Out With the Old, In With the Old; Plus Things

The Shakeup

Andy Card voluntarily resigned. The Boosh administration shakeup is underway. If you believe either of those statements, you are delusional. First, Andy Card, the Boosh Chief of Staff was asked to resign rather than be fired, mostly to help pacify irate Republicans facing re-election later this year. Did it work? Well, it could have. But, when Joshua Bolten was named as his replacement, it simply re-enforced the view that the last thing that George W. Boosh wants within his cabinet is either new blood or dissent. The very things that the Republican leaders and base have been asking for have been ignored by King George.

Bolten came from inside the administration, has in fact been with Boosh from the beginning, just like Card. Bolten was also in charge of the Budget Office, doing a splendid job of allowing Boosh to run up more national debt than all the previous Presidents of the United States combined. Yes, that is the sad truth. Add up all the debt that every ex-President has left and it does not sniff the debt that George W. Boosh has managed to accumulate for us in 5+ years. Oh, it's not all Bolten's fault. After all, Boosh is the boss who can’t be told no. This is precisely the problem that has yet to be addressed, and never will be addressed. No one will tell Boosh no about anything. Why? I have no earthly idea. You have the single biggest moron in the history of the Republic running the country, and people are afraid to tell him no. Granted, they might lose their jobs should they take that approach. But, at some point someone must draw a line in the sand and tell the dumbass that his policies, all of them, suck. And that he is ruining what little is left of his country. His country. It is no longer your country or mine, but it is his country. Don't believe it? Just ask him.

Boosh views his job, publicly at least, to protect the American people. Of course at the same time he wants to allow illegal immigrants to have amnesty and unfettered access to our borders. He wants to give them 11 years to screw up, and if they do they will be sent back to where they came from. He'll show them, by golly. Boosh says that we have to have these people to keep our economy viable, doing jobs that Americans won't do. Maybe he should re-think that one. I know of some Katrina survivors sitting in his home state who would gladly do anything to make a buck. Unfortunately, they don't get the chance. They don't get the chance because the illegals have already filled those positions. The employers like it that way. They like it because they can work these folks from sunup to sundown and pay them meager wages for doing so. A shakeup? Hardly. And, there ain’t one coming.

Illegal Immigration

I honestly do not know what to do with the approximately 30 million people who are currently in this country illegally. That number is an estimate, we don't really have a clue how many there really are. Apparently no one else knows what to do with them either. Temporary worker permits? Grant total amnesty? I’m pretty certain that neither of those are the answer. I have a couple of friends who are illegals and I like them very much. They work hard, are contributing members of our society, and I would hate to see them sent packing.

What I do know is what must be done to stop the mass stampede through our borders. Build a fence. It’s really that simple.

Let’s assume that the illegals currently here are allowed to stay. We can even “put them at the back of the line” as Boosh likes to say. The message that is sent by such action is that it is easier and much quicker to simply sneak across the border, find a job and worry about the paperwork later. In reality, it’s an invitation rubber stamped by the President of the United States to do just that. The aftermath of such legislation would result in a massive assault on our borders, overwhelming an already undermanned border patrol. With the current structure, it simply would not work and would invite terrorism into the US. For a guy who claims that his sole duty is to protect the American people, it is simply mind boggling that he cannot make the connection and realize that terrorists could easily join the Mexican migrant workers in crossing the border.

Simple common sense tells us that we must SECURE the border prior to determining what to do with those already here. Any other approach is utterly absurd. So, we build a fence. I have seen models of ideas for 700 miles of fence along the southern border that would work. One consists of rolled up razor wire, a ditch, a fence, another ditch, and more razor wire. It is a simple and reasonably cost effective approach. Checkpoints can be located at various points along the way to allow for passage of those who have a legitimate right to enter or leave the country. Only after the border is secure can you begin to sell the American people on the possibility of guest worker programs or some such approach to deal with those who are already here. You can thank this administrations 5 year fear mongering approach to leadership for this problem.

I hear people saying that “this is un-American. We are a country of immigrants.” This is true, but also highly hypocritical. We currently send Israel billions of dollars per year, and much of that is used to build a fence to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out of Israeli territory. The Boosh administration doesn’t have a problem with that, so why the problem with protecting our own people? I’ll answer that. It is not about protecting the American people, never has been and never will be. The protection that we really need is from our own government, not some fantasy man or woman from the phony “war on terror.”

Bird Flu

Houston, we have a problem, and a rather serious one at that. The H5N1 virus, otherwise known as bird flu is rapidly approaching the US. Nothing can be done to slow its arrival, and our government is lying to the people about every aspect of this soon to be pandemic. (shocking, I know)

Lie #1---If this virus reaches the point that it is transferred from human to human…….. Well, it already has been transferred from human to human in at least 2 cases that I am aware of. What does this mean? That this virus has mutated into a form that will soon be in America, a form that will EASILY be passed from one to another by the time it gets here.

Lie #2---We can try to contain it overseas and keep it from getting here……..George W. Boosh may be able to control the comatose American people and Congress, but without a whole lot of help from Cheney and his shotgun, he can’t tell the birds what to do. This disease is following exactly along migratory lines that have been followed by birds for centuries. As the weather warms, the birds will arrive, just as they always have, and with them will come H5N1. This is inevitable.

Lie #3---Tamiflu can be effective in fighting and preventing the spread of this disease……..Pure and utter bullshit. Tamiflu will not work, our government knows it will not work, but they are paying the Big Pharmaceutical companies a whole lot of money to mass produce it. Make the money while there is still money around, fooling the masses into believing that they are serious about fighting this pandemic.

Lie #4---The scientific community is working as hard and fast as they can to create a vaccine for this virus……….Well, the government scientific community is allegedly working quickly on a vaccine and medication. They are also muted. Private entities have not been told enough of the truth to be able to effectively work on the problem, nor will they anytime soon. In fact, there have been a rash of mysterious deaths of prominent microbiologists over the last year or so, all who were asking serious questions about the motives of the US government in fighting the impending pandemic. Don't believe me? The conspiracy theorists have been all over this one for a long time. Check it out.

Lie #5---The numbers……….. Granted, getting accurate numbers out of many third world countries is difficult, but our government should admit that the numbers reported are at a minimum 100 times lower than the actual counts. Again, they won’t.

The truth……. In 2006, worldwide, a human case of H5N1 has been reported every other day. Again, these are “reported” cases. In 2005, the number was one reported case per week. So, this is building steam, and building it in a hurry. Of the reported 186 cases of human infection, “at least” 105 of the people have died. At least? How in the hell can you not know how many actually died? Did you just stop following the cases? Answer, no. Many more than 105 died, actually 128 of these reported cases. That is a little over two thirds. Like I said, you can easily multiply any bird flu numbers you hear by 100 and still likely have a conservative estimate.

Our government is doing nothing to stop, fight or treat this virus, and they are lying about it. Just like they are lying about the war in Iraq, lying about lobby reform, lying about the economy, and lying about everything else that they talk about. All signs point towards the economic implosion being right around the corner, and that, my friends, is a good thing. (I'll have more on that later) We need the civil war to occur before the bird flu kills two thirds of us. Killing us with the blessings of our government, of course.

Cyclone

A Continuation; Plus a Message

Hey guys. I have a couple of things to say, then I'm going to post a continuation of Murph's last post. It is actually a reply to my Belgian friend, but worthy of posting. Rather than break up the topic with something of mine, I will keep this flowing for another day. I have a couple of my own posts nearly ready to go, and tomorrow will begin posting those.

As for the here and now, I have received some disturbing information from a highly reliable source. As I have been saying for some time now that the economy is soon to crash, it appears that we may well be at the point of implosion. Very, very soon. I do not have enough information to go beyond that right now, but will work my tail off to try to find out what is really happening and get it up here. My advice for the moment is to not be surprised by ANYTHING that may happen over the next 30 days or so. The end is here, I believe. More later.....Now to Murph's reply.

Murph email to Belgium

In any proposal to alter social structure in a radical way, there is a tendency to overlook, ignore, or pass off practical considerations. This is the sign of an idealization, and with humans, the ideal is seldom ever realized. It simply appears that a utopia in practical living is not going to happen.

Our friend in Belgium made a comment that asked a lot of questions concerning my criticisms and proposal. My reply to him was so long that I need it as a posting. This is the reply smoothed out some and amplified a bit. So to understand the nature of this posting, check out Belgium’s comment in the posting concerning documents and elections.

I was using the term visionary very loosely. I was thinking at the time of King but not restricted to him. Specifically, I am referring to anyone that has foresight enough to talk of how things can be a whole lot better in a very practical way, one which allows humans to be the best they can be. Idealistic maybe. Those that are in favor of a strong central government and authority of some nature seem to leave out the basic questions. Who is going to be in authority? How would it be determined? And what would give them the special insight to judge between what is good or bad for me or you? Right off the top I reject the divine right concept and God told me B.S.

It is perfectly true that one man's visionary is another mans nut case. That is because we do not share the same general values concerning the very act of living. Do we or do we not want to guarantee equal freedom of choice for all? Are we going to say that the only crimes are going to be damaging another person and/or property, or not? Are we going to codify and make legal or illegal that which someone takes offense to? You can now even be prosecuted for the very language you use. We even have court cases to sanctify perspectives on history.

As for King and his fight against segregation. Segregation and racial prejudice has not gone away either socially or legally. It is alive and well, believe me. The fact that lip service is paid to desegregation and equality of the ‘races’ only enforces my contention that we lead a socially hypocritical life. Kings contribution was, at the minimum, to focus attention on that aspect of society and some of its consequences. While some of the more obvious aspects of segregation have been smoothed over, hidden in many cases, it is not done and finished. And that is why I contend that the basic issues have to be addressed.

It is true that a visionary is not restricted to those belief systems that I subscribe to. I’m sure that Strauss and Machiavelli would be called a visionary by their disciples. So yes, I am only interested in those visionaries that want to make living better for everyone, not just a selected group. Oh yes, that is my bias.

You are quite correct in pointing out that if the majority elect to live under feudalism, what of those not liking the idea? You have just pointed out dramatically the very big problem with consensual decision making. Whatever affects all the people should be decided unanimously, or not acted on, at least in my conception of social organization. The original concept of majority consensual decision making was fairly unique for society as a whole. Previous to our countries founding, the consensual part was for those in power and the upper class, not for the society as a whole. We could look at this type of decision making as a statistical government. What is not taken into account is the data that is outside of the norm. Those who are most emphatically not in agreement and see detrimental effects of the decision are marginalized. I am of the opinion that if you are not able to acquire the unanimous consent then it is a bad idea.

Remember the first posit I made. Thou shalt not damage another person or their property. The shop owner that harms a customer is held liable, either in faulty or harmful goods. Oh yes, dueling would sure solve that problem quickly. In the society that I envision, such shop keepers would not long be in business. Our society is riddled with business owners that are neither honest nor responsible. And nauseating as it is, the government allows it. Try buying a used car or life insurance. Here in the U.S. even our advertising is built on lies and distortion. I will give credit to the European advertising. It is incredibly entertaining; ours has a tendency to be numbing in its deceit.

You mention an altruistic society and what to do with those that refuse to work. First off, most of what we call work today is so numbing and irrational I don’t blame a bit anyone that doesn’t want to do it and give them credit if they find a way around it. I maintain that what we call the ‘work ethic’ is an artificial construct for wage enslavement. When given the opportunity to do what you like to do, what is meaningful to you, what contributes in a meaningful way to the tribe, society, village, group, whatever, there is far less reluctance to participate. It is particularly not an issue when survival is at stake. From what I understand, non industrialized societies flat out do not have that problem. Why do we?

Hard druggies? AIDS? We never had a drug problem until the government got into the act in the first place. The war on drugs is another government control and a means of supporting our economic system. That subject I can get really upset with. Hell, our government in alliance with European bankers support the drug trade. AIDS is still on the block for the accusation of being government created virus. Even if not, pandemics will always be with us. But, I suspect that most of them are caused by people being packed together, unhealthy life styles and diets.
I do not think that the government of a free society has any business in the social construction for its citizens. And I mean ANY social construction. When you have that going on, you open up for more corruption. A very interesting book by a Choctaw who got himself educated maintains that the level of literacy declined dramatically with the advent of government education. His name is Joel Stream. He wrote Education and The Rise Of The Corporate State" and numerous other books on the subject. He is/was a professor at the University of Cincinnati in the 80’s. He has immense documentation to support his contentions. I will have to dig out my notes on him. Very interesting reading.
By the way, the famous anarchist Max Stirner defined anarchism as 'people who own their own minds-free of ideological control'. I really do subscribe to that ideology. Interestingly, it appears to me that when this concept is presented as a way to live without using the term anarchy, people agree with it. I don’t even care if we give that idea another name. But that is surely the way I want to live and the type of society I would like to live in.

From Murph

A Post from Murph

Hey all,

Here is another contribution from Murph. As always, thanks Murph. I will return on Monday. This weeks baseball schedule is killing me!!

Cyclone

"You're free. And freedom is beautiful. And, you know, it'll take time to restore chaos and order---order out of chaos. But we will."

George W. Boosh; Washington, D.C.; April 13, 2003



Politics, Elections, and Documents

I sit in front of the boob tube and listen to the news sources already starting coverage of the elections of 2008. Speculation is running high for who is going to shake out for either party’s candidate for president. I listen to the talking heads expounding on who is who and stands for what. I listen to the politicos trying vainly to clarify stances, or cloud them as the case may be. I listen to the same stuff coming at us over the 2006 midterm elections.

It is a sickening display of cowardice, misinformation and avoidance of the issues by everyone. Not one word so far about the basic issues. They are all only talking about the surface issues, the fluff that seems to be the sole concern of a large proportion of the electorate. I have yet to hear one word being put into the context of what our constitution says about it. Not one word. Of course, I don’t spend all that much time listening intently for words of wisdom from the talking heads anyway. The very principles stated in the documents that supposedly govern us are avoided, interpreted out, or ignored. The overall spirit, overall concepts, are lost in a barrage of verbiage. The people with only passing familiarity, (or for that matter no familiarity) with the documents involved are confused about what is happening and consequently tend to follow those with the most charisma in their public appearances. This process seems to be acceptable to the majority. Very few of the citizens will bother to look at the issues in the context of the original intent or even the wording of their documents. Instead, they depend on those with the, supposed, expertise to tell them what to think and believe. Thus, the society ends up with a majority of its citizens following some multiple and often contradictory pronouncements that may or may not have anything to do with the documents they are supposedly using as a reference point. This is rather obviously true in politics and in religion.

Let’s take one of my favorite examples in governance that is a liberal favorite issue. I cannot find anywhere in the document that we are using as a reference, the Constitution, that authorizes the government to use public tax revenue for entitlements of any sort, either to corporate or private citizen. So to justify this, we ‘interpret’ the document, or we insert the extension of ‘intent’ into the document. We have relegated to the Supreme Court the duty of telling us whether this is acceptable or not, interpreting what the constitution says or doesn’t say. So obviously, the personal political philosophy of the people that render these final judgments is going to influence how they decide.

No document dealing with human behavior can possibly cover every exact and specific form of behavior, religious or political. So over a period of time, those exact behaviors which are not covered in the document are addressed in other ways. That’s where we turn to the ‘experts’ to tell us what we should or should not be doing. In the case of the fundamentalists in religion, they advocate adhering to the exact wording of the Bible. Forgetting of course, that in the historical interval since the drafting of the document, often there are language barriers, translation difficulties, and the period social considerations to take into account. Thus we have the Biblical scholars that run the colleges that specialize in training for the job of spreading the word.

Let’s look at an example of social consideration. During the period of framing of the Constitution, dueling was a perfectly acceptable way of settling disagreements between individuals. Most people today find that rather unacceptable, and prefer to have personal disputes settled in arbitration in what we call our legal system. Personally, I think the dueling method rather forced us to be a bit more polite and civil and less susceptible to taking offense over trivial issues. Making an issue a life or death situation rather changes your values I think. At the least it would unclog our civil court processes for sure, and contribute to thinning out the more belligerent and trivial minded citizens. But this is a whole other subject, perhaps one that could be taken up if we manage to survive our present oncoming disasters.

The point of all of this is that humans take their self interest as gospel and try to manipulate the structure, documentation and system they are living under to conform to these self interest issues. We can therefore conclude, that overall, trying to document and structure in detail is going to fail. At least until we find a system that does not try to define all aspects of behavior, and is so specifically worded that there is no interpretation to be made. Going to be difficult with all the legal attorneys out there who have an agenda of their own.

As with so many of our complex society’s legal and religious documents, these issues abound. And not one of the politicians running for office seems willing to take them on. For that matter neither do the religious leaders. I have yet to see the Beatitudes being posted on a courthouse wall or in the halls of congress. I do not see any attempt to post and use as a guideline the Bill Of Rights. Which standard, document, are we willing to use as a guideline? Or do all of them have such serious flaws and ambiguities that it is impossible to use them as guidelines in any exact frame of reference?

I find it interesting to sit down with someone and have a really serious discussion about what it does mean to be free, and what the role of some system of governance pertaining to this. Invariably, it comes down to ‘Oh yes, I want freedom for me and everyone else, within these limitations’. Then the qualifiers begin. Yes, freedom is ok, as long as it conforms to your moral system of right and wrong. Is it really wrong to want to go naked in public? Sure is a lot of people that think so. May be in bad taste and offend some people but do you really want to codify offensive behavior as a crime? Is it wrong to self administer recreational drugs besides the current crop of legal ones? Every one of these social behavior laws can be classed as consensual crimes as long as they don’t damage other people or property. And I don’t want to hear that being offended is damaging. That has given rise to the extreme position of political correctness, where it is illegal to be offensive. All of these kinds of laws are the result of people or groups deciding for whatever reason that some behavior is so offensive that it cannot be tolerated. It is also a tool used to control society. There is a most excellent book titled “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do” by Peter Mc Williams that is a must read on this kind of subject. I have used this book for a pile of research papers and governance essays. It is the most complete history and documentation of consensual crime in modern society I have found. As a plus, the author is truly entertaining and funny in his discussions of the subject.

Those that have followed my comments and postings already know that I advocate a whole new and radical way of dealing with social organization. But one thing for sure, if we continue to do the organization and thinking the same way, we cannot expect different results, and to think that you can, is simply another form of mental illness.

From Murph

A Short Message + A Post from Belgium

Hi folks,

Sounds like the fire display went over very well. As you can see from the fire display, we have a large readership here that continues to grow, and all of you are very good about spreading the word. I like freeacre's idea of the seasonal fires. We should ponder that, and figure out how to organinze it. This week I have been on the road, and won't be through until Saturday night. So, I have a huge backlog of emails to respond to and probably won't get through them all until late Saturday or Sunday. If I haven't gotten to you, don't fret. I am just traveling too much this week to keep up with things.

In my absence, my Belgian friend has offered a post for all to consider. My great thanks go to him for helping cover the bases while I'm away. I'll see you guys in a couple of days. I will leave today's Booshism before the post.

Cyclone

"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?"

Our fearless genius, George W. Boosh; Concord, New Hampshire; January 29, 2000


Preparing for Afterwards

One Way to Become Self Sufficient in Domestic Energy

With oil more or less at its peak, supplies becoming increasingly difficult to obtain over the coming years and certainly becoming astronomically pricey it will become more and more important to reduce personal consumption from external sources. This describes a method to use solar storage to provide hot water; heating and electricity generation.

There will be an initial capital outlay but with projected rapidly rising fuel prices the pay back time could be a lot shorter than you would think.
This assumes a couple of very basic things. You are not going to move house because you sure can’t take this one with you. You own the area outside your house and also you need to be far enough above any local water table for it not to interfere.

Hire or purloin a mechanical digger and dig a big hole in your back garden. This is where the heat storage is going to be. You will ask how big the hole needs to be and I cannot for sure tell you this, it depends on too many variables, how far north you are; how cold your winters are how much sunlight you get and even the construction of your house. As a rough guide have a look at the design output of your central heating boiler in Kcal/h or BTU/h whichever you guys work in. The heat storage is represented by Mass of storage material, X specific heat (assume 1.1 or 1.2) X the desired rise in temperature say 80°C X the number of hours storage you guess will need to get you through the winter and you have to dig a hole big enough for that much weight. Bigger is not a problem, or just dig a hole as big as your pockets will allow and what you have is what you have.

Line the hole, bottom and sides with insulation like glass fibre or Gyproc which has a vapour barrier, shiny side out, to keep the water out. Make a second layer with the shiny side facing into the hole to reflect the heat back in like the inside of a Thermos flask. You could even build a false wall a few inches in and fill with polystyrene or vermiculite loose fill or even pine needles, anything that will trap air which is one of the best insulators there is. Next place concrete reinforcing mesh on the bottom and from this build rows up vertically. This is to spread the heat throughout the storage material as evenly as possible, you could use copper plumbing pipe, it depends on the price.

Fill the hole with loose pebbles or gravel to a couple of feet from the surface. Place more steel mesh on the top followed by more insulation. In the sunniest part, preferably the centre place more steel mesh vertically upwards rising several feet above ground level. Build a box around the steel and fill the box with concrete. Embed a large central heating radiator, painted black into the concrete block before it sets (before you pour the concrete actually). When the concrete is set remove the box, paint the cast block black to absorb (not reflect) the heat and cover the block with a greenhouse. Connect the radiator into your central heating system with valves so that the CH boiler can be bypassed or assisted or just let this feed a hot water storage tank and let it thermal siphon. Leave for several months until the water in the radiator becomes hot before using and don’t forget to put in an expansion pipe somewhere in the system to release the pressure of overheated water. The area over the hole can be filled with soil and grassed over or used to grow vegetables.

To generate electricity you will need to purchase a commercially available Stirling engine with a genny, sometimes called an external combustion engine although you don’t need combustion to make them work only a heat difference and this can be provided by placing one sensor on the hot water pipes. The other sensor can be placed in a deep freezer run off the system. These types of engines can be found here:

http://www.stmpower.com/Technology/Technology.asp

and here:

http://www.stirlingenergy.com/whatisastirlingengine.htm

I never said this option was going to be cheap but once installed you can have free heat, hot water and electricity for the rest of your life, provided you don’t move house.

This is just one example of how energy independence might work. I am sure that many of you will have other ideas or suggestions.

Other sites for becoming less energy dependant can be found here:

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/

and here:

http://www.carbro.co.za/washing_mashine.html

From Belgium

Blow It Up and Start Anew

Okay, seems I have been called to duty by freeacre, wanting an update on what’s going on in the world. I am feeling better, a bit re-charged, and when freeacre calls I think I had better respond, if I know what is good for me. I think she can be a mean gal when she needs to be. Just kidding, freeacre.

I thought for quite a while about the proper order to put all of this into. Then, I realized that since it covers nearly all of each part of our individual lives, it really doesn’t matter. As a result, these thoughts are being fired randomly as they enter my head. So, should they seem a bit out of order or detached, they probably are. Anyway, here we go.

Where We Are

Our economy is in shambles. We are so far in debt that each and every child who is born today,(along with each of us already living) starts off with a negative balance of $27,000+, just to pay for the current war in Iraq/Afghanistan. Yes, just for the Mid East excursion. Add all the other absurd amounts of debt that our leaders pile up each year and one can only imagine what the actual debt per person is. I don’t even want to know. Suffice it to say, we won’t ever make enough money to pay our fair share of what we owe. Keep printing money boys, it soon won’t matter.

Speaking of Iraq, while waiting in the Doctor’s office yesterday, I had the pleasure (gag me) of hearing Boosh try to sell his Iraq policy (he has a policy?) to some folks in Cleveland. He said the same old crap that he always says, throwing in some talk about a town where little insurgent activity has occurred and called it a success story. He did take questions, and not surprisingly, looked like a total fool in the process. One particular question was whether or not he agreed with the Christian Right in believing that Iraq was a sign that the end times were near. Always quick on his feet, he stammered around like an idiot who has never been involved in a public speaking performance before, babbled for 13 minutes, and never answered the question that was asked. To his credit, it is the first time in his Presidency that I have ever seen him field questions from an audience that wasn’t pre-screened. Should be the last too, he is a clueless zombie. Selling this war won’t work, ever.

The infrastructure of our country is crumbling, and we can’t print money fast enough to fix it. So, we have resorted to outsourcing the work to foreign entities. Leasing toll roads for 75 years with more to come in my state, selling ports and bridges and who knows what all throughout the country, we just can’t handle fixing what we already have. But hey, the economy is robust so everything is just grand. Boosh said so, it must be true.

About ports, our security at these points of entry is disastrous. It is reassuring to know that 5% of all packages are checked and monitored, makes me feel safe. We may as well throw our borders in here too. It’s now easier to cross the Mexican border than it is to enter an NBA basketball arena on game night. I’m not sure about the Canadian border, but Mexican border security is an outrageous joke. Boosh says to make them all legal under his “guest worker” program. No one seems to be able to agree on this issue, but one thing is certain. To spend $5.9 Billion per week in Iraq to “fight them over there instead of over here” while having borders where you could drive a nuclear weapon through in the back of a minivan is beyond the height of absurdity. Claiming that we are serious about national security is nothing but a money making fraud by Boosh and his buddies, and it’s become laughable.

Who are his buddies? How about Big Oil, who are reaping in obscene profits while the price of crude goes down. Hmmm, how is that justified? Well, it’s not. It just happens because it can. Want an explanation? Too bad, we don’t have one for you. Well, we can make one up like we always have, but we don’t feel that is necessary any more. We’re just tired of the game. Now you can just accept it and like it, here in the New America. And, we can’t forget the corporations, of course. Those that line the politician’s pockets with the money they use to buy toys and elections with. All the while screwing you and I out of health care and pensions, without penalty. The new legislation enacted to rebuild the under funded pensions is actually going to allow the corporations to put less money into employee pension funds than they did when they were under funding them, when all is said and done. Huh? Yep, check it out, it’s interesting rationale.

Did I mention health care? The American health care system is probably the biggest travesty of all. This self described “superpower,” the “richest and finest country in the world,” has tens of millions of people who couldn’t go to the doctor if their appendix were about to burst. It is absolutely shameful that we can spend $5.9 Billion per week blowing up Iraqi’s when we have people here at home without food or the ability to see a medical professional when necessary. Ever wonder why health care costs so damn much? Could it be that when these poor souls finally get to the Dr. after being found near death on the street, are then picked up by an ambulance and hauled in, that they are in such sad shape that they spend weeks undergoing every test known to man along with a long hospital stay? It is completely preventable, and would be cheaper in the long run to provide health care for every American, free of charge. Screw the wealthy; they can still buy whatever Dr. they want for their own personal pleasures. But no, we must spend our funds “bringing democracy” to a bunch of people who don’t know what it is and don’t want it, given that it includes the deaths of hundreds of thousands of their brothers and sisters and blows their homeland to kingdom come. That’s the Boosh way, and by God that’s what we’re going to do.

I can’t go without mentioning education in this country, another major failure. We have a large percentage of our population who are functionally illiterate, yet we are the self anointed leaders of the free world. Our school systems suck, from Kindergarten through Graduate School. Don’t believe me? George W. Boosh has an MBA. Enough said.

Our court system is a joke. They are facing such a major backlog of ridiculous drug cases that about your only option is to plead guilty just to get it over with. Most of them are marijuana cases, the “gateway” drug. The only thing “gateway” about marijuana is the increased travel to the nearest 7/11 so people can stock up on Doritos. And, this leads to our prison system, which has been outsourced because we can’t build prisons fast enough to lock up all these potheads. Meanwhile, people who have committed violent crimes are released on a daily basis due to jail overcrowding. Another brilliant, well thought out plan by the greatest country in the world.

I guess I must mention the Supreme Court while I’m at it. While the Right wants to scream at the top of their lungs that “we can’t have people legislating from the bench,” answer one question for me, please. Has there ever been a bigger example of legislating from the bench than the appointment of George W. Boosh to the Presidency of the United States? I already know the answer, and it is NO. These people, the champions of state’s rights, are so hypocritical it is nauseating. While claiming to be state’s rights advocates, they stomp all over the Florida Supreme Court to make certain that their boy was the winner in a fraud of an “election.” Meanwhile, they don’t mind continuing the daily stripping of our own constitutional rights, the rights of the American citizens. Yes, those of us who live in the only truly “free” democratic society in the world, are watching our rights erode quicker than the ice shelf. It is simply laughable, and appalling. I just know that other countries around the world are drooling in anticipation while waiting for us to bring our form of “democracy” to them.

Speaking of the ice shelf, I saw something on Global Warming on 60 minutes the other night. It was called something like “Re-writing Science.” I did not take notes, as I was doing other things at the time, hearing only bits and pieces of it. But I will say this. What I heard was chilling. I know, chilling doesn’t exactly fit while talking about “warming,” but I’ll tell you that what the Boosh administration is doing on this front is nothing short of criminal. I am going to do a full piece on this in the near future, so I won’t go any further now. Those of you who may have seen it probably know what I’m talking about. Those that didn’t, soon will because I'm going to tell you.

Then there is Congress. They have stood by, accepting paychecks and great pension plans, allowing all of the above to occur. They have absolutely sold out the American people, pretending to “represent” us while flying all over the world, playing golf on Jack Abramoff’s stolen money. We would be much better off doubling their salaries and telling them to stay home. We can handle it on our own, thank you very much. Divide this place up into small communities and let us live our lives. All we need is some self directed organization, some guns, and we’ll live in the Wild Wild West.

Whose Fault All Of This?

There is plenty of blame to go around, but I choose to blame us, the slumbering American people. While we chased the dream of living above our means, buying into every advertising campaign designed by corporate America to give us more, used the school system as a babysitting service, allowed Murph’s television to fascinate the hell out of us, refused to become involved in a political process that used to be available to us because it took some thought, failed to even look outside the box that contains our little lives (much less venturing out of that space), we have allowed the thieving “leaders” of our country to get fat off of us and sell us down the river at the same time. American’s, as a mass, are dumber than a box of rocks.

We are officially a banana republic, in fact we have been for some time. We just didn’t know it. Now, it’s too late to save it. Blow it up and start over, that’s the only way out.

Boy I’ve missed you guys. See why I write?

Cyclone


"Quotas are bad for America. It's not the way America is all about."

George W. Boosh; St. Louis, Mo; October 18, 2000

What About the Sheeple?

This is another contribution from Murph. As always, thanks Murph.


What About the Sheeple?

A short time ago, during one of my rants and punching the keys on my keyboard in a written display of rage, my wife and I got into talking about how you go about changing or focusing people on the core issues. Her comment was; “How are you going to get people to focus on an intellectual subject, an examination of their belief system when you yourself have lost contact with the popular culture? Keep in mind honey, a very large part of popular culture revolves around the popular media that is built to appeal to people that prefer not to think about things seriously.”

Now that one set me back a bit. She is right. I have not been much of a participant in the popular culture for most of my adult life. What little time I have spent on the TV side of it in the last 20 years has left me throwing up in my rubber farm boots. For me, the last of the really good TV programming was in the 1970’s. The really discouraging thing is that the ‘educational’ programming is scant better. Not only is it poor entertainment, but it tends to feature bad science, opinions and speculation presented as facts, and redundant commentary to the point that I wonder just what age of the audience they are appealing to. Four year olds? There have been very few programs, or even part of one, that was presented to a minimally educated or thoughtful adult. My expectation is not of erudite and ivory tower intellectualism. That would be a way limited audience for sure. But do you remember the really well written programs of the 70’s and early 80’s: serials and made for TV dramas? They not only entertained but also examined ideas and value systems.

We speculate and condemn the general population for its blind obedience and sheeple personality. Well, what do you expect? How are you going to talk to people about world affairs, or even national issues when they can’t even find where they live on a map, much less identify where Iraq or Afghanistan is located. Cripes, we have had presidents and vice presidents who had problems with this. Now we have an intellectually challenged president who can’t even speak distinctly. Not much comparison of him to the famous orators of the past for sure. I remember back around the year 2000 I got hold of a word Analysis paper that examined the educational level of the wording of speeches made by prominent people, particularly presidents. Bush Sr. and his dingy son gave speeches that used wordings and sentence structure that were around the 5th, to 8th grade level of competence. They also gave an analysis of why this was so. They wanted to talk to the ‘common man’. Now what does that tell you about our society, our educational system, our values for political office and the outright manipulation of the population by these guys?

Plus, into this, is the enslavement to wages of the general population. For a large percentage of our population, a two family income, some with multiple jobs, is the only way to stay alive. They simply do not have the energy and time to deal with examination of their surroundings and culture. Coming home exhausted is not conducive to wanting thoughtful and meaningful programming. Instead, escapism is the word for the day to dull the experience of living and relieve the exceedingly stressful life. If I remember a recent stat correctly, nearly 60% of our population lives at or close to the official government poverty level. In that kind of environment, you simply cannot have the time to learn, think and be thoughtful beyond daily existence.

There have been a couple of interesting TV programs some while ago on how politicians get elected. They hire PR firms for really big bucks to sell them, like a bar of soap, or a brand of suppositories. In keeping with the ever higher elevation of psychological manipulation by the PR firms to encourage mindless consumption, it has worked amazingly well. No wonder it costs so much to get elected. Without daddy’s money and connections and PR firms selling Bush to the public, he would have trouble getting a truck drivers delivery job because of drinking problems. This buffoon was sold to the public. Unless something radically changes in the public’s perceptions and value systems, there isn’t going to be any election reform. Further, there also will be no third parties, no true representation of any kind. It is all in the hands of the corporate structure that will spread any amount of goodies before us with the expectation that we will buy into the system and vote accordingly. When politicians are marketed the same as peanut butter or a car, we might as well cash it all in and start over.

How can this disgusting affair be changed from within the structure? In my opinion, it can’t. When the level of thoughtfulness of the general population degrades to a point like this, you can’t fix it or change it. Our education system is in shambles, our value systems revolve around consumption, our acceptance of corruption, greed, stupidity and lack of integrity is astounding. When a majority of the population lives like this, you aren’t going to elect anyone who is going to even try to change it. This folks is the major problem with a democracy. The majority, no matter their mindlessness, their stupidity, their lack of honesty and thoughtfulness, are going to hold sway.

Until recently, the mindlessness of the people we can group together as extreme Christian fundamentalists (the fundies) were mostly ignored, allowed to go on their merry way, and were mostly just an irritant. With the dumbing down of the population and the generated fear and hopelessness generated by the political system and their owners (the corporations) there has been a huge upsurge of the “mega churches”. They finally got what they wanted; a man as president who represented them and their concerns. Quite a nightmare they got don’t you think? But of course, if the issue of abortion and gay rights is so important to get into heaven, looking forward to the apocalypse follows naturally.

I just can’t see much hope for the continuance of society as it is now. Humans have been down this road before. With the big crisis’ that are coming at us, the complete lack of any meaningful top down leadership, it has to fall. If anyone is left, perhaps the future will hold something other than the brutality and enslavement that predominates today. It doesn’t take a college education or even a lofty intellect to be aware of your own values and their meaning. It does take some introspection and thoughtfulness, neither of which requires expectations of greatness, but only of healthy living.

Murph

The Deal

Okay, you guys have overwhelmed me. I waited until last night to read anything that was posted or any emails that had come my way, and I am absolutely flabbergasted. You are an amazing group of people, and I appreciate each and every one of you. So, given what I have thought about and read, here's the deal.

I will continue the blog, but I need some help. Maybe we can make it the "New Real Deal." I cannot continue to post things on a daily basis. My sanity will not allow it. I now understand that daily postings were a self imposed requirement, not a burden that anyone else placed upon me. I did not realize that until I read all of the feedback from you, so call me stupid. It's just the way that my somewhat twisted mind works. Sometimes a 2x4 upside the head is required to get my attention. I would love to respond to each of you personally, in fact hug each of you, but that is impossible for now. Just suffice it to say that many of the comments and emails really hit home to me, and made me realize what a special group you are. It also made me realize that we have a pretty neat thing going here. So let's keep it going and make it better. Now to the help part.

I would love it if some of you that feel inclined to do so would send me some things to post. I will go through them, edit them to a degree and put them out there for all to read and comment on. It would allow for different perspectives on occasion, certainly allow all to learn some new information, and help keep things fresh. Plus, it will give me a much needed cushion. Just please don't steal someone else's work. That's all I ask.

Thanks to all of you. Someday, hopefully, we will meet and tell some lies or something. Until then, we'll plod along and try to survive the madness. I will be building a fire on the 20th. Picked some wood yesterday just for the occasion. I hope all that are able will do so as well, it can be our way of making a small "anti-insanity" statement. So, let's get on with it, shall we?



The Iraq Spin

(I found myself yesterday morning, very early, writing something about Iraq. I had no intention of posting it, at that point I didn't know if I would ever post anything again. But, I will always write, regardless. I'll go ahead and post it. Mind you, some General has already contradicted what Boosh said so it's out of date today. That alone tells you just how out of touch this moron really is)

President Boosh has begun yet another campaign to win the “hearts and minds” of the American people over the Iraq debacle, while his poll numbers continue to plummet. This is an amazing thing to watch. Boosh feels that he can no longer blame the press for only reporting the negative things that go on in Iraq, because now, even he must admit that everything that goes on there is negative.

Yesterday, Boosh spoke at George Washington University. Among other things, he said; “Yet out of this crisis, we’ve also seen signs of a hopeful future.” And, “the Iraqi people made their choice. They looked into the abyss and did not like what they saw.” And this; “Iraqi’s have shown the world that they want a future of peace.”

Meanwhile, back in the real world, during a 30 hour period ending at noon Tuesday, 86 (I have had to increase this number 3 times in one hour) murdered bodies were found. And this is only in Baghdad. God knows what’s going on elsewhere. Forty of those were in the 24 hour period that ended at 6 a.m. Tuesday. Although no one in charge will admit it, these are pure sectarian killings. One day Sunni, next day Shia, civilians and American troops caught in the crossfire. Civil War? What Civil War?

And poll numbers? CNN/USA Today/Gallup: 36 % approval of performance in office, 32% said that Boosh has a clear plan for handling Iraq (where do they find these people?) while 67% said he did not; 57% say that the entire invasion was a mistake. All-time lows for all categories, by the way. Now, the Democrats are considered to be stronger on national security issues than the Republicans, something unheard of over the last 50 years.

As a response, Boosh makes another speech telling us how well things are going. Now he is blaming Iran for much of the problem. How convenient that little ploy is. As if the nuke problem is not enough, Boosh now says that the Iranian’s are responsible for providing material support to the insurgency. The IED’s are beginning to have Iranian fingerprints on them, though they really appear to be closer to what Hezbillah has used in the past. But, we intercepted a shipment of weapons that “maybe” came from Iran last year. Maybe? Last year? Why do we find out about these things only when it’s convenient? Like the terrorist plots foiled here in America that we find out about two, three, four years later, or whenever the polls show trouble on the horizon? Hello, it’s not working anymore. The polls keep diving, no matter what lie you think God wants you to tell next. (By the way, the Iranian connection to the IED's is what the general rebuffed after this was written)

He also mentioned the open border between the two countries. FYI, Mr. Boosh. They’ve always had an open border. Take a look at the Mexican/USA border and tell me just how you can expect a country that’s been blown to hell and back is to protect its border in the middle of some god forsaken desert? We can’t protect our own border, but they are to protect theirs? And we’re in charge over there? Why aren’t we protecting that border if it is the problem? I’ll answer that one for you. The border can’t be protected, pure and simple.

What are we to do about the IED’s that have killed over 900 American troops and maimed more than 9000 others? Why, ramp up the printing presses and throw some more money at the problem, of course. We did spend $350 million on IED technology, now Boosh is going to ask for $3.3 Billion. That will fix the problem. I'm sure that the terrorists will stop making them now that they know we’re going to spend more phony money to stop them.

The bottom line is this. Since May 1, 2003, when Boosh grandly flew his mission onto the aircraft carrier and claimed that major combat operations were over, the great majority of the more than 2300 American troops who have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan have died. No one knows how many Iraqi and Afghan citizens have died during that period, but you can bet that it’s a hell of a lot more than Booshco is willing to admit. And it’s not slowing down. Those are the facts. Make all the speeches you want to, dear Commander in Chief or whatever moniker you go by these days. Your hollow, lying words will not change the facts. Do the “tough guy” routine all you want, you aren’t fooling anybody. Anybody except the 32% who are comprised of people with the IQ of a lab rat and members of sleeper cells, that is.

Great Britain, our largest “coalition partner,” announced that it is pulling out 800 troops in the near future. 800 is not a lot of troops, but when you consider that it is 10% of the troops that they have in the region, it puts in perspective what a joke your coalition really is. You have a coalition; I have a pack of pissed off Americans. You make a speech; I write about it and call you a liar. Ain’t America grand? Maybe you should mix in the truth on occasion, it seems to help with the people I associate with. They are the same people that, oh by the way, you were appointed to represent.

Cyclone


"We ended the rule of one of history's worst tyrants, and in so doing, we not only freed the American people, we made our own people more secure."

George W. Boosh; Crawford, Texas; May 3, 2003

The End Times?

Over the weekend, I noticed that things haven’t gotten much better. In Iraq, somewhere around 100 people were killed in what Boosh terms as a “conflict that is going unexpectedly well.” The word on the ground is that "the worst is over." Sandra Day O’Connor gave a speech in which she warned on three separate occasions that we, the United States of America, are the closest we have ever been to living under a dictatorship. Unfortunately, unless you paid attention over the weekend, it is already off the radar screen. It happened on Friday night, and the Republican Tennessee “straw poll,” which is absolutely non-sensical and meaningless, has taken its place in the “news.” O’Connor, of course, took no responsibility in this, not touching on the fact that she voted to appoint George W. Boosh to the Presidency. Gas prices have risen 10-15 cents although crude oil prices have dropped. I assume that this is just in case the upcoming hurricane season creates damage that we can’t see yet. They probably didn’t quite make enough profit last year to cover what “might happen” this year. And many more of the same old things that happen every day with this insane bunch of thugs that run this place.

But, that is not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about something more personal, something that I want to remain in denial about but cannot any longer. That is this. The Real Deal has run its course, served its purpose, done its duty, however you want to put it. I feel bad about that. This blog has grown into something that I never imagined possible, thanks to all of you. But, for me, it has become a grind, a responsibility that I am struggling mightily with to uphold my end of the bargain. I’ve said about all I can say about Booshco and the direction our country is headed. Boosh is a dumbass that has sold us all down the river. That the vast majority of us agree on. The economy is going to blow like Mt. St. Helens on her finest day, another thing that many of us agree on. We agree on so many things. Plamegate started it all (and I thought would end it as well) and continues; Iraq sucks; Iran is a real problem; China is lurking along with the rest of the Mid East; Israel is, well, Israel; living from paycheck to paycheck is becoming damn near impossible for a lot of us; the middle class is near extinction if not already there; big business decides elections and owns the world; the Democrats and Republicans are like twins separated at birth; essentially the paper tiger, the USA, is history as a viable entity in the very near future and to call her a superpower is beyond comedic. We agree on most of those things, and that’s part of the problem. We agree too much.

I am preaching to the choir, and the choir needs to move ahead. If you believe anything that I write, it is time for you to prepare for the future. And, preparing for the oblivion that we are about to face cannot happen if all we do is rehash the idiocy that comes from Washington these days. If you don’t believe anything that I write and stay around for pure entertainment, you can go merrily on your way and find another place to be entertained. But don’t say you weren’t warned of what is to come. So, I think it’s time to pull the plug. This can happen one of several ways, and I would like some feedback on how best to accomplish this.

Let me say one more thing before presenting options. We have accomplished something here that I believe is unprecedented in the blogosphere. We have created somewhat of a family, and should be proud of that. And, somehow, we should continue that to the best of our abilities. Families evolve over time, and the time for our evolution has arrived. I wish that I were able to change the concept of the Real Deal into a place where I could present concrete ideas about how to proceed from here. But, I can’t. I can’t because I don’t know enough. I am as lost as the next person as to what to do next, although I know deep in my soul that the time is near to get out of the big city and join a small, like-thinking community that is preparing to care for one another when the economy crashes, or WWIII or the second Civil War become a reality. I do not have the expertise or the knowledge to lead anyone into the future, let alone a group such as ours that is scattered all over the world. So, let’s look at options.

1) I could keep this site going and post something when I feel it’s necessary, or when I need to blow off some steam. That would probably be once a week or so, if I had to guess.

2) I could keep it going and allow for comments only. Make it a place where we all can come and chat as we want to, sharing ideas and outrage at what is happening.

3) I could shut it down entirely, and we could continue to communicate through email, or not at all.

4) I could open it up so that those of you who wish to could do what Murph has done a couple of times, write something that could be posted whenever the mood strikes. I will post on occasion, but it would be more reader driven than Cyclone driven. Ideas for the future would probably be best, but, like I said before, I don’t have many of those ideas. Other than saying, it’s time to get ready. This is all going down, and going down pretty soon.

5) I could go on a hiatus for a while, do some research and build some energy. Then see where we are, see whether or not the internet, electricity and money still exist, and then re-start. Picking up wherever Booshco or whoever has left us to rot. We will lose folks, that is a given, but we have proven that grand things can be built from nothing into something pretty darned impressive in a short period of time.

I have my own idea about what is best, but I want to hear from you, those that have made this all worth it. There are a lot of you out there, from over 40 countries, and I will do what the consensus calls for. We will make this a pure democracy, no electoral college welcome. Maybe there is another idea out there that I have not thought of, some Holy Grail if you will. Thanks for making this something that I can be proud of. Something that I will in some ways greatly miss, in other ways feel relieved that the pressure of daily musings is off of my shoulders. Rest assured that it is something that I have given my all to. You are a great group of people. Maybe we can all get together sometime, somewhere. I’m willing, if you are.

So, either comment here or email me directly. We’ll decide how to proceed. For now, other than emails and comments, I'm out of here for a while until we decide what is best for the future of all of us. Thank you for hanging with me.

Cyclone



“The legislature’s job is to write the law. It’s the executive branch’s job to interpret the law.”

George W. Boosh; Austin, Texas; November 22, 2000

That about sums up the Boosh administration, doesn’t it?

New Ports Deal; Not What it Seems

Along with the Dubai announcement that the US ports will be sold to a United States company, came a big sigh of relief from the majority of Americans. But, before the American people celebrate a victory in achieving what a democracy is supposed to be, there are some things that need to be considered. The “withdrawal,” if that is what it really is, lacks something. A big something, and that something smells bad. The old line about "trust him as far as I can throw him" comes to mind. Let’s look at the possibilities.

Political cover for Boosh

This alleged backoff by the UAE saves Boosh from the humiliation of having the Republican revolt scar him politically. Not that it should matter, he damn sure isn't running for re-election again anywhere and could care less about political considerations. But, if one took it at face value, Boosh can claim that the UAE did this on their own. Sure, just like they "volunteered" to have a second 45 day re-review of the merits of their ownership. Both rather foolish claims, but each could possibly work in the eyes of the average brain dead American. This would be the easiest out for Boosh, and one solution to the security problem, if it were legitimate. However, I have my doubts about the motives here.

First, to think that the Dubai folks “volunteered” to do this is utterly naïve. They are in this at best to make money, at worst to maybe send some bad packages our way, and certainly build on their standing as our “new pals” in the war on terror. For Boosh to claim that he is worried about the "signal" that backing out of this deal would send to the world, is laughable. I don't think it ranks quite as high as the signal that the Iraq invasion, the torture of uncharged civilians, the Indian nuclear deal, etc. has sent, but whatever. Dubai has made it clear that they intend to get the $700 million for these ports that they had figured as the cost for them. The possibility of lulling us to sleep is very real, though admittedly it is difficult to further comatose the US citizens or Congress.

Congress

The House of Representatives has already begun action that would stop this deal dead in its tracks. The Senate is not far behind. Stop it even before the new 45 day scam of an investigation occurs. To not finish these bills and follow them with an immediate up or down vote would be the same as never objecting in the first place. If, this is a cover story, cooked up by the Booshies and Dubai, they could sneak this thing in a month or two down the road. Here’s how. Suppose that no American company can swing the $700 million to purchase the ports, or simply doesn’t want to do it. In the interim, Dubai runs the ports while trying to sell them. Nothing goes wrong, the elections get closer, people get distracted by other events, and Boosh claims that, “see, there’s nothing wrong with the way they do business.” The Republicans have the out that they need, withdraw their objections and the deal is done. Merrily we proceed, once again having been sold out by Congress and Booshco.

The New Investigation

The new phony 45 day investigation turns up nothing as we already know will happen. It is, after all being done by the same people who did the first one. People who think of dollar signs and not security. Should Congress stop what it is doing, we may have no legal recourse to remove UAE from their contract. With the stamp of approval of the new, improved Supreme Court of the United States, of course.

Be Wary
The bottom line is this. Something smells here, and I don’t think it is a Boosh exit strategy to save him and his Republican buddies some face. Boosh doesn’t care about the Republicans up for re-election any more than he does for me or you; I’m just not sure that the Republicans realize this. This is a dangerous game, one that Congress, on behalf of the security of the citizens of the United States cannot afford to play.

The proof will be in what the Congress does over the next few days. They must follow through with the legislation to stop this deal until it is dead and buried. This is another “trust me” play on the part of Boosh, and people are hopefully through trusting this moron. Should our Congress suddenly pull back their legislation, buy the bullshit that Boosh is trying to sell, we will end up with the UAE owning our ports and all of the furor will have been for naught. Boosh will have pulled another one over the eyes of Congress, and sometime in the future we will learn the consequences of having a regime that supports the Taliban, refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and to this day launders terrorist money running our ports. Exactly what we have been trying to prevent since, to the dismay of Boosh, this deal saw the light of day, absolutely will occur if Congress does not finish the job.

This "new deal" is not what it is being portrayed as, but simply another used car sales pitch to convince the American people that someone is on our side. I, for one, don't buy it for a second. Nor should you.

Cyclone


"I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure."

George W. Boosh--- Interview with the Associated Press
January 18, 2001

A Contribution from Murph

I don't feel well today and Murph has graciously offered this piece to be pondered by all. If anyone else would like to send something to be published, feel free. It would be much appreciated for days like this. So, here's Murph's take.

Cyclone



What We Have Lost

Language naturally changes and drifts with time. The manipulation of our ability to understand concepts has been accelerated with the use of television. Through images and dialogue, the elite have virtually destroyed the ability of society to evaluate what has happened and make useful comparisons to other societies. Words will, over time, often change meaning, and those who have control of the media are primarily responsible for these changes. If there is an agenda for the changes, the changes are pursued with great vigor.

I would like to deal with one of those changes: the word ANARCHY.

Through various printed and spoken commentaries and accompanied visual images, this term has been relegated to the concept of CHAOS, characterized by irresponibility, cruelty, wanton destruction, social behavior that is destructive, vicious and without regard to consequences. Sorta sounds like our present government doesn't it? This however, is not what anarchy is about. Anarchy is a concept about governance, not chaos. Anarchy is about self actualization, freedom in spirit and action, liberty, responsibility, minimal government interference and love of living. And this is reason enough for the elite to want the word associated with chaos.

The original French anarchists were primarily concerned with the theoretical discussion of freedom and didn't talk much about how to accomplish it. If you examine our Constitution, you will find that many of the ideas concerning anarchy were directly stated as personal freedoms for the individual. Many of these concepts came out of the early colonists association with the indigenous Indian tribes. To a large degree, these tribes operated in free association and actually practiced much of the concepts of the French anarchists. For the most part, anarchy can be summed up in the cliché "Your freedom stops at the point of my nose". In the early formation of this nation, up until the middle 1800's, outside of a few large cities, the country was populated by small rural communities in loose association and communication with each other. Not absolutely, but to a large degree, these communities ran themselves pretty much in an anarchist manner.

Then came along a new concept called Social Darwinism. This concept was heavily dependent on 'Rule By Law'. And there was an explosion of legalistic chatter that in the end was primarily for the benefit of those who sought the accumulation of large amounts of money and power. This resulted in the period during the Industrial Revolution of the Robber Barons.

For those that have done any study at all of this period, there are many parallels to our present social and governmental structure. There are numerous novels and commentaries concerning this period. It was typified by the push to induce the society toward slave wage status. A lot of cruelty, exploitation and manipulation was the rule of the day, all in the attempt to amass fortunes and further control of society. And heading this movement was the concept of Social Darwinism. The main tenant of which was if you were not rich and powerful, it was your own inadequacies which caused it. Personal and social competition was the sole agenda; to acquire wealth and power at any cost. Accompanying this was also the Christian thought at the time that if you were poor and hungry, it was God's will and you were being punished for sin.

I do hope the parallels to our present society are not lost on you who are reading this. Consider what happens to a society that is subject to this type of propaganda, how it will affect attitudes and behavior. You want at least one reason for calling the population stupid? Well, changing and obscuring the meaning of words is one powerful method of dumbing down the population.

Our Constitution was set up to provide checks and balances to excesses of power that the colonists left in Europe, and to ensure social equity to some degree. It did incorporate protection for the land ownership by the elite. It was years before non-land owners had anything to say about how they were governed and women had any say in their lives at all. But, I rather imagine the people who drafted this document did not have any concept at all of how it could be distorted to its present state. The document in essence did provide for Rule By Law but the distortions that came out of this were also not anticipated. And, I do not think they had any concept of Social Darwinism at all. What they did have was a hold over from European societies concerning heredity of power and wealth. Unfortunately, those concepts were preserved in the document. One of several fatal flaws?

Most people when pressed on the matter, actually want to live under Anarchistic principles. But we have been taught, principally by the media, that this is bad. And, there have been, as in all movements, those that distort the concepts. In the case of Anarchistic principle, they take these principle to mean looting, burning, destruction and lack of responsibility. I would encourage you to look at the principles of anarchism. I think you will find that they suit your clothes.

Contributed by Murph

A Short Lesson in Callous Disregard for All

"U.S. occupation has destroyed our country, made it into a prison," she said. "Schools are bombed, hospitals are bombed."

"We thank you, Mr. Bush, for liberating our country from Saddam. But now, go out! Please go out!" she said.

These words were spoken today as Cindy Sheehan was arrested, yet again. But, the words were not spoken by Sheehan, nor were they spoken by some American anti-war zealot. In fact, this is not even about Cindy Sheehan.

These words were spoken by Entistar Mohammad Ariabi, an Iranian pharmacist from Baghdad. They were spoken as she, Ms. Sheehan, and some eighteen other women attempted to deliver a petition with 60,000 signatures to the United Nations in New York City. The petition was to ask the UN to step in and encourage the United States to leave Iraq before an all out civil war ensues. (As I have made perfectly clear, my position is that this has been a civil war for well over a year, but never mind that.) Four women were arrested for sitting on the sidewalk.

I have no idea where these signatures came from, nor does anyone from the UN. They could be signatures from 60,000 Iraqi citizens, or 60,000 Americans, or somewhere in between. But, the UN wasn't interested; they refused to open the doors and let the women deliver the document.

I ask, what harm could it do to accept a petition from a lady who's country we have destroyed? A lady whom we have "liberated?" This was clearly different than your typical American anti-war protest. Ms. Ariabi is not a housewife from Texas, nor did she have a son murdered during the illegal occupation of her soverign country. At least not one that was a member of the US military. Her story is not widely known, at least not yet. I do think that we will hear more of this woman and her story in the near future. In fact, I can guarantee it.

Ms. Ariabi is heading to Washington D.C. tomorrow to deliver the petition to the White House. Undoubtedly, she will receive the same cold shoulder that she received at the UN. They will refuse to take the petition, some more folks, including Ms. Sheehan will likely be arrested again, and the real reason for their visit will be ignored. As long as it is out of sight, it doesn't exist. At least in the eyes of the madman. Anyway, he's got a port deal to save. No time for an Iraqi citizen.

The fact that we are not wanted any longer in Iraq is obvious to everyone, including George W. Boosh. The problem is that Boosh doesn't care what Ms. Ariabi thinks, nor does he care what the Iraqi people think. Just like he doesn't care what the people he was appointed to represent think. A callous disregard for all in the world who rightly choose to disagree with him. I guess the Iraqi's are receiving a first hand lesson as to what Democracy, Boosh style really is. Not a Democracy at all.

George Boosh, you sicken me.

Cyclone


"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the--vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And, we will find these people and bring them to justice."

George W. Boosh
Washington D.C.----October 27, 2003

The Real Deal

The gig is up. The party is over. The train wreck is upon us. Whatever cliche you wish to put on it, do it. The time is here, and Boosh is finally showing us that he knows it. He still doesn't know that he's a clueless lunatic, but he does know that the game is over. Let's look at the events of the last couple of weeks and make some sense of them. There are plenty of other examples that tie into all of this, but I'll limit it to these. Otherwise, it would take a week to read. I think you'll get my point.


The American People

George Boosh, probably learned from Dick "Shotgun" Cheney, has more disdain for the American populace than any President in history. Now, he doesn't even bother to try to hide it as he attempts to sell everything we, as a nation, own. You see, Boosh has finally realized that through his insane policies, his sheer arrogance toward virtually everyone around the world, that they don't need him or us anymore. He's learning it the hard way, and we are paying the price for it. We've let him do it, make no mistake about that. No revolts, no real dissent, just laid back with our creature comforts and watched it unfold before us. Now, we will pay the piper.

Dubai

The first indication that Boosh is aware that the economy is history and that we are about to become irrelevent is the Port Deal with the UAE. Done, as usual, totally in secret, Boosh had no idea that it would create the backlash from his own bretheran that it did. That goes to the clueless category. He thought that he could continue with business as usual and slip this one through with little opposition. Boy, did he miss that one. What the Booshman doesn't understand is the "trust me and my administration" politics as usual, are over. He simply doesn't get that he has overdrawn his "trust account," or his "political capital" account and has no overdraft protection. As a result, he is being eaten by his own.

Boosh mentioned as recently as 3 days ago during a TV interview that he has "political capital" and is spending it. If this does not prove once and for all that this man is completely out of touch with reality, it will never happen. If you look at his standing in every category of polling, you will see what I mean. Overall job performance? Between 60% and 70% negative. The always Republican stronghold, Homeland Security, 55%-60% leaning toward Democrats. The economy? 70% negative. Iraq? 70%-80% negative. Katrina response? 80%-85% negative. The Port Deal? Around 90% against. In every category that is polled, Boosh is at the lowest levels of his Presidency, and maybe lower than any President in American history. Yet, he still claims to have "political capital" to spend.

What Boosh really needs right now is some friends. Friends and some money. Friends that we used to have, before he came into office, or at least people that we could live on the same planet with. Money that we used to have, before he came into office. I have warned that we are now hated by everyone, and Boosh is proving this to be true. Sell our ports to Arabs? Are you serious? This particular group of Arabs produced two of the 9/11 hijackers, has funneled terrorist money around the world for years, and are now one of our "closest allies" in the war on terror? Sure Georgie, sell out the very people that you were elected to represent and protect, all in an effort to save a nation that you have almost single handedly destroyed. Guess what? You're the wrong man for the job, and it's too late anyway.

India

Flying into India, in the midst of massive protests, he continued the sellout. "The United States and India, separated by half the globe, are closer than ever before, and the partnership between our free nations has the power to transform the world." That's what he said. Really. He then gave India the go ahead to produce nuclear weapons, forgetting that they have always refused to sign the Nuclear Proliferation Act. Boosh also justified the outsourcing of American citizen's jobs to India, stating that the answer to outsourcing is to re-train American workers who have lost their jobs so they can compete on the global stage. In English, screw you American people, we're in deep doo-doo here. He visited Hyderabad, the home to Microsoft and many other formerly US based software companies and sang their praises. What was he really doing? Playing a very dangerous game, one that will be the end of us.

Forget the Iranian oil bourse, it doesn't matter. What does matter is this. China and India are not exactly chums. And Boosh just chose sides. He married the Indians and thumbed his nose at the government of China. Even when he's out begging for buddies, he can't get it right. Who are you more afraid of, India or China? You don't pick sides in a less than favorable climate, and if you are dumb enough to try, you choose the winner, not the loser. But, we can't buddy up to China because they don't treat their people properly. So, we go to India. How far are we from other countries being able to say that they can't buddy up to us because we don't treat our citizen's right? I'd say we're about there now. Superpower? I think not. More like a country led by a madman that finds itself in need of some support from anybody that will give it. Anybody. And most want no part of us. Who can blame them?

Pakistan

Boosh flew into Pakistan like a thief in the night. Playing cowboy the day before, he said something to the effect of nobody is going to keep me from visiting my friends. Such arrogance. Such bullshit. Again, met with nationwide protests, people shouting "Death to Boosh," and "Boosh go home." In case he hasn't noticed, these are Muslims and Muslims don't like us much right now. For good reason. He started a war with Islam, what the hell does he expect? They had to essentially shut down the city of Islamabad for this middle of the night visit. Had to turn all the lights off in Air Force One to land. Then had to have two helicopters and several vehicles on the tarmac, all so no one would really know what vehicle Boosh got in. This after shutting down the city.

What was he doing there? Praising Musharraf, of course. Forget the fact that Osama bin Laden is likely hiding in Musharraf's country, he needs friends. Forget the fact that he had just come from giving India permission to have nuclear weapons, with India not exactly being friendly with Pakistan, he needs friends. Last month he told Pakistani journalists that Musharraf was his "buddy and his friend," and that their personal relationship "can set a tone" for the two countries relations. Forgetting, of course, that Musharraf is hated among the Pakistani majority. When he was "elected," Musharraf made a bunch of promises to the people he represents to improve their lives. Six years later, it hasn't happened. Sound familiar? It should. Boosh is an expert at it. The Pakistani people do not want to be our friends, that much is clear. Clear to everyone but Boosh. But, like I said, Boosh needs friends and will go anywhere except Iran, China, or Syria to find them.

What it Means

I have been screaming long before this blog started that we would reach this point. We have been sold down the river by Booshco and a corrupt elite. The realization that we are history has apparently taken a little longer to sink in to Boosh and members of Congress, and now they are scrambling, trying to fix it. But, it has taken them so long that it is too late to do anything about it. Boosh can fly all over the globe, give away nukes and ports and jets and secrets, and it doesn't matter. Too late. We are the laughingstock of the world, and Osama bin Laden and China are licking their chops in anticipation of our demise. A demise that bin Laden predicted long ago, a crumbling from within. We are now there, with plenty of blame to go around. We can blame Congress for not doing their jobs, we can blame Boosh for being an incompetent fool, we can blame ourselves for allowing him to be appointed twice to office. In the end, it doesn't matter. We are finished, our economy is doomed, and we are going back to the dark ages. So, only two questions remain.

WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

HOW ARE WE GOING TO SURVIVE?

Cyclone

Short Shorts

Sorry about missing yesterday, my health seems to be bouncing like a yo-yo. But, we'll try something now. I am eventually going to throw my 2 cents in on what you guys have been discussing, but need to wait until I can concentrate fully on what has been written. So, to the issues we go.

Thank God for Video Tape

We finally learned a couple of things yesterday. First, Boosh does have some technology in Crawford, probably a TV and obviously the ability to hold video conferences. This moron almost leaves me at a loss for words, but not quite. After seeing the "day before" briefing on the Katrina situation, including the update from the world's foremost hurricane forecaster, we can now put to bed the ridiculous claim that Boosh nor anyone else in power considered the possibility that the levees could break or be overrun. The White House reaction to the video? "This is old news." Well, maybe so. It has been out there a while, but no one had seen it. So I'm not sure if that makes it "old news" or not, but in my view, only one word can describe it. Priceless. It looks like "heckuva job Brownie" may have been the only one doing their job during this fiasco. Certainly Chertoff and Boosh were clueless. The incompetence abounds, and it is starting to catch on with more than just us tree hugging liberals. Interesting.

How Low Can They Go?

We are reaching unchartered waters in poll numbers. The Boosh approval rating is currently at 29% according to one poll, mid 30's in others. The Republicans don't know what to do, but at least they are waking up to the steady stream of failures of this administration. They now realize that Booshco cares about no one, including their base and constituency. Cheney is at 19%. My guess is that 15% of those are family members. If Boosh is given another year, (not gonna happen) they'll both be in single digits. Would love to see it, but would much rather see him deposed long before then.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

The Mainstream Media has taken a pounding over the last few years, but now it's time to give them some credit. Especially those who are on the White House beat. They have pounded away at Scottie-boy McClellan for quite some time now, and I believe that their efforts have led to the awakening of the Democratic members of Congress. I think that the Democrats lack of action, along with the perpetual stonewalling by the Booshies, in a way hamstrung the media. Now the media has hammered away until the country as a whole has begun to come out of their slumber and realize that we have a madman in charge. I also believe that the Bloggers deserve a lot of credit, addressing issues that the mainstremers wouldn't touch. Sure, there are still a lot of things that the MSM won't report, but they are making more of an effort. Unfortunately, the things they won't touch are the "real problems," the impending financial obliteration, among other things. But, they are getting better on some important issues. The problem is, it's too late to save this place. The Democrats have waited too long, the media have waited too long, the American people have waited too long to stop the end of America as we know it. Too bad, but we get what we deserve. This train is not returning to the tracks, to believe otherwise is being naive and foolish.

$7 Billion Down the Tubes; An Honest Mistake?

We now learn that a tax that was supposed to kick in when oil reached a certain level was mysteriously left out of a congressional bill. The price? $7 Billion. Who gains from this? Who else, Big Oil. An honest mistake? Yeah, sure. What's $7 Billion anyway? Just 6 weeks pissed away in Iraq, or a great start to the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. Now, for an unknown amount of time, the Big Oil boys will continue to operate essentially tax free on oil obtained from the Gulf of Mexico. Well, at least it goes to the "needy."

My State

My state's Governor, a former Boosh administration official, is using the Boosh model of government to "help us." Sounds a whole lot like the port deal to me. We are about to "lease" a toll road to a foreign company for $3.85 Billion. At least the deal has an end date, 75 years from now. Yes, you heard me right. 75 years. But, while the company get's all the profits and get to name the price for the use of our roads, they are also responsible for maintenence. The people, especially the people who live around the toll road are up in arms. They correctly foresee the tolls going through the roof, truckers driving through their neighborhoods instead of paying the tolls, and their roads being destroyed. This international company is not responsible for maintaining city streets, so all of that money will come from local economies. The $3.85 Billion is already earmarked for other things, like building a highway to nowhere. Our legislature, controlled totally by Republicans, will give their approval for the deal today. They will also give approval allowing the Governor to make the same type of deals in the future. Again, we get what we deserve when we put these morons in office. I would just like to know how quickly this company is going to fix potholes on the toll road 15 years from now. Or, what happens when they declare bankruptcy in Argentina a few years from now. This has disaster written all over it. I think it's nearing time to have "open season" on Republicans, if you know what I mean. Tax money could be made from the sale of licenses, the population would reduce itself...............


Bring on the Crash, It's our Only Hope to Survive.

Cyclone