American Crisis - Then and Now...

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.

Those words once made a mighty contribution toward the freeing of a country from a haughty, blue blood King who was of the belief that his sole hereditary existence alone gave him the right to rule free men at the point of a a musket and sword.

The words were written by Mr. Thomas Paine. Mr. Paine, amongst other antithetical beliefs of his time, believed that the nascent Colonial Americans were in a prime position to oppose the oppressive British Monarchy and forge forward with establishing a democratic nation based on their people's demand of freedom and democracy. Ask any patriotic American and --- they'll be totally uninformed or misinformed. Anyway . . .

Gen. George Washington ordered Paine's words to be read out loud to his men during a particularly lowpoint in their guerilla Independence campaign against the British army. Not only did Paine's defiant and challenging words inspire Washington and his men to battle, they were also instrumental in turning the tide of public opinion against the British rule and giving The Continental Congress the confidence to dare to declare America's Liberty and separation from the British Homeland.

I recount this tid-bit of history for two reasons. First, Thomas Paine has been a hero of mine since I stopped listening to the conservative, uneducated religious claptrap of the people that seemed to permeate my existence as a young man -- in other words -- I learned to think on my own.

Just a side thought -- after high school and a stint in the U.S. Air Force, I began to read what I wanted to read and believe what I wanted to believe for a change. Thank fucking God for free will. It allowed me formulate these entirely original and deeply thought out opinions.

But I digress --- a second reason for my mini-history lesson is -- Mr. Paine's words ring loud and clear in a day and age when another boy King named George believes he rules the heartland by virtue of heredity -- although in this case it's not blood heredity -- it's Big Business (BIG OIL) and family mafia heredity. Mr. George W. Bush came into power under suspect circumstances, claimed he was a uniter, not a divider, claimed he was a compassionate conservative, claimed he didn't believe in nation building, claimed he would protect us against all evils (Gee George, how'd that 9/11 thing work out on your 9th month on the job?). The asshole basically Homer Simpsoned (lovable dolt act) and electorally tampered his way into power. Finally, as if a nail was really needed in this destructive duo's coffin -- public disclosure records show that the largest contributors to the Bush/Cheney administration come from the Oil, Gas and Coal industries. Imagine that!! And DipShit, 24 America fell for it -- hook, line, sinker.

Thomas Paine warned against evils of concentrating power in the hands of an elite priveleged few. It's happening here and now folks. Deny it at your freedom's peril. Paine was cognizant enough in his time to recognize tyranny --- why, oh why in this age of instant communication and open media, (Britney's at Court!), can't we recognize the same threat? --- for it laps at the bowl of our ever so fragile Democracy?

In the end, Thomas Paine's Crisis is a modern day wake up call for action now in this country -- America and Americans need help. Truly patriotic Americans need to step up to the plate with that help -- throw the crooks (both parties) out of office -- Politicians better get their shit in order. Dem and Repub.

And if the Repubs insist on coddling corporations at the expense of the working people and the middle class --- fuck 'em -- their political base is shrinking as it is -- all they'll have left are the end-time glaze-eyed religious nuts. Simple as that. The Middle Class of this country is in cardiac arrest... the Repubs say --- give more money to the drug dealers (Corporate CEO's)! and big Oil. These are the same cocksuckers that put the middle class in cardiac arrest to begin with! ... Fuck.. Stop it. America needs to stop the bullshit, stop the waste of war in Iraq, reign in Wall Street and their fucking scams, stop politicians from profiting off of the blood and sweat of hard working Americans....... etc. Put and end to Business As Usual!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love my family -- (wife, kids, grandkids) love my lifestyle, my politics, and my motorcyle. I'm an unapologetic liberal who is proud of who he is and fuck those of you who believe as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and other radio retards do that America should be a closed, police-state, gun-nut society. I've had enough of Republican politics and economic policies and am sick and tired of their attempts to bully this nation into being a single political party, evangelical religious fucking moron country. The chickens are coming home to roost after 8 years of GOP malfeasance, incompetence and corruption. Unfortunately, it's the American family that will pay the price for the Republican party's legislative debauchery. To put it bluntly -- all of you fucking Republiscum suck!

This country today, as in Paine's time is in a Crisis. It's time for action -- it's time for change.

At this point, I don't care who is elected -- but it better be a man or woman who is ready recognize the crisis that exists and deal with it. And I'm not talking about the fake Iran/Iraq crisis being peddled by the fear-mongering Bush mongoloids. Leave those bastards to fight their own wars and bring our kids and money home.

I believe that what exists in this country today is a crisis of confidence -- confidence that our government can be relied on to do right by us -- and I swear -- the next fucking, cocksucking idiot that blathers "Clinton and Monica" to me, I'm not being nice to you anymore -- I'm just going to punch you in your stupid goddamn face and tell you to grow the fuck up. I applaud anyone who has the guts to confront and expose the slime of corporate interests and their equally democracy-hating pro-corporate judicial entities and the equally deomocracy-hating rightwing morons that blindly follow---more power to those who fight the good fight.

I'm so, so, so sick of the 8 years of GOP rule and the status quo that I'll vote for anyone but a bloodsucking, Oil industry lackey team like Bush/Cheney --- look what they've done to America -- (if you haven't noticed -- sorry -- you're head is seriously buried up your stupid ass and that's an affliction which I can offer no cure for). Fuckkers.

----krazee

American Crisis --- Read it -- expand your Beverly Hillbilly minds.

The Plight of the DidNotServe-icans...

One of my more disturbed cyber-stalkers e-mailed me this past weekend and berated me for pretending to be a military vet (he saw a 25 year old pic of me in my Air Force uniform on my website) and basically recited rhyme and (un)reason as to why I and all of the other "phony soldiers" (Rush Limpball wannabe insult) Democrats ought to be rounded up, lined up against a very long brick wall and summarily executed.

Aside from the sheer mentally perturbed tone of my secret admirer's message, I was struck by it's downright, slovenly ignorance to the known truth as to which political leaders in our nation's capital have served in the armed forces and which have not. It's also obvious that my small-brained, goose-stepping detractor knows how to set up phony, one-time use e-mail accounts to spam my e-mail with so imagine my befuddlement as to how and/or why it is that he is unable to do a simple Google search and learn the truth about his GOP heroes.

So, in the spirit of educational assistance I will humor my psychotic cyber pen-pal and provide this invaluable, mind-expanding information for him:

Here's the full link [CLICK HERE]



Who served in the military?
Tell some friends about this page!

The full Chickenhawk database
(N.H. Gazette)
The 108th Senate

Complete list of Vets in Congress

Let's all take a look at this neocon Bush administration.

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Prominent Democrats:

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) -- rifle platoon and company commander with the Fifth Marine Regiment in the An Hoa Basin west of Danang; was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star Medal, two Bronze Star Medals, and two Purple Hearts. (1)

Representative Tim Walz, D-MN - Twenty-four years of service in the Army National Guard, retiring in 2005.

Representative Joe Sestak, D-PA - 31 years of service in the Navy, rising to the rank of Vice Admiral.

Representative Chris Carney, D-PA - Lieutenant Commander in the United States Naval Reserve, Carney served multiple tours overseas and was activated for Operation Enduring Freedom, Noble Eagle, and Southern Watch.

Representative Patrick Murphy, D-PA - extensive career in the U.S. Army from 1993-2004; earned Bronze Star and Presidential Unit Citation.

Representative Phil Hare, D-IL - Served in the United States Army Reserve for six years.

Representative Jack Murtha (D-PA) - distinguished 37-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps, Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts, retired from the Marine Corps Reserve as a colonel in 1990. (1)

Former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt - Missouri Air National Guard, 1965-71. (1, 2)

Representative David Bonior - Staff Sgt., United States Air Force 1968-72 (1, 2)

Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle - 1st Lt., U.S. Air Force SAC 1969-72 (1, 2)

Former Vice President Al Gore - enlisted August 1969; sent to Vietnam January 1971 as an army journalist, assigned to the 20th Engineer Brigade headquartered at Bien Hoa, an airbase twenty miles northeast of Saigon. More facts about Gore's Service

Former Senator Bob Kerrey... Democrat... Lt. j.g., U.S. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam (1, 2)

Senator Daniel Inouye, US Army 1943-'47; Medal of Honor, World War Two (1, 2)

Senator John Kerry, Lt., U.S. Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, and three awards of the Purple Heart for his service in combat (1)

Representative Charles Rangel, Staff Sgt., U.S. Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea (1, 2)

Former Senator Max Cleland, Captain, U.S. Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam (1, 2)

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) - U.S. Army, 1951-1953. (1)

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) - Lt., U.S. Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74. (1, 2)

Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) - U.S. Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91 (1)

Former Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) - served as a U.S. Army officer in World War II, receiving the Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons. (1)

Representative Leonard Boswell (D-IA) - Lt. Col., U.S. Army 1956-76; two tours in Vietnam, two Distinguished Flying Crosses as a helicopter pilot, two Bronze Stars, and the Soldier's Medal. (1, 2)

Former Representative "Pete" Peterson, Air Force Captain, POW, Ambassador to Viet Nam, and recipient of the Purple Heart, the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit. (1, 2)

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-CA: Staff sergeant/platoon leader with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, U.S. Army; was wounded and received a Purple Heart. (1, 2)

Bill McBride, Democratic Candidate for Florida Governor - volunteered and served as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam; awarded Bronze Star with a combat "V." (1)

Gray Davis, former California Governor, Army Captain in Vietnam; received Bronze Star. (1)

Pete Stark, D-CA, served in the Air Force 1955-57

Wesley Clark, Democratic Presidential Candidate - 38-year career of public service in the Army, culminating as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.

Prominent Republicans:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY - did not serve (1)

Senate Assistant Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-MI - avoided the draft, did not serve.

Senate Republican Conference Chairman Jon Kyl, R-AZ - did not serve.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair John Ensign, R-NV - did not serve.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-OH - did not serve.

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-MO - did not serve.

House Republican Conerence Chair Adam Putnam, R-FL - did not serve.

House Republican Policy Committee Thaddeus McCotter, R-MI - did not serve.

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Cole, R-OK - did not serve.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani - did not serve.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney - did not serve in the military but did serve the Mormon Church on a 30-month mission to France.

Former Senator Fred Thompson - did not serve.

Senator John McCain - McCain's naval honors include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross. Why did the Bush campaign smear him so in 2000? At least Senators Cleland (D-GA), Kerry (D-MA), Kerrey (D-NE), Robb (D-VA) and Hagel (R-NE) defended him.

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert - avoided the draft, did not serve.

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey - avoided the draft, did not serve.

Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay - avoided the draft, did not serve (1). "So many minority youths had volunteered ... that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself."

Former House Majority Whip Roy Blunt - did not serve.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist - did not serve. (An impressive medical resume, but not such a friend to cats in Boston.)

Rick Santorum, R-PA, formerly third ranking Republican in the Senate - did not serve. (1)

George Felix Allen, former Republican Senator from Virginia - a supporter of Nixon and the Vietnam war, did not serve. (1)

Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld - served in the U.S. Navy (1954-57) as an aviator and flight instructor. (1) Served as President Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East and met with Saddam Hussein twice in 1983 and 1984.

GW Bush - decided that a six-year Nat'l Guard commitment really means four years. Still says that he's "been to war." Huh?

VP Cheney - several deferments (1, 2), the last by marriage (in his own words, "had other priorities than military service") (1)

Former Att'y Gen. John Ashcroft - did not serve (1, 2); received seven deferments to teach business ed at SW Missouri State.

Jeb Bush, Florida Governor - did not serve. (1)

Karl Rove - avoided the draft, did not serve (1), too busy being a Republican.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich - avoided the draft, did not serve (1, 2)

Former President Ronald Reagan - due to poor eyesight, served in a noncombat role making movies for the Army in southern California during WWII. He later seems to have confused his role as an actor playing a tail gunner with the real thing.

"B-1" Bob Dornan - avoided Korean War combat duty by enrolling in college acting classes (Orange County Weekly article). Enlisted only after the fighting was over in Korea.

Phil Gramm - avoided the draft, did not serve, four (?) student deferments.

Former Senator Bob Dole - an honorable man. http://www.bobdole.org/bio/wwII.php

Chuck Hagel - two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, Vietnam.
http://www.senate.gov/~hagel/Information/bio.htm

Duke Cunningham - nominated for the Medal of Honor, received the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, fifteen Air Medals, the Purple Heart, and several other decorations Recently entered plea bargain on felony charges of bribery, etc. etc.

Senator Jeff Sessions U.S. Army Reserves, 1973-1986

Colin Powell. What are we to make of Powell? On the one hand, a long career as a military manager. On the other hand, accused of covering up the My Lai massacre. Back on that first hand, one of the seemingly sane voices in this administration when it comes to Iraq (or at least he used to be). On the other hand, a clear hypocrite ("I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed... managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units...")

Representative Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), served in USMC in Vietnam; wounded in action.

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Here are a few more...

Democrats:

Chuck Robb, US Senator from Virginia, served in Vietnam

Howell Heflin... Democrat... Silver Star

George McGovern, famous liberal, awarded Silver Star & DFC, dozens of missions during WWII.

Former President Bill Clinton - avoided the draft through student deferments; in the autumn of 1969, Clinton entered the draft but received a high number (311) and was never called to serve. (CNN article.) "...it was his doubts about the morality of the war and the Selective Service system that led him to abandon the ROTC idea and to subject himself to a draft lottery. Only the luck of the draw - a high lottery number - kept him out. " (Jeff Greenfield, ABC News, quoting Gov. Clinton.)

Former President Jimmy Carter, most recent recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, seven years in the Navy. "Except for his fellow service-academy graduate Dwight Eisenhower, no President of the twentieth century spent more years in uniform than Carter." (New Yorker Magazine)

Former Presidential Nominee Mike Dukakis - United States Army, 1955-'57 (1)

Former Senator/Vice Presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen - B-24 pilot in WWII 1942-'45, Squadron Commander; earned Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. (1)

Former Vice President Walter Mondale, U.S. Army 1951-1953

Former Senator John Glenn, D-OH (1974-1999) - Served in WWII and Korea; extensive military commendations include the Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions, and the Air Medal with 18 Clusters.

Congressman Tom Lantos, D-CA - Did not serve in the US military; did serve in the Hungarian anti-Nazi underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg, is the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress.

Republicans/Conservatives:

Political

Senator Richard Shelby, did not serve (1)

Senator Jon Kyl, R-AZ - did not serve (1, 2)

Senator John Cornyn, R-TX - did not serve. (1)

Senator Tim Hutchison, R-AR - did not serve (1, 2)

Rep. Christopher Cox, R-CA, (formerly) fifth-ranking Republican in the House - did not serve. (1)

Rep. John T. Doolittle, R-CA, sixth-ranking Republican in the House - did not serve.

Rep. Mark Kirk, R-IL -- his website claimed he served in Operation Iraqi Freedom; in reality, he had to correct the record.

Representative Saxby Chambliss, Georgia - did not serve (1, 2), had a "bad knee" (yet somehow feels he has a right to attack Max Cleland's patriotism)

Rep. Randy Kuhl, R-NY - Did not serve. (1)

Former Representative JC Watts - did not serve (1, 2)

Jack Kemp, did not serve (1, 2) (was unfit because of a knee injury, though he heroically continued as a National Football League quarterback for another eight years - source)

Former Vice President Dan Quayle, avoided Vietnam service, got a slot in the journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard when the unit was at 150% capacity (at least he showed up for his duty, unlike GW) (1, 2)

Eliot Abrams, did not serve (1, 2) (however, played a key role in subverting democracy in South America)

Paul Wolfowitz, did not serve (1, 2)

Former Representative Vin Weber, did not serve (1, 2)

Richard Perle, did not serve (1, 2) (is the current bloodshed in the Middle East a direct result of his treasonous meddling in Clinton Administrstion foreign policy?)

Douglas Feith, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy - did not serve. (1)

Michael Bloomberg, did not serve (1, 2)

George Pataki, did not serve (1, 2)

Spencer Abraham, did not serve.

John Engler, did not serve (1, 2)

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) - website used to claim service as a "Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran." A current biographical website makes no such claim. In reality, was a National Guard lawyer who never left South Carolina during the Gulf War.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-CA, did not serve (1)

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA/49th, there were some problems with his service.

Rep. John M. McHugh, R-NY - avoided the draft, did not serve (1)

Rep. Todd Platts, R-PA - did not serve (1)

Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA Republican Governor - went AWOL from his Austrian army base to enter a bodybuilding competition

Senator Joe Lieberman - did not serve.

George Herbert Walker Bush, pilot in WWII. Awarded Distinguished Flying Cross. Shot down by the Japanese; was lone survivor out of airplane (link).

Representative Sam R. Johnson, combat missions in both Korea and Vietnam, POW in Hanoi from April 1966 to February 1973 (1)
(don't ever run for president Sam, they'll spread rumors that you're crazy)

Senator Ted Stevens, R-AK, WW II pilot, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Air Medals, and the Yuan Hai medal awarded by the Republic of China.

Sen. John Warner, R-VA - Served in the Navy 1945-1946 as a RM3; reenlisted in the USMC 1950, 10 years service in Marine Corps Reserve, retired as Captain.

Congresswoman Heather Wilson, R-NM, served in the Air Force 1978-1989

Former President Gerald Ford, served in the Navy, WWII

Former Senator Strom Thurmond - apparently believes, along with Trent Lott, that America should have been a segregated society. Still, he served.

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Fighting Democrats:

Back from the front lines, the veterans listed below ran for Congress in 2006. Why were almost all the veterans coming home from Iraq running as Democrats?

Lt. Col. Charles Brown - California 4th District - 26-year career in USAF; jet and helicopter pilot; awarded Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in the Mayaguez incident.
Website: http://www.charliebrownforcongress.org

Eric Massa - New Yorks 29th District - 24 years service in the Navy; also served as aide to NATO Supreme Allied Commander, General Wesley Clark.
Website: www.massaforcongress.com

Paul Hackett - U.S. Senate - Ohio
Website: www.hackettforohio.com

David Harris - Texas 6th Congressional District
Website: http://followmetodc.com/

David Ashe - Virginia's 2nd Congressional District
Website: http://www.davidasheforcongress.com/

Andrew Duck - Maryland 6th Congressional District
Website at http://duckforcongress.org

Tim Dunn - North Carolina's 8th Congressional District
Website: www.dunnforcongress.com

Andrew Horne -- Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District.
Website: http://horneforcongress.com/

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Punditocracy and Right-wing Preacher-types:

George Will, did not serve.

Chris Matthews, Mediawhore, did not serve. (However, apparently served in the Peace Corps.)

Bill O'Reilly, did not serve.

Paul Gigot, did not serve.

Bill Bennett, Did not serve.

Pat Buchanan, did not serve.

Rush Limbaugh, did not serve (4-F with a 'pilonidal cyst' [see "The Rush Limbaugh Story" by Paul D. Colford, St. Martin's Press, 1993, Chapter 2: Beating the Draft.])

Michael Savage (aka Michael Alan Weiner) - did not serve, too busy chasing herbs and botany degrees in Hawaii and Fiji.

John Wayne, did not serve.

Pat Robertson - claimed during 1986 campaign to be a "combat veteran." In reality, was a "Liquor Officer."

Bill Kristol, did not serve.

Sean Hannity, did not serve.

Kenneth Starr, did not serve.

Antonin Scalia, did not serve.

Clarence Thomas, did not serve.

Ralph Reed, did not serve.

Michael Medved, did not serve.

Charlie Daniels, did not serve.

Ted Nugent, did not serve.

Country Singer Toby Keith, did not serve. (1)

Radio Host Phil Hendrie, did not serve.

Ollie North - Convicted in the Iran-Contra scandal, at least he served.

Charlton Heston - served in WWII, but went AWOL when Michael Moore asked him some tough questions.

Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association - did not serve (apparently pulled lottery #97 in 1969 as a campus radical at SUNY-Albany, but weaseled out by getting a family doctor to claim he had a nervous disorder).

James Carville, a.k.a. "Corporal Cueball" - Served in the United States Marine Corps, 1966-'68. (1)

Markos Moulitsas, a.k.a. "Kos" (leading liberal blogger) - Served in the United States Army, 1989-'92. (1)

Randi Rhodes - enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1977 and worked stateside as a mechanic in Texas, achieving the rank of Airman First Class. (link)

Independents:

Gov. Jesse Ventura, U.S. Navy SEAL training, did UDT work

Senator Jim Jeffords, U.S. Navy 1956-1959

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And let's not forget the Coast Guard...

The brave men and women of the United States Coast Guard risk their lives every day to protect our nation and save thousands of lives every year. The Coast Guard is in fact a branch of the United States Armed Forces.

Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MI) served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve from 1971-1984. http://www.house.gov/genetaylor/biography.htm

Congressman Howard Coble (R-NC) served in the U.S. Coast Guard (Active Duty)for 5.5 years. Served in the CG Reserve for 18 years. http://coble.house.gov/biography/

William Delahunt (D-MA) served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve from 1963-1971 http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/faqs/William_Delahunt.html

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About the National Guard Today
Dear Friends:

Having been a reservist and now in a state defense force serving with Guard in my state, I wanted to ask you to clarify for the masses the HUGE difference between the National Guard during the Vietnam War and today. After the establishment of the All Volunteer Force in 1976, the reserves and Guard became a major source for deployment. More than 40 % of the Army's combat arms units are NG. In fact, a big chunk of the folks who have served in Bosnia/Kosovo are reserve and Guard. The same is true of deployments to the Gulf in recent times.

The Guard and Reserve are no longer a haven for those who wish to dodge hazardous service. Hope you can make that clear to folks who might not otherwise understand and respect the volunteers in the reserve services today. It might be interesting to how many of the sons and daughters of politicians are serving in ANY capacity. Ahem. CPT B

Couldn't have said it any better...

The New Hampshire Gazette's Chickenhawk database

Complete list - members of the 106th Congress with Military Service. Why is the Republican leadership so top-heavy with Chickenhawks??

In response to NewsMax's "Deck of Weasels"...check out the Deck of Republican Chickenhawks!


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Got other names to submit? Please let us know about heroes or chickenhawks, on either side of the aisle. (Hey, do your homework and include a link with any name you send us, OK?)

Re military personnel and public perception of Democrats v. Republicans in general.

How often must Democrats defend their party against the typical freeper blather of draft-dodging, service-evading, unpatriotic cowards among us? More often than we have to.

Gore was right all along. About some things. The "truth" IS on our side.

Or, as www.rackjite.com puts it:

THE CHICKENHAWKS "Conservatives make great fun of President Clinton for questioning the Vietnam War, standing up to his beliefs and questioning his own participation in that war as well, i.e., being honest and walking the walk of his own belief system [and then giving up his student deferment to subject himself to the draft!]. On the other hand there were literally millions of dishonest, hypocritical, cowardly right-wing loonies who supported the war while refusing to personally participate."

Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell . . .

The punchline of this horrific joke of course is that they knew Iraq was a paper tiger, otherwise why would they have made these statements in 2001 just a mere few months before 9/11? Dr. Rice made it quite clear in her July 2001 statement that Saddam Hussein basically had no significant military power or arms. Powell's statement from 4 months prior to Rice's went a bit further in stating that Hussein didn't even have sufficient conventional warfare capabilities to threaten his mideast neighbors. But in the neo-cons revision of history they would have the rubes (of which there are many in this country) believe that in the 6-9 month period from the time Powell and Rice made their public statements about Iraq being a non-threat to the U.S., much less their regional neighbors, Iraq made a herculean and truly miraculous build up of weapons of mass destruction -- so miraculous that post 9/11 comments by Rice and Veep Dick Cheney menancingly referenced the probability of "imminent" nuclear mushroom clouds over American cities.

I do so tire of the litany of lies and lies upon lies that the Busheviks, their political apparatchiks, the media enablers and the 29% zombie brigades continue to peddle day after day after day. I mean, how much lying can people do before they just fucking keel over from lie fatigue? And it really is time for the mainstream media to stop enabling these liars by pretending that they too were fooled into believing that the piss-ant, tin-horn little dictator Hussein and his dusty, ass-backward country were a dire threat to the most powerful military and economic nation-state on the planet.

One of the most decorated Marines in U.S. history, Smedley Butler, wrote in his 1935 book War Is A Racket --

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."

The Halliburtons, the KBRs, the Bechtels, the Blackwaters, racketeers one and all -- they knew the truth too -- yet they willfully kicked truth to the curb when they saw an opportunity to plunder and pillage - and get away with it. And it doesn't take much of a stretch of one's imagination to think that maybe, just maybe -- they had this whole charade planned for some time. The PNAC letter to then President Bill Clinton in 1998 urged Clinton to take immediate steps, militarily if necessary, to remove Saddam Hussein from power and baselessly claimed that Iraq was stockpiling Weapons of Mass Destruction and therefore posed a threat to the U.S., it's Mideast allies, and most importantly of course, the regions oil resources.

Clinton, to his credit, decided instead to heed the advice of people in the know, including Bush's father George H.W. Bush and one of his senior advisers former General Brent Scowcroft who wrote and essay in Time magazine in March of 1998 explaining the reasons why they decided not to topple Hussein and invade Iraq during the 1991 Gulf conflict. Here's what Poppy Bush and Scowcroft had to say then:

While we hoped that popular revolt or coup would topple Saddam, neither the U.S. nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. We were concerned about the long-term balance of power at the head of the Gulf. Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome.

That very last sentence speaks volumes, and oh what a prescient observation of the reality of the situation it was. Unfortunately, Herbert Walker Bush's dim-bulb son and his pupeteer neo-con handlers were either too stupid or too hubristic and blinded by zeal to see the same reality that poppy Bush and General Scowcroft had seen.

To this day, the lies continue to flow. And the American rubes continue to believe wide-eyed and bereft of critical analysis the plethora of lies being spoon-fed to them. When lies of such life impacting importance rule the public discourse and become ensconced tools of the ruling elites, perhaps it's time to heed the words a few important Americans wrote some 200+ years ago:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The following infamous song lyrics neatly sum up the unvarnished truth about the true meaning of the Powell/Rice video at the top of this post:

Generals gathered in their masses,
just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction,
sorcerers of death's construction.
In the fields the bodies burning,
as the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
poisoning their brainwashed minds.
Oh lord, yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away.
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah.

Time will tell on their power minds,
making war just for fun.
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
wait till their judgement day comes, yeah.

Now in darkness world stops turning,
ashes where the bodies burning.
No more War Pigs have the power,
Hand of God has struck the hour.
Day of judgement, God is calling,
on their knees the war pigs crawling.
Begging mercies for their sins,
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings.
Oh lord, yeah!
--Black Sabbath, War Pigs

----krazee

Of ChickenHawks and Fascists - A Chronicle of an Empire's Downfall

I have many family and friends that have been or currently are active-duty military members. I myself am a non-combat military vet. With the exception of a couple of the more thoughtful family and friends, all are blindly loyal, unreflective supporters of George W. Bush and his Iraq war. The twisted reasoning behind that sad statement isn't a complete mystery to me, but more than anything, quite frankly, I view it to be much more so a glaring statement about their individual values, morals, judgement and cognitive thinking ability (or lack thereof of all.)

Let me see if I can explain this, it's all extremely bizarre -- George W. Bush is great because ----- unlike the evil librul Bill Clinton, he sends men off to war in a manly fashion and he wants to kick some evil-doer ass! That's it! That's the extent of their swooning, teeny-bopper crush mentality for why it is they've got such huge hard-ons for George W. Bush. Good lord! If it wasn't so god-damned pathetic, it would be sort of cute in a creepy, incestuous Father Knows Best kind of way. But what's most baffling and infuriating to me is that these guys have never for a moment pondered the obscene paradox of the following facts, not made-up shit just because I have opposing views, but undisputed facts that are easily verifiable (if you truly gave a shit about the truth) from a myriad of sources in the public record:

1. George W. Bush used his family political connections to vault over a waiting list of hundreds of other draftees to land a cushy, state-side National Guard post defending the great state of Texas from marauding hordes of Viet-Cong. He received approximately $1 million in tax-payer funded military flight training, was subsequently suspended from flying (still no explanation or medical records indicating why) and eventually skipped out on the remaining year and a half of his 6 year commitment. Not a shred of evidence exists that Fly The Friendly Skies (literally) Lt. Bush ever sat his ass in a jet cockpit again -- and the Mission Accomplished stunt doesn't count as it was nothing more than political theater designed to thrill his sycophantic worshippers. So in a nutshell my friends -- you all support a draft-dodging slacker and wartime deserter who had no compunction about using his powerful connections to avoid the pitfalls and horrors of war and instead sent some poor, unconnected and unlucky slob to fight and possibly die in his place in the rice paddies of Nam while he partied hard in the "Champagne Unit" of his home-state Guard. Quite the macho hero you have there fellas. BTW -- John Kerry, actually volunteered for his Nam duty, unlike frat-boy George. And Kerry saw actual combat and was actually wounded -- and if you think the Swift-Boat Liars for Truth attack group hasn't been totally debunked and discredited I'll say it to your face any time, any place -- you're a fucking misinformed dipshit.

2. Bush puppet-master and VP Dick Cheney received 5 Vietnam draft deferments while vocally supporting that bloody war. Years later when asked about it in an interview, Cheney is quoted as saying, "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service." Gee Dick, why don't you go tell that face to face to the 58,159 American men and women whose names adorn the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C.? Ohhhhh!! That's right!! Dick can't tell it to them face to face because they're all fucking dead!! Yep, they died so cock-sucking, yellow-belly cowards like Dick Cheney could kick back in their little red-neck towns, rack up a couple of DWI's, go to college, knock up his high school sweetheart all the while spouting vocal support for a war he himself didn't have the balls to go die for and, like his fellow coward at heart George W. Bush, took purposeful actions to avoid. Another stellar hero you've chosen to worship there my friends.

3. Practically the entire leadership ranks of the Republican party vociferously supports George and Dick's Big Adventure in the sands of Mesopotamia. Which is why it strikes me as extremely paradoxical considering the FACT that none of these war pigs (with one exception which I'll discuss separately) has ever worn a military uniform. I've always wondered what kind of man who has never served a day of military service, much less been in actual combat, could so indifferently send other people's children off to fight and die in war, especially a war that was built on lies and deception. Here's a well documented list of which prominent politicians (from both parties) have served their country's armed services and which have not. When I see that list of Republicans who have not served the first word that comes to my mind is Chickenhawks. To put it bluntly, a Chickenhawk is someone who strongly supports war, but is too spineless to volunteer to put their own life on the line for it. What I find the most offensive about these Repukelican hyenas is that they have the nerve to portray their party as the party of true patriots that will save America from the evil-doers and the Democrats as the party of traitors who are terrorist appeasers. Looking at that list of GOP Chicken-shit-hawks, the brazen hypocrisy of their attacks on Dems patriotism is mind numbing, and it's one of the principal factors that fuels my rabid disgust for the Republican party as it exists in it's present form today.

The one Republican exception I mentioned in item #3 above is GOP Senator John McCain. McCain's Vietnam duty and POW stint are without question to be honored. His service and sacrifice embodies all that is good about our fighting men and women. Which of course is why Bush sent his attack dog Karl Rove to smear John McCain in the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary. The same scumbag tactics were employed against Democratic Senators and Vietnam veterans Max Cleland in his Georgia senate campaign and of course against Senator John Kerry in his 2004 Presidential bid. Now, a decent, fair-minded person might ask the question -- what kind of people would employ lies and deceit to question and attack the patriotism of their political opponents whom also happen to be military and war veterans? And if you had an ounce of honesty in you, the answer to that question would be -- the same kind of people who would employ lies and deceit to plunge their country into an illegal and unwinnable war, a war, which by all available evidence, appears to be nothing more than a money-making venture for their family and friends who are all deeply embedded members of the military-industrial complex, the same military-industrial complex by the way that WWII hero and Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans about in his famous 1961 farewell speech.

When candidly taking all of this information into account, analyzing it and putting it into proper context, it's unthinkable to me that any person in their right mind and with a functioning conscience would continue to blindly support men like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their neo-con friends. The Busheviks utilize code words and phrases like "Homeland", "evil-doers", "support the troops", "you're with us or against us", "watch what you say and what you do", and other propagandistic blatherings without shame. Only one doesn't need to be a studied historian to know that those same code words and phrases were once employed by men named Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Hirohito and others to cow their citizenry into blind allegiance and acceptance of their government's immoral deeds. I've no longer any doubt that there are many people in this country who would prosper and thrive under an authoritarian dictatorship. It's an inherent character trait of cowards to elevate their own fears, blind faith and allegiance to a higher plane of importance -- above more honorable virtues such as humility, compassion, skepticism, truth-seeking, informed dissent and a principled conviction to exposing lies and immorality wherever it lurks. As to me, my well of understanding and hope that people (particularly family and friends) will pull their collective heads out of their asses and recognize the reality of what's going on around them has pretty much dried up. It pains me to say it, but when the day (I didn't say IF) comes and I'm proven right, they had best not come to me begging for sympathy and forgiveness, because quite honestly I am not certain I'll have any left to share with them.

Watch the YouTube clip at the beginning of this post. Listen and analyze what's being said. Then either blissfully go about your Bush/Cheney worshipping ways or get off your ass and start asking questions and dissenting -- while you still have a choice in the matter.

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.
Bertrand Russell
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)

----krazee

GOP = Grand Ol' Perverts

Must suck (pun intended) to be a family values spouting, conservative Republican these days. Mark Foley, David Vitter, Randall Tobias, Ted Haggard, Bob Allen and of course the latest -- Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig.

All of this is fitting justice in addition to being the ultimate karmic blowback on the Republicans as a result of their hounding of Bill Clinton for his sexual hijinks. Bottom line is, and it's an old lesson -- those who live in glass houses shouldn't be throwing rocks -- and for the past several years the conservative hypocrites in the Republican party have been throwing boulders and now their glass houses are shattering around them.

Here's a little video to add a slightly different perspective to Larry Craig's "I am not gay" press conference yesterday.



----krazee

Death & Destruction - A Bush Business Model

"Operation Iraqi Freedom, it turns out, was never a war against Saddam ­Hussein's Iraq. It was an invasion of the federal budget, and no occupying force in history has ever been this efficient. George W. Bush's war in the Mesopotamian desert was an experiment of sorts, a crude first take at his vision of a fully privatized American government ... What the Bush administration has created in Iraq is a sort of paradise of perverted capitalism, where revenues are forcibly extracted from the customer by the state, and obscene profits are handed out not by the market but by an unaccountable government bureauc­racy. This is the triumphant culmination of two centuries of flawed white-people thinking, a preposterous mix of authoritarian socialism and laissez-faire profit­eering, with all the worst aspects of both ideologies rolled up into one pointless, supremely idiotic military adventure -- American men and women dying by the thousands, so that Karl Marx and Adam Smith can blow each other in a Middle Eastern glory hole."

A few people who are acquainted with my views on the Iraq war have the impression that I'm an anti-war, GOP bashing, Bush hating librul just for the fuck of it. How about a quick review? From the beginning I have reiterated ad nauseum that I'm not anti-war -- I'm just anti-this particular war. As to the charges of GOP and Bush hating? Abso-fucking-lutely. The Republican party ain't the Republican party of your grandpa anymore Buckwheat. All of the available evidence indicates quite conclusively that the GOP has been wholesale hijacked by and, is now controlled by, some of the most hideous creatures to crawl out of the oozing slimepit of life since the Paleozoic era.

Yeah, yeah, I know -- Bubba Clinton got the chrome sucked off his trailer hitch by a young, mixed-up, star-struck intern, then fibbed about it -- oh horror of horrors! For Chrissakes! Grow up and get the fuck over it will ya? Once you've set aside your childish Bubba hate-rage, take a moment to read this article in the most recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine. It's a sickening, infuriating story of war-profiteering corruption, thievery, thuggishness and, not to sound cliched -- evil -- on a scale so immense it makes Bill Clinton's horndog exploits look as tame and insignificant as an average episode of any daytime soap opera.

If Clinton's lies about his Monica skin-flute episode set off your anger air-raid sirens, then this story of how the Busheviks are sodomizing your puckered tax-paying sphincter all the while shortchanging our fighting men and women, instead of faux anger air-raid sirens going off in your head, your fucking brain should be exploding out of your skullcap into a humongous ball of fire with cranial chunks flying every which way slamming against the walls and dribbling down into gelatinous piles of goop on to the floor.

The first paragraph of this post above is a brief excerpt from that Rolling Stone article and it really strikes at the heart of what it is that fuels my enmity towards George W. Bush and his mafia clan. A post 9-11 America had been embraced by our allies and even non-allies around the world in solidarity against the barbarism of that prick Bin Laden and his terrorist freak show. The Busheviks had a chance to use that solidarity and good-will for the maximum good and to show the world that America and it's people were on a higher moral plane than the murderous terrorist scum. Instead, over the past 6 very surreal and unbearable years, the smug little man-chimp and his simian handlers pissed on all of that good will, stomped on it, shit on it, spat on it -- kicked it into the dirt -- and then they picked the mangled remains of it up off the ground and deliberately mashed it directly into the face of the world just because they could.

When I look back at history and some other war-time Presidents, Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Truman and analyze how they handled the grave life & death decisions they were confronted with -- I see true leaders, men of character and integrity who did the right thing for their country and their people when they just as easily could have chosen the wrong path. When I look at George W. Bush, I see a pathetic, sniveling little intellectual pipsqueak who's ignorance, hubris, immorality and appallingly frightful lack of decency and humanity has stuck a knife into the back of America's once exalted moral standing in the world. Thus - a mortally wounded American nation staggers forward -- the lifeblood and spirit of a good people spilled so carelessly, yet willfully. And it didn't have to fucking happen, and they all knew it. George W. Bush when confronted with his character building moment -- rapturously chose the wrong path. And when it's all said and done with, the little fake cowboy from Crawfish, Texas will go back to his blue-blood family of vampires and bask in their perverted sense of glory.

Meanwhile, America and the rest of the world will be left to recover the Boy King's shattered remnants of the formerly honored ideals of Truth, Justice and The American Way.

----krazee

IranAgeddon Anyone?

The right-wing flying monkeys are beating their odious little war drums again. Several stories have circulated in various media outlets this past week indicating that Cheney and the Neo-con clusterfuck brigade is planning to launch some type of military attack against Iran in the next 6 months.

Nevermind certain complexities that currently exist which might hinder their bloodlust -- you know -- little things like the fact that they can't even finish the current quagmire they've bumbled us into in Iraq for instance?? Or how about the fact that our military is near the breaking point and they can't even provide them with needed supplies and protective gear in Iraq?? Or how Bush & Cheney's grand "Coalition of The Willing" which has had so many member countries withdraw support for Georgie & Dick's Big Adventure that it's now called "The Coalition of The Coerced" because the majority of the remaining countries are small 3rd world countries, with a token dozen or so soldiers here and there who only remain involved because the Busheviks have threatened to pull international aid from them if they leave. Christ! -- even the British, our most ardent ally is quietly making plans to withdraw their last contingent of troops from Basra.

One of the biggest neo-con nutjobs -- former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton -- was on the teevee this past week (Fox Noize of course) and the blustery little peacock boldly stated that not only does he believe the rumors that the Bushies plan to attack Iran, but he actually hopes they do it!

It's time to dispense with the niceties now. Frankly speaking kiddies -- I'm convinced that it's long past time for us sane Americans who truly give a shit about this country's future to round up all of these strutting, foaming-at-the-mouth neo-con, cocksucking idiots, put them in straight-jackets and ship every one of their stupid fucking asses off to the Hague to be tried for war crimes.

Who, except the remaining 26% of brain-dead Bush supporters, enabled by the bent-over taking it up the ass whores in the mainstream media and a handful of shitting-in-their-pants irrational cowards, think that the Busheviks have any credibility at this point or believes they are truly acting in this country's best interest??

Please don't tell me you are believing these sons-of-bitches and their Iran is going to take over the world scare-mongering. Don't tell me with a straight face that you put any amount of faith into the words of the same bunch of prevaricating ass-clowns who told wild tales of Saddam's unlocatable WMD's, imminent mushroom clouds, insidious ocean-crossing flying drones that could destroy our coastal cities, scary looking aluminum tubes and assorted other hair-raising tall tales about the boogey man Saddam. And of course, who could forget? -- the manly, patriotic-themed stories about how if we invaded Iraq, toppled their government and occupied their country we would be greeted as liberators by hordes of grateful, doe-eyed Iraqis so thrilled with their liberation that they'd be throwing flowers and candy at us and bowing and planting big, dry dusty-lipped kisses on our soldier's combat boots as we marched triumphantly into their cities?

The neo-cons have been wrong about and lied about every fucking aspect of this depraved little war of their choosing. The evidence backing that statement up is sufficiently available in the public domain to anyone who gives a rat's fucking ass about the truth and is not afraid to confront the ugliness of it.

If these hellish cretins that refer to themselves as the Bush administration attack Iran, watch how quickly the few remaining allies we have on this planet distance themselves from us -- and an isolated America is an America in much greater danger than ever before.

It's a surreal time we live in. The neo-cons, who are of the same polluted mindset of the morons that got us into the Vietnam conflict, have milked the tragedy of 9-11 for every ounce of uber-patriotic vengeance they possibly could and as a result their cronies are singing the old song "Happy Days Are Here Again.." in the boardrooms of every defense industry company in the U.S. --- it's perpetual Christmas for the war profiteers for as long as the Bush/Cheney junta is in charge.

The sad and fearful part of it is that a good portion of America sleepwalks through it all, either oblivious and uncaring or aware and afraid to speak up.

If you haven't caught on to what I'm trying to convey to you yet, let me put it in fairly rudimentary terms -- riding the coattails of American's fear which emerged from the 9-11 attacks, some of the most contemptible and hideous human beings on this planet are methodically nurturing the cancerous, hybrid seeds of fascism which they have maliciously planted deep into the fertile soil of the benevolent national psyche. And I honestly fear that the end result will be the end of Democracy as we've known it in this country in the not too distant future.

----krazee

War Pigs Have the Power -- For the Moment That Is...

Playing around with Windows movie-maker, I put together this little clip for all my Bush-loving friends and family. It's from the heart.



----krazee

I Heart The Daily Show

Jon Stewart and The Daily Show nail it again. Skewering Fox News toad Neil Cavuto for giving George Bush a rim job in a rare interview. Cavuto, like most of the Fox Noize screechers, simply looks like an ass-kissing fool here and if he's not embarrassed, he should be. Fortunately that's what we have Jon Stewart for. The link to the video clip follows.

[CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO CLIP]

----krazee

Floyd's Waters Sings - You Listen!

I've always really liked the music of Pink Floyd. When I was in the military one of my barracks buddies was a huge Floyd fanatic and played The Dark Side of the Moon album day and night, over and over again. I actually listened to those songs so much, I'm convinced that they're permanently recorded in some unalterable cranial mimeograph deep in the recesses of my ever shriveling brain cavity.

Anyhow, when Floyd broke up, I kinda sorta lost interest in their newer stuff. For some reason, perhaps unfounded, they just didn't sound the same to me anymore.

Not to take anything away from the great guitarist David Gilmour, I think the reason may have been the absence of Roger Waters -- whom I never really paid a great deal of attention to but after rediscovering his music, I'm beginning to form the opinion that he may have been the actual philosophical and intellectual musical genius at the heart of Floyd's unique sound.

Anyhow, here's a great video of Roger Waters singing his song "Leaving Beirut" a beautiful song in the classic Floyd tradition and of course with the requisite digs at Dumbya Bush, the war-mongers and the religious nutballs. Enjoy.



----krazee

The Bush Regime - Missing Hearts, Souls and Minds - A Portrait of Evil

To the 26-29% of Bush groupies out there -- peel your lips off George Bush's limp dick long enough and please for once be honest and tell me that if instead of the current brain-dead chimp in the White House, it was John Kerry or Al Gore, would you just nonchalantly shrug off the following instances of Daffy-Duck-like incompetence and/or corruption?:

200,000 gov't issued, taxpayer paid for AK-47 Military assault rifles and pistols unaccounted for with no idea what happened to them and because no serial numbers were documented, no possible way for the government to track them.

380 tons (that's 760,000 pounds for you math flunkees) of high-grade explosives, which had been under controlled surveillance of the U.N.'s IAEA prior to Bush's shock & awe circus act, go missing from a major arms site near Baghdad. It isnt much of a stretch to think that some of that material made it's way into a few IED's, the insurgents weapon of choice which has killed and maimed many a U.S. soldier.

And of course - how could we forget about the mysterious disappearance of somewhere in the neighborhood of $9-12 billion missing and unaccounted for cash. The money came from revenues from the United Nations' former oil-for-food program, oil sales and seized assets -- all Iraqi money. I'm certain the Iraqi people appreaciate that bangup bookeeping job George.

And last but not least, plundering to the tune of about $20 billion the Iraqi people's one natural resource - oil - a resource which if it were to be managed wisely by honest, decent, thoughtful human beings could probably be the one single commodity that could be a catalyst to bring the various warring tribal factions to the negotiating table and help end or at least temper the internecine warfare which Bush's idiotic invasion unleashed. But we all know the dark truth here -- the Bushes, Cheney, Rice and many of the neo-con scum they've surrounded themselves with come from the oil industry themselves. Crude oil courses thru their veins and is the lifeblood of their detestable ilk. Those of of us who inhabit the reality-based community never bought the bullshit WMD story or the imminent mushroom cloud fables and other tall tales that were shoved down the throats of the American people by a worthless, cowed mainstream press/media who failed miserably to ask the important questions - questions which if they'd been asked and asked repeatedly might have resulted in this country actually focusing on capturing and/or killing the real culprits of Sept. 11th instead of allowing the Keystone Kop Busheviks to veer off into the sands of Mesopotamia to pursue a Bush family vendetta and long-planned oil swindle.

Heckuva way to win Iraqi hearts and minds there Chimpy and Dick -- invade their country, destroy their infrastructure, torture their citizens in Saddam's torture prison all while stealing them blind and plundering their natural resources. How anyone in their right mind in this country can still support these royally fucked up assholes is beyond any measurable comprehension I myself might have.

Anyhow, bearing all of that in mind, it's telling and a tremendously sad and damning indictment of the media in this country when a comedian with a half-hour comedy show that parody's the news actually has more truthful news content than major media newscasts themselves.

I speak of course of the inimitable Jon Stewart and The Daily Show on Comedy Central.

The video clip linked below, while meshing the fine art of comedic timing with the austere format of television news delivery, actually manages to inform We The People about those above-mentioned fuckups made by the Bush administration in the mismanagement of their insane Iraq war -- major fuckups by the way, which our dysfunctional and neutered mainstream media consciously and cowardly choose to cold-shoulder in favor of missing white women and jailed celebrity stories.

Jon Stewart is simply goddamn brilliant here. He's funny and he shoots a Cheney shotgun load of truth right between the eyes of the limp and useless mainstream press and their corporate whore paymasters. If more people turned off cable and television news and watched Stewart's The Daily Show report every day, this country would begin to take the first steps on getting back on the path of sanity from which we've collectively strayed. You also might get a laugh or two.

[CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO CLIP]

----krazee

High Plains Stormtroopers!

I have a friend (or 3) who believes my visceral disgust with the GOP, their leaders and their sheep-like followers is unfair and unfounded. However, this story from deep in the dark recesses of red-state America (Kansas) about how that state's Republican party leadership is forming a "Loyalty Committee" and requiring it's party members to sign "Loyalty Oaths" under threat of punishment or party banishment is not only stunning and frightening, but it also truly underscores all that is wrong with these conservatives and their ass-backwards, cult-like political movement.

Now I'll be the very first to admit, unashamedly, that I do indeed hold a deep contempt for the Republican party (in it's present manifestation) and most of their party platform and policies. Guilty as charged your honor! -- (for my last meal I request a box of Hostess Twinkies and a bottle of Cabo Wabo.) But seriously -- based on the level of damage these people have done to this country over the past 6 years, it's unfathomable to my mind why there's still a core group of around 30% of the voting public that still supports the GOP and their Goose-stepper-in-Chief George W. Bush. Although, when one contemplates the fact that around 60-70% of the people in this country believe in the existence of UFO's, Bigfoot and the imminent second coming of Jesus -- well -- perhaps it's not as shocking as it seems.

Nonetheless, as stated in a previous post, I have ceased trying to explain reason to these people. Being productive, informed members of the reality-based community does not interest these folks one tiny bit. The self-woven cocoon of fantasy, denial and talk radio/Fox News bullshit & lies, in which they co-habitate with like-minded zombies, serves as the official boundary line of their worldy knowledge and viewpoint.

But getting back to the original topic of this post -- this story from Kansas quite succinctly in a nutshell explains everything anyone needs to know about the modern day Republican party. Loyalty Committees?? Loyalty Oaths?? Holy Soviet Politburo BatShit! Why don't they just put on the brown shirts and swastika armbands and be upfront about it?? And it's not just the GOP bozos in Kansas -- the article says that the Republican Poobah's of at least 15 other states have implemented similar methods of purging the party of traitors who dare commit the hideously sinister crimes of thinking for themselves and associating with people of differing political views.

You know, all of this would be amusing in a cute, "Oh honey - look at the funny nutcases!" kind of way except these nutcases not only are serious, they've already proven that when they have control of government power, as they and Bush have had for 6 years, they absolutely cannot be trusted to honor long-established Constitutional law or respect the guiding principles of representative Democracy.

If a single party system of government that requires it's citizens to sign party loyalty oaths under threat of reprisal from shadowy party loyalty committees is what these people want, why don't they just pack up and head to Russia -- oh wait, not even Russia does that anymore. Hmmm -- about the only places I can think of that still operate under the communistic party loyalty over everything else concept nowadays are North Korea and Cuba -- Hmmm. Although obviously a dream of phantasmagorical proportions, the vision of a million rafts flotilla of GOP seig-heilers navigating their way to Cuba does bring a lump to my throat I must say.

The only other point I want to make about this story is the absolute, and starkly clear for those who are unafraid to see the truth, irony of what these Republicans are doing. Imagine the level of cartoonish cynicism required to promote and proclaim your party as the most patriotic and the party that will save America from the evil-doers who hate us for our freedoms (I would assume most of you who've gradjeeated clear thru the 6th grade or beyond would include the Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech and assembly in your own definition of freedoms). Yet under threat of reprisal and ostracization they would deny those very same freedoms to their own people?

If that kind of mind-staggering hypocrisy and flirtation with fanatical fascism doesn't set off any alarm bells in your brain --- well, all I can say is that in the interest of having a future democracy for all of us to live in, you may want to consider putting down that bible or latest copy of Weekly World News, turning off AM hate-radio and Fox News and spend a little serious time informing yourself.