08/08/03 The US media has got to
just love the entrance of Schwarzenegger into the California governor's race. He's perfect for them, knows nothing about
politics, has no experience, is a Republican, pro-business
and basically when asked the details of his program will respond with superficial generalities and platitudes. All
they have to do is show his picture, movie and Hollywood
clips, and repeat Hollywood gossip. They don't have to say
a word about those complicated and boring issues. And to the extent that the media hype and tripe tabloid affects elections in favor of people like this, is one of the reasons America has such awful government. Do you think any serious candidate will get 10% the coverage he will? If one ever wondered if
Schwarzenegger was a serious candidate, how could he run in such a vehicle as this tainted and poisoned recall? If is he elected, a recall campaign against him will begin on the day after his election.
08/06/03 During a news briefing with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the US President stated, "The larger point is, and the fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to let the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations . . . ." One finally must come to the conclusion that it is past the point of lying, past the point of criminality, that this guy has no grasp of reality whatsoever. Does this
guy have a red phone? Our there still nuke missiles pointed
at other countries? It was reported at the time that they
kept an eye out, in the pentagon in the final days of Nixon's presidency, just in case he decided he didn't want to leave. Let us hope that someone is watching this guy Bush, that they are baby-sitting him every minute.
08/04/03 It is thought by some that
the right wing media tilt is a more or less recent phenomenon, when in fact the US media has for the most part always been
in certain respects controlled for political purposes. In general it has never been that difficult to determine the
identity of a country that has invaded another, from that country that was in invaded. However the US media during the Iran/Iraq war reported absolutely and without exception, for
8 years that it was Iran that invaded Iraq, when in reality
it was Iraq, no doubt with US encouragement, that invaded
Iran. This lie was repeated not only by the media itself,
but by every foreign policy wonk allowed expression. What
is true today - heaven only knows?
08/02/03 It has been reported that Gurdjieff the mystic, upon renting a château outside of Paris while doing some remodeling, came upon a hidden, something like an 800 year old wine cellar with 3 ancient empty wine bottles. Gurdjieff is said to have went out and bought the cheapest, low-grade most rotgut wine he could find, filled the ancient bottles with it, corked and sealed them with wax. He then contacted three of the most notable wine experts from Paris,
and invited them out to taste this wine, he told them he had found in this lost cellar, made hundreds of years ago by the then inhabitant monks. These experts thought this was some of the greatest wine they had ever tasted. Maybe analogous to the reason why HBO's 'The Wire' crime drama, perhaps one of the better television series produced in America, has never not
only not received a single Emmy Award but not even a single nomination.
07/31/03 One would have thought that the primary agenda of the US Green Party would be things like say global warming, ecology, animal rights, conservation, preserving the forests, pollution, ocean preservation, human population control, status economics or alternative living standards. Perusing the US national Green Party web site, one cannot find a thing about any of these topics, except in its program of 'Ten Key Values'. What one finds is the typical
progressive humanist agenda, currently sodomy, Medicare,
self-indulgence, impeachment, war in Iraq or the return of the troops. All of these issues are certainly part and parcel of the necessary politic, but one can find nothing at all about what one would have thought the Green Party was fundamentally supposed to be about. Have the progressive humanists taken over the party like they do everything else on the left, where the objective is an external dynamic of effectiveness by common denominator with the consumer majority, rather than an internal integrity of fundamental
conservatism unpopular or unknown to even its own membership?
07/29/03 For the left, concerning the upcoming California governor recall election, the best that can be done might be to vote against the recall of Davis, since it
is simply another coup attempt by the Republican Party financed by the rich. On the same ballot since no major democrats other than Davis will be running and in the event that Davis loses, the next best thing might be to vote for the Green Party candidate. This is the best chance the Green Party will get
to win a major election if they get out the vote, even though
a winner other than Davis will be spoiled goods. Since many voting electronic machines are owned by Diebold, that have
been proven to be subject to hacking and vote manipulation,
it might further be best to vote absentee - by mail.
07/27/03 The dumbest people are the 'one size fits all' ideologue idiots. To think that American style capitalism would be good or work for China, with a billion people is the height of lunacy; where on a Sunday,
city streets are so crowded with walkers that there is not
even room for a bicycle. And still to base a foreign policy
on this notion is even more ludicrous. And of course these kinds of people are found in all aspects of every kind of culture and society. Makes the complexities of life easily understood. And when they control the reins of government it
is truly a catastrophe. It ought to be illegal for them to belong to any organization that affects others lives besides their own.
07/25/03 One can assume that money is behind every foreign policy decision of the US in one-way or another. Who has a problem with North Korea, and has stirred the pot, even as the North and South Korea were beginning a process of reconciliation? Ah - suddenly Japan is interested
in arming itself with defensive missiles and perhaps Taiwan will need even more than what it already has. Do not be surprised if - how convenient - there is an increase in US
made arms sold to Asian rim countries.
07/23/03 There were some grade B movies in the fifties, which were pretty good having a certain quaintness, such as the 'The Day The Earth Stood Still', 'Them' or 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. The 'Blob' of 1958 was one of those movies, the plot being that a mass of slime comes from outer space and eats living things, and the more it eats the larger it gets. This is akin to the current administration in the White House. Everything they touch and everything that touches them turns to slime, as it grows bigger and bigger, day-by-day. The Blob is rotten to the core with slime, glop, gunk and mire, ooze, scum, contamination, corruption, crud, defilement, foulness, grime and mire. This slime is the result of dishonesty, malfeasance, misrepresentation, exploitation, fiddling, extortion, fraud, nepotism, payoff, profiteering, bribery, unscrupulousness and venality. The Blob grows and
the nearby population would be advised to flee, as the
Department of Homeland Security has failed to recognize
the danger.
07/21/03 Big money buys most US legislation through campaign contributions. The ballot initiative through signature gathering was suppose to be a means around that. So now days the rich hire petition workers to put things like their favorite charity causes on the ballot, such as the fifty cent cigarette tax called 'The California Children and Families First Initiative' promoted by an actor
worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Now they are even recalling politicians at the drop of a hat by paid signature collection. This was not the original intention of the ballot initiative. The solution it would seem, would be to outlaw the paid signature gatherer. If the people feel strong enough about something, they ought to be able to figure out how to do it out of conviction rather than money.
07/13/03 Was a story told by a
said actual witness, but whether true as the teller stated,
or an industry legend is not here known. The owner of a noted cosmetics company was having a dinner party on a Saturday
night in New York City, whining and dining a potential
hotshot executive he wished to hire. 'Round about midnight
the executive candidate said, "Why should I go to work for
you? I hear you are not a very nice guy".
"Not a nice guy. Who told you that? Why I am going to call one of my vice presidents and have him drive in from Connecticut right now, and he will tell you what a great guy I am."
07/11/03 The American thinks that they should have their cake and eat it too. This is why they so love a moron like Reagan or Bush who tells them this is true. So easy to get elected in America if one is either a liar or a moron, or probably most other democratic countries as well. The closing of the Grand Banks fishing grounds in Canada or the new study that shows that 90% of large fish in the oceans are gone, puts a lie to the whole progressive privatization juggernaut.
Without the overview of government regulation the individual, uncooperating and non-coordinating, blind-eye competitive private enterprise, both consciously and unconsciously refuses to look beyond the their own narrow self-interests. In this way they get to do what they want, which is to make the maximum amount of money they can. Especially true of the corporations whose primary interest is profit.
07/09/03 As reported in the international press, a civilian in the Iraqi street says,
"Take the oil, take all of it, but leave us in peace", after children were hit with shrapnel from an attack on a US military vehicle. Telling remark. But what do the US media repeat again and again - the company line? Something to the affect - All the violence in Iraq - no, no - it is not us. It is all the fault of Saddam Hussein, so they have raised the reward to 25 mil, and suddenly his voice has appeared on Arab TV. No, no - it
not us, it is a small number of Hussain followers and troublemakers. No, no - it is not us; it is a few renegade religious fanatics. Seems like if the above quoted civilian's statement is the average sentiment, violence will not only be
justified against the perceived American thieves, but will be required.
07/07/03 From the AP: 'Governments and companies around the world are studying ways to pump greenhouse gases -- created by power stations, oil platforms or steel mills -- into deep, porous rocks where they might be trapped for millions of years and curb a rise in temperatures.' Genetically engineered pollution eating microbes that may end up mutating into uncontrollable environmental cancer. Pump the atmosphere with crystalline dust to reflect heat back into space that does what to the weather? Just a few of the hair-brain schemes where it is not known what the long
term affects of the solution will be. They will do anything -
anything except what is the only real solution, which is to
cut both production and consumption.
07/05/03 Since 9/11 the US will have increased its defense spending from around 180 billion per annum to what may become 450 billion a year. All this money
is ostensibly because of 19 dead guys, that the FBI has finally admitted are completely unknown and unidentified. Nobody who's talking, knows who they were. And obviously it does not matter to the people at the wheels of the terror war machine. One could even surmise that the targeted terrorist enemies, as depicted by the masters of the war on terror, may be something
of an exageration. There may be reasons more than meet the eye that the military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba must be secret. But hey, the military industrial complex is doing quite
well thank you.
07/03/03 It would seem the reborn Christian US president Bush hears voices. But not just any voices. Apparently the Israeli newspaper Haaretz was given transcripts of a negotiating session between Bush, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and faction leaders from Hamas and other militant groups. Haaretz quoted Bush as saying "God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them." So there you have it - God talks to Bush. And who would have guessed. But of course Scalia probably knew, and that is why he installed Bush as president, the catholic that he is. God probably talks to him as well since his opinions seem more the interpretation of the bible than the US Constitution.
07/01/03 From the AP - "A man who admitted scheming to steal satellite television signals has been ordered to pay $180 million in restitution in $500-a-month installments — a payment plan that would take 30,000 years to fulfill. A federal judge ordered restitution Wednesday based on a formula of how much Frazier's intended victims, DirecTV and EchoStar, would have lost had the scheme succeeded." This crime was not even commited but only planned. This kind of sentence is given for the citizen stealing (or in this case attempting) from the corporations. However when the corporations steal billions from the citizens - nada, nothing, zilch. They fine the corporation and the corporation simply raises it prices. That was the true symbolism when Achcroft the US Atorney General covered the nakedness of the Lady Justice statue at the US Department of Justice. Good thing Frazier didn't intend to make a killing. Would have got life without parole.
06/29/03 If anybody should be recalling the governor of California it should be the Democrats, since it is often difficult to tell Democratic Governor Gray Davis from a Republican, as his campaign contribution war chest seems to attest. If Davis is recalled and a Republican replaces him, the Democrats should recall the new Republican governor. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. These Republicans should be made to play by their own rules. In this way Californians can have a new and improved governor every six months, whether one is needed or not. If ain't broke fix it anyway, like the deregulation of California's public energy.
06/27/03 What is the government of Cuba like? How about North Korea, Libya, China or for that matter France, Germany or any other country in the world? What are the cultural or social or political conditions in these countries? Chances are if you are an American you don't know. Chances are the powers that be do not want you to know. You are forever hearing that America is the greatest country in the world. But how is one to know if there is no comparison? If the Soviet Union used to have the Iron Curtain, the United States has a one-way telecommunications mirror. The world can see in, but when Americans try to look out, all the see is reflections of themselves.
06/25/03 It is pretty easy to predict what Fox news will do. One had to guess that the day Howard Dean announced his intention to run for president, that Fox
would do a hit piece on him, and sure enough, in only about
30 minutes of monitoring the Fox schmooze Network - it did. Trashed his Vermont health care program which he helped institute when governor there, and you could also know they would do something seamy. Then it was stated by some sop head reporter (something to the affect), {that Mrs. Dean is a doctor and will continue her practice and not join him on the campaign trail. She was probably hoping that he would have gotten this ridiculous idea of being President out of his system by now
and settle down to something serious}. This was followed by
a ha, ha, ha, which of course must be the required finish for any Democratic candidate story, which was fairly evident by
the reporter's lack of acting skills. Ditto a little later on
MSNBC with a little more substance. Dean or any Democrat for that matter will need to do what Clinton had to do, which was bypass the big media.
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