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30 November 2003

 

Bush's grandstanding makes me sick
I don't think I'm alone here. Does that fly-by-night stunt of Bush's on Thanksgiving day make you want to puke?

The spectacle of Bush, once again, sneaking into a country for fear of his life, is getting kind of old. If you want to know what the world thinks of us "Americans", just think for a minute about Bush's recent visit to the UK. This was a State Visit with our closest ally no less, but instead of the usual ride to the palace in a carriage with the Queen at his side, Bush sneaked in at night and landed in a helicopter on the palace roof. This is disgraceful! And then to have this man, who is so widely despised throughout the world, once again use the US Military as a prop for his next political campaign is unforgiveable.

It is really sad to see those poor service personnel have to act like they are happy to seen him, when the truth is that they are asking themselves why this man seems to take delight in putting people in harms way. And on top of that, the man was a deserter during the Viet Nam war. [Note: AWOL for over six months is desertion, not, as the media says in Bush's case, "he was AWOL for 18 months."]

A few weeks ago, there were four news stories on the same day that really brought the Cheney-Bush junta's contempt for the military into perspective. The first story was about the state funeral Italy was holding for its military policemen who were killed in a suicide attack in Iraq. Even the President of Italy was there.

The next story covered the fact that the press isn't allowed to cover the arrival of coffins from Iraq. It contrasted this policy with that of other nations where its fallen soldiers were given a hero's welcome and even mentioned how much better the coverage of these sad events was during the Viet Nam war. And it went on to say that as of that date, no senior member of the administration had yet attended the funeral of the over 400 US service personnel who have died so far.

Then came two stories, whose juxtaposition could not have been a mistake. The first was that Dick Cheney had just hosted a $1,000 a plate luncheon in New York. This story was immediately followed with a story about a US soldier who was being buried at the same time. . . . only his family and a few friends were there because the Fat Cats are too busy raking in more money. Cheney needs the money to stay in power, and the donors need the power to continue getting no-bid contracts to rebuild a country that Cheney's boys have destroyed.

Fiction must certainly be dead. How can it compete with what is actually happening?

posted by Lorenzo 4:10 PM

29 November 2003

 

Something to think about
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
-- Abraham Lincoln

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.
-- (Gore Vidal)

posted by Lorenzo 4:55 PM

26 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
The constitution of a country should not violate the constitutions of its citizens.
-- Stanislaw J. Lec

posted by Lorenzo 8:25 AM

24 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
-- Isaac Asimov, Foundation

posted by Lorenzo 11:33 AM

22 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
General William Tecumsch Sherman said if he owned hell and Texas, he'd live in hell and rent out Texas. I agree. A miserable country breeds miserable people. I've got the scars to prove it.
-- Slim Brundage

posted by Lorenzo 11:56 AM

21 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
I see in the future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
-- Abe Lincoln

posted by Lorenzo 2:50 PM

20 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
Under communism, man exploits man. Under capitalism, it's just the opposite.
-- J.K.Galbraith

posted by Lorenzo 9:58 AM

19 November 2003

 

Gore Vidal's thoughts about the Bush administration
Question to Gore Vidal: So when it comes to this Bush administration, are you really talking about despots per se? Or is this really just one more rather corrupt and foolish Republican administration?

No. We are talking about despotism. I have read not only the first PATRIOT Act but also the second one, which has not yet been totally made public nor approved by Congress and to which there is already great resistance. An American citizen can be fingered as a terrorist, and with what proof? No proof. All you need is the word of the attorney general or maybe the president himself. You can then be locked up without access to a lawyer, and then tried by military tribunal and even executed. Or, in a brand-new wrinkle, you can be exiled, stripped of your citizenship and packed off to another place not even organized as a country -- like Tierra del Fuego or some rock in the Pacific. All of this is in the USA PATRIOT Act. The Founding Fathers would have found this to be despotism in spades. And they would have hanged anybody who tried to get this through the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Hanged.

Q)So if George W. Bush or John Ashcroft had been around in the early days of the republic, they would have been indicted and then hanged by the Founders?

Bush and Ashcroft would have been considered so disreputable as to not belong in this country at all. They might be invited to go down to Bolivia or Paraguay and take part in the military administration of some Spanish colony, where they would feel so much more at home. They would not be called Americans -- most Americans would not think of them as citizens.
--Gore Vidal

posted by Lorenzo 11:08 AM

18 November 2003

 

Thought for the Day
Ours is a totally corrupt society. The presidency is for sale. Whoever raises the most money to buy TV time will probably be the next president. This is corruption on a major scale. Enron was an eye-opener to naive lovers of modern capitalism. Our accounting brotherhood, in its entirety, turned out to be corrupt, on the take. With the government absolutely colluding with them and not giving a damn.

Bush�s friend, old Kenny Lay, is still at large and could just as well start some new company tomorrow. If he hasn�t already. No one is punished for squandering the people�s money and their pension funds and for wrecking the economy. So the corruption predicted by Franklin bears its terrible fruit. No one wants to do anything about it. It�s not even a campaign issue. Once you have a business community that is so corrupt in a society whose business is business, then what you have is, indeed, despotism. It is the sort of authoritarian rule that the Bush people have given us. The USA PATRIOT Act is as despotic as anything Hitler came up with -- even using much of the same language.
--Gore Vidal

posted by Lorenzo 12:36 PM

17 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
Franklin said, it [the US Constitution] will fail, as all such constitutions have in the past, because of the essential corruption of the people. He pointed his finger at all the American people. And when the people become so corrupt, he said, we will find it is not a republic that they want but rather despotism -- the only form of government suitable for such a people.
--Gore Vidal

posted by Lorenzo 10:41 AM

16 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
Love is the refined energy of pure consciousness which the Universe entire is designed to produce.
-- Jason Wynd

posted by Lorenzo 8:03 AM

14 November 2003

 

US Deaths in Iraq Higher Than for Same Period in Viet Nam

On May 1, 2003, the ignoble George W. Bush, pretending he was in the military, declared that "major hostilities are over in Iraq." Little did he know that the major hostilities had only just begun. Of course, how could he know anything about war, since he was a deserter during the war in Viet Nam. (Even the government-controlled media acknowledges that Bush was AWOL for 18 months. What they fail to mention is that after 6 months of being AWOL the offense becomes desertion.)

I wonder how many young American women and men will be slaughtered in Iraq before we call an end to Bush's War? What is the number of deaths we must reach before the US public says "ENOUGH!" ? It seems certain that the toll will reach 500 quite soon. So is the magic number 1,000, 5,000, or must we reach 50,000 US deaths before the Bush gang is driven out of Washington? Are you willing to sacrifice your life, or the lives of your children and grandchildren, just to satisfy the Cheney-Bush-Rumsfeld-Powell-Rice lust for oil and power? My guess is that those who are blindly supporting Bush's War are only willing to sacrifice the lives of poor people who can find no other job than that of mercenary for the oil companies.]

posted by Lorenzo 11:04 AM

11 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield.
--Thomas Jefferson

posted by Lorenzo 4:45 PM

09 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
What is to give light must endure burning.
--Anon

posted by Lorenzo 8:10 AM

08 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
Suffering is the price of endlessness.
G. I. GURDJIEFF (attributed)

posted by Lorenzo 11:27 AM

07 November 2003

 

Michael Moore's View of Americans (shared by Lorenzo)
They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet... in thrall to conniving, thieving, smug pricks. . . . We Americans suffer from an enforced ignorance. We don't know about anything that's happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing. National Geographic produced a survey which showed that 60 per cent of 18-25 year olds don't know where Great Britain is on a map. And 92 per cent of us don't own a passport.
--Michael Moore

posted by Lorenzo 4:27 PM

06 November 2003

 

US Adopts Israel's Ethnic Cleansing Tactics
Check out the story titled "US Detains Relatives of Suspects in Iraq Attacks" on our War on Iraq page. Just like the insane Zionists, the US is now destroying the homes and lives of relatives of "suspected" terrorists. When it comes to serial killers, George Bush and his gang make the Green River killer look like a saint.

posted by Lorenzo 9:43 AM

 

Thought for the day
How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.
--Spanish proverb

posted by Lorenzo 9:22 AM

05 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame a thing devoid of judgement. And, to say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream and vapour, and life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion.
--Marcus Aurelius

posted by Lorenzo 10:39 AM

04 November 2003

 

Thought for the day
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire

posted by Lorenzo 10:15 AM

03 November 2003

 

US public demands answers
Mr Rumsfeld's professed ignorance about who is leading the insurgency is becoming untenable. As more US soldiers come home in coffins, Congress and the public will be demanding a better explanation.
--Marian Wilkinson

posted by Lorenzo 10:01 AM

02 November 2003

 

Bush's Thoughts on Mounting US Casualties
This is a quiz

Question: What do you think was the first thing that went through Bush's little mind when he heard the 19 more US troops had been killed?

a. He said a silent prayer for the fallen troops.

b. He thought about the grief of their families.

c. He wondered if this would hurt his ratings in the polls.

[HINT: If you answered "a", you are well-suited for being a member of a fundamentalist strain of some religion. . . . If you answered "b" you are a Republican. . . . And if you answered "c" you understand what is really going on in this fear-stricken nation.]

posted by Lorenzo 2:47 PM

 

Thought for the day
"The press has become a lot less shy about pointing out the administration's exploitation of 9/11, partly because that exploitation has become so crushingly obvious.... in the past six weeks President Bush has invoked 9/11 not just to defend Iraq policy and argue for oil drilling in the Arctic, but in response to questions about tax cuts, unemployment, budget deficits and even campaign finance.
--Paul Krugman

posted by Lorenzo 5:33 AM

 

New from Noam Chomsky
Don't miss Anthony Boadle's report of Noam Chomsky in Havana. Chomsky thinks that the only chance Bush has of stealing another election is to first "manufacture" another terrorist crisis. ""They have a card that they can play ... terrify the population with some invented threat, and that is not very hard to do," he said.

posted by Lorenzo 5:32 AM