liblip

2006-09-03T04:10:00.000-07:00

Repetitions of History ad nauseum.....

Cliches about history like, "Those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them," or "What we learn from history, is that we don't learn from history," may seem trite, but what is really frightening is that they are so true and that they are ignored so routinely with such horrific consequences!

Recently a friend gave me a publication called, "The Monthly Review," from April of 1989, because a deceased relative of his, Leo Cawley, had written a book review of Neil Sheehan's book, "Bright Shining Lie," and he wanted me to read it. Leo had been in the Vietnam war and was subsequently a journalist covering the Westmoreland/CBS trial when he issued this review of the book.

I remember reading "Bright Shining Lie," about the incredibly brave and legendary John Paul Vann, who after a distinguished service record came to Vietnam and concluded that the US government and the military brass were fighting this guerrilla war all wrong. Vann who immersed himself in the culture of Vietnam and got to know the people and came to realize how much they despised the government of S. Vietnam and how inept the army of S. Vietnam was, soon realized that the massive bombing tactics being used to win the war by the Pentagon were worse than useless, they were counter-productive. In Vann's view the best weapon in a guerrilla war was a knife and secondly was a rifle. Airpower was too indiscriminately destructive of civilians to be used at all. Vann was subsequently drummed out of the military for his impertinence about questioning the military brass and eventually returned to Vietnam as a top civilian advisor in 1965 and appeared to mute his criticisms of the war so he could stay and gloat as the body counts rose.

While Vann turned out to be something less than a heroic figure, the Sheehan book was more than just the story of one man fighting the wrongheadedness of the military high command. It was the story of how the US government acted with arrogance and self-delusion about subduing a small country and stifling a national uprising by peasants and poor people. It is also the story of how the US military presumed an easy victory because of it's greater manpower but especially because of it's far superior fire-power, particularly with air-strikes.

According to Leo Cawley, David Halberstram wrote a more comrehensive book about the folly of the US government and the military brass in Vietnam with his, "The Best and the Brightest," but Sheehan's book looked deeply into the class struggles that occurred within these institutions and within the country of Vietnam itself, and through Vann's eyes he saw therein the seeds of destruction of the American empire.

Today we have history repeating itself in Iraq. We have the same presumptuous follies being perpetrated by the US government and it's military chiefs. We have the same wanton destruction of civilians and the same colossal ignorance of the culture we invaded.

But this time the American empire is being taken to the breaking point and instead of just walking away as we did in Vietnam with no "falling dominoes" or other long-term consequences, the Iraq war will leave in it's wake an aroused and vastly increased jihadist movement, which will counter any attempt for American dominance in the Middle East for the foreseeable future and might even bring the taste of terror once again to the shores of America.

Maybe someday we'll learn the lessons of history. Maybe someday we'll learn the limits to military power. Maybe someday we'll have a government of, for and by the people ..... but given our history, I doubt it.

2006-09-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

My two year diet study.

In June of 2005 I was invited, along with thousands of other Boston/Cambridge residents, to participate in a diet study that was being conducted by Harvard University.

I thought I was in pretty good shape, although I had a slight paunch and was carrying 195 pounds on my 5' 11'' frame. I was actively engaged in an exercise program at my local health club and I also played singles tennis at least three times per week. But I decided that I would like to lose some weight and volunteered for what they called "The Poundslost Study."

I met with the staff of the study in a building in Boston near Fenway Park. A young woman took my blood pressure and asked numerous questions about my health and what, if any, prescription drugs I was taking. I later discovered that people who were taking anti-depressant drugs or who had any serious health problems were not accepted into the program. Since I was free of those issues, I was passed onto a female dietician who evaluated me and made sure I knew what I was getting myself into.

Clearly the diet I would go on would be a draconian departure from what I was used to. Like most Americans, I was raised with the belief that I could eat anything I wanted, anytime I wanted and in any quantities I wanted. Which is why I was about 25 pounds overweight for my height or according to the terms of the study, my BMI was too high for my height (Body Mass Index).

The dietician also told me that the study would involve frequent tests of my blood, urine, bone density and blood pressure over the two year period that was involved. They also wanted me to attend a couple of one hour meetings every month with a dozen fellow study-participants and a dietician who would be assigned to the group.

Let's say I had the time and the interest to enter the study and was intrigued to see if I actually could lose weight. Shortly after agreeing to participate, I showed up at the designated time at Brigham & Women's hospital for the battery of tests that would be performed. While there I ran into a young woman who had been in the study for about six months. I asked her how she had found it and she was very upbeat and positive. She had lost 20 pounds and was feeling great. I asked her if she had given up drinking alcoholic beverages during the course of the study and she said, "No." She drank an occasional beer or glass of wine and found that it was easily incorporated into the diet. This was good news to me as I dearly loved my glass of wine or bottle of beer with dinner!

My wife was supportive of my decision to enter the study but many of my friends and family were somewhat skeptical and some wondered why I wanted to do it at all. The truth was I had never tried to diet before in my life, but I felt that with Harvard medical conducting this study and with all the structure that was built into the plan, I would have a chance to get down to my optimum BMI and enjoy better health and so I plunged ahead.

The diet I was assigned to was called, "the moderate fat, average protein diet." Once I saw the actual amount of meat, fish or cheese I could eat each day it sure didn't seem like the "average protein" of any American that I ever knew. Basically they wanted me to increase my fat consumption and lower my protein consumption, which was precisely the opposite of what I had previously been doing. They actually wanted me to limit my meat or fish intake each day to about 5 ounces!

A can of tuna is about four ounces, so if I ate that for lunch as I had in the past, then I would be left with 1 ounce of chicken or steak for dinner! Hardly an appetizing situation if you know what I mean! And let me clarify the fat intake too. There is what they call "good fat" (gf) and "bad fat" (bf). Gf are things like olive or other oils (canola, peanut, etc.), avocados, nuts and even mayonnaise and margarine, provided they are free of trans-fats.

I was also to be limited to a calorie range of 1800 to 1900 calories per day. In addition, I was provided with access to the Poundslost webpage so I could enter my actual food consumptions on a daily basis. This website not only showed you at the end of each day how many calories you had consumed, but it also showed whether you were meeting your goals of the key macro-nutrients, such as protein, fat and carbohydrates. In addition I was asked to record how much time I spent on vigorous exercise each day and to weigh myself daily and report that figure as well.

At first I found this to not only require a significant amount of time, but it was tedious as well, but as I got into the program and started to see results, I could see how all of these things worked together to promote the discipline required to make a success of the diet and how they enabled me to see the results of what I ate on a daily basis.

The fact was that from the first week into the program my weight began to drop and it reinforced my commitment to the program and to myself.

In my next installment of this subject I will talk more about my diet, my exercise and the group meetings that followed.

2006-08-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

liblip

2006-08-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

If a society's communication system is broken, what does that mean?

By communication I don't mean our telephones and text messaging systems, I mean the way we get the information that we need in order to function as citizens of a democracy.

Recently I just finished a book called, "The Creation of the Media," by Paul Starr. It traced the rise of various media from before the revolutionary war in America. It compared the development of the press in America, England, France and to a much lesser extent, other European countries. What was interesting was that America had not only the most wide open press or newspapers in the 18th century, but the government actually gave the fledgling industry a hand by shipping newspapers through the mails free of charge. De Tocqueville was amazed to find newspapers out in the backwoods of America when he visited early in the 19th century. By comparison, European newspapers either did not exist or were found only in the major cities but not in the country towns. And the cost of newspapers was usually affordable to Americans, while European newspapers were too expensive for all but the aristocracy or gentry.

But, whereas European newspapers were heavily censored and rigidly controlled by their governments, the American press was freewheeling and attacked any and all politicians with indiscriminate gusto. As America and the world evolved their communication systems, to telegraph, telephone, radio and TV, the Americans always seem to favor private ownership of these systems with some government control, while the Europeans favored government ownership and complete control of these systems.

It is against this backdrop that sometime in the late 20th century the American media, disappointingly and tragically, became broken. It ceased to be the once vaunted "free press," and became instead the sycophantic, profiteer and cowardly "mainstream media" or the dreaded "MSM."

This came about for several reasons. One is that the broadcast media depends on government approval in order to keep their invaluable licenses. The license gives each network or station permission to use the public airwaves, which are represented by some 1500 frequencies on the broadband spectrum. Thus whenever any political party controls the White House, the Congress and the FCC, broadcasters become exquisitely sensitive to the wishes of the government. In addition, virtually all of the media depend on advertising which comes primarily from the large corporations in America. Here again, the media, especially the broadcast media, will bend over backwards not to offend whatever the prevailing view is of "decency" or what their advertisers might feel is "unpatriotic" or "anti-free market."

And so the news has become sanitized and sterilized and offered like pablum to babies, instead of the unadulterated facts for adults that it should be. And a society whose communication system is broken like this can no longer function as a democracy. The people elect politicians who don't truly represent them, because they never got all the information necessary to make the correct decision. And whether it's war or fiscal priorities or any other important issue, the people will continue to be misled and under-informed, until finally the society breaks down and new leadership is brought in to attempt a recovery.

The bible says that in the beginning there was "the word," in essence, information. Without it we as a society cannot function and yet we have allowed our government and our corporate elite to "shoot the messenger (media)" whenever they don't like the message! If the media continue to offer only messages that those in power want us to hear it will mean the death of democracy in America, which will be the death of America.

2006-03-21T06:57:00.000-08:00

But the question is....

While I can understand the depth of the anger and dissatisfaction with the Bushboy regime, it should be apparent that they are the symptom of what is wrong in America and not the entire cause.

The question is how can the USA with all it's wonderful ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights behave so inhumanely and despicably?

And it's not just this current administration. Nixon and LBJ are responsible for millions of needless deaths in Vietnam and previous to that we had American atrocities in the Philippines and previous to that the Mexican War, just to name a few.

The question is how can our government act with such disregard for human life and how is it the American people can be taken along for this ride into hell time and time again without being aware of it.

It took quite a while for the American people to realize that the Vietnam war was a horrific waste and they seem to have come to that conclusion about Iraq, three years too late. Why is it we allow the government and the always complicity mass media to stampede us into senseless war after war, leaving us with moral and financial burdens that grow more onerous all the time?

And my answer is that we have been sold the wrong societal paradigm. Which is another way of saying that we have been inculcated with the belief that our economic and political system is the best there is and any other is either inferior or a devious threat to our own.

This permits us to kill innocent people so we can bring them "democracy" or the "free market system" or some other iconic shibboleth that has currency with masses. Forget the fact that democracy has been severely compromised in the USA itself, what with gerrymandering and dubious elections and that our capitalist system favors the rich corporations over struggling individuals more and more.

May I suggest that the questions we should be asking are: what kind of a society do we want to have and what kind of a people do we want to be?

If the answer is a society based on freedom, justice and humanitarianism, which are the ostensible values of our founding documents, then we have allowed ourselves to be grievously misled by our so called "governments" of the past few decades.

If and when we ever get to the point where there is a national dialogue about the limits to profiteer and war, perhaps there will be hope for a free and democratic America.

2005-12-19T17:37:00.000-08:00

BIG BROTHER BUSHBOY

After creating a litany and a legacy of horrors for the American people, from the looting of trillions of dollars from their US Treasury for his rich friends to inventing a war in Iraq to Abu Ghraib to Plamegate to his Katrina hurricane neglect, we now learn that Bushboy was spying on Americans since 9/11, and he didn't even bother to get a warrant for his wiretaps or to advise appropriate congressional committees about what he was doing!

This "I am above the law," attitude by Bushboy has been apparent all his life. He didn't take a physical in the military when required to do so. Anyone else would have been court martialed but thanks to his daddy, who was a congressman at the time, Bushboy's refusal to obey a lawful military order was ignored. After bankrupting three companies, Bushboy was made a corporate officer for Harken Energy and when they ran into a cash flow problem and it looked as though their stock would tank, Bushboy who was privy to this information, committed the crime of insider trading by selling his Harken stock and not reporting the sale in the required 30 days to the SEC.

This flauting of the law was also apparent with the outing of a CIA agent because Bushboy was angry with her husband who dared to question a lie Bushboy had told about "yellowcake" being purchased by the arch-villain, Saddam.

Bushboy doesn't know or care about the law and he appointed a fawning, foolish Attorney General who rubber stamps Bushboy's legal ignorance, by misleading him about the US obligation to observe the Geneva Accords and to torture prisoners with impunity.

Clearly the Bushboy record begs for impeachment and the unauthorized snooping on American citizens without judicial or congressional oversight makes it imperative that even this corrupt and dissolute Gooper Congress act to re-assert the separation of powers and to defend the US Constitution that they swore to uphold.

But the liklihood is that Bushboy's doublespeak will once again obfuscate the issue and he will, once again, get away with violating the law and America becomes the banana republic Bushboy and the Gooper party have conspired to create.

2005-11-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

America's enemies within!

While much is made of those who questioned the need for America to go to war in Iraq and while polls often show that Americans think Bushboy and the Goopers are "better" at defending America from terrorism or military threats, even as Bushboy sinks in the polls regarding his integrity or competence, the truth is that America cannot be defeated by an outside enemy.

We spend more money on "Defense" than all the other nations combined. We have more nuclear weapons than anyone with the most sophisticated and inexorable delivery systems. Aside from a surprise nuclear attack from some huge foreign power like China or Russia, America cannot be challenged militarily anywhere in the world.

The reason the Goopers malign those who dissent from their warmongering policies is because it works. Fear, as Machiavelli noted, is a far more reliable motivator than anything else, and when it comes to exploiting baseless fears for political advantage, the Goopers are in a class by themselves.

America cannot be defeated by an outside enemy but America as we have known it, is being destroyed by the same Goopers who would scare Americans silly with their fictitious threats and straw man enemies.

America once meant a capitalist system with a reasonable amount of competition to provide consumers with good products and services at a fair price. It also meant employers offering healthcare insurance and decent pensions for benefits. It also meant a democratic system of government where even though the Democrats were the dominant party in Congress and the White House, the Republicans were allowed to participate in the drafting of legislation and their opinions were considered before final passage.

America once meant a mass media that was not the abject servant of the corporations and where religious orthodoxy was not forced down the throats of all regardless of their beliefs.

America once meant a growing and vibrant middleclass and educational possibilities for the young to advance themselves and an abiding respect for the environment.

America once meant fiscal responsibility and an occasional balanced budget.

With the advent of the Reagan administration and the Contract on America much of that changed for the worse. And the Bushboy regime has been the final coup de grace to American fairness, decency and Constitutional government.

We now make pre-emptive war and torture our prisoners in violation of the Geneva Accords and other treaties to which we are signatories. We now waste hundreds of billions of dollars on war, Defense and "no bid contracts" with corporations that are criminal cronies of the current administration. Fiscally America has seen record deficits under Bushboy leading to what many experts like Robert Rubin call, "Unsustainable debt leading to a day of reckoning!"

The press has gone from "watch-dog" of government to it's "lap-dog," while the News Divisions are completely subordinated to the corporate whims.

The middleclass shrinks, the rich get richer, the education system deteriorates along with the environment and democracy hangs in the balance.

And why has all this happened to America?

The answer is short, simple and politically unmentionable: It is the vast rightwing conspiracy of the Goopers, the Military Industrial complex, the Religious Right and assorted other radicals and nutcases like the NRA, that have banded together to scare Americans into thinking that they are America's saviors.

But it's a cruel hoax. The rightwing in America is our worst and most insideous enemy within.

2005-11-14T15:50:00.000-08:00

The Bushboy regime: Not a government!

According to the Declaration of Independence, "government is instituted amongst men" to provide, among other things, for the common defense and to maintain domestic tranquillity. The Declaration goes on to say that when the government no longer serves these purposes, it is the right of the people to "alter or abolish it."

By any reasonable measure the Bushboy regime has failed to provide any of the above and deserves to be "altered" as in impeachment or abolished, as in the election of 2006 where every Republican in Congress who is running should be removed from office.

The waste of American blood and treasure by these depraved morons in the White House is appalling enough, but in addition, they continue to demand more tax cuts for their rich cronies, they continue to allow the trashing of the environment for profiteering corporations, and they continue to appoint corrupt incompetents to the federal bench and to head up federal agencies.

It's time for a new generation of Americans to make their own declaration of independence from a collection of criminals and cretins who not only can't run a government but couldn't care less about it anyway.

The Bushboy regime has been about "getting mine!" Consider the string of bloodsuckers that have attached themselves to the veins of the American Treasury: Halliburton, Bechtel, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Mike Brown, Bill Frist, Tom Delay and Bushboy and Cheneychins, themselves.

They are all getting rich while America's middleclass is stuck with their wars and their debts. It's well past time to remove these thugs and fools from office and bring back real government to America!

2005-11-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

2005-10-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

LIBERAL LIMERICKS FOR LIBBY

(1)

Scooter Libby worked for Uriah Veep

So dedicated he wouldn't sleep

'till lies were told

lethal and bold

to the media who he drove like sheep.

(2)

Scooter Libby has no fear of the Special Prosecutor

Certain the Gooper Party will be his interlocutor

he leaked and lied

And soldiers died

Now Bushboy leads as his "Great Exonerator!"

(3)

Scooter Libby lies smoothly like a film of pond scum

He lies to reporters, special prosecutors or any chum

He does it for VP Dick

or the Whitehouse hick

And for either of them - he would do it ad infinitum!

(4)

Scooter Libby met Judy Miller for lunch

Bushboy's enemies deserved a low punch

He felt she'd report

His Iraq war distort

So he divulged classified material on a hunch !!!

(5)

How much Gooper corruption can there be?

Consider Frist and Delay and Rove and Libby

it's wide and deep

a national creep

From Ohio to Kentucky to the west coast sea.

2005-10-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

THE VAST CRYPTO- FASCIST CONSPIRACY

I know the title sounds looney and over the top, but the reality is that since the fall of the USSR, capitalism has surged worldwide and now is with a few exceptions, the economic ideology of the world.

Capitalism with sufficient restraints to keep it from eating it's young, is a workable system and perhaps even a preferred system of economic distribution of goods, services and rewards, but the capitalism that has prevailed since communism's decline, is nothing less than a predatory beast that demands total belief and benefits the very few at the expense of everyone else.

The problem with the Wal-Mart model of capitalism that has emerged since the end of the Cold War is everything we thought we had progressed from since the 19th century. Child labor, exploited labor, no labor unions allowed, disregard for the "external costs" of the degradation of the environment or public health, war for hegemonic control of resources (i.e., oil), and the concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands, while the middleclass erodes and the poor increase alarmingly.

Americans are particularly inculcated with the belief system that capitalism (as it is currently being practiced) is the "only" system that can work and even more, any questioning of it suggests someone who is either a socialist, a terrorist or not in control of their faculties.

This is re-inforced daily in our media. The global corporations could not do what they do to the other people of the world without the US government's sanction and the tacit and perfunctory endorsement of their methods in the mass media.

And so while people are paid a pittance in China, Mexico, the Phillipines, etc.... the few who run the Wal-Marts and the Nikes of the world grow obscenely rich. Meanwhile jobs are shipped out of the USA to third world countries or poor countries like those mentioned above while the US government assists these corporations by allowing them to deduct costs associated with the removal of American jobs.

Over the past 40 years, the vast rightwing conspiracy has sought to takeover the media through ownership or intimidation and they have succeeded. They have sought to dismantle the "New Deal" programs that enabled a middleclass to grow and they are succeeding there too. They also seek to discredit anyone who disagrees or dissents from their rightwing ideology of profits before people and their callous disregard for civil rights, even if they are enunciated in the US Constitution.

This vast fascist conspiracy has laced the US court system with judges who are their allies and adherents. They will deny rights to most, except those rich corporations who are part of the new ruling oligarchy of plutocrats.

Thus over the past four decades, this rightwing cabal, led by Richard Mellon Scaife and others, has converted the mass media into a sycophantic propaganda organ that will play any tune the fascists dictate. The government(s), be they state or federal have grown more "conservative," which is the code-word for the fascists amongst us. And whether it's the incompetency, deceit and greed of Bushboy and Cheneychins at the executive level, or the selling of legislation to the highest bidders by Frist and DeLay in the Congress or the rebukes to settled law by the ever more "conservative" Supreme Court (which put Bushboy in office to begin with), the citizens of America have been taken over by a vast fascist conspiracy and most don't have a clue, because they have been so indoctrinated and misinformed by their so called "free press" and the depraved Goopers who have been elected to office.

The only ray of light in this dark era to which we have sunk is the Internet. Perhaps, as people get to speak in their own right about what is happening in their lives or as they relate by word of mouth, so to speak, what they are finding out or hearing from the few real journalists or journals who bravely fight against this fascist regime, we will be able to overcome the institutional complicity of the mass media and break the chains of ignorance and fear that the vast fascist conspiracy has fastened on America today.

If not, "1984" has arrived, a little behind schedule but every bit as vile and evil as advertised.

2005-10-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

Goopers are insidious.

They prove it daily and naturally their questionnaire, "Ask America" is pure perfidy in camoflauge. Just look at how they pose questions concerning the subject of "Education:"

"Do you agree with President Bush's reform proposal of flexibility and local control that will reduce red tape and give states and local schools unprecedented flexibility in using federal funds to produce results?"

"No." I answered because the question is pure propaganda. The fact is many states want nothing to do with Bushboy's "No child left behind," fiction because it mandates certain actions that these school districts must take but does not provide sufficient funds to do it. In addition, Bushboy's so called "proposal" doesn't address the need to hire more teachers or to improve school infrastructure. It focuses almost exclusively on "testing." So instead of schools teaching a variety of subject matter to a reasonable degree of depth, it will instead be teaching a limited program that focuses on passing a test. That's not EDUCATION! That's "test passing" techniques.

"Should states be encouraged to develop methods to test teachers regularly to ensure they are proficient in the subject matter they teach?"

Now this seems like a slam-dunk, "Yes," which is what I answered but in the hands of the devious Goopers it probably has some nefarious possibilities to disqualify teachers who refuse to teach some of the mythological crap they want considered "science," like the Intelligent Design or some other such pseudo-religious drivel.

"Should a federally funded voucher system be established to allow inner city parents to move their children from failing public schools to better performing schools?"

Now this is as insidious and deceitful as a question can be. I answered "No, because a voucher system will destroy the public school system and result in a private school system funded by federal vouchers, where segregation of the schools would be perfectly legal. They also associate public schools with failing while sneaking in the false idea that other schools perform better. The truth is that some private schools perform better than public schools and some don't. But if the voucher system becomes law, we can kiss the public school system good bye and those "inner city parents" that the Goopers are so concerned about (make that black parents), will get sold out and have to use their vouchers to set up schools in their own neighborhoods with less funds than they have now.

"What do you see as the major cause of the decline in America's education?"

The choices the Goopers offered as response were: Complacent parents, Not enough discipline, Not enough money, Too much bureaucracy, Poor teachers, Crowded classrooms, No opinion and Other. I chose "Not enough money, Crowded classrooms and in the "Other" slot I put "Segregated schools."

According to Jonathan Kozol, who I believe is the foremost national expert on America's education problems, wealthy neighborhoods are able to afford schools that have a comfortable infrastructure (heated in winter, air-conditioned in the summer), have a sensible teacher to pupil ration and have adequate supplies of books, computers, and sundry items that enhance and improve the education experience. Therefore enough money will buy a decent education system. It will also reduce crowded classrooms.

And as Kozol writes about in his latest book, "The Shame of the Nation," segregation today is as pernicious and widespread as it was in America at the time of the Brown vs Board of Education decision by the US Supreme Court.

Which is why the Goopers are pushing vouchers, which will insure legal immunity to segregated schools and "separate and unequel" education systems. This will waste the enormous talent pool of our youth and create racial divisions that will plague America for decades to come!

2005-10-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

Onward Christian (and other ) soldiers, citizens and other interested parties as I continue my unexpurgated analysis of the Gooper "Ask America" questionnaire.

Actually calling it a "questionnaire" is falling for the Gooper scam. It really is nothing more than another turgid piece of propaganda, sent out by the Goopers to Americans all over the country, at taxpayer expense thanks to Congressional franking priviliges.

The next victim of the Gooper attack was Social Security, Medicare and Healthcare as the questions will show:

"Do you agree with President Bush that it is imperative to modernize and restore Social Security?"

I answered, "No," even though I do believe that SS should be modernized in accordance with recommendations Paul Krugman, economics professor at Princeton University has suggested, which of course are designed to sustain SS for it's recipients well into the next century, while Bushboy's plan is a devious plot to wreck it.

"Do you support President Bush's proposal to allow individuals to choose to invest a certain portion of their Social Security money in order to build a stronger retirement fund?"

I answered, "No," as the question has so many absurd presumptions in it and is such a fiscal lie that it really is an insult to anyone asked it. The fact is there can be no "investing of a portion of SS money" without either reducing benefits to current recipients or by causing the federal government to borrow even more money from China to cover even bigger deficits than the record ones we are now incurring!!! And the idea that a "stronger retirement fund" will result is nothing but specious speculation. Investing doesn't include any guarantees that the returns will be better and they could be worse.

"Do you feel it is imperative that Congress act today to ensure the financial stability of the Medicare program?"

I answered, "Yes," although I have no confidence this Gooper Congress will ever or could ever act to financially stabilize a child's piggy bank. The fact is that these same Goopers passed a Medicare bill last year that was supposed to provide "prescription drug benefits" to senior citizens. The cost, we were told would be under $400 billion over the next decade. Bushboy and the Goopers knew the cost would be significantly higher and they lied about it. They even threatened the Medicare Actuary with loss of his job if he revealed the higher figure!!! On top of all that, the Gooper Congress denied Medicare the simple market mechanism of seeking bids for various kinds of prescription drugs, and mandated that Medicare must accept whatever price any of the Pharmaceutical giants chose to charge for any of the medications purchased!!! This is obvious Congressional corruption and collusion with Big Pharma to rip off the US taxpayers again!!! Goopers can't be trusted. Their greed is always their paramount concern!

"Do you think that all costs for prescription drugs should be covered by Medicare?"

I answered, "No," thinking about all the fat-assed Goopers who would be ordering Viagra and seeking other cialis miracles to enhance their sexual prowess. And beyond that, I don't think every prescription drug needs to be covered, especially those that may not be necessary for a person's health but only to boost their vanity.

"Are you pleased with the quality of healthcare you currently receive?"

I answered, "Yes," although I wish it were less expensive. I happen to live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, right near some of the best hospitals and medical schools in the country. I am on Medicare and pay for supplementary coverage through Blue Cross. My total monthly outlay is $200, which is not too bad compared to what others must pay, but it's still a lot for someone without a steady income anymore and of course my concern is how high and how fast this cost will grow. Bushboy and the Goopers instituted a 17% increase in Medicare last year and they are bumping it another 13% this year. That's an average of 15%/year. At that rate, my cost will double in six or seven years!!!

"Do you agree that there should be reasonable limits on punitive damages on the amount of money patients and trial lawyers can collect when suing their doctors or HMO's?"

I "Disagreed." The question is another phony set up, making "patients" and "trial lawyers" evil perpetrators, while the Goopers pimp for their patron corporations that actually caused the harm. The term "reasonable limits" is totally subjective and juries should be allowed to determine what each case is worth.

"How much of a role should the federal government have in an individual's healthcare?"

I answered, "Major Role," and not "Limited Role" or "No role at all." The fact is America needs to have healthcare run as efficiently as possible and the current hodge-podge of Insurance companies, HMOs and the restrictions on doctors and medical professionals is a waste of money (about 30% of every dollar) and it denies over 40 million people any healthcare insurance at all.

America spends 14% of our gross national product on our flawed healthcare system. Other industrial nations spend 10% or less and they cover all their people!

The government clearly could takeover and run healthcare as efficiently as Medicare has been run. This would be a vast improvement over what we currently have, but it won't happen because the Goopers and their patron corporate cronies in the Insurance, Pharmaceutical and Medical businesses will be denied their profiteering and they will raise the false spectre of "socialized medicine" to scare the American people back into the unsustainable system that we have today!!!

2005-10-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

The next questions of the "Ask America" questionnaire sent to me by the Goopers dealt with the economy as follows:

"How confident do you feel that America's economy will continue to grow stronger in the next six months?" I put "Not too confident," as a response. Noticing that the question perpetuates the lie that the economy has "grown stronger" since Bushboy has been in office.

"Which of the following factors most adversely effects our economy?" And the choices are: Burdensome taxes, Gas prices, the Stock Market, Questionable corporate governance, Severe government regulations, Threat of Terrorism, Growth of Government spending, Other.

I chose "Questionable corporate governance," thinking about what allows corporations to ship US jobs overseas, while claiming tax deductions for the costs in the process. I also wrote into the "Other" selection, "Congressional corruption," that allows stifling business monopolies to grow in exchange for "donations" or graft.

"President Bush and the Republicans in Congress have passed historic tax cuts. Do you agree that additional tax cuts are needed to spur the economy and relieve the tax pressure on US citizens?" Talk about absolute bullshit!!!!

Naturally I checked off the "No," selection. What are these idiots thinking? We are running record deficits, we are at war at the cost of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, we have Katrina, Rita and now Wilma to recover from and these fools are talking about additional tax cuts????? The greed and stupidity of the Goopers boggles the mind!!!

"Do you agree that a top priority should be making President Bush's $1.3 trillion tax cut permanent?"

I could only answer "No!" But that wasn't nearly as emphatic as I would have liked. With the explosion of unsustainable debt due to Bushboy's tax cuts, the sane solution would be to rescind the tax cuts, certainly not make them permanent!

"Do you support eliminating the Death Tax?"

More word games to promote the Gooper looting of the US Treasury. The Death Tax was previously known as the estate tax. It falls on less than 1% of the population and it taxes assets that often have not been taxed before (contrary to the lies Gooper stooges in the media make).
This tax could fund the shortfall projected in Social Security in 40 some odd years and the rich kids who inherit Daddy and/or Mommy's wealth would never even miss the the sliver taken from their huge bequest.

"Do you believe the nation's tax code should be completely overhauled and streamlined?"

I answered "No," in light of the fact that what "overhauled" and "streamlined" means to the Goopers, probably will mean further screwing of the middleclass for the benefit of the rich.

"Do you agree that Congress must provide more incentives for work and entrepreneurship to promote job creation?"

Once again I answered "No," with the same doubts that "incentives" and "job creation" mean anything to Goopers except allowing businesses to violate the environment or exploit workers, while the Gooper Congress pockets more "donations" for their "enabling legislation."

My overall sense of this section of the questionnaire is the same as what came before. It promotes lies and myths and asks questions in the context of a surreal world. To be promoting further tax cuts, instead of repealing the ones Bushboy recklessly initiated is so fiscally irresponsible and so deviously corrupt, that it is a glaring example of why these people must be removed from power.

The economy is in serious malaise. We are borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars each year from the Chinese and Japanese, which isn't good in the short run and can be disastrous in the long run.

What is most striking about the Gooper questions and proposals is that they have no concern for the future or future generations. It's too bad the adolescents, toddlers and the new-borns of today can't vote, because if they understood what Bushboy & the Goopers were doing to them, there isn't a 12 year old or below who would vote these clowns and criminals into office!

2005-10-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

As follow up to my previous blog, I continue the review of the "Ask America" questionnaire that was, mysteriously or inadvertently, sent to me by the Republican party. I think what is revealing is not so much what they ostensibly want to ask but what they are selling.

For example: The next series of questions supposedly are about the threat of illegal immigration and terrorism, but they seem more like stoking and exploiting these fears for future wars or restrictions of civil rights.

"Should resident aliens and all non-citizens be required to carry an ID card issued by the Immigration Service while they are in the U.S.?"

"Do you think our government is doing enough to secure America's borders against foreign terrorists?"

"Do you believe that all foreigners within the U.S. whose visas have expired should be deported?"

To the above three questions I answered, Yes, No and No.

The reason I said yes to the first question is because when I travel abroad I usually have my passport with me at all times, and I wouldn't mind leaving it back at my hotel if I had an ID card issued by the country I was visiting. It would confirm my status and would not require me to carry the passport.

I also know that Bushboy has reduced the rate of increases for border patrols and while I know the vast majority of illegals are just poor people who come to the U.S. looking for work, I'd like to think our borders aren't so porous that al Qaeda could march a regiment across them anytime they wish, which is what I believe is the current situation.

As to deporting all those with expired visas that seems very draconian if in fact feasible. Each visa expiration should be reviewed by the Immigration Service with extensions being offered to those who present compelling cases.

The last question in this series is the real point of all this and it's not so much the question as the answers they offer.

"What is of greatest concern to you and your family right now?"

The first answer offered is: "The threat of terrorism," which dove-tails neatly with the fear mongering of the previous questions about immigrants and resident aliens. The next answer is: "The health of the nation's economy," which is what I chose and they also offered "Other," as an answer with a line of about 2 inches to write in another concern.

I picked the nation's economy because I truly believe that Bushboy's "no tax and spend" policies are fiscally ruinous and that the war in Iraq and the recovery costs of Katrina are serious additional burdens to our already unsustainable debt levels.

But what I believe the Goopers are selling with these questions is fear. Fear of immigrants, fear of terrorism, fear of the unknown, while positioning themselves and Bushboy as the anti-dote or solution to these problems.

In reality, Bushboy and the Goopers have been in control since shortly after 9/11 and all the problems of terrorism and anti-American animus have gotten worse due to the invasion of Iraq, which has acted like an accelerent to a fire and due to the horrors of Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and the many innocent deaths inflicted by the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan, which demonstrates that REPUBLICANS and their policies are the real problem!

Unfortunately the term "free press" has become a euphemism for a craven and sycophantic mass media in America and so the gross and ignominious failures of Bushboy and the Goopers receive little or no attention. Afterall, it's not as though Bushboy was caught in an extra-marital sex act, he's only killing innocent people and looting the hell out of the treasury!

I will have more questions and answers in my next blog.

2005-10-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

Somehow I was picked by the Republican Party to respond to their "Ask America," questionaire.

I think my selection was random but it might have been because I was a business owner or because I live in an area where real estate values have grown. In any event, since there are so many excellent bloggers who are covering the crimes and misdeeds of Bushboy, Cheneychins, Rover, Libby and other miscreant Goopers, to say nothing of Judy Miller and the whole Plamegate affair, I thought I would share the questions of "Ask America" and my answers to them with my "vast" audience.

To begin with they ask for a donation to the Gooper Party. If you have read any of my previous blogs you know that there is no chance they would get spit from me! So I just checked off the box asking for a copy of the completed "Ask America" survey once it is done.

Then they start with the following misleading question. "Do you support President Bush in his efforts to wipe out terrorism worldwide even if this war goes on for many years?"

The possible answers allowed are: "Yes, No and No Opinion." Naturally I answered "No." But what bugs me about this question is that it implies that the "war" has a possibility of wiping out terrorism, when in fact, it doesn't. Also what war are they taking about? Iraq? Afghanistan? Both? Or are they talking about "war" in general and do they want our approval for perpetual war anywhere and everywhere for perpetual profits for the Halliburtons of the world?

The next question confirms my previous suspicion. "Do you think American troops should pursue terrorists and their leaders even if it means going into countries where we are not invited?"

In other words, they want sanction for pre-emptive, perpetual war anywhere Bushboy deems terrorists are hiding. Give me a break! Considering how Bushboy scammed the Congress into pre-approval of his Iraq invasion, you would have to be a fool to give this chickenhawk president and the chickenhawk Goopers any encouragement for war, because they will spill the blood of everyone's kids but theirs, while spending billions of dollars more that we don't have, while leaving an even bigger debt for future generations to be burdened with. And I doubt they will pursue any terrorists who aren't residing in oil rich countries so I answered, "No."

The next question tries to elicit how much fear of terrorism is out there. "How concerned are you that we potentially face more terrorism within the United States and will it directly impact your family?"

My answer here was "Very concerned," not "Somewhat" or "Not very concerned, " which were the alternatives. Because I live in the Boston area and have family in New York City and Los Angeles, which have both been prime targets of previous terrorist attacks.

Next they ask, "How confident are you that the Department of Homeland Security will be able to keep America safe from future terrorist attacks?"

Are they kidding me? After Katrina? After the incompetent crony appointments to Homeland and FEMA? After Bushboy's mismanagement of everything he's touched? Naturally I answered, "Not very confident."

"Some critics say that in tracking down potential foreign terrorists, the FBI and other investigative agencies are infringing on individual's Constitutional rights. Do you think this is reasonable if it leads to exposing more terrorists in our country?" is their next loaded question.

My answer was, "No," because I don't know how many terrorists have actually been exposed due to Patriot Act infringements of our civil rights. Second, if there have been any, I don't think it's worth suspending the bill of rights, which is the essence of "freedom" that Bushboy & the Goopers pontificate so much about. We didn't do it during World War II or Korea or Vietnam and I don't think it's a good idea to start now, especially since the One Party that is running all our government branches, resembles Big Brother too much for my liking as it is.

There are many other questions that are asked and I will be going through them in future blogs, but I think it's apparent that these are "leading questions" where the Goopers are seeking to persuade even more than they are trying to solicit opinions about policy decisions that Bushboy and the Gooper Congress have already made. I think that this questionnaire also is an indication that the Goopers are nervous about what people think of them and Bushboy and are trying to see how much trouble they are in.

If Plamegate indictments of White House aides occur next week, they won't need a questionnaire to know that the answer is, "Plenty!!!"

2005-10-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

Goopers are corrupt, and that's all there is to that
They lie, cheat and steal, while smugly growing fat
Wasting blood and treasure
Slaking greedy pleasure
Taking bribes, legalizing crimes by congressional fiat!

The stench of Republican (Gooper) corruption is so pervasive that it extends to all branches of the the US government and to many state governments as well.

The litany of Gooper miscreants is long and growing. To the indictments against Tom DeLay, we now have the SEC subpoena of Bill Frist's stock records. Then there was the arrest of a Mr. Safavian who was previously Bushboy's handpicked purchasing agent for the US government, who was connected to the nefarious Jack Abramoff (FEMA infamous Mike Brown's college room-mate), who is also being investigated for corrupting Gooper government officials, which is like saying he corrupted the morals of porn stars. In addition, there's the Rove/Libby/Plame treason matter that hangs like the sword of Damocles over the Bushboy mal-administration as we wait with baited breath to see what, if any charges, are brought against the unscrupulous "righthand men" of Bushboy & Cheneychins.

And as you go around the states you find a Gooper Kentucky governor being shunned even by his own party for his conduct. The elaborate "Coingate scandal" in Ohio where Goopers plundered the state's pension funds continues to be investigated and then there's the Terminator gropinator in California who endorsed dubious advertising in muscle magazines, which he was subsequently forced to rescind.

On top of all this there's the continuing "no-bid contracts" to corporate cronies like Halliburton, the missing tens of billions of $$$ from the Iraq war funding and the relentless efforts of the Goopers to enrich the rich with more tax breaks and more government subsidies, while simultaneously making life harder for the average citizen with stiffer bankruptcy laws and negligent indifference to the rising healthcare cost crisis!

Meanwhile our vaunted "free press" continues to flood us with distractions to our prurient interests in the midst of this Gooper crime spree! Why is it that items about missing young women or celebrity sex scandals or "human interest" stories take up so much of TV "news" fare? Why isn't the threat to our democracy by these Gooper racketeers more important? Why can't they link the connections between all these Gooper operatives (DeLay-Abramoff-Norquist for example), and show the American people how they are being sold out?

Alas, corruption and depravity seem endemic to the Gooper party and since they control the government, this epidemic of misdeeds should be the LEAD STORY on all news broadcasts! But since we have a craven mass media that is owned and operated by the same corporate cronies that patronize the Goopers, the media will either ignore or cover-up the Gooper crime wave. It is then up to the American people to figure out how they are being screwed!

I'm sorry to say that considering the track record of the American people, who have elected so many Goopers to Congress and Bushboy to the WH recently, any optimism about their judgement would be a surreal and premature expectation!!!

2005-10-12T13:20:00.000-07:00

Bushboy is our worst halloween-nightmare-fright
This incompetent fraud can't do anything right
He wants volunteers for
His fraudulent Iraq war
So why doesn't he send his own kids there to fight?!?

The last time I checked, one member of Congress had an offspring in the military actually doing service in Iraq. Which reminds me of the book, "Johnny Got His Gun," by Dalton Trumbo. Yes, the same Trumbo who had his life trashed by the House Unamerican Activities Committee because he refused to rat-out his fellow leftists in the Hollywood community of the 1930s.

Anyway, the book is about some poor, young bastard named Johnny, who gets sent off to war by the old farts in his government who are too old or cowardly to fight themselves. Johnny winds up losing all his limbs and his face and is just a husk of a human being, unable to communicate, trapped in a body that has been scorched and shriveled by war.

After lying helplessly in a hospital bed with nothing to do but think, and thinking only about how insane war is, Johnny figures out how to prevent wars from happening again. He decides that by tapping his head in Morse code, he can tell the world what he has discovered to stop future wars. His solution is quite simple: whenever any government orders their citizenry off to war, the citizens should take up arms, march to the seat of government and shoot those who ordered the war!

Just imagine if Bushboy thought the citizenry would be up in arms against him if he ordered a war that nobody wanted? Do you think he would go on national TV and lie about WMDs? Imagine the Congress? Filled with so many members who never faced anything more serious than whether to accept a dinner invitation from lobbyist A or lobbyist B. Would they vote for war knowing they would then be dodging bullets from their own constituents?

People taking out there own government? I know it's all too far fetched to happen. That might have worked in the 18th century with the French or in the 19th century with the Russians, but it wouldn't work in the 21st century in America!!

Which is why America will be "staying the course" in Iraq or marching off to war again, somewhere else (assuming we can afford it). And don't expect any of the politicians who promote and vote for the next war to be sending their kids into the enemy crossfire.

It will be your kids who are sent and who come home from the war scarred for life. That's if they come home at all.

2005-10-11T07:14:00.000-07:00

I am an admitted and unabashed Bushboy basher. I use the term "Bushboy" to describe our putative president out of disrespect for who he is and what he's done, and also to distinguish him from his former putative president father, who I refer to as Bushdaddy.

I consider the Bush family one of the great American plagues surpassed only by the Republican party, which I invariably refer to as "Goopers," and the rabid religious right or any other fundamentalists, who believe that any scripture supersedes the scientific method for understanding reality.

I was born and raised in a very different America than the one that exists today. Back in the 1950s the government was assumed to be the instrument and benefactor of the people. When I refer to "the people," it includes ALL the people, and not just those who can write checks for large political donations. This government being a "friend" of the people prevailed because of FDR and the many New Deal implementations that had for the first time in US history provided protections for working people in terms of working conditions, pay and the right to organize. It also meant Social Security and other benefits that helped people to help themselves.

Therein lies one of the great fallacies of the conservative ethic, which is often stated as, "God helps those who help themselves!" This shibboleth isn't found even in the sanctimonious scripture they revere so much but in the writings of Benjamin Franklin in his "Poor Richard's Almanac." If there is a God (about which I have serious doubts), then why is it He or She seems to have an arbitrary animus to the poor and down-trodden? I mean, aside from the fact that they (and their numerous children) often don't get enough to eat or suffer more than their share of disease and dysentary, divine providence has seen fit to also visit upon them floods (Katrina), tsunamis and earthquakes with lethal regularity.

Which brings me to my favorite theory as to why the world is as messed up as it is. In reality the world wasn't created by any God but by those who are the most aggressive, greediest, sociopathic and rapacious homo sapiens evolution has produced. These people are sometimes called conquerors or tyrants or demagogues or plutocrats. I prefer the term "psycho-killers." They have always taken charge of their societies (with rare exceptions). Look at history and you find that these "A (hole) type" personalities ruled the ancient world, whether it was the Pharaohs of Egypt or the Caeser's of Rome. In more modern times we have the examples of Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin or Mao.

In America today we have a depraved moron who sits in the White House as the stooge for those plutocrats who dictate what Americans will have for pay and benefits as well as for education and environment. They also will have the say-so about making war or peace. And they are often celebrated or rewarded regardless of how often their madcap schemes cause death and disaster to those lower down on the food chain.

Back in the America I grew up in I was taught several gross exaggerations. One was that we have civil rights and another was that we had a "free press." Neither is really true. But back in the fifties the "press" or Mass Media wasn't as craven or cowardly or as corporate controlled as it is today. The result was that something as laughable as a vicuna coat gratuity caused an Ike aide to resign. Today outright treason by "outing" an undercover CIA agent doesn't rate attention until indictments are served, if then!

In the weeks and months to come I will attack the "asses of evil" who have usurped power in America. I consider the Bushboy clan, the Gooper party, the rabid religious right, the craven mass media and the greedheads of big bizness to be the enemies of the people and I will elaborate and hopefully illuminate on these things in future blogs.