Bush: "%#!@ the Constitution!"

Apparently, the President of the United States does not believe in the very document which he has sworn to defend and protect — the Constitution. He has given permission to the National Security Agency to spy on U.S. citizens without the safeguard of required warrants from the judicial system. This is the same guy who said the Saddam had weapons of mass destruction (wrong!), who tied Iraq to 9/11 (wrong!), and who said that the Congress had the same intelligence pre-invasion of Iraq as he did (wrong again!!). Let's hope Iraq doesn't adopt this administration's view of democracy!

It's typical

The neo-conservatives have long complained about the loss of freedom based on some "New World Order" involving the United Nations usurping the power of the United States. One of the basic tenets of our society is to keep the power in the hands of the elected officials -- "a government of the people, for the people, and by the people." Yet, now this administration wants the Department of Defense to take more authority in major domestic disasters. This is so typical of the neo-conservative. They vehemtly warn against actions that they themselves want to take. See today's Christian Science Monitor.

Oh yeah, right!!

This administration touted itself as compassionate conservatives. Very compassionate. Ask the folks in southern Mississippi; in New Orleans.

Don't Shoot Until ......

I received a "survey" from the National Rifle Association. The questions were pretty much slanted towards the NRA's point of view. But the one that really interested me was the the one that stated: "Using your tax dollars, the United Nations is preparing to impose gun control affecting you and other American citizens. Do you think this is a good use of your tax dollars?" How very typical of the NRA! Stretch the truth and then ask folks to agree with your opposition. Truth: In the 1990s, the United Nations was sponsoring a series of conferences to address the spread of small weapons and light arms — ranging from pistols and submachine guns to grenade launchers and anti-tank guns — that was fueling civil wars and killing millions worldwide. I suppose the NRA also sees the treaty on nuclear proliferation as an assault on the right to bear arms. When it comes to the NRA, don't shoot until you see the burning red glow in their eyes!!

Why am I not surpised?

The Administration is now on an information offensive in Iraq and secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish propaganda written by U.S. Army personnel. This kind of pollution of the principles of democracy --- and democracy is what this Administration touts that it is teaching in Iraq --- has far-reaching effects beyond the borders of Iraq. While U.S. law prohibits planting propaganda in U.S. media outlets, the global nature of the media business can cause some of this garbage to seep into the mainstream U.S. media. After all, that is a long-time practice of the neoconservatives. I don't expect the Administration to be ashamed, but members of the U.S. Army should be. When one wears the cloth of their country, one's conduct should be of the highest integrity. Kudos to the LA Times.

$$$$$$

Randy Cunningham's tearful confession is the latest example of at least seven legislators whoi have either pleaded guilty, have been indicted, or are under investigation for improper conduct. And I'm sure the list will continue because, say what you will, we have the best Congress that money can buy!!!

Credit where due

Any progress in Iraq is due not to the administration but rather the great efforts of the courageous men and women in the cloth of their country.... from the grunt on the ground to the military leaders in their command centers. This is where the comparison to Vietnam breaks down. The bureaucrats now realize that they only **** things up.

Only when their lips are moving

Listen carefully! Administration officials and their surrogates in Congress in speaking about the controversy as to who knew what intelligence when keep glossing over that the Executive gets a more detailed briefing than do members of Congress, that it does appear that the Administration's goal was war with Iraq no matter what, and that the Administration seems to have exaggerated the data on Saddam. Now they're singing "Let's move forward and not dwell on the past." It's the same tired tactic. Of course, they're obfuscating.......

What price vigilence?

The Patriot Act: Orwell was 20 years too early!

Fourth Estate in Fifth Dimension

The revered --- dare we say "worshipped?" --- Bob Woodward of the Washington Post has revealed that he heard about Valerie Plame about a month before Scooter Libby allegedly provided her name to Judith Miller -- the Joan d'Arc of the New York Times. And Bobby has apologized to his editors at the Post for not informing them sooner. Kinda slipped his mind. Friends and neighbors, if you are trusting in the "news" media you must know that Bobby and his ilk (the Washington royalty of the media set) hobnob quite frequently and freely with the very folk they write stories about --- the government royalty. What's a little cocktails, dinner, and chit-chat amongst friends? In my mind it calls into question the idea of impartiality, of being the watchdogs of government for "the people." And it ain't the news business, folks. As they said in "The Godfather," it's just business.

YGTBSM

Are you ready for this? The Bush Administration now wants U.S. citizens to have and show a passport when visiting Canada. Now for you folks who don't live near the Canadian border and have no idea what Canada is about, it isn't Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. Culturally and environmentally, the area on either side of the border is pretty much same. The people who live close to that border cross it frequently for shopping, for sports programs, or to visit relatives. Canada is one of our best friends. Could it be (1) by making everyone have a $100 passport, Bush is trying to raise more money for the war in Iraq or (2) Bush wants to "punish" the Canadians --- who were smart enough to recognize the folly --- for their non-support of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This is but one more of the administration's YGTBSM plans!!!

Second Tuesday in November

The second Tuesday in November is Election Day in these United States. Until then, we will be bombarded with telephone surveys (actually ads for a candidate) and political spots on radio and television. The public says they eschew negative advertising, yet all the consultants say they work. Of course they work! The U.S. public doesn't bother checking to see if the nasty charges are true or not. They just get angry at the accused candidate for doing what his opponent had said he (or she) has done. No one really expects the electorate to think do they?


There will never be campaign reform. The parties need to have a lot of cash to pay for the broadcast advertisements, and do you think the Fourth Estate — the watchdog for the public — will refuse all that wonderful money coming in or work to cut the flow off?

Of course!!!!!!!

The news media showed Alison Barber of the Pentagon briefing the soldiers in Iraq on the questions they would get from the President this morning. And she even gave direction on how to best "sell" the answer. Laurence DiRita says the help was to ensure there were no technical difficulties. Of course!!!!

Added because I can

You want ... what?!

The terrorists want to establish a a radical theocracy around the Middle East. The neo-conservatives of the Republic party (I guess that is a bit redundant) are upset because Harriet Miers may not fit their idea of the type of judge they want. I'd say the neos are looking to establish their own radical theocracy.

WOT Inaccuracies?

Mr. Bush is correct in that we need to wage war against the terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, Spain's rail system, nightclubs in Bali, the London Underground, etc. Mr. Bush is scamming us when he says that the War on Terrorism was the reason we invaded Iraq. There is and was no evidence that Iraq was connected to Al Qaeda (unless he's thinking of the weapons of mass deflection).

How do you spell "stupid?"

The United States Army, in their inimitable wisdom, has concluded that there is not enough evidence to "pursue criminal charges" against soldiers who have taken grisly photos of war dead and traded those photos for pornography on a Florida man's web site. Let's hope they pursue something under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (which by the way is part of the United States Code --- the law of the land). And how about 27-year-old Chris Wilson who owns the site? Does he not understand the furor caused by the Abu Ghraib photos and that all of these things aids those who are killing U.S. troops? And don't the soldiers who shot the pictures and want to trade them for porn understand either?! Oh, by the way, the site was intended to be a place where "men could post nude photos of their wives and girlfriends." How do you spell "stupid?"

Why am I not surprised?!

Readership in the main stream media is falling precipitously. And the media --- mostly run by the green eyeshade folks --- don't understand why. It's the hype, stupid. I was in Italy during the Three Mile Island accident. Hearing the newscasts and reading the papers, I thought that there was a huge hole from State College to Trenton, N.J. Pennsylvania, as we knew it, no longer existed. And it's only gotten worse. As example - "Reports of anarchy at Superdome overstated" and "Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy." And, of course, how many blogger jumped at the original story and expressed their outrage?! So much for journalism being a profession!

Mr. Bush's Social Security Plan

Random Thought

Never trust a president who cannot speak in complete sentences!

The War

I support the courageous, selfless men and women of the U.S. armed forces.
I do not support the rationale for going to war in the first place. The two are not the same.

Here we go again!

If you examine this blog's URL, you will see it begins with "htvrt." Let's just turn that around: trvth. A little subtle perhaps. In any event, it would be nice if we could get some accuracy from the media and from the bloggers who will jump on the media misstatements and accept them as truth. Example: We were alarmed to hear the first company to get a contract in the rebuilding of New Orleans was Halliburton..." This blog repeats and accepts the less-than-accurate report from Reuters:
"We were alarmed to hear the first company to get a contract in the
rebuilding of New Orleans was Halliburton, another nonbid contract,"
said Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice, which bills itself
as the largest anti-war coalition in the United States. The largest U.S. contractor in Iraq, Halliburton Co.'s subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root has been given a $29.8 million contract to rebuild Navy bases along the Katrina-battered Gulf Coast. What Reuters fails to report, as other media have, that this was let as a result of a $16 million contract that was a competive bid and it was done in July ... long before Katrina was a breeze, let alone a hurricane.

The high price of natural gas

"There is an abundance of natural gas in North America .... In fact, there is a vast amount of natural gas estimated to still be in the ground." So says the Natural Gas Supply Organization on their web site. So there is no reason that the price of natural gas should rise by the 35% this winter as predicted, except that the natural gas companies, like the oil companies (in many cases the same) have figured out all gouging depends on is to say that there are shortages. Not only that, but there is no increase in the transportation costs since most of it is transported by pipeline. Right, Columbia??!!! Consumers: There is an old Navy term for what's happening to you. It's BOHICA: bend over, here it comes again!!!

Bush and Katrina

One might ask: Why was not Bush more presidential in the wake of Katrina as he appeared to be in the wake of 9-11? My take is that the person in charge immediately after 9-11 was Rudolph Guilliani. It was he who was presidential. Isn't it strange that two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers were dispatched to New York City within hours and the hospital ship Comfort was dispatched the next day following the attack on the WTC yet for Katrina, Comfort sat in Baltimore for a week before setting sail to, not New Orleans, but Pascagoula, Miss.

Bush and Blacks

I truly don't think that President Bush is discrimnatory. The lack of leadership, the inability to adequately respond to the critical needs generated by Katrina, the bureaucratic bungling that took place are not the result of any discrimination by Bush but rather the simple fact that the man is incompetent. Good hearted, maybe, but incompetent nonetheless. (BTW you notice I don't use the word "race." There is but one race on this planet --- the human race. Different enthnicities, yes. But one race.)

God love the Air Force Academy

Please, only Christians need apply for the Air Force Academy.

China and Unocal

The chairman of CNOOC, the Chinese company wanting to buy the U.S. oil company Unocal, says fears about our national security are an 'overreaction.' Interesting! That can be added to other lines like: The check's in the mail, I'll respect you in the morning, etc.

Chinese Oil

China wants to buy Unocal. What's the problem. We're a greedy bunch. We'll sell you anything if the price is right, including our future.... our security. We've already sold Congress.

The Supreme Court's Decision today

The Supreme Court says it's o.k. for a local government to take your house and give your land to a private developer. I guess they're interpreting a different Constitution from that I thought we had. And "had" is what we'll be!!

Bush and Vietnam

I love it!!! A few years back, the old retired military farts were up in arms. It was because of a story on a neocon web site that quoted anonymous sources who said that Clinton was going to take a Navy ship to Vietnam and while there, order the Vietnamese flag to be flown above ours. Oh, the invective flowed greater than the Colorado had Hoover Dam burst. Never mind the story was probably made up. Never mind that the White House and the Navy both said there was no request from the White House to take a Navy ship anywhere. And never mind the fact that diplomacy is fraught with symbolism and what would be the symbolism of a U.S. president taking a warship into a country that was a former enemy. Clinton was denounced to be as bad as Hanoi Jane! Now, Bush hosts the president of Vietnam in the White House. And the retired military folks? Nary a peep!

Flix Facts

O.K. folks, I'm really sick of hearing which movie is number one at the box office this week. With very few exceptions, it usually is the movie that was released this week. Of course, it's going to have higher attendance than a flick that been around for a week or more. Strange thing about people who go to the movies regularly. They go to see the latest film. Ergo the numbers will be higher! And the amount of money a film earns?! What was the price of a ticket for "Gone With The Wind"? It certainly wasn't $12 a pop! Obviously a film selling a half million tickets at $10 each ($5 million) does better than a film selling five million tickets at 50 cents each ($2.5 million). Let's compare the NUMBER of tickets sold; not the amount earned.

Deep Throat

The buzz on the box and in print these past few days has been the revelation that W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat of the Watergate era. It's an interesting tid-bit for historians but not - IMHO - worthy of the hours of blather. Of course, it's just another example of the news media talking to the news media (and the news junkies). Hey, folks, there is real news to cover out there.... and I don't mean the car accident in Broken Bum, Idaho, that makes headlines on the 24-hour news cable networks either. Watergate resulted in a flurry of youngsters wanting to be Bernstein/Woodward and the shorthand naming of every real or perceived inappropriate action by some government official as being "something"-gate. The soul of the whole matter is that fortunately two enterprising reporters --- and many others --- were able to shine a light on the creepy crawlers of a corrupt and imperial administration. And times have changed, how????!!!!

Paris Hilton

The Paris Hilton commercial for a hamburger chain which I've never heard of before is getting a lot of national publicity. The issue is that the commercial is being called "soft-core porn." I guess it adds new meaning to "Where's the beef!"

And the public decries such "indecency." But which web sites get the most traffic? Even the "family hour" on television is loaded with sex. And the "Victoria's Secret" commericals? Funny how we want it both ways. Does the word "hypocrite" come to mind?

24-hour cable news

24-hour cable news = 15 minutes of news, 24 hours a day!

Pat Tillman

The Army said that Pat Tillman died a heroic death, like John Wayne with guns blazing as the Taliban cut him down. 'Twasn't so. His own troops accidentally killed him. But the brass went with the guts and glory story. Just like that for Jessica Lynch. Disinformation is the hallmark of da neocons in DC!!!

Congress

Didn't Sen. Norm Coleman from Minnesota play the villian in the first Spiderman movie?

The DC Metro

It's really great to ride the Metro in the Washington, D.C., area and see all the very important people. How can you tell who are the important ones? They're the one who sit in the aisle side of the seat with the window side empty, indicating "how dare anyone sit in this seat with me!"

And how about the folks who sneak their food? Two women, at different times, hunched over their purses sneaking little pieces of food or potato chips.... not unlike the squirrels on my back porch snatching the bird food out of the feeder. And they (the women, not the squirrels) know the signs are there that say eating food is, as the sign puts it, unlawful.

Life in general

The problem with life is there is no ^-ALT-DEL


People who think they have all the answers generally don't even know the questions!