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DON QUI-HILLARY

Don Qui-Hillary,
You’ve had a nice run.
It’s quite chill-ery,
This flight to the sun.

Even Icarus
Would doubt your mad quest.
“She’s not one of us,”
“Says Robin Redbreast.

“Weighed down with armor,
“She’d ne’er leave the ground.
“She’s quite the charmer;
“Alas, not too sound.”

Now, this metaphor
Begins to digress.
It is quite a bore—
This need to impress.

Let’s go back again
To Hill on her horse.
Just what’s in that brain?
What brings out such force?

With her lance in ha...

Terrific! Now if only you could give or sell it to Obama.
I can not shake the notion that all this is some vast Republican plot, and can not really believe that I will see a black person sworn in as president of these United states in my life time.
However, I will be delighted to be proven wrong and offer my congratulations and sympathy.
The vice president will really be the one who will be running the country. The bigots will kill him within the first year.
Read some of their blogs, and re...

ONE RACE / ONE PLANET

If Barak Obama does happen to be the one who raises his hand in that cold, January scene (that long ago should have been taken indoors), this is the speech that only he could give:

My fellow Americans,

I am not just African American. I am not just European American. I am not just Kenyan. I am not just Scots-Irish. No one is just this or just that. The one thing that we all are, completely, is human, Homo sapiens sapiens. Regardless of what our history, culture or poli...

THE BLEMISH OF SUPREMACY

When Europeans set up shop in every available corner of the newly discovered American continent, they also planted the imprimatur of “White, Male Supremacy.” This hierarchical device was first used to wrest away the lands and mineral possessions of the indigenous peoples, and then enslave them or otherwise marginalize and control their existence. It was kicked into high gear when the African slave trade began. This kaleidoscopic totem pole of racial superiority, base...

I wish the damn environmentalist would get the message and get the hell out of the way and allow mankind to advance as far as it can before the inevitable end.
We complain about the price of oil and not being a slave to it, but we allow those idiots who somehow envision themselves saviors of this planet which does not belong to any of us, prevent us from doing the things that could provide alternative energy sources.
They don't want us to dig for oil in Alaska or in certain parts of the ocea...

EARTH: “Humans?”

We should avail ourselves of all of the energy resources afforded by the earth. Any disputes over coal, wood and whale oil pale in comparison to those stemming from the Industrial Age, when oil became both king and jester among nations. We must now make a move toward those equalizing forces supplied by the sun, the wind and the sea. These considerations are necessary, regardless of how scientific evidence stacks up on either end of the human-contribution, global-warming see-...

KATRINA REDUX

During a stay at the Veterans Administration Western Blind Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto, California, last December and January, I was encouraged to participate in the National VA Art and Literature competition. I entered poems in several different categories.

I was just informed that my poem in the “other” category has won first prize in the local selections. It will be sent along for inclusion in the national competition, which results will be announced at a ceremony in...

RICE ON RACE

With a Salient phrase in an otherwise wide-ranging interview, the other day, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice takes the cake for the most effective description of the race thing with which we Americans find ourselves permanently saddled: a “birth defect.” That is a most apt description of our national plight.

Here are more excerpts from Rice’s most extraordinary—but right on the mark-- pronouncements on the topic: "Black Americans were a founding population…Africans and...

Dick Cheney is of course the king of Jackasses. However, I don't blame him. I blame the American people for tolerating this idiot for eight years.
I believe most of the poor fools in the volunteer army believed they could accomplish a quick stint in Iraq or some other God forsaken place with a one deployment deal, and get a discharge. Upon arrival home, they could benefit from all the non existent goodies vetrans are supposed to get.
They had no idea that the tours in enemy countries would be...

4,000 DEAD! “So…? They Volunteered”

Upon the occasion of the four thousandth death among U.S. forces in Iraq, re-printed below is a relevant poem I wrote some time ago.

In a recent interview, Vice President Dick Cheney, in response to a reporter’s assertion that two-thirds of the country is opposed to the administration’s policy in Iraq, he responded, “So…?” Upon another occasion, Cheney was asked to respond to the continued increase in casualties in Iraq. He indicated that they are volunte...

The Government will always bail out the big boys because it is natural to protect one of your own. Are they not the ones who by way of the lobby system create the laws with loopholes that allow the lawmakers to react in a favorable way for themselves. Of course, the rhetoric coming from the Government states that the average citizen will suffer greatly if such a large corporation is permitted to go belly up.
Rev. Wright was apparently suffering from hoof and mouth disease when he made his now...

HMMM . . .

Rot in the State of N.Y. – “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark,” wrote Shakespeare in “Hamlet.” A similar stench seems to be emanating from the state of New York. I know nothing of the world of finance. Nonetheless, these institutions are controlled by human beings, and I have a pretty good notion about the ways of human nature. What is behind the sudden, surgical outing of “Client No. 9”--the bane of Wall Street--and the soon-thereafter U.S. government complicity (...

Apparently Barak has never heard that Jews are God"s chosen people and Episcopalians are his frozen people.
You are correct in stating that he would have fared better if he belonged to a standard church.
Obama"s varied background growing up does not really help him in his quest for the presidency. If all of his years had been spent within the continental borders of the good old USA, he might have a more realistic understanding of the country he wants to preside over as president.
H...

IF . . .

IF all of the presidents of the United States had not been men; white’ non-Jewish; non-Muslim; or non-any religion that did not border upon “Christian;” never would they have had a chance to become president.

IF George W. Bush had not been a man; white; a Bush; had not had a brother as governor of Florida; a Florida secretary of state frenzily purging the voting rolls of African Americans; and a 5-4 majority on the supreme court; thousands of families would not be mourning their de...

“Blues, Booze and Attitude” came after my very talented collaborator Tommy Dodson (pianist, singer, composer, arranger) and I had passed through the reality crucible of attempting to stage our first musical, “Playing the Game.” “Blues, Booze and Attitude” is a one-man musical, tailor-made for Tommy Dodson, which we will stage in Los Angeles (Glendale) on May 10, 2008. The particulars appear below.

Apart from an unfinished opera and legally prohibitive, aborted attempts at one-person musicals...

AN AMERICAN SONG IN PYONGYANG

There is a flicker of hope of resolving one of the world’s great stalemates. We see now that, “Music hath charms” to stir the stolen soul. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra recently breached the no-man’s land between North and South Korea.

Here is a news flash for the 21st century: “The Korean War Is Not Over.” In the first place, officially it never was a “war.” When the “Korean Conflict” ended in a draw, in 1953, it left the Korean Peninsula politically a...

BARAK TO THE BARRICADES!

”Ready, aim, fire!” Get out your flak suit, BHO, that moment we all knew was coming is here.“ The artillery has been loaded and you have been zeroed in on from all sides. Incoming!”

It was so subtle that it came upon them before they were aware it was happening. The Right-wing was so intent upon destroying the hated Clintons that it took them by surprise. Who would have thought that they could do such a good job on her that she would be finished off in the primaries...

OBAMARAMA

• MICHELLE: Anyone who grew up black in the United States could tell you that what she meant was that for the first time she felt that she was a COMPLETE American.

• FRONT-RUNNER/INEVITABLE: What a rush, but he should not allow it to do to him what it did to Hillary.

• MISCHIEF: Perhaps the overwhelming groundswell may be legit; however, there have been hints that many Republicans who hate the Clintons are voting for Obama, only to opt for the Republican candidate in the general ...

DUBYA Y CUBA

Clarifying the cutesy title: In Spanish, “y” means “and.”

This morning’s announcement that Fidel Castro Ruz, hobbled by illness and advanced age, will resign as Cuba’s “líder máximo” has set the rumor mills a-whir. Experience teaches that these things do not happen in a vacuum. Sometimes it takes a lot of diplomatic back-channeling to get them started. I suspect that the announcement was arranged to take place while Dubya was off, doing his black swan song on the Dark...

You would think that the Rush Limbaugh crowd would have foreseen the present dilemma and had one of their ilk in the running. They are getting just what they deserve.
Pox on them!

IS CONSERVATISM DEAD?

This morning, Rush Limbaugh said, “…this country was founded on conservatism….” “Huh,” I said, “You’ve got to me out of your mind!” The Founders of this country were the best organized and most successful bunch of left-wing radicals in the history of the world. They had the temerity to publish—for all the world to see—charges against the monarch of one of the most powerful nations on earth. They declared themselves free from the ties that bound them to that monarchy, an...

A GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY

Connie and Ken were wed
Some fifty years ago.
Although some voices said
That it should not be so.

West Philly was their home,
And still it is today.
They tended not to roam;
Now, steamships make their day.

Two daughters grace their world,
Both Dawn, and Kendall, too.
Two spirits were unfurled,
Blended in Lyons’ hue.

Let’s not forget the Longs;
They had a hand in there.
Their spirits float on songs,
To grace those ladies fair.

Imagine all of this,
With Connie and with...

THE ELEPHANT IN DISARRAY


With the ascent of John McCain to “front-runner” status, the right-wing of the Republican Party has gone completely out of sorts. He, who headed up the ranks of those whom the right-wingers designate as “RINO,” (Republicans in Name Only), is now in position, probably, to lead their party’s ticket as candidate for the presidency of the United States.

The extreme of this revolt against one of their own, is Ann Coulter’s assertion that Hillary Clinton is more conserva...

HER SHADOW

When winter comes, the groundhog’s plight
Reminds me of my life.
A lady I knew was born that day,
She filled that life with light.
The mom we knew, left both of us,
And other siblings, four.
A child was I, a mother she,
With two of her own to shelter.

A child like I, a brother, he,
She lent us both her warmth.
The four of us, now brothers we,
She guided through life’s swamps.
The road, of course, was long and hard;
With head unbent, she trudged right on.

At every bend, her sage-...

THE TORCH

When we heard John F. Kennedy speak the words, “The torch is passed to a new generation of Americans,” who knew that soon he would be gone—as well as Martin and Bobby. There were negative forces afoot at that time, bent upon stunting the march toward that “New Frontier” to which JKF so brilliantly led the way. With yesterday’s bombastic imprimatur of Senator Ted Kennedy and the demure endorsement of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg—brother and daugher of the martyred president—it becam...

WHEREFORE WENT THE WASPS?

Prior to the election of Catholic John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1960, it was unthinkable that the president of the United States would be other than a White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP)—and, of course, be of the male sex. The historical withdrawal of the WASPS from contention in this election has been so sudden and imperceptible that it seems to have escaped the notice of all of the news sources of which I am aware. Since JFK, an Italian-American, Catholic woman and ...

RICK’S CAFÉ AMERICAIN

Tweaking it just a bit, the United States in this political season could be that “…gin mill in all the world...” where the Claude Rains character expresses mock shock that talk of racism is “going on here.”

It does not take much to stimulate that which is deeply imbedded within the DNA of this country. Apart from the ridiculous one-drop theory upon which the Southern miscegenation rules were/are(?) based, there are also dark suggestions in this campaign of the dis...

WILL NO ONE RID US OF THESE MEDDLESOME “MEESES”?

Unlike the annoyance expressed in the cartoon line, “I hate these meeses to pieces,” King Henry II’s frustration was considerably more real and ultimately deadly when he incited his barons to action by uttering the plaintive plea against former best friend Thomas Becket, whom he had mistakenly elevated to Archbishop of Canterbury: “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” Well, my “meeses” are Dubya and company. Of course, the centuries ...

BLACK MUSLIMS AT BIRTH OF AL QAEDA?

Recently, C-SPAN 2’s book review program featured Yaroslav Trofimov giving a first-hand account of how he went about gathering the information necessary to write his spell-binding book, “Siege of Mecca.” It details what is considered to be the event, in Saudi Arabia, that launched the idea of the “Al Qaeda” and modern-day “Jihad” movements.

If this seminal incident has escaped you, it may be because it occurred, in 1979, within weeks of the takeover of th...

THE NUMBERS GAME

One at a time,
The rule is set;
Thus, U.S. deals with blacks.
With more than one,
Must back ye get;
We cannot deal with stacks.

One at a time,
Ye do no harm
Cavorting there onstage.
With more than one,
Ye loseth charm;
They then must turn the page.

One at a time,
Jack Johnson’s great;
His boxing thrills them all.
With more than one,
His choice of mate
Makes mighty egos fall.

One at a time,
Bill Robinson
May with Miss Shirley dance.
With more than one,
Bill Robinson
May ju...

PEDRO INFANTE AT 90

The above title will not make sense to many, and will be recognized as ironic to others. I came upon an interview on a Mexican radio station with journalist Jaime Almeda who was memorializing the 90th year of Pedro Infante’s birth. This presented an opportunity for me to recount a bit of cinematic, radio and popular music history that emanated from Mexico City and captivated the whole of the Spanish-speaking world, from the depths of the South American continent to the Ib...

There are no words to describe the conditions in Iraq. It is astounding how apparently the entire world has just written off this horrendous situation. Of course, the world has always turned a deaf ear and blind eye to unbelievable conditions, but today in the 2000 era it is difficult to comprehend how all the universe could witness the birth or origin of a man made hell and its perpetuation.
All it takes for evil to persist or exist is for good people to do nothing. You may recognize that ...

A FOGGY NOTION OF THE NEWS

If you feel you have not been getting the nitty-gritty news from the Middle East, according to an international panel of on-the-ground journalists from Iraq, your suspicions are well founded. C-SPAN II covered this panel at the Columbia School of Journalism. The candid interchange of the journalists’ mutual experiences is an eye-opener. Following is a summation of what I heard:

THE SURGE: The partisan pitch we have been getting about the “success” of the so-called...

Mrs. Obama had better learn that she is in the big leagues now and further learn how not to answer directly everything that is asked by an interviewer.

It is not past history of blacks in America that leads many blacks to view the impossibility of a black man being elected to the presidency as realistic. It is present history. The attitudes of whites toward blacks has not changed since the time of Herbert Hoover. The noose is still in their hands.

It appears to me that they all are getting...

CLARIFICATION

Following is Matador’s response to yesterday’s posting, “Bifocal Perception USA.” I respond immediately thereafter to Matador’s statement.

Matador:

“It seems that Michelle believes that when blacks wake up, they will support her husband because he is black and they are black.

“I think that it is ridiculous and an insult to black people to think that black people should and would vote for a person to be president simply because he or she happens to be black.

“I hope this is ...

BIFOCAL PERCEPTION USA

Recently, Michelle Obama was asked about the metrics of the opinion polls showing that African Americans favored Hillary Clinton over her husband. In her response, she stated that black folk soon would shake out of their lethargy; that they had had a history of limited expectations. Some might interpret her remarks as being ethnocentric and out of place in the discussion of a presidential candidate whose responsibility encompasses the whole of the nation.

Mrs. Obama h...

• On this Veterans Day there are reports of nine more American deaths in Afghanistan. This was the “good” war, to avenge 9/11 by routing the obstinate Taliban and destroying Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda. Really? The greatest military machine in the history of the world cannot catch a cave-dwelling guru and his merry band of assassins? Phooey! What is never discussed is Hamid Karzai’s former association with the oil industry and our long-held desire to construct and oil line from the form...

Following is José Rosa’s delineation of what I referred to as, “…the positive exposure factor of the Cheney sins…”

What about the fact that we were all lied to about the reasons for going to war? What about the treasonous act of outing an undercover CIA operative? What about the obvious corrupt Haliburton deals? What about suspension of habeas corpus and illegal wire taps on American citizen? What about.. damn the list is so long I’d have to spend all day just listing items.

I will rei...

IMPEACHMENT EASEMENT

It takes a well defined easement in order to negotiate the tricky impeachment field through the House and arrive at a trial in the Senate. That is why Dennis Kucinich’s bid to impeach Dick Cheney is pretty much dead on arrival. Despite the positive exposure factor of the Cheney sins, Kucinich’s move has several flaws:

1. The House lacks the political cojones to take up impeachment at this time.
2. If he went after the other head of the snake first, Cheney might become p...

What an interesting treatise on the term nigger!
It seems as though the word had its inception from something evil and has a curse that can destroy those with whom it comes into contact.
Perhaps that is the jinx of America, and the price which it must pay for building a mighty empire on the backs of slaves and denying them any credit for the accomplishment.
Also, a price must be paid for the treatment of the people from whom the land was taken; not to mention the ignoring of the contribution ...

CHINGAGO / NIGGER

In advanced Spanish-language and Mexican history studies, I wrote a paper on an extensive treatise by Octavio Paz on how one word (and its derivatives) has become so entrenched in the Mexican psyche that it carries with it all of the weight, misery, elation, deprivation, joy, expectation, betrayal, and so on, of the country’s experiences over the centuries. The idea is that it transports in the subconscious a mystical awareness of all of those conflicting forces bred in the...

Not only should Cheney AND Bush be impeached, they (along with Condi & a few others) should be imprisoned.. And THAT should be the primary plank in any Democrats campaign. With no such action, the people of this country put their stamp of approval on ALL of the actions of the people who created a coup to take power and spent all of their time consolidating it and truning the US in to an imperialist power, albeit a very incompetent one..

PARODY and POTPOURRI

O Canada,
Thy dollar,
How it does rise!
America,
Thy dollar,
Oh, how it dies!

• What is wrong with presidential affirmative action? So what if Americans vote for a candidate based solely on gender, ethnicity or religion? It is a time-honored tradition; we have been doing this since George Washington. The only reason we have the current disaster in the White House is because of the fact that he is white, male, “Christian,” rich, and has a famous name—and had the complici...

I thought it was ridiculous when Oprah stated that she was going to Africa to open a school because children here in America were only intetrested in new sneakers, cellular phones and other wordly possessions, with little or no real interest in education.
With that comment she exposed her own ignorance and a serious lack of facts. There are literally thousands of children here in America who could and would benefit from being plucked from their hellish environments and sent to schools where t...

OPRAH - SCHMOPRAH

Lord Acton’s dictum does not apply only to the “absolute corruptibility” of political power. The thrall of filthy lucre and over-fawning popularity also can take their toll to the extreme when one is devoid of overload control. History shows that a head could be lost merely by displeasing an ego-driven monarch whose power is indisputably derived from an invisible, omniscient/omnipotent being; a dictator with hypnotic powers could depopulate a goodly portion of the globe; a ...

Let’s not forget the Ollie North/Reagan crack cocaine epidemic, which was the actual source of funds for the so-called Iran-contra scandal…

HAMILTON HOWLS

Prior to being summarily dispatched by the prickly Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, among the Founders, was the champion of minority rights. Actually, it was THEIR “minority” rights he championed—the Founders and their ilk: the ruling landowners, slave-masters and planters. He was contemptuous of all the rest. Hamilton’s pet phrase for the unwashed masses was, “That great beast.”

Alexander Hamilton was born in bastardy on a Caribbean island. That was a non-starter in those day...

Sirens to announce a possible disaster is an excellent idea, but the simplification of such a thing is beyond the nature of our needlessly complicated society.
Apparently the goal today is to make life more complicated, regardless of how it impacts us, rather than simplification which would immensely benefit us.

BRING BACK THE SIRENS

In the aftermath of the San Diego fires, it is revealed that some people either did not get the word in time or did not react with sufficient haste to protect themselves against injury or death.

Along with the emergency messaging employed through radio and TV, also used was a mysterious notification called, “reverse 9-1-1.” This latter device, I understand, is a government-contracted service that automatically dials a large swath of telephones in a particular area. Alt...

THE WARRING WEEPIES

Evolution allows only like species to reproduce. The horse and the donkey, skating on the edge of their own genome, produce only mules. The elephant and the donkey have arrived at a similar position on the evolutionary chart. Unfortunately, it is ordained that we be the issue of that unholy, unnatural pairing, the floppy eared, slow moving beast of burden that can be led anywhere: “We the People” (Weepies). They have us exactly where they want us, to wit:

Both the elepha...

At a billion $$ and counting, the flames continue their inexorable excesses via the four cardinal points of the compass, throughout the County of San Diego.



From Camp Pendleton in the north, fire jumped the freeway from east to west, seeming to seek to put itself out of its misery in the Pacific Ocean, just a few football fields distance away. In so doing, however, it closed down the important I-5 and Amtrak corridor leading to the O.C. and Los Angeles County. The last I heard is that the...

San Diego continues under siege. Overnight, the fires went unabated, despite the lower nocturnal temperatures and reduced wind velocity.

Currently, their intensity continues and increases in an uneven line from the Mexican border northward to the Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton, a sixty-or-so-mile stretch to the San Diego County line. For contrast, the entire island of Puerto Rico measures 100 X 35 miles.

The number of evacuees exceeds 300,000, and counting. They are quartered in schools and o...

This is a shout-out to those in other parts of the country who, because of the tremendous fires in Malibu and parts of Southern California north of here, may not become aware of the gravity of the situation in San Diego until a later time.

The civic center of San Diego is on the Pacific bay. Currently surrounding the central, downtown area (whence comes this report), in a roughly 10-15-mile diameter, north, northeast and southeast, there is a ring of uncontrolled flame. All local resource pe...

WHAT A PITY!

Dr. James Watson, a Nobel Laureate, was very instrumental in the discovery of the Double Helix, which scientific landmark led the way to DNA testing, RNA and the human genome. Dr. Watson is a genuine hero in the field of science. His work—which marked a scientific seism in the history of the world—has allowed us to be more genetically certain about the evolution of the human being.

This makes his current situation that much the sadder—the fact that this man of science has not b...

PRIORITIES

This is not to denigrate
Nor otherwise invalidate
All the passion now extant
About a canine’s housing grant.

What, with all the death and gore,
And all the rest we have in store,
Why should this be all the rage,
When profound matters fill the page?

Why do not great teardrops fall
When flag-draped coffins cast their pall?
Are there so few tears to share
With dear pet’s plight and bugler’s blare?

A CONVERSATION AT THE CHENEY HOUSEHOLD

LYNNE: Uh, Dick…
DICK: Yeah?
LYNNE: …y’ know that genealogy thing I’ve been running on you?
DICK: Yeah?
LYNNE: Well, it’s taken a pretty interesting twist.
DICK: Yeah?
LYNNE: I’ve gotten back as far as the early sixteen hundreds, in New England…
DICK: Yeah?
LYNNE: …and’ve come across the union of two families that links you with another well-known politician.
DICK: Yeah?
LYNE: Dick,…
DICK: Yeah?
LYNNE: …there is a saving grace, though.
DICK: Yeah?
LYNNE...

Well put.

Bush and his crowd can not help shooting themselves in the foot. When they do not, the democrats take over:

• Bush and the Dalai Lama
• Congress and the Armenian/Turkish mess

Well you and I agree completely on this one. The worse threat to terrorism is our own government with their lies, deception and political manure ring. They have managed to place us exactly where the rest of the world wants us…on the “very slippery slopes of vulnerability”!

We are our very worse enemy. Unfortunately Putin, china, the rest of the world realizes that.

China will cash our worthless checks soon, just wait and see!

I fear that the war with Putin will not be as cold as we would ...

AN ONION PEELED

As the skins of an onion gradually reveal its insides, so does the peeling-off of the layers of the Bush Administration reveal its putrid inner workings.

With the happy face of chaos constantly displayed by this administration, it may go unnoticed that we ain’t as rich as we think we are. For the first time in history, Canadians are making a run for the border in order to shop for bargains in their southern neighbor’s newly created, favorable repository for their erstwhile l...

ÉMINENCE GRISE BEHIND BUSH EXPOSED

The current, patently criminal administration in Washington apparently is hell-bent on plunging this country further into the abyss by forcing a conflict with Iran.

There is no doubt that Vice President Dick Cheney, hiding in plain sight behind President Bush, is a prime mover in the bellicose aspirations of this administration. Consequently, the below, extracted comments attributed to former president Jimmy Carter, are indicting in their authority an...

FADING FEARS FREE HIDDEN HATE

With the post-911 jitters abating, fading also is the Islamo-phobic consternation that prompted many to ask, “Why do they hate us?” Thus relieved of the pressure of having to guard against lethal, external hate directed against THEM, some have now returned to the hallowed habit of expressing their age-old, internal hate against a segment of our population that never has constituted a physical threat to the rest of the populace.

The nooses hanging from the branc...

Once again our congress and senate demonstrate that their only and ultimate goal is to perpetuate their existence. Apparently they are willing to sacrifice our troops even more than they are being sacrificed at the present in order to garner the Armenian vote.
What possible difference could one word (Genocide) make to future history or to past history? It really does not matter to the average American, and if it is to Armenians, then Armenia should deal with their problem.
One would think t...

The genocide did take place! We should have acknowledged it years ago.

You’re right, now is an awkward time for the acknowledgement, but Turkey will get over it, believe me. They are only flexing muscle. They have more to loose than we have if they stop the US from using their air space.

Have you ever stopped to think that this could be a huge conspiracy within our government? Nothing makes sense anymore…..especially you siding with G.W.

Will wonders ever cease!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AGREE WITH DUBYA!

Yes, I know—hell doth freeze over. Despite the circumstances that took us to Iraq, the fact is that we are there now, and must stay or leave with the least amount of additional damage to our people and reputation. The routes for an important amount of the materiel used in the Iraq operation, via sea, air and land, flow through Turkey. Apparently, the continued access to that country seriously is being jeopardized. It all hinges on one, single term: “GENOCIDE”

In 1915, th...

NABJ—GET A PRODUCTIVE LIFE!

Over the past six years, this administration—with the pusillanimous collusion of the supposed “party of opposition”—has managed to plunge us into irrevocable adventurism in the Middle East. At the same time, it radically has reduced the constitutional prerogatives of ALL of us.

Taking into account the foregoing, how is it that the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has had the time to obsess over ONE offensive remark by a TV/radio personality who, t...

POST-FETAL PEOPLE

Once there was a kingdom
Where all fetuses were loved.
But, once they became people,
They immediately were snubbed.

All eschewed the condom,
With, “Let Nature’s will be done.”
They prayed beneath the steeple
For each fetus, everyone.

Birth-control was banished;
Offenders were promptly jailed;
All rubber goods embargoed;
Sperm, thus proudly freed, was hailed.

After birth, love vanished;
The kingdom had done its part.
Neglect of newborns followed—
A post-partum change-of-h...

I fully agree with Curtis Long. I checked out his site and found echoes of my own thoughts, which I share here. First, who the hell is Jesse to dictate who's black and who's not? I've always hated his accent and attitude, which would've made for a lousy presidental image had he been elected back then. Sharpton embarrasses me with his wannabe James Brown hair and streetwise image in press conferences. As for "acting black," does that mean spouting rap, acting and dressing like a...

I've been accused of this all my life of being "too white", simply because my mother insisted that we speak English and not ghetto gibberish!
I don't like Jesse Jackson, never did; and Al Sharpton should check out who's acting white with his straightened locks. We can take any event and make out of it what we want. This is constantly being done on both sides of the color line.
Our society is very confused as to what is acceptable anymore.
Fingers are pointed everywhere.
Who is in ...

“ACTING WHITE”

When, in regard to the “Jena 6,” situation, Jesse Jackson said that Barak Obama was “acting white,” he made a damned fool of himself, as well as to insult white people, black people and all people.

A polite supposition about the origin of the inane phrase is that it developed during the civil rights struggle, in an attempt to keep straying eyes focused “on the prize.” A rougher surmise is that it suggests crabs attempting to keep their fellow captives from climbing out of the...

DAMN, I’M PRESCIENT!

(1)
Either I am prescient or the Iranians are reading my blog. In my piece of 9-27-07, in reference to the senate’s calling on the president to dub the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as terrorists, I wrote:

“How might we react if they decided to apply a similar outlaw appellation to our globe-operative Special Forces?”

From today’s news:

Iran declares U.S. Army, CIA 'terrorists'
Sept. 29: Iran's parliament has voted to declare the U.S. Army and the CIA as 'terrorist orga...

A POX ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES

• Screw ‘em all! The Demos are playing “Charlie Brown” to Dubya’s and the Neocons’ “Lucy.” Although you know it’s going to happen again, every time they go to kick the Mid-East football, Bush and the boys snatch it away, and true to the script, they land square on their asses. The Senate passed a 76-22, non-binding resolution urging the president to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. How might we react if they decided to apply a sim...

LEST WE FORGET

When Americans feel put-upon by “the other,” and ask, “Why do they hate us?” – the image in the mirror responds, “Why do YOU hate?”

For those of us who remember the 1940s—and those who do not—Ken Burns’s latest epic of Americana is a warts-and-all memoir of “The War,” which dominated that decade. Within the scenes on the home-front and savage fighting in all of the elements, we are reminded of the impurity of the American effort. While, supposedly, we were struggling against ...

Prior to his appearance at Columbia University today, the president of Iran gave an electronic speech and Q&A at the National Press Club (NPC).

The guest failed to give straight, yes-or-no answers. He obfuscated, tergiversated and replied in mini-speeches. The NPC has hosted many politicians, so this mode of response should not have been a shock.

Of course, all of the bugaboo questions were addressed:

• Why should he meet with Holocaust* survivors; what does any past European disaster ...

Of course Israel bombed Syria. The silence of the United States confirms the event.
Why Syria is silent is yet to be discovered, but time will tell.
The Bushies have been using their cutesie little sayings to manipulate the public ever since they have been in power. You know, like---cut and run, etc.
I sometimes wonder why we need our permanent base in Iraq (of course, you know that is the plan) when we have and have had since its inception our supplied puppet (Israel) to do our bidding.
Ju...

• “You are not supporting the troops.” Balderdash, basta! What a silly shibboleth of the wrong-thinking rightees! They use it as a punishing shillelagh upon the heads of those who happen not to share their bellicose bantering. The Constitution exhorts us to express ourselves with regard to the manner in which we are governed. Disagreement with a policy taken by the administration has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the “troops.” The military is under civilian control and MUST carry out its leg...

SYNAPSE-SHOTS
2007-1

As in Vietnam, our presence in Iraq is like a virus. All the defensive systems of the host combine to eject an alien intruder.

“¡Es el colmo!” - as Spanish-speakers say when the straw breaks the camel’s back. Dennis Kucinich was excluded from a recent Democratic presidential debate, because he intended to speak his mind (as usual) with regard to the healthcare question. No matter how it may be spun, apparently, this was done through a conspiracy of his “exclusnoot...

By Matador:

When you have an idiot who is the President and by virtue of that Commander in Chief of the Military with a weak legislature, one would have to be a dreamer to expect anything different than what now exists . Of course, it is only a matter of time before Iran is bombed by us or some other sucker we goad into doing the job.

By Tommy Dodson

What national treasury?

We no longer have one; rather a huge deficit and debt owed to almost every country in the world.

We hate the fact that we do not have the abundance of “black gold” like the Middle East.

If Alaska had as much oil, the government would take it without comment. The problem is that our supply is limited.

Therefore, we have to find a reason to go to war, tear up another country, and then charge them (with their oil) to rebuild what we have destroyed!
...

Does not the air again begin to reek with the odor of the same impending doom that suffocated us just before the invasion of Iraq? These funky fumes are emanating from the White House, the Veep residence, the halls of congress and the myriad hideouts of the Neocons and fellow-travelers. This drip-drip-drip of Iran-Iran-Iran is ominous and unsettling. It is a constant drum-beat of charges and challenges tending to target yet another Middle Eastern country, in this administration’s insatiable, ...

By Matador

General Petraeus Don't you mean General Betray York paper called him?
President in 2012? I do not think so. He has about as much chance as Obama.
Once again those founding fathers you love to quote screwed up when they determined that any asshole who happened to be lucky or crooked enough to become president automatically became commander in chief of all the military. No other requirement, just become president.
I marvel at the stupidity of the American people to waste time liste...

With General David Petraeus’s recent tortured appearance before Congress, we have reached a new, fuzzy threshold of U.S. administration-military relations. The Constitution dictates that the president be the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces. President Bush, in pushing General Petraeus out front in a thinly veiled “Emerald City” scenario, has taken his constitutionally prescribed role to a new low.

General Petraeus, on the other hand, is caught in an uncomfortable position. Sporting...

…a president, who, several minutes after being informed that his country was under attack, inexplicably could not tear himself away from a group of elementary school children to whom he had been reading.

…during a previous national crisis, the pusillanimous avoidance of a young man who one day would become president.

…the next day after Pearl Harbor, listening to a previous president garner all the resources of the nation against Axis powers that threatened the freedom of the whole world. ...

HHas anyone seen Condy?
Has Condy missed roll-call,
Or, did she slip out bonds-free
With Gonzo, Rove, et. al.?

I swear, that gal’s a riddle;
She’s always on the go.
Is she takin’ a piddle—
Or at a damn shoe sto’?

She used to ride with Dubya;
Boy, did the rumors fly!
With them, a mere, “God love y’a”
Is all those two would try.

She always stepped out sprightly
Before a line of troops;
Stiletto boots shone brightly;
She jumped through lots of hoops.

The photo-ops were many;
World figures at...

The United States is an excruciatingly young nation—even among the pantheon of countries created in this hemisphere, which went undocumented to rest of the world until 1492. As we tread upon the earth in arrogant instinct, we are as ridiculous as a babe in oversized combat boots. And, as it is the wont of the wee ones, we neglect the more unsavory aspects inherent in the tales we are telling. So it is with our manufactured “American Dream” sagas.

Well, here is one that takes on a new twist. ...

Elvira Arellano. Before yesterday, I knew of her only as the nameless immigrant who has holed up in a Chicago church for about a year. Yesterday’s news had the same nameless woman doing a round of speeches in Los Angeles. Listening to the repulsive (but well informed) Matt Drudge radio show last night, I learned that the infamous Elvira Arellano had been arrested in a dramatic car-blocking confrontation with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agency.

Today, of course, she has become a...

When I entered the Atlanta home of my brother (Dr. Richard A. Long) on July 22 last, it was to attend a reception he was giving just prior to his being feted, in this his 80th year, by an overflow gathering at a downtown hotel. I was handed a gift-wrapped copy of the below article by Catherine Fox, who was present at the reception. The article was a precursor to a tribute later that day, and apparently it had caused quite a lot of excitement for the subject as well as for the author.

Ms. Fox...

(Reprinted from americanfreedomagenda.org)

Conservative group campaigns against White House ‘abuses'
PR Week, by Ted McKenna, 3/22/2007
WASHINGTON: Amid continuing controversy over the Bush administration's firing of eight federal prosecutors and the FBI's handling of US citizens' financial data and phone records, a new advocacy group of conservatives has launched a campaign to "restore check and balances ... under assault by the executive branch."
The American Freedom Agenda, as...

(The edited reprint of a friend’s submission.)

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home from school. His name was Kyle. He seemed to be carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all of his books on a Friday? – He must really be a nerd." I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends the next afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I walked on, I saw a bunch o...

It may be that folks are just worn out with the inequity bullshit that is never going to get any better no matter how long you rant and rave.
We have this two party crappy system where you vote for the lesser idiot.
The people voted in those damn democrats last time with all their rhetoric about change etc. and the first thing Pelosi wanted was a larger airplane; and the other day they all voted to raise their salaries to $170,000.00 which is the base salary not including staff money and the ...

My response is, “Bah! Humbug!”

I think it’s been said already, however, by someone else.

When I listened to all the sugary sweet renditions of God Bless America, I almost became diabetic. It was also evident that the “powers that be” were being very careful to make “persons of color” visible everywhere in the nationwide celebration.

I remember as a child hearing Kate Smith sing God Bless America on the 4th of July. Back then the world was seen only in black and white. The Whites sang God B...

Let us not get lost in the misleading light of history!

Those who composed and/or set their signatures to the high-sounding poesy of the document that frighteningly declared the independence of the thirteen original colonies from the motherland had a very restricted view of whom they considered proper fellow travelers along that long “course of human events.” Although the tone of the rhetoric made it appear as though they were encompassing the whole of humanity, a closer examination of their...

I was outraged when first hearing of the U.S. Supreme Court’s contradicting itself almost simultaneously by prohibiting the speech of certain students and allowing it for Big Business, but then tempered my emotions, thinking there probably was some obscure point I had missed. Now, seeing my outrage duplicated by respected observers, I find that my initial reaction was well taken. Instead of meeting the challenges presented by the second millennium, this court seems to be retreating to the mid...

I can see why he is a multi-billionaire. He is smarter than most people. I have been wondering for some time why no one was running as an independent.
Americans are sick and tired of the Democrarts and the Republicans and a smart person could capitalize on this.
I do not know why John Edwards did not try as an independent.
Bloomberg has nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

My only hope is that Democrats will not have their heads so far up their ass that they can’t see that this is a Republican ploy.

Even though it would be nice to have a third party, you and I both know it will never be allowed in America.

The Republicans only hope to get back into the White House is to water down the votes by way of a third party that they can quietly slip in the back door again!

Thin about it!!!

An iceberg has drifted into the country’s lukewarm political debate. All of the comfortable chit-chat surrounding the horse races ongoing in both major parties suddenly will take on a sense of uncertain urgency. The ever-blooming rose in their status-quo garden of candidates just lost its glow. Now blooms there an iceberg capable of freezing to a standstill all of the quotidian quips as to, “Who’s up?”.

When I saw multi-billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City being interviewed on a...

When I first heard of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s suggestion to Latino immigrants that they eschew Spanish-language TV in order to learn English, my thoughts were, “What arrogance, what ignorance!”

To establish my personal “bona fides” in this area: I lived for several years in Puerto Rico and Mexico City. In both places, among a myriad of other activities, I taught English at the Berlitz School of Languages. On a daily basis, I listened to English-language radio and read English-language n...

Thomas Jefferson warned us from the very beginning that a standing army easily could fall into the hands of mountebanks. Less than two hundred years later, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had commanded the greatest military force in history, cautioned us against allowing our soldiers in the same playground with other kids who would sell them over-priced slingshots. We didn’t and we didn’t. Now, look what we’ve got: Jefferson’s dreaded standing army and Eisenhower’s foreboding playground scenario co...

Peter Pace is a tongue twister!
Mankind is not worth saving and deserves whatever happens.
Humans foul everything they touch and their supposed obsession with trying to preserve a species when they think it is down to the last is ridiculous.It was not intended for all species to be on this earth forever, or for all flora to forever exist.
However, Mankind in all its wisdom can not comprehend the above simple facts. So we will just keep blundering along thinking we have all the answers to savi...

With my statement concerning the earth taking care of itself, I was referring to its functioning from the hot, steamy beginning--with no need of flora or fauna.

Curtis

There is one problem, however. Humans lose sight of the fact that we are animals. Basic animal instinct is self survival. This is at the expense of others of its species, and other species.

Throughout history we have seen one nation warring against another to gain power. Nothing has changed. Now it is simply called a hostile takeover.

Man, like wolves and other mammals, has learned that self preservation can be done more effectively in a pack. You can call it a club, a government, or just a...

The way we babble on about “saving” the earth, you’d think that the Earth actually needed saving. The earth can take care of itself. After more than four and a half billion years, it would still be here—whether or not any plant had sprung or creature (including us) had crawled upon its surface. It would still be twirling on its axis daily, and making its yearly trek around the sun. The question, then, is not whether the world will be saved; the question is whether humankind will be saved.

An...

Well, now you know why we especially and the world in general are in the condition it finds itself.
Trivia seems to be the theme of the day and this fascination with Paris Hilton, a girl who at age nineteen became famous as a result of a sex tape being on the internet, is absolutely incomprehensible.
Of course, the astounding thing concerning Paris is the lack of parental control they exhibit. I know it is now a bit late for them to take control, but apparently they never exerted any effort ...

First, there was Hitler’s telephonic query, attempting to confirm whether his order of “citycide” had been accomplished: “Is Paris burning.” Then, there was the prideful boasting of the nouveau New York designers concerning the French Haute Couture Industry’s reaction to the formers’ success: “Paris is burning.”

As regards the media phenom Paris Hilton, the response to the first of those quotations is, “Yes, Paris is burning—albeit, through self-immolation.” The response to the second quote ...

WHO WILL BE THE NEXT “AMERICAN IDLE”?

After having listened to both the Democratic and Republican debates, I have come to the conclusion that politics has now entered the arena of television mania.

It was very evident that each contestant was polished and rehearsed, spewing out prepared pat phrases for each question that came up.

There was not a new concept or idea given in either debate. The difference is that now all the rhetoric is super sized and glamorized for television. The only th...

Of course, Fox news mimics its leader Bush and his crowd by coining words and phrases to disguise their true meanings and to invent words to make the worthwhile endeavors of their opponents seem trivial.
As for Dick Cheyney, we all know he is insane.

You see that is exactly the problem we have with our system which automatically makes any asshole who lucks up and becomes president Commander in/and Chief of the armed forces. He or she does not need to know one damn thing about the military or war or combat or anything remotely associated with that sort of thing. Yet, this individual is over all the generals and admirals who have spent their entire lives studying war and tactics.
Hopefully one day Americans will realize that the Founding Fa...

Today is the anniversary of the first D-Day.

Bush’s bullshit slinging around of the terms, “war,” “war-time president” and the like are just that, “bullshit.” He has no idea of what it means to HAVE to go to war when the country is attacked and threatened by powerful NATION STATES that REALLY intend to and are capable of killing and/or enslaving everyone, not only in the United States, but in the world!

That is the REAL fear with which we regarded the invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944. It ...

Fox News is the unofficial(?) organ of the Bush Administration. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, it prides itself on representing the news in an unbiased fashion.

Its high priests are Skipper Roger Ailes, who once was charged with handing out “walking-around” money in Harlem, during an election, and the two radio/TV gurus Bill O’Reilly (the “no-spin” doctor) and Sean Hannity, whose life goal it is to, one day, occupy the golden throne erected by Rush Limbaugh.

As an indication of the to...

Your "rant" style is uncannily like that of the evening commentaries of a 10pm news anchor on Channel 5 -- Hal Fishman. He, too, is eminently intellectual and his commentaries incisive. And, like you, he always hits the nail squarely on the head.
* * *
One day we will awaken and find that this was all one hell of a long nightmare; possibly the remnants of Montezuma’s revenge acquired during a bizarre weekend in Playa de Tijuana!
Seriously, as I get older I’m finding myself unable ...

Yesterday, I said we had become a “Fasciocrasy,” what with the leading presidential candidates of both major parties falling over themselves to use our captive military to do the bidding of the captains of industry who control their purse strings. That still has not changed; however, now they are trying to outdo each other in a sweepstakes designed to use God as a cover.

No matter how pure your heart or noble your goals, if you are an atheist or agnostic, you are not among those of whom they...

The presidential debates—of both major parties--are a clear indication that our form of government, bit by bit, is tending toward rule via fascistic principles. That is when the government, industry and military are all in bed together. Eisenhower warned us about this. And, even more scarily, the goddamned Fourth Estate is getting in on the act! Have you noticed that the new media is being bought up by specific, individual interests—many of them of a non-domestic nature?

In a fascist state, ...

For those who are aware of the gross hypocrisy underlying “freedom and equality,” which is endemic in the history of the United States of America, the fact that the anti-immigrant efforts of the “Minute Men” and their ilk is powered by the deep-seated feelings of white supremacy embedded in this country comes as no surprise.

Thom Harttman is the brilliant author, historian and social commentator who, as talk-host on Air America, bravely relates facts as they are. Since it is impossible for i...

Two friends have I, with talent wide,
Whose lives were touched by war.
When strife began, they did not hide,
And each took up the chore.

The first friend, when Korea broke,
To Hollywood had come.
He’d hardly made a single stroke,
Then heard the martial drum.

His music stopped, and his career
Came to a sudden halt.
And so it was, year after year,
Yes, War held all the fault.

The second friend, some years apart,
Was similarly tapped.
He wound up on the Viet Nam chart;
And therto he was zappe...

Who could have imagined that the bridge to the U.S. 21st century would have been reinforced with the Bible, the Talmud, the Koran and the Book of Mormon? The recently deceased Jerry Falwell was mainly responsible for this phenomenon.

On the surface, this was well within the bounds of the Constitution’s protection of freedom of worship. However, the Falwellian principle would appear to be bent upon subverting that other provision of the Establishment Clause that prohibits the establishment of...

Sir Walter Scott must have anticipated George Tenet when he wrote, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave/When first we practise to deceive!” The abominable “tissue of lies” that Tenet is propagating, in a pitiful attempt to exonerate himself from responsibility in the Iraq disgrace, becomes even more tangled with each telling. The title of his book unwittingly condemns him for all of the pusillanimous protestations pronounced in his mealy-mouthed attempt to detach himself from the criminal deceit ...

Congruent with the National Day of Prayer, Bush is preparing to exercise just the third veto of his administration. He has done so with the “blessing” of racist, homophobic, misanthropic, misogynistic, hypocrite James Dobson and the rest of his ilk. The hate-crimes legislation in question would have expanded the number of groups currently under its protection. Both Bush and Dobson claim Jesus as their “Lord and Savior.”

Jesus muses about all of this:

Oy vey! If they spruced up the Coliseum,...

With the recent, self-serving revelations by Ex-CIA Chief George Tenet, all of the following now seems so clear in retrospect.

At the time of 9/11, I was a volunteer discussion leader at the San Diego Braille Institute. In a group entitled, “News and Views,” we attempted to keep abreast of the happenings in our own bailiwick and abroad. Things went along swimmingly before and sometime after the fall of the Twin Towers, when there was not much controversy built into the daily news. But, after...

A few days ago+, I received from King Richard III the following command to read an article about military generalship. (You will notice the abusive, feudal condescension):

Don't skim... read it.

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198

After reading the article, summoning all the vassal-haste I could muster, I replied:

Dear King Richard III:

Thankfully, I had ZoomText to read the article to me.

It is merely a rehash of obvious history.

Of course, it is incumbent upon the mi...

In ancient Greek and Roman drama, when a situation became too improbable for a logical and timely solution, they would employ a device called deus ex machina (DAY-us-eks-MAH-kih-nuh), literally, “god from a machine.” This particularly favorite implement of Euripides consisted of lowering the representation of one of their gods or goddesses to the stage, using a rope and tackle—usually at the end of a play--so that he/she deistically might deal with an intractable situation. In modern parlance...

Due to the fact that he was front-page news in the post-911 hysteria, it is amazing that John Walker Lind escaped being “torn from limb to limb.” That phrase derives from the medieval practice of, “drawing and quartering.” That was when the guts of a live condemned person were extracted by the use of a white-hot suction device, after which the horses attached to each limb are whipped into action.

For whatever reason, Lind, a teenager from a comfortable, northern California family—considerabl...

It will be noticed that most of the Bushies who screw up or become an embarrassment or non-necessity to this administration usually are given the Medal of Freedom or some other palliating “honor” as a reward for their service. In the case of Paul Wolfowitz it was “banishment” as head of the World Bank.

Wolfowitz is a died-in-the-wool Neoconservative who was a signatory to, “The Project for a New American Century,” and one of the chief proponents of that document’s thesis that invading Iraq i...

While we have been venting against the juvenile jocularity of a shock-jock, the ever mounting scandals within the Bush Administration have been getting an imprudent pass. As every new outlet in the country has a laser lock on the impudence of, “Imus in the Morning,” the targets of a newly emboldened Congress have been sneaking under the radar. Now that Don Imus is duly, and unusually chastened, it is time to re-focus on the things that, during the past four-plus years, have made a political m...

I have listened to and watched Don Imus for many years. He is not a racist. Although he tends to understate it in style and dress, the “I-Man” is quite brilliant. He is an author and book-reviewer. He is an active humanitarian. Apart from the ranch that he and his wife Deidre maintain for children mortally afflicted with cancer, they have been at the forefront in the fight against SIDS and other worthy causes related to children’s and others’ health. Don hates public and social functions, but...

The following was written by, “Matador,” who has difficulty negotiating the response mechanism:

Your posting was an excellent history lesson, and very accurate.

With all that you stated being the case, where are all the screaming protestors marching on the capitol, shouting, “Enough, enough!? Both houses are on a two-week, Easter vacation, and the president is on his ranch for what is ridiculously called, “a working vacation.”

Who gives a damn about some far-off war? You can even hear comm...

The success of armies, since the beginning of time, has been dependent upon one thing: leadership, leadership, leadership. If there is any “undermining” to be done, it is done by the leadership in the field.

With modern armies, the leadership in the field is at the mercy of the domestic leadership that dispatched the armed force. The domestic leadership is affected by how well, or not, it deals with its own, controlling political realities.

Ancient armies were different, but still, it all ...

The following item is reprinted from:

http://terryfaceplace.blogspot.com/2007/03/blackwater-training-camp-planned-in-san.html

TERRYFACEPLACE

CONFESSIONS OF A RELUCTANT ACTIVIST

SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2007

Blackwater Training Camp Planned in San Diego County
There are several reasons to be concerned about the plans for a Blackwater USA military-style training camp in the community of Potrero, located 30 miles east of San Diego, and five minutes from the Mexican border town of Tecate. Much...

Over the weekend, several North American (N.A.) politicos visited a Mid-East market place. Their purpose was to demonstrate that news accounts of overwhelming death and destruction in that country had been over exaggerated, and that a peaceful, Sunday shopping jaunt would prove their point. To punctuate the benignity of their outing, one of the group proudly announced that he had been able to purchase five rugs for five dollars.

What is intended here is to describe how the administration of ...

The leading controversy among Christians during this Easter season is whether one icon is more offensive than the other. In the case in question, the chocolate bunny continues undeterred in its prominence in the Easter basket, wher