Driving my wife’s car today, I listened to a good deal of talk radio, and my brain is feeling the squeeze. Sean Hannity was discussing the UAE port deal with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and the discussion was something I hadn’t experienced in right-wing talk in a long time. Both agreed that the simple argument that one private corporation from the UK cannot be compared with one run by a Middle East dictatorship. Bush’s primary defense has been to label those who oppose the deal as being racist against Arabs, and as far as he’s concerned, every bit of data we have available to compare the UK and UAE in terms of freedom of the press, civil rights, etc. don’t apply. Basically his position ignores the fact that the United Arab Emirates is a country that posts a lowest possible score when it comes to human rights, as well as the fact that it’s government has supported Osama Bin Laden and Al Quada. Looked at side by side with his “you’re either with us or against us” statement regarding the War on Terror, there’s absolutely no spin imaginable that could square his position with reality. Sean Hannity of all people believes in what I’ve just written here 100%, and said so over the radio about fifteen minutes ago.
That said, his criticism of the deal is characterized politically as a mistake based on having not brought more people into the discussion beforehand. The mistake basically being that the negotiations were done out of the public’s view, and that dissenting points of view were ignored along the way. Nevermind the fact that Bush-Cheney have made every single critical decision since gaining power in this same exact way, in Hannity’s opinion, the fact that Democrats are politicizing this deal is what he’s most angry about.
Think about that for a second now. His position, as well as many on the right-wing, is that the deal should not go through and that the President is wrong, yet somehow it’s equally wrong for the minority party to use it for political gain? What are Democrats supposed to be doing? They disagree with the policy, voice their dissent, are agreed with by almost everyone on the other side of the aisle, but shouldn’t gain any political points at the same time?
Alright, I’m talking about someone as partisan as they come, but how can anyone rationally disagree with this decision and not walk away from it questioning:
- Where President Bush’s loyalty lies, with the people or his business associates
- How serious Bush really is about spreading freedom and democracy, with it being so easy to overlook an ally’s human rights abuses
- How many other decisions have be made based on similar values, like have been exposed here
You can’t have it both ways. Politically you either have to support this deal for the sake of the President, who you truly believe in - OR - disagree and accept the fact that political ground is going to be lost because of it.
Because the larger issue here has nothing to do with ports or security, but the idea that a corporation is somehow a higher entity than a government. In Iraq the conservative vision has been put in place, with a 15% flat tax and an idea that the Iraqi citizens should not look towards government for services and protection, but instead to the coporations that operate within their communities. That being the case, electricity cannot be counted on consistently for more than 8-12 hours a day in some areas, drinking water is not widely available and the corporations that were supposed to fill in these gaps are acting consistently with what we all understand to be a corporation’s nature…to make money! Not the fault of these business entities that they were assumed to have the ability or desire to provide what a government should, the very concept of what a government should and should not provide it’s people is the issue here.
So of course a third world dictatorship with a horrible human rights record is seen with the President’s eyes as entirely seperate from the corporation they own and operate. It’s the ideology that’s been bought into by the right-wing of our country for decades now. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 8:28 PM MST
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People fled Europe, crossed the Atlantic and violently severed ties with the king who aimed to rule them from across the ocean. Some claimed a nice chunk of land and realized they could become rich growing a commodity that would sell. Only problem was, there was too much land and not enough labor to make it worth while. So they enslaved another race and created thousands of mini-kingdoms that produced enough of said commodities to make them rich.
A group of slaves could have banded together and killed their master, but it didn’t happen that often. Why? Because the kings stuck together and used violence to maintain order. They deprived them the right to an education. Why? Because a few thousand educated slaves would eventually figure it out, find a way to make their owners, their kings, sorry for what they did.
In the Middle East you have the same dynamic, only the work needed to produce the commodity isn’t done with people, but machines. Wells are dug and the oil is pumped out. So what’s next? How does a king keep these people in line in spite of the fact that they’re not needed to make and keep the royal family rich?
Religion! That’s right…Rasputen Inc. Get these people to believe that heaven is the goal, that they’re better off without freedom here on earth because the real party begins once they’re dead. And who will convince them of this? A man, just like themselves, who is living somewhat more comfortably than their followers. Better off than the people who hang on their every word, they’ll keep up the charade for as long as it works.
Deprive these people of education, as they do, and they’ll remain foolish enough to believe whatever the preacher tells them. Screw that! Heaven is perhaps the most overrated concept ever created by man. What about this life? What about here and now? Who’s died and returned to tell everyone about what lies ahead on the other side?
Well, that’s the hook. A man who lived a thousand or more years ago did just that, and we’re still buying it. I think it’s all bullshit. Christians in my family don’t, but then again, they’re not being told to kill their neighbors.
Posted by Al Swearengen as History, Words at 10:14 AM MST
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Cartoons, your version of Islam is 1% different than mine, western culture is making me horny and I don’t like it…whatever your reason for becoming a mass murderer, may I offer a bit of advice? Get to work on killing the royal families already! Monarchy had it’s day, and mankind has since evolved.
Believe it or not, mass amounts of people realized one day that if they all just work together, they can kill off every last member of the royal family and finally get a chance to run their own country. You’ve got the killing part down, but like Europe in the 100 years war, you’re stuck in the cycle of ’kill that person over there because my king and his holy advisor said it was a good idea’.
Never realizing that both the king and his holy advisor are stealing food from your table, as they did to your parents and their grandparents before them, it’s obvious that a lack of education is to blame here. These people in the Middle East and some parts of Africa simply fail to grasp the whole ’strength in numbers’ concept.
The same can be said for their apparant inability to realize that ’spiritual leader’ can and does often equal ‘greedy bullshit artist’. Here in America we just recently uncovered an entire generation of priests who were having sex with the altar boys and getting away with it. While that’s horrible, it’s been years since American preachers have been able to convince people to riot. In fact, the last uprisals inspired by religion here involved non-violent protest.
With that in mind, Ghandi was busy smacking around the Brittish empire using that exact same method over 50 years ago, and here you folks are still killing your neighbors like it’s the year 1200! It’s time to step back and realize for once that a common enemy does exist, and regardless of what you’re hearing down at the mosque, it’s not your fellow peasant countryman.
It’s the rich folk who’ve been keeping you down for centuries. People of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Pakistan, Egypt…it’s time to smarten up and get real about this thing called life. Your leaders have been playing you for fools for hundreds of years now, and it’s high time reality played a roll in the violence over there. Your kings don’t care about Allah, they care about money. It’s never going to change unless you take them out.
America isn’t going to solve your problems, neither is Allah. We do more to keep these people in power than any other nation in the world. As far as we’re concerned, if the oil stays cheap, your royal families can keep you down forever. Torching an oil field, a neighbor’s house or their mosque isn’t the answer.
Demand education, jobs, security, clean water and uninterupted electricity. When your leaders fail to provide these things, if you can’t vote them out of power, take them out the old fashioned way! That’s what we did here in America in 1776, and look where we are now.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 12:12 AM MST
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The caption says it all…
Seriously now, fess up…who here watches this channel and why?
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 11:09 PM MST
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I had to share this
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 10:03 PM MST
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He had said he was having trouble controlling his anger and didn’t like his wife going out and partying, said Michael Collins, a nurse and case manager at Madigan Army Medical Center. A day before his wife was found dead in the couple’s kitchen, Bare told his rear detachment commander Capt. Mickey Traugutt that he was taking a new prescription that made it hard to get up and that he had missed a treatment.
Get ready America, the war’s not over when these guys leave Iraq. Typical of youngsters who sign up while suffering from a mental disorder commonly known as ‘outrageous stupidity’. Marry a woman who, like yourself, just entered legal adulthood, then take off for a 9 month horrorshow in Iraq. Thinking you’re coming home to someone who sincerely loves you, and is prepared and willing to do what it takes to ease your transition back into ordinary life, only to find a childish primadonna who’s grown used to the easy life.
From what I’ve seen first hand, it’s not uncommon to return home and find out that ‘Miss Thang’ has already spent a good chunk of your combat pay, run up debt on the credit cards, gained 100 pounds…and somehow managed to get pregnant even though you were 3,000 miles away. Following a deployment to Bosnia, I was inundated with enough stories of this sort of thing to be convinced that marriage and deployments don’t mix. The worst cases though, by far, involved spouses and husbands spaning the 17-23 year old demographic.
Most of us wouldn’t put up with such nonsense, but the majority of soldiers try to tough it out, usually after meeting with the unit chaplin. Think about it though, if you’re disabled and then become divorced, those alimony payments aren’t very appealing! It’s the little things though, that over time just eat away at a man in this position. Like how she’s had a full kitchen and commisary at her disposal the entire time you were deployed, yet the only dishes she knows how to prepare are microwave Easy Mac n’ Cheese and scrambled eggs.
This particular maniac was bothered by how often she went out drinking at night. Combine this with a smart mouth and probably a man on the side, it can trigger something within this wounded, emotionally disturbed, 19 year old, “battle hardened” trained killer…like, memories of a time not long past when someone running their mouth could be easily silenced in a number of different ways.
The lesson to take out of this though, for any young man who’s in love and thinking about a career in the military…war is hell, but marriage can be even worse!
Posted by Al Swearengen as Military, Words at 3:55 PM MST
1 Comment »
I was contemplating this today for whatever reason…something like this has to be handled just right, or you’re not getting a dime of that insurance money. Best to involve a boat Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 1:14 AM MST
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Could it be a bill littered with bacon, earmarks like this country has never seen before? No…Bush has pledged to veto any kind of legislation that would prevent control over the management and security of US ports to the United Arab Emarites. Makes sense…after all, the House speaker and Senate Majority Leader have said publicly that they oppose the deal. Better to stand up for who really matters and make these chumps understand that when the King makes a deal, it stays made!
History, facts…it should be obvious to everyone at this point that Bush has no time for either. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 1:02 AM MST
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This universe in a bottle painted red, white and blue is comfortable. Broken limbs, skulls and spirits number less inside than outside, belly full more often than pained empty, ecstatic glee over nothing in particular widespread from sea to shining sea. Nonetheless, a naked trip to the hospital can sometimes kill this outlook, as sickness is fixed at a cost known to many as the black hole that sucked up their house and everything in it. Liquidated, these inhabitants of the bottle learn to take the unwavering pride all around in stride, perhaps they also decide one day to finish the job the medical bills started, a civic responsibility for the sake of everyone else in the bottle, those of us who still have futures worthy of hope and a stomach for the kool-aid, to disappear quietly, back into the earth, so the rest of us can get back to whatever it is we’re smiling about at a given moment. A herd being a herd, doing what herds do, with a touch of bottle colored magic dust to take the edge off.
American life prompts periodical sadness and comfort depending on whether I’m watching television, playing with my kids, reading the newspaper or hanging the stars and stripes outside the front door in the morning. Riddled with give and take, the process of becoming numb to whatever type of suffering the cycle serves up can often do more harm than good as it festers, much like the way stress ignored over time can result in a brain tumour for the right person. So folks like me face a natural challenge, deciding whether to choose optimism and blinders or optimism and a bullhorn. The herd shuns the sound, calls it noise, taking it to mean I hate the bottle, that I’m someone who’ll always blame the bottle first, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Am I proud to be an American? Yes, but some days not as much as others, like when I read about a middle class family, working, paying taxes, obeying the law, thrust into bankruptcy because an uninsured child of theirs was diagnosed with leukaemia. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 10:48 PM MST
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I’m sure everyone’s aware of the fact that a company from the United Arab Emirates has been awarded a contract to guard some of our nations most vulnerable ports. Aside from the fact that 9/11 money was funneled through that country, it does seem odd that we’d outsource homeland security work as critical as port security.
All kinds of things can be moved into the country in canisters, to include: drugs, weapons, human beings, stolen merchandise and dangerous chemicals. Checks are done randomly by port security, and like all things in life, a bribe to the right person can ensure a safe delivery of just about anything.
Does anyone think that the Arabs are above aiding criminal activity? With that in mind, what exactally takes place on the continent of Africa or in the Middle East that convinces our high-level leaders to award a contract like this to one of those governments? Who owed who a favor, and for what?
Here’s what Chertoff, our Homeland Security Chief in President Bush’s Cabinet, had to say about it:
The discussions are classified. I can’t get into the specifics here…As far as my agency is concerned, port security really rests principally with the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection.
So hey, it’s out of our hands, and people like you and I need to just trust that everyone involved knows what they’re doing. To me, his words here sound a lot to me like what was being said after Katrina hit. I’m not buying it. Neither should anyone else. President Bush can nix this deal if he wanted to, but unfortunately for us, the motivations and decisionmaking process of our elected leaders has been ‘none of yer business’ since these people took over.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 2:35 PM MST
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Auntie Erinn (Heather’s sister) is here for the weekend. It’s a whole new experience having people over to stay now as opposed to the past five years of apartment living. Not being regulated to one room where everyone will fit comfortably is pretty sweet.
Two helicopters crashed in Africa during a training mission…pay attention to the news and you’ll notice that this happens often. CSPAN had a house debate over death benefits a while back, and a Republican I named in a piece back in the day argued that when this happens, the spouse doesn’t deserve the same as when it happens in a warzone. I disagree.
Cheney was on FoxNews talking about how he has the authority to declassify information, which in a free country should result in a press release. How this administration goes about it though is to tell a friendly reporter, who then prints the information and attributes it to ‘unnamed sources’. Why is that? Think about the runup to the Iraq War…
7% of red light district employees in Amsterdam have HIV according to an article I read yesterday. Something about Amsterdam’s red light district as opposed to others in Europe is it’s spread out all over the place as opposed to congregated in one area. I’d bet that the bunny ranch near Right Thinker has a 0% HIV rate.
Catholics in Massachusetts, the organization that condoned widespread sexual abuse of children for decades, has come out saying that same sex couples shouldn’t be allowed to adopt. It’s obvious to me that the church does more good than harm, but on this particular topic they’ve got zero credibility.
The only appeal a high school reunion has for me is the fact that they might have free booze. Since I’d have to drive two hours to get there
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 6:19 PM MST
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The discussion topic of ‘what makes a moderate’ over on Sonicrusk got me to thinking about the various Republicans I admire. It’s a list that grows larger or shorter depending on what I happen to witness on CSPAN in a given week. Some I’ll love one week hate the next, but for the most part they’re people I’ve come to respect quite a bit. They’re the ones who sound the least like Ken Mehlman I suppose. The ones who don’t approach every piece of legislation like an industry lobbyist, and don’t get up on the House or Senate floor to create a sound byte, but instead to engage in honest political debate. Using this standard, I’d rather see Trent Lott running the show than Bill Frist, and a military veteran or ‘elder statesman’ will always make more sense to me than hollow shills like Rick Santorum or James Inhofe.
There is one though that beats out all the rest in my mind, and in fact is someone I would vote for in the 2008 presidential campaign if Republicans were smart enough to nominate him. Chuck Hagel from Nebraska. Above and beyond his history and accomplishments, his military service, his honesty, his belief that a person’s religion is their own business…it’s the idea that government can be run well if the right leaders step up and get it done! ‘Competent Governance’ is the phrase that Hagel believes in 100%, yet a concept that Republicans have been running and governing the opposite for well over a decade now. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 9:42 PM MST
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by Right Thinker
In World War 2 American forces had to employ nuclear weapons and physically invade the islands of Japan to take control of the government, industry, media and the population. American armed forces fought for four long, hard years tooth and nail across the expanse of the Pacific Ocean to reach their goal, making many stops along the way. The Philippines was a big hurdle as was Okinawa but the point of this story is that we had a finite military force that had to actually go to their destinations and win a fight.
Now look at Islam. The majority of Muslims are seen as poor, backwards, uneducated 3rd worlders trapped in the deserts of the Middle East. And why should they leave? As reports of freedoms and democratic principles being VOLUNTARILY surrendered, I find myself awe struck but the power of fear, terror and intimidation that is the core export of Islam.
Without ever leaving the Middles East, Muslims have brought to their knees some of the most powerful Democracies in the world. The message to the world is abuse Christians, Jews, whoever, but don’t you dare say anything the least bit disrespectful of Islam. And the world obeys.
The left falls all over themselves, they can’t self-sensor fast enough to appease the Islamic “invaders” who haven’t physically invaded. College newspapers and world-class newspapers alike treat Islam like it was their own children while beating the dead horse of a few Catholic priests pedophiles. Web sites are being shut down all over the world, not in China, Russia, Cuba or Venezuela but in places like Sweden, which HAD the honor of having the world’s 9th freest press. We are talking about Canada, Malaysia, the U.N., the entire E.U., Poland, Ukraine and a disgusting form of self censorship here in the U.S.
Americans are expected to find a tank with a statue of the Virgin Mary submerged in a mixture of urine, blood and feces as an example of modern art but a cartoon of an Arab standing quiet and resolute with the caption Mohammad is suddenly an international incident.
Let me ask you who are putting Islam on a pedestal while kicking Christianity and Judaism while they are down: When did Sharia become the law of the land? When did free speech become a vehicle to protect and promote Islam?
Posted by Al Swearengen as History, Religion at 5:35 PM MST
25 Comments »
I found this to be a great read. The writer traveled to see family in Italy, and cites the differences between how Jesus is used here in America as opposed to overseas. I’ve written on the topic numerous times, here’s a link to ‘Born Again Christianity’s Jihad on America’. The following is an excerpt from that essay:
Did Jesus live to inspire future marketability of his name for the benefit of false prophets seeking power, or did he live to inspire us to love one another. If everyone in the world were to convert tomorrow, what would the next step be? What’s the first thing Jesus would want us to do if the entire world woke up tomorrow and said a prayer in his name? The answer to this question isn’t represented in the political agenda of the religious-right. His first goal would not be for us to judge a specific group of people who live among us. We need to consider what that first thing would be, and make that priority number one. Until a step in this direction is taken, born again Christianity will continue along it’s current destructively militant path.
Now a portion of the editorial I read today:
They say Jesus is “pro life,” but he doesn’t seem to have a problem with the death penalty. And he thinks stem cell research - something that would save lives - is no different from murdering babies. They say he’s the embodiment of kindness, love, decency and compassion. But he hates gays, lesbians and Muslims. And he’s not too crazy about Buddhists, Hindus and the rest. Jews? He can put up with them if he has to.
The Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka claims to speak for Jesus and goes around the country talking about how ” AIDS cures fags.” Pat Robertson says it would be a good idea if the United States killed the president of Venezuela. It would be a lot cheaper than starting another war.
All week I went over that stuff in my head and decided not to mention any of it to the family.
It would make America look ridiculous.
Source
Posted by Al Swearengen as Religion at 3:56 PM MST
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Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail.
Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.
Whittington “came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn’t signal them or indicate to them or announce himself,” Armstrong said.
“The vice president didn’t see him,” she continued. “The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good.”
So they drive around until they find some quail to shoot at? Hunters can do their thing, I’ve got no problem with it for the most part. One thing I do expect though, is that the hunters aren’t sitting in a heated SUV until they spot something to shoot at.
Incidentally, when Cheney goes fishing, I hear he uses dynamite instead of a pole.
Source Article
Posted by Al Swearengen as Words at 9:54 PM MST
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