Friday, August 18, 2006

NEXT STOP IRAN??!!

link

NO FLY ZONE




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A LITTLE POLITICAL HUMOR

Politicians and diapers have one thing in common: They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason.

Monday, August 14, 2006

A FEW WORDS FROM GREG PALAST

SO OSAMA WALKS INTO TO THIS BAR, SEE?
by Greg PalastMonday August 14, 2006
So, Osama Walks into This Bar, See? and Bush says, "Whad'l'ya have, pardner?" and Osama says...
But wait a minute. I'd better shut my mouth. The sign here in the airport says, "Security is no joking matter." But if security's no joking matter, why does this guy dressed in a high-school marching band outfit tell me to dump my Frappuccino and take off my shoes? All I can say is, Thank the Lord the "shoe bomber" didn't carry Semtex in his underpants.
Today's a RED and ORANGE ALERT day. How odd. They just caught the British guys with the chemistry sets. But when these guys were about to blow up airliners, the USA was on YELLOW alert. That's a "lowered" threat notice.
According to the press office from the Department of Homeland Security, lowered-threat Yellow means that there were no special inspections of passengers or cargo. Isn't it nice of Mr. Bush to alert Osama when half our security forces are given the day off? Hmm. I asked an Israeli security expert why his nation doesn't use these pretty color codes.
He asked me if, when I woke up, I checked the day's terror color.
"I can't say I ever have. I mean, who would?"
He smiled. "The terrorists."
America is the only nation on the planet that kindly informs bombers, hijackers and berserkers the days on which they won't be monitored. You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to get a jump on George Bush's team.
There are three possible explanations for the Administration's publishing a good-day-for-bombing color guidebook.
1. God is on Osama's side.
2. George is on Osama's side.
3. Fear sells better than sex.
A gold star if you picked #3.
The Fear Factory
I'm going to tell you something which is straight-up heresy: America is not under attack by terrorists. There is no WAR on terror because, except for one day five years ago, al Qaeda has pretty much left us alone.
That's because Osama got what he wanted. There's no mystery about what Al Qaeda was after. Like everyone from the Girl Scouts to Bono, Osama put his wish on his web site. He had a single demand: "Crusaders out of the land of the two Holy Places." To translate: get US troops out of Saudi Arabia.
And George Bush gave it to him. On April 29, 2003, two days before landing on the aircraft carrier Lincoln, our self-described "War President" quietly put out a notice that he was withdrawing our troops from Saudi soil. In other words, our cowering cowboy gave in whimpering to Osama's demand.
The press took no note. They were all wiggie over Bush's waddling around the carrier deck in a disco-aged jump suit announcing, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." But it wasn't America's mission that was accomplished, it was Osama's.
Am I saying there's no danger, no threat? Sure there is: 46 million Americans don't have health insurance. IBM is legally stealing from its employees' pension plan and United Airlines has dumped its pensions altogether. Four-million three-hundred thousand Americans were injured, made sick or killed by their jobs last year. TXU Corporation is right now building four monster-sized power plants in Texas that will burn skuzzy gunk called "lignite." The filth it will pour into the sky will snuff a heck of a lot more Americans than some goofy group of fanatics with bottles of hydrogen peroxide.
But Americans don't ask for real protection from what's killing us. The War on Terror is the Weapon of Mass Distraction. Instead of demanding health insurance, we have 59 million of our fellow citizens pooping in their pants with fear of Al Qaeda, waddling to the polls, crying, "Georgie save us!"
And what does he give us? In my own small town, the federal government has paid for loading an SUV with .50 caliber machine guns to watch for an Al Qaeda attack at the dock of the ferry that takes tourists to the Indian casino in Connecticut. The casino dock is my town's officially designated "Critical Asset and Vulnerability Infrastructure Point (CAVIP)." (To find the most vulnerable points to attack in the USA, Al Qaeda can download a list from the Department of Homeland Security -- no kidding.)
But that's not all. Bush is protecting us from English hijackers with a fearsome anti-terrorist tool: the Virginia-class submarine. The V-boat was originally meant to hunt Soviet subs. But there are no more Soviet subs. So, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin have "refitted" these Cold War dinosaurs with new torpedoes redesigned to carry counter-terror commandoes. That's right: when we find Osama's beach house, we can shoot our boys right up under his picnic table and take him out. These Marines-in-a-tube injector boats cost $2.5 billion each -- and our President's ordered half a dozen new ones.
Lynn Cheney, the Veep's wife, still takes in compensation from Lockheed as a former board member. I'm sure that has nothing to do with this multi-billion dollar "anti-terror" contract.
Fear sells better than sex. Fear is the sales pitch for many lucrative products: from billion-dollar sailor injectors to one very lucrative war in Mesopotamia (a third of a trillion dollars doled out, no audits, no questions asked).
Better than toothpaste that makes our teeth whiter than white, this stuff will make us safer than safe. It's political junk food, the cheap filling in the flashy tube. What we don't get is safety from the real dangers: a life-threatening health-care system, lung-murdering pollution production and a trade deficit with China that's reducing mid-America to coolie status. Protecting us from these true threats would take a slice of the profits of the Lockheeds, the Exxons and the rest of the owning class.
War on Terror is class war by other means -- to keep you from asking for real protection from true menace, the landlords of our nation give you fake protection from manufactured dangers. And they remind you to be afraid every time you fly to see Aunt Millie and have to give up your hemorrhoid ointment to the underpaid guy in the bell-hop suit with a security badge.
Oh, hey, you never got the punch line.So, Osama Walks into This Bar, See? and Bush says, "Whad'l'ya have, pardner?" and Osama says, "Well, George, what are you serving today?" and Bush says, "Fear," and Osama shouts, "Fear for everybody!" and George pours it on for the crowd. Then the presidential bartender says, "Hey, who's buying?" and Osama points a thumb at the crowd sucking down their brew. "They are," he says. And the two of them share a quiet laugh.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

THINK

Cautionary Tale

The Thinker.....

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.



I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true.

Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's house.I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.



I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka.

I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confess, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!""But Honey, surely it's not that serious."

"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"

"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.

She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors.They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster.

This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed...easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today I took the final step............ I joined the Republican Party.

Friday, August 11, 2006

NOOZ IN TOONZ



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CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Conspiracy theories abound for alleged terror plot
By THOMAS HARGROVEScripps Howard News Service 10-AUG-06
Conspiracy theorists in the "blogosphere" were quick Thursday to question British claims of foiling a terrorist plot to bomb airliners, suggesting it was really an effort by the White House to deflect attention from the bloody conflict in Lebanon.
Or maybe it's a plot "to force a wavering public" to support government policies?
Or was it yet another conspiracy to end the civil liberties of airline commuters?
A Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll released last week found that 36 percent of adult Americans think it's likely that 9/11 was an "inside job" _ that federal officials either participated in the attacks or took no action _ and conspiracy theories already are in no short supply regarding the latest alleged terror plot.
Hundreds of people posted their speculations on blogs devoted to conspiracy theories or on older message posting forums on the Internet. Most expressed immediate suspicion toward British reports that 21 people have been arrested in a thwarted plot to use explosives secreted in carry-on luggage to simultaneously blow up several airliners headed for the United States.
"It's interesting to see that the discovery of a bomb plot happens at the same time as the Israeli offensive. This effectively knocked the Israel/Hezbollah War off the TV screens," wrote a conspiracy buff under the name of "George Orwell" in a conspiracy chat room.
"This 'plot' was in the works for a long time and was apparently not planned to happen soon. Why did the British decide to expose it now?" Orwell asked.
A writer who called himself "Favian" replied: "Maybe because the public's will to slaughter Arabs and Moslems is waning?"
Others saw the measure as a desperate effort by both the Bush administration and that of British Prime Minister Tony Blair to recover their sagging political support.
"This is just a scare tactic by the Bush-Blair regimes to prop up their rock-bottom poll numbers by convincing the brain-dead that they are being 'protected' from 'terror,' " wrote one conspiracy enthusiast whose Internet moniker is an obscene reference to President Bush.
"Pay no attention to this Blair-Bush media grab," he concluded.
Others suspected that the British, who've restricted passengers from any carry-on items at London's Heathrow airport, were using the claim of a bombing plot to continue a general policy of reducing civil liberties.
"The United Kingdom's government has repeatedly used scare tactics in order to restrict people's freedoms," wrote "The Freed Fighter" on a 9/11 conspiracy blog.
Others said they thought the alleged bomb conspiracy was too fanciful to be credible.
"I can not believe that a terrorist group would go to all the trouble of planning an incredibly complex attack with its associated risk of detection and immense difficulty of execution," wrote "The Happy Hippy" on another blog. "At very little cost and minimal planning, they could pick up some RPG's (rocket propelled grenades), drive to their local airport and just shoot at planes as their arrive or during take off."
The conspiracy theorists also posted hundreds of comments about the Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll released last week that found that 36 percent of Americans think it's either "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that federal officials either participated in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop them because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East.
"I don't believe these polls at all," wrote "Nunyabiz" at 911Blogger.com. "I'd lay odds they are rigged. I bet, in reality, that at least 50 percent or more of the U.S. feels this government is involved in 9/11."
But there was one finding in the Scripps poll that the bloggers seemed to like _ that belief in conspiracies seems to be influenced by the kinds of news sources people use.
"The survey found that people who regularly use the Internet and not mainstream media are significantly more likely to believe in 9/11 conspiracies," wrote "TNF" on a 9/11 blog. "Ever wonder why?!!!"
(E-mail Thomas Hargrove at hargrovet(at)shns.com.)
(For more information or to comment, go to www.ScrippsNews.com)
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Administrator: johnsond@shns.com

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

THE STORY OF WALKING EAGLE

Subject: Walking Eagle


Invited to address a major gathering of the American Indian Nation last weekend in Arizona, President Bush spoke for almost an hour of his future plans for increasing every Native American's present standard of living. Though vague on the details of his plan, he appeared enthusiastic about his ideas for helping his "red brothers." At the conclusion of his speech, the Tribes presented the President with a plaque inscribed with his new Indian name -- 'Walking Eagle'. As the President departed waving to the crowd in his motorcade, a news reporter asked the group of chiefs how they came to select the new name given to the President. They explained that Walking Eagle is the name given to a bird so full of shit it can no longer fly.

OVERVIEW OF A TINDERBOX

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