Coalition for a Republican-Free America

Move ON, Mister Resident, Move ON Already

2007-09-21T12:54:00.000-05:00

http://coalitionforademocracticamerica.blogspot.com/2007/09/move-on-mister-resident-move-on-already.html

MOVE ON MISTER RESIDENT, MOVE ON ALREADY
by UncleAbe and PraetorOne
Edited by BibleBelted

Who in the hell does George W. Bush think he's kidding? Was it my imagination or did I actually hear the Pretender and Thief shedding more crocodile tears because a liberal organization dared to question the veracity of a general who, for all intents and purposes, is little more than an obedient puppet for an administration that has begun to believe its own lies and half truths? For those of you who missed the president's (20 September 2007) drivel--and you were God-awful lucky if you did--the Demander and Thief had the audacity to criticize the folks at Move On for daring to question a general whose rectum is little more than an opening through which the Bush Administration can insert its hand whenever it needs a ventriloquist's dumbly to defend the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq which has now devolved into a full blown religious civil war.

Oh. I'm sorry.

The Administration doesn't like to call it a religious civil war. That might be too untidy, perhaps a tad too honest. The current Orwellian doublespeak for what we have created in Iraq is "an ethno-sectarian conflict over power and territory." Or if you will, a religious civil war replete with ethnic cleansing.

But I seem to have digressed. Listening to this President complain because the folks at Move On dared to criticize a doctored report--which by the way was more authored by Bush and Cheney than it was by General Petraeus--is a little like listening to Adolf Hitler deliver a lecture on the evils of violence and antisemitism. Even as Bush delivered his usual half-baked platitudes about insulting the military I couldn't help but think that there's a huge difference between criticizing the Bush/Petraeus report and what George W. Bush has done to our military, and in my humble opinion someone should take this morally deficient president aside and explain that there is a difference between the kind of criticism that we heard from Move On and the kind of Mass Murder that has been committed by the Neocons in the name of oil, money, and empire.

Nearly 4,000 American troops dead. Nearly 21,000 wounded. Thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqis killed, maimed, and battle scarred. That is the direct result of the Bush Administration's illegal invasion and occupation. Now you tell me. Which is more damaging? Words which openly question the competency and honesty of an incompetent and dishonest Administration and its all too many Mortimer Snerds, or just condemnation of a domineering president and an acquiescent general who regurgitates the Demander and Thief's rhetoric on demand?

And while we're at it, will someone please tell me just why in the hell our elected officials should take the time to condemn justified political speech? Granted, Move On was audacious enough to refer to the general as General Betrayus, but let us talk turkey here my friends. The General has betrayed us. He has betrayed the American people and in refusing to question the congenital malignancy of our sociopathic president; he has betrayed the very troops who he and the Administration so hypocritically claim to support. Moreover I find it interesting that the same party which slimed John Kerry's war record through the Swift Boat Liars association, and which denigrated the reputation of Vietnam Veteran/triple amputee max Cleland should opt to condemn Move On for far less caustic criticism. Did we see a Congressional condemnation of the Swift Boat Liars? No. Did we see a Congressional condemnation of the goons and thugs who compared Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden? No.

But that's what it takes to be a Republican today: duplicity and arrogance.

These people are perfectly willing to condemn minor examples of what they themselves do on a regular basis. Comparing Max Cleland to Osama Bin Laden; telling us that you're either with them or with the terrorists: Are these or are these not the same kinds of tactics that were employed by Joe McCarthy during the abominable Red Scare of the 1950s? You'd think that in the 53 years the Republicans would have learned a few new tricks--or better yet--developed a sense of decency. In 1954 Joe McCarthy accused the United States military of harboring communists. Prior to that he had turned America into the 20th version of 1692 Salem, creating a witch hunt climate in which people were persecuted on the basis of mere suspicion. During that time McCarthy himself played the part of a genuine witch hunter with great enthusiasm, less concerned about uncovering communists than he was in using the publicity and propaganda which stemmed from his own actions to bolster his political career and personal popularity. In other words, Joe McCarthy was more interested in Joe McCarthy than he was in the protection of his own country. Having unleashed the dogs of persecution in the arts and entertainment community he turned on the churches and finally on the United States military. Does anyone out there remember the statement: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessnesses...Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"* Those words were delivered by Boston Attorney Joe Welch and they were heard by millions of Americans during televised Senate hearings. They also brought about the long overdue fall of Senator Joe McCarthy as a political force in this country.

I think it's time that we ask the same question of the Republicans once again. As in the 1950s the right wing witch hunters and McCarthyites have again resorted to sliming those who would ask legitimate questions, to smearing those who would offer justifiable or even constructive criticism. I think we all need to remember that the criticism leveled by Move On was not so directed against the General as it was against the Bush administration for using the General as a front to offer a doctored report which had been manipulated by George W. Bush himself. We also need to remember that the Administration has created arbitrary standards which are designed to disguise the actually damage which is currently taking place in Iraq. For example. If an Iraqi is shot in the back of the head that counts as a terrorist attack. If an Iraqi is shot in the face that particular attack is counted as a mere murder having nothing to do with terrorism. It is through tricks, manipulations and machinations such as these that George W. Bush and his War Crime Syndicate have been able to fudge the data and present phony progress reports which are designed to both, the peoples representatives and Senators, and the citizenry itself.

If anything Move On was not harsh enough in its criticism of George W. Bush himself. Perhaps Move On should have openly stated that George W. Bush has betrayed us. He betrayed us when he manufactured phony evidence during the build up to the war. He and his Neocon cronies betray the troops when they send these battle weary young men and women back to Iraq again, and again, and again for multiple tours of duty without proper rest and relaxation between tours of duty; he betrayed the troops when he sent them into battle without sufficient provisions; he betrays the American people every time he tries to sell out Constitutional protections in favor of security, and God knows that he betrays the people, the Constitution, and the troops when he claims personal and political powers more appropriate to a Francisco Franco or a Benito Mussolini.

In fact...the more that I think about it...George W. Bush is just an ugly betray with a name and a beady-eyed face connected to it

* For a transcript of the Army-McCarthy Hearing please click on the following:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6444
For a general history of the fall of Joe McCarthy please click on
http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Have_you_no_sense_of_decency.htm

THEY KEEP DEMANDING MORE

2007-09-06T13:34:00.001-05:00

http://atheism.about.com/b/a/259406.htm

When I was a kid the Christian Right used to swear that it would be happy with a moment of silence in our public schools. Then they wanted student led prayer. Then they wanted prayers led by teachers.

When I was a kid the Christian right used to swear that it was primarily interested in stopping abortion, contraption seldom coming into the discussion. Then they wanted to eliminate certain kinds of contraception because they believed those forms of contraception destroyed life at the moment of conception. Now the truth has finally come out. They want to eliminate contraception all together and force their sexual mores onto the entire population, namely celibate lifestyles until marriage.

This, of course is just another stab at an establishment of religion. In a Christian Republic, or a theocracy if you will, the schools would be geared up to spread the Christian faith. So of course they're going to take what they can get piece by incremental piece. In a Fundamentalist Theocracy, gays and lesbians would become second class citizens--if not subjects of public execution--so of course the Fundamentalist have to begin by denying gays and lesbians employment, marriage, and adoption rights. In a Fundamentalist theocracy women would be subservient to men, and to achieve that end the Fundamentalists want to take away a woman's right to control her own body and destiny. They began with abortion. They they expanded their demands to include certain forms of contraception. Then they revealed their true colors, exclaimed that God wants us to live celibate lives until marriage, when in fact what they really mean, is "honey, back to the bad old days of knocked up, barefoot, and no control over your own body and destiny." The fitly Fundamentalist bastards know that they can't effect an outright theocracy all at once because that really would violate the Constitution, so what they're trying to impose the various beliefs of their Fundamentalist "Christianity" piecemeal on a nation of approximately 300 million people. To which I ask, why should a maximum of 28 percent of the American people, of a particular group of one particular faith be allowed to impose ANY of its values on the nation as a whole?

If they want to pray (some might say that they prey) let them do so in designated times and places as other extracurricular groups are required to do. If they don't ant to use contraception they should get out their thermometers and hope to God the damned thing is properly calibrated. If they want to be celibate they themselves know what is best for them and how they can best maintain their celibate lifestyles until marriage. If they are offended by homosexuality they can stop snooping n what their gay or lesbian neighbors are doing and not engage in homosexual acts. In other words, it's about time that these Pecksniffian Puritans began to mind their own business and removed the motes from their own eyes.

Because I for one, am getting a little sick and tired of being told how to live, think, and behave by a vocal minority with the fanaticism of a Reverend Jim Jones and the collective IQ of a used condom.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

2007-08-18T13:06:00.000-05:00

The following post was composed by our team member Kelli. It is actually an interview with one of our former members who was forced to resign due to increasing health problems. That said it should banish the myth that George W. Bush is a modern day Franklin Roosevelt, a president whose legacy Bush, Cheney, and the authoritarian Neocons have been attempting to undermine since they usurped power in the election of 2000. Anyone with a basic understanding of World War II knows full well that George W. Bush is not an FDR. In fact, their are ways in which Bush and his cronies more closely resemble the enemies that we were trying to overcome during the 1930s and 1940s; specifically the forces of pirate capitalism at home and unrestrained totalitarianism abroad.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
COMMENTS FROM A SUNDAY AFTERNOON
By Donatra (Kelli)
Edited by Praetorone (Brandon)

During the weeks and months leading up to my marriage, my then future husband told me that I would be marrying into a veritable united Nations and In many ways, he was right on center. My husband is part Irish and Puerto Rican, a former Catholic turned Buddhist. My oldest (half) brother-in-law is part Puerto Rican and Part Swedish, and is a very liberal member of the Unitarian Church, while my youngest (half) brother-in-law is part Puerto Rican and part Danish and describes himself as a progressive Christian. My father-in-law is part Irish, German, and Scottish, a former Presbyterian turned atheist. His wife, my husband's step mother, is part Dutch, Polish, and German, a former Jew turned Episcopalian. And her 87-year-old Uncle is a German-Dutch Jew who immigrated to this country with his parents in the year 1928, luckily missing the rise of Hitler and the nightmare years of the Third Reich.

This is a man whose body is slowly but certainly being crippled by rheumatoid arthritis and failing vision. that's a pity because this is also a man with degrees in both medicine and law, and who sees it as a civic duty to remain informed about what is happening in both, the country he adopted and in the rest of the world. And yet, despite increasing physical infirmities his mind is alert and his memory appears to be as sharp as ever. In may ways he and some of the middle aged members of our crew serve as our 'in house" historians and we are always grateful when Abe can offer his unique insight to some of our materials. Indeed, up until a few years ago, when a series of mini strokes began to affect his vision, he was a semi active member of our old blog, and if you want the honest to God truth, we rather miss him.

One of the benefits that comes from having elderly in-laws (my "great uncle-in-law" turned 87 earlier this year) is that he has actually experienced, lived through this wonderfully interesting and often times bizarre thing that we call history. This of course means that he has first hand information at his command that we don't have, the kind of information that comes from watching the march of history from a personal point of view, not from reading about events, places, and individuals in history books and biographies. As an eye witness to some of the watershed events of the 20th Century my Uncle-in-Law naturally has opinions about current events, and as an 87-year-old man whose family followed the rise of the Nazi regime throughout the late 1920s and 30s, he of course has an interesting take on those who would compare themselves to the great and near great figures of the past.

Nothing irritates my Uncle Abraham more than when members of the Bush Administration compare themselves to the members of the Roosevelt Administration.

"It's Ironic," Abraham told me. "On the one hand these people--and I use the term loosely--want us to think of them as modern Day FDRs, bravely leading America through another world conflict, but," he adds in a rolling German accent, "on the other hand they are attempting to dismantle everything that Roosevelt did to protect the lower and middle classes. They're trying to have it both ways and anyone with a serious background in history knows that they are playing fast and loose with the facts." In addition, Abe is distressed by the disingenuous rhetoric from the current Administration which attempts to equate the current war on terrorism with the tragedy that was the Second World War.

"I don't think people today understand just how serious things were back then," Abe offers. "By the early 1940s--1942 I believe--the world situation was grim. Very grim. Hitler, the Nazi war machine, and their Italian allies had conquered most of the European continent and were threatening to crush the Soviet Union." Then, from memory he began to list the European nations which had come under the domination of Italian and German Fascism. "Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia. and Greece. Finland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania, " he added, "were Axis occupied territories; Italy had swallowed up Libya." Continuing in a similar vein, Abe pointed out that by 1942 the German war machine had conquered the Ukraine and was poised to swallow up Moscow, Stalingrad, and the oil rich Caucuses. And then there was that matter of Italy's occupation of Libya." Or, as my husband has put it on previous occasions, the Mediterranean was little more than an Axis dominated lake.

The situation wasn't any better in the Pacific where by September 1941, Imperial Japan had consumed Korea, Manchuria, much of the Eastern Coast of China, French Indo China, Formosa, and Sakhalin Island. Moreover there were plans in the making to conquer Thailand, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, New Guinea, the Philippine Islands, the Solomon Islands, the Kurile Islands, etc. Chillingly, most of these objectives were obtained within a period of six months, including the sneak attack o Pearl harbor which quite literally destroyed the American presence in the Pacific Ocean. "Again," Abe offers. "Nobody realized how badly off the United States was during this time." Noting past influence by the isolationists in the form of the America First Movement, Abe informed me that in the mid 1930s America had the 18th largest military in the world. Both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had superior war machines and more war ready soldiers than the United States. "You have to remember," Abe said, "that the Isolationist movement fought President Roosevelt at almost every turn. They were determined to keep America out of another World War. The only problem was that this was the wrong war to avoid. But the Republicans were eager to score points against Roosevelt whenever they could and then, like now, they weren't afraid to engage in a little fear mongering. When I was a young man it was the fear of another conflict like the first World War. Today the Republicans use the fear of terrorism to smear their opponents. It's the same tactic played over and over again like a badly scratched phonograph record." When I asked Abe if the America First movement wasn't a broadly based movement that was composed of both, Democrats and Republicans, he responded by telling me that it was indeed a broadly based political movement, but that it was primarily a Republican led phenomenon.

"And I suspect that there was more than just a little Antisemitism mixed in there too. According to Abe, Antisemitism ran rampant in the years prior to the Second World War. Indeed, it wasn't really until the liberation of the Nazi death camps near the end of the war that Antisemitism became a dirty word. "There were people out there--at least i think they were people--who believed that Jews were in charge of the banks. There was a belief out there that we were a part of some secret society or maybe a conspiracy to control and dominate the United States, maybe even the world." During his youth Abe frequently heard the old cliches about Jewish people: That they were all rich, that they were dishonest in business transactions, that they had killed Christ, that they were vampires who wanted to drink the blood of Christian children. "Both the Catholic and Protestant churches had troubling theories about Jews," he remembers. "Much of the hatred towards Jews in those days came from Christian denominations who taught that Jews were tools of the devil. The Catholics and the Lutherans stand out as some of the most virulent, but other denominations were just as loathsome." Abe also remembers reading about and seeing photos of Nazi youth, American children who burned books in public squares, and who goose stepped to the antisemitic chant that was drifting out of central Europe during the prewar years. "They looked Iike and behaved like the Hitler youth," Abe said. "Like their counterparts in Germany and Austria, they would congregate at some public square, throw books on blazing bonfires, and sing the praises of Hitler and antisemitism. And it didn't help to have a national hero who was openly sympathetic to the German regime." When asked to specify, Abe informed me that Charles Lindbergh, a popular aviation hero of the era, had been a driving force in the isolationist America First movement, as well known for his antisemitism as for his aviation talents. "Lindbergh was no friend of the English or the French and he certainly wasn't a small d democrat. If you ask me I don't think he saw the conflict between Hitler and the western democracies as a fight between freedom and totalitarianism." This after all was a man (Lindbergh) who, had traveled to Germany and offered glowing reports about the rising Reich and German peoples love for their nation and Fuhrer. Lindbergh, like so many of the people in the America First movement, refused to recognize Hitler and the Nazi government for what it was. "As a matter of fact, I think he appreciated the regime, gave it what you kids call an 'official thumbs up.'"

So how does the current conflict differ from World War II? "The terrorists can do a lot of damage if they set their minds to it," said Abe. "But it isn't like World War II. It is not as if they can destroy an entire nation state. It is not a global conflict. We see pockets of conflict. An offensive here, and offensive there, but we do not have large armies of hundreds of thousands of soldiers sweeping across continents trying to capture Berlin, or Paris or London. It's an entirely different situation. Entirely different."

So are there other differences? "Most certainly," Abe responded. According to Abe, the entire attitude is different. "No politician, no leader, not a Democrat or a Republican would have treated a returning Vet (during World War II) the way George W. Bush treats returning Veterans from Iraq. "That creature in the White House has no feelings for anyone but himself. He has this attitude that tells him volunteer soldiers are disposable. He cares as little about our returning Veterans as he does for anyone else. Your husband, and others, believe that the man is a sociopath. I don't have a problem with that argument, because I believe it to be true." In Abe's opinion Franklin Roosevelt had a watershed event in his life which made a huge difference in the way he treated people. "The rich people in this country viewed Roosevelt as a traitor to his own class. After he was struck with polio and lost the use of his legs, Mister Roosevelt developed an even deeper understanding for people." And by people Abe does not mean the members of the economic elite. He means the lower and middle classes. "Unlike Herr Bush," Abe continued, "Roosevelt developed a deeper compassion--genuine compassion for the middle and lower classes. Herr Bush, on the other hand, has yet to want for anything. The man suffered, that much is certain. He suffered when his little sister died of leukemia and his parents wouldn't allow him to mourn. But Bush never used that experience to develop genuine empathy, genuine sympathy. It may well be that he never could. Sincere empathy and compassion are alien concepts to this man." Bush, Abe believes. was probably born a psychopath or a sociopath. The manner in which he was raised didn't help the situation either. When a sociopath or a psychopath is constantly bailed out of the trouble that they so often cause for themselves, it only makes them more reckless and more dangerous. Bush has a long record of close calls, and a powerful clique of friends and family who have repeatedly pulled his chestnuts out of the fire. He has yet to face the consequences for his wrong doing, although I suspect--very strongly mind you--that this is about to change now that the rats are abandoning the sinking ship of state."

Unlike Roosevelt, Bush has yet to create a sense of the American people being "in it together." This isn't only true of the failed invasion of Iraq, but in his failure to demand any real sacrifice from the American people. "Look, Kelli, when I was a young man during World War II we rationed--don't laugh--rubber. When it became clear that America required rubber and that the Germans had learned how to make synthetic rubber, we realized that we had to do something until we had the ability to synthesize rubber right here at home." This Abe explains led to a number of unpopular steps by "that man in the white house." One of the most unpopular involved tires. In an effort to conserve rubber the Roosevelt Administration made it more difficult to buy a new set of tires. Ultimately this led to gas rationing. "The idea went something like this. We didn't have a gas shortage, but Roosevelt realized that if he made it harder to drive long distances there would be an automatic conservation of rubber." Other moves had already been taken with other products made out of rubber, but with the advent of gas rationing the people were not at all amused. "Roosevelt remedied the situation with one of his fireside chats. He simply went on the air, explained the situation, and promised that the government was actively promoting a synthetic rubber program." In addition to an explanation Roosevelt initiated a drive in which various rubber products (everything from the rubber in women's girdles, to rubber balls, rubber bands, and pet toys) were collected during rubber drives and shipped off for recycling, to be used in the war effort. "It made the American people feel as if they were doing something for the war effort." And more importantly it reduced opposition to gas rationing. "And there was an up side to the situation." And what an up side it was. traffic fatalities went down. People went to movies and learned to enjoy simpler, more personal and interactive forms of entertainment. "Instead of driving all over creation on weekend joy trips, we stayed at home, got to know our neighbors. We rediscovered that wonderful thing called conversation--something your generation should rediscover."

Rubber wasn't the only product that was rationed. Sugar was rationed. American housewives learned to use corn syrup and saccharine (yes it was around even then) as substitutes in their baking. Those same housewives also learned to cut back on eggs in their baking, they poured yellow dye into margarine so that our troops could use real butter. Nylon was another product which had to be rationed. To that end the one piece bathing suit disappeared and the two piece bathing suit was born. The hemlines on now unpleated skirts rose to above the knee. Even fat was recycled. "And then there were the coupon books," Abe chuckled. "As a part of the war time rationing families were given coupon books. You'd use thee coupons to buy food, clothing, shoes, you name it. If I remember correctly, you had to make the coupons last for a month. It was an inconvenience, but it certainly rationed all those important things that were needed by our troops." Revealing an obvious, but restrained anger, Abe then added, "that's a hell of a difference from THIS aschloch who sent our troops into battle without the proper equipment for an invasion."

And then there were the price caps and tax hikes. Unlike The Shrub, Roosevelt recognized the fact that America needed to properly fund the war, Bush has yet to so much as ask the American people to make a significant sacrifice towards for this war and the troops. "He's more interested in protecting his own class and his own fortunes," Abe grumbled accusingly. "If Roosevelt was a traitor in the eyes of the wealthy elite, what is the aschloch? Your husband is a Star Trek fan. He says it time and time again. 'The needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few.' Roosevelt understood this. The American people (in the 1940s) understood this. Bush, however is the only schwienhund who does not --as you kids like to say--'get it.' He has taken your husband's very logical axiom and he has turned it on it's head. 'The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many.' Maybe it's even worse. Perhaps he believes that the needs of 'the one,' (himself) outweigh the needs of the many." In either event, Abe truly believes that Bush is more interested in protecting his own elite class than he is in preserving the middle class. "That young man of yours has a theory and it goes something like this: Conservatives see democracy and a thriving middle class as a threat to order and stability. To that I would add, 'you are damned right my dear boy. Especially when it's the conservatives who will be dictating the order and stability." In Abe's opinion the so called conservatives in this country despise, or perhaps even fear, a prosperous middle class because prosperity creates leisure time and leisure time gives people time to think about freedom,. democracy, and human rights. Sadly for us, "freedom, democracy, and human rights are anathema to conservative notions of order and stability"

"My parents came to this country in 1928 after my father read a copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf," said Abe. " Papa believed that if someone were crazy enough to write that kind of insanity that same person would be crazy enough to act on his writings if he ever came to power." Regrettably Abe's Aunts and Uncles refused to take Hitler's rambling treatise seriously. While Abe and his parents and three siblings came to the United States, the rest of the family refused to take the German warlord seriously. I don't think I have to tell you what happened to the European branch of his family. "Most of them didn't make it," Abe said ruefully. "Between outright extermination, disease, starvation, and being worked to death...You can guess what happened. Very few of them survived it."

Chillingly, Abe recognizes similar patterns between then and now. "I see another leader," Abe said, "an American leader who is using the same tactics that Hitler used during his rise to power. I see the scapegoating of racial minorities and homosexuals; and those antisemitic Dominionists who celebrate the idea of Jesus coming back to earth to kill and torture the Jewish infidels. Oh yes. They make me feel ever so safe." But it is the political shenanigans which trouble Abe the deepest. "I see (an abuse) of power at the expense of our civil liberties. I see the emergence of a unitary executive branch which is undermining the separation of powers in the same way that the Nazis undermined the Wiemar Republic. And the so called Patriot Act. Is this not the American equivalent of the Enabling Act which Hitler used to claim dictatorial power in the days following the Reichstag Fire?" According to Abe we have been here before. Sadly, the American people are not well versed in their world history and that has made it much easier for Bush Incorporated to rewrite the past record whenever it serves him to do so. "If Bush is cunning sociopath or psychopath--and I believe he is--he is also a megalomaniac. He craves power in the same way that an alcoholic craves the next shot of vodka. We've been here before, We've seen all of this before. But we still have people who think Bush is some kind of great war leader, and we still have people who are willing to give up freedom for security. Ignorance and fear are a frightening combination--especially when they can be manipulated to serve the twisted impulses of a corrupt, and I might add, power hungry leader."

--
Let Freedom Ring,

The Coalition for a Republican-Free America

Should Kids Be Classified Under Religious Sects?

2007-05-09T06:49:00.000-05:00

When it comes to matters concerning religion, theists and religious groups tend to get away with many of our liberties, with blantant disregard to secular norms and human rights. Rationality and reason, it seems, are applicable to many issues, but when matters of religion are concerned, no amount of reasoning, it seems, can seep into the fabric of entrenched religious dogmas.

Altar boys of a Catholic Church: Catholic Children?

Muslim Children?

Or Just Simply Children?

The minds of children are, metaphorically speaking, untainted blank sheets of paper. They are not born with any inherent beliefs, nor do they have the slightest dogmatic thoughts of invisible deities. Because they are born as such, learning becomes paramount to their existence, for even in a civilized world, knowledge is necessary to keep the child away from harm's way, as well as equipping them with the basic necessary skills for communication and survival. Hence, the idea that children can be attached with any sort of religious identities is not only ludicrous, it inhibits and limits the child's niche to a very selective community.

Richard Dawkins, an eminent atheist and professor, opined that no sane parent would call their child a Tory child, a left-wing child or a liberal child, yet they have no qualms calling them Catholic, Protestant or Muslim children. Such a degree of biaseness, it seems, has nothing to do with the child's beliefs.

All too often, religion is forced and shoved down the throats of children who are barely old enough to discern and rationalize the tenets of various beliefs, and religious folks will tell you that indoctrinating young children is easiest, since their minds are the most pliable at ages below ten. As children, their minds are "programmed" by natural selection to take orders without question. This evolutionary trait of compliance, it seems, allows children to learn the necessary skills for survival within the shortest time frame.

Unfortunately, this very trait has become a form of exploitation by parents who unwittingly indoctrinate their children to obey their respective religions blindly, without seeking any forms of justification, logic and rationality behind their faiths.

By labelling kids in accordance to the religions of their parents, there is also this tendency to segregate these kids from other kids who do not share their parents' religious backgrounds and creeds. Children in a Catholic school, for example, would likely not mix around as much with Protestant children as their catholic counterparts.

Another form of segregation of a more sinister kind may be that parents tend to imprint on the impressionable minds of their children that their beliefs are right, and the rest are outright false, and those so-called "infidels" who do not believe in their exclusive religion would find themselves burning in the raging fires of hell. This abject exclusivity leads to condescension and leads to further arrogance and segregation, for the child who harbors such fire and brimestone beliefs will not see eye to eye with people, possibly showing scant (or worst, disdain) respect to people who do not share their creeds and beliefs. Chances are, such children will stick to their own niche, seldom or never venturing to mix around with friends outside their own little band of religious kids and folks.

While I am not suggesting that classifying kids in accordance to their respective faiths that they are brought up in constitute child abuse, it is important to realize that children are far to young to make up their minds with regards to certain creeds and philosophies, and to label them as religious only serves as just another dastardly means of segregating them from an ideological and religious level.

-"What can it mean to speak of a child's 'own' religion? Imagine a world in which it was normal to speak of a Keynesian child, a Hayekian child, or a Marxist child. Or imagine a proposal to pour government money into separate primary schools for Labour children, Tory children, LibDem children and Monster Raving Loony children? Everyone agrees that small children are too young to know whether they are Keynesian or Monetarist, Labour or Tory, too young to bear the burden of such labels. Why, then, is our entire society happy to slap a label like Catholic or Protestant, Muslim or Jew, on a tiny child? Isn't that, when you think about it, a kind of mental child abuse?"

-Richard Dawkins, "Imagine No Religion"

Do you REALLY want America to be completely Republican-Free?

2007-05-03T01:27:00.000-05:00

According to Rassmussen Reports, voters are continuing to flee the GOP so fast that for the first time ever the number of Republicans has fallen into third place, behind not only Democrats (who they now trail by over 5%) but also behind the number of unaffiliated voters. Comparing the 31.0% of American voters who considered themselves to be Republicans now to the 37.1% of American voters who claimed to be Republicans on election day 2004, it appears that fully one out of six Republicans have left the party in only a bit over two years. Most have apparently become unaffiliated voters, though even the most expensive health care system in the world can only keep the Barry Goldwater-loving, Joe McCarthy idolizing, 'the only Democrat they liked was Wallace-- the old Wallace' generation of paleocon dinosaurs alive for so long. Some of them have gone on to a nice, very warm vacation by now.

If we project this rate of decrease linearly, we see that the by the end of the next decade, Republicans will vanish entirely from the earth. And because of their opposition to cloning, stem cell research and universal health coverage, they won't even be able to ward off their own extinction.

I believe the time to do something is now. We must not let this happen. We must apply the provisions of the endangered species act, and create a preserve where Republicans can be protected from all the causes of their ills. Only FOX News will be allowed to broadcast within the preserve, and a continual supply of rosy news will flash across a ticker, right under the quadruple rows of barbed wire fence.

We might even create a captive colony of 'breeder Republicans' in a zoo somewhere, where they can help promulgate the species. Yeah, I know-- you are claiming that they won't because they are afraid of fornication. Well, let me tell ya, that isn't a problem. Truth be known, Republicans love to fornicate. They just don't want anyone to know they liked it. So we will make sure that the Justice Department security cameras that have a little cutout of Alberto Gonzales on them don't show a few select areas for them (though if both the fornicating Republicans are of the same gender, the rest of the captive colony will likely cook them and eat them.)

We cannot let these beautiful creatures die off. After all, they are like a record cold day in May-- you need one once in a long while to remind you of why you are glad it is May.

So just send your check or money order for $100 to the address on your screen...

Yet Another Bush Idiocy Campaign

2007-02-08T10:24:00.000-06:00

Thought everyone might like to read this article I found...

Bush Proposes New State Names

AP - 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In what’s being hailed as a bold move, President Bush announced Thursday a piece of legislation that would change the names of many states in the country. While no specific date is set for the change, the president remains optimistic of the plan. “There’s so many to remember,” he lamented in the official statement. “It makes it easier for everyone in the country, especially all those kids I helped in No Child Left Behind. They don’t have to study as much, this way, which is how our school system should be. No studying. That’s not how kids learn.”

Many officials are surprised at the plan, and already there are steps being taken in Congress to block the new law. “It’s ridiculous,” asserted Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI). “It’s taken us this long to learn the state names that already exist. What’s the point of making new ones that we have to learn all over?” Proponents of the bill claim that the new system works better because of the clever name combinations the president created himself. “The new state names are much more efficient than the old ones,” stated Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX). “They’re taking the best elements from each state and merging them together to make what we’re calling MegaStates.” Hutchison, as well as inside officials in the White House, have also hinted that the proposal will, at some point, include a new name for the country. “Well, I don’t want to say anything definite yet but we might someday in the near future be known as ‘The United MegaStates of America,’” suggests a source close to the president.

This touches on recent efforts to redraw border lines between states, often connecting a Republican-dominated and Democratic-dominated state. Critics of the legislation claim the president is simply “trying to give his party more votes for Round 2008,” and have begun calling the plans “legislated gerrymandering.” While many Democrats acknowledge some of the combinations are “logical,” such as calling North and South Dakota The Dakotas, or North and South Carolina The Carolinas, the rest, they say, are “preposterous and an insult to this great country.” Other plans include combining New Hampshire and Vermont to form New Vermontshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island in Massicut Island, Wisconsin and Illinois for Illisconsin, and Montana and Idaho for Montanaho. Though those were the only connections explicitly stated in the proposal, many Washington insiders have suspected others may be coming in the future. Among the new names: Calivada, a combination of California and Nevada, and WashOreTon, for Washington and Oregon. Many also speculate that the remaining Midwestern states will be lumped together in a group known as The Middle. “I’ve heard the president say on more than one occasion that there’s so many damn states in the Midwest, who can remember them all? The Middle basically let’s you know where it is geographically, and obviously the states aren’t important enough to make a distinction for themselves. Why do we need to distinguish them further?” one White House official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, recounted. Bush emphasized, however, that Texas will not change. “Don’t mess with Texas,” he warned.

When asked about the rest of the states that were not included in the proposal, the president simply replied, “What other states?” Meanwhile, New York governor Eliot Spitzer has already declared that if the bill is approved, he will secede New York from the country.

GAY BASHING IN MICHIGAN

2007-02-03T12:29:00.000-06:00

During the long debate running up to the referendum that ultimately banned gay marriage and civil unions in Wisconsin, the fascist PIGS who are so opposed to gay marriage claimed again and again that banning civil unions or gay marriage would not--repeat NOT--have an effect on partner benefits, claiming that this was just rhetoric to scare the voting public at large.

Well, it appears as if the right wing bastards who proposed this are as dishonest as they are bigoted. The appellate court in Michigan recently ruled that it would be unconstitutional under Michigan's gay marriage ban to pay partnership benefits to those individuals who work for the State of Michigan.

Public universities and state and local governments would violate the state constitution by providing health insurance to the partners of gay employees, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

A three-judge panel said a 2004 voter-approved ban on gay marriage also applies to same-sex domestic partner benefits. The decision reverses a 2005 ruling from an Ingham County judge who said universities and governments could provide the benefits.

"The marriage amendment's plain language prohibits public employers from recognizing same-sex unions for any purpose," the court wrote. *

The upshot here is obvious. When the gay bashers and homophobes who were promoting a similar amendment here in Wisconsin told us that partner benefits wouldn't be affected, they were clearly LYING, and while lying is something those on the right side of the political spectrum do on a regular basis, I am still both happy and disgusted to use the all to familiar words:

I TOLD YOU SO!

Let's face it. The ultimate goal of the Christian right and of judges such as these is the eradication of homosexuals, a sort of cultural cleansing. If they can keep gays and lesbians repressed through legal means I'm sure they will do so. And if legal means don't work I suspect that at some time in the future they would pass laws declaring gays and lesbians to be non citizens, and finally subhumans, to be beaten and eradicated at whim. Think Nazi Germany.

As I've said before when fascist institutions, when bigots, want to test their muscle they almost invariably choose two groups to persecute: Jews and homosexuals, followed shortly by women and other convenient scapegoats. The actions of this "Peoples Court" are little more than legalized bigotry, homophobic at its worse: a small decision, by small judges, concerning a small-minded amendment to a small state's constitution. And if you don't think that I am using the word small in the most derogatory manner possible you'd better guess again.

* http://news.yahoo.com/s/po/20070203/co_po/michigancourtvetoessamesexbenefits

BUSH ANNOUNCES OPERATION CANNON FODDER

2007-01-12T13:51:00.000-06:00

"The Iraq government will appoint military commanders and two deputy commanders for their capitol. The Iraq government will deploy Iraqi Army and National Police brigades across Baghdad's nine districts. When these forces are fully deployed there will be eighteen Iraqi Army and National Police brigades committed to this effort along with local police. These Iraqi forces will operate from local police stations, conducting patrols and setting up check points and going door to door to gain the trust of Baghdad residents. This is a Strong commitment. In order to succeed our commanders say the Iraqis need our help. So America will change our strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down violence and bring security to the people of Baghdad. This will require increasing American force levels. So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq, the vast majority of them, five brigades, will be deployed to Baghdad. These troops will work along side Iraqi units and will be embedded in their formations. Our troops will have a well defined mission. To help Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, to help the local population, and to help insure the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs."

George W. Bush

Excerpt from a Speech dated

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

George W. Bush may be a sociopath and his followers may use war as a Viagra substitute, but you just have to give the American Fuhrer credit. When the son of a bitch decides to mess up he doesn't go half way. He's the living example as to why conservative Republicans always have to lie on the bottom during sexual intercourse--because they almost invariably fuck up. And this policy, indeed this president, is just one big fuck up with a name attached to it.

Where do I begin with the key points of the hackneyed failed policies that Bush had to offer. Let's just take them at random.

Does George W. Bush really think that he is going to create any kind of unity by embedding American soldiers with Iraqi forces and then letting them rampage on a door to door basis throughout the city of Baghdad? Yeah. That's going to earn us some real Brownie points. That's going to calm the double insurgency that the Sociopath select set into motion in March 2003. Why I can just see the response now. All those grateful, genuflecting Iraqis bowing down before the Iraqi thugs and American troops who have just broken down their doors and trashed their houses. Sweet Jesus we're back to the Neocon delusion of flowers and candy! The Sociopath select really thinks that the Iraqi people--who already want us to pack up and leave--are going to thank us for this. Oh, they'll thank us all right. And how. They'll hate us even more than they do now and even the few remaining Iraqis who still want us there will be pushed into the welcoming arms of the multiple insurgency movements that have been waiting for the professional screw up in the Whitehouse to make another mistake.

And then we have a problem with the Iraqi police. I don't know what newspapers or intelligence sources George W. Bush didn't read this week, but up to seventy percent of the Iraqi police force has been infiltrated by insurgencies; the Badr Brigade,* which claims to represent Iraqi Shias, and the Medhi Army** which is comprise of radical Shias. And let's not forget the disgruntled Sunnis who are fighting the disgruntled Shias.

Talk about an inability to learn from past mistakes: embedding 21,500 American troops in a situation where they can be fired on by multiple insurgencies. At the risk of repeating what has probably been stated many times over, it appears as if the sociopath select is still trying to finish that book about the god damned goat. God knows he isn't reading the news or intelligence reports. Someone really needs to tell this over glorified punk that to date American soldiers have trained and armed the Iraqi police; after which the same police have turned on their American trainers and killed them. A fact which the sociopath select has yet to comprehend.

Also of interest is the idea of using Iraqi police stations. Again,. where has this president been? Iraqi police stations have been targets for month after month after bloody month. Again, all the president will achieve is more bloodshed, more wounded troops, more dead solders, and more wounded and dead Iraqis.

Sadly the quoted portion of the speech wasn't the only area in which the president displayed a stunning lack of ethical comprehension. We now have George W. Bush on record openly accepting responsibility for his past mistakes. On the surface that sounds good, but like most right wingers, George W. Bush still believes that personal responsibility is something that applies only to the people below him. And when we're talking about George W. Bush, an unfeeling sociopath with obvious obvious traces of malignant narcissism, the people below means anyone who isn't George W. Bush. Once AGAIN our moronic megalomaniac has found a way to divorce consequences from personal responsibility. Come on now. Let's get real here. If your performed your job with the same degree of incompetence that George W. Bush and his crime family have performed their job in Iraq you would have been shown the door within weeks or perhaps even days. You would have been fired, downsized, sacked. You get the drift. With that in mind I am about to make a novel suggestion.

If the imbecilic decider in the oval office is truly serious about accepting responsibility he must prove to the American people that he is telling the truth. He must prove a certain degree of sincerity. For the well being of this country, for the well being of his own party, and for the well being of the freedoms that he so eagerly wants to roll back, George W. Bush and Vice Fuhrer Cheney should both step down, resign their positions immediately. Short of that I cannot think of another way in which this maladjusted maladministration can prove that it has taken responsibility for the destructive consequences of its imbecilic actions.

Of equal importance was what George W. Bush did not say. Note that we are not going to talk to Iran or Syria. That seems bizarre in the case of Iran. *** For all intents and purposes a majority of the Iranian people still like the American people. They like American culture: American movies, American fashion, American music. And while they don't want to entirely separate from their Muslim heritage, they do want a lightening of the burden that is the Iranian theocracy and the rule of the Ayatollahs. So what did George W. Bush do on Wednesday night? Once again he singled out Iran for another one of his little digs. It's almost as if he's TRYING to alienate the American people. And if Bush thinks for a minute that an armed invasion or even bombing of Iran will endear this country to the Iranian people, George W. Bush is sadly mistaking. Indeed, Bush's ignorance in this matter is somewhat baffling. The Neocons are viscerally nationalistic in their world view. You'd think that they would understand that an attack on Iran by an outside power would only have the effect of unifying the Iranians against the attacker. By the same standard the Decider's innate fear of diplomacy seems equally moronic. Throughout the cold war we maintained diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. Nikita Kruschchev stood up at the United Nations and threatened to bury us; a few years later that same Soviet dictator planted Soviet missiles in Cuba; and through it all we had arsenals of nuclear weapons pointed at one another but we did not break of diplomatic relations. George W. Bush simply has not learned the basic lesson that in the realm of international relations you keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. Of course it could be that George W. Bush is so incredibly dense that he couldn't tell a friend from an enemy at a distance of six inches. This, after all is the same President who looked into the eyes of Vladimir Putin and apparently found a soul mate.

In closing I shall only offer the following. Asking this president and vice president to show anything in the way of intelligence or normal human behavior is asking too much. George W. Bush has proposed an increase of 21,500 Americans troops. 21,500 will become sitting ducks in the cross fire of competing militias and insurgency movements. I see no reason to believe this mistake will be any less gruesome than previous mistakes. We've had 160,000 troops in Iraq before, and look at where we are today; look at what it brought us. It didn't make a difference then--unless you call an increase in the number of dead and wounded American soldiers a difference--and it won't make a difference this time either. All it will do is prolong the misery, create even more hatred for us in the Mideast, and breed more of the terrorism that George W. Bush and his empty-headed followers so foolishly think that they will control.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badr_Organization

** http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3604393.stm

*** As if to prove my point, on January 11th U.S. forces in Iraq conducted a raid in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil. The target? Iran's consulate. For more information check out: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aoEy7K5S8nqE&refer=us

OH SHUT UP AND GO AWAY!

2007-01-11T13:03:00.000-06:00

This is the text to a popular email that's flying around these days. I have received it from three different sources in the past few days. To give you some idea as to how disgusted I am with this piece of nonsense I have decided to post the entire text of the email here, in black. My corrections are written in blue. By the time I was finished with it I realized that the airhead who wrote this, a clueless spoiled brood sow named Vicky, was the epitome of what she chose to criticize. Make of it what you will. As for the author...OH SHUT UP AND GO AWAY!

The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll data I found hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right?

The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed, and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president. In essence 2/3s of the citizenry just aren't happy and want a change.

So being the knuckle dragger I am, I starting thinking, ''What we are so unhappy about?''

Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter? Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job? Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year? (Meaning what? That we have to deteriorate to the point of genocide before we have a right to complain? Talk about a straw man argument. How bad do things have to get before we're allowed to complain? )

Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state? (Notice that the author didn't mention anything about airport security, or the lack of privacy in emails, phone calls and the United States Mail.) Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter? I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough. ( I could show you a lot of dives and greasy spoons too, honey bunch--not to mention soup kitchens and emergency food pantries.) Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all involved. ( We're supposed to be grateful because of a basic necessity? Do we have to let corpses rot on the roadside before we have a right to complain? And while we're at it, 46 million Americans are uninsured and would probably lose their life savings and their homes even if they were to survive the initial trauma. ) Whether you are rich or poor they treat your wounds and even, if necessary, send a helicopter to take you to the hospital. (Again, no mention of the probable hospital stay that will follow the initial trauma.)

Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home. You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family and your belongings. Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes , an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90 percent of teenagers own cell phones and computers. (Oh Sweet Jesus. This person should have lived in the neighborhoods where I lived. Drive by shootings were common place. Rape, robbery, and drug abuse are common place in some areas of this country. Are we to ignore them because they don't compose good news? How typical of the over protected in our society to ignore real problems in the real world. Enough already with this cultural ignorance. Indeed, the whole tone her is turning into a rant of "I have mine, my life is great fuck the next guy!)

How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world? Maybe that is what has 67 percent of you folks unhappy. ( Almost all of which are being consumed by the fascist regime in Washington. Welcome to the world Of George Adolf Bush where religious freedom means the right to impose Christianity on nonChristians. Where social freedoms like marriage and domestic partnerships are limit ted to heterosexuals and where political freedom means the right of Republicans to rig elections, jam phone lines, and deny minority voters their right to vote.)

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S. , yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don't have , and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here. (Correction. Those people who refuse to see beyond the confines of their gated white communities are ungrateful spoiled brats AND BIGOTS who assume all is right with the world because all is right in their personal lives. And I might point out that the downward spiral of our popularity into outright hatred against us began under George W. Bush. )

I know, I know. What about the president who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? (And who used it to start an Iraqi Civil War of choice for colonial exploitation!) The president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? (Yes, most of which went to the top one percent who deserved it and needed it the least!.) Can this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled brats safe from terrorist attacks? The commander (DEMANDER) in chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me? (Take another look. Recruitment is way down. So much for your volunteer army.)

Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. (WRONG. We have a backdoor draft by which soldiers are forced to serve countless tours of duty and don't even get me started on the National Guard and how Bush has bastardized THAT concept.) They didn't have to go. They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ''general'' discharge, an ''other than honorable'' discharge or, worst case scenario, a ''dishonorable'' discharge after a few days in the brig. ( Take another look toots. Even the TROOPS are disgusted with this war, and I might add hat your rhetoric here reduces the troops to the modern day equivalent of human sacrifices. Are we supposed to applaud their deaths because they volunteered? And while we're at it, Why aren't those spoiled miscreants Barbara and Jenna Bush serving in the armed forces? Where are the sons of our politicians? Why didn't Republican law makers demand that their sons and daughters go off to fight. Oh Jeeze. Could it be that SOME people in this country want other people's kids to die so that THEIRS won't have to die? Talk about spoiled fucking brats. As for the idea that troops will only serve a few days in the brig...Just let them speak out about Bush and his war crimes, or let them refuse to go back for another tour and they face COURT MARTIAL CHARGES followed by at least a couple of years of imprisonment. NOT a few days in the brig. Get back into the real world little girl!)

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans? Say what you want but I blame it on the media.( Most fascists do. Don't change the offending behavior--shoot the messenger!) If it bleeds it leads ( Bush created enough bleeding ) and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells , and when criticized, try to defend their actions by "justifying" them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book and do a TV special about how he didn't kill his wife, but if he did ? Insane! (Yes, but this was the FOX Propaganda Network!)

Stop buying the negative venom you are fed everyday by the media. Shut off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. (Translated into modern English, don't think, ignore bad news, and remain in ignorance!)

There is exponentially more good than bad.

WE ARE THE MOST BLESSED PEOPLE ON EARTH,

WE SHOULD THANK GOD SEVERAL TIMES PER DAY!

(We are and we did--in November when the American people told the Nazi sociopath in the Whitehouse that we were sick of him and his fascist policies. PRAISE THE LORD! THANK YOU A THOUSAND TIMES OVER!)

--
Noli nothis permittere te terere
Brandon

HAPPY HOLIDAY!

2006-12-23T15:11:00.000-06:00

To our our readers and to ourselves. A very happy, safe, and Merry Christmas

The Cast and Crew at the Colaiition for a Republican-Free America

Married to the Mob.

2006-12-18T22:27:00.000-06:00

I am posting a serious post here. But it's about a topic that everyone should become educated about: How John McCain got where he did.

Ever since the 2000 election, when Vietnam combat veteran John McCain burst onto the scene in the Republican Presidential primaries as a 'moderate alternative' to George W. Bush, it seems that he has led a charmed political life. George Bush is known to detest McCain personally, but he has needed him. Liberals held their fire because every now and then McCain throws them a bone (in fact John Kerry wasted valuable time and effort trying to convince McCain, who was the chair of the Bush campaign in Arizona, to defect and run on a ticket with him; what it also meant was that when John Kerry picked John Edwards for the ticket, everyone knew he was a second choice.) Independents ooze over the conservative McCain (and conservative he is, just look at his voting record,) as if they think he is one of them. Even Bush backers, like Pat Robertson (who thoroughly trashed McCain in South Carolina) have warmed up to him.

And one of McCain's biggest assets, according to most of these people is that he eschews negative campaigning.

There is a good reason for that though. It's a tale that involves organized crime, corruption and murder. Let's say that John McCain never runs a negative ad against his opponents because he doesn't want them to dig too hard.

It's because McCain is where he is because of his marriage to his second wife, Cindy. No, Cindy Hensley McCain is not where the story begins. She was a young 25 when McCain married her (he was 43). According to the Arizona Republic on June 5, 1999, McCain joked that his marriage was based on a 'tissue of lies.' Both he and she had lied to each other, she claiming to be older than she was and he claiming to be younger. Yeah, I know-- what a good foundation for a marriage to start off on. To their credit the McCains however have stayed together. Or maybe there are other reasons...

One wonders what Cindy told McCain about her father. When did McCain learn how her father-in-law Jim Hensley made his fortune? Sooner or later he had to be dealt in on the 'family jewels.' After all, they helped finance a run for Congress and not long after that for the Senate.

Jim Hensley and his brother Eugene went to work after World War II for Kemper Marley, a wealthy wholesale liquor distributor. Marley, in fact, had once been a bookie, getting his start working for the Transamerica Wire Service, a betting service established by mafiosi Gus Greenbaum (who was murdered with his wife when their throats were slashed in bed in 1958). Until 1947, liquor was rationed by the government. Apparently Marley did quite well in spite of the restrictions, and in 1948 the reason why became clear. Eugene and Jim Hensley were convicted of falsifying records on behalf of Marley's distributorship, United Liquor (along with fifty other Marley employees) to conceal the illegal distribution of hundreds of cases of liquor. Jim Hensley got a six month suspended sentence.

In 1953, Jim Hensley, then the General Manager for United Liquor, was charged again for doing the same thing again. Marley paid for top notch legal representation though (future Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.) Hensley still went to prison, but took the fall when the rest of the company was cleared. According to an article in American Mafia.com, Marley rewarded Hensley for his loyalty to the organization:

When Hensley strolled out of the joint, Marley bought his silence with a lucrative Phoenix-based Budweiser beer distributorship.

That distributorship and the rest of Marley's empire did very well over the decades for both Hensley and Marley, making both men multi-millionaires.

In fact, Marley was interested in more than just liquor. In 1976, then Gov. Raul Castro, a Democrat, appointed Marley, then a billionaire and the state's richest man, to the state racing commission.

And that's when one of those pesky investigative reporters got in the way. The reporter's name was Don Bolles and he worked for the Arizona Republic. Bolles discovered a land fraud ring and other crimes that appeared to lead to Sen. Barry Goldwater and others in Arizona's power structure. And he discovered that Kemper Marley, newly appointed to the State Board Racing Commission, had connections to the Mafia. In fact, Marley was a close associate of Peter Licavoli, the mob boss for Arizona. Marley had also served as Chairman of the Board for Valley National Bank, which helped bankroll Bugsy Siegel's construction of the Flamingo in Las Vegas. Digging into Marley's past also uncovered his earlier work for Gus Greenbaum. The revelations forced Marley to resign from the commission.

And Kemper Marley wasn't someone you crossed lightly.

On June 2, 1976, Bolles climbed into his car and was blown apart by a bomb under the driver's seat. Pieces of his body were strewn around the parking lot. Bolles amazingly survived for eleven days and said to investgators on the scene, "They finally got me. The Mafia. Emprise. Find John (Harvey) Adamson."

Adamson was later convicted of the murder. But who hired him? That trail was never really followed up on, according to members of the Arizona Project, a group of reporters who began looking into mob ties after the murder.

Following Bolles' death, more than 30 journalists from the then-newly formed Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) group arrived in Phoenix to carry out their late colleague's work....

Don Devereux, another Arizona Project reporter, feels the IRE team may have trusted the authorities too much. "We accepted very uncritically their scenario. In retrospect, we were very naive to get lead around. It really isn't something that we should be running around congratulating ourselves about," says Devereux of the IRE investigation...

"The biggest disservice we did to Bolles was not paying more attention to him," says Devereux. "His dying words were words we should have glommed onto a little more seriously, because when he was lying on the pavement he said: `Adamson, Emprise, Mafia. ... Emprise was almost Bolles' white whale. He was obsessed by them...."

Emprise, a Buffalo, NY based sports concessionire with known mob ties, had a circuit of Greyhound racing tracks in Arizona. So who was named to the Racing Commission was of vital interest to Emprise. Enter Kemper Marley. Exit Kemper Marley, courtesy of Bolles.

The Phoenix police theorized that Marley wanting revenge enlisted the help of local contractor Max Dunlap. Dunlap then allegedly hired Adamson to carry out the bombing. Adamson claimed that plumber James Robison assisted him.

Over the years, Dunlap and Robison have maintained their innocence. Dunlap remains incarcerated. Although, Robison gained acquittal in a retrial, he is still awaiting release from prison on a related charge. Meanwhile, the state paroled Adamson [in 1996], and he disappeared into the federal witness protection program.

The Phoenix police never even arrested Marley, who died in 1990.

Meanwhile, Jim Hensley remained a close friend of Kemper Marley. In fact, it was Bolles who wrote that the Hensleys had bought Ruidoso Downs horse racing track in New Mexico on behalf of Marley. Eugene Hensley later sold the track to a buyer linked to Emprise (linked here as described in the Phoenix Gazette, Jan. 4, 1990.)

In 1982, McCain decided to run for Congress. That takes some quick money, and McCain had access to it-- thanks to his father in law (whose employees at his liquor distributorship were 'persuaded' to donate thousands of dollars to McCain), and one of Hensley's friends, Charles Keating of the Lincoln S&L (I won't get into the Lincoln S&L scandal here because it is pretty well known by now that McCain was one of the 'Keating Five.') To seal the deal, Jim Hensley and Cindy Hensley McCain invested $359,100 in one of Keating's projects.

It has been said that the Mafia never really left, they have just moved upscale. That is certainly the case in Las Vegas, where the casinos are corporations and run in a businesslike manner (so a Bugsy Siegel would be an anachronism, but I'm also not sure I'd want to make an enemy out of some of the folks who have those offices on the top floor.) The original Cosa Nostra may have been largely broken up, but the remnants of the Mafia are still around, mostly in fat family bank accounts and politicians they have helped move forward, and John McCain is privvy to one and is the other.

DOBSON CHASTIZED BY OWN SOURCES

2006-12-15T13:14:00.000-06:00

I'm sure by now that everyone has read the Time Magazine Article by James Dobson in which he condemned Mary Cheney and gay parenting in general.

Well, surprise. It appears as if Mister Dobson has done what the Christian Right does best. He has engaged in the pseudo scientific practice of taking other peoples research out of context to support his distorted and highly bigoted world view. It appears as if Mister Dobson has misrepresented the legitimate research of others using their information in the exact opposite way in which it was intended.

Said Doctor Kyle Pruitt at Yale University :

"Doctor Dobson, I was startled and disappointed to see my work referenced in the current Time Magazine piece in which your convictions opposing lesbian and Gay parenthood. You cherry picked a phrase to shore up highly discriminatory purposes. This practice is condemned in real science, common though it may be in pseudo science circles. There is nothing in my longitudal research or in any of my writings to support such conclusions. One page 134 of the book you site in your piece I wrote "what we do know is that there's no reason for concern about the development or psychological competence of children living with gay fathers. It is love that bonds relationships, not sex."

Said Carol Gilligan of New York University also had a few choice words about Mister Dobson's misinterpretation of her work, writing:

"Dear Doctor Dobson. I am writing to ask that you cease and desist from quoting my research in the future. I was mortified to learn that you had distorted my work this week in a guest column in Time Magazine. Not only did you take my research out of context, you did so without my knowledge to support discriminatory goals that I do not agree with. What yu wrote was not truthful and I ask you to refrain from quoting me again and that you apologize for twisting my words. There is nothing in my research that would lead you to draw the stated conclusions you did in the Time article. My work in no way suggests that same gender families are harmful to children or can't raise these children to be healthy or well-adjusted as those brought up in traditional households. I trust this will be the last time my work is sited by Focus on the Family."

I think it's safe to say that Mister Dobson has again been revealed as a liar and a fraud and a hate-mongering bigot.. In fact, his latest chicanery raises the obvious question: Why should we trust this man when he speaks to any issue?

Nothing I could dream up is as bizarre as what the nutbag right really comes up with

2006-12-12T23:53:00.000-06:00

Hat tip to Feministing.

According to the latest wacky theory being kicked around on the far right, A Devil Food is turning our kids into homosexuals.

No, that's the real headline.

According to the article,

There's a slow poison out there that's severely damaging our children and threatening to tear apart our culture. The ironic part is, it's a "health food," one of our most popular.

The dangerous food I'm speaking of is soy. Soybean products are feminizing, and they're all over the place. You can hardly escape them anymore...

Unfortunately, when you eat or drink a lot of soy stuff, you're also getting substantial quantities of estrogens.

Estrogens are female hormones. If you're a woman, you're flooding your system with a substance it can't handle in surplus. If you're a man, you're suppressing your masculinity and stimulating your "female side," physically and mentally....

Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to... sexual confusion and homosexuality.

So that's it! The geniuses in the nutbag right have finally figured it out! Burn the U.S. soy bean crop and there will be no more homosexuals. Oh, and if you meet a guy from Iowa, just keep in mind that it is the soybean capitol of America (that's right, it wasn't Klinger, it was really Hawkeye all the time.) And go back to that headline-- obviously soybeans weren't put here for the benefit of civilization, no, they were planted by the devil. Buy a bottle of soy sauce, and you're bringing Lucifer home with you from the supermarket.

Yeesh! You have to admit, they have gotten pretty creative trying to justify their anti-homosexual ranting.

HOW THE SHRUB SCREWED CHRISTMAS: NOT

2006-12-09T12:01:00.000-06:00

HOW THE SHRUB SCREWED CHRISTMAS: NOT
Based on HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS
by DOCTOR SEUSS ( AKA Theodor Geisel)
Parody Version by Brandon, Daniel, Jeffrey, and Kelli

Every Blue
Up in Blue-ville
Loved Christmas a lot
But the Shrub
Who lived South of Blue-ville
Did NOT
The Shrub hated Christmas; and this was a reason
He hated the joy and the whole peaceful season.
It could be perhaps he loved pain and the fright
Or maybe his brain wasn't working quite right
But I believe that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his conscience was no conscience at all.

But whatever the reason
The soul or his brain
He cursed through December, raising all kinds of Cain
Glaring up from DC with a mean Bushy smirk
He proved to the people that the Shrub was a jerk
Yes he knew every Blue up in Blue-ville above
Was now happily showing the peace and the love

"And they've taken my Congress," he complained in a snit
"They're praying for peace, they are so full of shit."
Then he clawed with Bush talons, crazily drumming
"Stop democracy now, keep the freedom from coming."

For tomorrow he knew
All the Blue girls and boys
Would wake up in the morning and then play with their toys
And then oh the joy! Oh the joy joy joy joy!
That's a thing Shrub hate so, the JOY JOY JOY JOY!

And THEN
They'd do something
That didn't belong
Every Blue up in Blue-ville, the weak and the strong
Would speak truth to power, and fresh from their winning,
They;d look in Shrub's face and they'd tell him "stop spinning!"
They'd tell and they'd tell!
And they'd TELL TELL TELL TELL!

And the more the Shrub thought of the things they would tell
The more the Shrub thought "I'll send Christmas to hell!
"Why for six God damned years we've exploited it now!
"I'll screw Christmas good!
"But how?"

Then Shrub got an idea
A dreadful idea
THE SHRUB HAD A SOCIOPATHIC IDEA!

"I know how to do it," the Shrub growled out loud
And he made a quick plan that would make Beelzebub proud.
And he smirked and he sneered, "what a great dirty trick!
"With some lies and the press I'll make every Blue sick!

"All I need is a gimmick!"
The Shrub looked around.
"But since truth is rare here it'll never be found.
Did that bother the Shrub?
"No The Shrub coyly said
"If I can't tell the truth I'll tell whoppers instead!"
So he called his pet FOX, then he called on the Reich
And the pundits crawled out, telling "facts" that weren't right

THEN
He sat in his chair
On his fat lazy ass
And the "Christians" all bitched
As the days came to pass.

And the corporate press
Came to spread the attack
Start a Yuletide war
To distract from Iraq.

All their words were ablaze, hatred soon frilled the air.
And the Blues were all hearing that the right never cared
"We will mow the Blues down," Sean Hannity hissed.
"We're God-fearing pigs and we want our butts kissed!

"We demand Merry Christmas, no more Holiday tree
"Shove our faith down your throat so that Blues can't be free!"
The Shrub found it good, how loved Goebbels chant!
And he laughed and he laughed with each right wing rant!
The radical "Christians" want a theocrat state.
To burn witches and homos and do it for hate.

The rage was a flowing; it's what fundies do best
They will persecute all and they won't let it rest
"The Jews and the Wicans, the Muslims, yes ma'am!
"The Buddhists and Hindus, agnostics all damned!"
They say they love Jesus, and they must do his will
But the words that they use are just so much damned swill

"No more Hanukkah dear, then Quanza must go!
"The solstice is next, yes we sunk oh so low!
"Burn 'Jingle Bells' soon,, its not in our canon
"We'll ban 'Deck The Balls' 'cause we don't like ass rammin'
"And we'll shot sidewalk Santas because Satan is vile
"Then we'll burn pagan wreaths if you give us awhile."

And the Shrub was a laughin' in spite of himself
Then he reached for the bottles that he kept on the shelf
He gulped down the brandy and sipped up the rum
"The ah people," he stammered, they sure can be dumb!"

The shrub was caught up in his maniac laughter
So eager to see what the Blues would do after.
All the Blues, he well knew, would ask 'W' why?
"Why ruin our Christmas, oh please tell us why?!"

But you know that mean Shrub was so mad and so slick
He found a new lie and he tossed it out quick
"Dear people, dear friends," the 'W' lied.
"I love Christmas too, won't you please join my side?
"I love Joseph and Marry and Baby Christ too
"I know who to kill ; that's what Jesus would do!"

And he fooled the few so inclined to believe
And the shrub was relaxed, he felt oh so relieved
So the pundits were griping with Yuletide Cheer
They made "Merry Christmas" a tool of fear.

And the last thing Bush said,
"Merry Christmas to you,"
Made the Fundies and Pastors think that Shrub was Christ too
And they prayed to the Shrub, just what else could they do?
And if there was truth
That he told on that day
It was lost while the freaks went on talking away

THEN
Robertson spoke
And Herr Dobson did rave
But when they were done not a single soul had been saved.

The Pastors of hate said "Happy Holiday, dead.
"We think with out butts and we don't use our heads.
"We hate all the Blues, yes our compassion is done
"They'll pray to our God at the point of a gun!
"They soon will we wake up, we know what they'll do!
"They'll cry and they'll fuss and we'll tell them 'screw you!'
"And the Blues up in Blue-ville will act as we tell them to do!"

"Here t comes," cackled Shrub
"This I simply MUST hear!"
And there was a new sound rising up from the crowd
It started out low and then it got oh so loud!

But the sound wasn't fear
Why the sound wasn't sad
Te Shrub was aghast
The sound was upbeat and glad!

He glared up at Blue-ville
His shorts in a bunch
What he saw hit him hard and he brought up his lunch.

Every Blue up in Blue-ville, the weak and the strong,
Was speaking and telling the Shrub was all wrong.
He hadn't screwed Holiday freedom at all
It came
The Liberty came and it drove Shrub insane

And the Shrub in his anger, just couldn't conceive
Why sane people heard lies and refused to believe.
"It came with the Muslims! It came with the Jews!
It came with Agnostics! It came with the Blues!"
And he screamed and he screamed, 'til his throat was too hoarse
Then he shouted for hours but his rage ran no course
So he fell to the floor and he chewed on the rug
His talons dug carpet, oh he DUG DUG DUG DUG!

So what happened then?
Up in Blue-ville they say
The FASCIST right wing really lost it that day!
O'Reilly went home and he started to pout!
Rush Limbaugh killed pain, Oxycontin no doubt
Anne Coulter threw up 'til her implants fell out

And the Shrub
Drank Drank Drank
With a whine and a shout.

CHRISTMAS PROTECTION ACT

2006-12-06T13:24:00.000-06:00

DELAY PROPOSES CHRISTMAS PROTECTION ACT
From the Coalition Press
by Advocate 1 and Brandon

WASHINGTON DC--In yet another attempt to both anger and polarize the American people along theo-political lines, former   Congressman Tom Delay (BahHumBug Party, Texas) unveiled what the GOP calls the American Christmas Protection Act.

According to Delay. the measure "has become necessary to keep uppity Jews, Muslims, and nonbelievers in their majority assigned place.   Grumbling at a hastily arrange press conference before his favorite pub in Washington DC, Delay, a supposedly recovering alcoholic and possible sociopath, openly condemned as un-American those who refuse to  celebrate the Christmas Holiday in a religiously correct fashion.

"There's a Reich way and a wrong way to celebrate this thing," Delay stammered.  "And its time that we made a living hell for those who won't share the love, joy, and peace of the season."

The American Christmas Protection Act, Delay maintained, requires both, nonbelievers and non-Christians, to celebrate the Christmas Holiday in a legally prescribed manner.   Traditional hymns and carols such as "O Holy Night," "Away in a Manager," "Oh Come All Ye Faithful," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and the ever popular "Silent Night" would become mandated standards, while songs of a "less devout nature" would be explicitly prohibited by the force of law.   This, critics claim, would effectively ban the public and private performances of holiday classics such as  "Toyland," "Sleigh Ride," "Blue Christmas," "Jingle Bells," "Jingle Bells Rock," "The Christmas Song," "Frosty the Snowman," "Here Comes  Santa Claus," "Up on the House Top," "Winter Wonderland," "A Holly Jolly Christmas," "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "I Saw Mommy Doing Santa Claus, and the repugnant "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer."

On a similar fashion, the Welsh traditional, "Deck the Halls," would be strictly repressed because of its brief reference to gay apparel.  Songs, prayers, and chants pertaining to any Deity except the one found in the original King James Bible would be strictly prohibited as well.

"This is the holiest time of the year," Delay insisted,  "not a time to promote Satanic symbols like Santa Claus and the homosexual agenda."

In addition to requiring and banning an extensive list of prayers, chants, and songs, Delay's proposed legislation would also require all property owners, regardless of religious affiliation to "erect  prominent and respectful manger scenes in a prominent and readily-viewed location."  Supposedly secular or even Satanic symbols such as Christmas trees, which can be traced back to pagan roots, or Santa, whose name is an anagram of Satan, would be strictly forbidden.   Also banned would be public and private displays of holly, ivy, mistletoe, or any other plant or "cultural icon"  which can trace its original function or symbolism back to pre-Christian or non-Christian faiths.

If passed, the legislation would impose a penalty of 30 pieces of silver and 30 lashes for the first offense. Second time offenders would be sentenced to 40 days and 40 nights in Colorado Springs, Colorado and forced to eat generous helpings of fruit cake with former pastor Ted Haggard.  Third time offenders would be boiled in their own pudding and buried with a stake of holy through their hearts.

When asked if the legislation and the initial penalty for a first time offense might create a hardship for the unemployed, homeless, and working poor, Delay asked:  "Are there no prisons?   Are there no workhouses?"

Support for the American Christmas Protection Act will almost certainly find widespread support within the ultra-fundamentalist community.

"Praise the Lord and Hallelujah!"  Roared the Reverend Rob Paterson, founder and president of Citizens Rallied Against Progressive Policies (or CRAPP).   Staring down from his pulpit  with a sour, Grinchy frown, Patterson gleefully welcomed the idea of a mandatory, tax-funded Christmas celebration.    "We'll hang all the heathens," he said with a sneer.  "It soon will be Christmas, it's practically here!"

For many, however, the American Christmas Protection Act is neither American nor Protective.   Indeed some, would deny that it is even Christian.

"Using Christmas as a weapon to anger and polarize the American people during the holiest time of the year," said the Reverend Brandon Geraghty,  founder and pastor of the Wisconsin-based First Church of Reason.  "That's an interesting take on the situation.  I've always thought of Christmas as a kind. forgiving, charitable, pleasant time..when men and women seem seem by one content to open therir shut-up hearts freely...Not as as a time to force others to worship as we would see fit."

Passage of the American Christmas Protection Act  is dubious at best.   "Americans like their Christmas Holiday," Geraghty added   "but they still don't want to persecute people for calling God by a different name."

In addition, Kelli Fitzgerald , founder and President of Americans Neutralizing Goofy Evangelical Lunacy (or ANGEL) took both Delay and Paterson to task. "Americans are a pretty tolerant bunch," Fitzgerald informed the befuddled cultural warriors. "And Christmas is a rather resilient holiday to boot. It comes without ribbons, it comes without tags. It comes without packages, boxes or bags!"

Delay, who denied that he had just polished off his fourth Manhattan, said nothing, although he did stammer a flurry of obscenities before he stumbled and fell into the front row of reporters.

Paterson offered no response.

IRAQ IS IN A STATE OF CIVIL WAR

2006-12-04T16:32:00.000-06:00

For some reason the Republican Administration still thinks of a civil war in terms of the Union North verses the Confederate South. For reasons that defy all reason they can't understand that the war between the American States was only one type of civil war. And while this may come as a shock and a revelation to the Powers That Be in Washington DC the truth of the matter is that a definition of a civil war is a lot broader than the one in which Americans slaughtered one another enmasse from 1860 to 1865. That said I would suggest that the Bush Administration consult Merriam and Webster's Tenth Edition of the Collegiate Dictionary. In it they will find a very useful and very practical definition of a civil war:

civil war n (15c) : a war between opposing groups of the same country

The Wikipedia* definition is even more interesting:

A civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight for political power or control of an area. Political scientists use two criteria: the warring groups must be from the same country and fighting for control of the political center, control over a separatist state or to force a major change in policy. The second criterion is that at least 1,000 people must have been killed in total, with at least 100 from each side.

Now, shall we take that definition and apply it to the failing state of Iraq? The last I knew, the combatants come from the same country and they are certainly killing one another for political and religious power. By the same token I think it is safe to assume that more than 100 people have been killed on each side. Contrary to popular belief not every civil war is a host to large armies stomping around the country side in blue and gray uniforms hunting one another with 19th Century technology. In Iraq we have Shias killing Sunnis. We have Sunnis killing Shias. We have Sunni death squads hunting down Shias. We have Shia death squads killing Sunnis. And through it all both sides are becoming increasingly disgusted with their American occupiers. The insurgents and militais are using guerilla warfare, unconventional techniques, but they are nevertheless fighting a civil war

As I stated in a separate post by Hangman_Elite, the Republicans in Washington DC are so determined to save face that they are unwilling to make a logical and rational appraisal of the situation. Instead of looking at the facts they are more interested in preserving their reputations, in twisting the data and denying reality to save face while Iraqis kill one another whole sale. The number of dead and wounded American soldiers continues to rise and the best that the George W. Bush and his cronies can offer is more imbecilic rhetoric about staying the course (in new and deceitfully crafted terms) and additional doublespeak about how the escalating Iraqi Civil War isn't a civil war at all. Why if you didn't know better you'd think that there wasn't a conflict at all, that the nearly 3,000 dead American soldiers and more than 100,000 dead Iraqis weren't the result of a low intensity civil war, but the unexpected result of an unusually virulent strain of the common cold.

For months now reporters on the ground have been describing the conflict in Iraq as a low intensity civil war. The same holds true for a significant number of American Democrats who have able to look at the devolving situation and who have had the courage to speak out and to call this barbarism what it is--a low intensity civil war. And as of today, Secretary General Kofi Annan has officially described the conflict in Iraq as a civil war. **

And yet, the Republican strategy--or lack thereof--has been to break from the real world and to plan, scheme, and maneuver in a fantasy world of wishful thoughts and outright denial. At times it seems as if they are merely crossing their fingers and hoping that Iraq will remedy itself and go away on its own before the 2008 elections. What they either cannot or will not understand is that the low grade civil war has been escalating for some time now. And their non solution appears to be one of denying reality, leaving the troops in a potentially explosive situation. At no time has the moronic regime in Washington given any real thought as to what might or would happen if a high intensity civil war were to erupt around our troops and our coalition allies. That doesn't come as a surprise. God knows the Bush Regime has experienced an almost phobic, knee jerk reaction whenever it has been asked to think or plan ahead. That much was obvious during the build up to this debacle, when they were telling us that Iraq would be a cake walk and that the troops would be welcomed with candy, flowers, and a hero's salute. That didn't happen. That was nothing more than wishful thinking and here we are again, with a President and his advisers trapped in an echo chamber of wishful thinking, hoping that the escalating civil war will somehow, as if by magic (or should I say faith?) reverse itself and evolve into an Islamic variation of the New Jerusalem on the Hill.

Well, I have bad news for Bush and his cronies. Three years ago, when we warned this Administration that waging a war in Iraq would be the equivalent of opening the doors to hell, we were not kidding. And, as much as I hate to say it, we weren't wrong either. We had it right. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge about Islam and the deeply troubled relation between Sunnis and Shias (not to mention the tribalistic nature of Iraqi society) knew from historical examples that this was a powder keg with a short fuse and that the American led invasion was the match that would set the fuse on fire.

That fuse continues to burn but the administration is too proud, too arrogant, and too stubborn to admit that it has made a mistake. Instead of conceding that our troops are in the middle of a situation that will ultimately blow up in their faces, the Bush Administration merely crosses its fingers and hopes for the best while the fuse continues to burn.

I don't know how many dead soldiers and gallons of blood it's going to take before this Administration's insatiable appetite for death and thirst for blood will finally, finally be quenched, but I am fairly certain of this. They seem to be as ignorant as to what comprises a civil war as they were about the history of the Middle East and of human nature in general.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war

**http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/04/news/iraq.php

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHRISTMAS WARS

2006-12-04T11:33:00.000-06:00

Editors' Note. This Post oirginally appeared on THE COALITION FOR A REPUBLICAN-FREE AMERICA in December 2005. We are posting it again because it appears as if the Christian Reich is going to wage another hate campaignb to prove how much it loves the Prince of Peace Yours Truly, Advocate 1 and Brandon

THE CHRISTMAS WARS:
How the Radical Christian Right is Bastardizing Christmas and Christianity
A Brief History of the Christmas Wars

By Advocate 1 and Brandon

-------""I am not going to let aggressive totalitarian and anti-Christian forces in this country diminish, denigrate, the holiday and the celebration. I'm gonna use all the power that I have on radio and television to bring horror into the world of people who are trying to do that.."

Bill O'Reilly trying to sound like a Christian.

-------It seems as if the Radical Christian Right has stepped up its attack on America and mainstream Christianity by extending the Cultural War to include the words Happy Holidays; and while they may not realize it, they haven't exactly done a lot to equate their battle cry of "Merry Christmas" with anything especially Merry or Christian either.

-------On the surface, the whole thing seems rather bizarre. Christ, after all, never politicized his religious teachings; and the last we knew, bringing horror into the world of concerned Americans who oppose a Christian Republic or a Fundamentalist theocracy isn't exactly a Christian standard. So you just have to wonder: Why would the same professional misanthropes who so fervently complain about political correctness, want to demote the words "Merry Christmas" to the mere equivalent of right wing political war chant? Why would they want use Christmas, of all things, as an excuse to infuriate the American people at what they claim is the holiest time of the year?

-------First and foremost, we need to remember that this isn't the first time that the Pseudo Christian Right has used Christmas as a weapon against its opponents.

-------During the 1920s Henry Ford warned us about a Jewish conspiracy to remove Christmas from the public square. According to Ford and his ilk, there was a Jewish plot to eliminate Christmas caroling and Christmas pageants. Ironically, the current crusade against the term "Happy Holidays" also has a certain racist/antisemitic ring to it as well. The only other religious Holidays during the month of December are Hanukkah and Kwanzaa--a Jewish holiday and an African-inspired holiday. So you have to ask yourself, " what are the cultural warriors complaining about this time?" Are they really offended because they can't hear the words "Merry Christmas" on demand or are they just offended by Blacks and Jews? If it's the first scenario, we would suggest that they need to develop a few grown up characteristics such as patience and perspective; if it's the second scenario they clearly need to get a grip on their racist/antisemitic tendencies Granted, one might argue that conservative Jews and Christian Fundamentalists have forged a political alliance of convenience, based on Israel's right to exist and the Fundamentalists' literal interpretation of Revelations, but let's not deceive ourselves. This does not mean thay the Radical Christian Right has become more tolerant and accepting of the Jewish people. Rather, the Fundamentalist take on the Jews and the Nation of Israel is that Jesus, the beloved "Prince of Peace" will come back at the end of times to punish the Jews to eternal damnation because they refused to accept him as the Messiah.

-------Real love and compassion there.

-------The supposedly "Pro Christmas" crusade was renewed during the 1950s, when the John Birch Society decided there was a United Nations plot to replace Christmas decorations with symbols of one world government. In 1959 this fanatical little group (think KKK in street clothing) published a revealing pamphlet, "There Goes Christmas," claiming, "...one of the techniques now being applied by the Reds to weaken the pillar of religion in our country is the drive to take Christ out of Christmas -- to denude the event of its religious meaning." This time the targets were American department stores, which they assumed were a part of a clandestine Soviet/United Nations plot. And the last we knew, the John Birch Society had a decidedly anti-Semitic streak to it as well....

-------The current crusade only combines the worst of both, religious fanaticism and outright paranoia. That much became obvious when Fox Propaganda Minister, John Gibson offered his half baked ideas about Christmas and religion on November 17 of last year. Gibson, the author of The War On Christmas suggested:

-------"Minorities ought to have the same sense of tolerance about the majority religion -- Christianity -- that they've been granted about their religions over the years."

-------Which on the surface, actually sounds reasonable. But Gibson then went on to offer the following remarks.

-------"I would think if somebody is going to be -- have to answer for following the wrong religion, they're not going to have to answer to me. We know who they're going to have to answer to....And that's fine. Let 'em. But in the meantime, as long as they're civil and behave, we tolerate the presence of other religions around us without causing trouble, and I think most Americans are fine with that tradition."
----- -Hardly the image of the devout, Christmas- loving Saint that the folks at Fox and Penguin Books have been promoting, is it?

-------Can you believe this guy? Only moments after he stated that the religious minority (a code word for Jews?) should be more tolerant of the Christian majority, Gibson then revealed himself as a judgemental, Christian supremest who was only saying what God would say if God only knew what was going on down here. (A special hint to our readers. When you die, go to Heaven, and see Mister Gibson there, you should worry about where you went.)

-------Needless to say we really aren't surprised by this.

-------Since the early 1980s the Radical Christian Right has grown increasingly militant, and paranoid. This, after all, is the same crowd that has been warning us about a "Satanic, New Age Conspiracy" which is allegedly poised to take over the entire world; the latest assault on "Happy Holidays," being the most recent in a long line of paranoid conspiracy theories. Granted, the right to both hate and fear your fellow Americans is protected by the American Constitution,, but the Radical Christian Right hasn't only turned these "time honored practices" into art forms; they have also created a delusional, world wide conspiracy that is so involved and so far-fetched that you need a flow chart just to keep track of the various groups, individuals, and practices involved.

1 acupressure
2. acupuncture
3. aerobics at the YMCA
4. Alcoholics Anonymous
5. American Civil Liberties union
6. Amway Corporation
7. Atari Computer Corporation
8. Biofeedback
9. Blue Cross/Blue Shield
10. Buffalo New York Public Schools
11. Campbell's Soup Company
12. Catholic Church/Catholic Communion
13. Cocoon (the movie)
14. Cousins: Norman
15. creative visualization
16. ending world hunger
17. environmental movement
18. Free Masonry
19. gay rights
20. globalism
21. Gorbachev: Mikhail
22. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
23. guided imagery for success and prosperity
24. happy holidays
25. health food
26. holistic health practices
27. The Hunger Project
28. Huxley: Aldous
29. hypnosis
30. the information revolution
31. Jehovah's Witness
32. Jewish Cabala/Judaism in general
33. Life Magazine
34. Lions International
35. Lockheed Corporation
36. Minneapolis City government
37. Mobil Oil Corporation
38. Monsanto Corporation
39. Mormon Church
40. Mother Theresa
41. The Muppets
42. NAACP
43. Nader: Ralph
44. National Aeronautic Space Administration
45. National Organization for Women
46. Native American religious ceremonies
47. NBC Television
48. Newsweek Magazine
49. New York City government
50. Planned Parenthood
51. pluralism
52. Polaroid Corporation
53. Pope John XXIII
54. positive thinking
55. Prince Phillip of England
56. Princeton University
57. Proctor and Gamble
58. Readers Digest
59. rock and roll
60. Rockefeller Foundation
61. rosaries
62. Save the Whales
63. self-realization
64. Social Security Administration
65. stress management
66. transcendental meditation
67. Tutu: Desmond
68. UNESCO
69. United Nations
70. United States Navy
71. University of Michigan
72. University of Texas
73. vegetarian diets
74. Welesa: Lech
75. Westinghouse
76. world peace efforts
77. Yale University
78. Yeltsin: Boris

-------Those are just a few of the many people, places and things that this crowd considers "New Age," "evil," or "Satanic."

-------And just who are the spin masters behind this unadulterated lunacy? You guessed it: Dave Hunt, Texe Marrs, Ralph Reed, James Dobson, Ted Haggard, the late Randall N. Baer, Eric Buehrer, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Douglas Groothuis, Joseph Kennedy, Mel (deceased) and Norma Gabler, ad nauseum.

-------To quote Marrs: "The New Age appears to be the instrument that Satan will use to catapult his Antichrist to power...When Christians refuse to be initiated into this Satanic religious system, they will be dealt with very harshly....The New Age is working hard today to set up an environment against Christians...so the public mood will be ready when the Antichrist begins his brutal anti-Christian programs." (1987).

-------And to make the situation still more interesting, even the Christmas-mocking Gibson himself has couched his arguments in brazenly conspiratorial terms:

-------"It's like the secret bombing of Cambodia--it was a secret from everybody except the people getting bombed. Same deal here. People trying to keep Christmas in schools and parks and libraries and city halls know about the war on Christmas. The people waging this war are trying to keep it secret, but it's too late. They have been outed."

-------Nope. No paranoia there.

-------Worse yet, the Christmas warriors aren't always dependable when it comes to the facts.

-------Consider, if you will, religion in public schools. Our public schools are more religious now than they were at just about any time in our nation's history. Students pray, study the Bible, and hold rallies around flag poles; they distribute literature and discuss religion with their fellow classmates. Or to be be succinct, student-generated(religious activities are perfectly legal and constitutional. But that isn't the main objective. The idee fixe of the Radical Christian Right is top down religion; using the power and authority of school personnel and public tax dollars to impose a particular (read literal) interpretation of a particular faith on people of different religions and denominations. Translated into modern English, they want to turn America's public school system into a hotbed of Ultra- Fundamentalist extremism.

-------Spokespersons for the Radical Christian Right admit as much.

-------In 1990, Robert Simonds, founder of Citizens for Excellence in Education, made no effort to conceal his agenda.

-------"I hope I will see, " Simonds noted, "the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have public schools. The churches will have taken over again, and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be ."

-------In a similar vein, Jerry Falwell, founder of the former Moral Majority went to far as to say:

-------"America was founded by Godly men who had in mind establishing a republic not only Christian in nature, but a republic designed to propagate the Gospel worldwide."

-------The upshot here is that the Christmas warriors couldn't care less about Christmas. Indeed, there are times when it appears as if they don't even care about Christ.

-------They are not trying to promote Christmas and they certainly are not trying to promote Christianity. Instead of promoting the true spirit of Christmas they are merely exploiting the day in their ongoing attempt to establish a repressive interpretation of the biblical text. Instead of promoting the true spirit of Christmas they are wishing the horrors of hell fire and brimstone on anyone and everyone who dares to disagree with them.

-------To call their hateful, paranoid behavior Christian, is a little like calling Adolf Hitler a good samaritan.

RE Turkey Day

2006-11-22T14:24:00.000-06:00

To all our writers and readers,

A very Safe and a Very Happy Thanksgiving.

From The Cast and Crew at the Colaition for a Republican-Free America

Conservatism won! NOT

2006-11-13T11:35:00.000-06:00

Get ready for this. The Vichy Republicans and fifth column talk show hosts are now trying to claim that this was a Republican/conservative victory. You just have to give these guys credit. You could disembowel them and they'd still try to tell the American people that they had guts. Their phony claim is based on a few isolated victories by moderate Democrats over far right Republicans, but in almost every case the winning Democrat was more liberal than his defeated Republican opponent.

The people in South Dakota, a purported Conservative string hold, rejected a referendum that would have banned abortion for nearly every reason imaginable, including rape and incest. The People in Arizona (a border state) not only proved surprisingly opened minded when it came to immigration, they also voted down one of those foolish marriage protection amendments. If you want to see how the conservative virus has failed to infect the younger generation, just go to the most conservative area of the country and look at how young people dress. This may come as a shock and a revelation but they aren't dolled up in school uniforms. Ask them how they feel about mixed race relationships. Ask them how they feel about Gays and Lesbians. Ask them about the music they listen to and the TV programs they watch, and I can almost guarantee you that they are not watching reruns of the Lawrence Welk Show. Despite a higher birth rate among religious conservatives, the truth of the matter is that those children are leaning towards cultural liberalism.

The fact of the matter is that the past twelve years have been an aberration in an otherwise progressive history. America has accepted liberalism, and the irony is that it not only happened during a conservative hay day, it may well have happened because of that conservatism heyday. By any standard this election was a repudiation of the conservative agenda. First and foremost it was a rejection of a sociopathic administration that led us into an occupation of choice, a war that left us with more than 2,800 dead and more than 20,000 wounded/disabled. To make the situation even worse, the reasons for going to war kept changing--as did the reasons for continuing the occupation. The American people are not stupid. They know a series of lies and excuses when they see one. Secondly, the Republicans reverted to their true form. Not only did they side with the upper classes and corporate masters who routinely fund their campaigns; they essentially declared war on the middle and lower classes--not to mention several laws--to guarantee that their corporate masters were paid back in full and with interest. The voters figured out that while you may come across individual corrupt democrats the Republican party had in and of itself become a culture of corruption, from the financial to the sexual.

I also suspect that one some level Americans rediscovered the concept of morality. You can't claim to be a moral country--or a moral party--in one breath and then turn around and support sexually sadistic torture in the next breath. Note that running a series of pedophiles, racists, homophobes, wife beaters, adulterers, and corporate criminals didn't help the conservative cause either, but as we have said many times before, by transferring so much power to corporate interests while trampling over our Constitution, this country came as close to fascism as it has ever come. So in a very real sense of the word, the elections of 2006 were not only a rejection of the Republican party--they were a rejection of totalitarianism in red, white, and blue clothing.

As I mentioned before I suspect that the American people realized that there was a lot more to an expanding economy than an inflated stock market, an increase in service sector jobs, and low wages. Health care and economic security became key issues. When you're working two jobs, and trying to live within a budget and still struggling to keep your head above water, you know on a very real level that something has gone terribly wrong with the American dream. As if that was an accident. The current batch of conservatives view social mobility as an objective to be overcome, a trend to be crushed. To some extent they really do believe that they are superior to others and deserve a disproportionate piece of the American pie. But on a deeper level they view freedom and the middle class as the enemies of stability, and if these people believe anything they believe that a thriving middle class demanding equal opportunities and constitutional rights is a threat to the excessive stability to which conservatives are so hopelessly addicted.

All in the elections were a repudiation of conservatism, incompetence, corruption, and repression. And if the Republicans can't leave their delusion based "reality" long enough to "get it" then I hope you won't mind my stifled laughter as they wallow in their own ignorance and self-deception.

THE DANGER OF AMERICAN FASCISM

2006-11-09T19:05:00.000-06:00

The following GUEST PERSPECTIVE appears courtsey of LeftOfCenter at THE BLUE REPUBLIC. We found it to be truly ironic and we present the article here in that spirit.

Brandon and Daniel

The Danger of American Fascism
By Henry A. Wallace
The New York Times
From Henry A. Wallace, Democracy Reborn , edited by Russell Lord, p. 259.

On returning from my trip to the West in February, I received a request from The New York Times to write a piece answering the following questions:

What is a fascist?
How many fascists have we?
How dangerous are they?

A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.

The perfect type of fascist throughout recent centuries has been the Prussian Junker, who developed such hatred for other races and such allegiance to a military clique as to make him willing at all times to engage in any degree of deceit and violence necessary to place his culture and race astride the world. In every big nation of the world are at least a few people who have the fascist temperament. Every Jew-baiter, every Catholic hater, is a fascist at heart. The hoodlums who have been desecrating churches, cathedrals and synagogues in some of our larger cities are ripe material for fascist leadership.

The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned. The really dangerous American fascists are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends. They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.

American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery.

The European brand of fascism will probably present its most serious postwar threat to us via Latin America. The effect of the war has been to raise the cost of living in most Latin American countries much faster than the wages of labor. The fascists in most Latin American countries tell the people that the reason their wages will not buy as much in the way of goods is because of Yankee imperialism. The fascists in Latin America learn to speak and act like natives. Our chemical and other manufacturing concerns are all too often ready to let the Germans have Latin American markets, provided the American companies can work out an arrangement which will enable them to charge high prices to the consumer inside the United States. Following this war, technology will have reached such a point that it will be possible for Germans, using South America as a base, to cause us much more difficulty in World War III than they did in World War II. The military and landowning cliques in many South American countries will find it attractive financially to work with German fascist concerns as well as expedient from the standpoint of temporary power politics.

Fascism is a worldwide disease. Its greatest threat to the United States will come after the war, either via Latin America or within the United States itself.

Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. American fascists of this stamp were clandestinely aligned with their German counterparts before the war, and are even now preparing to resume where they left off, after "the present unpleasantness" ceases:

The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups. Likewise, many people whose patriotism is their proudest boast play Hitler's game by retailing distrust of our Allies and by giving currency to snide suspicions without foundation in fact.

The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

Several leaders of industry in this country who have gained a new vision of the meaning of opportunity through co-operation with government have warned the public openly that there are some selfish groups in industry who are willing to jeopardize the structure of American liberty to gain some temporary advantage. We all know the part that the cartels played in bringing Hitler to power, and the rule the giant German trusts have played in Nazi conquests. Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself.

It has been claimed at times that our modern age of technology facilitates dictatorship. What we must understand is that the industries, processes, and inventions created by modern science can be used either to subjugate or liberate. The choice is up to us. The myth of fascist efficiency has deluded many people. It was Mussolini's vaunted claim that he "made the trains run on time." In the end, however, he brought to the Italian people impoverishment and defeat. It was Hitler's claim that he eliminated all unemployment in Germany. Neither is there unemployment in a prison camp.

Democracy to crush fascism internally must demonstrate its capacity to "make the trains run on time." It must develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels. As long as scientific research and inventive ingenuity outran our ability to devise social mechanisms to raise the living standards of the people, we may expect the liberal potential of the United States to increase. If this liberal potential is properly channeled, we may expect the area of freedom of the United States to increase. The problem is to spend up our rate of social invention in the service of the welfare of all the people.

The worldwide, agelong struggle between fascism and democracy will not stop when the fighting ends in Germany and Japan. Democracy can win the peace only if it does two things:

Speeds up the rate of political and economic inventions so that both production and, especially, distribution can match in their power and practical effect on the daily life of the common man the immense and growing volume of scientific research, mechanical invention and management technique. Vivifies with the greatest intensity the spiritual processes which are both the foundation and the very essence of democracy.

The moral and spiritual aspects of both personal and international relationships have a practical bearing which so-called practical men deny. This dullness of vision regarding the importance of the general welfare to the individual is the measure of the failure of our schools and churches to teach the spiritual significance of genuine democracy. Until democracy in effective enthusiastic action fills the vacuum created by the power of modern inventions, we may expect the fascists to increase in power after the war both in the United States and in the world.

Fascism in the postwar inevitably will push steadily for Anglo-Saxon imperialism and eventually for war with Russia. Already American fascists are talking and writing about this conflict and using it as an excuse for their internal hatreds and intolerances toward certain races, creeds and classes.

It should also be evident that exhibitions of the native brand of fascism are not confined to any single section, class or religion. Happily, it can be said that as yet fascism has not captured a predominant place in the outlook of any American section, class or religion. It may be encountered in Wall Street, Main Street or Tobacco Road. Some even suspect that they can detect incipient traces of it along the Potomac. It is an infectious disease, and we must all be on our guard against intolerance, bigotry and the pretension of invidious distinction. But if we put our trust in the common sense of common men and "with malice toward none and charity for all" go forward on the great adventure of making political, economic and social democracy a practical reality, we shall not fail.

This was written Sunday 09 April 1944

By Left Of Center

THE BLUE REPUBLIC

NEW GOP POLITICAL AD

2006-11-01T13:34:00.000-06:00

Since the onslaught of Roe Verses Wade millions of innocent children have been murdered by deranged abortionists who refuse to accept the fact that victims of rape and incest must be forced to carry their unplanned children to full term. As a result, thousands or even tens of thousands of Republican pedophiles have been denied the right to assault children who might otherwise have been the unwilling victims of the Greedy Old Perverts. This November you can support the time honored belief that the unborn are sacred but that the children are not. Send a clear and resounding message that we need to end abortion so that Republican pedophiles will have more children to molest. Keep women in their place and support the rising tide of conservative sexual assault against minors. Vote early. Vote Often. Vote Republican.

This as was paid for by Puritans Endorsing Reactionary Visions.

REPUBLICANS Think Our Troops Are Stupid

2006-11-01T13:12:00.000-06:00

Will someone please tell me why John Kerry didn't behave as forceully in 2003 as he did at the press conference that he called yesterday?

For those of you who missed this--and you were God awful unlucky if you did--John Kerry cracked an off the cuff joke about how young people should study hard and get good grades or they might get stuck in Iraq. Of course the comment was directed at our combat-dodging president who hated studying,and who got by on a C average--the implication being that George W. Bush was so stupid that he didn't bother to study what might happen in Iraq if we were to launch a war of choice.

Of course that was the intended meaning. Deputy Propaganda Minister, (i.e. Spokes Liar) Tony Snow had other ideas and decided it would be a really nice idea to suggest that Kerry was calling our troops ignorant and undereducated.

Do you remember a point that I recently made about the Republicans? How everything they accuse other people of doing is in essence a form of projection, a twisted form of confession in which they project their many sins and twisted beliefs onto others? Well, I have a felling that this is exactly what the Republicans--Bush and his inner circle in particular--really and truly think about the troops. We have already seen how Republicans present friendly images of themselves to the people they are manipulating and exploiting. Witness how Bush, Rove, and their ilk played the Christian Right for what it was worth and then referred to them as nutty and difficult to handle. We've seen how Rove praised his gay step father and then used gays as whipping boys to energize the Christian base of the party--only to ridicule those same Christians when he thought no one was listening. And let's not forget that sick "comedy" routine" in which George W. Bush made a mockery out of American troops by creeping around the Oval Office looking for the missing weapons of mass destruction. Trust me. We've seen it time and time again. When these lying sons of bitches accuse someone else of doing something it's usually to smear an innocent victim and to cover up the fact that this is what Bush and his cronies have been doing or thinking themselves. Translated into the every day vernacular, when Spokes Liar Tony Snow accused John Kerry of mocking the troops, Snow was actually admitting that this Administration has manipulated and exploited the troops, only to believe that the troops were foolish for allowing themselves to be deceived by the Greedy Old Perverts in the first place. Or to be succinct: George W Bush, who truly is of limited intelligence, believes that the troops are as stupid as he is.

Personally, I rather liked John Kerry's comeback at yesterday's press conference:

"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they're afraid to debate real men. And this time it won't work because we're going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq."

To that I would only add the following. For some reason John Kerry felt that he had a reason to apologize when no reason was required in the first place. If anyone owes the troops and their families an apology it is George W. Bush and his chicken hawk cabinet, which have never looked upon our young men and women as anything except disposable cogs in a machine. More than 2,800 dead; more than 20,000 wounded or permanently disabled. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 600,000 Iraqi casualties and more than a million Iraqis displaced. A police force which is saturated with militiamen and insurgents who take the training skills they receive from American soldiers and then use those skills to--you guessed it--kill American soldiers; stop loss measures which keep American soldiers on duty for however long this President and his puppet masters think it is necessary, ad nauseam.

Of course I would never expect an apology from Bush nor any of the thugs and Brownshirts who dominate this Administration. That might be a human thing to do, and as we have all learned during the past six years, at least 28 percent of the Republican Party is incapable of anything which even remotely resembles a loving, compassionate thought for anyone or anything.

And they have the audacity to go after John Kerry? What can I say? George W. Bush and his supporters are without honor.

CHEAP GRACE

2006-10-31T14:02:00.000-06:00

CHEAP GRACE:

THE HYPOCRTICAL AND DESTRUCTIVE NATURE OF THE PSEUDO-CHRISTIAN RIGHT

By Trevor, Jeffrey, Brandon, Daniel, Kyle and Brian

"We don't lie, cheat, or steal on Monday, but God help you on Monday."

An old Midwestern joke

Call it what you like: cheap grace, hypocrisy, dime store theology, a mockery of the Holy bible, sociopathy: In the end it is almost invariably excused by two of the worst and most abused passages in the New Testament:

"And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when ye depart out of that house or city, Shake off the dust of your feet..."

-------The Gospel of Saint Matthew 10:14

And

"Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily I saith unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said..."

-------The Gospel of Saint John 3: 3-7

-------One of the great ironies (read deceptions) in the year 2006 is the utter lack of consistency that the so-called Christian Right brings to both, the political and religious arenas. On the hand, certain pastors and politicians argue that the Ten Commandments are so important and such an integral part of Western Civilization, that they must turn them into graven images, mere idols as a part of the Christian Right's ongoing war against western civilization. The Ten Commandments, argues the Christian Right, must be forced into virtually every aspect of our public institutions, from village squares to court house lawns, to school rooms and governmental buildings etc. But what the Christian Right fails to tell you is that while reactionary religious leaders on the far right are trying to force the Ten Commandments on everyone else, those same religious leaders are telling their own congregations that the Ten Commandments are obsolete, that Jesus Christ nailed them to the cross and that we are all saved through grace alone, not deeds or actions.

-------To be honest, I have some major problems with that kind of theology (or lack thereof). In many ways it reminds of me of an under-Christianized version of navel contemplation, an excuse for doing nothing, for not getting involved with the world condition while human suffering and abject misery run rampant. Ideally, faith or grace based theology is supposed to work like this: You are born again; you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and if you are sincere in your acceptance you will naturally be guided to behave in a way that is acceptable and pleasing in the eyes of the Lord because you have been filed with the Holy Spirit. But as we all know, there is a tremendous difference between the stated idea and the actual end result.

-------Far from being filled with the Holy Spirit, it appears as if some religious leaders and their authoritarian followers are filled with what John Dean refers to as "cheap grace." The same appears to be true of certain right wing politicians. Instead of behaving in a more spiritual or compassionate manner, many authoritarian Christians use cheap grace as an excuse to engage in a remorseless, over-glorified ego trip which is anything but Christian or beneficial. Convinced that the Ten Commandments are obsolete, they substitute a clear cut code of moral and ethical behavior with a quick prayer in which they beg the Lord to forgive them. Believing that Jesus now sits up at night to admire them, they then operate under the false assumption that they can transgress, perform unspeakable acts, beg for God's forgiveness, and then proceed to commit even more outrageous transgressions against their fellow man or even society at large.

-------It is as as if these individuals had worn down their consciences with cheap grace--a remarkable and frightening process. "One of the things a conscience is supposed to do is make us act better, but when you have a means of eliminating guilt there is not much incentive to clean up your act. You see how conscience gets short circuited," (Robert) Altmeyer noted. He added. "bad behavior may produce guilt, but it is easily washed away. So then more bad behavior can result again and again, getting removed very easily through religion. There is a terrible closing to this reality. The lack of guilt over things he has done in the past can actually contribute to the self-righteousness of the authoritarian. And this self-righteousness has proven, in experiments, to be the main factor that unleashes the right wing authoritarian's aggressive impulses." He concluded, "I have called them 'God's designated hitters.' We end up with the irony that the people who think they are so very good end up doing so very much evil, and more remarkably, they are probably the last people in the world who will ever realize the connection between the two." There is no better explanation for the behavior of many Christian conservatives, for it accounts for their license to do ill, Christian beliefs notwithstanding."

-------From Conservatives Without Conscience (page 64)

-------by John Dean

The results have been disastrous: A loose-tongued evangelist who endorses the assassination of foreign leaders; a sociopathic Texan Governor turned sociopathic (P)resident who rejoices at the ideas of war, death, torture, and stealing from the poor to give to the rich; a right wing party which embraces the Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism while spewing disingenuous double talk about democracy and freedom. Why, when you listen to these warped individuals, you practically have to stop and ask yourself: Are they quoting from a Catholic or Protestant Bible, or have they embraced the teachings of Anton LaVay's Satanic Bible? If you didn't know better you'd think that the teachings of Jesus were irrelevant to these phony Christians. Their warped theology may well teach that Jesus nailed the Ten Commandments to the cross, but they don't have a clue as to what Jesus himself had to say. Indeed, they seem to believe that when Jesus spoke (in the New Testament) he was only doing so because it was a boring Tuesday afternoon and he didn't know what else to do with himself. But if Jesus is indeed both divine and perfectly human (without sin) then why do these pontificating hate mongers ignore their own Savior when he asks us to feed the hungry, give alms to the poor, and turn the other cheek? Again, the answer seems to be cheap grace. They don't mind bastardizing the name of Jesus Christ as long as then can exploit His name to promote hate, warfare, violence, racism, homophobia, and Social Darwinism. But when Jesus specifically asks them to be more generous, less hateful, and more forgiving, they not only nail the Ten Commandments to the cross--they also nail the teachings of their beloved Lord and Savior to the cross. All the while begging the deity to forgive them so they can turn around, undermine His teachings, and move on to even more shameful and damaging acts.

-----Moreover moral codes aren't the only victims. Other victims include legitimate Christianity itself and the Red State Cesspools where the Republican/Pseudo Christian fecal matter has backed up into the lives of Red State citizens. Consider the following:

-------* THE 10 STATES WITH THE HIGHEST OVER ALL INCARCERATION RATES:    Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, Arizona , Delaware.   In short, nine out of ten were Red States. [Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners, 2003 (November 2004)]

-------* THE 10 STATES WITH THE HIGHEST RATE OF FEMALE INCARCERATION IN 2003: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, Alabama, Nevada, Colorado. Ten out of ten were Red States.  [Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners 2003 (November 2004)]

-------* THE TEN STATES WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF EXECUTIONS IN 2004 WERE ALL RED STATES: Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada . [Bureau of Justice Statistics. Capital Punishment, 2004 (November 2005)]

-------* The 15 STATES WITH THE HIGHEST RATES OF DEATH BY FIREARMS IN 2003 WERE ALL RED STATES: Alaska , Louisiana, New Mexico, Nevada, Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, Arizona, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky. [Deaths. Final Date for 2003 National Center For Health Statistics Volume 54, No 13, 2006 ]

-------* OF THE 15 STATES WITH THE HIGHEST RATES OF SUICIDE, 14 OUT OF 15 WERE RED STATES: Wyoming, Alaska, Nevada, Montana, New Mexico, Idaho , Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, South Dakota, Kentucky. [Deaths. Final Date for 2003, National Center for health statistics. Volume 54. No 13, 2006]

-------* TEN OF THE TOP TEN STATES WITH THE HIGHEST DIVORCE RATES ARE RED STATES: Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida.    [Division of Vital Statistics. National Center for Health Statistics CDC. 2005 among 45 reported.]

-------* NINE OF THE TEN STATES WITH THE HIGHEST ILLEGITIMACY RATES ARE RED STATES: New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, Delaware, Arizona, South Carolina, Florida, Nevada, Georgia, Arizona. [Births. Final Data for 2003. National Center for Health, Statistics. Volume 54, Nov 2, 2005 ]

-------* 14 OF THE 15 STATES WITH THE HIGHEST OBESITY RATES ARE RED STATES: Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee,Louisiana, Arizona, Kentucky, Texas, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Missouri, Oklahoma, Georgia.   [Behavioral Risk Surveillance System. Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2004 ]

-------* EIGHT OF THE ELEVEN STATES WITH THE HIGHEST GROSSING MARKETS FOR GAMBLING ARE RED STATES: Nevada, New Jersey, Mississippi, Indiana, Louisiana, Illinois. Montana, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, South Dakota.  [United States Gaming Bulletin. Ernst Young 2005. Includes Native American gambling. ]

-------* EIGHT OF THE TEN SMARTEST STATES ARE BLUE STATES: Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maine, Minnesota, Virginia, Wisconsin, Montana, New York.   (On the other hand, the 10 states with the worst paid teachers are all red states. Out of the bottom states, eight out of ten are red states, a situation that might be explained by the fact that blue states place a higher premium on both education and a willingness to pay for education. [From Morgan Quinto Press. Based on 21 factors from its reference book Education State Rankings 2005-2006]

-------All right. Maybe I'm being a little unfair. Instead of looking at the deplorable results that conservative policies have produced in Conservative, Republican states, maybe I should be looking at what faith only religion has done for the individual believer, to the individual conservative politician or preacher. Truly their belief in God, their repeated prayers for redemption have made them better people.

-------Right?

-------Wrong.

-------This is a list of Conservative politicians and preachers who have...Well, just read on. You'll get the idea.

1. Edison Misla Aldarondo: Republican legislator. Sentenced to thirteen years in prison for molestation of a nine-years-old.

2. Randal David Ankeney: Republican activist. Arrested on suspicion of sexual assault on a child with force. He faces six charges related to getting a thirteen- year-old girl stoned, then having sex with her.

3. Merrill Robert Barter: Republican County Commissioner. Pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact & assault on a teenage boy.

4. Robert Bauman: Republican congressman & anti-gay activist. Charged with having sex with a sixteen-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

5. Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to thirty months in federal prison and fined $18,000.

6. Louis Beres: Chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon. Three of his family members accuse him of molesting them when they were preteens.

7. Howard L. Brooks: Republican legislative aide & advisor to a California assemblyman. Charged with molesting a twelve-year-old boy & possession of child porn.

8. Andrew Buhr: Republican politician, former committeeman for Hadley Township Missouri, former Tom Delay aide. Charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a thirteen-year-old boy.

9. Born Theodore Robert Cowell, this individual, under the name of Ted Bundy, would become synonymous with the term serial killer. " Bundy worked on the re-election campaign of Washington's Republican Governor Dan Evans. Evans was elected and he appointed Bundy to the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee. Bundy's political future seemed secure, when in 1973 he became assistant to Ross Davis, chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. It was a good time in Bundy's life. He had a girlfriend, his old girlfriend was once again in love with him, and his footing in the political arena was strong."

10. John Allen Burt: Republican anti-abortion activist. Convicted of sexually molesting a 15-year-old girl at the home for troubled girls that he ran.

11. Keola Childs: Republican county councilman. Pleaded guilty to sexual assault in the first degree for molesting a male child.

12. Kevin Coan: Republican St.Louis Election Board official. Arrested & charged with trying to buy sex from a fourteen-year-old girl whom he met on Internet.

13. Dan Crane: Republican congressman. Married, father of six, received a "100% Morality Rating" from Christian Voice. Had sex with a minor working as a congressional page. On July 20th, the House voted for censure of Crane, the first time that censure had been imposed for sexual misconduct.

14. Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was charged with rape for allegedly paying a fifteen-year-old girl for sex. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women The barrage of Republican public figures having sex with minors is hard to keep track of without a program. Fortunately, The Sappho Manifesto has provided us with a program to keep track of them all.

15. Peter Dibble: Republican legislator. Pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a thirteen- year-old girl.

16. Richard A. Delgaudio: Republican fundraiser and Bush pioneer. Found guilty of child porn charges.

17. Nicholas Elizondo: Director of the Young Republican Federation. Molested his six- year-old daughter & sentenced to six years in prison.

18. Larry Dale Floyd: Republican Constable in Denton County, Texas, Precinct 2. Arrested for allegedly crossing state lines to have sex with an 8 year old child & charged with seven related offences.

19. Jack W. Gardner: Republican councilman. Convicted of molesting a thirteen year old girl, when the Republican party, knowing of these crimes, put him on the ballot.

20. Richard Gardner: Nevada State Representative. Admitted to molesting his two daughters.

21. Matthew Glavin: President & CEO of Southeastern Legal Foundation, big player in Clinton impeachment. Arrested multiple times for public indecency, one time fondling the crotch of the officer who was arresting him.

22. Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing eight-and ten-year old girls.

23. Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a . "Republican Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

24. Mark A. Grethen: Republican activist. Convicted of six counts of sex crimes involving children.

25. Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.

26. Mark Harris: Republican city councilman who is described as a "church goer". Convicted of repeatedly having sex with an eleven- year-old girl & sentenced to twelve years in prison.

27. Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his twelve-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

28. Howard Scott Heldreth: Anti-abortion activist who gained famed during the Shiavo media-circus. Convicted of two charges of raping a child in 2002.

29. Mike Hintz: First Assembly of God youth pastor, introduced by Bush on the campaign trail & promoted his policies. two months later, this married father of four turned himself into police, charged with sexual exploitation of a child.

30. Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to forty years in prison for molesting an eight-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

31. Paul Ingram: Republican party leader of Turston County, Washington. Pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served fourteen years in federal prison.

32. Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

33. Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

34. Jon Matthews: Republican talk show host in Houston. Indicted for indecency with a child, including exposing his genitals to a girl under age seventeen.

35. Nicholas Morency: Republican anti-abortion activist. Pleaded guilty to possessing child porn on his computer and offering a bounty to anyone who murders am abortion doctor.

36. Jeffery Patti: Republican Committee Chairman. Arrested for distributing what experts call " some of the most offensive material in the child porn world." It was a video clip of a five- year-old girl being raped.

37. Mark Pazuhanich: Republican judge. Pleaded no contest to fondling a ten-year-old girl and sentenced to ten years probation.

38. Dennis Rader, otherwise known as the BTK (Blind, Torture, Kill) Serial Killer was a savage homicidal maniiac who murdered his many victims according to a ritualized script. When he murdered his neighbor Marine Hedge, in 1985, he quite literally took her to the Wichita Christ Lutheran Church and photographed her dead body on the altar. To the outside world, Rader gave all the outward appearances of normalcy. He was a Boy Scout Leader; he was a member of the above mentioned Christ Lutheran Church, and he was a registered Republican. He was also considered a loving father and decent family man who never the less quoted the Bible at his sentencing hearing.

39. Beverly Russell: County Chairman of Christian Coalition. Sexually molested his step-daughter, Susan Smith, who later drowned her two children.

40. Brent K. Schepp, a Republican candidate for the Kane County Illinois Board, who was arrested on charges of child molestation. Then there's 65-year-old Republican Pennsylvania Congressman, Don Sherwood, who was accused by his 29-year-old mistress of repeated instances of physical abuse, including strangulation (by the way Sherwood's campaign held a rally last week hosted by President Bush and Rick "Family Values: Santrorum,* who has also recorded endorsements for the embattled candidate.

41. Larry Jack Schwarz: Republican parole board officer & former Colorado State Representative. Fired after child porn was found in his possession.

42. Tom Shortridge: Republican campaign consultant. Sentenced to three years probation for taking nude pictures of a fifteen- year-old girl.

43. Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a fifteen year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.

44. Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

45. David Swartz: Republican County Commissioner. Pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of eleven, sentenced to 8 years in prison.

46. Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger allegedly had sex with a sixteen- year old girl when he was 28.

47. Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

48. Robin Vanerwall: Republican strategist & Citadel Military College graduate, Director of Faith and Family Alliance, member of Ralph Reed's inner circle who funneled money to and from Jack Abromoff to Reed. Convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the Internet.

49. Spokane Mayor Jim West (a conservative Republican who rabidly opposes gay rights and teen sex) was caught in a sting operation by the local newspaper as he was arranging sex with a forensic computer expert – hired by the paper – that he thought was an 18-year- old boy. While technically never convicted of having sex with a minor, there was plenty of evidence that he molested children while he was a scout leader years ago.

50. Keith Westmoreland: Tennessee State Representative. Arrested on seven felony counts of lewd & lascivious exhibition to minors under 16-years-old.

51. Stephen White: Republican preacher. Arrested after allegedly offering $ 20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

----- -To this list I might have added Virginia Senator George Allen, for his history of racism and domestic violence, but to the best of my knowledge Senator Allen is only a bigot, a bully, and a thug, not sexual deviant. And I really don't know what to do about Dennis Hastert because he only covered for online stalker Jim Foley. As far as I know Hastert has not molested nor stalked any minors nor engaged in any sex crimes--only covered them up. On the other hand, I probably should have included terrorist bomber, Eric Rudolph, the homophobic, anti-abortion fanatic who killed two people and wounded 110 others because he had a problem with abortion and "abberant sexual behavior." As if murdering people is the "Christian" alternative.

------- As you can tell, I am hardly susprised by this kind of behavior on the conservative side of the political/religious spectrum. The Republican Party, after all has been hijacked by people who John Dean refers to as "Conservatives Without Conscience." What, you might wonder is a conservative without a conscience? Read on. Dean divides them into two categories: The Social Dominators (or leaders) and the Right Wing Authoritarians (or followers),

-------Social Dominators are typically men. They are dominating, and they oppose equality. They also crave personal power and tend to be amoral. In addition they are also: intimidating, bullying, faintly hedonistic, vengeful, pitiless, exploitive, manipulative, dishonest, highly prejudiced (racist, sexist, homophobic), mean-spirited, militant, and nationalistic. They tell others what they want to hear, they take advantage of suckers, they create false images to sell themselves, they may or may not be religious, and they are usually politically and economically conservative/Republican. Right Wing Authoritarian Followers, on the other hand, may be men or women. They are submissive to and aggressive on behalf of authority, and are highly conventional. They are also deeply religious (often to the point of fanaticism) and possess moderate to little education. They trust people who should never be trusted and, like their totalitarian masters, they are highly prejudiced

(especially against homosexuals, women, and followers of religions which differ from their own). They are also mean-spirited, narrow-minded, intolerant, bullying, zealous, dogmatic, uncritical of authority, hypocritical, inconsistent, contradictory, prone to panic easily, highly self-righteous, moralistic, strict disciplinarians, severely punative, demanding of loyalty and eager to return loyalty. They tend to possess little in the way of self awareness and they are usually politically and economically conservative. (See John Dean's Conservatives Without Conscience pages 68-69, for the source material).

-------The upshot here is obvious. On one hand the pseudo Christians claim to be moral, God-fearing people, but when you look at some of the areas in this country where they have the most influence they are what some of us might refer to as "dens of iniquity." They preach morality and good government on one hand, but when it's all said and done they are little more than authoritarian (some might say totalitarian) leaders and followers who couldn't tell a decent set of morals from an advanced case of genital warts.

-------Their so called Christian values are the same values that one would find among sociopaths and malignant narcissists, people with dangerous, incurable personality disorders. And while we can't send them to the mental hospitals for the criminally insane (which is where a few of them belong) , we can at least remove them from elected positions in the same way that one would remove a cancerous tumor.

-------These people have done enough damage. It's time to bring an end to their irrational reign of terror. Let logic, compassion, and reason flourish once again.

Trevor, Jeffrey, Brandon, Daniel, Kyle and Brian

SOURCES

THE KING JAMES BIBLE: EXTRA LARGE PRINT EDITION

American Bible Society, New York

CONSERVATIVES WITHOUT CONSCIENCE

Page 63- 64, 68-69

by John Dean

Viking 2006

MEET UP
46 Republican Pedophiles
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WASH PARK PROJECT
Republican and Religious Right Wing Pedophiles
26 April 2006
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ABOUT
Crime / Punishment
Serial Killer Ted Bundy
From Charles Montaldo
http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/tedbundy.htm

CNN.com / Law Center

Rudolph Reveals Motives

Tesday April 19, 2005

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/13/eric.rudolph/index.html

VANITY FAIR (November Print Edition)
"Red State Babylon"

Page 164
by James Wolcott

DUAL DIAGNOSIS AND THE ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER

March 25, 2000

http://www.toad.net/~arcturus/dd/antisoc.htm

GEORGE BUSH IS A MALIGNANT NARCISSIST

by Paul Levy

2004

http://www.awakeninthedream.com/bushnarc.html

Special Thanks to "Dude" from THE BLUE REPUBLIC for the information about Spokane Mayor Jim West; and to "Jay" from THE BLUE REPUBLIC for his information about Brent K. Schepp

Authors notes by Trevor and Jeffrey

-------In many ways this was a a more difficult project than our recent revision of THE FOURTEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM. We have worked together on projects before, but this is the first time that all five of the founders have worked together on a single project. For the record, Trevor is a dyed in the wool atheist--quite a change from the devout and very conservative Prebyterian that he had once been. Jeffrey has been drifting towards Deism; possibly because his "favorite" Founding Fathers were Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. Brandon is a "Secular Buddhist," essentially accepting the moral teachings of the Buddhist faith without the supernatural trappings. Danny is an agnostic, although he may quite possibly swing over to a liberal form of Christianity. Kyle is a "recvovering Presbyterian--and if you know what that means you know more than the authors.

-------Oddly enough, we enjoyed every minute of the composition--bringing together the various threads, weaving in past posts, and discovering that the material was more related than we had ever imagined.

-------Will we work like this again? We certainly hope so. Peace to you and yours

-------Trevor and Jeffrey

REPUBLICAN PEDOPHILES, DEVIANTS, AND SERIAL KILLERS

2006-10-27T17:01:00.000-05:00

REPUBLICAN PEDOPHILES, DEVIANTS, AND SERIAL KILLERS

By Brandon and Daniel

1. Edison Misla Aldarondo: Republican legislator. Sentenced to thirteen years in prison for molestation of a nine-years-old.

2. Randal David Ankeney: Republican activist. Arrested on suspicion of sexual assault on a child with force. He faces six charges related to getting a thirteen- year-old girl stoned, then having sex with her.

3. Merrill Robert Barter: Republican County Commissioner. Pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact & assault on a teenage boy.

4. Robert Bauman: Republican congressman & anti-gay activist. Charged with having sex with a sixteen-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

5. Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to thirty months in federal prison and fined $18,000.

6. Louis Beres: Chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon. Three of his family members accuse him of molesting them when they were preteens.

7. Howard L. Brooks: Republican legislative aide & advisor to a California assemblyman. Charged with molesting a twelve-year-old boy & possession of child porn.

8. Andrew Buhr: Republican politician, former committeeman for Hadley Township Missouri, former Tom Delay aide. Charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a thirteen-year-old boy.

9. Born Theodore Robert Cowell, this individual, under the name of Ted Bundy, would become synonymous with the term serial killer. " Bundy worked on the re-election campaign of Washington's Republican Governor Dan Evans. Evans was elected and he appointed Bundy to the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee. Bundy's political future seemed secure, when in 1973 he became assistant to Ross Davis, chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. It was a good time in Bundy's life. He had a girlfriend, his old girlfriend was once again in love with him, and his footing in the political arena was strong."

10. John Allen Burt: Republican anti-abortion activist. Convicted of sexually molesting a 15-year-old girl at the home for troubled girls that he ran.

11. Keola Childs: Republican county councilman. Pleaded guilty to sexual assault in the first degree for molesting a male child.

12. Kevin Coan: Republican St.Louis Election Board official. Arrested & charged with trying to buy sex from a fourteen-year-old girl whom he met on Internet.

13. Dan Crane: Republican congressman. Married, father of 6, received a "100% Morality Rating" from Christian Voice. Had sex with a minor working as a congressional page. On July 20th, the House voted for censure of Crane, the first time that censure had been imposed for sexual misconduct.

14. Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was charged with rape for allegedly paying a fifteen-year-old girl for sex. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women The barrage of Republican public figures having sex with minors is hard to keep track of without a program. Fortunately, The Sappho Manifesto has provided us with a program to keep track of them all.

15. Peter Dibble: Republican legislator. Pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a thirteen- year-old girl.

16. Richard A. Delgaudio: Republican fundraiser & Bush pioneer. Found guilty of child porn charges.

17. Nicholas Elizondo: Director of the Young Republican Federation. Molested his six- year-old daughter & sentenced to six years in prison.

18. Larry Dale Floyd: Republican Constable in Denton County, Texas, Precinct 2. Arrested for allegedly crossing state lines to have sex with an 8 year old child & charged with 7seven related offences.

19. Jack W. Gardner: Republican councilman. Convicted of molesting a thirteen year old girl, when the Republican party, knowing of these crimes, put him on the ballot.

20. Richard Gardner: Nevade state Representative. Admitted to molesting his 2 daughters.

21. Matthew Glavin: President & CEO of Southeastern Legal Foundation, big player in Clinton impeachment. Arrested multiple times for public indecency, one time fondling the crotch of the officer who was arresting him.

22. Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing eight- and ten-year old girls.

23. Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a . "Republican Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

24. Mark A. Grethen: Republican activist. Convicted of six counts of sex crimes involving children.

25. Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.

26. Mark Harris: Republican city councilman who is described as a "church goer". Convicted of repeatedly having sex with an eleven- year-old girl & sentenced to twelve years in prison.

27. Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his twelve-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

28. Howard Scott Heldreth: Anti-abortion activist who gained famed during the Shiavo media-circus. Convicted of two charges of raping a child in 2002.

29. Mike Hintz: First Assembly of God youth pastor, introduced by Bush on the campaign trail & promoted his policies. two months later, this married father of four turned himself into police, charged with sexual exploitation of a child.

30. Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to forty years in prison for molesting an eight-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

31. Paul Ingram: Republican party leader of Turston County, Washington. Pleaded guilty to 6 counts of raping his daughters & served fourteen years in federal prison.

32. Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

33. Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

34. Jon Matthews: Republican talk show host in Houston. Indicted for indecency with a child, including exposing his genitals to a girl under age seventeen.

35. Nicholas Morency: Republican anti-abortion activist. Pleaded guilty to possessing child porn on his computer & offering a bounty to anyone who murders am abortion doctor.

36. Jeffery Patti: Republican Committee Chairman. Arrested for distributing what experts call " some of the most offensive material in the child porn world."-a video clip of a five- year-old girl being raped.

37. Mark Pazuhanich: Republican judge. Pleaded no contest to fondling a 10 year old girl & sentenced to 10 years probation.

38. Dennis Rader, otherwise known as the BTK (Blind, Torture, Kill) Serial Killer was a savage homicidal maniiac wwho murdered his many victims according to a ritualized script. When he murdered his neighbor Marine Hedge, in 1985, he quite literally took her to the Wichita Christ Lutheran Church and photographed her dad body on the altar.. To the outside world, Rader gave all the outward appearances of normalcy. He was a Boy Scout Leader; he was a member of the above mentioned Christ Lutheran Church; he was a registered Republican. He was also considered a loving father and decent family man who never the less quoted the Bible at his sentencing hearing.

39. Beverly Russell: County Chairman of Christian Coalition. Sexually molested his step-daughter, Susan Smith, who later drowned her two children.

40. Larry Jack Schwarz: Republican parole board officer & former Colorado state representative. Fired after child porn was found in his possession.

41. Tom Shortridge: Republican campaign consultant. Sentenced to 3 years probation for taking nude pictures of a fifteen- year-old girl.

42. Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a fifteen year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.

43. Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

44. David Swartz: Republican County Commissioner. Pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of e;even, sentenced to 8 years in prison.

45. Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger allegedly had sex with a sixteen- year old girl when he was 28.

46. Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

47. Robin Vanerwall: Republican strategist & Citadel Military College grad, Director of Faith and Family Alliance, member of Ralph Reed's inner circle who funneled money to/from Jack Abromoff to Reed. Convicted in Virginia on 5 counts of soliciting sex from boys & girls over the Internet.

48. Keith Westmoreland: Tennessee State Representative. Arrested on 7 felony counts of lewd & lascivious exhibition to minors under 16 years old.

49. Stephen White: Republican preacher. Arrested after allegedly offering $ 20 to a 14 year old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

Sources:

MEET UP
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26 April 2006
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http://dfa.meetup.com/boards/view/viewthread?thread=2075382

ABOUT
Crime / Punishment
Serial Killer Ted Bundy
From Charles Montaldo
http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/tedbundy.htm

November Edition of VANITY FAIR
RED STATE BABYLON
page 164
by James Wolcott

Comment by Praetor One on October 21, 2006, right here on TBR

Now add to the list:

...Spokane Mayor Jim West (a conservative Republican who rabidly opposes gay rights and teen sex) was caught in a sting operation by the local newspaper as he was arranging sex with a forensic computer expert – hired by the paper – that he thought was an 18 year old boy. While technically never convicted of having sex with a minor...there was plenty of evidence that he molested kids while he was a scout leader years ago.

Posted by DUDE on October 21, 2006 on The Blue Republic

and

"...Brent K. Schepp, a Republican candidate for the Kane County Illinois Board, who was arrested on charges of child molestation. Then there's 65-year-old Republican Pennsylvania Congressman, Don Sherwood, who was accused by his 29-year-old mistress of repeated instances of physical abuse, including strangulation (by the way Sherwood's campaign held a rally last week hosted by President Bush and Rick "Family Values: Santrorum* (who) has also recorded endorsements for the embattled candidate."

Posted by JAY, October 24, 2006 on THE BLUE REPUBLIC

*Santorum, by the way packed his wife, three children, and a dead 20 week old fetus into a car, drove to in-laws, and subsequently forced his three young children to kiss and cuddle the said twenty week old fetus. Oops. Do we detect whispers of necrophilia here? Yeah. The Santorums are real normal. I'd hate to see what they'd do with a dead grandparent.

DEVOLVER--DISC TWO

2006-10-27T09:59:00.000-05:00

DEVOLVER

DISC TWO

1. SHE CAN IMITATE THEM
Based on "For No One"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Daniel

She left wing, she right wing
She will gladly tell you one thing or another
Oh she can imitate them

The wind bag, the old hag
She dumps all her pride in Democratic values
When she can imitate them

CHORUS
But in her words we hear nothing
No sign of truth behind the smile
Flashed for no one
Another phony put on smile

Her war talk; it won't walk
She sounds more like Bush and Cheney out campaigning'
Oh she can imitate them

CHORUS

The allure of torture
She will side with Rice and Rummy in a heartbeat
Oh she can imitate them

For Glamour, for power
Doesn't anybody know the real Misses Clinton
Oh she can imitate them

CHORUS
End Cold

2. RICE
Based on "Rain"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Daniel

When the war comes
She kindah gets confused
And runs to buy some shoes
When the war comes
When the war comes

When the bombs fall
She suddenly goes moot
And runs to bu some boots
When the bombs fall
When the bombs fall

CHORUS:
Rice------
She don't mind
Rice-----
The sale's fine

When the blood flows,
She won't do what she should
But pumps they sure look good
When the blood flows
When the blood flows

CHORUS

When the kids die
She's running from the mines
But Prada will do fine
When the kids die
When the kids die

Rice now
Sure looks good in spiked heels
Rice.....)
(REPEATING AND FADING}

3. IRAQ IS FINE DEAR
Based on "I Want to Tell You"
By George Harrison
New lyrics by Jeffrey and Brian

Iraq is fine, dear
Fanatics there say "God, I'm free!"
I don't mind
In due time they'll come to worship me!

Iraq is fine dear
Saddam is gone but chaos reigns
That's okay
Profit first could make us look insane

But if my action seems absurd
It's only me I break my word
I'll be confusing you

Iraq is fine, dear
Civilians die, but that's all right
No big deal
We'll be there forever might males right

Sometimes you think I came from hell
But if I tell the truth I'll scare you
You'll never comprehend

I'll be a god now!
To disobey means you will die!
No more grief
Death en mass will never make me cry

Make me cry
I won't cry
Make me cry
I won't cry
REPEATING AND FADING

4. JOHNNY MACKENZIE
Based on "Eleanor Rigby"
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Kyle

God pity all the broken people
God pity all the mourning people

Johnnie MacKenzie signs up for war in a school
Where recruiters have been
Buying a dream
Goes off for training learning to kill
From madmen who love blood, death, and gore
What is it for?
All the broken people, where do they all come from?
All the mourning people, how do they all go on?

Mother MacKenzie watching a program sees
Photos no mother should see.
How can it be?
Watching him dying, bleeding from wounds
In his heart while the camera stares
Leaders don't care
All the broken people, where do they all come from
All the mourning people, how do they all go on?

God pity all the broken people
God pity all the mourning people

Johnny MacKenzie was killed in Iraq and was
Hidden along with his flag
Meaningless rag
Mary MacKenzie, wiping the tears from her eyes
When she prays at the grave
Who has been saved?
All the broken people, where do they all come from
All the mourning people, how do they all go on?

5. WAR MAN
Based on "Taxman"
By George Harrison
New Lyrics by Brandon and Kyle

Let me show you how I can be
Come risk your life to serve for me
Cause I'm the war man!
Yeah I'm the war man!

I put my morals on the shelf
I never served a day myself
But I'm a war man!
Yeah, I'm a war man!

If you lose your arms don't claw or grope
If you lose your legs don't cry or mope
If you lose your mind you'll have to cope
If you lose your life you're out of hope

War man!

Cause I'm a war man!
Yeah I'm a war man

Don't ask me what you're fighting for

Don't ask Mister Rove
You'll get a line but nothing more

New line, Mister Bush!
Cause I'm a war man!
Yeah I'm a war man

Now my advice to those who serve
You better know I've got some nerve

(Not you Mister Bush!)
And you're dying for no one but me....

6. IN OUR STRIFE
Based on "Michelle"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brian

There's a truth, it goes unspoken
In the strife
The lies have changed
They go on and on forever
Crudely made, they seem too strange
But his half truths had a purpose
His quest for power, he deceived us all
We believed him, that's our failing
The phony God will surely fall

But in all his mass deception
There is no lie compares to this
If you only try and trust me
I'll show you pain can be your bliss
Though we know he won't forgive defection
Of kind-hearted folk who see the lie
We know he wants to male them suffer
In the strife he let's more die

Though we know he'll never be forgiven
For walking away from warfare whores
We know the man who's mad will try and stop us
Madmen love the pain much more
Madmen love the pain much more

7. GEORGE
Based on "Girl"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brandon and Daniel

Is there anyone left who's going to believe the story
About the freedom that he took away
He's the kind thug who lies so much it makes you angry
And you'd wish he'd up and walk away
Ah George!
George
George!

When I think of all the lives
He threw away for pleasure
He will find a way to hype the war
And he promises the world to us and I remember
That he's just an alcoholic whore
Ah George
Ah George
Ah George

He's the kind of guy who loves the war
And gives you more
You feel a fool
When you say it's just a trick
He looks for help from Tricky Dick
He's cruel cruel cruel cruel
Ah George
Ah George
Ah George

Was he told when he was young that pain would
Give him pleasure
Did he understand it when they said
That a man must do his best, defend the Constitution
Did it ever sink into his head?
Ah George
Ah George
Ah George

8. IN OUR STRIFE
Based on "Michelle"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brian

There's a truth, it goes unspoken
In the strife
The lies have changed
They go on and on forever
Crudely made, they seem too strange
But his half truths had a purpose
His quest for power, he deceived us all
We believed him, that's our failing
The phony God will surely fall

But in all his mass deception
There is no lie compares to this
If you only try and trust me
I'll show you pain can be your bliss
Though we know he won't forgive defection
Of kind-hearted folk who see the lie
We know he wants to male them suffer
In the strife he let's more die

Though we know he'll never be forgiven
For walking away from warfare whores
We know the man who's mad will try and stop us
Madmen love the pain much more
Madmen love the pain much more

9. YES
Based on "Wait"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney]
New Lyrics by Brandon and Jeffrey

You were a rich boy
Oh joy, Mama can't care
And you screw up
So what? Papa's right there

CHORUS
Yes you will pay back for your crimes
Yes and maybe do some time'

You were a war whore
Got more blood on your hands
And when you got bored
Oh Lord, bombed a new land

I think it's true
And so do you
That you've been sick
As sick as you can be
It's up to you
Your reign is through
Here's hoping you
will not go free

It's been a long time
Don't cry, just go away
It's been six years now
Oh how, you went astray

CHORUS

I think it's true
You know it too
That you were bad
As bad as you could be
We're sick of you
No trust in you; Here's hoping you
Will not go free

So when you're thrown out
Don't pout, never look back
And if you feel sad
Too bad, you're just a hack

CHORUS
So if you're in chains
Your pain, own it yourself
You did your own crime
Do time, do it yourself.

10. I NEED VINDICATION
Based on "If I Needed Someone"
By George Harrison
New Lyrics by Jeffrey

If I needed vindication
I'd be trying to invade Iran
I need vindication

If you let me work my weak will
Then I guess you'll give me troops to kill
I need vindication
If it weren't Election Day
I might have found another way
But I have to follow Karl Rove

Send out forces to Iran
And maybe I will get a vote from you
I need vindication
Ahhhhhh
Ahhhhhh
Ahhhhh
Ahhhhh

If you let me launch a new war
Then I'll be a psychopathic whore
I need vindication
It if weren't Election Day
I might have ruled them anyway
Oh I love to follow Karl Rove

Send your children to Iran
And you will get a hard, cold stare from me
I need vindication
Ahhhhh
Ahhhhh

11. I'M ONLY SHAMING
Based on "I'm Only Sleeping"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Daniel

When I ran for Congress I was yearning
Damn that kid, I'm still burning
Diddling in the middle of the night
What went wrong? This ain't right.

Don't forsake me
No, don't blame me
I won't run away
That would be shaming

Maybe it'll sound a little corny
That's too bad, I just got horny
Never did a thing like this before
So I prey and lust for more
(lust for more)

Please don't spoil my fame
The Foley name
Because you know
I'm only shaming

Losing my mind as my fingers embrace the keyboard
IMS now

Sitting here a sweating and a reeling
Fending off the creepy feeling

Please don't run my name
I'll take the blame
Because you know
I'm only shaming

Only s ixteen but is he wearing shorts of boxers?
Find out in time

Now they're calling Foley pornographic
Oh my God! This got tragic
Now they that Foley's out of line
Jesus Christ, it's a crime

Please don't ruin my fame
The Foley name
Because we know
I'm only shaming

12. BOY STALKER
Based on "Day Tripper"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brandon

Got a good season
For kicking the G.O.P. out
Got a good season
For kicking the G.O.P. out now
There was a boy stalker
They covered for him yeah
It took us too long to find out
But we found out

Family Values
Played with himself in the dark
Family Values
Leaving a torturous mark now
He was a boy stalker
They covered for him yeah
It took us too long to find out
But we found out

How many knew it
Hastert and Boner and Frist
How many knew it
Anyone Foley had known now
He was a boy stalker
They covered for him yeah
It took us too long to find out
But we found out

Boy stalker
Boy stalker damn
Boy Stalker
Boy Stalker damn
(Repeating and fading)

13. WE WILL VOTE FREE
Based on "You Won't See Me"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brandon

If we go to vote
You act enraged
You have lied enough
Please act your age
We won't lose the rights
We fought so hard to find
And you have lost your mind
So we will will vote free
We will vote free
We will vote free

We don't know how you
Have stemmed the tide
But the votes we cast
And thrown aside
You don't want to say
The right you've thrown away
But we can vote today
And we will vote free
We will vote free

Time after time
You go on with all your bleating
We wouldn't mind
If it weren't for all your cheating

The machines are rigged
They're filled with lies
And since we got you
We wonder why
Yes it seems too wrong
Guys, you don't belong
But we will all move on
And we will vote free
We will vote free

Time after time
You go on with all your bleating
We wouldn't mind
If it weren't for right wing cheating

But your days are few
They're filled with fears
Yes we're on to you
In your final years
Oh it's been too long
Soon you will be gone
And the Reich goes down
And we will vote free
We will vote free

Good, fucking good bye
Good, fucking goodbye
[Repeat and Fade]

14. GOT TO GET YOU OUT OF MY LIFE
Based on "Got to Get You Into My Life"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brandon and Brian

Another night of pain and fright
You had to shred the Constitution
The Bill is done, our rights are gone
You're gonna start your Inquisition

Ooh Then suddenly I see you
Ooh, I see the evil in you
Ant-Jesus guides you every day

The number six, the dirty tricks
You talk compassion you are cruel
They came to hear, you played their fear
So use the Christians, call them fools

Ooh, then suddenly we see you
Ooh , we see the evil in you
Anti-Jesus guides you every day

Got to get you out of my life

You did it well, now back to hell
Adieu to perverts, thugs, and liars
You GOP will let us be
You're going home where flames are higher

Ooh then we suddenly see you
Ooh, we see the evil in you
Anti-Jesus burn in Hell each day

Got to get you out of my life
Got to get you out of my life

Another night, no pain or fright
We're living by the Constitution
Our rights are back, we can't be slack
We had to stop the Inquisition

So we'll be waiting for you
Yes I'll be watching for you
Every single day...

15. I SAID I SAID
Based on "She Said She Said"
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Kyle

I said, "I knew what it's like to have rights
I knew what it is to be free
But they're using the war to take my freedom away

I said, "Do we need a Patriot Act?"
Acts that make me stifle my words
And they're using the war to take my freedom away

Dick said, "you shut up and do what I say!"
I said "Go buzz off you're wrong"
I will not obey. This is not a Reich
This is not a Reich

I said, "You will reap the seeds that you sow."
I know that you're scheming again
And you're using the war to take my freedom away.

Don said, "You don't know the power I wield"
I said, "Yes, I know you're strong"
I will not obey. You were never right
You were never right

I said
I said" I will not abandon my rights"
[I know what it is to be free

I know that you're scheming again..
I know that you're scheming again...
(REPEATING AND FADING)

16. LET THE BASTARDS KNOW
Based on "Tomorrow Never Knows"
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New lyrics by Brandon Jeffrey and Kyle

Turn off the noise, gear up and use your voice
They have been lying.   They have been lying.

Reclaim your rights and send the bastards home.
It is relieving.   It is relieving.

Clean the Congress of the Profiteers
It is timing. It is timing,

Rights for all and rights for everyone
We are claiming. We are claiming.

Bigotry and hate will lose the day
They are failing.   They are failing.

Homophobes and racists rue the day
They are writhing, They are writhing,

So play the game of freedom to the end
It is rising. It is rising.
It is rising. It is rising.
REPEATING AND FADING

DEVOLVER-- DISC ONE

2006-10-27T09:58:00.000-05:00

DEVOLVER
DISC ONE

1. WE ALL LIVE IN A NAZI LOONY BIN
Based on "Yellow Submarine"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brandon and Jeffrey

In the town where George was born
No one told him what he should be
And he threw away his life
Smoking weed that was so green
So he prayed unto the son
Til he found a God extreme
And he ruled as if reborn
In a land that was not free

CHORUS:

We all live in a Nazi loony bin!
A Nazi loony bin!
A Nazi loony bin!
U.S.A. is a Nazi loony bin!
A Nazi loony bin!
A Nazi loony bin!

And his friends are all adored
Only one of them, a male whore
And the press began to sing

[Opening bars of "Deutschland Uber Alles" played on an out of tune German marching band, then directly into...]

CHORUS:

Leading directly into

[Instrumental performance of the opening verse overdubbed with excerpts from a Nuremberg Party Rally, replete with Hitler bellowing and a crowd cheering "SIEG HEIL!  SIEG HEIL!"  This to be overdubbed with the sounds of Stukas dive bombing, machine guns firing, and bombs exploding leading directly into...]

And the times are full of sleaze
While the Neocons do as they please
And he lives a life of ease
Killing young GIs can be a breeze

CHORUS

REPEAT CHORUS AND FADE OUT

2.  WHAT WENT WRONG
Based on "What Goes On?"
By John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Richard Starkey
New Lyrics by Brandon

CHORUS
What went wrong with your heart?
What went wrong with your mind?
Shells are ripping them apart
As you tell another lie
Is that praise that you will find
What made you so unkind?

On Saturday I heard you
As you chose another course
But when  listen to you
I can hear the same old source
It's too easy for for Herr Rove to spew a lie
No surprise

CHORUS

I see you on the TV
As you lie before the press
But now the tide is turning
And you're such a royal mess
It's too easy for the G.O.P. to lie
No surprise

What goes on in your heart

I see you put the party first
The country, oh it fell
You didn't even think it
When the soldiers went to hell
Did you mean to praise yourself while soldiers die
No surprise

CHORUS

3.  ISN'T IT GREAT?
Based on "Norwegian Wood"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Daniel

I just found a God
Or should I say
Jesus found me
He taught me to prey
It's not too late
Isn't it great?

He told me to preach and he told me to bitch ev'ry where
I use the Good Book and it told me to hate but not share

Now I disdain blacks
Mexicans too
No love for Jews
And I spit on fags
Never ask why
Just let 'em die

Yes Jesus has changed me, The Lord God has shown me his work'
My friends have all left me they think I've become such a jerk.
What else can I do?
All things will pass
Kissing God's ass
So, I prey all day
Seething in hate
Isn't it great?

4.  ACT LIKE A MAN
Based on "Run For Your Life"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by  Brandon

Well you're nothing but a brat little George
You're a punk with a pompous gait
You're an attitude on feet little George
With a heart that's filled with hate

CHORUS:
You better act like a man if you can little George
Tell the truth maybe once little George
When yah gonna get a spine
You're a coward, little George

Well you prove that you're a wicked guy
You were born with an evil mind
You let the servant in your life
Take the blame for all your crimes

CHORUS

Never learn a lesson
Never shame for what's been done
George you're psycho and a sadist
Perversion had a run

CHORUS

No you haven't got a spine to lead
You're a wimp like your dear old dad
You brag and boast you let others bleed
And the people, they were had

CHORUS

Oh no no no
No no no
No no no
(REPEATING AND FADING)


5.  HATE, FEAR, AND BE AWARE
Based on  "Here, There, and Everywhere"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Jeffrey and Brandon

To lead a greater Reich, I need to wallow in lies

Hate.  Bigotry should make us great
Mongering rage with a wave of my hand
Nobody can
Tell me that I shouldn't hate

Fear.  New Paranoia this year
Telling the people how scared they should be
I am still speaking, but nobody knows its fear

I tell them be aware
If they spread the word I know that I should never care
But to use them is to keep them unaware
Knowing that lies will be shared
Each one deceiving as truth ever dies
Look in their eyes, and tell them "yes, be aware."

I want them unaware
If they knew the truth I know that I would never dare
But to use them is to show them that I don't care
Knowing that truth is not shared
Suckers believing new lie after lie
Look in their eyes and tell them, "yes ,be aware"

I will hate there
Fear everywhere
Hate, fear, and be aware

6.  I'M WADING THROUGH YOU
Based on "I'm Looking Through You"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brandon

I'm wading through you.  What do I see
More right wing fussing, hyperbole
Ain't nothing different you never change
I'm wading through you, you're still deranged

Coulter is bitching.  I turn her off
Her mood is whiny.  I've had enough
Limbaugh is lying. What else is new?
I'm wading through you, the same old crew

Why, tell me why are you so damned uncouth
FOX would make Goebbels proud and Bill O'Reilly can't tell the truth

So Sean is griping.  What can he do?
The words are flowing.  The facts are few
The entertainment is always there
I'm wading through you, and you don't care

Why tell me why will you not give me news
Oh cash is the bottom line and what you spew gives me the blues

I'm wading through you; the facts are lite
I thought I knew you and I was right
Your propaganda will never change
I'm wading through you; you're still deranged



7.  JESUS
Based on "Michelle"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Daniel

Jesus, My Lord
These are words that strike a right wing chord
Oh, My Lord

Jesus, My Lord
Guide me, tell me, when you want discord
Jesus, My Lord

I praise you, I praise you, I praise you
I never need to think
I push it to the brink and pray what you comprehend
Ah the rapture and the end.

Jesus, My Lord
Guide me, tell me, when you want discord
Jesus, My Lord

I heed you, I heed you, I heed you
Please tell me who to hate
I know that you are great
I need you so I am hoping you will come back soon
I praise you

Obey you, obey you, obey you!
You give me such a chill
I want to do your will
Until I do I ass kiss you so you'll comprehend

Jesus, My Lord
Guide me, tell me, when you want discord
Jesus My Lord

So I pray the only words I know that you comprehend
Hateful Lord.


8.  WHAT WOULD JESUS THINK?
based on "And Your Bird Can Sing"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brian

You tell me that you're Christian, but I wonder
What would Jesus think?
No you don't fool me, you don't fool me

You tell me that you pray and you're close to God
What would Jesus think?
No you don't fool me, you don't fool me

When your word is broken and you lose your crown
You will pray for mercy.  Is it found?  Is it found?

When you need to murder and you seem unsound
Take a look for Jesus. He's around.  He's around

You tell me (that) you love God and you do his will
What would Jesus think?
No you don't fool me. You don't fool me.


9.  CAN'T YOU WORK IT OUT?
Based on "We Can Work It Out"
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brandon and Jeffrey

Try to get it right George
Two times three are six not a hundred-twenty-three
Try to get it right, George
It isn't crazy glue it's the Law of Gravity

Can't you work it out?
Can't you work it out?

Think of what you're thinking
Yes we evolved we did not come from Adam and Eve
Think of what you're thinking
Go and read the science not the myth you must believe

Can't you work it out?
Can't you work it out?

Facts are very hard and there's no sense
in all your denial my friend
I have always thought that it's a crime
to waste a mind, my stupid friend.

Read another book, George
It's a globe of rock not an orb of lunar cheese
Read another Book George
The words are lengthy but will they bring you to your knees?

Can't you work it out?
Can't you work it out?

Facts are very hard and there's no sense
in all your denial my friend
I have always thought that it's a crime
to waste a mind, my stupid friend

Try to get it right George
We're on a turning sphere not a piece of pizza pie
Try to get it right George
We orbit around the sun don't you ever wonder why ?

Can't your work it out?
Can't you work it out?

10.  START A WAR
Based on "Drive My Car"
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Jeffrey

Exxon told him here's what you can do
They said the fool is you
You better start jumpin' yah son of a bitch
You can do something to make us rich

CHORUS
Sucker, you can start a war
Yes, we're gonna ask for more
Sucker you can start a war
And maybe we'll screw you!

Told the soldiers that our prospects were good
They said "Georgie, we'll do what we should
Killing for Rummy is all good and fine
But we sure wish that you'd tell us why."

CHORUS

CHORUS

He told the boys they would never be foiled
And they said "let's do it if won't be for oil."
He got his war but he hasn't a heart
Petroleum profits and that was smart

CHORUS

Boom Boom Boom Boom Yeah
Boom Boom Boom Boom Yeah
[Repeating and fading]

11.  WARFARE MAN
Based on "Nowhere Man"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Danny and Brandon

He's a bloody warfare man
Scheming ins his warfare land
Planning all his warfare plans for you and me

He's as mad as he can be
Twisting up reality
Warfare man are you feeling at all?

Warfare man, you're dissin'
Warfare man, quit pissin'
The world, it was never at your command

He's a raving psychopath
Led us down a twisted path
Isn't he what we don't want to be

Warfare man, we're worried
'Cause your mind seems blurry
Leave it it all 'til someone sane relieves your command

Has a crazy point of view
Murders but he's never through
Isn't he what we don't want to be?

Warfare man won't listen
We all know what he's missing
The world, it was never at his command

He's a real warfare man
Scheming in his warfare land
Planning all his warfare plans for ev'ryone
Planning all his warfare plans for ev'ryone
Planning all his warfare plans for ev'ryone

12.  PRAISE TO YOU
Based on "Love to You"
by George Harrison
New Lyrics by Brian

You promised so much more
Beyond the warfare lore
You're a threat to life and lib-er-ty

Tell tales while you can
You're not a real man

The truth is never sought
King George when were you bought?
And what you've done is evil certainly

You see the Rummy's frown
Dick Cheney wears your crown
They fill your head with what you want to be

They sing praise to you
They tell what to do


13.  UNCLE ALBERT
Based on "Doctor Robert"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New lyrics by Daniel

You like pain I guess you call Uncle Albert
Whips and chains he'll be there if there's pain at all Uncle Albert
Uncle Albert.  He's a sick and bitter man
Agony he understands
He does everything by plan, Uncle Albert

If you're up he'll kick you down, Uncle Albert
He'll shock your balls and he'll soak your head, Uncle Albert
Uncle Albert. He's a fiend who will deceive
Bleeding everyone he sees
We all need relief from Uncle Albert

CHORUS:
My my my Geneva is quaint
My my me he renders...Uncle Albert

Yes he works for a falling Reich, Uncle Albert
He strips 'em down to watch 'em masturbate (it's) Uncle Albert
Uncle Albert.  He's a crazy kindah freak
Piercing screams don't make him weak
He's a sadist and a creep, Uncle Albert

CHORUS

REPEAT FIRST VERSE,  FADING.

14.  HEY THERE GITMO
Based on "Good Day Sunshine."
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Daniel and Jeffrey

Hey there Gitmo!
Hey there Gitmo!
Hey there Gitmo!

You made me laugh
And when the lights are out
I got someone I can thrash about
It feels good
In a gruesome way
I'm a thug but not to John McCain

Hey there Gitmo!
Hey there Gitmo!
Hey there Gitmo

I take a stick
And the I beat them down
I get high as they hit the ground

The time is right
I got them in a cell
I get off when I'm raising hell
I'm feeling good
In a kinky way
I'm fucked up and it's another day

Good day Gitmo!
Good day Gitmo!
Good day Gitmo
(REPEATING AND FADING)

15.  PSYCHOPATH LEADER
Based on "Paperback Waiter"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Brandon

Psychopath leader (leader, leader)
Dear friends and neighbors will you take the time
To condemn the leader for his bloody crime
How he loves to hate, how he hates to love
How he mocks the Lord, so he's gonna be a psychopath leader
Psychopath leader!

It's a creepy story of a crazy man
And his thirst for blood that will never end
How he spread the war, how he spread the fear
It's a heinous job, but he's gonna be a psychopath leader
Psychopath leader!

With too many dead and it's all too few
He'll be killing more in a day or two
He may torture first, 'cause it's been the style
Pain is like a fix, and he's gonna be a psychopath leader
Psychopath leader!

If he gets the urges, he will kill us all
And he says I'm Holy" as the bodies fall
He will cut more taxes when the soldiers die
He will celebrate and he's gonna be a psychopath leader
Psychopath leader
Psychopath leader
[REPEATING AND FADING

16.  THE TURD, ROVE
Based on "The Word"
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
New Lyrics by Daniel

Speak a lie and be like me
Let my power set you free
hear the story that I wove
Gave you heard the spinner Rove?
I'm so fine!  It's all mine!
I'm the turd, Rove
In the beginning you misunderstood
I run the show and I drain all the good
(I'm The Turd, Rove!)

Spread the lie, and be like me
Take your rights to make you free
Hear the hate that I have wove
Have you heard the spinner Rove
I'm so great, it's too late
I'm The Turd, Rove
When I go out I hear people say
He baits the homos but his step dad was gay
(I'm The Turd, Rove)

Hear me speak and feel my might
Click your heels for my (little) Reich
I will pray to God up above
Although God is me, Karl Rove
I'm unfair. I don't care
I'm The Turd Rove
But if you think what I say is a lie
I'll make sure all the dissidents cry
(I'm The Turd, Rove)

Give the world a chance to see
That The Shrub is under me
It's the world I'm dreaming of
You down there, me up above
I defile!  A Sieg Heil

For The Turd, Rove
I'm The Turd, Rove
I'm The Turd, Rove
I'm The Turd, Rove

Letter From Kevin Tillman

2006-10-21T10:46:00.000-05:00

The following letter was written by Kevin Tillman, brother of the late Patrick Tillman. Please click on PEACE, EARTH, and JUSTICE NEWS to view the complete article.

It is Pat's birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our
volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice... until we get out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice: Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can't be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them.

Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few "bad apples" in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It's interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don't be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that "somehow" was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged
parasites.

Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat's birthday.

Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,

Kevin Tillman

Revealing the Christian Right: Octiber 2006

2006-10-20T13:37:00.000-05:00

The following conversation took place on the Wednesday, October 18, 2006 broadcast of The Randi Rhodes Show and was rebroadcast the next day, Thursday, October 19, 2006. In our neck of the woods it was broadcast on WCPT, 850 AM out of Chicago, Illinois. The caller in question is apparently Henry Bechthold, the author of Right Wing Politics and Religion: The Unholy Alliance Exposed. We present this portion of the coversation here because it highlights some of the points that we have expressed here in the past, only in a more conversational form.

We hope you enjoy.

Randi: Henry in Minnesota.
Henry: Hi Randi, thanks for taking my call.
Randi: You're welcome
Henry: I'm a conservative Christian Pastor but please don't hold that against me.
Randi: I'll hold anything against myself that I can.
Henry: Oh. Okay. Ah. I can tell you why the so called moral Christian Right supports Bush's torture policy and why these moral conservatives are often caught up in financial scandals, as well as why they head up committees to protect children--you know, like Congressman Foley--while attempting to seduce under age pages at the same time.
Randi: Okay
Henry: And the reason for each of those things--the first one that I mentioned, the torture--they can easily support torturing prisoners because of their sadistic, perverted belief system. They believe that their God demonstrates love and justice by torturing people eternally. And most people really don't get a handle on what that means until you actually do the math. If Hell was limited to one trillion years--and according to them it goes on for trillions of trillions--but if it was limited to one trillion years, that would mean that the average person who lived an average seventy year life expectancy, this God of love and justice that they talk about would be torturing that person thirty thousands years for every single minute that person lived on earth, fourteen billion to one units of punishment...And what's more frightening is (that) they teach in defiance of the overwhelming weight of Bible evidence. I'm a pastor. The Bible does not teach that. God is not like that. So they are arrogantly choosing to persist in believing in this kind of sadistic justice. Which raises the question, do we want these kind of sadistic minds running our government?
-------Regarding the second item, why they're so often caught up in financial scandals, they easily practice this in the secular area because they've been doing it for years in the church, Randi. Things that are just unconscionable. There has never been a secular operation that has practiced the kind of price gouging that they do in the church. They take these cassettes that they buy in mass quantities for 30 or 40 cents and they sell them for seven dollars. They take CDs that they buy for less than 50 cents and they sell them to their people for 15 to 20 dollars. Videos that they buy for 60 or 70 cents they sell for 20 dollars. They use one thousand and two thousand percent markups--and this is on The Free Gospel, the message is The Free Gospel of Grace. And they've been able to justify this for years. We shouldn't be surprised to learn that this goes on public. And they misappropriate funds. The Jesus that I read about in The Bible, he talked about ministering to the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and so on. The church is probably the biggest business in the world. And the average Christian doesn't know know the kind of money that they are sitting on.
-------And if all the Christian Churches in America alone--Christian Churches and ministries--in the United States gave just one out of five dollars to real ministry, to helping the poor and so on, there would be enough money to feed every starving child in the world three meals a day, plus to build five thousand brand new million dollar homeless shelters. Five thousand of these across America. And there would still be enough money to help a million inner city kids who are going to school in gang, drug-infected war zones. And there'd be enough money to take a million of these kids and pay the tuition in a safe, private, Christian school...And that's not all, Randi. It's estimated by The Bible League that 5000 million Christians around the world don't have Bibles. And this is in the Third World Countries where these people don't have anything and they're suffering from persecution. They would still have enough money to furnish a brand new Bible for every one of the five hundred million Christians. So the only thing you can come up with is that they don't practice what they preach. They're fat cats, they spend it on themselves. They're building mega churches while children are starving and homeless people are eating out of garbage dumpsters.
-------The third Item, and I appreciate you giving me a couple of minutes.
Randi: Oh you're making me cry.
Henry: The third item is talking about how they can easily practice such kind of hypocrisy like what Foley did. It's because they've been doing it for years. These people, one of the big deals that have been going on in recent years, as we all know, Dobson and all these guys are going all over the country trying to male sure that we keep the Ten Commandments in our secular arena. Right? In the public buildings. Little do most people know that behind closed doors these same guys stand up in their pulpits and they tell their church members, the Christians, that the Ten Commandments were abolished and nailed to the Cross of Jesus. Now if that weren't the ultimate hypocrisy, where you're out there trying to get the secular world to keep and honor them while in the churches you say they're abolished.
Randi: What do you mean by that? I'm not familiar with that.
Henry: Oh absolutely. There's a large section of the Christian believers that teach that Jesus nailed the Commandments to the Cross. We're saved by Grace and because of that how you live doesn't matter. You say the prayer, you're going to heaven regardless of how you live. That's probably how these guys can live the way they're living and claiming to be Christians and so on.
Randi: Wow. That's quite a waiver.
Henry: Absolutely. And that is the absolute truth. It's a well known and much believed teaching.
Randi: So they think the Bible's been amended? With a waiver from Jesus?
Henry: Well, the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross so they're not responsible. But for some reason they want everyone in the secular world to keep them.
Randi: That's really shocking I never heard of that before.
Henry: Oh yeah, and we know how they harp on Hollywood--and I'm a conservative myself.
Randi: You said so.
Henry: I like conservative values. They talk about all the violence and how it's ruining our kids. Well, one of the new video games that's on the market is the Left Behind Series.
Randi: Oh, I know. Tim, my producer. He saw that yesterday and sent it to me and I was inundated yesterday. I wanted to do a whole show about "how does religion fit into your life, is your, do you relate religion, fit it into your life, is this your, do you relate, you know, Where do you want your kids to get it?" I wanted to have this discussion in America really bad, but we didn't mention it because we didn't want to inflame anybody and think that I was limiting their conversation. But I saw the video game and it was violent.
Henry: Yes it is. So amazingly enough, for years they've been criticizing Hollywood for putting all this violent stuff out, but I guess if they can make a buck on it it's okay.
Randi: It's like a signing statement for the Ten Commandments.
Henry: Yes, exactly.
Randi: Wow!
Henry: And I don't know if you mind if I make a shameless plug, but I've written a book called Right Wing Politics and Religion: The Unholy Alliance Exposed... The front cover has a picture of George Bush, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson riding crusader horses. And I should mention that I listen to a lot of this conservative jargon, a lot of their conservative talk show hosts, and Randi, they accuse people like you, liberal talk show hosts. I've heard them say this many times--that people like yourselves, the liberal hosts, are only able to monologue. They say they're not able to and that you're afraid to dialogue with them. Can I mention some of their names?
Randi: Sure. but I've tried to dialogue with them. It's impossible. They talk over you. They don't talk to you. They talk over you or at you
Henry: Yes
Randi: The second you declared yourself a Christian Conservative; if the rolls were reversed and I was calling you and you were a conservative Christian talk show host and I said "look, I'm a liberal Democrat and I'd like to talk to you about Christian values," they wouldn't listen to a word I said. They'd have their finger on the button in the middle of a breath I took I'd disappear from the show.
Henry: Oh yeah. I've heard them do it.
Randi: It's a technique, it's actually a technique.
Henry: I've heard people like Laura Ingrams start screaming "Get off my air! Get off my air, you moron!"
Randi: Well, I've yelled at people too, but usually because the called me names, not because they said "I'm a Christian conservative and I won't talk about something with you." O spend more time with conservatives than I do with liberals. I put them in the front of the line, not the end of the line, so that they don't chicken out, they don't run away. I want to know what they have to say. I want to know if there's an argument for this.
Henry: Guess what. People like Hugh Hewett, Micahel Medved, Laura Ingrams, Dennis Prager, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Mark Levin. Mike Gallagher, I've emailed them. I've gotten a couple of responses back that they received blah blah. They don't want any part of it.
Randi Let me ask you something. If you're a Christian Conservative, them I'm a Christian Conservative, because my values sound more like yours than Christian Conservatives on the radio do...So, as a Christian Conservative, what do you make of my values that you hear me espousing on this show?
Henry: Well, you know, I'll be honest with you. This has been a journey, coming out of this thing and not too long ago I had the blinders completely on myself and I did a lot of research and just a lot of prayerful meditation, and that kind of stuff and over the process of writing this book the last three or four years things have changed. I haven't heard a lot of you thus far, but from what I heard you say today I just have to..well, the vast majority of the things I've heard I agree with you. The things that are going on in our country, the compromises are absolutely ridicules. These compromises and this immorality and unethical behavior done in the name of God which is a slap in the face of God. And this is the point that I make. If these people can do this to their God and their Bible whom they claim to love and serve, what will they do simply to a secular government and a constitutional document? If they can justify these kind of compromises and this kind of hypocrisy and dishonesty, and outright sadism when it comes to relating to God in the Bible--which they claim is their highest value--can they be trusted in the secular arena at all?
Randi: Let me just say this to you. You have made me feel healthy today, sane today, you know, good today. You filled me up with hope by saying what you did. And I'm crying because you know, this is the kind of debate that takes place on my side of the aisle. Theirs is a dogma that is not retractable. It is what the talking points say it is and nothing more and nothing less. It is to include torture, it is to include the disappearing of Americans. It is to include a unitary executive. It is to include the stealing of Christmas diatribe that is about to start again...

We hope you read with extra interest the portions that were presented in dark blue.

THE 14 CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM: Credits & Sources

2006-10-17T15:04:00.000-05:00

CREDITS

A project this long and this complicated does not write itself. Many people donated their time and talent and we would like to take the time to thank them for their dedication to the our little project here.

First and foremost a huge thank you to our writers: Brandon, Brian, Daniel, Enlightenment, Halcyon 67, Jeffrey, Karen, Katie, Kelli and Kyle. And to Dusty for suggesting that we post them on new sites.

Thanks to Jeffrey for providing his living room and the constant supply of cake, cookies, and black coffee that kept us going.

And most of all to our readers without whom the exchange of ideas could never take place.

GENERAL SOURCES THAT EITHER INSPIRED THIS PROJECT OR WHICH WERE USED EXTENSIVELY THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE PROJECT:

CHURCHILL: WINSTON
THE SECOND WORLD WAR (Six Volumes)
* The Gathering Storm (1948)
* Their Finest Hour (1949)
* The Grand Alliance (1950)
* The Hinge of Fate (1950)
* Closing the Ring (1951)
* Triumph and Tragedy (1953)

DEAN: JOHN
Conservatives Without Conscience
2006 Viking

HEIDEN: KONRAD
Der Fuhrer: Hitler's Rise to Power
1944 Houghton Mifflin

A History of National Socialism
Octagon Books, New York, 1971
Reprint of the Alfred A. Knopf Inc Edition
of 1935

Hitler: A Biography
AMS Press Inc New York, 1975
Reprint of the Alfred A. Knopf Inc Edition
of 1936

THE NIZKOR PROJECT
http://www.nizkor.org/

PHILIPS: KEVIN
American Theocracy
Viking 2006

SHIRER: WILLIAM L.
Berlin Diary
Alfred A. Knopf
1941, New York

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:
A History of Nazi Germany
1959, 1960, Simon and Schuster

The Nightmare Years
Little, Brown, and Company, 1984

Toland: John

Adolf Hitler
1976 Doubleday

1. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART ONE
RAMPANT NATIONALISM

GENERAL SOURCE

VARIOUS MEDIA

Triumph of the Will

Film by Leni Riefenstahl
Released 1935, 1936
1996 Timeless Videos

Democracy and Fascism: Fear and Hatred
by John Lukacs
2005 Yale Press

Berlin Diary
Entry for September 7, 1934
by William L. Shirer
1941 New York

Inside the Third Reich
Memoirs by Albert Speer
1970 The McMillan Company

Who was Martin Niemoller
http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Politics/niemoller.shtml

2. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART TWO
DISDAIN FOR THE RECOGNITION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS

Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President
By Justin A. Frank
2002 Regan Books

Conservatives Without Conscience
By John Dean
2006 Viking

SPECIFIC RESOURCES
BOOKS

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition

Pages 93-99, 701-706

2000 American Psychiatric Association

Portrait of a Killer: Jack The Ripper Case Closed
Pages 28-30
By Patricia Cornwell
2002 G.P. Putnam's Sons
New York

Merck Manual of Medical Information: Home Edition
Page 427
Editor In Chief, Robert Berknow, M.D.
1997 Merck & Co., Inc.

SPECIFIC RESOURCES
WEBSITES:

Let us Remain Steadfast in our Condemnation of Torture
By Brian Walters QC, President Liberty Victoria
From The Public Forum on Torture--25 June, 2005
At: http://www.libertyvictoria.org .au/documents/20050625_Condemning_torture_Brian_Walters.html

The Hidden History of CIA Torture: America's Road to Abu Ghraib
From Common Dreams News Center
At:

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0909-16.htm

The Madness of George W. Bush
By;   Paul Levy
From:   Serendipity
At:

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0909-16.htm

Bush Isn't a Moron: He's a Cunning Sociopath
By:  Ben Conover
From:  Serendipity
At:

http://www.serendipity.li/wot/conover01

3. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART THREE
IDENTIFICATION OF ENEMIES AND SCAPEGOATS
AS A UNIFYING CAUSE

ESSAY I
WHEN IN DOUBT BLAME GAYS AND LESBIANS

GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS

Mein Kampf
By Adolf Hitler
The complete original version as published by
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1939

GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES

United States Holocaust Museum
Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hsx/

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBISITES

Matthew Shepherd Online Resources
Nazi Anti-Jewish Speech vs Religious Anti-Gay Speech
http://www.hatecrime.org /subpages/hitler/hitler.html

The World Congress of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Jews
New Israel Holocaust Memorial Honors Gay Victims
March 16 2005
http://www.glbtjews.org/article.php3?id_article=145

Gay & Lesbian Community Notes
"The Truth About Reagen and Aids"
By Michael Bronski
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Jan2004/bronski0104.html

Wikipedia Article about Fred Phelps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps#Criminal_record

Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy
Paul Cameron
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_cameron.html

ESSAY II
RACIAL PROFILING: CODEWORD FOR RACISM

GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES

"You Can't Fight Terrorism With Racism"
By Colbert I. King
Washington Post.com
Saturday July 30 , 2005

At
http://www.washingtonpost.com

/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/29/AR2005072901626_pf.html

ACLU website
Racial Profiling: Old and New
http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/racialprofiling/index.html

Talk Left:  The Politics of Crime
Study:  "Racial Profiling Exists and is Ineffective Against Crime Control"
September 25, 2003
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/003826.html

Wikipedia Article about "Organized Crime"
See Section titled "Nontraditional Organized Crime"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_crime
(see also the links to terrorist organizations and Al Qaeda)

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES

Wikipedia Article about "Columbine High School Massacre"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre

Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network
Extremism in America/William Pierce
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Pierce.asp

The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh
By Gore Vidal
Vanity Fair
September 2001
http://www.geocities.com/gorevidal3000/tim.htm

4. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART FOUR
SUPREMACY OF THE MILITARY

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES:

Out of School and Into the Military
by Soffia Jarrin-Thomas
Z Magazine online (February 2006)
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Feb2006/thomas0206.html

No Child Left Behind by Military Recruiters
by Leah C, Wells
Published December 6, 2002 by commondreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1206-08.htm

Military Recruiters Accessing Pupil Data
By Jennifer Mrozowski
Published by The Cincinnati Enquirer (online edition)
January 6, 2003
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/01/06/loc_military06.html

"Some Things You Should Know About
Media Violence and Media Literacy"
Published by the American Academy of Pediatrics
June 6, 1995
http://www.aap.org/advocacy/childhealthmonth/media.htm

Higher education funding cuts prompt public outcry
By Bradley Gwendolyn
Academe,  May/June 2001
Published at Look Smart Find Articles

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3860/is_200105/ai_n8940960?cm_ven=YPI

Compromising Our Future
(Sudden cuts in federal education spending demonstrate government priorities gone awry
By the Crimson Staff
June 6, 2006
Published at The Harvard Crimson
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513735

Globalization, Low Wages and U. S. Foreign Policy
By John F. Cowan
July 22, 1996
http://home.pacbell.net/jfcowan/econ/TWWAGES.HTM

Working...and Poor
By Michelle Conlin and Aaron Bernstein
Business Week online
May 31, 2004

Manipulating the Faucet of Fear
by Ellen Goodman
From the online edition of the Seattle Times
April 14, 2006
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002929123_goodman14.html

Hate Groups are Infiltrating the Military
By John Kifner
Published: July 7, 2006
Online Edition of the New York Times

War on terrorism
Project for the Center for Media and Democracy
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=War_on_terrorism
As of this writing, last modified September 5, 2006

5. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART FIVE
RAMPANT SEXISM

GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
by William L. Shrier
Footnote on page 100
1959, 1960 Simon and Schuster

From:  The Nightmare Years:  1930-1940
pages 135-136
By William L. Shirer
1984 Little, Brown, and Company

SPECIFIC SOURCES:
WEBSITES

National Conference of State Legislatures
Pharmacist Conscience Clause
Updated August 2006
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/conscienceclauses.htm

ATTEMPTS TO PREVENT ACCESS TO
EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION IN WISCONSIN
at Religious Tolerance
http://www.religioustolerance.org/aboemerwi.htm

6. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART SIX
CONTROLLED MASS MEDIA

GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS

What Liberal Media:  The Truth About Bias and The News
by Eric Alterman
Publsihed 2003 by Basic Books, a member of Perseus Books

GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES

FAIR Press Release
Examining the "Liberal Bias" Claim
From June 1, 1998
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2447

From the PEW Research Center
Bottom Line Pressures Now Hurting Coverage, Say Journalists
May 23, 2004
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=825

New Study Challenges "Liberal Bias" Claim
http://www.ibiblio.org/prism/jul98/newstudy.html

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES

Media Reform Center
http://www.corporations.org/media/

SPECIFIC SOURCES:
WEBSITES

Introduction to the Illiberal Conservative Media (ICM)
by Mary; Guest post by eRiposte
From the Left Coaster
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/003932.php

The Truth About The Right-Leaning U.S . Media
The Story Republicans Dont Want You to See
http://www.oreilly-sucks.com /News/mediafacts.htm

"Media Bias?  Big Time"
Rush Limbaugh Online (Extreme Broadcasts BS)
http://www.rushlimbaughonline.com/articles/mediabias.htm

Conservative Media Bias
From T Rex's Guide to Living:  Politics
Last updated February 25, 2005

Media Reform Center
http://www.corporations.org/media/

7. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART SEVEN
OBSESSION WITH NATIONAL SECURITY

ESSAY I:
LIBRARIAN TAKES ON PATRIOT ACT: AND WINS

GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH: A HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY
Pages 191-196
By William L. Shrier
1959, 1960 Simon and Schuster

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES

Patriot Act
2001 Version, Complete
From Electronic
Privacy Information Center
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html

Librarian Who Fought FBI Search of Patron Records to Receive
2005 PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award
From Penn America Center
http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/810

Patriot Act smackdown: Librarians 1, FBI 0
By Peter Pollack
June 27, 2006
From ars technica
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060627-7150.html

ESSAY II:
POWER CORRUPTS BUSH ABSOLUTELY

GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/

The Impact of the USA PATRIOT ACT on Free Expression
Commentary by Nancy Kranich
From the Free Expression Policy Project
Last updated on August 24, 2006
http://www.fepproject.org/commentaries/patriotact.html

Impeaching Bush
By Onnesha Roychouduri
From Alternet, march 6, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/32977/

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES

Judge Rules Against Wiretaps
By Dan Eggen and  Dafna Linzer
From:   washingtonpost.com
Friday August 19, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081700650.html

George W. Nixon
From CBS NEWS
By Dick Meyer
July 24, 2003
http://www.fepproject.org/commentaries/patriotact.html

Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television News
By David Barstow and Robin Stein
From:  truthout.issues
13 March 2005
Original from the online edition of The New York Times
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/9592

The First Amendment Handbook:
Confidential Sources and  Information:  FISA Warrants
http://www.rcfp.org/handbook/c04p09.html

8. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART EIGHT
RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT ARE INTERTWINED

GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES

Separation of Church and State Website
http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/tnpidx.htm

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES

Colonial Torture Methods
From Frances Farmer's Revenge
http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/archive/torture/colonial.htm

Christianity in the Confederate South:  Southern Nationalism and Christianity
From Austin Cline's Agnosticism/Atheism
Circa 2006
http://atheism.about.com/od/christianismnationalism/p/ConfederateSout.htm

First Amendment Separation of Church and State:
The Intent of Our Founding Fathers
http://www.geocities.com/ldjandl/thesis/articles_dobbs_freedomofreligion.html#V

Separation of Church and State Myth:  Is it in the Constitution?
From Austin Cline's  Agnosticism/Atheism
http://atheism.about.com/od/churchstatemyths/a/phrase.htm

SPECIFIC SOURCES
BOOKS

A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution, Volume I
Pages 18-23, 67-70

9. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART NINE
CORPORATE POWER IS PROTECTED

GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS:

Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power In America
By Bertram Gross
Published in 1980 by South End Press

SPECIFIC SOURCES AND UPDATES
WEBSITES

Getting a Line on Electricity
By Thomas Content
From the online edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
July 29 2006
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=477875&format=print

Hearnings Set for Proposed Transmission Facilities
From The Beaver Dam Daily Citizen
Friday September 8m 2006
http://www.wiscnews.com/archives/read.php?info=/bdc/2006/09/08/97991.php

Residents Fight Power Lines
by Ed Garvoille
November 15, 2005
From the online edition of The Capital Times
http://www.wiscnews.com/archives/read.php?info=/bdc/2006/09/08/97991.php

Power Line Not Needed So Soon
Wisconsin State Journal
WSJ Staff and wire services
December 28, 2005
http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/wsj/2005/12/28/0512270550.php

Petition:  Bury new Power Lines
By Anne Marie Ames
From The Capital Times
January 24, 206
http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/2006/01/24/0601240312.php

10. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART 10
LABOR POWER IS SUPPRESSED

GENERAL SOURCES:
BOOKS:

Friendly Fascism:  The New Face of Power in America
by Bertram Gross
1980 New York:  M evans

SPECIFIC SOURCES:
BOOKS

From THE RISE AND THE FALL OF THE THIRD REICH:

A HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY,

page 263
By William L. Shirer
Published in 1960 by Simon and Schuster

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WEBSITES

Labor Unions Face Hostile Climate
by Greg Gordon
McClatchy Newspapers
September 04, 2005
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=LABOR-09-04-05&cat=PP

1939: Labor Legislation
From Encarta
http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461501334/1939_Labor_Legislation.html

Labor Law Reform To Establish Our Constitutional Rights
http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/policy_lr.html

A New Assault on Workers' Rights
By Stewart Acuff and Sheldon Friedman
June 28, 2006
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2006/06/workers_rights.html

1929-41: The Depression and the New Deal
From Historical Text Archive
http://historicaltextarchive .com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=604

11. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART ELEVEN
DISDAIN FOR INTELLECTUALS AND THE ARTS:

ESSAY I:
THE BUSH WAR AGAINST SCIENCE  I

Bush's New Economic Plan Cuts Funding for arts, Education
By Aaron Kraft
February 6, 2003
Fro  ORBIS, A unifying Voice
http://www.vanderbiltorbis.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/02/26/3e5c2a2342f25

'Mr Ferrer can't be with us tonight'
From the Guardian
Feruary 18, 2004
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1150285,00.html

Jeb Bush: Horowitz a 'Fighter for Freedom'
From NewsMax.com
April 6, 2005
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/4/6/233459.shtml

Bush Administration Accused of Suppressing, Distorting Science
Bby Seth Borenstein
From Common Dreams News Center
Februay 19, 2004
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0219-02.htm

ESSAY II
THE BUSH WAR ON SCIENCE II

GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:  A History of Nazi Germany
by William L. Shirer
1959, 1960 Simopn and Schuster

American Theocracy
by Kevin Phillips
2006 Viking Press

SPECIFIC RESOURCES

WEBSITES

Staff Scientists Reject FDA's Plan B Reasoning
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 18, 2004; Page A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50466-2004Jun17.html

Bush Administration Accused of Suppressing, Distorting Science
by Seth Borenstein
Common Dreams News Center
February 19, 2004
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0219-02.htm

Debunking Intelligent Design
From A Concerned Scientist
October 25m 2005
http://danielrhoads.blogspot.com/2005/10/debunking-intelligent-design.html

Global Warming: Fact Verse Myth
Circa September 2003
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/documents/382_myths.htm

12. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART TWELVE
OBSESSION WITH CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

GENERAL SOURCES
BOOKS

Friendly Fascism
By Bertram Gross
1980 South End Press

GENERAL  SOURCES
WEBSITES

Racism and the Administration of Justice
From Racism and Human Rights
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/race/criminal_justice.htm

Poor Left Defenseless in Courtroom
By mary Zahn and Jessica McBride
Milwaukee Journal Sentienl online
December 8, 2002
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=101767

From Social Justice to Criminal Justice: Poverty and
the Administration of Criminal Law
NY: Oxford University Press, 2000
The Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics
http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/cje/html/socialjusticebook.html

13. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART THIRTEEN
RAMPANT CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION

ESSAY I:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CRONYISM

*The information for this essay  was collected by Center for Public Integrity from 73 requests made possible by the Freedom of Information Act

For additional reading please see the following related sources

When Advocates Become Regulators
By Ann C. Mulkern
May 23, 2004
Common Dreams News Center
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0523-02.htm

The Ten Most Brazen War Profiteers
By Charlie Cray
September 5, 2006
AlterNet/The Ground Truth
http://alternet.org/waroniraq/41083/

Corporate Freeloader Chief is Bush' s Choice to Head Treasury
Citizens for tax Justice
http://www.ctj.org/html/jwsnow.htm

The Road to Riches is Called K Street
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
June 22, 2005
Online edition of The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101632.html

Dick Cheney's Hallibutron Connections
Links to two artlcies from The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/directory/dick_cheney_s_halliburton_connections

*Cheney's  Grimey Trail in Business"
by Robert Scheer
July 16, 2002
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020722/20020716

*Tricky Dick II
by Nate Blakeslee
February 8, 2002
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020218/blakeslee20020208

The Student Loan Blues
February 27, 2004
The Bush Beat at The Village Voice
online version March 2004
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/2004_02.php

Chemonics International
The Center for Public integrity
March 31, 2004
http://www.public-i.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=8

ESSAY II:
A SATIRICAL LOOK AT CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM AND OVERALL CORRUPTION

GENERAL SOURCES
WEBSITES:

How Corporations Influence the Government
By Mark A. Triebwasser
1998
From American Government
http://www.polisci.ccsu.edu/trieb/InfluGov.html

Welcome to the Machine:
How the GOP Disciplined K Street and Made Bush Supreme
by Nicholas Confgessore
Washington Monthly
July/August 2003
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0307.confessore.html

SPECIFIC SOURCES
WBSITES

Money Troubles
By Dan Froomkin
Washingtonpost.com Staff
Updated September 4, 1998
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/campfin.htm

Going Backwards:
Early Wins Embolden Lobbyists for Business
By Dan Morgan and Kathleen Day
Published March 11, 2001 in the Washington Post
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0311-01.htm

Civil Rights and Campaign Finance:
Summaries of Key Law Review Articles
by Susan K. Serrano, Rsearch Director
http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/newsletter2/story6.html

National Holiday for Election Day Proposed
April 16, 2003
BLR ( HR.BLR.com)
http://hr.blr.com/display.cfm/id/8347

14. SOURCE MATERIAL FOR PART FOURTEEN
FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS AND A STACKED JUDICIARY

ESSAY I: (In Four Sections)
ELECTION FRAUD IN 2004

GENERAL SOURCES

BOOKS

Mein Kampf
By Adolf Hitler
The complete, unabridged
1939, Houghton Mifflin Company

Armed Madhouse
by Gregg Palast
See the chapter titled
"The Con."
2006 Dutton, New York

GENERAL SOURCES

WEBSITES

Black Box Voting
Homepage etc
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
By Robert F. Kennedy Juinior
From the online edition of Rolling Stone Magazine
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen/4

SPECIFIC SOURCES

WEBSITES

Democracy Crisis
Election 2006: Will All Votes Count?
From Democractic Underground .com
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/IndyOp/28

Proof of Ohio Election Fraud Exposed
By William Rivers Pitt
December 15, 2004
From Truthout.issues
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121604Z.shtml

Black Voters in New Orleans
By Ed Davis
Common Cause
Apilr 19, 2006
http://www.commonblog.com/story/2006/4/19/13428/7894

The August 27, 2006 broadcast of Ring of Fire
Mike Papantonio interviewing Greg Palast
Topic: Republican dirty tricks in New Oreleans
Broadcast on WCPT 850 AM Chicago
The New Face of Jim Crow: Voter Suppression in America
People For The American Way
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=22222

ESSAY II
RADICAL VIEWS ON THE CONSTITUTION AND THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM...

GENERAL SOURCES:

BOOKS:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
William L. Shirer
1959, 1960 Simon and Schuster

Adolf Hitler:
by John Toland
1976 Doubleday

Der Fuhrer: Hitler's Rise to Power
by Konrad Heiden
1944 Houghton Mifflin Company

SPECIFIC SOURCES

BOOKS

Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler
Unabridged issue
1939 Houghton Mifflin Company

SPECIFIC SOURCES:

WEBSITES

Benito Mussolini Quotes
From Thinkexist.com
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/benito_mussolini/

Adolf Hitler's Views and Opinions on Democracy
By Matt Brundage
From publications
http://mattbrundage.com/publications/hitlerdemocracy.html#democracydefinition

I am not a strict constructionist and no one ought to be
posted on The University of Chicago Faculty Blog
by Sunstein
October 7, 2005
http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/faculty/2005/10/i_am_not_a_stri.html#more

From Reconstructionism to Dominionism, Part 2
By Mainstream Baptist
November 26, 2005
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2005/11/26/01436/229

*SOURCE MATERIALS FOR SUMMARY:

SOURCES
BOOKS

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
By William Shirer
Pages 563, 594-595, 913-914
Simon and Schuster 1959, 1960
Mein Kampf

by Adolf Hitler
Pages 948, 950-951
Unabridged version as published by
Houghton-Mifflin 1939, Boston

SOURCES
WEBSITES

The Project for a New American Century
by William Rivers Pit
February 25, 2003
From Information Clearing House
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1665.htm

THE 14 CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM: Reflections

2006-10-14T13:53:00.000-05:00

THE FOURTEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM

REFLECTIONS
by Brandon, Daniel, Jeffrey, and Kyle

"Such was the government of the Third Reich, administered from top to bottom on the so-called leadership principle by a vast and sprawling bureaucracy having little of the efficiency usually credited to the Germans, poisoned by graft, beset by constant confusion and cutthroat rivalries, augmented by the muddling interference of party potentate, and often rendered impotent by the terror of the SS-Gestapo.

-------"At the top of the swarming heap stood the one time Austrian vagabond, now become, with the exception of Stalin, the most powerful dictator on earth. As Doctor Frank reminded a convention of lawyers in the spring of 1936, "There is, in Germany today, only one authority and that is the authority of the Fuherer."

-----"With that authority Hitler had quickly destroyed those who opposed him, unified and Nazified the State, regimented the country's institutions and culture, suppressed individual freedom, abolished unemployment and set the wheels of industry humming--no small achievement after only three or four years in office. Now he turned--in fact he had already turned-to the two chief passions of his life: the shaping of Germany's foreign policy toward war and conquest and the creation of the mighty military machine that would enable him to achieve his goal."

William Shirer

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany.

While were writing our essays on the Fourteen Characteristics of Fascism, we couldn't help but notice that the unifying theme which united the series as a whole was the Administration's craving for and addiction to power. Whether it was the use of Gays, Lesbians, racial minorities, or non-Christians as scapegoats to unify and energize the Republican base, or the strengthening of corporate power at the expense of workers' rights, we recognized a truly pathological addiction to and abuse of power that reminded us of so many totalitarian regimes in the past. As bad as we thought the regime in Washington had become, we were stunned and horrified to discover that its craving for power, that it's desire to control every aspect of American life, it's obsessive goal of permanently undermining the Constitution in favor of what Karl Rove refers to as a "permanent Republican majority" (think Thousand Year Reich) would take it to even lower and more repressive levels.

Under the guise of protecting Americans from terrorism (repression and atrocities always produce a plethora good excuses--even the Nazis defended their demented medical experiments by claiming that their crimes against humanity were for the benefit of the German Fatherland) the United States Senate voted to give George W. Bush dictatorial powers. After phony, public dissent from Republican Senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and John Warner, passed what what Chris Floyd has referred to as the Republic Snuffing Act. For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past few months, on Thursday, September 28, 2006, the United States Congress gave George W. Bush the right to both, interpret the Geneva Conventions as he sees fit, and to unilaterally decide who is an enemy combatant. In addition, the September legislation defines an enemy combatant as someone who gives "terrorism" some kind of "support." Moreover, the President and his designated agents are now free to persecute American citizens. Translated into the common vernacular, the president and his cronies now have the power to render virtually anyone for any reason. Whether it's a lawyer defending accused terrorists, a naive citizen making an innocent contribution to a seemingly legitimate charity to help the victims of war in Afghanistan and/or Iraq, or even some one who dares to speak the truth to the corrupt and increasingly totalitarian power that is flowing out of Washington DC, anyone can now be declared an enemy combatant by our highly paranoid leader select. And to make the deal even sweeter, the legislation is retroactive, meaning that our beloved Fuhrer cannot be persecuted. Worst of all, since 2001, George W. Bush has been claiming the right to kill anyone who he declares an enemy combatant. Six days after those jumbo jet liners crashed into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, the Demander and Thief signed a 'presidential finding' authorizing the CIA to kill those individuals whom he marked for death as terrorists." Eventually Bush signed orders which authorized CIA agents to kill targets without seeking permission from the President. The upshot being that you can be disappeared, tortured, or even murdered by the President and his Gestapo admiring goons if the President experiences one of his increasingly visceral temper tantrums.

So what's the worst that can happen? Well, you can be "disappeared" or murdered if you're lucky. But with habeas corpus in a shambles and the President's proclivity for enjoying the pain and suffering of others these are just a few of the experiences that you might be forced to undergo and which others before you have already been forced to endure:

*placing panties on your head.

*threatening you with vicious dogs

*having a plastic bag tied around your head and then having your head soaked in water

*being stripped naked and forced into a human pyramid

*being stripped naked and forced to masturbate in front of your interrogators

*being strapped into a chair, force fed through a rubber tube in your nose and then forced to sit in your own feces

*having electrodes connected to your genitalia

*having a broom stick inserted into your rectum

Those are the kinds of things that could happen to a innocent American citizen because our increasingly paranoid and sort tempered (read unstable), sociopathic president believes that he has been chosen by Jesus for a greater purpose. This, after all, is a president with a lifetime history of bullying and sadism.

Seriously. Do we really want to trust a man who is this disturbed and this impulsive with that kind if power? Just look at this man's background.

When George W. Bush was a child seven years old his younger sister Robin died of Leukemia. The Senior Bushes, in one of the most abusive forms of child neglect that you could possibly imagine, didn't even bother to have a real funeral. After a brief, get-this-out-of the-way memorial service, they went golfing the next day. They didn't even allow their grieving and angry son to express any emotion what so ever. The end result was that George W, the oldest born in the family, never had an opportunity to express the grief and often virulent blend of love and anger that older siblings have towards younger siblings for knocking them out of their position as the only and favorite child. And to make the situation even more complicated, George Junior and Robin were exceptionally close. They were playmates and George almost certainly loved her as a big brother would love a favorite little sister.

Sadly she may have been the last person for whom he felt anything that even resembled a normal human relationship.

As Bush grew physically he did not grow emotionally. The end result is an angry, sadistic seven-year-old in a 60-year-old body. His entire history is filled with the early symptoms of Anti Social Personality Disorder, also known as psychopathy. (In an alternative view as suggested by one of our friends, LeftOfCenter on THE BLUE REPUBLIC , Bush may in fact suffer from an even more serious disorder, Malignant Narcissism .) As a child he enjoyed torturing and killing small animals (e.g. inserting fire crackers in frogs rectal openings and blowing them up. As a young man in college he enjoyed branding the buttocks of fraternity initiates with red hot coat hangers. Many years later he would underplay the fact that this was actually a form of sexual assault by spewing half baked drivel about how the injuries he inflicted weren't any worse than a cigarette burn. (Do you know what we would do to a parent who was caught burning a child's hind end with a cigarette burn? Can you say "abuse charges?")

His past history of alcohol and cocaine addiction are well known, but chemical addictions are often a sign of psychopathy. As a young married man he drove the car through the front and out through the back of the garage wall because Laura criticized one of his speeches--unusual behavior since it was George who asked for her opinion in the fist place. From the time Robin died to this very day George W. Bush has been a verbal bully, a mean-spirited sadist who has enjoyed the pain of others. Despite the fact that he never served a day of active combat himself, his hero worship has always been centered around soldiers and cowboys--but not just any soldier or cowboy. His affection has always been reserved for the most violent and brutal ones, the ones who can kill without conscience--a trace which our psychopath and commander shares with his idols. In other words, George W. Bush has always enjoyed the pain and suffering of others. The man is so self-absorbed and so thoughtless of others ( i.e. cruel) that during the 2004 campaign he called Laura a lump. And that's pretty much how he sees everyone else--as lumps below him.. How sadistic and cruel is he? When soldiers were dying in Iraq he thought it would be a really cool idea to perform an insulting comedy routine about the weapons of mass destruction--the ones that he lied about.

Moreover he abhors debate and nuance. Bush himself as actually said that he "doesn't do nuance." Translated into modern English he becomes aggressive, often unstable, when people disagree with him. Indeed disagreement, debate in any way shape or form, makes him nervous and angry. So much so that he has to cover up his insecurity by using off-color names for reporters and others. This unusual trait became even more obvious when he literally ordered the Secret Service to keep a safe distance between himself and the equally unstable President of Iran during his recent trip to the United Nations. The reason? Bush did not want to reveal how afraid and angry be becomes when he has to debate people without a pre-written script. .

The ultimate irony in all of this is that while George W/ Bush claims unilateral (dictatorial) power to preserve American freedom of Islamic Terrorists, Bush has found the perfect, complimentary dance partner in Osama Bin Laden. Both embrace fundamentalism in the names of their various religions. Both view dissent and disagreement as traitorous or even blasphemous. And, more chillingly, both have a dismal view of human life and are perfectly willing to terrorize and kill to obtain their very repressive objectives.

And now this abomination has been given the unilateral power of life and death over anyone anywhere on the face of the earth,

The American Republican is dead. May the ensuing Empire collapse quickly so that we bring back the little things that this Administration despises the most: Democracy, Freedom, and the Founding Fathers' system of Checks and balances.

SPECIFIC SOURCES
BOOKS:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

Page 276

by WIlliam Shirer

Simon and Schuster 1969, 1976

GENERAL SOURCES:
WEBSITES:

Fatal Vision: The Deeper Evil Behind the Detainee Bill

By Chris Floyd

From Truthout Editorial

October 2, 2006

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100206A.shtml

Senate OKs Bill for Detainee Trials, Interrogations

From CNN.com

October 28, 2006

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100206A.shtml

We Have All Been Raped

2006-10-07T13:38:00.000-05:00

Is anyone really surprised by the fact that a right wing Republican would try to exploit teenage boys? The example set at the top of this Administration has been one of bigotry, war-mongering, power hoarding, and exploitation since our Fuhrer Select was placed in office by the Extreme Court.

This after all is a sociopathic administration which practices deceit as a virtue and which views torture as a positive American value, and above all else, cravespower and denies personal responsibility in the same way that a crack addict craves his drug of choice.

On past occasions Brandon (i.e. Praetorone) has suggested that George W. Bush is a dry drunk, that he may have given up the addictive chemical substances, but still retains all the psychological characteristics of a drinking alcoholic. The only difference between then and now is that the George W. Bush of yesterday was a chemical addict. The George W. Bush of the 21st Century is a power addict who will do or say anything, to satisfy his personal longing for and addiction to power.

In a way I can actually sympathize with George W. Bush. He's a lonely, frightened man of little talent, who has learned to manipulate the people around him, and who enjoys projecting the image of a tough, swaggering leader, but in the inside he is morally, spiritually, and intellectually empty; a bloated mediocrity who has truly begun to believe in his own greatness. By the same token this (p)resident, who is too simple minded to view life in anything except in terms of black and white, has set an agenda of demonizing anyone and everything which disagrees with him, even in the slightest nuance. Or did we forget that this was the same totalitarian leader who once said that he "doesn't do nuance?"

On our blog we often remind our readers that the only way George W. Bush, his Administration, and his authoritarian followers would ever tell the truth would be if they were to do so by accident, and that was one of the few times when George W. Bush let the truth slip.

George W. Bush truly does not do nuance; nor does he listen to alternative ideas. He despises the idea of debate, showing intense anxiety or even outright hostility when he is challenged on his often delusional facts, most of which are mere fantasies in the first place. Moreover, George W. Bush and the Totalitarian (I just can't bring myself to call it the Republican any more) Party truly believes that if you don't dot and cross every "i" and "t" in the same narrow minded way that they do you must be a force of evil. Sadly this has become a trait within the Totalitarian Party itself, and it now seems as if Gays and Lesbians have once again been chosen as the scapegoats for their phony indignation, which as any sane American will tell you, is little more than verbal harassment/persecution to energize the rabidly fanatical base of the Totalitarian Party.

It is no secret that I am an open and out of the closet homosexual. I make no apologies for this because I truly believe that I have nothing to apologize for. My partner and I own a house together. We are active in a wide variety of community activities; my partner owns an expanding and prosperous business, and I recently quit what was becoming a very profitable job to care for my adoptive mother who is currently recovering from and undergoing followup treatment after a radical mastectomy. We have two cats and a basset hound; we garden; we enjoy music and politics, and we are currently looking into the possibility of joining a local church. We do not pose nude in public water fountains, or have wild orgies (unlike Bush and his cronies who started an orgy of death and destruction in Iraq for profit and power) and we certainly do not molest nor harass children.

But now the Republican House Leadership has been caught with its collective and proverbial pants down. It appears as if yet another right wing hypocrite has been caught abusing a position of power--this time sending suggestive emails to young, Republican pages. And when I listened to the news last night before going to bed I learned that Mister Foley not only sent emails about masturbation and boxer shorts, he also made occasional appearances at the Page Dormitory, took at least one of these kids for a ride, and bought him ice cream. And I'm still wondering about the one email in which Foley talks about a trip to San Diego. In other words, this went a little beyond sexually explicit emails. It now appears as if Foley actually had some kind of contact with these youth. Whether it was sexual or not I don't know so I shall reserve judgement on that particular aspect of the case until such time as more facts are made available.

But the part that is driving me absolutely crazy is the manner--the utterly hysterical and obscene way--in which the right wing propaganda machine is trying to smear gay males as dyed in the wool pedophiles. Anne Coutler, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Pat Robertson: every right wing weasel, scum bag, and congenital liar you care to mention has been spewing the usual bald faced lies about the homosexual community.

So before someone can come over here and use the same kind of rhetoric against gays that Hitler used against the Jews against the 1930s (and it IS the same kind of rhetoric, don't kid yourselves) I thought it might be useful to spin something that the Totalitarian Party, by virtue of inexperience, if incapable of spinning.

The truth.

First, let's get our facts straight. The phony studies that claim to "prove" that gay men are more likely to molest children? Forget about them. The studies that are almost invariably cited by the Radical Christian Reich stem from truly shoddy "research" by either Paul Cameron[1], Judith Reisman [2], or Steve Badlwin [3]. Their research has been discredited and debunked at nearly every turn, but that doesn't stop the Radical Christian Right from spinning their discredited "facts" when it serves the Totalitarian Party.

Despite the disingenuous "research" on the right, there are a number of facts that cannot be denied. In 1994 the peer-reviewed journal PEDIATRICS, in a study conducted by Dr. Carole Jenny at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center came to the following conclusion(s). [4]

*1 out of 219 girls was molested by a lesbian.

*1 out of 50 boys was molested by a gay male

*8 out of 10 girls was molested by a man who was or had been in a heterosexual relationship with the child's mother or another relatives.

*3 out of 4 boys (75 percent) were abused by males who were in heterosexual relationships with female relatives.

Only 2 percent of the boys in the study were molested by gay males.

98 percent of the boys in the study were molested by heterosexuals and of that number 75 percent were molested by heterosexual males KNOWN TO THE VICTIMS in an incestuous scenario.

0.05 percent of the girls in the study were molested by a lesbian.

99.5 percent of the girls in the study were molested by heterosexuals. Of that number 80 percent were molested by heterosexual males KNOWN TO THE VICTIMS in an incestuous relationship

The subjects in the study were 269 sexually abused children who had been seen or treated at the Denver Children's Hospital over the course of one year.

In other words, sexual orientation is not an issue as to who will molest children, but if you were to assign blame--if you absolutely had to speak as to who would be the most likely to molest a child it would be a heterosexual male who is close to the mother or another family member in an incestuous type of "relationship." All I will add to this particular part of the conversation is this. I know a number of people, both male and female, who were molested as children. None of them grew up to become pedophiles themselves. But, among those who are molested there is a very small subset of individuals who will indeed turn around and try to damage young men and women--their victims usually corresponding to the age at which they themselves were abused and damaged. I want to repeat that point here lest you think that all molestation victims will grow up to be child abusers. A vast majority of the people who are molested go on to deal with their issues and do do not become pedophiles--a point that I wish the left would make when it discusses this very disturbing issue.

So what you may wonder, does this have to do with the Totalitarian Party and its craving for power.

That much is obvious.

Despite the sexual nature of the offenses, crimes like rape and child molesting are more about power than sexual gratification. In those instances when an individual is molesting a child sexual orientation is not the main issue. The main issue is one of power--of an individual with power manipulating, exploiting, and controlling a younger person who has no power in the abusive relationship. And what is this administration addicted to? Power. What does this administration abuse at almost every turn? Power.

We've heard it time and time again. The Totalitarian Party is the Party of Personal Responsibility. The Totalitarian Party is the Party of Family Values. And yet, the only things that we have heard from the Totalitarian spin masters has been an ongoing attempt to deny a cover up while they shift the blame to the Gay community. Personal Responsibility? Family Values? These people have yet to take responsibility for anything. Hell, they have developed an MO that has been used so often and with such rapacity that it borders on obsessive compulsive behavior.

First they lie. When lying doesn't work they hesitantly admit the facts but then drag out some extenuating circumstance; and when the extenuating circumstances are revealed as outright distortions or prevarications they go on the offensive, accuse innocent others of what they have done themselves, and generally (try to) pollute the political atmosphere with so much confusing information that you barely know what the issue was to begin with.

I personally have been amused by the fact that they have now tried to equate this issue with Bill Clinton's consenting relationship with an adult Monica Lewinski. Sorry, guys. What Bill Clinton did was bad, but what Foley did was worse. And what the House Leadership is doing is worse. There's a huge difference between an adult, young woman, and a sixteen year old boy. In sharp contrast, I have NOT been amused by the disgustingly rapacious way in which the Totalitarians have turned on their own pages. While claiming that emails, which originated with Mister Foley were a part of a Democratic plot (talk about paranoid!) they were also disseminating "the list" which smeared the victims in this scandal. In a throw back to the bad old days when we once blamed rape victims for the crimes of their assailants, the Totalitarians have opted to blame the victims. Nor did they stop there. After smearing the pages and ruining any hope that they might have had for a political career in the Totalitarian Party, the Totalitarians then turned around and issued Nazi-like remarks, ignorantly stating that homosexuals should be banned from serving in Congress or in other leadership positions. Am I the only one who sees a striking similarity between this kind of rhetoric and the kind of rhetoric (and behavior) that was directed against Jews in the early days of Nazi Germany when Jewish shops were either destroyed or outright confiscated; when Jews were denied citizenship and banned from marrying German citizens?

Wouldn't it be more accurate to suggest that the Totalitarian party is the Party of Abused Power and Poor Examples?

At the risk of spreading myself too thin, I would point out that within the past three weeks this country has seen three tragic school shootings. The last of which,a tragedy in Pennsylvania in which five girls were killed, featured a self-confessed pedophile who may well have intended to molest the girls who he ultimately murdered. As we now know, police discovered a check list of items made by the perpetrator himself; a check list which included: "tape, eyebolts, a hose, bullets, guns, binoculars, earplugs, flashlights, wood and candles; many of the items were checked off." [5] Please note that in this particular case, the perpetrator, Charles Carl Roberts, had released 15 boys and three women with infants, but retained the remaining female students. Recall also, that Roberts had also been married, and presumably was a straight, adult male.

But that isn't the issue here. The issue here is that we have an administration that has set the tone for and created a culture of death in which this kind of horror can take place. Do we really need to wonder why children and adults alike are behaving like deranged sociopaths when the sociopaths and narcissists at the top of the political pyramid promote war, torture, intolerance, and hatred of diversity as the natural orders of life? Good God, look at the kinds of activities that this perverted Administration considers normal under the guise of legitimate interrogation:

* putting panties on detainees heads

* smearing detainees with phony menstrual blood

* strapping detainees in chairs, force feeding them through rubber tubes in their nose and then forcing them to sit in their own fecal matter

* connecting electrodes to detainees' genitals

* threatening detainees with savage dogs

* placing plastic bags over detainees' heads and then holding their heads under water

* stripping detainees naked and forcing them into human pyramids

* stripping detainees naked and then forcing them to masturbate in front of their sadistic interrogators

* sticking broom handles into detainees' anal orifices

As my team mates might say, " Yeah, those are real indications of normalcy." And this Administration has the audacity to accuse homosexuals of perversion? The lunatics are running the asylum. The power addicts, sociopaths, sexual sadists, and, yes, malignant narcissists, who are running this torture chamber of an Administration have set an example which promotes killing on the least provocation.

As if we should be surprised.

We have an Administration that lies and kills at the least provocation. But will the Administration take responsibility for the lessons that they have taught? Probably not. The Totalitarians like to talk the talk when it comes to personal responsibility but they surely do not know how to walk the walk. That would require morality and decency, and as we all know this Administration is both, indecent and amoral. Power mongering authoritarians such as Newt Gingrich, Dennis Hastart, John Boehner, and (of course) Tom Delay sat by and did nothing while a wolf in the fold was exploiting young pages. And now they want to compound the injury by blaming the victims, attacking gays, and avoiding personal responsibility.

What can I say? The day that the Extreme Court Appointed George W. Bush as our Fuhrer Select we were all assaulted. The Bush Administration has been a study in collective mental rape, and to send a Totalitarian Majority back to either house of Congress would be a little like a rape victim screaming "here I am, rape me again."

Count me out.

These bastards have to GO.

[1] http://www.ralliance.org/Cameron.html

[2] http://www.ralliance.org/Reisman.html

[3] http://www.ralliance.org/SteveBaldwin.html

[4] http://www.ralliance.org/SteveBaldwin.html

[5 ] http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/amish.shooting/

Does The Political Climate Have You Worried

2006-10-03T12:21:00.000-05:00

Does the political climate have you worried about your family's future?

With tyranny on the rampage and a sociopathic (p)resident who claims the right to render, torture, or even murder American citizens without legal consequences, you, as a member of the loyal opposition to rising fascism, may well have rendered what will happen to your family and loved ones if you are kidnapped by covert agents of the illegitimate regime in Washington

Wouldn't you like to know that the people you leave behind will be supported financially while you are being stripped, shocked, or water-boarded? Wouldn't you like to know that your family and loves ones will benefit from a guaranteed level of financial security while you are being forced to masturbate in front of contracted, private interrogators who have just inserted a plastic broom handle in your anal orifice?

We at the Rapture Health, Life, and Automotive Insurance Company believe that we have a solution to this potential problem

Disappearance Insurance.

In the event that the sociopaths, malignant narcissists, and dyed in the wool totalitarians who compose this increasingly megalomaniacal rogue regime should kidnap you for political, personal, or any nonterrorist-related reason, your designated beneficiary will be guaranteed substantial monthly income for each month that your are rendered and/or tortured.

For a nominal fee of $666 per month, your designated beneficiary will receive no less than $1,400, but no more than $5,000 per month until such time as you are either released or executed.

Act now! With the rising tide of fascism those who speak out in favor of true American values are in ever increasing danger.

For more information, please call our Disappearance Policy Hotline at 1-800-FULINYU or send us an email at newpolicydept.upyursbush@rapturethis.com .

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Act now--before it's too late

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CEO of The Rapture Health, Life, and Automotive Insurance Company

CHANGES: We Are Not A Store Window

2006-10-02T14:23:00.000-05:00

In recent weeks we have received a number of comments which, when checked out very carefully, are not designed to exchange ideas but to sell various products, both secular and religious.

We really don't mind a fierce debate but we are not in the practice of helping anyone promote their products or merchandise. That is not what this blog is about.

To remedy the situation we have opted to moderate our comments. If you have a strictly religious, personal, or political point of view and if you wish to express it without pitching a product for your own financial benefit you are more than welcome to leave your comments here. We will be more than happy to print them without changes. That said, please remember that both, The Coalition for a Republican-Free America, and her sister blog, Foiling the Fascist Paradigm, are not window displays for those who have products or merchandise to pitch.

We realize this might cause some minor inconveniences for those who wish to express political, religious, or personal ideas, but as I said, we are not a store window and we wish to keep it that way.

Thank you

The Members at the Coalition for a Republican-Free America and Foiling the Fascist Paradigm.