Krazee breaks self-imposed silence on John McCain

Perhaps some of you may have noticed that I have yet to make any quantitative remarks, negative or positive, about the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee John McCain this election year. And considering the penchant I have for blasting out my political opinions with reckless abandon, with special, uninhibited malice directed toward the modern-day GOP and their water carriers, that is no small feat for me.

The reason I haven't stated any personal opinions (up to this point) on McCain is twofold. One -- I actually have had a healthy, albeit begrudging, level of respect for John McCain over the years. That level of respect took into account McCain's honorable military service and Vietnam POW ordeal, his occasional warfare with his own party members in bucking some of their more pernicious legislative transgressions, and his seemingly thoughtful disinterest (until recently that is) in sucking up to the people who I believe have hijacked and thoroughly wrecked the Republican party - the fundamentalist religious right.

The second main reason I've been keeping my lip zipped about McCain is because he was the one guy back in 2000, within his own party, who saw the coming disaster that was George W. Bush and actually had the balls to openly and publicly state what he thought about the blue blood, fake Texas cowboy and corrupt oil man, which prompted him to cast his hat in the ring for the Presidency that year. Of course McCain's resultant punishment for that level of public honesty was a vicious political smear job by Bush's brain and hired hit man Karl Rove, which culminated in the horrific hatchet job they performed on the Arizona Senator in the run-up to the 2000 GOP South Carolina primary.

In the weeks prior to that pivotal 2000 South Carolina contest, KKKarl Rove and his foot soldiers blanketed the solidly conservative Republican state, gleefully spreading rumors about McCain and his wife that brought new meaning to the words cruel and slimy. Bush supporters circulated fliers at South Carolina churches labeling McCain as "the fag candidate," because McCain would not promise to ban the hiring of gays in his administration. They spread racist-tinged rumors that the McCain's adopted Bangladeshi daughter was actually John McCain's out-of-wedlock black child (yeah I know -- but these people are so fucking stupid all they know is the kid had really dark skin). They spread more rumors that McCain was a closeted gay and cheated on his wife Cindy and that Cindy was a drug addict. And the coup de grace rumor was that McCain's 5 & 1/2 year stint as a tortured POW in Vietnam had left him mentally unstable, and therefore an untrustworthy Commander-In-Chief of the military (wink, wink, nudge, nudge -- nuclear weapons). One of the dirty trickster Rove operatives who spear-headed the savaging of McCain in South Carolina that year (Ted Sampley) later went on to be one of the Swift Boat liars who slandered milquetoast Dem John Kerry's honorable military record in 2004 -- but that's a whole other horror story.

Back to McCain though -- unfortunately, for McCain and the American people, the forces of fear mongering, hatefulness, divisiveness and dishonesty ruled the day in that 2000 South Carolina primary and it sent a bitter John McCain limping back to his senatorial post in Arizona with his presidential ambitions ruinously shattered for the foreseeable future.

Flash forward to 2008 and a back from the dead John McCain is furiously trying to plead his case to the American public in his latest quixotic bid for oval office glory. Bluntly stated, and sadly so though -- I propose to you this day that the honorable (arguably to some) John McCain, of pre-2000 South Carolina and prior, exists no more. And I state that to you unequivocally and with the utmost regard for his still meritorious military service.

McCain has flip flopped on important political subjects big and small, everything from his previous rejection of the Bush tax cuts to his now openly embracing and courting of the Jerry Falwell religious right -- the people he correctly labeled "agents of intolerance" in 2000. If John Kerry's convolutions in 2004 about "being for before being against" the Iraq war and subsequent funding bills earned him the flip flopper label, then McCain's list of flip flops is necessarily analogous to of one of my all-time favorite t.v. shows - Kung Fu. In that show the young Kwai Chang Caine was tutored by his blind mentor Master Po if you remember. Master Po was called master for a reason -- nobody was his equal. My analogy is this -- when it comes to the art of flip-flopping -- John McCain is Master Po to John Kerry's Kwai Chang Caine. Any fair analysis of the public record will bear that out.

There's a couple of other core reasons I am having a really difficult time seriously considering pulling the voting lever for McCain this year. He is surrounding himself on domestic and economic policy with a virtual who's who list of corporate lobbyists. In the past week alone the McCain campaign has seen the sudden resignations of (5) high level economic advisers due to corporate lobbying-related conflict of interest allegations. Bush and Cheney shamelessly sucked up to big industry (Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, Adelphia, Exxon, etc.) and the defense industry back in 2000 -- and we all know the criminal fallout from those cozy relationships -- Enron, Worldcom, Tyco and Adelphia CEO's in prison, Exxon raping the American consumer at the gas pump and war profiteers gone wild in Iraq. It's long past time to diminish the amount of slop (tax payer dollars) in the public trough that the gluttonous corporate pigs have been engorging themselves on these past 8 years. It is damn well time to start investing that money back into America, America's infrastructure and security and the hard working American people who make this country the greatest Democracy in the world.

Secondly -- McCain has taken on as foreign policy advisers many of the same grossly incompetent, idiotic neo-con assholes that got this country embroiled in the Iraq fiasco to begin with and he has voiced unbridled support for Bush's disastrous Iraq policy. And for me what that boils down to is this -- whatever the foreign policy credibility level and boasts of experience which McCain has had by virtue of his military service and his stints in the Senate on the Armed Services Committee over the years is instantly negated and deflated when one reviews the lineup of his foreign policy advisers in 2008 and his position on the Iraq war policy overall. Quite frankly -- if McCain's foreign policy advisory team and his Iraq position were a movie it would be titled "Bush/Cheney - Fuck-Uppery, Part 2."

So -- in the end, and barring some last minute Billary shenanigans in the Dem race, it appears I will be pulling the voting lever for the Senator from Illinois, Barack Hussein Obama, come November and I'm pretty fucking comfortable with that - thank you very much. Oh I know that is not a momentous shock to those of you who are familiar with my viewpoints, but here's something for you to contemplate -- if John McCain had maintained and strengthened half of the courage and conviction he displayed in his GOP nomination battle against George W. Bush back in 2000 my voting decision here in 2008 would have been alot more complicated and self-conflicting and would have been a decision requiring a much more intense level of thoughtful consideration on my part. As it is -- John McCain, by his own sell-out actions, has mercifully spared me the inner turmoil and that agonizing and gut wrenching decision which accompanies it.



----krazee

A media footnote -- A nation's death knell

Wednesday, April 30th marked the 5 year anniversary of Commander W. Codpiece strutting onto the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln with a big, shiny new red, white and blue banner hanging in the background with the words "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" emblazoned across it. And the conservative right-wing Bush sycophants cooed with amorous admiration at the manliness of the cocky little man from Crawford, Texas -- a little man whom they now profferred to the world as a figure who was part God, part action-hero, and part brilliant statesman.

On December 7, 1941, the empire of Japan launched a surprise raid on the United States naval station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii setting in motion America's involvement in the second world war - aka WWII. On August 15, 1945, 3 months after Italy and Germany surrendered in the European war theater, Japan, reeling from the horrific devastation wrought from the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, also finally surrendered.

So, in approximately 3 years and 8 months the United States and it's allies managed to decisively defeat several then world-class military powers, who had already conquered a goodly portion of Europe and southeast Asia, and restored the hope and promise of Democracy to millions of repressed people around the world. 3 years and 8 months! It bears repeating.

Yet hear we are, 5+ years into the shitty little Iraq conflict, with no end in sight, no viable political solution on the horizon, violence and military and civilian casualty levels on the increase once again (showing the utter, and predictable, folly of the Bush/Petraeus surge), $1 trillion in taxpayer funds wasted (that's a thousand $billion for you math flunkers), and, apparently, an embarrassingly inept ability to wrap up this bloody horror show and take our toys and go home.

There's an old saying -- "the passage of time heals all wounds" and I suppose depending on the gravity of the wound it's generally a truthful statement. With America's military mis-adventures in Mesopotamia I submit to you that the passage of time also adversely affects people's memories and their ability to learn lessons from previous mistakes. I refer to our last long-term military foray on foreign soil -- the Vietnam war. I was just a kid when that conflict was ravaging the moral fabric of our society and chalking up death-toll numbers which would result in a memorial wall of shame in our nation's capital. I remember some of the effects of that idiocy on my family -- an uncle who came back from Vietnam and 6 months after --dressed himself up in his Marines dress uniform, drove his car into a wooded area behind his apartment, put on his white gloves, climbed into the back seat and put a bullet into his own brain. I was just a kid at the time, but I remember the hushed conversations at the wake about the "awfulness" of the Vietnam war. If only more had spoken out openly then, perhaps my uncle would be alive today.

Bottom line is --- this generation has forgotten the stupidity of the Vietnam lesson. We hide our heads in the sand thinking that the same people who had their hands in the Vietnam pot, could somehow now be trusted to deal with another international crisis in an intelligent and diplomatically feasible manner.

The Bushistas are the Nixonites redux --- read up on it if you have the guts and the fortitude to do so. And as Nixon's forays into criminal adventurism doomed his Presidency and the Republican party, Bush's transgressions, in a sane world, ought to be the precedent setting example of why a nation should forcefully remove an elected leader from office and humiliate all those elected officials who supported his transgressions.

The picture of the ( now deceased ) Marine at the head of this post is my justification for stating --- BRING OUR GUYS AND GALS HOME NOW! This country does not need any more Merlin Germanys. If you have an issue with this, please e-mail me -- i'm interested to hear your side of the story.

----krazee

Why do Conservatives and Rush Limbaugh Hate America?

So hillbilly heroin addict Rush Limpballs thinks that violent riots at the Democratic National Convention this summer would be a joyful event. On it's face it's a sadistic and deranged thing to wish for, but the kicker statement that the fat lying sack of right-wing garbage added to his wet-dream fantasy is what makes me fantasize fervently about meeting up with this waddling pile of human shit in a dark alley some night.

Limpballs states, "Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats." The freak then went on to say that it's the best thing that could happen to the country and that riots would ensure a Democrat is not elected as president, and he exhorted his listeners by saying that they have a responsibility to make sure it happens.

He then brays, "There won't be riots at our (GOP) convention." "We don't riot. We don't burn our cars. We don't burn down our houses. We don't kill our children. We don't do half the things the American left does."

Wow! Just fucking Wow! We liberals are going mob up in Denver, burn the city down and kill children!! And no doubt, Barack or Hillary will be the lead pitchfork carrier at the head of this murderous horde of hoodlums.

Let's be honest here -- to Limbaugh and his ilk the "American left" is simply codeword for all liberals and progressives and by proxy -- Democrats. The fat fascist blob is quite adept at broadbrush smearing a very large segment of Americans by using tried and tested, Nazi-like guilt by association tactics. It's truly the modus operandi of the modern conservative movement -- and pointedly so as their own ideology is morally, intellectually, spiritually bankrupt and visionless, and frankly it's all they have in their decrepit debate arsenal -- personal smears, lies and political subterfuge.

What boggled my mind even further about this story was at the linked website, there's a survey on the right-hand side which asks readers - "Do you think Rush Limbaugh crossed the line when he hoped for riots at Denver's DNC convention?" Of the 25,000 or so votes cast, a solid 75% said NO! Undoubtedly Rushbo's zombie ditto-heads came out in force in support of their repulsive cult leader.

In the end I guess Rush is right about one thing I suppose -- there won't be riots, car-burnings, home-burnings and child killings at the GOP convention in Minneapolis nosiree. For in between all of the flag waving, chest thumping and bible quoting the Repubs will be much, much too busy practicing those wonderful Christian and family values they claim sole ownership of in the local brothels, gay bars and public restrooms. And no doubt a few Mark Foley types will have no problem filling up their spare convention time by cruising local parks and schools -- offering summer Congressional page jobs to the ripe young Minnesota lads who happen to catch their eye.

Here's hoping that some godawful sex scandal rocks the GOP convention in Minneapolis this fall -- hmm -- why does Minneapolis and wide stance ring a bell? Anyhow, I'll settle for a few burnt police cars at the Dem convention if that deal can be made.

----k

My flag pin is better than your flag pin...neener-neener!

Ok -- I had a really, really, vein-popping rant about ABC's hideous handling of Wednesday night's Dem debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama - and specifically - Charlie Gibson's trotting out the dim-bulb woman from Pennsylvania who asked Barack Obama if he believed in the American flag, but I'll defer to one of my favorite comedians to do the issue justice. Suffice to say though, that I am of the opinion that if anyone is basing their vote on whether ANY candidate is sporting a shiny new "MADE IN CHINA" American flag pin on their lapel, you're a fucking moron and you ought to have your voting priveleges revoked until you take and pass some basic civics classes along with a standard IQ test.

Bill Maher, in this monologue, takes a chain-saw to the idiotic, right-wing manufactured flag pin controversy and mercilessly shreds it, the wingnuts and the media - and deservedly so.

----krazee

Parade of Fools!!

I was going to title this post UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE! But then I thought about it for all of about --- oh 3 seconds --- and decided that not only is this story entirely not UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE, it absolutely embodies everything that has come to be expected from THE WORST FUCKING PRESIDENT AND ADMINISTRATION IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY.

This mind-boggling story is really nothing more than a transparent microcosm of the pitiable incompetence and collosal dereliction of leadership that George Bush and Dick Cheney have foisted upon America and the world.

It is the direct by-product of what happens when you outsource government and by proxy, a government responsibility like war, to the private business sector. Add to the fact that there is absolutely no oversight, no accountabililty, and no repercussions -- FOR ANYONE - EVER! -- and you quite literaly have laid the perfect foundation for guaranteed failure. Only this kind of failure ends up unnecessarily killing alot of human beings.

I honestly am at a loss for words. And it angers me beyond description. To all my friends and family who continue to support this President and this administration, I really am tired of your heads in the sand, hear-no-evil, see-no-evil, speak-no-evil routine. I cannot fathom any nicer way to say this to you -- FUCK YOU! You all have helped make this shit happen. Every single one of you is a major participant in this horrific Parade of Fools freak show and you are incapable of acknowledging the reality of your fucked-up support of such an astonishingly dangerous buffoon like George W. Bush.

The English historian Edward Gibbon famously placed blame for the Fall of The Roman Empire on a loss of civic virtue among the Roman citizens. They gradually entrusted the role of defending the Empire to barbarian mercenaries (sound familiar? Blackwater anyone?) who eventually turned on them. Gibbon considered that Christianity had contributed to this (correlates to the rise of fundamentalist Christianity in the U.S. today), making the populace less interested in the worldly here-and-now and more willing to wait for the rewards of heaven. Gibbon wrote, "[T]he decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight." In summary, Gibbon judged the loss of civic virtue and the rise of Christianity to be a lethal combination and a predominantly deciding factor in the demise of Roman influence and power.

This, folks, is the fate awaiting America as long as it continues down it's present destructive path. It must be pointed out though, that the argument could reasonably be made that that ignominious fate might never materialize simply by virture of the fact that our rank stupidity and arrogance will very well precipitate that abominable and perverted ambition which the Christian rapturists yearn for --- the end of humanity as we know it.


----krazee

Priorities . . .

My step-father, who's really a great guy, has written a book. I'm slowly working my way through it and it's very interesting. Check it out if you're interested in expanding your intellectual and philosophical horizons.

In case you're wondering about the Author's name -- "Nobody" -- suffice to say that my step-dad felt that the subject matter itself was of much greater importance than any fame and recognition he might garner in the event Oprah got hold of the book.



You can buy it here [CLICK HERE] and also here [CLICK HERE].

----k

All The News That's Fit to Blather About!

Which story do you think will get the most attention this day??

Kindalazee Rice . . . Poster Child for Occupational Incompetence

Imagine for a moment if you will that you are the personally selected National Security Adviser to the President of the United States -- the highest rung on the ladder when it comes to safe-guarding America's national security.

Now imagine that one of your colleagues with the title of Counter Terrorism Director of the National Security Council, over a 2 month period of time, sends you the following memos with these subject headings:

"Bin Ladin Public Profile May Presage Attack"

"Terrorist Groups Said Co-operating on US Hostage Plot"

"Bin Ladin's Networks' Plans Advancing"

"Bin Ladin Attacks May Be Imminent"

"Bin Ladin and Associates Making Near-Term Threats"

"Bin Ladin Planning High-Profile Attacks"

"Planning for Bin Ladin Attacks Continues, Despite Delays"

---- culminating in a Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) delivered directly to the commander-in-chief himself with the title of:

"Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US"

Please mull it over for a moment, then explain what your reaction would be. If your reaction was anything other than -- HOLY FUCK!! WE NEED TO PUT EVERY INTELLIGENCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSET AT OUR DISPOSAL ON THIS CASE RIGHT FUCKING NOW! -- well, I suppose Condi Rice and the frat-boy moron we call Mr. President at this present time might be your heroes.

Those memos were sent between May and July of 2001 (2 months prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks) from then Counter Terrorism Director Richard Clarke to then National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice. Rice subsequently sloughed them off to subordinates to do perfunctory bureaucratic processing and no, I repeat -- NO -- significant action was taken. Another perfunctory act Rice took was to present the August 6th (one month prior to 9-11) PDB to Bush in a fashion suggesting it was just ho-hum historical data and nothing with which the President should need to interrupt his brush-clearing, My Pet Goat reading vacation over.

Now -- I so, so, so fucking tire of hearing the conservatives, Republicans, Libertarians, true patriots, or whatever the fuck they're calling themselves these days, whine incessantly about how Democrats are the party of terrorist appeasers. Here you have documented evidence of fuck-uppery on such a grand scale -- it's a scale that has as it's measuring gauge the blood of over 3000 innocent American civilians! And nobody says a peep. And people just shrug their shoulders. It's just partisan politics. I suppose that since the matter doesn't involve Bill Clinton's cock and a blow-job giving intern -- it just fucking ain't all that important.

Watch this video of Kindalazee Rice being questioned at the 9-11 Commission hearing. Then elucidate for me, clearly, concisely and honestly, why this incompetent, lying bitch still holds a cabinet level position in this country's government. Better yet -- go explain it to the family members of those 3000+ dead Americans.

Also, be sure and read the Sydney Herald article linked at the beginning of this post. It's a jaw-dropping essay and an absolutely frightening look at what kind of losers and idiots these Bushies truly are.

----krazee

The American Dream . . . Waking to the Reality

George Carlin in the video clip here states what most people know deep in their hearts to be true, but acceptance of that truth is such a hope-crushing, frightening prospect, they'd just as soon play along with the fantasy than upset the apple-cart of their fragile faith in the trusting goodness and mercy of their paymasters.

I've been thinking about this alot lately. In the past 5 years I've seen my own job security (or at least I was under some kind of delusion it was secure) transformed from a viably believable reality to nothing more than a shattered pipe dream -- something akin to that feeling you had as a kid when you suddenly and cruelly discover that Santa Claus was really your drunk Uncle Joe and the tooth fairy money actually came from mom's yearly cleaning out of the junk drawers and under the sofa cusions.

I'm in the process of experiencing my 2nd corporate job sell-out in the past 4 years. While it appears I will probably be somewhat gainfully employed for at least the next 6 months I no longer have any illusions that this strangely distant concept commonly referred to as "The American Dream" will provide any economic comfort to myself and my wife as we approach the twilight years of our lives.

Oh sure, I know I'll continue to play the game too, for as long as they let me I suppose. I guess the one thing that keeps me motivated enough to stay in the fray is that I truly do harbor a small-spark of faith that the people of this country will one day collectively pull their heads out of their asses, open their eyes and demand changes for the better. Not so much for myself, but for my kids, grandkids and everyone else's kids and grandkids who deserve to live in a nation which truly give's a shit about the welfare and well-being of all of it's people and not just the elite, monied few.

----krazee

Oh My, Oh My, Oh My . . .

Words practically fail me after viewing something like this. Aside from the abject despair I feel knowing there are a great many of these brain-dead zombies running around in this country, the even greater fear I have is that they one day will indeed gain the political power which they've long sought after and purposefully act out their insane end-time fantasies on the world stage. Unfortunately, it appears every year they gain a little more power and a little more influence. And true to the outcome of their cruel biblical prophesy the end result can only be a horror story of unimaginable consequences for humanity.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

BERTRAND RUSSELL, An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish

----krazee

Mmmmm --- yep.

This is how the Bush administration confirms candidates for important public offices.

----krazee

Compassionate conservatism --- My fucking ASS!

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