Opposition to Public Education

Posted on February 2, 2009 by Brother Jonah

Why Republicans HATE Public Education.

In the Words of THEIR prophet Hitler “Universal Public Education is the most virulent toxin that Liberalism can inflict upon itself. It only makes the Lower Classes think more highly of themselves than they ought, and leads to discontent with their position in life. Truly, they only need enough education to be Efficient Coolies for our industries”
(Liberties taken with the exact English phrases, the Original was in German)

We often are accused of “ignorance” when the Anti-Semitic Supporters of Killing Palestinians, for example, or the one who calls him/herself “Friend” posts… publish their reactionary Angry Hate Speech on Not My Tribe.

In a slightly backward twist we are often accused of being “intellectual Elitists”, but Still ignorant.

Or “idiots”.

Without Public Education we would be left with home-schooling, or Parochial Education.

Those of us who weren’t born with silver spoons in our mouths would be left out in either case.

“Keep ’em Ignorant”

And for not just nearly but EXACTLY the same reason American Slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write.

I’m sure the Republican’t respondents will argue that it’s not like that, I’m just spouting Marxist Propaganda again, the Repukelickin’ Party doesn’t actually engage in class warfare or racism blah blah blah blah…

My grandfather was a cowboy.

Not like George Bush with his “ranch” and 5 cows bought and maintained by his Trust Fund, a trust fund which I’m once again going to point out came from an enterprise his family engaged in called Slave Trading.

They’ll say that, Yankee Puritans they claim to be, their family didn’t actually own slaves. Nor did their favorite “charity” the Yale Foundation.

No, they wouldn’t soil their own hands with the whips and chains necessary to “earn” their money for them…

They just owned a fleet of Slave Ships.

That and Grand-poppy Prescott Bush laundered money for the Nazis, which they don’t

a) apologize for

and

b) they’re still spending the money they got from BOTH enterprises.

No, Grandpa Brown was a REAL cowboy. So was his brother Loy and their brother-in-law Tom.

In Texas in those days that meant Impoverished.

Cowboys were just then being romanticized in the public IMAGINATION through those new-fangled movin’ picture thingies.

Uncle Tom wound up being the foreman of the Rolling Hills Ranch in Keene, Texas, until the ranch was sold to Halliburton in the late 70s to make a Game Ranch.

Like the one where Former Vice President and Current Active War Criminal Richard Cheney shot his friend in the face while they were “hunting” captive, hand raised “Wild” ducks.

They also have or had a website wherein you could with a click of your mouse or joystick “hunt” and actually kill actual formerly live animals (until you put the mouse pointer over them and clicked)

Uncle Tom described it as a place where they bought old, diseased “wild” zoo and circus animals dependent upon your actual skill level they would drug the animals or even chain them up for you so you wouldn’t miss.

That way you could go on an African Safari without ever leaving Texas.

Really swell, wonderful Republican People, they are.

But with a family background like that, working class all the way, impoverished…

Without Public Education how would I have ever risen to the position where I could contend with so many Noble Rich American (and Israeli, if you believe their story) Aristocracy like “Friend” and the Megaphone Users?

The short answer is that I wouldn’t.

Nor would most of us who oppose their monstrous schemes, we would simply have to take their word on any subject or issue, they would pat us on the head and bid us go back out into the cotton fields like good little childishly ignorant Peasants.

While they can’t do it literally, they do, in fact, precisely that by sneeringly dismissing anything we write, anything we Learn and then Share as being “ignorance”.

And sneeringly claim that we must be “idiots”.

But it’s not Racism or Class Warfare or Big Brotherism. No, it’s “all for your own good”

But in their underestimation we’re just too stupid and “ignorant” to recognize it.

In other news…

Posted on January 20, 2009 by Brother Jonah

Bush is on his way back to Texas, Preston Hollow in Dallas to be exact… aboard Air Force One

Seems that even though he and his Merry Band of Thieves stole every last real dollar in the known world, he’s still such a cheap son-of-an-ugly-bitch that he can’t pay his own way home, and is once again bumming a free ride off the Taxpayer Account.

As he was getting on board the Marine Helicopter to take him to Andrews AFB the crowd started chanting “Nana na na, hey hey hey, GOODBYE”

Miss Johnnie says Dallas is going to smell real bad now.

(it usually does anyway)

Shell Oil’s Green shell game

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Tony Logan

shell game Shell Oil claims to be Green, Green, Green! Corporate Green is more like it though, yet that did not stop the oil company from running advertisements in recent years that included a picture of an oil refinery, with chimneys producing flowers and a headline that read “Don’t throw anything away — there is no away”.

See Shell Recycling Adverts “Misleading” -Watchdog about that nonsense.

But there is yet more to the Shell Oil Green Shell game it is playing with the public. Let’s visit Nigeria where Shell Oil is a big player in energy production there , shall we? There we find Shell Oil wasting billions upon billions of dollars of the world’s precious and declining energy supplies, all in a way that brings back personal memories of Mobil Exxon for me!

My dad worked for Mobil Oil and living in Texas as a kid, I remember all those gas flares from the refineries and oil fields. Nigeria’s gas profits ‘up in smoke’ Yep! In Nigeria Shell Oil has gas flares going big time, all without seemingly much of a care in the world about it, too. It’s a Hell of a way to be playing ‘Green’ company, is it not?

Shell Oil is almost as Green as the US military is! Hey, the two of them go together even! Shell Oil and the Pentagon both playing a shell game with the public about supposedly being Green! Don’t buy it. Don’t buy any of the corporate wave of pretending to be Green. They just simply or not and never will be either. And neither will the Pentagon ever be Green either…

Latest “Victory” in GWOT… Drafting a 50 year old Vet.

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Brother Jonah

So says the State Department, citing the so called “plot” to mix explosives from toothpaste tubes and shampoo bottles on board airplanes, by British kids who had no money and no passports and it was a completely unworkable idea anyway.

Yeah, right, lying asshole punks. You stupid bastards couldn’t catch a cold in a pneumonia ward. Couldn’t find your collective arse with both hands.

But it’s costing 80 billion Yankee Dollars more than estimated, and that’s more than twice the original estimate…

… and they’re now waivering in kids who are underage, underweight, overweight and aren’t high schoold graduates in order to try to meet quotas…

And then there’s the guy who hasn’t been in uniform for 15 years…. and is 50 years old.

This guy has been out of the Army for 15 years, just got his AARP card, and in an extreme case of Stop-Loss he’s being ordered back to Iraq.

He also said the missile he used to work on is obsoleted as of a decade ago.

This is the kind of Draft the Pentagoons used to send veterans back into combat in Korea 6 years after WW2.

A class of Warrior Slaves just like the Spartans.

See, the Surge works so well that they’re dragging people back into the military who got out more than a decade ago.

O, hell yes we’re winning in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan and Greater Redneckistan and Lower Absurdistan, Stan, Stan, he’s Da Man…

It’s just, you know, there’s a few temporary problems that need to be addressed.
Temporary according to the Bu’ush Regime, what was that McInsane said about how he doesn’t care if it lasts another hundred years?

The Big Pigs don’t care because their Silver-Spoons ChickenHawk arses aren’t the ones getting shot off.

And the term “warmongering” is appropriate here, because these same ChickenHawks are making money every time an American Soldier or a Pakistani or Afghan Civilian gets killed.

Meanwhile, back at the “ranch” (speaking of ChickenHawk warmongers) meaning the ranch style home in Preston Hollow, Dallas, Texas, where Mr Bush is planning to retire in 13 days, Mr Bush will be once again avoiding and evading actual combat duty himself…

This time reneging on a ~~Promise Made~~ Bald-faced LIE told to American combat troops that essentially, he envied their Romantic and Patriotic Adventure/Mission but he really needed to finish a job he had contracted to do in Washing Tundy Sea, otherwise He would cheerfully join them in their task…

Fellow “fighter pilot” and fellow Elitist-Punk-Pretending-to-be-a-Regular-Working-Class-American John McCain made, and broke, essentially the same promise.

Speaking of Elitist punks pretending to be regular working class Americans, Sam Wurzelbach, not-Joe the Not-Plumber, is going to be a war ~~reporter.~~ Pentagon Mouthpiece.

Their promises are obviously not worth the shit-smelling blasts of fetid air that accompanied them out of their lying mouths.

Cabinet candidate Bill Richardson was clean enough to run for president?

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Eric Verlo

Doesn’t it strike you as a bit odd, that Arizona governor Bill Richardson withdraws his name from consideration for the Secretary of Commerce because of some unseemly quid pro quo scheme, yet it hadn’t stopped him from running for president? Where was the press to dig up the story when Richardson was still a potential Democratic presidential nominee?

It’s not as if the subject of corruption hadn’t come up. Greg Palast had exposed the governor in Armed Madhouse.

I like Palast’s extrapolation on Richardson’s ethnic heritage. To summarize, Richardson came by his Hispanic hyphen through his mom’s side. His dad was a Citibank executive, which qualifies Richardson to be a Citibank-American. As a partner in Henry Kissinger’s lobbying firm, Palast also terms him a Kissinger-American.

But what most interested Palast was the corrupt election of 2004, and how George Bush stole Arizona, under the nose of a supposedly Democratic governor. With Richardson momentarily in the spotlight, here’s an excerpt which Palast is circulating:

Bill Richardson – Kissinger-American
by Greg Palast, excerpted from Armed Madhouse

Henry Kissinger and Bill Richardson
January 5, 2009

Bill Richardson is out: Caught with his hand, if not exactly in the cookie jar, at least you could say his sticky finger were near it. I’m not surprised.

For years I’ve been investigating the second-most corrupt state in the USA (after Alaska). I like to check in on the enchanted state with my bud Santiago Juárez.

I knew it was not a polite question, but it was really bugging me, so I asked him, “Exactly how does a Mexican get the name William Richardson?”

Governor Richardson’s dad, Santiago explained, was a Citibank executive assigned to Mexico City. There he met Governor Bill’s mom, and-milagro!-a Mexican-American was born. Richardson gets big mileage out of his mother’s heritage, and that makes him, legitimately, a Mexican-American, a politically useful designation. But it’s just as legitimate to say that Richardson is a Citibank-American.

But Governor Richardson is more than that. Between leaving Bill Clinton’s cabinet where he was Secretary of Energy and grabbing a Hispanic-district seat in Congress, Richardson became a partner in (Henry) Kissinger and Associates. That would make Richardson a Kissinger-American as well.

In 2004, John Kerry won New Mexico-if you counted the votes. But they didn’t – and George Bush won the state and the presidency by just 5,000 ballots. Everyone was talking about the theft of Ohio by Republicans, but few noted that New Mexico was stolen as well. But one fact drove me straight nuts: In the end, this state and its damaged elections were in the hands of Richardson, A Democrat and a Mexican-American one at that.

In New Mexico the issue of uncounted votes is more than skin deep. Lots of Mexican-American votes don’t tally, but Citibank-American votes never get lost. Kissinger American votes always count. The story of America’s failed elections is not about undervotes. It’s about underclass. Disenfranchisement is class warfare by other means. It just happens that in New Mexico, the colors of the underclass are, for the most part, brown and red.

Class War by Other Means

As community organizer Santiago told me:

You take away people’s health insurance and you take their right to union pay scales and you take away their pensions-taking away their vote’s just one more on the list.

Some New Mexico Democrats have no trouble at the voting booth. In Santa Fe, you find trust-fund refugees from Los Angeles wearing Navajo turquoise jewelry and “casual” clothes that cost more than my car. Each one has a personal healer, an unfinished film script and a tan so deep you’d think they’re bred for their leather. They’re Democrats and their votes count. Voting-or at least voting that gets tabulated – is a class privilege. The effect is racial and partisan, but the engine is economic.

The second- and third-highest undervotes in New Mexico were recorded in McKinley and Cibola counties-85% and 72% Hispanic and Native. But the undervote champ is nearly the whitest county in New Mexico: DeBaca, which mangled and lost 8.4% of ballots cast. White DeBaca, whose average income hovers at the national poverty level, is poorer than Hispanic Cibola. No question, disenfranchisement gives off an ugly racial smell, but income is the real predictor of vote loss.

And what about those Bernalillo ghost voters for Bush? Those spirits are, it turns out, quite well-to-do, haunting the mesas west of Albuquerque where the real estate provides unobstructed views of Georgia O’Keeffe sunsets.

This was my third investigation in New Mexico in twenty years. The first time, the state’s Attorney General brought me in to go over the account books of Public Service of New Mexico (PNM), a racketeering enterprise masquerading as an electric company. Too young to understand what I wasn’t supposed to know, I proudly mapped out the sewerage lines of deceit connecting the gas drillers, water lords and political elite of New Mexico. The AG’s office handed me a nice check – which I took not as a reward, but as a payment to leave the state. After a decade away, I returned as a reporter, to look into prisons-for-pro?t out?t Wackenhut Inc. In September 1999, a company insider told me, Wackenhut was cutting costs at its New Mexico jails by sending guards alone into the cell blocks. Ralph Garcia of Santa Rosa, who’d lost his ranch to drought, took the $7.95-an-hour job guarding homicidal neo-Nazis and Mexican mafia thugs in the local Wackenhut lock-up. Inexperienced, untrained and alone, he was stabbed to death by inmates just two weeks after the insider’s warning. So that’s how Garcia became one more impoverished Chicano who lost his vote. No question, that’s not your typical case of voter disenfranchisement, but that’s the reality of the “Land of Enchantment.” New Mexico is the New America, where growing income inequality is creating a feudal divide between the prison-owning class and the prisoner-and-guard class.

Vote spoilage is the owning class’s weapon of choice.

Whose flag does Bill Richardson carry in the nouvelle class war? When I was checking out the New Mexico vote in 2005, my old friends Public Service of New Mexico hit the front page, sued by the State of California for conspiring with Enron to rig the California power market. It is still in court. It was a scam called “Ricochet.” Enron and PNM say it was not illegal. It played out about the time Garcia was walking the cell block. Where was Richardson? He was in Washington, Clinton’s Secretary of Energy, playing chubby cheerleader for PNM’s plan for “deregulation” of the energy market. Deregulation made PNM’s games possible-and Richardson’s employment by Kissinger inevitable.

Richardson, Ready for Takeoff

What about all those suspect spoiled votes in Hispanic and Indian precincts stuck inside the machines? Why didn’t this Mexican-American Democrat ask for a recount? It didn’t just slip Richardson’s little mind: He actively did everything in his power to stop a recount. I was told that it was Richardson himself who encouraged Secretary of State Vigil-Giron to reject the $114,000 payment from pissed-off Democrats and the Green Party. The Governor was too busy to speak with me about this.

Halting the 2004 recount wasn’t enough for Governor Bill, however. He demanded the legislature pass a “reform” law that would require anyone wanting a recount of a suspicious vote to put up a bond of over one million dollars. As a result, “free and fair elections” are now effectively outlawed in New Mexico. You can have a choice of a “free” election or a “fair” election, but not both. Want fair? Then you have to pay a million to recheck the ballots. In other words, it’s against the law to buy votes, but in New Mexico not against the law to buy the vote count.

On his phony reform law, Richardson was called out by a fellow Democrat, State Senator Linda Lopez-an act of indiscreet defiance that would not be forgotten by the Governor’s circle.

The centerpiece of the law signed by the Governor: Ms. Fox-Young’s proposal to require photo ID for new voters. Maybe the former Cabinet Secretary and United Nations Ambassador Richardson couldn’t imagine that photo IDs would be a problem for some voters. After all, Mexican-Americans in Little Texas may have trouble producing acceptable IDs, but it’s no problem at all for a Kissinger-American like Governor Richardson. The Governor and Jimmy Carter both have passports, they have credit cards and they have chauffeurs who will vouch for them.

Richardson wouldn’t speak with me about the 2004 vote fiasco. Instead, he busied himself with his space program. He announced the state would chip in $200 million to build a “spaceport” to land private rocket ships that will be launched beginning in 2009 by Richard Branson, the British billionaire. Passengers have already bought tickets for $200,000 each (round trip, they hope).

Wal-mart drives its chariot of predatory commerce over bones of Civil War dead

Posted on December 28, 2008 by Eric Verlo

WAL-MART wants to build a Virginia super-center on the edge of the memorial site of one of the most consequential battles of the Civil War. The Wilderness marked the first engagement between Generals Lee and Grant, ignited a forest fire which the soldiers fought through, and left 24,000 dead and wounded. Now 253 historians have joined in asking Wal-mart to reconsider.

Mr. Lee Scott, President and CEO
Walmart Stores, Inc.
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611

Dear Mr. Scott:

I urge you in the strongest possible terms to pursue alternate building locations for the Walmart Supercenter proposed in Orange County, Virginia. The site currently under consideration lies within the historic boundary of the Wilderness Battlefield and only one quarter mile from the current boundary of the Wilderness Battlefield unit of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.

The Battle of the Wilderness was among the most significant engagements of the Civil War. It marked the first time legendary generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant faced off against one another on the field of battle. During two days of desperate conflict in a harsh, unforgiving landscape tangled with underbrush, 4,000 Americans lost their lives and nearly 20,000 were wounded.

The proposed location will greatly increase traffic through the area and encourage further development to encroach upon and spoil the battlefield. This, in turn, will seriously degrade the experience for the many tens of thousands of heritage tourists who visit this National Park every year. The Wilderness Battlefield is easily the biggest tourist attraction in Orange County, with visitors coming from around the world to experience its serenity and contemplate its history and significance.

As a historian, I feel strongly that the Wilderness Battlefield is a unique historic and cultural treasure deserving careful stewardship. Currently only approximately 20 percent of the battlefield is protected by the National Park Service. If built, this Walmart would seriously undermine ongoing efforts to see more of this historic land preserved and deny future generations the opportunity to wander a landscape that has, until now, remained largely unchanged since 1864.

The Wilderness is an indelible part of our history, its very ground hallowed by the American blood spilled there, and it cannot be moved. Surely Walmart can identify a site that would meet its needs without changing the very character of the battlefield.

There are many places in central Virginia to build a commercial development, but there is only one Wilderness Battlefield. Please respect our great nation’s history and move your store farther away from this historic site and National Park.

Signed,

* Terrie Aamodt, Walla Walla University
* Edward D. Abrahams, Silver Spring, Md.
* Sean P. Adams, University of Florida
* Garry Adelman, History Associates, Inc.
* Nicholas Aieta, the Marlborough School, West Springfield, Mass.
* A.J. Aiseirithe, Washington, D.C.
* James Anderson, Ashburn, Va.
* Adam Arenson, University of Texas
* Jonathan M. Atkins, Berry College
* Arthur H. Auten, University of Hartford
* David Bard, Concord College
* Alwyn Barr, Texas Tech University
* Craig A. Bauer, Metairie, La.
* Erik Bauer, West Hollywood, Calif.
* Dale Baum, Texas A&M University
* Edwin C. Bearss, Historian emeritus, National Park Service
* Caryn Cosse Bell, University of Massachusetts at Lowell
* Jeffrey R. Bennett, Waterford, N.Y.
* Shannon Bennett, Ellettsville, Ind.
* Melvyn S. Berger, Newton, Mass.
* Arthur W. Bergeron, Shippensburg, Pa.
* Edward H. Bergerstrom, Port Richey, Fla.
* Eugene H. Berwanger, Colorado State University
* Fred W. Beuttler, Deputy Historian, U.S. House of Representatives
* Darrel Bigham, University of Southern Indiana
* John Bloom, Las Cruces, N.M.
* Frederick J. Blue, Youngstown State University
* Christopher Bobal, Lees Summit, Mo.
* Thomas Bockhorn, Huntsville, Ala.
* Keith Bohannon, University of West Georgia
* Phillip S. Bolger, San Diego, Calif.
* Patrick Boyd, the Pomfret School, Pomfret, Conn.
* Vernon S. Braswell, Corpus Christi, Tex.
* Roger D. Bridges, Bloomington, Ill.
* Ronald S. Brockway, Regis University
* Col. George M. Brooke, III, USMC (Ret.), Lexington, Va.
* Bruce A. Brown, Cypress, Calif.
* Norman D. Brown, University of Texas, Austen, Tex.
* David Brush, the Pomfret School, Pomfret, Conn.
* Jim Burgess, Manassas National Battlefield, Va.
* Ken Burns, Walpole, N.H.
* Brian Burton, Ferndale, Wash.
* Victoria Bynum, Texas State University-San Marcos
* Peter S. Carmichael, West Virginia University
* Marius M. Carriere, Christian Brothers University
* Katherine Cassioppi, National-Louis University
* Gary Casteel, Lexington, Va.
* Jane Turner Censer, George Mason University
* William Cheek, San Diego State University
* John Cimprich, Thomas More College
* Thomas G. Clemens, Hagerstown Community College
* Leon F. Cohn, Plantation, Fla.
* Thomas B. Colbert, Marshalltown Community College
* James R. Connor, Chancellor emeritus University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
* William J. Cooper, Jr., Louisiana State University
* Janet L. Coryell, Western Michigan University
* Charles E. Coulter, Yankton, S.D.
* Robert E. Curran, Richmond, Ky.
* Thomas F. Curran, Saint Louis, Mo.
* Gordon E. Dammann, National Museum of Civil War Medicine
* Guy Stephen Davis, Atlanta, Ga.
* William C. “Jack” Davis
* Joseph G. Dawson, III, Texas A&M University
* Mary DeCredico, United States Naval Academy
* James Lyle DeMarce, Arlington, Va.
* Charles B. Dew, Williams College
* Steven Deyle, University of Houston
* Richard DiNardo, Marine Corps Command and Staff College
* Luis-Alejandro Dinnella-Borrego, Warwick, N.Y.
* Richard R. Duncan, Alexandria, Va.
* Kenneth Durr, History Associates, Inc.
* David Dykstra, Poolesville, Md.
* Mark Elliott, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
* Robert F. Engs, University of Pennsylvania
* C. Wyatt Evans, Drew University
* Daniel Feller, University of Tennessee
* Rex H. Felton, Tiffin, Ohio
* Paul Finkelman, Albany Law School
* Jeff Fioravanti, Lynn, Mass.
* Joseph C. Fitzharris, University of Saint Thomas
* J.K. Folmarm California, Minn.
* George B. Forgie, University of Texas Austin
* Lee W. Formwalt, Organization of American Historians
* Janet B. Frazer, Narberth, Pa.
* Gary W. Gallagher, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
* Jonathan Gantt, Columbia College
* Jason Gart, History Associates, Inc.
* Louis S. Gerteis, University of Missouri, St. Louis
* Kate C. Gillin, the Pomfret School, Pomfret, Conn.
* Mary Giunta, Edinburg, Va.
* Martin K. Gordon, Columbia, Md.
* Cathy Gorn, University of Maryland
* Thomas M. Grace, Amherst, N.Y.
* Susan W. Gray, Severna Park, Md.
* A. Wilson Greene, Pamplin Historical Park and National Museum of the Civil War Soldier
* Debra F. Greene, Jefferson City, Mo.
* Jim Griffin, Frisco, Tex.
* Linda J. Guy, Clearville, Pa.
* Edward J. Hagerty, American Military University
* Alfred W. Hahn, Midlothian, Va.
* Judith Lee Hallock, South Setauket, N.Y.
* Jerry Harlow, President, Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation
* D. Scott Hartwig, Gettysburg National Military Park, Pa.
* David S. Heidler, Colorado State University
* Jeannie Heidler, United States Air Force Academy
* John S. Heiser, Gettysburg National Military Park, Pa.
* Earl J. Hess, Lincoln Memorial University
* Libra Hilde, San Jose State University
* T. John Hillmer, Jr., Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Mo.
* David Hochfelder, State University of New York – Albany
* Sylvia Hoffert, Texas A&M University
* Patrick Hotard, Philadelphia, Pa.
* Richard Houston, Harwich, Mass.
* Randal L. Hoyer, Madonna University
* Richard L. Hutchison, Fort Worth, Tex.
* Brian M. Ingrassia, Georgia State University
* Perry D. Jamieson, Crofton, Md.
* Jim Jobe, Fort Donelson National Battlefield, Tenn.
* Willie Ray Johnson, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, Ga.
* Vivian Lee Joyner, New Hill, N.C.
* Whitmel M. Joyner, New Hill, N.C.
* Walter D. Kamphoefner, Texas A&M University
* Amalie M. Kass, Harvard Medical School
* Philip M. Katz, Washington, D.C.
* Brad Keefer, Kent State University
* Brian J. Kenny, Denver, Co.
* Victoria A. Kin, San Antonio, Tex.
* George W. Knepper, University of Akron
* Christopher Kolakowski, National Museum of the U.S. Army Reserve
* Carl E. Kramer, Indiana University Southeast
* Arnold Krammer, Texas A&M University
* Robert K. Krick, Fredericksburg, Va.
* Michael E. Krivdo, Texas A&M University
* Benjamin Labaree, Saint Alban’s School, Washington, D.C.
* Dan Laney, Austin, Tex.
* Connie Langum, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Mo.
* William P. Leeman, Coventry, R.I.
* Kevin Levin, Charlottesville, Va.
* Richard G. Lowe, University of North Texas
* Robert W. Lowery, Jr., Newport News, Va.
* M. Philip Lucas, Cornell College
* R. Wayne Mahood, Geneseo, N.Y.
* Daniel Martin, Lancaster, Pa.
* William Marvel, South Conway, N.H.
* Matthew Mason, Brigham Young University
* Dinah M. Mayo-Bobee, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
* George T. Mazuzan, Springfield, Va.
* Nathan McAlister, Hoyt, Kan.
* David McCullough
* Dennis K. McDaniel, Washington, D.C.
* James M. McPherson, Princeton University
* Kathleen G. McKesson, Eighty Four, Pa.
* James G. Mendez, Chicago, Ill.
* Brian Craig Miller, Emporia State University
* Roger E. Miller, Eagle River, Alaska.
* Wilbur R. Miller, State University of New York – Stony Brook
* Eric J. Mink, Fredericksburg, Va.
* Robert E. Mitchell, Brookline, Mass.
* John Moody, Orange Park, Fla.
* Richard Moore, Woodbridge, Va.
* Richard Morey, Kent Place School, Summit, N.J.
* Geoffrey Morrison, Saint Louis, Mo.
* Brenda Murray, North Pole, Alaska.
* Richard J. Myers, Doylestown, Pa.
* Eric Nedergaard, Mesa, Ariz.
* Robert D. Neuleib, Normal, Ill.
* Kenneth Noe, Auburn University
* Justin Oakley, Martinsville, Ind.
* Kristen Oertel, Millsaps College
* Marvin Olson, La Crescenta, Ca.
* Beverly Palmer, Claremont, Ca.
* John T. Payne, Lone Star College
* Graham Peck, Saint Xavier University
* William D. Pederson, Louisiana State University, Shreveport
* William E. Pellerin, Santa Barbara, Ca.
* Don Pfanz, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Va.
* Michael Pierson, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
* Kermit J. Pike, Western Reserve Historical Society, Mentor, Ohio
* Ann Poe, Alexandria, Va.
* Kieth Ploakoff, Rossmoor, Ca.
* Lawrence N. Powell, Tulane University
* Adam J. Pratt. Baton Rouge, La.
* Gerald Prokopowicz, East Carolina University
* John Quist, Shippensburg University
* Steven J. Rauch, Evans, Ga.
* S. Waite Rawls, III, Museum of the Confederacy
* Carol Reardon, Pennsylvania State University
* Douglas Reasner, Durant, Iowa
* Michael Reis, History Associates, Inc.
* Robert V. Remini, Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives
* James Renberg, Southern Pines, N.C.
* Gordon Rhea, Mount Pleasant, S.C.
* Jean Richardson, Buffalo State College
* Jeffrey Richman, Brooklyn, N.Y.
* Harris D. Riley, Jr., M.D., Nashville, Tenn.
* James I. Robertson, Jr., Virginia Tech
* Stephen I. Rockenbach, Virginia State University
* Sylvia Rodrigue, Baton Rouge, La.
* Rodney A. Ross, Center for Legislative Archives, Washington, D.C.
* Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, Johnson Space Center
* Jeffrey J. Safford, Montana State University
* Frank Scaturro, New Hyde Park, N.Y.
* Mark S. Schantz, Hendrix College
* Laurence D. Schiller, Deerfield, Ill.
* Christopher A. Schnell, Springfield, Ill.
* Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein, Springfield, Ill.
* Frederick Schult, Jr., New York University
* Donald L. Schupp, Warrenton, Va.
* Richard D. Schwartz, Morristown, N.J.
* Cynthia Seacord, Schenectady, N.Y.
* Tomas Seaver, Woonsocket, R.I.
* Diane Shalda, Chicago Military Academy
* Peter D. Sheridan, Torrance, Ca.
* Mark Snyder, Akron, Ohio
* John Sotak, O.S.A., New Lenox, Ill.
* Clay W. Stuckey, DDS, Bedford, Ind.
* Carlyn Swaim, History Associates, Inc.
* Andrew Talkov, Virginia Historical Society
* Robert A. Taylor, Florida Institute of Technology
* Paul H. Tedesco, Northeastern University
* James Thayer, Milford, Mass.
* Emory M. Thomas, University of Georgia
* JoAnne Thomas, Peoria, Ill.
* Joseph Trent, Worcester, Mass.
* Tony R. Trimble, Plainfield, Ind.
* I. Bruce Turner, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
* Edwin C. Ulmer, Jr., Feasterville, Pa.
* Charles W. Van Adder, Forked River, N.J.
* Charles Vincent, Baker, La.
* Joseph F. von Deck, Ashburnham, Ma.
* Brent Vosburg, Elizabethtown, N.J.
* Robert Voss, Lincoln, Neb.
* George N. Vourlojianis, Lorain County Community College
* Christopher R. Waldrep, San Francisco State University
* John Weaver, Tipp City, Ohio
* Robert Welch, Ames, Iowa
* Lowell E. Wenger, Cincinnati, Ohio
* Jeffrey Wert, Centre Hall, Pa.
* Bruce E. Wilburn, Glen Allen, Va.
* Diana I. Williams, Wellesley College
* Mary Williams, Fort Davis National Historic Site, Tex.
* Terry Winschel, Vicksburg National Military Park, Miss.
* Roger Winthrop, Lansing, Mich.
* Eric J. Wittenberg, Columbus, Ohio
* Ralph A. Wooster, Lamar University
* Donald Yacovone, Harvard University
* Shirley J. Yee, University of Washington
* Mitchell Yockelson, National Archives and Records Administration
* William D. Young, Maple Woods Community College
* Mary E. Younger, Dayton, Ohio
* Jack Zevin, Queens College, City University of New York

Liability and the value of a human life…

Posted on December 26, 2008 by Brother Jonah

How much does one person or all of society owe for injuries, deaths or other damages caused by actions that an individual or the representatives of Society take?

(I posted this on another forum, alfrankenweb.com. This hits at the core of a few issues that have been brought out in the forum recently.)

For instance, this time last year, an Insurance Agency, Cigna, made the decision to allow a young lady to die, even though there was a transplant liver available for her, under the notion that she only had about a 50% chance of surviving such an operation.

This mirrors the Terri Schiavo case, in several important ways.

George Bush, Jeb Bush, Karl Rove, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, just a representative sampling of Republican “Leadership”… not only didn’t condemn the decision but some actually applauded it.
(A Mirror doesn’t show the same image as a photograph, the orientation is that Left and Right are reversed.)

Mrs Schiavo had, apparently, about a zero percent chance of survival or ever recovering from her coma.

Richard Cheney, even though his company has surpassed Microsoft as the richest corporation in America and therefore the world, had a life prolonging surgery done, at Taxpayer Expense, even though:

his age, condition and personal habits will nullify the surgery within a decade anyway…

He has never contributed anything to Society in his entire sojourn on our planet…

And has himself denied and been an accomplice to denying the same types of life-prolonging surgeries not only to his own employees but also to any Americans who weren’t smart enough to be born, like him, with silver spoons in our mouths.

And he’s an accomplice to more than a Million murders.

Then there’s the issue of Guns.

The “Swimming Pool” analogy was brought up, and having car seats for kids too small to effectively be protected by seatbelts, and the issue of Seat-Belts themselves.

But it’s the Insurance Underwriters who brought legislation that ordered the Seat Belt and Car Seat laws, also not allowing people to burn toxic waste in their backyards, or burn anything that will set their neighborhood on fire or even their own houses.

Insurance companies = not social liberals.

In Texas, which the Frightened Wing love to proclaim as their primary territory, you can’t operate a motor vehicle without Fiscal Responsibility. You either have to have 50,000 dollars in a bank account specifically set aside for the purpose, for each vehicle, for liability claims… or purchase insurance for each vehicle.

If you own dogs which are prone to bite, your homeowners insurance goes up.

If you have a history of driving like you’re stupid your car insurance premiums go up, AND you have to carry more liability coverage.

Here’s where the disconnect begins… If you own a business,even if it’s a business like Construction which has a very high attrition rate among the workers (the ones who do the actual building both of the properties and the profits of the company) you DON’T have to carry basic Workman’s Compensation insurance. and there’s even moves afoot to Decrease employer contributions to Social Security, the ONLY disability insurance available to the vast majority of non-union Workers.

You’re also not required to carry insurance on firearms in case you, your kids, your spouse etcetera decide to do something either deliberately evil or blatantly STUPID and get people killed.

The “Poster Child Case” for this attitude was India v Union Carbide for damages done including Human Lives Lost (and yes, for those right wingers who hate being called Baby-Killers, a lot of the people killed or crippled for life were in fact infants.)

The Right Wing argue that the judgment was excessive because the “Third World” meaning dark brown people would never in their lifetimes earn more than $30K (conveniently ignoring the FACT that these were the families of Union Carbide’s ~~Corporate Slave Labor Pool~~errr… “Valued Employees” yeah, that’s the ticket) and thus the value of their lives was not equivalent to the lives of American White Collar Workers

They also, in cases of Capital Murder, or the global “war on terror” trot out the Old Testament law of “eye shall go for eye, tooth for tooth, stripe for stripe and life for life”

So, here’s an interesting theory of how that would work.

Say you’re responsible, through arrogance and ignorance, for your employee being crippled for life.

The catfish-processing workers Mr Bush declared to not be worthy of any compensation for their Carpal Tunnel injuries, for instance, every person who was crippled by that policy and the practices of the Catfish farms and their processing plants, should be able to demand that one person in the corporate heirarchy or amongst the investors in those operations should be taken out, and made to stretch his hand out across a cement block, and have it smashed irreparably with a large heavy object.

Because, you see, stripe shall go for stripe.

That refers to the seriousness of a wound.

The War on Terror, should have ended immediately at the time 3,000 of the people responsible had been killed.

Oh, wait, me ams forgot, instead of going after the ones actually responsible the Bush-Cheney people chose to go after civilian targets.

As Gilda Radner used to say, “never mind”.

Instead of the Right Wing screaming and howling about the victims and their families at Bhopal being compensated at a rate of One Years Salary for one of the Office Workers who were their ~~Overseers on the Union Carbide Plantation~~ errr … Supervisors and managers… yeah, that’s the ticket… for each HUMAN LIFE LOST and for those who merely had injuries that would cripple them for life, less money than it would take to have their injuries treated at anything other than a Third World hospital.

You know, the hospitals the same Right Wingers say are so very inferior to Our System…

Instead of that, for every life lost, starting from the CEO, the Board of Directors, on down, the Corporate Officers and shareholders, from the ones who own the most shares in the company on down, being taken out and asphyxiated in a Gas Chamber, just like their victims.

I think the Right Wing would scream very loudly about something like that.

Let’s turn it to a more pleasant subject.

If you have a Swimming Pool you have to have insurance on it. And routine inspections and random inspections.

If you don’t you get fined. That’s the way it is and even that wasn’t brought about by “Those Librul Elitist Latte-sippin’ Prius-Drivin’ Khaki pants-wearin’ sissy-boys” but instead as a cold, analytical business decision.

So, since that was the standard argument trotted out to counter the notion that gun owners should be held responsible for their TOYS

Let’s see the Masculinity Challenged Ones put their money where their mouths are.

Or at least find out, because, you know, unlike the freaks hanging out at the local firing range or the gun shop, Insurance Companies hire persons called “Actuaries” who maintain statistics like the number of accidental drownings per number of swimming pools, the number of Automobile fatalities as compared to the number of automobiles, the number of dog-bites by breed,…

Number of accidental and/or intentional gunshot wounds compared to the number and types of firearms…

Go to an Insurance Company Website.

And get the price quotes for Liability on your guns.

You’ll be asked questions, answer them honestly.

How many firearms you own.

How much ammunition you typically keep on hand.

Do you have a secured gun rack or safe for your firearms?

Keep in mind that your idea of secure probably isn’t as stringent as that of people who actually keep track of such things and actually know what the hell they’re doing.

Do you keep your ammunition inside your house?

If you do, you’re storing EXPLOSIVES in the same area where your family lives.

Buy some extra fire insurance, life insurance for every person in the house, and liability for your neighbors who might also perish or be seriously injured if you’re not SUPREMELY careful.

How many children do you have living with you or who typically visit?

How many of them are disabled and not as likely to survive without injuries if the Unthinkable Happens.

Hell with that, it’s not Unthinkable, if you don’t THINK about this you have absolutely no business whatsoever owning firearms…

Since bullets typically go through the wall of a house, even a BRICK wall, and into the neighboring house, get life insurance for each person living around you.

Answer all the questions honestly…

When you get through all the questions click the “Calculate your Liability” button or the “Calculate your Rate” button…. doesn’t matter which, and see what you’ll pay… IF YOU REALLY ARE HONEST AND ACTUALLY GIVE THREE QUARTERS OF A FAT RAT’S ARSE ABOUT ANYBODY.

If you can’t afford the premiums you sure as hell can’t afford the potential liability.

For those too lazy or not honest enough to go through that, if you shoot somebody, accidentally of course, BECAUSE I SIMPLY KNOW YOU WOULDN’T DO IT DELIBERATELY and the guy isn’t killed, just oh, let’s see, what’s a common occurrence with gunshot wounds, hey, I know, permanent brain damage where the person is on life support for the rest of his life…

Or simply made paraplegic or quadriplegic… that happens a lot too.

Your liability for his or her medical care could run into the MILLIONS, plus the cost of him to survive with as much normalcy and dignity as possible.

What’s that you say? You DON’T HAVE a few million laying around?

Hmmmm…….

Texas Justice

Posted on December 24, 2008 by Tony Logan

Galveston Texas fat cop Texas Justice is a TV show that is just ever so cute. However, there is no connection between TV fantasy and reality, and much of the real Texas Injustice System operates with about as much professionalism as the Ku Klux Klan would have with badges on. 12-Year Old Girl Beaten By Police for ‘Resisting Arrest’

Notice how this child’s dad was the one who ended up going to jail and not the cops. The police certainly planted drugs on the guy merely because he tried to talk to the pigs and ask them to let his 2 year old kid go instead of hauling her away in handcuffs. The cops then came for him 2 days later and laid the frame up on him, and now dad is in jail for 2 years! The cops even sent the girl to court on charges 3 weeks later after beating her up at her own house. Southern In Justice from Galveston to New Orleans to Algiers is often this way.

Mexico’s headless Drug War soldiers

Posted on December 24, 2008 by Tony Logan

Mexico’s current Right Wing government has been duped into fighting a US ‘war on drugs’ inside Mexico. Actually it has been paid money big time to do so. Mexico also is fighting D.Cs war on immigrants, too, as its own treatment of Central American immigrants entering Mexican territory is abysmal, and yes it too is mainly being paid for by US dollars. The daily casualties in Mexico just yesterday from this war were 33 nationwide, 14 of them in Ciudad Juarez alone, the city right across from El Paso, Texas. And then there were Mexico’s headless Drug War soldiers.

If the US wants to give Mexico a Christmas gift of a different type, it might ought to call off this nonsense, and change the whole way it deals with drugs? If not, we may soon see headless American soldiers from this war, not from the idiotically US government named ‘Global War on Terrorism’. How many wars against shadows can the Right Wing nuts running the US lose at one time? On to Afghanistan, Obama! You’ll be bigger losers than even Cheney and Dubya were when it’s all said and done.

The press doesn’t cover in the US the real results of the US sponsored and run Drug War on Mexico soil. There’s basically nothing about the headless Mexican soldiers this week in the papers here, but instead we get treated to pictures of the photos of the Sinaloa beauty queen busted for supposedly riding in a vehicle full of gang members and guns. The stop was made by Mexican soldiers who still have their heads attached. MESSAGE- The Drug War is effective. REALITY- The Drug War is a ongoing disaster.

There’s lots of shit that comes from America’s cows!

Posted on December 23, 2008 by Tony Logan

One reason to become a vegetarian is simply that there’s lots of shit that comes from America’s cows. If you have driven in West Texas, you know what I mean! That cow shit stinks coming from the feedlots! And it can cause disease. See 35 Years of Feedlot Medicine 1972–2007.

In North Carolina they have a big problem with pig shit and that can smell things up, too. So you see, there’s lots of reasons one might consider becoming a vegetarian. It simply cuts down with the shit and disease. Know what I mean, Vern? Go ahead, Ernest, consider becoming a vegetarian? Your World As I See It – Hand Gestures

Slave Corporations in Murderous Action

Posted on December 20, 2008 by Brother Jonah

Florida bean patch
I gotta tell you, before inputting all this, it is NOT pretty and is potentially very embarrassing for any investors in any industry for which Texas Correctional Industries, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and Corrections Corporation of America provide Labor.

You might not want the kiddies to know where your family money is coming from. It’s called “Slavery,” the buying and selling of human beings and human lives.

Too bad. I hope to hell if you put the ol’ Parental Censorship on them, their little friends at school will show them this, so they can know what kind of satanic Bastards their Mommies and Daddies are.

I for a while couldn’t find a picture of the Texas chain gang, I know they exist but the guards will forbid cameras anywhere near their operation, if you pass by on a road and try to take a picture they’ll swarm you.

But it looks straight out of a woodcut for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, they make sure the fellows know what their Slave Status is.

Seeing it during cotton picking time is especially disturbing.

But that’s the publicity photo they publish.

But field labor is punishment detail, they make HUGE amounts from things like the Sign Shop, printing everything from license plates to Highway signs to every street-name sign in Texas, they HAVE to buy them from TCI, state law, the inmates get paid exactly $0.00 per hour/day/week/month/year/lifetime.

Data Entry, they used to provide the training for E.D.S. AND had the Data Entry contracts for everybody from every Texas state agency, some federal agencies and private insurance agencies. That one is HUGE.

They also have a print-shop on the same unit, Beto 1 (there’s three Beto units) that prints up car titles, state bonds, get this: Birth and Death Certificates.

The State agencies pay Texas Correctional Industries, the State provides the housing, the facilities for production, and the labor force.

Which they don’t pay.

You might have heard about the Coffield Unit seven years ago, the outside temperature was 120 F.

Only, Coffield Unit is built with panes of glass for the exterior walls.

Not something that, you know, blocks the rays from Mr Sun.

In East Texas in the spring, summer and fall, Mr Sun is NOT your Friend.

The temperatures inside are typically 20 to 30 degrees hotter than outside.

Like a greenhouse.

And, there’s no Air Conditioning. No cold water either. Ice is contraband.

Where that comes in, when the outside temperature was 120, there were a LOT of guys inside their un-ventilated cells 24-7, on Punitive Segregation, for such “crimes” as refusing to be Slaves.

7 years ago the TDCJ *Reported * that 9 inmates died of heat exhaustion while in these cells.

That means, knowing the way the System LIES, the number was a lot more. The guys who never got any visitors and never sent or received mail, they didn’t have any reason whatsoever to tell their families so they simply Didn’t Tell Them.

The Life of a Slave is cheap.

To make it worse, in the Texas system, you can PURCHASE a small electric fan from Commissary, provided you have family or friends on the outside who will put money on your account.

Like I said, they get paid NOTHING for their labor. Texas Correctional Industries and their Greed-head No-Conscience Slave-holder investors, however, DO.

Those inmates who have no money, have no fan.

The ones who are being punished for the “crime” of refusing to work as slaves, had their fans taken away from them… in temperatures estimated to be as high as 150 F.

That means, for any readers who are interested in defending their own profits as shareholders of TCI, the Shareholders are guilty of MURDERING those men for refusing to be slaves.

Any readers who want to make a stink about THAT charge, ok, YOU tell your children and grandchildren where the family funds came from, YOU defend your position, but, hey, have a little bit of Honor and Dignity about yourselves, eh? Show them the Evidence I just presented. Every word of it, including this,

I bet, kids, that Mommy and Daddy and Grandpa and Grandma try to tell you that I’m a liar and must have some kind of Evil Agenda for writing this.

They’re probably telling you I must be a CRIMINAL because I don’t join in to their Celebration of Murderous Greed.

Because I pointed out that Human Bondage is evil.

An interesting Connection.

Posted on December 20, 2008 by Brother Jonah

You remember what Richard Cheney, soon to be ex-vice president, was charged with in Texas a couple of weeks ago, before the Pigs threw the charges out?

Seems he, as unofficial president and the instigator of Homeland Security prosecutions, helped fill the prisons aka Chain Gangs aka Forced Labor Camps aka Legalized Slavery for the profit of Private Corporations, at Public Expense,

Yeah… Like THAT. If the Image doesn’t come up right it’s the gates of Auschwitz with the alternate spelling Arbecht Macht Frei slogan.

The other thing Cheney was doing was funneling the construction contracts for Publicly Funded Private Slave Labor Plantations in Texas…. to his old company with whom he allegedly has no ties anymore. Halliburton.

Funny, I couldn’t find an image in the first 12 pages on google using the term Texas prison field workers.

I did find page after page of Right Wing Propaganda about how Legalized Slavery is a “good thing”.

Judges, prosecutors, sheriffs, other PIGS, all of them probably, like Cheney, making a profit off human misery, in addition to their Sexually Depraved Enjoyment of the concept of placing Human Beings in chains and forcing to do their bidding.

How about it, Right Wing Freaks who will no doubt criticize these statements? Are you Nazi Punks invested in corporations like Halliburton, Texas Correctional Industries, Corrections Corporation of America, a host of other Publicly Funded Private Slavery companies?

One of the Punks replied to a letter of mine the Independent ran, the Three Legged Bitch objected to my characterization of him as a Nazi-type war criminal, and of course made all the propaganda arguments we usually get from the Local Nazi “Back the Badge” Gestapo-enablers, about how Bush and Cheney were only doing what it takes to “protect you misguided leftists and WE right wingers, even the ChickenHawk Puke keyboard warriors, actually GAVE everybody Freedom to spout off” yadda yadda yadda…

I wonders, yes I does, if he, also, is invested in the Military-Industrial-and-now-Slave-Prison Complex?

If he makes money from enslaving Americans or makes money from every person, American, Iraqi, Afghanistani, Coalition, who gets Killed in Messieurs Bush and Cheney’s Terrorist Acts,

Just Like Bush And Cheney Make Money From It

Hey, if the shoe fits…

If they don’t like being identified with the Nazis, they should do everything possible to avoid being Nazis, or at the very least not having their actions so similar to those of the Nazis that they’re indistinguishable.

German Corporations made money off Slave Labor the same way American Corporations make money off the Chain Gangs.

Their leaders were punished by War Crimes Tribunals for doing it, too.

There are laws detailing how Accomplices are equally as guilty as the ones who actually pull the trigger or actually physically remove the cash from the register…

If an Armed Robber kills the clerk, his friend waiting in the getaway car is equally guilty of Capital Murder. There’s plenty of legal precedent for it, and plenty of people who have been executed in American Death Chambers or on American Gallows using that set of laws.

The friends of John Wilkes Boothe, for instance.

The Cops, Judges, Prosecutors, and Citizen Investors in the Slave Corporations are every bit as guilty of Slavery as the sadistic Prison Guards who physically force the Slave Prisoners to do their will.

The investors in the “defense” industries, the oil industries, are every bit as guilty of the blood of every Iraqi child or American GI or anybody else MURDERED by Mr Bush’s War.

That prosecution Mr Cheney faced in Texas was thrown out by the Judge, and a hand-picked Grand Jury of Fellow Investors in the slave trade.

They, also, have blood on their hands…

They, also, make the same Putrid Lying Statements about how they’re involving all of America in their Murder and Robbery Spree “for our own good” and we shouldn’t complain about it.

Country rodeo clown to retire to big city

Posted on December 4, 2008 by Tony Logan

The news is in that America’s favorite country rodeo clown will be soon retiring from his rural ranch to the big city, so that his lovely little wife can find work at the college liberry of Southern Methodist University. The area of the town will have a country name though…. Preston Hollow… which is an area where skunks have long been known to live and play.

It’s not like it’s a real, really real big city though. It’s just Dallas, Texas and not New Yarrkkk City. This is indeed sad news for Waco that will soon lose its wacko, but the house is already being bought. The retirement plan is a done deed. Anybody plan to buy the ranch yet? I hope it’s not some dirty Arabbb???? Brother, Dave! Watch out for them black helicopters which may soon be flying overhead!

US and Britain are starving Zimbabwe to death

Posted on December 1, 2008 by Tony Logan

zimbabwe currency The so-called US government’s ZIMBABWE DEMOCRACY AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY ACT passed in 2001, began the US/ British efforts to starve Zimbabwe to death in a form of war called “Economic Sanctions.” This was a process similar to how the Clinton Administration began to kill off Iraq with economic sanctions that served to soften that country up for the Bush Administration invasion and subsequent occupation of that country, now to be managed once again by a Democratic Party presidency under Barack Obama.

The results in Zimbabwe have been equally as appalling as to what has been done to Iraq as inflation now runs at 231,000,000%! That’s right, you read that correctly. See BBC’s report Zimbabwe inflation hits new high

The background can be read about, too, at newzimbabwe.com… Economic sanctions undermine Zimbabwe’s economy, where one can find out about the role the International Monetary Fund played in beginning the warfare against Zimbabwe’s now starving people.

That’s right, and as people are starving to death in Zimbabwe due to the British and US government war against that country,there are those liberal fools who, ignoring the lessons of Somalia, Congo, and Zimbabwe, actually want the British and US governments to increase their military interventionism into Sudan! They call that humanitarian, too! In fact, our own local Colorado Springs ‘Peace’crats of the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission are just some of those people, who call for interventionism even as they parade themselves off as pacifists. Not heard one word from them about Zimbabwe though. And mums the word for them about Afghanistan and Somalia, too, countries which are in similar dire straights due to US government imposed wars.

The US Antiwar Movement needs to wake up to where the wars are on fast, and to who’s the government pushing this stuff (their own). I’m from Texas and though I like the group ‘Asleep at the Wheel’, but when you see DP voting liberals driving while as asleep at the wheel as the local pacifists are, then it just makes one want to throw up IMO. Very sad, because the people of Zimbabwe, as elsewhere, certainly need some coherent support for their liberation. And I don’t just mean from Mugabe either, but from the US government and all its vampirish European government allies, too.

See Ann Wright in action or at the PPJPC

Posted on November 19, 2008 by Eric Verlo

COLORADO SPRINGS- The PPJPC is collecting money to bring noted antiwar activist Ann Wright to Colorado Springs. They’re hoping to have her speak for a fundraiser. I’ve had a chance to meet the retired colonel/diplomat in person a number of times. You can too, with no fund-raising necessary. Go to an action.

The first time I met Wright was in Crawford Texas when a delegation from Colorado Springs joined Cindy Sheehan’s encampment outside George Bush’s ranch. Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin were the primary organizers behind Sheehan’s “Camp Casey” PR coup. When our group convened our own Camp Casey at Nevada Avenue and Dale Street, Wright was our liaison to the continued national effort.

Most recently we ran into Wright at the DNC in August. Ann Wright brought the white faceless masks to the Denver demonstrations. She spoke at the rallies and participated in several marches. Even now, whether the issue is closing Guantanamo or saying no to the Fed, you’ll see Wright’s squad with their masks, representing the faceless victims of America’s destructive imperialism.

While I look forward to Ann Wright’s upcoming visit, I think it is unfortunate that local energy for activism be dissipated with an in-house lecture. What would Wright rather see us doing? Hopefully she can illuminate the hole into which the PPJPC is burying its head. Perhaps a study of her successes can show that a nonviolent ethos need not limit one’s actions to the avoidance of confrontation.

Bootsie Hall, 1919 – 2008

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Brother Jonah

She was a lady I did recycling with down in Texas.

I told Eric the other day when he gave me and Miss Johnnie a ride to the hospital that I would write about it.

Which I probably have anyway, but Miss Bootsie died on October 7th.

She would have been 90 if she had lived until February.

Just in the past 3 years she had to stop recycling. Coronary arteries deteriorating.

She had this beat up white Ford Ranger 1/4 ton pickup she would have routinely filled with a ton of metal and half a ton of me and whoever else was dumb enough to ride with her.

Yeah, she drove crazy.

Riding with Miss Bootsie was a Religious Experience. I would even call on the Name of Our Lord three or four times every time we went out “hunting”.

I got in the habit of closing my eyes while we were rolling because, you know, if you’re fixing to die, why spend an extra few seconds being tortured by the certain knowledge thereof?

Her oldest brother was killed in World War One, just before Armistice Day in fact.

She only knew him from a picture.

Her Obituary in the Star-Telegram said that the longest she had worked any job was as a waitress for a few years.

Not so.

She had the Recycling, I guess Some People don’t consider that to be work but it sure the Hell is.

And the really important lifetime job of Being a Spectacularly Good Example and my hero.

Her given name was Beulah Faye Hall. I didn’t know that until I asked how to find her in the phone book.

I started singing that Hymn “I’m not worried for I’m dwelling, in Beulah Land” and she told me to stop.

More strange American ‘law’

Posted on November 6, 2008 by Tony Logan

spitzer-call-girl What would happen if the police had the evidence on any other Tony, Eric, Dick, or Peter, that any one of us three had paid for a prostitute? I ask this, since I once was almost a victim of police entrapment by a female cop decoy that I innocently enough offered a ride from inside a convenience store. She kept begging me to pay her for sex! Luckily when I didn’t bite, she finally got out of the car, and the next day I read about her policing activities in the daily paper. Close call.

In New York, the police are not as uncorrupted as the Texas cops are though. No Charges for Spitzer in Prostitution Case They get all the dope on a guy, and then let him go! Isn’t that just incredible? This man could possibly corrupt the morals of some other young call girl because of this inexplicable police behavior. That’s not right!

I chalk it up to being just another strange American ‘law’. Some go to jail, and others don’t. Equal protection under the law? Perhaps not. The law is not blind, though now the current governor of New York is just that, ever since Spitzer has got spitzed back out into the general population.

Who needs these prostitution laws anyway? The police? I feel sorry for Eliot’s wife, since she might not be able to buy at Neiman Marcus this Christmas?

And imagine if I had used New York State Police logic back if I had taken the bait with the police decoy bird down in Texas? I had offered her say, $100 for a ‘light massage’? As they would then have converged on me in mass, handcuffed me, and I would have shouted out….

‘You can’t arrest me! This $100 is not from public funds!’

Here is that imaginary answer from the cops…

‘Sorry, Guv, we will have to let you go. You harmed nobody.’

El Paso County votes country bumpkin

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Parts of the country which favored McCain/Palin, by how much. El Paso County in no position to make fun of hicks in Kentucky or Tennessee.
Mississippi, Oklahoma 66%; Wyoming 65%; Idaho, Utah 63%
Alaska 62%; Alabama 60%
Arkansas, Louisiana 59%
EL PASO COUNTY 58%
Kentucky, Tennessee 57%
Nebraska, Kansas 57%
Texas, West Virginia 56%
Arizona, South Carolina 54%
North Dakota, South Dakota 53%; Georgia 52%; Montana 50%

The population centers along the Front Range and along the I-70 corridor appear to have gone to the Democrats. The Front Range interrupted only by El Paso and Douglas counties.

In Colorado news, Mark Udall’s IN and Marilyn Musgrave’s OUT; but crooked SOS Mike Coffman is promoted to Congress.

El Paso County lost its 1A jail money, but kept squeaky idiot Doug Lamborn in Congressional District 5.

SENATE DISTRICTS: 4, 9, 10, 11 & 12
Mark Scheffel, (Tim Schultheis), Bill Cardman, (John Morse -D), Keith King

HOUSE DISTRICTS: 14-21
Kent Lambert, Mark Waller, Larry Liston, Dennis Apuan (D), Michael Merrifield (D), Marsha Looper, Amy Stephens, Brian Gardner

Obama needs your support in Pueblo

Posted on November 1, 2008 by Eric Verlo

PUEBLO- NOV 1st.
It may be the last Colorado whistle stop on the way to the White House. Come see Candidate Obama and make sure he hears what you expect from him. No more wars period. Not in Sudan, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Columbia, Bolivia, or Haiti. No more economic war of attrition against America’s own people.

You and I know there aren’t any White Supremacists of sufficient IQ, nor Cuban Loyalist mobsters, nor CIA rogues, nor Southern Separatist holdout, nor probably Zionist hit squad, who have it out for Barack Obama. Nobody is threatened by his intended reform but the Neocons. If the Bush Cheney Gang aren’t convinced they’ve squeezed the American economy of its last trillion dollars, I don’t imagine they plan to let anyone interrupt their gig.

The eyes of America are on this election and on Barack Obama. We aren’t seeing record voter registrations and early voting turnout for any other reason than that the citizens want change. They’re counting on their right, as advertised on TV, to elect the person they want to the presidency. No Texas Book Depository, nor shadow government cabal is going to get in the people’s way.

Verifying the Sarah Palin Chronicles

Posted on October 31, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Sarah Palin is probably like most people, she’d rather her medical records remain confidential. Most of us resist even the indignity of taking a drug test to qualify for a job. But executive level positions require the insurance of a bill of health, clean or not. Unfortunately for Sarah, the employers making the hiring decision for the Executive Branch are We the People.

I do hope there’s an Executive Privilege to invoke which can protect the details of some categories. If FDR could keep his wheelchair a secret, I don’t mind not knowing about mental health lapses, STDs, or conditions Palin had to invent to score antibiotics for a spouse’s infection. Sarah may not seem bright, or educated, but TV viewers can all attest she doesn’t lack sanity or stamina. I doubt a psychiatrist would consider her behavior to be in any way aberrant for a public figure.

What probably really chafes Sarah is that fewer of her viewers seem concerned for her health, than are eager to check out her strange pregnancy story. Ordinarily, I’d think reproductive health histories should be the last to merit scrutiny, but what if the details in question concern a politician who wants to make it her business to regulate the reproductive rights of others?

Should a daughter’s right to privacy supersede a policy maker’s family-values facade? If a politician wants to laud high fructose corn syrup as part of a child’s healthy diet, I’d like them to acknowledge if their children are obese. Don’t preach the practicality of abstinence if your children are reproducing out of bounds. Maybe your clan can afford unwanted pregnancies, at least admit it.

I don’t have a problem with Jamie Lynn Spears’ second teen pregnancy, she has the financial resources to have oodles of babies. Of what quality, I can’t judge. But I’m not much in favor of Disney holding her up as an example for teenagers who aren’t buffered from minimum wage jobs and no daycare.

More mothers than we could probably guess have raised a grandchild as their own, to save face for a daughter’s premarital accident. Nothing untoward about secret keeping, it’s just tragic that women are forced to hide. Perhaps we should wish that society be more accepting. Would Sarah Palin’s fundamentalism be taking us in that direction?

Sarah Palin’s reproductive dogma would be hypocritical if it turns out that her fifth baby Trig was in reality her daughter Bristol’s. Why do we presume to judge unless we know for sure? Why does Palin refuse to release her health records? She’s told the media she will, but November 4th approaches…

It’s reported the Trig pregnancy went undetected by Sarah’s staff, while by coincidence, over the same period 16-year-old Bristol was kept out of school on account of “mono.” Sarah was on a business trip in Texas when she says her water broke. She boarded the plane to Alaska, still without anyone knowing about her condition, and gave birth later that evening. Who really cares if it happened that way or not, except that Palin is an outspoken puritan.

Who cares if Senator Larry Craig solicits illicit sex in public bathroom stalls? Except he’s a leading demagogue against gay equal rights.

And their denials would make them liars. Since when do we tolerate duplicity from public officials?

There’s a chance Sarah Palin has complicated her story with the public announcement of daughter Bristol’s unplanned pregnancy and intention to wed her unwitting teenage partner. It would appear this revelation was made primarily to deflect suspicions about which of them gave birth to the April baby. Sarah’s argument is that Bristol couldn’t be five months pregnant now if Bristol had been Trig’s real mother. Except the public will have little way to know how far along Bristol really is or was, if at all. Until well after the election.

All those facts will be very easy to contain after the election.

The American public needn’t know Bristol Palin’s private life. But we have every obligation to discover if Sarah Palin is the straight shooter she pretends.

GOP campaign worker says she was branded by black male Obama supporter

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Eric Verlo

Should we be surprised that a McCain campaign worker would carve a “B” in her cheek and claim twas an Obama supporter who did it? (But no surprise she didn’t think to reverse the mirror image.) Fortunately Pittsburgh police have skepticism for white women who claim they’ve been attacked by 6ft 4in black males. Although both John McCain and Sarah Palin called to express their concern. This sort of thing used to lead to lynching. Is that what the GOP will incite next?

Ashley Todd’s wild story of a black male assailant carving a “B” into her cheek as punishment for having a McCain sticker on her car was eventually debunked by Pittsburgh police. Not before the story was used to anger Republican voters. Although charges are now being pressed against Todd for filing a false police report, the press is having difficulties locating Ms. Todd or her family, and her GOP campaign supervisors are offering no help.

Meet Joe the Ex-Roofer…

Posted on October 19, 2008 by Brother Jonah

Because McCain is promoting this cat who has the false tag of “Joe the Plumber”.

Real Name: Sam.

Real Occupation: Professional Liar. No plumbing license issued to him. plumbing is a job that requires a license. I know. … I used to work construction.

Until one day a combination of a Slave Market, an un-bonded, un-insured, un-regulated Pendejo who ran a “Small Business” like ~~Joe the Plumber~~ bitches about…

had the brilliant idea of taking the ladders to the Other Job Site, to save money of course, and the OSHA and EPA people who would ordinarily have hamstrung this Hard-Working Small Business Owner with useless safety regulations…

“Safety regulations? We don’ need no steenkeen’ Safety Regulations” and prevented him from having Me, Joe the Pissed-off-Ex-Roofer, and everybody else on the crew using a damned conveyor belt as a ramp to get on and off the roof, well,

Those Socialist Commie Pinko Liberal “Nanny State” watchdogs had been leashed, muzzled, then shot mercilessly.

So they pretty blew off my Right Foot, actually it was dislocated, and broke three bones… and my Left knee, which had a descending fracture of the Tibial Plateau and a meniscus tear (they repaired the tear 12 years later once the got around to removing the “temporary” hardware that the Right To Work, Tort Reform, Workfare state of Texas had let stay… and stay… and stay some more…

And unseen damage to the LEFT foot and ankle as well.

Finally, after more than a decade of fighting to get any health care at all, to get SSI and Medicaid Finally and THANK GOD FOR “socialized medicine”… they took out the hardware that was supposed to come out after 2 years but turned out to be 14…

The Talus was necrosed. Means it was a dead bone within my foot and ankle.

So more surgery, where they drilled a foot-long hole up through the bones that make up the pivot of the ankle joint, and put in a Titanium shank.

Just so I won’t accidentally step wrong and splinter the damaged and decayed bone structure.

Now, they’ve found two weeks ago, that my Left Talus is the same way.

I heard John McCain talking about “Joe the Plumber” and talking about how Barack Obama was going to take away money from the “hard working Americans” and give it to people who don’t work as hard…

And, he’s putting ME in that Second Group.

I’ll do something I rarely do, I’ll Challenge Sam the Non-Plumber to come and say something like that to My Face, so I can kick every square inch of his anatomy using my busted up feet.

That BITCH ASS Punk Wannabee and his Master, Scion of Privilege John McCain, who never worked a day in his Worthless Life, practically calling me a BUM and “not as hard a worker” as them.

Yeah, it’s bizarre..

Posted on October 19, 2008 by Brother Jonah

I don’t know for sure if the O-man himself bought the food for us, or his campaign people here in town.

Either way it’s a touch of Class that no way in Hell would the McCain people be able to match.

Because Obama, and the people who are working for his campaign, are people who Give a Damn.

None of the StormFront supplied bull-poo about “palling around with terrorists”, none of the “his middle name is Hussein” like that seriously makes three quarters of a measurable amount of difference…

It comes down to People, which is what America the nation is all about.

McCain and Palin, don’t give a damn and they fly their “Don’t-Give-A-Damn'” flag proudly.

They spread the hatred like the toxic waste it truly is and don’t take any responsibility for the consequences.

I didn’t put anything up on Tribe about just yet, nor did I post here about what’s happening to my foot.

Most of the regular Tribe folks have heard about my right foot, about the work accident and all that.

Now, it turns out, the LEFT foot has a similar problem. I guess it’s natural that it slipped under the Medical Radar, what with Texas having neglected the entire damage for 12 years, other than the initial surgeries…

But a bone called the Talus, in my right foot and now, the left one as well, died, necrosed.

That’s another story.

This is about Miss Johnnie, and the Obama Campaign people and Obama himself.

Some of the Right Wing, when they’re not trying to smear and sneer him with the word that’s an insult only to the Right Wing, “Muslim”, like to scream that he’s a Radical Christian.

Let us pause momentarily and meditate upon that… “Radical Christian”…

ok, time’s up.

Hey, he’s famous for quietly being a Radical Christian and allowing his life to be his witness.

If he’s a shill for “No Change At All” I don’t see it.

I wrote to the alfrankenweb forum about it first.

There’s a lot of good back and forth between them and Tribe.

Miss Johnnie is “just another” victim of the Way Things Are…

We’re not remarkable, and that, you see, is the really frightening part.

Our nation has melted down to where only the most extremist Clown Squad could possibly even try to pretend that we have some kind of Leave it to Beaver Because Father Knows Best, Lucy mythical White Suburban utopia.

Just the events of the last year would make your jaw drop to the floor, and …

To a certain mindset, we’re supposed to Just smile, and pretend that everything is Normal.

To the campaign workers, and to Obama himself, I’d like to say Thank you…

To the ones who want us to Vote Fear, Vote Same, Vote Stay-the-course, I’d like to say —k you.

They’ve had quite enough time ruining our nation.

Now, we have to rebuild.

Seems like they let loose an Elephant into our collective living room and he trashed the place, pooped on the floor, drank out of the toilet and punched holes in all the walls.

The cleaning bill alone is going to be monstrous.

Jonah and the Obama Chinese food story

Posted on October 19, 2008 by Brother Jonah

(Editor’s note: Jonah posted this account yesterday on Alfrankenweb, which reached the Rec List on Daily Kos. Now I’m fielding emails and calls inquiring whether Jonah is real. Here are the Alfrankenweb posts, until Jonah can give us an update.)

OK, so this is the story as I finally got straight.

I was out scrounging scrap metal today, to get enough food money to last us through the weekend.

I came home and Miss Johnnie, my landlady, was crying and showing me a table full of food.

I thought one of our friends or my relatives had come over and bought for us.

But it was bought, according to the lady who owns the restaurant, by Barack Obama over the phone.

After the Obama Campaign Workers came to the door, and were listening to Miss Johnnie describe why she, a registered republican, was voting for Obama.

She showed a picture of her daughter Michelle the Marine who had been deployed to Iraq twice, and is still pending discharge because of the Stop Loss.

All her kids in fact.

And her late husband, who had died of Agent Orange from his service in VietNam.

About that time the campaign workers started making phone calls and she got to talk to Obama.

She was in tears while telling me all this so I got the story wrong at first.

She talked about the War, about the health care bill that got turned down because it was “too expensive” but the Rich Thieves got to take 16 times as much just because they had broken the economy with their wild schemes.

About the VA messing around with the repayment of the medical expenses she had borne by herself over the 12 years since her husband died, over nitpicky paperwork errors on Their Part.

About me being out against doctor’s orders scrounging scrap metal just to make it through til monday.

One of the volunteers was a Marine and a Nam Vet, so much for the notion that Veterans are all voting for McCain, (despite his continued votes to screw the veterans the same way the VA is messing up Miss Johnnie’s paperwork and payments)

Miss Johnnie, understandably, doesn’t talk without a great deal of emotion on those subjects.

So after the Volunteers left, about 20 minutes later a very large order of Chinese food charged to Obama came to the door.

The Delivery man is a recent immigrant and doesn’t speak English, so he called his boss, who confirmed it but said it was supposed to be a surprise.

Enough food to last until Monday.

I came in with this really pitiful half gallon of milk and about a meal worth of food and some cat food.. and she was crying and showing me all the food.

And said that Obama had bought it for us.

I didn’t get the story quite right the first time, so I thought he had been there in person.

Not quite, but you know how in the Churches people say “I’ll be there in spirit”?

He was there in a way that really counts.

McCain has a fake falsified made-up “Joe the Plumber” who turns out to be a white-collar person named Sam and not even a plumber…

Obama now has Miss Johnnie the Viet-Nam Widow and a Real Joe the Ex-Roofer with Busted Feet.

That’s why Obama wins.

He’s Real, his concern for the people is Real, and the people who supporting him, WE’RE real too.

…

Hell, I don’t know where to research it myself.

There’s been a flood of out-of-state volunteers past two days, because Ms Sarah was doing her Schtick at the baseball park to a tame crowd.

Tame as in no Nasty Obama Supporters being let through to ask all kinds of icky-poo questions.

I went in yesterday and mentioned at the welcome desk at Obama HQ about the FreakSquad chalking the death-threat or death-wish either one on the sidewalk essentially directly across the street from them.

The restaurant is “Coal Mine Dragon” at 1720 W Uintah, the Springs. The lady who runs it is Second Generation Chinese. She told Miss Johnnie that it was Obama paying the tab, and that it was supposed to have been secret.

If it was merely the Volunteers calling in the order, and the restaurant owner not getting it out clearly distinguished, that’s still great.

as to was he the one who spoke to her, he identified himself as such.

If he was a clever impostor doing a good imitation that’s more improbable.

Not much reason anybody would, especially as Obama wouldn’t tolerate it.

if he confirms it himself is the best proof I could think of.

…

Who has that kind of pull to hotline direct to Obama during a rally?

Congressman Mark Udall, that’s who.

He told Miss Johnnie about being a Marine himself, I had thought “damn, that sounds a lot like Mark Udall…”

And, sure enough…

…

Run the pack of clowns out of office.

There’s some tidying up to do, seems like a herd of Elephants has gone through the national living room, pooping on the floors, breaking stuff and drinking out of the toilet.

If I’m not mistaken, some poor clerk at the VA in Denver is going to have a rude surprise Monday morning.

Mark Udall is running on Workers Rights, and Veterans Affairs… very large issues here in Colorado.

The “Terror Connection” they’ve been trying to tar Obama with, with Udall it’s “the Department of Peace” and Labor Unions.

His opponent is making big talk from those same National Attack Ads just like with the “Daschle Democrats” Ads with the bobble heads…

Well, Daschle was proven RIGHT about Iraq.

Trying to paint Udall as a hippie-dippy doper (seriously, they’ve been using that angle) when he’s a Marine and a Nam Vet, I think they bit off a chunk of the wrong sandwich.

I don’t know what all the names of the meals are, one involved a lot of chicken and broccoli, mushrooms… oh man..

Another same recipe, stir fried, with steak in it.

Cabbage rolls and rice with more chicken in it…

I think I like this restaurant and plan to give them my patronage.

The bill came to just under $40 bux.

If you’re in Colorado, vote no on 47 and there’s two more Blatantly union busting amendments there.

Oh, there’s an attack ad on right now….

These freaks need to be slapped repeatedly, in fact I’ll start a thread about that…

…

I had to reboot the puter, knocked my keyboard connection loose.

We have one cat, Keenan, neutered male.

She built him cat-runs at three of the windows, we can’t let him outside because our next-door neighbor is a Confirmed Cat-Kicker.

Last summer she contracted Leishmaniasis, which is also called the Baghdad Boil, in Mesopotamia it’s spread by the bite of a flea…

They gave her Antibiotics for it, and for the Mycelin Resistant Staph Aureole that goes with it.

This has affected her inner ear, because the antibiotics were so strong.

At the time we thought it was her lymphatic cancer coming out of remission.

After her husband died, she was waiting on getting her Widow’s Pension, the VA wasn’t even acknowledging that her husband had died of Agent Orange.

It took a few years for that. That’s when she had the lymphoma.

She was out on the street while taking chemo.

Last year she started to try for her CHAMPVA benefits, so she could get meaningful health care.

The ones who come to the forum to blast “Socialized Medicine” don’t know the least part of what the hell they’re putting out, or putting down.

We had the paperwork and forms from the VA to take to the Air Force to get her Widowed Spouse ID card, to get the CHAMPVA started.

We rode the bus across town to Peterson AFB, they allowed her onto the base, but not me, made me get off the bus and wait outside.

Which I prefer anyway, when I left the Air Force, I LEFT.

The guards at the gate, they weren’t Air Force, didn’t have any insignia or rank or name tags, but I knew they weren’t SPs because the SPs are stone freaky about maintaining a spit-shined appearance.

Turns out they’re mercenaries, I thought at first Blackwater but it seems it’s a different group of Mercs.

All the same to me.

At the Admin building another Mercenary, not Air Force personnel, clerk told her that the VA was full of shit, everything changed with nine eleven, don’t you know there’s a war on yadda yadda and threatened to have her arrested.

This year we finally got her ID card, got her CHAMPVA started.

Any Vets reading this, be-the-hell-ware because this is what they’re fixin’ to do to YOU next if McInasane gets in power.

So she’s owed 11 years worth of reimbursement for all the medical care she had to pay for out of pocket, even with the next to worthless Colorado Indigent Care Program insurance (Look up “worthless” in the dictionary and right next to it will be a picture of CICP) one of those “Massive Entitlement Programs For Bums” that McCain bitches about.

She got some reimbursement but is owed about 5 times as much more.

They keep bouncing her claims back, saying the forms are “incomplete”.

Utter bullshit, because I went over their claim as to what information was missing, and it was all right there in the papers.

That’s why I believe somebody from Mark Udall’s office is going to give them a Nasty Note Monday.

That’s the status so far.

The Health Care meltdown in Colorado is almost as bad as it was in Texas when I left.

Privatized everything. Well, I can testify, it didn’t work in Texas, and it surely ain’t working in Colorado either.

…

I get SSI and Medicaid. Miss Johnnie gets a Widows pension and CHAMPVA.

I supplement it by repairing computers and selling them, and the Scrap Metal.

I’ve been making more money off the scrap metal than the computers though.

The internet is part of our Cable package.

And, it’s necessary for the repairs I do to the computers, otherwise we would have ditched that part and just used dial-up.

The past month I haven’t been able to scrap, doctor’s orders.

That drop in income brought us near the edge.

We have for vehicles three bicycles, two of them mine, and she can’t ride hers anymore because of some of her injuries.

And ride the bus for further transportation.

I don’t drive anyway, never learned because it would be too dangerous.

Trust me on that.

But I’ve been getting on fairly well using the bicycles.

Until last month.

On top of that, scrap prices are down, way down… and there’s more competition for what scrap there is.

This is what’s happening across America.

I find out on November 5th what exact kind of surgery is going to be needed, for the foot I thought was uninjured 16 years ago.

I do know part of it is going to involve removal of a bone, the Cuboid.

I won’t have a leg to stand on.

It would be really really cool, you know, if this situation were anywhere near being unique.

Fact is, it ain’t.

That’s why there’s this:

I’m not dancing with joy that McCain is going to lose…

I’m rejoicing that America now has a chance to WIN.

…

Thanks, but we’re getting there. You might need it yourself soon anyway.

Stocks are tanking like mad.

Gas prices are down to 3 a gallon but that’s mostly because so much business, small and large, has crashed that there’s a huge drop in actual consumption.

First law of economics, supply and demand.

There’s going to be money coming in, just a question of when.

We both know how to make money, just we aren’t going to try doing anything on credit, build from a cash-only base.

Johnnie used to be a business owner, she and her husband did custom printing. Before his illness got to him they had over a million in the bank.

That’s how quick a catastrophic illness can do you down.

“difficult” and “impossible” are two separate equations, if something is difficult that just means it’s possible.

It’s a challenge more than anything. I hope.

I’ve got good skills I can adapt, like these computer skills.

This one I’m using now I built up from parts I salvaged, part of the scrap metal deal.

Here in town there WAS a steady supply of one-off computers, like, HP would come out with the newest mainboard and all the HP employees would get a discount on the new one, and either sell the older ones cheap or donate them to the ARC or Goodwill. Here’s a really good business tip, something you might want to invest yourself into, a new mainboard combination comes out roughly every 6 months and the older one, the one that’s King of the Jungle today, is going to be only worth half of what it is today.
Same with all the parts.

And for all practical purposes, the best there is today, in 6 months will still be able to run any software package there is. Not much point in buying a brand new computer, unless you’re developing software specifically for the newest chipset. so I’m developing a base of people who will want to buy good computers, that’ll do whatever they want, just at an amazingly lower price than they would pay to HP or Dell.
it’s more a matter of timing your purchases than anything else.

Now HP is closing down most of their local operations here, moving some to Albuquerque and some to iirc Little Rock.

But I’ll adapt. Part of it is that I don’t have a huge monetary investment in anything, mostly my investment has been in skills.

At least we have a plan, and are getting, slowly to be sure, but it is building up, the means to implement the plan.

Dire straits are familiar territory for me. At least I know my way around.

There’s good coming onto the horizon.

Credit crunch is a symptom of US economic malaise, not the cause of it

Posted on October 1, 2008 by Tony Logan

Taxpayers gifting the rich with $7,000,000,000 will not stop the coming capitalist depression at all, because it simply does not address the root causes of anything. We have been told that this crisis is merely the fault of toxic debts piling up from an American ‘housing bubble’, which happened due the crookedness of a few bad apples. Yes, its true, they add a few more details to this sob story but that is essentially all there is to the story line, with none of the American corporate ‘leadership’ class taking any personal or political responsibility at all. That is not too surprising about these moralizing immoralists at all. It is par for their course.

But the root cause of the capitalist downturn is about much more than a credit crunch cause or a real estate mortgages beginning the collapse. It is actually about the deficit military spending that corporate America has led us into with their stupid and asinine wars against shadows of their own making. Despite the destruction caused on that fateful day termed ‘9/11’, it could have been nothing more than a temporary and unfortunate side show for our country, but instead it was seized on by the military, policing, and corporate communities to justify skyrocketing their budgets, incomes, and profits. They went on a borrowing spree using foreign credit!

They did not buy anything of real value or substance though, and they progressively bankrupted the bulk of Americans by doing their borrowing, all the time while waving Old Glory and talking of American pride and national security, which they were busy undermining. ‘USA, USA, USA’ became the cry of the dunces they had marching behind them. They tortured not only Pentagon held POWs, but the American soul itself. The big guys total control over political life is what got us down into the pit.

Now, the only economic ‘security’ left for Americans is in the seeming ability to drag others down economically with us. Since we were such fat consumers here in the land of milk and honey, many depended on supplying us. However that market is about to collapse. Add to that that the whole world is left holding much of the valueless paper that our ruling class force fed to them at guns length. And, of course, we still have the biggest arsenal around. That almost makes our Federal Government just like any insane neighbor with an insanely huge gun collection, but barely living while dependent on food stamps to eat some fast food Chinese once and a while. Sarah and Dick to go hunting with perhaps?

Look around? The American auto industry just asked and got close to $30 billion in ‘bailout’ loot, too. It’s about to sink. And the biggest economic sink of them all is about to sink in the days ahead, also. Quite simply, our military is not sustainable. That is the cause of our economic malaise, not the housing market getting squeezed. All industry and finance got dragged down together in mass, and not just car sales and real estate.

The idiots of our country continue to want to wave the flag. They continue wanting to pump borrowed money into fighting unnecessary foreign wars like it is all some sort of crazed football game being played on the pro level! They like that corporate logo of Old Glory just as they do not mind all the corporate advertising hanging all over the place at the stadiums they hang out at weekends. They like the political and corporate cheerleaders, same as they like the young coed types with bonbons. at their games. This is their None Entiendo game done ever so Grande. Beep, beep, beep beep… Fireworks display!

The root cause of the economic downturn is deficit spending and deficit thinking by our neighbors, especially so in our White Conservative Christian neighborhoods, church on every other block. To sum it up, throwing $700,000,000,000 of tax money at the failed businesses solves nothing. It’s like throwing more weight on that old football bonfire.

Remember that collapse of the Texas A&M bonfire pileup several years ago? That’s the type of thinking America has on board at present. The economic bonfire stack is merely being set for collapse with this stupid bailout that they will eventually put through, because our nation is too dumb to have stopped it when we could. That picture of the Aggie bonfire before it collapsed is just like the Federal deficit debt pileup that is due to come crashing down on all of us. They constructed it out of vainglory.

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Tag Archives: Texas

Opposition to Public Education

In other news…

Shell Oil’s Green shell game

Latest “Victory” in GWOT… Drafting a 50 year old Vet.

Cabinet candidate Bill Richardson was clean enough to run for president?

Wal-mart drives its chariot of predatory commerce over bones of Civil War dead

Texas Justice

Mexico’s headless Drug War soldiers

There’s lots of shit that comes from America’s cows!

Slave Corporations in Murderous Action

An interesting Connection.

Country rodeo clown to retire to big city

US and Britain are starving Zimbabwe to death

See Ann Wright in action or at the PPJPC

Bootsie Hall, 1919 – 2008

More strange American ‘law’

El Paso County votes country bumpkin

Obama needs your support in Pueblo

Verifying the Sarah Palin Chronicles

GOP campaign worker says she was branded by black male Obama supporter

Meet Joe the Ex-Roofer…

Yeah, it’s bizarre..

Jonah and the Obama Chinese food story

Credit crunch is a symptom of US economic malaise, not the cause of it