political mud slinging.....

[StarLord]

Re: political mud slinging.....

Hmmm Pity that. Wait one, wasn't there a Bander Snatch ditty that caused the fairer sex to swoon and make silly?

 

[artsouth]

Re: political mud slinging.....

The Big Fix
By Chris Floyd
The Moscow Times
4-7-5


Let's face the facts. The game is over and we -- the "reality-based community," the believers in genuine democracy and law, the heirs of Jefferson and Madison, Emerson and Thoreau, the toilers and dreamers, all those who seek to rise above the beast within and shape the brutal chaos of existence into something higher, richer and imbued with meaning -- have lost. The better world we thought had been won out of the blood and horror of history -- a realm of enlightenment that often found its best embodiment in the ideals and aspirations of the American Republic -- is gone. It's been swallowed by darkness, by ravening greed, by bestial spirits and by willful primitives who now possess overwhelming instruments of power and dominion.

A gang of such spirits seized control of the U.S. government by illicit means in 2000 and maintained that control through rampant electoral corruption in 2004. The re-election of President George W. Bush last November was a deliberately shambolic process that saw massive lockouts of opposition voters; unverifiable returns compiled by easily hackable machines operated by avowed corporate partisans of the ruling party; and vast discrepancies between exit polls and final results - gaps much larger than those that led elections in Ukraine and Georgia to be condemned as manipulated frauds. Indeed, a panel of statisticians said last week that the odds of such a discrepancy occurring naturally were 959,000 to 1, the Akron Beacon-Journal reported.

The copious documentation of the Bush fraud keeps growing. Last month, experts using actual machines and returns from the 2004 election showed Congress how a lone hacker could skew a precinct's results by 100,000 votes without leaving a trace. More than 40 million votes in 30 states were cast on such computer systems, BlackBoxVoting noted.

Late last year, Congress heard sworn testimony from Florida programmer Clint Curtis, who created vote-rigging software in 2000 at the request of Tom Feeny, a Bush Family factotum. Feeny wanted Curtis (a fellow Republican) and his employer, Yang Enterprises, to produce untraceable programs that could "control the vote" as needed, investigator Brad Friedman reported. Feeny also told Curtis of Bush plans to "suppress the black vote" with "exclusion lists." This is exactly what happened. BBC investigator Greg Palast has shown that tens of thousands of legitimate African-American voters were deliberately "purged" from the rolls by a private Republican-controlled corporation hired by Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Afterwards, Feeny -- who had been Jeb's running mate in his first gubernatorial campaign -- was rewarded for his dutiful service with a plum congressional seat.

In 2002, Raymond Lemme, a Florida state government inspector, took up Curtis' charges, which included other corruption allegations involving Feeny, Yang Enterprises and a Yang employee charged with peddling military technology to the Chinese. In June 2003, Lemme told Curtis he had "tracked the corruption all the way to the top" and that "the story would break in a few weeks." On July 1, 2003, Lemme was found dead in a Georgia hotel room, just across the Florida border.

Local police ruled that Lemme, a happily married man eagerly planning his daughter's wedding, had suddenly decided to slash his wrists. At first they said there were no photos of the death scene; but then the pictures turned up on the Internet and were confirmed as authentic by the embarrassed police. The photos clearly contradicted the original suicide report on several points -- presenting evidence, for example, that Lemme had been beaten before his death. The investigation was reopened after Curtis' Congressional testimony -- and then abruptly shut down after local police spoke to a never-identified "someone" in the Florida state government.

Needless to say, nothing has been done to clarify the murk surrounding Lemme's convenient death. Nor has there been any action toward rectifying the highly profitable degradation of the American electoral process -- beyond the appointment of yet another "blue-ribbon panel" of Establishment worthies to oversee "election reform." The seriousness of this endeavor can be seen in the man appointed to co-chair the effort: James Baker, the notorious Bush family fixer (and Saudi bagman) who spearheaded the sabotage of the 2000 vote in Florida. Baker's presence on the panel ensures that nothing will be done to lessen the ruling clique's chokehold on power.

So let's have no illusions about where we are. Gangsters are in charge, and nothing and no one will be allowed to challenge their dominion. They are waging aggressive war to cement their position and that of their allies: the energy barons, the arms merchants, the construction and services cartels, the investment bankers. These power blocs now command monstrous resources and unfathomable profits; they can buy out, buy off or bury any force that opposes them. Meanwhile, they use the loot of the stolen Republic -- its blood and treasure -- as fuel for their ever-expanding war machine: Bush now has a "secret watch-list" of 25 more countries ripe for military intervention, the Financial Times reported.

With more war crimes afoot, last month Bush issued an official "National Defense Strategy" that openly declares "judicial processes" as one of the enemies confronting the United States, actually equating them with terrorism, The Associated Press reported. Law is "a strategy of the weak," says the Bush Doctrine, in a chilling echo of Hitlerian machtpolitik: Might makes right. The judicial process must not be allowed to "constrain or shape" American behavior in any way, the gangsters declared.

Think of it: Law is now the enemy. Democracy, as we've seen above, is the enemy. This, the demented code of criminals and tyrants, has become the ruling doctrine of the United States -- replacing the Constitution, replacing the noble struggle for liberty and enlightenment with the howl of the beast, with a freak show of avarice and death.

Annotations
The Death of Raymond Lemme
Bradblog.com, March 8, 2005

Clint Curtis Testifies Before Judiciary Committee Panel
Bradblog.com, Dec. 13, 2004

Report to Judiciary Committee: Diebold Machines Hacked
Black Box Voting, March 8, 2005

Exit poll analysis points to 2004 election corruption
Akron Beacon Journal, April 1, 2005

US Scatters Bases to Control Eurasia
Asia Times, March 30, 2005

US Draws Up List of Unstable Countries
Financial Times, March 28, 2005

Bush: U.S. To Bear Burden of Iraq Costs
Associated Press, April 4, 2005

Oil prices soar above 58 dollars for first time
Agence France Press, April 4, 2005

US Taxpayers Give Lion's Share To Military
PNN Online, April 4, 2005

National Defense Strategy: Legal Challenges, Terrorism Threaten U.S.
Associated Press, March 18, 2005

Defense Strategy OKs First Strikes
Los Angeles Times, March 19, 2005

The Bush-Cheney Media Enterprises
AlterNet, April 3, 2005

US relied on 'drunken liar' to justify Iraq war
The Observer, April 3, 2005

Long Before WMD Panel, Evidence Showed Bush Wanted War Despite Intelligence
A Tiny Revolution, March 31, 2005

If You Build It, They Will Kill
TomDispatch, April 1, 2005

Military Bases Abroad are Expanding
The Nation, March 31, 2005

Coordinated attack on your voting rights happening Now
Daily Kos, March 31, 2005

Bechtel Sees Record Revenue in 2004
San Francisco Chronicle, March 29, 2005

The New Aristocracy
Providence Journal, March 28, 2005

Top Bush Insider Joins Halliburton
Washington Examiner, March 22, 2005

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)




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[artsouth]

Re: political mud slinging.....

The Crusaders

Christian evangelicals are plotting to remake America in their own image

By BOB MOSER


It's February, and 900 of America's staunchest Christian fundamentalists have gathered in Fort Lauderdale to look back on what they accomplished in last year's election -- and to plan what's next. As they assemble in the vast sanctuary of Coral Ridge Presbyterian, with all fifty state flags dangling from the rafters, three stadium-size video screens flash the name of the conference: reclaiming america for christ. These are the evangelical activists behind the nation's most effective political machine -- one that brought more than 4 million new Christian voters to the polls last November, sending George W. Bush back to the White House and thirty-two new pro-lifers to Congress. But despite their unprecedented power, fundamentalists still see themselves as a persecuted minority, waging a holy war against the godless forces of secularism. To rouse themselves, they kick off the festivities with "Soldiers of the Cross, Arise," the bloodthirstiest tune in all of Christendom: "Seize your armor, gird it on/Now the battle will be won/Soon, your enemies all slain/Crowns of glory you shall gain."
Meet the Dominionists -- biblical literalists who believe God has called them to take over the U.S. government. As the far-right wing of the evangelical movement, Dominionists are pressing an agenda that makes Newt Gingrich's Contract With America look like the Communist Manifesto. They want to rewrite schoolbooks to reflect a Christian version of American history, pack the nation's courts with judges who follow Old Testament law, post the Ten Commandments in every courthouse and make it a felony for gay men to have sex and women to have abortions. In Florida, when the courts ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed, it was the Dominionists who organized round-the-clock protests and issued a fiery call for Gov. Jeb Bush to defy the law and take Schiavo into state custody. Their ultimate goal is to plant the seeds of a "faith-based" government that will endure far longer than Bush's presidency -- all the way until Jesus comes back.

"Most people hear them talk about a 'Christian nation' and think, 'Well, that sounds like a good, moral thing,' says the Rev. Mel White, who ghostwrote Jerry Falwell's autobiography before breaking with the evangelical movement. "What they don't know -- what even most conservative Christians who voted for Bush don't know -- is that 'Christian nation' means something else entirely to these Dominionist leaders. This movement is no more about following the example of Christ than Bush's Clean Water Act is about clean water."

The godfather of the Dominionists is D. James Kennedy, the most influential evangelical you've never heard of. A former Arthur Murray dance instructor, he launched his Florida ministry in 1959, when most evangelicals still followed Billy Graham's gospel of nonpartisan soul-saving. Kennedy built Coral Ridge Ministries into a $37-million-a-year empire, with a TV-and-radio audience of 3 million, by preaching that it was time to save America -- not soul by soul but election by election. After helping found the Moral Majority in 1979, Kennedy became a five-star general in the Christian army. Bush sought his blessing before running for president -- and continues to consult top Dominionists on matters of federal policy.

"Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost," Kennedy says. "As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society."

At Reclaiming America, most of the conference is taken up by grassroots training sessions that supply ministers, retirees and devout churchgoers with "The Facts of Stem-Cell Research" or "Practical Steps to Impact Your Community with America's Historical Judeo-Christian Heritage." "We're going to turn you into an army of one," Gary Cass, executive director of Reclaiming America, promises activists at one workshop held in Evangalism Explosion Hall. The Dominionists also attend speeches by supporters like Rep. Katherine Harris of Florida, who urges them to "win back America for God." In their spare time, conference-goers buy books about a God-devised health program called the Maker's Diet or meet with a financial adviser who offers a "biblically sound investment plan."

To implement their sweeping agenda, the Dominionists are working to remake the federal courts in God's image. In their view, the Founding Fathers never intended to erect a barrier between politics and religion. "The First Amendment does not say there should be a separation of church and state," declares Alan Sears, president and CEO of the Alliance Defense Fund, a team of 750 attorneys trained by the Dominionists to fight abortion and gay marriage. Sears argues that the constitutional guarantee against state-sponsored religion is actually designed to "shield" the church from federal interference -- allowing Christians to take their rightful place at the head of the government. "We have a right, indeed an obligation, to govern," says David Limbaugh, brother of Rush and author of Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity. Nothing gets the Dominionists to their feet faster than ringing condemnations of judicial tyranny. "Activist judges have systematically deconstructed the Constitution," roars Rick Scarborough, author of Mixing Church and State. "A God-free society is their goal!"

Activist judges, of course, are precisely what the Dominionists want. Their model is Roy Moore, the former Alabama chief justice who installed a 5,300-pound granite memorial to the Ten Commandments, complete with an open Bible carved in its top, in the state judicial building. At Reclaiming America, Roy's Rock sits out front, fresh off a tour of twenty-one states, perched on the flag-festooned flatbed of a diesel truck, a potent symbol of the "faith-based" justice the Dominionists are bent on imposing. Activists at the conference pose for photographs beside the rock and have circulated a petition urging President Bush to appoint Moore -- who once penned an opinion calling for the state to execute "practicing homosexuals" -- to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The other side knows we've got strongholds in the executive and legislative branches," Cass tells the troops. "If we start winning the judiciary, their power base is going to be eroded."

To pack the courts with fundamentalists like Moore, Dominionist leaders are planning a massive media blitz. They're also pressuring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist -- an ally who's courting support for his presidential bid -- to halt the long-standing use of filibusters to hold up judicial nominations. An anti-filibuster petition circulating at the conference blasts Democrats for their "outrageous stonewalling of appointments" -- even though Congress has approved more nominees of Bush than of any president since Jimmy Carter.

It helps that Dominionists have a direct line to the White House: The Rev. Richard Land, top lobbyist for the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention, enjoys a weekly conference call with top Bush advisers including Karl Rove. "We've got the Holy Spirit's wind at our backs!" Land declares in an arm-waving, red-faced speech. He takes particular aim at the threat posed by John Lennon, denouncing "Imagine" as a "secular anthem" that envisions a future of "clone plantations, child sacrifice, legalized polygamy and hard-core porn."

The Dominionists are also stepping up efforts to turn public schools into forums for evangelism. In a landmark case, the Alliance Defense Fund is suing a California school district that threatened to dismiss a born-again teacher who was evangelizing fifth-graders. In the conference's opening ceremony, the Dominionists recite an oath they dream of hearing in every classroom: "I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe."

Cass urges conference-goers to stack school boards with Dominionists. "The most humble Christian is more qualified for office than the best-educated pagan," says Cass, an anti-abortion activist who led a takeover of his school district's board in San Diego. "We built quite a little grass-roots machine out there. Now it's my burden to multiply that success all across America."

Cass points to the Rev. Gary Beeler, a Baptist minister from Tennessee who got permission for thousands of students to skip class and attend weeklong events that he calls "old-time revivals, with preaching and singing and soul-saving and the whole nine yards." Now, with support from Kennedy, Beeler is selling his house and buying a mobile home to spread his crusade nationwide. "It's not exactly what I planned to do with my retirement," he says. "But it's what God told me to do."

Cass also presents another small-town activist, Kevin McCoy, with a Salt and Light Award for leading a successful campaign to shut down an anti-bullying program in West Virginia schools. McCoy, a soft-spoken, prematurely gray postal worker, fought to end the program because it taught tolerance for gay people -- and thus, in his view, constituted a "thinly disguised effort to promote the homosexual agenda." "What America needs," Cass tells the faithful, "is more Kevin McCoys."

While the dominionists rely on grass-roots activists to fight their battles, they are backed by some of America's richest entrepreneurs. Amway founder Rich DeVos, a Kennedy ally who's the leading Republican contender for governor of Michigan, has tossed more than $5 million into the collection plate. Jean Case, wife of former AOL chief Steve Case -- whose fortune was made largely on sex-chat rooms -- has donated $8 million. And Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza, is a major source of cash for Focus on the Family, a megaministry working with Kennedy to eliminate all public schools.

The one-two punch of militant activists and big money has helped make the Dominionists a force in Washington, where a growing number of congressmen owe their elections to the machine. Kennedy has also created the Center for Christian Statesmanship, which trains elected officials to "more effectively share their faith in the public arena." Speaking to the group, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay -- a winner of Kennedy's Distinguished Christian Statesman Award -- called Bush's faith-based initiatives "a great opportunity to bring God back into the public institutions of our country."

The most vivid proof of the Christianizing of Capitol Hill comes at the final session of Reclaiming America. Rep. Walter Jones, a lanky congressman from North Carolina, gives a fire-and-brimstone speech that would have gotten him laughed out of Washington thirty years ago. In today's climate, however, he's got a chance of passing his pet project, the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, which would permit ministers to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, effectively converting their tax-exempt churches into Republican campaign headquarters.

"America is under assault!" Jones thunders as his aides dash around the sanctuary snapping PR photos. "Everyone in America has the right to speak freely, except for those standing in the pulpits of our churches!" The amen chorus reaches a fever pitch. Hands fly heavenward. It's one thing to hear such words from Dominionist leaders -- but to this crowd, there's nothing more thrilling than getting the gospel from a U.S. congressman. "You cannot have a strong nation that does not follow God," Jones preaches, working up to a climactic, passionate plea for a biblical republic. "God, please -- God, please -- God, please -- save America!"



(Posted Apr 07, 2005)

 

[artsouth]

Re: political mud slinging.....

Man Arrested, Cuffed
After Using $2 Bills
? 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
4-8-5


A man trying to pay a fee using $2 bills was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail afterclerks at a Best Buy store questioned the currency's legitimacy and called police.

According to an account in the Baltimore Sun, 57-year-old Mike Bolesta was shocked to find himself taken to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, Md., where he was handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service was called to weigh in on the case.

Bolesta told the Sun: "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole - and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."

After Best Buy personnel reportedly told Bolesta he would not be charged for the installation of a stereo in his son's car, he received a call from the store saying it was in fact charging him the fee. As a means of protest, Bolesta decided to pay the $114 bill using 57 crisp, new $2 bills.

As the owner of Capital City Student Tours, the Baltimore resident has a hearty supply of the uncommon currency. He often gives the bills to students who take his tours for meal money.

"The kids don't see that many $2 bills, so they think this is the greatest thing in the world," Bolesta says. "They don't want to spend 'em. They want to save 'em. I've been doing this since I started the company. So I'm thinking, 'I'll stage my little comic protest. I'll pay the $114 with $2 bills.'"

Bolesta explained what happened when he presented the bills to the cashier at Best Buy Feb. 20.

"She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money - like she's doing me a favor."

Belesta says the cashier marked each bill with a pen. Other store employees began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"

"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."

According to the Sun report, the police arrest report noted one employee noticed some smearing of ink on the bills. That's when the cops were called. One officer reportedly noticed the bills ran in sequential order.

Said Bolesta: "I told them, 'I'm a tour operator. I've got thousands of these bills. I get them from my bank. You got a problem, call the bank.' I'm sitting there in a chair. The store's full of people watching this. All of a sudden, he's standing me up and handcuffing me behind my back, telling me, 'We have to do this until we get it straightened out.'

"Meanwhile, everybody's looking at me. I've lived here 18 years. I'm hoping my kids don't walk in and see this. And I'm saying, 'I can't believe you're doing this. I'm paying with legal American money.'"

Bolesta was taken to the lockup, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called.

"At this point," he says, "I'm a mass murderer."

Secret Service agent Leigh Turner eventually arrived and declared the bills legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."

Commenting on the incident, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey told the Sun: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."




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[artsouth]

Re: political mud slinging.....

Where Are The Good Christians?
The fanatics and nutjobs now running the show sure give honest believers a bad name
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, April 6, 2005


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I Can See Your House From Here - Google's close-up satellite pho...
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I know they're out there.
I forget, often, too often, just how many there are but I know they exist in much larger numbers than you might be led to believe by current spiritually embarrassing headlines and I know they are just as, if not more, passionate and healthy and deeply felt in their beliefs than the overpublicized sects of angry and frothing "true believers" screeching into the megaphone of the culture, the ones yanking BushCo's chain and pounding their Bibles and hiding their warped porn fetishes and forcing their way into our lives and laws and bedrooms right now.

They are the decent Christians. They are the calm, morally progressive, compassionate, open-hearted Jesus-loving folk who don't really give a damn for archaic church dogma or pious noise or sanctimonious candlelight vigils, for repressing women or bashing gays or slamming Islam and, in fact, turned to Christianity precisely because they believe these things are abhorrent and wrong and, well, anti-Christian.

They are Episcopalians, for example, that most nimble and intelligent and groundbreaking of Christian churches, a rather revolutionary sect that recently elected its first openly gay bishop and supports gay marriage and dares to ordain women as priests.

And they're still deeply involved in amazing charity work, AIDS and orphanages and Africa and stuff that makes you humble and amazed and they have not, due to this seemingly blasphemous dichotomy and much to the shock of their homophobic conservative brethren, been struck by lightning or doomed to hell for all eternity -- or, rather, if they have, they'll go down happy and intelligent and singing and believing in Jesus anyway, all the way down.


They are the legions of recovering Catholics, people for whom the radiant and positive aspects of this most intense of faiths still hold powerful sway but who just can't abide by the ridiculous and outdated and often homophobic and sexist doctrines hurled forth like so much flaccid manna from the unhappy red-robed automatons of Vatican City.

They are the moderate Christians, the ones who do not support illegal wars or the killing of all doctors who perform abortions and who are all for social justice and who think Bush is a bit of an imbecile, and even if they find themselves for some unfortunate reason in support of the Republican cause overall, they still think it's rather abhorrent that the man dares invoke God to support his lie-ridden wars and the smashing down of women's rights and gay rights and abuse of the environment et al.

How do I know they're out there? Because I hear from them all the time, especially when I get carried away and lump them all together in my often overly harsh criticisms of the faith and my utter lack of patience for its more rabid and small-minded and hateful practitioners and its more violently self-righteous elements, stuff so completely antithetical to what true Christianity, what true faith, true spiritual connection, is all about, it would make Jesus wince.

And these Christians -- let us call them "normal" or perhaps "natural" or even "organic" (i.e.;, devoid of poisons or preservatives or Sanctimonious Growth Hormones) -- they are filling all manner of funky or progressive (or Unitarian) churches across many a large city in America, right now.

They are streaming into huge beautiful nonjudgmental buildings all over San Francisco and Chicago and New York and Boston, etc., places that welcome gays and oddballs and spiritual nomads and pantheists and anyone else who might be feeling a divine pull, and please leave your Jesus extremism at the door and let's talk about Sufism.

And they discuss stuff that sounds much closer to mystical or cosmological or otherwise paganistic energy work than the narrow, spittle-filled believe-in-Jesus-or-burn-in-hell angles of approach you keep hearing about and that tend to slash at your heart and insult your soul.

They're not radical. They're not rabid. They're not full of venom and Rapture and they read books other than the childish Left Behind series and they don't loathe sex or despise other religions or hate their genitalia like Tom DeLay loathes congressional law, and they know full well that Mel Gibson is a rather insane misogynistic blood fetishist who knowingly swiped an illiterate 18th-century stigmatic nun's bizarre and ultraviolent hallucination to use as some sort of dangerous literal truth. Amen.

They are, in short, those who understand the deep irony that, when it comes to religion, the ones who scream and stomp and whine the loudest are often the ones who understand their faith the least.

But there is a reason these calm and moderate and private Christians don't make the news, why, despite their enormous numbers, they are not setting the cultural agenda like some sort of sanctimonious meth-addled monkey (hi, Sen. Santorum!) right now.

It's because they are not organized. They are not a club. They do not have a unified attack agenda. They do not have pamphlets or advertising budgets or congressional lobbyists or the complaint line of every TV network and program except Fox News and "The 700 Club" on speed dial.

They do not call themselves the Parent's Television Council or the Right to Life Marauders or the Family Values Coalition or some other dumbly misleading and patently bogus moniker. They are not attempting to cram already gutted public school textbooks with imbecilic "Intelligent Design" BS, nor are they writing uptight letters to the FCC en masse or ranting about nipples or dildos or low-cut jeans on teenage girls while at the same exact moment repressing their own gay fantasies and kiddie-porn collections.

They understand that our children are at much higher risk of moral and spiritual damage from, say, decimated school budgets and violent presidential warmongering and noxious Kraft Lunchables than they could ever be from Janet Jackson or Abercrombie and Fitch or healthy teen sex.

Most spiritually healthy Christians are simply living their lives, praying deeply, carefully, privately, seeing the divine all around them and choosing Jesus' teachings as the best moral compass, especially the parts about love and healing and empathy and acceptance and turning the other cheek, about how God is not some sneering angry bearded puppeteer but rather a radiant energy force inside everyone and every living thing, always, just waiting for you to tap into it. You know, just like every other religion in existence.

They are the ones who understand that Jesus was, quite simply, one hell of a powerful teacher, and healer, and mystic, and visionary, a pacifist, a liberal, a feminist, the ultimate outsider, one of the finest examples in all of history of how to radiate pure love and compassion and divine interconnection and Lord knows we could all use more of that.

The bad news is, the rabid evangelical set is growing, this cluster of lost and weirdly undereducated people for whom the Bible is literal word-for-word verbatim truth and the Rapture is imminent and the Earth is just a disposable lump and the flesh is a disgusting afterthought and should be ignored and loathed and made really really fat and sexless and sad. And, to my mind, these people deserve all the fiery verbiage and raw satire and intelligent ideological counterforce I can possibly lob their way.

But. Just as there are moderate and wonderfully articulate pro-choice Republicans and just as there are moderate and fiscally conservative liberals, so there are millions of Christians who don't adhere in the slightest to the narrow and spiritually numb worldview now being touted by the BushCo Right. And if we're going to get anywhere with this increasingly desperate and fractured American social experiment, we need to remember that.


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[artsouth]

Re: political mud slinging.....

Condi Rice Betrays
Citizens Of America
By Frosty Wooldridge
NewsWithViews.com
4-9-5

If you enjoyed an audience with Condi Rice, what would you say to her? How would you rip into her for berating American citizens as 'vigilantes' if you lived in Southern California where illegal aliens number three million?

An average American citizen, Liz Demarco wrote Condi Rice a letter:

Ms. Rice, your statements in Mexico on March 10, 2005 have come to my attention. You visit Mexico representing the United States, and, to all intents and purposes, you betrayed American citizens on behalf of Mexico. So many incidents occurred that have been recorded that my difficulty in writing this letter has been where to begin.

American citizens will be impressed that you have mastered "George Speak" in such a short time. In your interview with Mr. Alatorre of Television Azteca, you were asked about national security issues, and Mr. Alatorre made reference to "the security in the border line, the narco traffic, and the mafias taking control of the jails." Your response was, "I would like to think of it as we are together concerned about our joint security. We very often, after September 11th, think about the threats of terrorism, the need for border security. But, of course, all countries are vulnerable in this way and so the work that we've done together on smart borders, the work that we've done together to make our borders more secure, this protects Mexicans and this protects Americans."

What work might that be, Ms. Rice? Mr. Bush has not authorized the Appropriations Committee to approve the funds for the additional Border Patrol authorized by Congress. According to an article last month, the Border Patrol Agents in Texas were providing taxi-service--memorialized on camera, and dropping illegal aliens off at a bus station in Texas, instead of returning them to their country of origin. Snipers are killing our Border Patrol agents, and there is little, if any, effort to apprehend them. One day in early February, Border Patrol agents seized 1,580 pounds of marijuana, valued at $1.2 million. Since October 1, 2004, agents in the Tucson sector have seized 177,386 pounds of marijuana valued at nearly $142 million.

Crime is rampant on our borders. The majority of terrorists in the September 11, 2001 fiasco came through Mexico and over our "smart borders" into the United States. The notorious Latino gang members, M-13 or Mara Salvatruchas, who originate in Central America, come over our borders through Mexico because it's easy. MS-13 members are known to cut the testicles of their enemies and feed them to their vicious dogs, and other times they have cut the heads off their opponents to play football soccer with them. They now operate with 8,000 gang members in 28 of our cities. Tell us with your Bush-speak, Ms. Rice, how you're protecting our southern border. How are you stopping the $128 billion annual drug traffic? You aren't because my grandmother could hike over undetected!

The laws of this country are not being enforced by elected or appointed government officials, or by the judicial system. There are 20 million illegal aliens in this country. It is not our responsibility to feed, clothe, medicate, and shelter these illegal aliens. It appears as if you and Mr. Bush will only be satisfied when this country is barren and its citizens demoralized.

At a time when more than 15 million Americans are unemployed, the Bush Administration, with your firm support, continues its efforts to impose/legalize more illegal aliens. Through the amnesty known as the "guest-worker" program, you are importing competition and outsourcing jobs. This results in depressed wages covering the full spectrum of employment. Mass immigration-generated wage depression exceeds $200 billion annually, according to economist George Borjas, Professor of Economics and Social Policy, Harvard University.

When I say you advocate a higher form of slavery, I refer to your overt support of this Administration's encouragement of "slave wages." On March 18, 2005, an article was published about an $11 million dollar settlement by Wal-Mart, and the analysis of the wages paid to the illegal aliens performing cleaning services for Wal-Mart showed an average payment of $1.23 per hour. Therefore, it is rather tacky when reporters point out that you can trace your ancestry back to the "slave" days, when what you currently advocate is revoltingly similar.

For a glimpse of the new America you are creating, visit the website of a family in dire straits, http://www.savefarmingville.com. We deeply resent the negative changes in this great society of ours.

Tuberculosis, which claims two-million people a year now, and was virtually wiped out before the Mexican/Latino invasion, Chagas Disease, known as the "Kiss of Death," kills 50,000 annually, Hepatitis A and B--there have been 100,000 reported cases passed on by illegal workers/carriers in the food industry in the last couple of years, and leprosy also unknown in the United States exceeded 7,000 new cases are only a few of the "treats" your Indian, Brazilian, Caribbean and Mexican friends have brought to America.

We also welcome malaria, which had been obliterated, the new and exciting West Nile Virus, and E-coli intestinal parasites. Mycobacterium bovis, which causes tuberculosis, found in rotten cheese imported illegally from Mexico, is the most recent "gift," and has resulted in an outbreak you may have read about it in New York this week. A herd of cattle in Texas will be destroyed because the animals have contracted tuberculosis.

Did you drink tap water while you were in Mexico? Of course you didn't. You would have acquired a gastrointestinal bacterial infection while you were busy praising "impressive Mexican institutional function." On the other hand, the scale of Mexico's inherent and pervasive corruption is impressive. There are more billionaires in Mexico than in Saudi Arabia, but they "don't play well with others" - - they don't want to share their wealth.

While in Mexico you assured President Fox, "My country will not tolerate illegal actions by the Minutemen vigilantes will not pardon any extra-legal actions by border vigilantes, nor do we support the activities of these groupseven though we cannot interfere." It is outrageous to make these statements before the event takes place, and with full knowledge that you are supposed to "represent" America.

Your behavior boggles the rational mind. You have the unmitigated gall to cast aspersions on the "Minuteman Project," which is a "peaceful effort" to call attention to the blatant neglect on the part of this Administration to secure our borders. This is a Job that Americans Are Willing to Do because our own government will not make any effort to secure America's borders. You should think of the Minuteman Project volunteers as undocumented Border Patrol. Since Mexican snipers are already shooting at the Border Patrol, it is not a far stretch of the imagination to assume the violence will continue. The MS-13 gang probably looks forward to performing additional surgeries in April.

You sit in your Ivory Tower, and give not one thought to the detriment and diseases brought into our country by the failure of this Administration to secure our borders. Yet you are willing to tolerate illegal crossing of America's borders, and you are willing to turn a "blind eye" to these illegal activities on the part of Mexico.

Over one acre of farmland or natural habitat is lost to development for each person added to the population. If current mass illegal immigration and consumption trends continue, by 2020 all domestic oil supplies will be depleted and the United States will be forced to import almost 100 percent of its oil. Every day we permanently remove 3.2 billion gallons of water from our aquifers than is replaced by natural processes. "We the People" are not going to be displaced and starved out of our own country. In sharp contrast to the United States, Mexico is legendary for its strict treatment of illegal immigrants on their soil; foreigners must all "duly prove their legal presence in the country." Whom do you represent?

If you cannot see that the flow of mass illegal immigration is sucking America dry, perhaps the term "demagoguery," applies to you. A demagogue leads the populace by appealing to prejudices and passions - an unprincipled politician.

This issue is not about race or ethnic group. We don't care if your skin color is purple - we cannot feed, clothe, medicate, and shelter any more illegal aliens. They are not undocumented workers - they are illegal aliens. Over 10,000 illegal aliens cross our borders everyday. Since no one is enforcing our laws, the majority of them end up somewhere in our country, with American citizens' tax dollars and Social Security benefits paying their way, and being subjected to the myriad of diseases that heretofore were extinct. You politicians are so ready to use "buzz words" like racist and bigot when the truth is we cannot sustain the current population. You know we are on a downward spiral, and you choose to ignore it. The National deficit is in the trillions, but there's not a problem? China, Japan and other Asian countries have already announced they will be investing in the Euro, and not our dollar, which is only worth the paper on which it is printed.

The "United States" is overrun with illegal aliens, and we have already lost much of life, as we knew it. Hospitals are closing, declaring bankruptcy because they cannot accommodate the demand for "free" services to illegal aliens, the educational system is in the toilet due to bilingual education, the welfare system no longer exists for Americans who need assistance, Social Security has been depleted because the "fund" has been misused, and population growth has encroached on our wild lands. Food, water, gas and electric energy are at an all time low, and we have far exceeded the carrying capacity of the United States. We have depleted the fossil fuels that power our cars, and provide us with heat in the winter, and they cannot be replaced.

In Oakland, California, the police have been pressured to stop the practice of "drunk-driver" checkpoints because many who were stopped have been illegal aliens. Whether these illegal aliens are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, La Raza, the most powerful and popular Hispanic hate group, with a $42 million budget, calls the checkpoints "racial profiling," thereby putting an end to this onerous harassment of illegal aliens. Not only should these illegal aliens be arrested; they should be deported.

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano said she has billed the federal government for nearly $118 million in costs for imprisoning criminal illegal aliens for which Arizona has not been reimbursed. In a controversial plan, the Board of the Los Angeles County jail voted three to two for the plan to train clerks at the jail to identify illegal aliens and turn them over to federal custody for deportation or prosecution. It is costing California $10.5 billion per year for education, medical care, and incarceration. California schools used to be in the top-five percentile until they instituted bilingual education - now the rating is lower than low, fitting right into the plan to scuttle America's heritage.

Idaho has applied to the federal government for disaster relief caused by the enormous influx of illegal aliens. To all of you public officials who encourage illegal aliens to continue to break American laws, and for those of you who have private agendas: American citizens are not going to tolerate much more. We oppose your efforts to reward those who are breaking our laws.

Samuel Adams wrote, "It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds. The demand to secure our borders and stop the flow of mass illegal immigration is about overpopulation and survival. Someone wrote the following, "The Third World is at your doorstep and anxious to present you with the bill as they jump on "the entitlement bandwagon." We are not going to continue to support illegal aliens.

Notwithstanding your obligation to uphold the laws of the United States, your job demands that you protect the American citizens you represent. You are not upholding your oath of office, and you are not alone. Few government officials are doing the jobs for which they were appointed or elected. "We the People of the United States..." have the right to see to it that our laws are upheld. You, and other elected or appointed officials, must realize that democratic principles are interwoven into the very fabric of our thoughts, our mission, our emotions, and our lives. Step forward into the reality of the 21st Century, and know there is no such thing as job security - not even in the State Department, although your position may be as secure as our borders.

In closing, the definition of treason: Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign; the betrayal of one's own country by waging war against it, or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies. The shoe fits you!

Fellow Americans, Liz Demarco is an American. She's you, she's me, she's angry. This is her country. It's your country. It's our country. Start writing, calling, emailing, telling it like it is. We're all sick of Condi Rice demeaning our legal citizens in favor of illegal aliens. We're sick of her being a clone of Bush. We're sick of our country being sold down the river by our elected leaders. We're sick of illegal alien migration.


? 2005 Frosty Wooldridge - All Rights Reserved




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[artsouth]

Re: political mud slinging.....

All We Want Is The Truth
By Ward Reilly
Baltimore Chronicle.com
4-10-5

"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." "Samuel Adams

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government--lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." "Patrick Henry

"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government." "Thomas Paine

My friend Dennis Kyne wrote a song that we recorded together while he was staying at my home in January. He was in Baton Rouge in order to attend, and to speak at, the "Jazz Funeral For Democracy" in New Orleans, a counter-inaugural demonstration that activists from south-Louisiana had organized.

The song is called "All We Want Is The Truth."

Dennis is a Gulf War vet, and was a medic with the front-line 24th Infantry in 1991. I am an older volunteer infantry vet, one that spent 32 months overseas, from 1971-1974, serving this country as an occupation soldier. We are patriots.

The truth. It's not too much for a soldier or vet to ask for, particularly when the subject is whether or not our nation goes to war.

As many of us, those that actually tried to stop the occupation of Iraq before it got started, watched this tragedy unfold, what we saw was everything BUT the truth.

Will the press now do its job, and report the facts?

We all know how hard Congress, and the press, went after Clinton because of his lie. He was impeached for his lie about sex.

So all we can hope for now is that the actual words of the Bush administration, the neocons, will somehow get the same scrutiny that ANY lie made by our elected officials should get. All we can hope for is that they will be punished.

All we want is the truth.

Here's a FACT. Before President George "Dubya" Bush forced his "war" against Iraq down the world's collective throat, he said, "First, we will demonstrate to the people of Iraq and the world that the United States and the coalition aspire to liberate, not to occupy Iraq." Iraq heard him, and now they know it was a lie.

That was in the first few days of the "war."

Bush also promised our nation that he would go to war as a "last resort." That was a lie.The truth is that the administration was hell-bent to go to war with Iraq at any cost.

The TRUTH is that they planned this "war" before 9-11. And the parents and families of those who have given their lives were lied to, as were we all. We deserve MUCH better.

Can we truthfully say this is not an occupation? We are, in fact, building 14 permanent military installations as I write this. We have poured $1,500,000,000 into building the Green Zone embassy complex alone. An embassy for $1.5 billion, in war zone? Undoubtedly a "cost-plus," no-bid contract.

Ask our troops if they are "occupying" Iraq.

Bush refuses to let this country see the coffins he is filling with his "non-occupation," much less admit that this is an occupation. I say the situation in Iraq is now at genocidal proportions.

Here is a FACT. On March 16th, 2003 Vice President "Dick" Cheney said on "Meet The Press": "We will, IN FACT, be greeted as liberators". A lie.

Can Cheney now say say that we have been "greeted as liberators"? When the most powerful man in the world says something, he MUST be held accountable.

"Oops-- I was wrong" cannot be used as an excuse for failed foreign policy.

In May, 2003 President Bush said "Mission Accomplished," and since then more than 1,000 of our citizens have died in Iraq. Is the mission accomplished OR NOT, Mr. Bush?

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said "I don't believe that the United States has the responsibility to pay for reconstruction."

Can he truthfully say that Iraq is paying for this war? With a straight face?

The FACT is that this disaster in Iraq has already cost the people of the U.S.A. $300,000,000,000, with no end in sight.

Condi Rice said on CBS, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that...they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." A HUGE lie, if any lie was ever told.

The TRUTH is that she had been handed a memo, by our nation's top terrorism expert, Richard Clarke, long before 9-11--a memo that said exactly what Rice said "nobody could have predicted."

Rice also said "Richard Clarke had plenty of opportunities to tell us in the administration that he thought the war on terrorism was moving in the wrong direction and he chose not to." That is a complete LIE.

The TRUTH is that Clarke sent a memo to Rice principals on 1/24/01 marked "urgent," asking for a Cabinet-level meeting to deal with an impending al Qaeda attack.

Our own (former) weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, said "there are no WMD's." He had scoured Iraq FOR YEARS looking for them. He knew the truth. Bush ignored him.

Our own investigative diplomat said the "yellowcake" uranium rumors were false and fabricated. He was told to shut up, and his wife's CIA-agent identity was released in retribution for his unfavorable report, by SOMEONE in the White House.

All we want is the truth, why's it so hard to find? I can find it, why can't the TV news find it, report it, and act on it?

Two years ago today, on March 29th, 2003, Baton Rouge, Louisiana held an anti-war demonstration and march. At that march, off-duty police stood with those advocating that we protestors should be shot for protesting. SHOT for protesting.

How fascist will we allow this nation to become before we wake up? During the same week, a local DJ, while ON THE AIR, advocated beating protestors. How much trouble would we protestors have gotten in for advocating violence against say, Republicans who were for the war?

The media advocating violence on the air. Can this really be the USA? Policemen advocating death to protestors?

All we want is the truth.

On May 21st at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LSU police built a "Free Speech Zone" and ordered protestors to stand inside of it to protest Bush's visit on campus. We refused, and I now own a "free speech zone." My anti-war trophy. But the point is, " Free Speech Zones" in the U.S.A.? You must be kidding.And non-protestors were allowed within inches of the President, with no security whatsoever.

That's the truth and reality of our nation today. "Zones" for free speech. What "Bill Of Rights"?

Perhaps we should issue "free speech zones" to our leaders. Here are a few documented lies they told the world to force this Iraq disaster to happen:

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." "Little" Dick Cheney. A lie.

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons." George "aWol" Bush. A lie.

"We know for a fact that there are weapons there." Ari Fleischer. A lie.

"25,000 liters of anthrax...38,000 liters of botulinum toxin...materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent...upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents...several mobile biological weapons labs..." George W. Bush even told us the quantities that he KNEW existed. Where are they, George? What a lie that was.

"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more." Even Colin Powell started lying to send us to war.

"Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly...all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes." Ari Fleisher lied to send us to war.

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." Donald Rumsfeld even told us where the WMD's were.

"Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction US forces find--and there will be plenty." Neocon scholar Robert Kagan was lied to. He believed their crap, and he is one of the neocons.

"We are learning more as we interrogate [or torture] or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them." Bush kept on lying, even after he lied to send us to war.

"We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so." George Bush lied.

There were no WMD's.

"I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now." ABSOLUTELY SURE said our Secretary of State Colin Powell. A lie.

"US officials never expected that we were going to open garages and find weapons of mass destruction." Condoleezza Rice told that lie. She was obviously not listening to the rest of the administration. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell all stated that they would find WMD's, and even stated we knew where they were.

"For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction[(as justification for invading Iraq], because it was the one reason everyone could agree on." Paul Wolfowitz said this, and it might have been the ONLY true statement that the whole administration made.

All we want is the truth.

But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong: we found them. George W. Bush said THAT! What a delusional lie that was. Where are they, George?

So now we have passed the two-year mark, in a "war" sold on lies. When will the Congress and the "free press" rise up to punish this band of war criminals and professional liars?

All we want is the truth. We deserve the truth. The liars deserve to be impeached, at the very least. Wake up America--our country is hanging on the edge of a cliff, and only the truth will save it. If we allow these war criminals to get away with their lies, our nation will be sent tumbling down the mountainside.

We still have the choice. We should DEMAND "the truth." We MUST demand "the truth."

James Garfield, one of our presidents, once said, "Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.

"If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature.... If the next centennial does not find us a great nation ... it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."

WE THE PEOPLE, must DEMAND the truth, especially when war is at the balance.

All we want is the truth, why's it so hard to find?

"History, in general, only informs us what bad government is." "Thomas Jefferson

The "truth" is, that our top level government is lying, IS BAD, and it wouldn't matter so much if these lies didn't mean the deaths of so many innocent citizens of the world. But it is a war that these lies sent us to, and many, many, innocent people have died for these lies, and it is our job, the press's job, and our elected officials' job, to stop it all, now.

The innocent dead deserve that much. They have certainly earned that much. All THEY wanted was the truth. Had the truth been told, NONE of them would have perished for these liars.

"All we want is the truth, why's it so hard to find." Thanks for writing that, Dennis, it says it all, and that's no lie.

"We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts--not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." "Abraham Lincoln

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." "James Madison

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does NOT mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country.... It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country." "Theodore Roosevelt

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Condoleezza Rice ALL SWORE to abide and obey the Constitution. They have all failed to do so in the worst possible way. They LIED to send us to war, and countless thousands to their deaths. That's NO lie.

The "TRUTH"...it's out there. All we want is the truth. Why's it so hard to find?

Ward Reilly, of Baton Rouge, La., is a member of Veterans For Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the Warssage has been received.

http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/033005Reilly.html




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[artsouth]

Re: political mud slinging.....

wow!... lots of interesting stuff today........

 

[artsouth]

Re: political mud slinging.....

wow!... lots of interesting stuff today........

 

[artsouth]

Re: political mud slinging.....

wow!... lots of interesting stuff today........