I want to encourage anyone who wants to forward one of the articles posted here to do so. As I’ve been posting on an ‘as close to daily as possible’ basis, the traffic numbers have hit a number and remained strong. I really appreciate the time and thought everyone has put into the discussions, and encourage all of you to spread the word when you can.

Suggestions regarding anything with the site - criticism welcome - is greatly appreciated. Send me an email at caustin34@yahoo.com with anything you’d like to say. I’ve been brainstorming ways to make the site more user friendly, but with Word Press it’s difficult to make changes without a complete overhaul. I’m mainly concerned at this point with users being able to know when a comment they’ve posted has been responded to.

Thanks again for your support!

Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 12:57 AM MDT

9 Comments »

After disappearing, Chappelle turned up for an interview with TIME Johannesburg bureau chief Simon Robinson on May 13 in an effort to put rumors to rest. Chappelle said he was in South Africa to find “a quiet place” for a while. “Let me tell you the things I can do here which I can’t at home: think, eat, sleep, laugh. I’m an introspective dude. I enjoy my own thoughts sometimes. And I’ve been doing a lot of thinking here.

“There were things that overwhelmed me. But not in the way that people are saying. I haven’t spent any of the money. All that stuff about partying and taking crack is not true. Why do I live on a farm in Ohio? To support my partying lifestyle?”

“If you don’t have the right people around you and you’re moving at a million miles an hour you can lose yourself. Everyone around me says, ‘You’re a genius!’ ‘You’re great!’ ‘That’s your voice!’ But I’m not sure that they’re right.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Comedy at 12:45 AM MDT

5 Comments »

In the days since I first read this story, there’s been a number of articles written that leverage Tillman’s parents’ statements to fit a larger argument against government secrecy. And while secrecy is part of this case, the larger problem centers on this instinctive urge to tell a lie, and how easy and often it seems to happen within the Bush administration. What was the justification for resorting to lies in the case of Pat Tillman’s death?

At the heart of any answer to the question ‘why’ is the apparent sense of entitlement President Bush has allowed to dictate his actions since well before his political career was first born. This sickness allows a religious man like Bush to feel deserving of the luxury, the right to more than just Tillman’s life, but all the political capital that could be squeezed from lying about his death. While it is crystal clear that Bush had no right to invent a legacy, his goal had nothing to do with Pat Tillman at all, but was purely based in selfishness.

Tillman’s celebrity was seen as merely a gift to our President, rather than a testament to the man himself. He was and should represent forever a lasting memory of selflessness in the face of mortal danger that all of us can draw courage and pride from. The sacrifice that was made is one that baffles the mind, especially within a culture that too often attaches the ‘hero’ label to anything that could possibly equal a point or two in the ratings. And his death caused us all to pause, and realize that our enjoyment of life and all America has to offer us is less of a right than it is a privilege.

He was killed by friendly fire, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong or dirty about that. Anyone who knows a thing about combat understands that on the battlefield, tragedies are easy to come by. The circumstances surrounding ‘how’ he died were inconsequential to me and likely would have been to his family or anyone else. Because the point of all this, and what we should be teaching our children, is not how he died but instead the fact that he volunteered in the first place. That was and still is the most heroic thing Pat Tillman could have done.

It’s this focus on the details and the need for a ’story’ to tack onto his death that angers me more than anything. What was our President saying with all of this? That the manner in which he perished would have diminished the sense of what he sacrificed for his country? I can’t imagine what else he must have thought, and that it happened amidst an election, where his opponent John Kerry was facing similar distortions of his own service, paints an even clearer picture of what President Bush and his friends are all about.

The sacrifice one makes in enlisting is something that matters very little to him and others in his administration. Why? They never came close to exhibiting such courage themselves. So the focus must naturally shift from that sacrifice and focus instead on what happened afterwards. And it was this fundamental lack of understanding that prompted the lies that followed. Dying because of friendly fire wasn’t good enough for President Bush or the people who talked him into acting on such a despicable notion.

I’m sickened by this as I too have felt that internal sorrow with rifle in hand on the other side of the world, the knowledge that my government doesn’t appreciate me or anyone around me, but will exploit what we do for their own purposes any chance they get. When the embassies in Africa were blown up by Osama Bin Laden, we were all focused on Headline News and preparing ourselves mentally for what followed. And as I was working a Christmas Day 24-hour guard rotation at the front gate of our post in Vilseck, Germany - the politicians were shouting ‘No War For Monica’.

And there you have the truth of where the disconnect lies when it comes to our military and our government. The politicians don’t see the courage they talk of so often, but only political opportunity. They didn’t care in the least that Americans died needlessly in Africa no more than they cared to present a truthful account of Tillman’s death and how the circumstances diminished nothing about his sacrifice. The truth of his death wasn’t worth enough to them, so they simply made up a story that qualified within their morbid rationale of what’s acceptably ‘heroic’.

To them a soldier’s sacrifice only equals an opportunity to get votes and criticize opponents, but nothing more. Pat Tillman’s sacrifice will always mean something to me, as it will mean something to every American. I just wish it meant something more to President Bush than a political opportunity. By lying about it, they raped our perception of what’s truly important here, and planted a seed of ignorance that incorrectly tells us that how he died was somehow dishonorable when it wasn’t. His family and our country deserved better.

”Pat had high ideals about the country; that’s why he did what he did,” Mary Tillman said in her first lengthy interview since her son’s death. ”The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting.”

Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Military at 6:54 PM MDT

19 Comments »

The stretching of intelligence to fit an ideological belief and the credibility of Bolton in his testimony before the foreign relations committee are both of incredible importance if this man is to represent America at the UN. He’s entering an environment that is already anxious concerning America’s credibility. Since the information provided to the UN Security Council on the threat of Iraq was proven false, it’s extremely important that our President’s word is not immediately questioned should there be a need for support from our allies. This is a matter of national security, and in the time from now until that moment when we need support from our allies, it’s important that we have someone in the UN who’s capable of building alliances. What did John Bolton accomplish in the past four years that shows he’s able to do this? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics at 11:11 PM MDT

9 Comments »

http://www.petitiononline.com/judgeam/petition.html

It’s for a constitutional amendment that would require a 2/3 vote in congress for any judicial appointment. Regardless of what party is in the majority at any time, a 2/3 majority vote should be the standard to maintain the political neutrality of our judiciary.

Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 5:26 PM MDT

13 Comments »

The wind howls outside this drafty window rattling like it has something to tell me. Amidst this oasis of political compromise in the Senate, something stirs beneath it all. Like this cold stormy May evening in New England, there’s an identity crisis spring sometimes suffers from around here. Though with the sun finally breaking through the gray clouds that seemed permanent over DC, I understand full well that this is a moment to savor and store away for the bad days that are sure to come. As the leaders we elected have actually made a deal in the spirit of the idea that tomorrow still matters.

An idea of what the senate is supposed to be and should still be when we’re dead and gone, was behind the compromise that has killed the nuclear option for the time being. Religious leader James Dobson responded with knife and fork in a cannibalistic expression of rage over the battle plan having been undone. Right-wing blogs were littered with complaints of traitors in the GOP, while left-wing blogs savored the only victory Democrats have experienced in years. Crusaders seeking re-election vowed to continue the fight another day, while the rest of them allowed the potent venom of perspective to seep in as reminder that they actually have jobs to do. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics, Religion at 4:05 PM MDT

5 Comments »

There’s an idea at play in President Bush’s nomination of Janice Rogers Brown that business is sacred and the worker is a negligible part of the whole.  When a business bears responsibility for the mistreatment of their workers or an injury, this judge is the kind of person Bush wants determining culpability. This is all for the sake of profit with the idea that to force a business to uphold their requirement to the employee would not only be unfair, but none of the government’s business. What this amounts to is advocacy for the business over the worker, but why? Why is business in need of protection from the worker?

One of a number of reasons for this is the level of incompetence that exists within the leadership at the top of some American corporations. Executives are on trial right now for their incompetence and subsequent dishonesty that allowed their balance sheets to indicate profit where there was none. When a corporation like Enron engages in such improprieties, where does the burden of that incompetence and dishonesty fall? In the end the workers suffer, the shareholders suffer and mutual funds investing the retirement nest eggs of workers all over the country suffer. Who deserves advocacy in this situation? The people deserve advocacy, and government therefore writes laws to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Would Judge Brown and President Bush have us to believe that the government is wrong for doing this? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Justice, Al Swearengen at 3:21 AM MDT

23 Comments »

Legislation to make it harder for corporations to default on payment to pension plans must be a staple of Democrat campaigns in the upcoming mid-term and national elections. This dilemma impacts corporations, stockholders, employees and pension-fund managers. The only one of these groups finding themselves without representation in DC happens to be the employees. The Democrats have to step up and seize this opportunity.

Republican loyalty is firmly on the side of the corporate sector and it’s shareholders, while lobbyists for the pension-fund managers are finding success in loosening regulation pertaining to value and earnings estimates of pension funds. These estimates are often overstated, creating a bubble, not unlike the accounting practices that brought Enron and Worldcom crashing to the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics, Economics at 6:06 PM MDT

4 Comments »

Deep down in the sub-basement of Newsweek, the man in a really expensive suit broods over how he’s going to get back at the lowly Republican White House who had foiled his master plan of killing every soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan all at once with his magazine. What next? A phone starts to ring, but not the phone on his desk. No, it was the one inside of the desk. “Thank You”, he whispers to himself as he opens the drawer and answers the receiver of the red phone.

“Hello.”

‘You caused quite a ruckus. Didn’t we tell you to bribe them?’

“We did.”

‘That Pentagon trash! I knew they were lying to me.’

“What now?”

‘The Liberal Media high council has consulted with Satan just now, you have nothing to worry about. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Comedy at 2:35 PM MDT

8 Comments »

“The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world - except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquility under our rule because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.” -Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris from a Friday sermon on Palestinian Authority TV

The enemy has a sales pitch that can convince teenagers they’ll go to an orgy in heaven as long as they put on a jacket of explosives and detonate it in a crowded area. This is the enemy, a nameless, faceless, ordinary looking Arab amongst millions of ordinary looking Arabs. The stubble-faced, brown skinned terrorist with garment on head and machine gun in hand from the movies is nowhere to be seen when the enemy strikes its most deadly blows. Besides Allah himself deciding to descend and telling these people first hand to ‘knock it off’, how are we to defeat them? If they can keep recruiting human bombs for years to come, how are we to win?

Admittedly, the Bush administration did not foresee this particular element as part of the reality of reconstructing Iraq, and therefore managed to get our military stuck in a situation where they’ve had to tread some heavily shark infested waters without enough cages to go around. And that only goes for the troops, not the actual Iraqis themselves. As one of the most heartbreaking facts of our troops’ everyday lives in this war is the people they are there to defend are most often fall victim to the enemy’s attacks. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics, Military at 2:12 AM MDT

17 Comments »

The myth Republicans want you to buy into is that the idea of ‘big government’ is still all about taxes and your concealed weapon. Today though, it’s more about equal rights, privacy and most importantly the distribution of federal funds in a way that benefits the people. The Bush version of big government is all about, who in our society has to work their tails off for theirs, and who doesn’t. At the end of the day, who among us got to pick something off of the fancy desert cart when we really didn’t deserve it?

In one of my last articles LINK I pointed out a clear example of this. Boeing is a corporation that has been plagued by scandal involving the sale of flawed products, influence-pedaling and ultimately fleecing the taxpayers. The Pentagon restricted them from being rewarded further contracts based on their past indiscretions and what happens? Big government drops a sweet missile sale in their lap to the country currently housing Osama Bin Laden.

In 1995 the amount of pork barrel spending signed off on by President Bill Clinton was $10 billion. That number rose to $14.5 billion in 1997, but in his last year the number was $12 billion. In President Bush’s first year in office, that number jumped to $17.7 billion and has risen steadily each year and in 2004 equaled $22.9 billion. The current year’s budget allows for $27.3 billion. This equals a 227.5% increase since Bush’s first year in office. He has yet to veto a single bill as president.

This is Bush’s version of big government. Collect less in taxes, run up debt to cover the pork and bribes, then ensure there’s nothing left for the people. Starve the states and as many social programs as possible. His partners in the House and Senate get their pet projects approved and in turn comply with every request the White House makes along the way. It’s a dishonest way of doing business, a system based on bribes and subsequent compliance. In DC the game is to keep your hand extended long enough, and regardless of the sins you may have committed, the terrorists you house, the money you’ve stolen – in the end everyone gets fed but the taxpayer.

Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics, Words at 2:08 PM MDT

16 Comments »

We’re all spun now in this never ending he said/she said battle, while being fed rations of gossip-ridden gumbo every day by the talking heads and print media.  We’re urged to base the depth of our political knowledge not on the social and economical impact of the decisions made by our leaders, but instead on the depth of our capacity for bickering amongst one another over who’s more of a scumbag, who lied more, and whether an attack should be condoned or vilified. Who threw the first punch? Who was justified in lashing out because of what? Who’s taking the high road? Who approved the funding needed to build the high road? Who’s hiding what, and why are they justified or not justified in doing so? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics, Words at 12:59 PM MDT

9 Comments »

“Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates, and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies.  The result is families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible.”

Are these the words of a Saudi, disgusted at the cheering masses witnessing a public beheading? Are these the words of a Saddam ruled Iraqi whose relatives’ flesh had been burned off by chemical weapons? How about those of an unemployed Cuban or an embittered Muslim Chechnyan? Could be, but no, these are actually the words of Janice Rogers Brown, a Bush judicial appointee to the DC circuit court of appeals. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Justice, Al Swearengen at 10:38 PM MDT

19 Comments »

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan good, Iran and Iraq bad. To the country that reportedly houses Osama Bin Laden within its borders, Harpoon and Sidewinder missiles. To the country that raised it’s little boys to become suicide bombers on 9/11, a Presidential invite to the ranch in Texas. Meanwhile, Iranian bombing targets are being identified, and Iraq is a US occupied war-zone.

The logic that goes into such distinctions is what I find curious. There’s an arbitrary, incoherent nature to all of this when looking at it from the position of an average taxpayer such as I. The rhetoric deals in large with terrorism, liberty and freedom, but the policy does not. Following the murder of over two thousands Americans, you’d think that mission number one would be to bring the perpetrators to justice. Ex-CIA agents now enlighten us to how untrue this statement is. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics, Military at 2:14 PM MDT

24 Comments »

Republicans are drumming up support amongst their base with tough talk of ‘rogue activist judges’ and the incredible danger they pose to our way of life. Bill Frist informs us that the judicial filibuster is, “being used against people of faith”, while Tom Delay delivers a speech entitled ‘Confronting the Judicial War on Faith’ to a conservative conference in Washington. And this past Sunday Pat Robertson told George Stephanopoulos and the nation that the out-of-control judiciary is the most serious threat America has faced in nearly 400 years of history, trumping even the danger posed by al Qaeda. According to these men, ‘rogue activist judges’ are apparently eroding the bottom line of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with an ultimate goal of ending religion in America.

The entire campaign is an ideological myth that belongs in a science fiction novel, yet here we are in the year 2005 rehashing the same discussion that led people to brave the Atlantic and start this country in the first place. At a time of war when perspective is needed more than ever, the goal of these men is to get people riled up about ideological dead issues, while tangible living issues continue to stack up all around us. Some of these tangible issues alive and thriving right now present significant problems for the majority party, and what we’re seeing here is a suitable diversion that could last through this session of Congress and beyond. They’re hitting the playbook hard in getting the religious-right riled up. Of course this means flipping that ‘martyr-switch’ within to convince these free human beings that they’re in fact not free, but instead victims barely hanging on if it weren’t for these noble leaders rescuing them from the brink of oblivion.

In this country where religions are provided tax-exempt status, and the practice of ones religion is a right that cannot be taken away, somehow the end result is a feeling of oppression. Looking at the life of a Christian in America right now compared with that of any religion’s follower in the history of mankind, it’s absolutely absurd to claim the role of victim. Yet that’s exactly what the leadership of the religious-right and it’s political representatives are selling right now. Meanwhile convincing people that a difference of opinion is tantamount to persecution. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Al Swearengen as Justice, Al Swearengen, Politics, Religion, Words at 2:49 AM MDT

39 Comments »