Permission to Fly?

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan Administration, and editor of the Wall Street Journal and The National Review, puts BushCo. in perspective and highlights the Evil Empire's latest attempt to subjugate the citizens it claims to protect for freedom's sake.

Excerpt below:

...the Bush administration wants to take away the American people's freedom to travel within their own country by airplane. Not content with an 80,000 "no fly" list, a subset of a 500,000-750,000 "watch list," the Bush administration's Transport Security Administration has proposed new rules that will require Americans to get government permission 72 hours in advance prior to being allowed to board a domestic flight.

...What American wants his travel plans dependent on a government bureaucracy capable of putting US Senator Ted Kennedy on the "no fly" list and capable of issuing US visas to two of the alleged 9/11 hijackers six months after they allegedly died in the 9/11 events?

...A country in which people cannot make airline reservations without the government's permission is not a free country.

Read the entire article here.

How Do We Perpetuate the War?

Just Miss Bin Laden Again.

Col. David Hunt, FOX News:

We know, with a 70 percent level of certainty — which is huge in the world of intelligence — that in August of 2007, bin Laden was in a convoy headed south from Tora Bora. We had his butt, on camera, on satellite. We were listening to his conversations. We had the world’s best hunters/killers — Seal Team 6 — nearby. We had the world class Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) coordinating with the CIA and other agencies. We had unmanned drones overhead with missiles on their wings; we had the best Air Force on the planet, begging to drop one on the terrorist. We had him in our sights; we had done it. Nice job again guys — now, pull the damn trigger.

Unbelievably, and in my opinion, criminally, we did not kill Usama bin Laden.

You cannot make this crap up; truth is always stranger and more telling than fiction. Our government, the current administration and yes, our military leaders included, failed to kill bin Laden for no other reason than incompetence.

The current “boneheads” in charge will tell you all day long that we are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan to stop terrorists there so they do not come here. Nice talk, how about — just for a moment — acting like you mean what you say?

Climate Change Benefits? Less Colds!

Dana Perino: " ...this is an issue where I'm sure lots of people would love to ridicule me when I say this, but it is true that many people die from cold-related deaths every winter. And there are studies that say that climate change in certain areas of the world would help those individuals... "

...Say what now?... Well she got the "ridicule" part right.

Also check out: Max and the Marginalized - "Dana Dana"

Zeitgeist

Zeit·geist [tsahyt-gahyst]n.

The taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period or generation. Zeitgeist is German for “time-spirit.”

I finally had some time to sit down and watch "Zeitgeist" today. It is mind-numbing. It's also a must see. So when you have a chance, sit down, take a deep breath and watch it. I'm sure some people will be offended by some of the content, whether it be religious, political or conspiratorial, but in my opinion, it is healthy to question oneself.

As far as the quote below, part of it is in the movie, which stirred enough interest in me to look for its origin.

The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.

...For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence -- on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice... It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific, and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.

...I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed...

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed - and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.

...It was early in the 17th Century that Francis Bacon remarked on three recent inventions already transforming the world: the compass, gunpowder, and the printing press. Now the links between the nations first forged by the compass have made us all citizens of the world, the hopes and threats of one becoming the hopes and threats of us all. In that one world's efforts to live together, the evolution of gunpowder to its ultimate limit has warned mankind of the terrible consequences of failure.

And so it is to the printing press -- to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news -- that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

John F. Kennedy
April 27, 1961
Address to the American Newspaper Publishers

Chris Matthews: Journalist?!

I know, I know, it shocked me as well. Chris Matthews posed some serious questions to Warmonger of the Day, Joshua Muravchik of the American Enterprise Institute. Muravchick wants to bomb Iran now and came across as a blubbering fool unable to answer legitimate concerns of the repercussions of such an action.

No Need To Worry About Voter Disenfranchisement

...Minorities Die Young Anyway

What does it say about the Bush Department of Justice when its top ranking voting rights official says photo ID requirements do not disproportionately disenfranchise elderly minority voters because they die first?

NY TIMES: In a speech to a Latino group earlier this month in Los Angeles, Mr. Tanner said that a disproportionate share of elderly minority voters did not have identification, but added that it was not a widespread problem because of their life expectancy.

“Creating problems for elderly persons just is not good under any circumstance,” Mr. Tanner told the National Latino Congreso... “Of course, that also ties into the racial aspect because our society is such that minorities don’t become elderly the way white people do. They die first.”

Nah, he couldn't have said that... could he?

What a moron. Click here to send a letter demanding his ouster through Barack Obama's website.

Glenn Beck Makes Me Vomit

How many times do I have to ask, "Where's the outrage?!"

Glenn Beck is probably the lowest of the low. He's actually giving O'Reilly and Hannity a run for their GOP money. On his radio program today, (do I have to wonder why these douchebags have radio programs?) Beck was ranting about people who, in his estimation, hate America and went on to say, "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today", referring to those who have been devastated in the San Diego area due to the fires of the last two days.

What an asshole.

More War Money Please

...Actually I Don't Think He Said Please

Nevermind about that $35 billion for providing health care to 10 million children in the United States for the next 5 years. Remember the United States? Bush vetoed that faster than you can say "nukular".

And oh, by the way, give me $46 BILLION MORE FOR THE WAR IN IRAQ! It's an "emergency".

From Congress Daily, 10/22/07:

The amended foreign aid request in President Bush's supplemental package would fund infrastructure and development projects in Iraq and Afghanistan and extend to projects beyond the Middle East. That could provide Democrats with added leverage in their battle with Bush over unrelated domestic spending. Afghanistan is a major aid recipient in the amended request -- about $322 million would be for diplomatic operations there, including $160 million for construction of residential housing and the remainder to provide security for U.S. personnel. Another $100 million is included to help prepare for that country's elections in 2009 and $225 million for the central government to help extend its reach and build trust in outlying regions. The request would provide $115 million for power generators in Kabul and electric power in the northern part of the country and $5 million is for "reconstruction opportunity zones" to help build the economy. Another $50 million would be used to build a road from Kabul to Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, and $5 million is included to help protect Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Iraq would receive about $239 million for the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, while another $125 million would go for economic aid, including $100 million for restarting state-owned enterprises and $25 million for a new private-sector development fund. Another $240 million is requested for Iraqi refugees, with about $160 million to aid refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, and $80 million to aid displaced refugees inside Iraq.

Well, as long as it's important...

Watch the CNN video.

UPDATE: Oct.23, 2007 - Bush’s Request for Wars Increases to $196 Billion

Representative David R. Obey, Democratic of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, criticized Mr. Bush for pushing the extra financing even as the president attacked Democrats as spendthrifts.

“It’s amazing to me that the president expects to be taken seriously when he says we cannot afford $20 billion in investments in education, health, law enforcement and science, which will make this country stronger over the long term,” Mr. Obey said in a statement.

“But he doesn’t blink an eye at asking to borrow $200 billion for a policy in Iraq that leaves us six months from now exactly where we were six months ago.”

Mr. Bush, appearing at the White House with veterans and relatives of soldiers, warned Congress to move quickly to approve the added spending, though he did not make his final supplemental proposal until three weeks into the fiscal year.