away a life, that is so fun. I’d really love to go as long as we don’t bring vice president Cheney, haha.

GOV. PALIN: No, I’ll be a careful shot, yes.

FAKE SARKOZY: Yes, you know we have a lot in common because except that from my house [note: bad French accent makes this sound like “ass”] I can see Belgium. That’s kind of less interesting than you.

GOV. PALIN: Well, see, we’re right next door to other countries that we all need to be working with, yes.

FAKE SARKOZY: Some people said in the last days, and I thought that was mean, that you weren’t experienced enough in foreign relations and you know, that’s completely false. That’s what I said to my great friend, Prime Minister of Canada, Steph Carse [local Canadian singer who rerecorded Achy Breaky Heart, not Stephen Harper].

GOV. PALIN: Well, you know, he’s doing fine too, when you come into a position underestimated, it gives you an opportunity to prove the pundits and the critics wrong. You work that much harder.

FAKE SARKOZY: I was wondering, because you are SO NEXT TO HIM, one of my good friends the PM of Quebec, Mister Richard Zed Sirois. [Mr. Richard Z. Sirois is their KVOI “Les Cerveaux de l’info” radio co-host, not Quebec Prime Minister Jean Charest] Have you met him recently? Has he come to one of your rallies?

GOV. PALIN: I haven’t seen him at one of the rallies, but it’s been great working with the Canadian officials in my role as governor. We have a great cooperative effort there, as we work on all of our resource development projects. You know, I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife, oh my goodness; you’ve added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours.

FAKE SARKOZY: Thank you very much, you know my wife Carla would love to meet you. You know, even though she was a bit jealous that I was supposed to speak to you today.

GOV. PALIN: Well give her a big hug for me.

FAKE SARKOZY: You know my wife is a popular singer and a former HOT TOP MODEL. And she’s so hot in bed, she even wrote a song for you.

GOV. PALIN: Oh my goodness, I didn’t know that.

FAKE SARKOZY: Yes, in French it’s called “de rouge a levre sur une cochonne” [trans. “Lipstick on a pig!” but pig in the feminine can also mean a floozy], or if you prefer in English “Joe the Plumber” (sings:) “It is Life, Joe the Plumber”.

GOV. PALIN: Maybe she understands some of the unfair criticism, but I bet you she’s such a hard worker too and she realizes you just plow through that criticism.

FAKE SARKOZY: I just want to be sure, I don’t quite understand the phenomenon Joe the Plumber, that’s not your husband, right?

GOV. PALIN: That’s not my husband, but he’s a normal American who just works hard and doesn’t want government to take his money.

FAKE SARKOZY: Yes, yes, I understand. We have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France, it’s called “Marcel the Guy with Bread Under his Armpit”. Oui.

GOV. PALIN: Right, that’s what it’s all about, the middle class and government needing to work for them. You’re a very good example for us here.

FAKE SARKOZY: I seen a bit, but NBC, even Fox News wasn’t an ally, an ally, sorry about as much as usual.

GOV. PALIN: Yes, that’s what we’re up against.

FAKE SARKOZY: I must say, Gov. Palin, I love the documentary they made on your life – you know, Hustler’s “Nailin’ Palin”.

GOV. PALIN: Oh good, thank you.

FAKE SARKOZY: That was really edgy.

GOV. PALIN: Well good.

FAKE SARKOZY: I really loved you. And I must say something else Governor, [drops French accent] you’ve been pranked by the Masked Avengers, we’re two comedians from Montreal.

GOV. PALIN: Oh, [sic] we’ve been pranked. What radio station is this?

FAKE SARKOZY: This is for CKOY in Montreal.

GOV. PALIN: In Montreal? tell me their radio station call letters.

FAKE SARKOZY: CK… Hello? [to listeners] If one voice can change the world for Obama, one Viagra can change the world for McCain.

PALIN AID: I’m sorry, I have to let you go, thank you.

FAKE SARKOZY: Yay! Woohoo!

GOP soft money clothes laundering

Posted on November 1, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Sarah Palin is now pointing out that what she’s wearing is from her “favorite consignment shop in Anchorage Alaska.” Are GOP campaign stylists now stocking the store in Alaska? Stocking it for Sarah Palin? Couldn’t a consignment collection be the ultimate slush fund in miniature, a wardrobe based on the soft money concept? It’s literally political rally wardrobe-laundering!

Purchased from Neiman Marcus, the item can be put on the books at the consignment store for a nominal consignment price. The paper trail can go through the favorite shop, but the clothes can go straight from the GOP personal shoppers in Sarah Palin’s entourage, to Sarah Palin’s steamer trunk.

The infamous 150 thousand dollar shopping isn’t above par for a television wardrobe. Isn’t that figure but a fraction of what Cindy McCain wore in one RNC appearance? The $150K brouhaha masks the larger story, that Sarah Palin is no more a Washington outsider than George W. Bush. Though she plays a western territory governor risen from small time mayor, in reality Palin courted the Republican elite and charmed the GOP Neocons who are looking for another good-ol-boy figurehead to pitch their anti-democratic agenda.

The photo at top was taken of Sarah Palin as she was being ferried from Alaska to Minnesota for her unveiling at the RNC. While the newspaper caption read, Sarah Palin and unidentified male, in fact that figure is Steve Schmidt, head of the McCain campaign, who coached Palin for the entirety of her trip.

John McCain is not George W. Bush. He’s Dick Cheney.

Posted on October 16, 2008 by Thomas Mc

John McCain’s constant reference in the debate was Joe the Plumber, who it turns out is really Joe the Tax Dodger.

Todd Palin ineligible for security clearance due to his terrorist connections?

Sarah Qualin thinks New Hampshire is “part of the Great Northwest.”

Russians invade Alaska, Palin unaware.

Secret Service investigating terrorist threat to assassinate Obama at Palin rally.

NeoNazi Rush “KKK” Limbaugh says black people are terrorists planning to destroy America.

There is nothing more racist than a Republican.

Excerpts from Thomas McCullock’s Oct 16 notes, thomasmc.com.

Stop the Senate of would-be thieves!

Posted on October 1, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Call your Band of Thieving Senators now to tell them you don’t want to give $700 Billion –more honestly likely to be $5 Trillion– to the robber bankers of Wall Street! Telephone Colorado Senators Ken Salazar at 202.224.5852 and Wayne Allard at 202.224.5941 NOW. Why not call OBAMA too! (phone: 202-224-2854) Tell them you want them to consult with at least ONE economist of repute! At least one analyst not on the corporate payroll. As he promised yesterday, Michael Moore suggests a 10 PART PLAN, only IF pressure can be brought to bear right now to stop the Senate bill.

Friends,

The richest 400 Americans — that’s right, just four hundred people — own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. 400 rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion — the same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the “bailout.” Why don’t they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They’d still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!

Of course, they are not going to do that — at least not voluntarily. George W. Bush was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because that money was OUR money and not his, he did what the rich prefer to do — spend it and never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt. Why on earth would we even think of giving these robber barons any more of our money?

I would like to propose my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below, are predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull themselves up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you drilled it into our heads one too many times: There… is… no… free… lunch. And thank you for encouraging us to hate people on welfare! So, there will be no handouts from us to you. The Senate, tonight, is going to try to rush their version of a “bailout” bill to a vote. They must be stopped. We did it on Monday with the House, and we can do it again today with the Senate.

It is clear, though, that we cannot simply keep protesting without proposing exactly what it is we think Congress should do. So, after consulting with a number of people smarter than Phil Gramm, here is my proposal, now known as “Mike’s Rescue Plan.” It has 10 simple, straightforward points. They are:

1. APPOINT A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO CRIMINALLY INDICT ANYONE ON WALL STREET WHO KNOWINGLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS COLLAPSE. Before any new money is expended, Congress must commit, by resolution, to criminally prosecute anyone who had anything to do with the attempted sacking of our economy. This means that anyone who committed insider trading, securities fraud or any action that helped bring about this collapse must go to jail. This Congress must call for a Special Prosecutor who will vigorously go after everyone who created the mess, and anyone else who attempts to scam the public in the future.

2. THE RICH MUST PAY FOR THEIR OWN BAILOUT. They may have to live in 5 houses instead of 7. They may have to drive 9 cars instead of 13. The chef for their mini-terriers may have to be reassigned. But there is no way in hell, after forcing family incomes to go down more than $2,000 dollars during the Bush years, that working people and the middle class are going to fork over one dime to underwrite the next yacht purchase.

If they truly need the $700 billion they say they need, well, here is an easy way they can raise it:

a) Every couple who makes over a million dollars a year and every single taxpayer who makes over $500,000 a year will pay a 10% surcharge tax for five years. (It’s the Senator Sanders plan. He’s like Colonel Sanders, only he’s out to fry the right chickens.) That means the rich will still be paying less income tax than when Carter was president. This will raise a total of $300 billion.

b) Like nearly every other democracy, charge a 0.25% tax on every stock transaction. This will raise more than $200 billion in a year.

c) Because every stockholder is a patriotic American, stockholders will forgo receiving a dividend check for one quarter and instead this money will go the treasury to help pay for the bailout.

d) 25% of major U.S. corporations currently pay NO federal income tax. Federal corporate tax revenues currently amount to 1.7% of the GDP compared to 5% in the 1950s. If we raise the corporate income tax back to the level of the 1950s, that gives us an extra $500 billion.

All of this combined should be enough to end the calamity. The rich will get to keep their mansions and their servants, and our United States government (“COUNTRY FIRST!”) will have a little leftover to repair some roads, bridges and schools.

3. BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BUILD AN EIGHTH HOME. There are 1.3 million homes in foreclosure right now. That is what is at the heart of this problem. So instead of giving the money to the banks as a gift, pay down each of these mortgages by $100,000. Force the banks to renegotiate the mortgage so the homeowner can pay on its current value. To insure that this help does no go to speculators and those who have tried to make money by flipping houses, this bailout is only for people’s primary residence. And in return for the $100K paydown on the existing mortgage, the government gets to share in the holding of the mortgage so that it can get some of its money back. Thus, the total initial cost of fixing the mortgage crisis at its roots (instead of with the greedy lenders) is $150 billion, not $700 billion.

And let’s set the record straight. People who have defaulted on their mortgages are not “bad risks.” They are our fellow Americans, and all they wanted was what we all want and most of us still get: a home to call their own. But during the Bush years, millions of them lost the decent paying jobs they had. Six million fell into poverty. Seven million lost their health insurance. And every one of them saw their real wages go down by $2,000. Those who dare to look down on these Americans who got hit with one bad break after another should be ashamed. We are a better, stronger, safer and happier society when all of our citizens can afford to live in a home that they own.

4. IF YOUR BANK OR COMPANY GETS ANY OF OUR MONEY IN A “BAILOUT,” THEN WE OWN YOU. Sorry, that’s how it’s done. If the bank gives me money so I can buy a house, the bank “owns” that house until I pay it all back — with interest. Same deal for Wall Street. Whatever money you need to stay afloat, if our government considers you a safe risk — and necessary for the good of the country — then you can get a loan, but we will own you. If you default, we will sell you. This is how the Swedish government did it and it worked.

5. ALL REGULATIONS MUST BE RESTORED. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS DEAD. This catastrophe happened because we let the fox have the keys to the henhouse. In 1999, Phil Gramm authored a bill to remove all the regulations that governed Wall Street and our banking system. The bill passed and Clinton signed it. Here’s what Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain’s chief economic advisor, said at the bill signing:

“In the 1930s … it was believed that government was the answer. It was believed that stability and growth came from government overriding the functioning of free markets.

“We are here today to repeal [that] because we have learned that government is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having competition and freedom.

“I am proud to be here because this is an important bill; it is a deregulatory bill. I believe that that is the wave of the future, and I am awfully proud to have been a part of making it a reality.”

This bill must be repealed. Bill Clinton can help by leading the effort for the repeal of the Gramm bill and the reinstating of even tougher regulations regarding our financial institutions. And when they’re done with that, they can restore the regulations for the airlines, the inspection of our food, the oil industry, OSHA, and every other entity that affects our daily lives. All oversight provisions for any “bailout” must have enforcement monies attached to them and criminal penalties for all offenders.

6. IF IT’S TOO BIG TO FAIL, THEN THAT MEANS IT’S TOO BIG TO EXIST. Allowing the creation of these mega-mergers and not enforcing the monopoly and anti-trust laws has allowed a number of financial institutions and corporations to become so large, the very thought of their collapse means an even bigger collapse across the entire economy. No one or two companies should have this kind of power. The so-called “economic Pearl Harbor” can’t happen when you have hundreds — thousands — of institutions where people have their money. When you have a dozen auto companies, if one goes belly-up, we don’t face a national disaster. If you have three separately-owned daily newspapers in your town, then one media company can’t call all the shots (I know… What am I thinking?! Who reads a paper anymore? Sure glad all those mergers and buyouts left us with a strong and free press!). Laws must be enacted to prevent companies from being so large and dominant that with one slingshot to the eye, the giant falls and dies. And no institution should be allowed to set up money schemes that no one can understand. If you can’t explain it in two sentences, you shouldn’t be taking anyone’s money.

7. NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD BE PAID MORE THAN 40 TIMES THEIR AVERAGE EMPLOYEE, AND NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD RECEIVE ANY KIND OF “PARACHUTE” OTHER THAN THE VERY GENEROUS SALARY HE OR SHE MADE WHILE WORKING FOR THE COMPANY. In 1980, the average American CEO made 45 times what their employees made. By 2003, they were making 254 times what their workers made. After 8 years of Bush, they now make over 400 times what their average employee makes. How this can happen at publicly held companies is beyond reason. In Britain, the average CEO makes 28 times what their average employee makes. In Japan, it’s only 17 times! The last I heard, the CEO of Toyota was living the high life in Tokyo. How does he do it on so little money? Seriously, this is an outrage. We have created the mess we’re in by letting the people at the top become bloated beyond belief with millions of dollars. This has to stop. Not only should no executive who receives help out of this mess profit from it, but any executive who was in charge of running his company into the ground should be fired before the company receives any help.

8. STRENGTHEN THE FDIC AND MAKE IT A MODEL FOR PROTECTING NOT ONLY PEOPLE’S SAVINGS, BUT ALSO THEIR PENSIONS AND THEIR HOMES. Obama was correct yesterday to propose expanding FDIC protection of people’s savings in their banks to $250,000. But this same sort of government insurance must be given to our nation’s pension funds. People should never have to worry about whether or not the money they’ve put away for their old age will be there. This will mean strict government oversight of companies who manage their employees’ funds — or perhaps it means that the companies will have to turn over those funds and their management to the government. People’s private retirement funds must also be protected, but perhaps it’s time to consider not having one’s retirement invested in the casino known as the stock market. Our government should have a solemn duty to guarantee that no one who grows old in this country has to worry about ending up destitute.

9. EVERYBODY NEEDS TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH, CALM DOWN, AND NOT LET FEAR RULE THE DAY. Turn off the TV! We are not in the Second Great Depression. The sky is not falling. Pundits and politicians are lying to us so fast and furious it’s hard not to be affected by all the fear mongering. Even I, yesterday, wrote to you and repeated what I heard on the news, that the Dow had the biggest one day drop in its history. Well, that’s true in terms of points, but its 7% drop came nowhere close to Black Monday in 1987 when the stock market in one day lost 23% of its value. In the ’80s, 3,000 banks closed, but America didn’t go out of business. These institutions have always had their ups and downs and eventually it works out. It has to, because the rich do not like their wealth being disrupted! They have a vested interest in calming things down and getting back into the Jacuzzi.

As crazy as things are right now, tens of thousands of people got a car loan this week. Thousands went to the bank and got a mortgage to buy a home. Students just back to college found banks more than happy to put them into hock for the next 15 years with a student loan. Life has gone on. Not a single person has lost any of their money if it’s in a bank or a treasury note or a CD. And the most amazing thing is that the American public hasn’t bought the scare campaign. The citizens didn’t blink, and instead told Congress to take that bailout and shove it. THAT was impressive. Why didn’t the population succumb to the fright-filled warnings from their president and his cronies? Well, you can only say ‘Saddam has da bomb’ so many times before the people realize you’re a lying sack of shite. After eight long years, the nation is worn out and simply can’t take it any longer.

10. CREATE A NATIONAL BANK, A “PEOPLE’S BANK.” If we really are itching to print up a trillion dollars, instead of giving it to a few rich people, why don’t we give it to ourselves? Now that we own Freddie and Fannie, why not set up a people’s bank? One that can provide low-interest loans for all sorts of people who want to own a home, start a small business, go to school, come up with the cure for cancer or create the next great invention. And now that we own AIG, the country’s largest insurance company, let’s take the next step and provide health insurance for everyone. Medicare for all. It will save us so much money in the long run. And we won’t be 12th on the life expectancy list. We’ll be able to have a longer life, enjoying our government-protected pension, and living to see the day when the corporate criminals who caused so much misery are let out of prison so that we can help reaclimate them to civilian life — a life with one nice home and a gas-free car that was invented with help from the People’s Bank.

Yours,
Michael Moore

P.S. Call your Senators now. Here’s a backup link in case we crash that site again. They are going to attempt their own version of the Looting of America tonight. And let your reps know if you agree with my 10-point plan.

The Little President Who Cried WOLF!

Posted on September 30, 2008 by Thomas Mc

Let’s be honest: we all knew when Bush stole the election in 2000 that he would bankrupt America, and stick the taxpayers with the bill on his way out. This is about as unsurprising as discovering that the sun has set in the evening.

Will Wall Street’s meltdown turn America into a police state?

Who knew the GOP was gay? ChristoFascists blaming gays for financial meltdown. Myself, I’m more likely to believe it’s God’s judgement on all the phonies pretending to be Christians. Or karma. The filthy rich have been screwing us for generations, now it’s our turn. Pitchforks and torches are about the best investment you can find these days.

The Shadow of the Pitchfork [EXCERPT]

Elite Panic Attack as Bailout Goes Bust by Chris Floyd

The vote by the House of Representatives to defeat the Wall Street bailout plan is the first act of political courage that the Congress of the United States has mounted in the last seven years. The fact that it was due largely to right-wing Republicans afraid of going down with the sinking ship of the witless leader they have followed blindly throughout his reign is a delicious irony — but the whys and wherefores of the vote are not important. What matters is that one of America’s moribund institutions has flickered to life long enough to derail a disastrous action that would have shoved the nation even deeper into the pit of corruption and ruin where it has been mired for so long.

Nothing — absolutely nothing — could be politically safer than opposing George W. Bush. And yet the entire Democratic leadership, Barack Obama included, lined up to support a cockamamie plan proposed by this scorned and shriveled figure, a plan that was transparently nothing more than an audacious raid on the Treasury by Big Money hoods and yet another authoritarian power grab by a gang of murderous, torturing, warmongering toadies. This was the plan and these were the people that the Democrats decided to fight for.

What’s more, the Democrats stood shoulder to shoulder with the president on what is apparently the only issue that can now stir Americans to genuine anger and widespread protest: a direct threat to their bank accounts. Wars of aggression like the Nazis used to wage; elaborate tortures like the KGB used to practice; concentration camps, lawbreaking leaders, diminishment of liberty, the slaughter of a million innocent people in a land destroyed by an illegal and pointless invasion — all of that stuff is pretty much OK, easily swallowable, worth no more than a shrug or perhaps a frowny “tsk tsk” before going on to the sports pages or flipping over to another channel. But put out an open ploy to steal their money and give it to the filthy rich — and baby, it’s pitchfork time! Yet here, as the public face of just such a ploy, is where the Democrats chose to make their stand.

Excerpts from Thomas McCullock’s Sept 30 notes, thomasmc.com.

Democrats give Pentagon $612.5 billion for 2009

Posted on September 26, 2008 by Tony Logan

war-terrorism-bigger-budget While trying to get the Republican Party to pass Bush’s public give away to Wall Street, the Democratic Party has also been busy on another front to help bankrupt the US public.

This Wednesday the House passed a bill that gives the Pentagon $612.5 billion to keep its worldwide murder machine running on deficit spending. See House passes $612B defense bill, includes troop pay raise Between the House and Senate, less than 50 Senators and Congressmen opposed this military-industrial Welfare Program Bill, truly once again illustrating that the Democratic and Republican Parties are united against the American people. It simply makes little to no difference to try to distinguish minor differences in the personalities involved in the crooks representing these two parties. The def acto leaders of both parties are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Sarah Palin Church Lady for President!

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Eric Verlo

I may be too impressionable, but I’ve warmed up to Sarah Palin. For President! The American two-party delusion needs a coup-de-grace, and doesn’t Palin have just authenticity enough to pull the trigger? Assail this logic if you can.

The Democratic Party is already out of the picture. Since reclaiming Congress in 2006 the Dems have shown Americans what they can do. Nothing. Name the issue, whatever their constituents want, the Democrats won’t deliver it. They can’t even commandeer a lead in the polls against the most despised political machine in recent memory. They’ve got a charismatic candidate who can run pirouettes around his opponent, a corrupt, desperate, lying geriatric. But the Dems can’t sway the corporate media from allegiance to the GOP.

How many rotten eggs do you need hatched? The Democrats are already rolling over for 2008 election irregularities. They will give in to Wall Street’s trillion-plus dollar extortion. And they won’t end the war, or stop torture, or defend the Constitution, or impeach genocidal bastards, regardless the public’s outrage. The Democratic Party is a dead lost cause. Dead.

The Republican Party is still kicking -the shit out of us- and they’ve no doubt got plenty left in them. We learned in just the space of a week that the GOP financiers must get their money or they’ll break the economy’s kneecaps. What kind of odds do you want the goons won’t be back for more?

We used to imagine that asset-stripping capitalists knew enough not to kill the golden goose, but maybe we underestimate the standard of living (ours) left to strangle from her.

Republican journeymen such as McCain, Lieberman, Graham, and cronies Paulson et Cheney, won’t stop at extracting your gold fillings. But novitiate Sarah Palin just may have a less developed depth of greed.

I’ve made this mistake before, when I imagined George W. Bush too simple to know that absolute power was his to corrupt. But don’t you have the sense Sarah Palin is the real deal? There’s no Prescott Bush in her bloodline. Palin will loot only as much as she can stash in a Winnebago. Then she’ll apply herself to her spiritual calling. She’s no Tammy Faye. To my mind, Palin’s religiosity is sufficiently extreme to appear genuine.

There may of course remain Halliburton machinations behind Palin’s flirty church lady. But the oligarchs’ growing mendacity, combined with Sarah Palin’s small-minded zealotry, could bring Fascist America beyond the pale. I think the GOP legacy could finally close the book on our nation’s Democracy fable. If we survive it, the Republicans will be gone for good.

I’m with Jacques‘ election 2008 slogan:

GOP IN 2008, GONE FOREVER IN 2012, WORTH THE RISK.

Hand over the treasure, or we’ll burn the ship down! Arrrrrr!

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Thomas Mc

First Wall St. demanded a $1T bailout, so taxpayers relaxed a bit when Paulson said it was only $700B (!) Now it looks like they’re upping the extortion to $5T. Since less than 100 million Americans actually pay Federal Income Tax, that makes your share $50,000. Just make your check out to Robber Barrons, Inc.

Hand over the treasure, or we’ll burn the ship down! Arrrrrr!

Break out the torches and pitchforks, even the Senate Republicans have turned on the Frankenstein Administration.

Newt Gingrich warns McCain not to vote for Wall St. bailout. “I don’t know how he can vote for this and with a straight face go around and say that he’s for real change and he’s the reform candidate.” Probably with the same straight face he lies with in every campaign statement and ad, “my friends,” with that creepy smile that looks like his dentures are about to fall out.

McCain suspending campaign to deal with the New Great Depression he created. Of course, by “suspending,” he means that he will make the financial crisis his own private campaign issue, and will attack Obama for “putting his campaign ahead of issues” if he even so much as talks about the bailout.

George W. Bush’s unbelievably hypocritical speech at the UN. [video]

Bill Clinton on The Daily Show.

We Are the Enemy. US Gov’t to station troops inside the US to control dissent. Hey, it worked for Hitler.

John LaBruzzo (Eugenics Party-LA) wants to sterilize the poor, and pay the rich to procreate. And people thought we were crazy when we compared them to Hitler.

Excerpts from Thomas McCullock’s Sept 24 notes, thomasmc.com.

Economic meltdown and the deafening silence of Barack Obama

Posted on September 22, 2008 by Tony Logan

Barack Obama has had ample opportunity to articulate a different program than George Bush and McCain’s foreign policy of continual war, militarism, and imperialism yet failed to do so. But still possibly some redeeming of his character and political program was possible in regards to domestic issues? However he has completely failed that test, too, and has shown no signs of opposing any of the Bush-McCain agenda to transfer the colossal private debt of America’s private financial institutions onto the Federal Budget itself. In short, he too favors bankrupting the American people as a whole by saddling the American tax payer with private debt run up by the super rich economic elites of our country.

What we have seen is a turn from ‘trickle down’ theorizing by the bought and paid for talking heads of media and business to an open assault on the American people that we should all call and label the Flood Up Economic Doctrine. Instead of just ‘socialism’ for the military industrial complex, we now will see ‘socialism’ being advocated and put into place for the Military industrial financial complex. None of this is socialism, of course, but rather is nothing more than corporate welfare provided by from the money of workers the capitalist class exploits.

Barack Obama is a pig in liberal lipstick here. In fact, women do like him and give more than twice the amount to his campaign as they do to the other campaign with bright red lipstick, the McCain-Palin louts. But there is nothing different about these two groupings, except the label branding. Barack Obama, too, will give away public money to bail out the super rich, though in fact, they will merely sink the American public and provide no real ‘bailout’ at all.

Vote for Obama hoping for some different policies, but it appears that you will become quickly disappointed. It is most probably that Obama and the Democrats will move into the White House, if only because the branding of the McCain ticket is having to cover up the ugliest pig with lipstick on of them all. They are having to paint lipstick on George W. Bush, and that is a sorry sight to the American public by now. Look for further signs of electrical economic collapse in the Whither Forecast for tomorrow.

America only cares about itself

Posted on September 10, 2008 by Tony Logan

Haiti under water. Whole cities are submerged in the aftermath of hurricanes that did little damage to the US. Hundreds, if not thousands, dead. And Haiti, an occupied country, occupied thanks to the President of the United States, George W. Bush. Occupied Haiti, thanks to the Democratic Party that went along with the Republicans to occupy Haiti with foreign troops and keep it under foreign military rule.

Have you heard a word about the US rushing supplies and assistance in to Haiti? Or is it only the US rushing to re-equip the Georgian military for yet another attack against Russia and its allies? Do we have time to help Haiti when we are in a rush to go to war with Iran? Do we have any concern at all for Haitians? Haiti and the Hurricanes

Not really. America really only cares about itself.

Sarah Palin’s sister married a cop

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Eric Verlo

What does TROOPER GATE say about the potential Vice President, now Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin? Apparently emails and phone records indicate that Palin used her authority as governor to fire the supervisor who wouldn’t fire the state trooper with whom her sister was fighting a custody battle.

How TROOPER GATE strikes me, in addition to the inappropriate abuse of power, is that Palin’s sister was married to a cop. How far can anyone fall from so short a tree?

Which is not to say Palin would not be smart enough to be Vice President, or President, when John McCain expires. She’s no worse a patsy than George W. Bush. The odds are phenomenally unlikely she could be dumber.

How did such an inexperienced person find herself as governor of Alaska? Probably Palin was the only person myopic enough to step into Senator Stevens’ corrupt political machine. Stevens and his cronies couldn’t serve as governor themselves, they were too busy with sneaky oil deals. As scandals grew to investigations, they needed someone in office who wouldn’t know how to do anythng, much less turn the heat on them.

It turns out Palin was cut from the same cloth, of a rougher thread-count. Instead of embezzling from oil deals, or stealing cuts of construction projects, she’s pushing her weight around in personal vendettas against in-laws.

Barack Obama, “I’m supportive of what George Bush has been doing.”

Posted on August 22, 2008 by Tony Logan

Change When it comes to American imperialism, there is no difference at all between Obama and McCain. So it is no surprise at all to see Barack Obama supporting George W. Bush’s belligerent neocon aggression against Russia. The voice of the American imperialist neocons is The Wall Street Journal, and here is their report- President Bush Wins Sen Barack Obama’s Backing Over Georgia

US government heads toward direct military engagement against Russia

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Tony Logan

The US government is moving toward direct military confrontation against Russia as Bush has directed the US military to begin shipping ‘aid’ to Georgia. The Pentagon has already been ferrying Georgian troops back into Georgia from out of Iraq, where they functioned as US mercenaries there in the US occupation of that country. Because of DC’s continued belligerence all over the globe and now its role in destroying South Ossetia’s capital, Russia has little choice other than to stand up to the current Bush Administration and draw the line hard and fast now, and doing that can lead to a nuclear showdown quite quickly.

The Democratic Party has an opportunity to veto this Republican begun war, but so far has remained utterly silent. Correct that. Actually some leading advisers to the DP also are pushing for further dangerous confrontation against Russia. I am talking about Zbigniew Brzezinski in special who is now a Barack Obama adviser. This infamous Cold Warrior who gave Osama bin Laden his start in Afghanistan is advocating more US government aggression against Russia, not less.

What do the latest Rice and Bush communiques signify? Bush orders aid to Georgia, Rice to visit Tbilisi One thing is for sure, and that is that George W. Bush and his neocons are a lot stupider, a lot looser with their power, and a lot more arrogant than John F. Kennedy ever was, and that spells trouble for us all. The Democratic Party’s passive acceptance of the Bush plan to continue attacking Russia is very disturbing.

Dumber than George Doornail Bush

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Who could be more phony than Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, more embarrassing than Bill Clinton, and dumber than George W. Bush?

John McCain, and he’ll approve this message.

	LL on Owl City writes lyrics most fo…
	lizzie on The ‘success maker…
	gary cummings on Common Dreams? Or is it censor…
	kennetha on The Stiles Unit of Beaumont
	Cristian on Shlomo Sand and shattering a n…
	Vic Currier on Why should you attend the Denv…
	Vic Currier on Sovereign constitutional oath…
	Robyn KenyaStar Prui… on White Native Americans
	Debra Gill on The Stiles Unit of Beaumont
	Xaldyn on The ‘success maker…

Not My Tribe

The Myth of Middle Ground

Tag Archives: George W Bush

Hugo Chavez has message for Obama

Activism heroics and roadkill

Eric Holder, ‘First Black’ or just another reactionary appointee by Barack Obama?

Zionism is Nazism with a yarmulke

ZIONISM IS TERRORISM!

Throwing a shoe at Bush was not enough- Dubya and Cheney need to be tortured for National Security reasons

Democratic Party awash in corruption scandal

A Congressional resolution about the Wholesale Pardon of the Bush Criminal Cartel…

Who did not play Faust for George Bush

Put IMPEACHMENT back on the table

Canadian Palin prank call over our heads

GOP soft money clothes laundering

John McCain is not George W. Bush. He’s Dick Cheney.

Stop the Senate of would-be thieves!

The Little President Who Cried WOLF!

Democrats give Pentagon $612.5 billion for 2009

Sarah Palin Church Lady for President!

Hand over the treasure, or we’ll burn the ship down! Arrrrrr!

Economic meltdown and the deafening silence of Barack Obama

America only cares about itself

Sarah Palin’s sister married a cop

Barack Obama, “I’m supportive of what George Bush has been doing.”

US government heads toward direct military engagement against Russia

Dumber than George Doornail Bush