FLAWED INTELLIGENCE

George Bush in an interview with Charles Gibson stated he regretted the U.S relied on flawed intelligence as the basis for starting the war in Iraq. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, sipping her Kool Aid, repeated the same regret just recently. We did base our invasion on flawed intelligence: it was the intelligence of Rumsfeld, Cheney, and our addicted-to-failure-president, George Bush. Oh yeah, and throw in Wolfowitz and the other ditzy neo-cons as well.

The neo-cons put a target on Saddam's back in the 1990's, they just couldn't implement anything until after Sept. 11. The only thing they'd succeeded in doing was create an alliance with the leader-in-exile of the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmad Chalabi, a convicted criminal whom the neo-cons described as the George Washington of Iraq. Chalabi didn't care what they called him as long as they kept giving him money, which they did. These are the seeds of the Iraqi war. And these men are the creators of the flawed intelligence.

Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were so obsessed that following September 11, (although Ben Laden, the architect of 9/11 was known to be based in Afghanistan), they wanted to attack Iraq. They had this fantasy that they could get rid of Saddam, democratize Iraq and it would provide a model for the entire Middle East. This fantasy obliterated any other reality for these deep thinkers, and they were willing to use the tragedy of September 11 to make it real. Such cold, cynical, heartless thinking is more than flawed intelligence, it's evil. That these men thought of of 9/11 as an opportunity to implement some vague neo-con scatter brained plan is an abomination.

Enter Cheny, the next Machiavellian brainiac, who decides that CIA information will now come directly to him, unfiltered. Prior to this, all information gathered by the CIA was checked to make sure it was factual before it was passed on to the president. So, now this mishmash of information is totally unreliable. Nobody knows good intel from bad, but Cheney begins to cherry pick whatever he needs to back up the neo-con plan to attack Iraq and get rid of Saddam. Yes, Cheney purposely relied on flawed intelligence to push us into war. There was even a cherry picking agency created by the Pentagon. It was called the Office of Special Plans. This agency's only job was to sift through the ragbag of intel and prepare assessments suitable for use in the Bush Administration's prewar scare campaign.

So, the president and his staff purposely shaped the flawed intelligence they now use to excuse themselves. That takes chutzpah to its highest level. Yet, the president, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, don't seem to feel they've done anything wrong. The dead speak their names with dread, but these men continue spouting the same bullshit, seeing the rightness of their idea instead of the wrongness of its execution, and all the bloody horror it unleashed.

And Condoleeza Rice? The puppet speaks with its master's voice.

MASS TRANSIT DERAILS ITSELF

Now mass transit is asking for bailout money. This one's the worst, because mass transit's financial mess comes from their trying to cheat the government out of tax money. Yeah, these crooks sold their railroad cars to banks and then leased them. This let them avoid taxes and they and the banks split whatever was saved by this gambit. The Internal Revenue caught the irregularity and started questioning their little juggling act. Caught cheating, they became liable for a lot of money.

So these kings of chutzpah, after trying to cheat the government, are now asking the government to bail them out! What are they thinking? "Hey, if you hadn't caught us trying to cheat we wouldn't be stuck with this huge debt. You owe us!" So we're in the process of making a gift of the money these transit pickpockets were out to steal. I think this is as crazy as it gets. But we'll see, I thought the same thing when Bush was elected for a second time.

HIDE YOUR CATS AND DOGS

Bush The Lame, stopped drinking years ago but is now drunk with power. He attacked Iraq because Cheney and Wolfiwitz thought it was a good idea, reduced human rights because God told him to, tortured people because...well, what else do you do with a terrorist except terrorize him? It's just pure logic. And if all the tortured weren't terrorists, well, they should've been, because not being terrorists meant they were tortured for no good reason, which is useless all around. But sometimes you have to burn good wood to get ashes, right?

And now, lame but game, our failed president is out to override the environmental laws and the endangered species act. It seems nature and animals are getting in the way of progress and our dimwitted dean of failure is going to push regulations that will stop the incoming administration, who seem to be a touchy feely crowd (ugh!), from trying to continue protecting the air we breathe and the animals dying to extinction. Damn liberals, it's all that caring about things besides money that's put our economy in trouble. These people are out of control, they even want to close Guantanamo. (Hey, I'm not kidding you, they actually do.) But our bush leaguer president is going to stop them cold before they occupy the drivers seat and ruin everything Bush has worked so hard to destroy. He believes in God, totally, but if God's creations get in the way of doing business, they have to go. God will understand. He's all forgiving. I just hope that when he finally meets his maker, God will do the right thing, and tell him to go to Hell.

HONK IF YOU WANT A BAILOUT

It used to be Brother Can You Spare A Dime? nowadays it's Brother Can You Spare Billions Of Dollars. The Big Three auto makers of Detroit are now on line behind Wall Street with a battered tin cup they hope to fill with billions of taxpayer dollars. They want $25 billion from the Treasury Department's $700 billion economic rescue fund. We've already filled the coffers of the mismanagers of Wall Street, who, of course, quickly mismanaged the tax payer money given them and now hope to mismanage more.

I'm no economist, but I think businesses fail for a reason, and until the reason is ferreted out, money isn't the solution. Greed was the reason for Wall Street's failure, yet our money was given to the greedy without restricitions, and look how well that's working out. Now we're to bail out the automotive industry on their word that they promise to do better in the future.

We're talking about an industry who after the last oil crisis thought gas guzzling SUV's were the way to go. The problems they're facing aren't new, these are problems that have been accruing for years. They're like Rip Van Winkle; they've been asleep for a decade and now they've awakened to find they've lost more than just time, they've lost money.

Businesses fail because people don't want to buy their product. Should we invest in a business that doesn't know why it's failing? The automotive industry says it's because of the tumbling world economy. I say it's because like Wall Street, and the Bush Administration, there's an arrogant disregard for any reality except their own egocentric point of view. All these institutions have to get their heads out of their you-know-whats before we all go down the toilet.

IS OBAMA 'THE ONE?'

Oprah said she thought Obama was THE ONE, and now that he's been elected, others are hoping she's right. Let's face it, all of us are hoping she's right. The conservatives are, of course, disappointed that their messiah (msiah?) Sara Palin didn't get elected. Ms. Palin is in Alaska mourning the loss of the wardrobe she must return to the Republican Party. They offered her $75,000, she spent $150,000. OK, economics wasn't her strong suit, but it wasn't McCain's either.

Actually, after listening to the endless array of financial experts presenting solutions, and listening to another endless array of experts explaining why the first group is wrong, I've come to the conclusion the mess we're in is so complex and so deep that nobody really knows how to fix it.

First, the polititians went into panic-mode and started throwing billions of tax payers dollars at the problem. McCain flew down to Washington and sat for a day without adding anything to the discussion. He was tired and it all went over his head anyway. Greed being the main cause of the problem, our brilliant polititians decided throwing billions of taxpayer dollars into the greedy maws of Wall Street was the best solution. The banks took the money and sat on it, or invested it for themselves. They were suppose to help create a money-flow to stimulate the economy, this was after all a stimulus package, instead like the money-junkies they are, they kept it all . And the nefarious AIG threw excessive parties for themselves with our money. Now AIG had said it was fairly solvent and only needed, you know, maybe 84 billion or so to stay afloat. Well, those billions disappeared almost as soon as they touched AIG's outstretched hand, and now they're out there with a bigger tin cup. The suspicion is they lied about being close to solvent and the money disappeared into a huge debt they were trying to hide. So, the polititians who know nothing about economics except that it involves money are just throwing it right into the same hole we're trying to crawl out of. Paulson finally (!) realized this was stupid and has started putting some of the money where it might actually do some good. But it's only the beginning. If ignorance is bliss, our polititians are in nirvana. Somebody has to attack this crisis with intelligent action. Obama, if you are the messiah, it's time for your first miracle.

OBAMA ACES IT

McCain, with a backdrop of military men, declared that because of his military service and experience he was the better leader and protector of this country. That would've worked for me except for the fact that on the other side, with Obama, was (and is), Colin Powell. If this were a card game, McCain would be playing a king, but Obama has the ace.

HOW TO BECOME A POLITITIAN

Chisel down the facts until they say what you want them to say, (half truths are better than none), then repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat them, until you almost believe them yourself. Smooth out the details, until what you have is a good slogan, or tag line. Something to energize the fans. Have them shouting it, putting it on bumper stickers, T-Shirts, etc. It helps your campaign, and the merchandising helps the economy. A win-win situation. Repeating the same message over and over again, you don't even have to think about what you're saying, just look enthusiastic, feisty, determined, all the emotions that the words would make you feel if you had just thought of them. Of course, you didn't. You have a staff for that. They do everything but chew your food for you.

You're out to win, so don't worry if what you're saying is going against everything you actually believe. The political experts have carefully honed your image, you're a populist, and as you push and shove through the crowds of ordinary folk, glad handing, and grinning at them as if you're genuinely glad to be amongst them, be grateful that this will soon end and you'll be able to ignore this cackling carnival of clowns and relax with your own kind, your fellow poseurs, the powerful elite. You will take the people's hunger for change, their overwhelming need to be led, their endearing ignorance, and turn it into a formidable weapon. Power to the polititian. Amen.

LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE, UP OR DOWN.

In my dictionary the word liberal means "Open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values." I like that word "open." Open, to me, means alive. Open to new ideas, new feelings, new knowledge. Open means you're not stuck, you're free-flowing, if something new looks better than what you've been doing, you're willing to try it out. You're open. Openess leads to evolution. Yeah, Mother Nature's a liberal. How do you think we crawled out of the ocean, over the land, and into the present. Openess. Openess leads to learning, which leads to advancement, which leads to things moving forward. Mistakes are made, that's part of any learning, but being open you learn from those mistakes, and that gives you knowledge. Someone who's liberal becomes wiser, more experienced, more open. What's wrong with that?

Conservative on the other hand, according to my dictonary, means "Holding to traditional values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion."
Holding. Not letting go. Stuck in the same place and locking all the doors. Suffocating. Repeating the same things over and over again because it's what you've always done and, if it's up to you, what you'll always do. Cautious about change. Boring. Scaredy cats. Change makes them nervous they may discover something that contradicts their precious traditional values. Conservative thinking is a coffin where the only innovation is the amazing amount of dust it collects. If nature was conservative we'd still be breathing water.

So, how did liberal become a dirty word, while the word conservative is allowed to be waved like a flag of honor? Why have the dust-gatherers been allowed to intimidate those in tune with true evolution? Why are the zombies ruling the living?

George Bush declared himself a 'compassionate conservative.' He is an arrogant, ignorant, boor, who has led this country into a series of disasters from which we may never recover. And now there's McCain, a prisoner once again, this time by the Conservative branch of his party. He's stifled his personal values, has gone from fighter to backbiter, and has run a shameful campaign. The conservatives have ruled this country through Bush, have ruined it, and still they insist their way is better. That's because they don't see anything except their way.

They have a shackled McCain to do their bidding. He sounds like McCain, looks like McCain, but he's become just another pod in conservative politics. Maverick, my ass. He's a conservative, and that means he can't move forward because he's always looking backward. The conservatives are taking America into the grave, we have to get out of that grave, get out into the open. Yeah, I like that word, 'open.' Let's open every window, every door, let's explore the new, push out the stale air of conservatism, and breath in fresh air, before it's too late.

Yeah, that's right, what I'm saying is, Vote for Obama.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

While the economy flounders, Barack and McCain engage in a contest of endurance rather than intelligence. What a shame. They might as well be having a daily food fight. I've learned nothing from either candidate. They are shadows waving the flag and spouting the message of the day, each message a strand in what they hope will be a big enough net to capture the most votes. They'll tell you what you want to hear, like a man trying to get a woman to go to bed with him. Oh yeah, and like the woman being wooed, we believe they love us, and we hope as we succumb, we won't get screwed, not in a bad way. But their eyes are on the mirror, and we're just another notch on their belt. Still although we're bedding with a stranger, there's still hope. Everything they tell us can't be bullshit. Can it?

RAGGEDY PALIN

Today Sarah Palin spoke out in defense of the $250,000 wardrobe the Republican Party had so generously bestowed on her. She stood at the microphone, feisty as hell, and told the adoring crowd how she was glad to be able to clear the air concerning this ridiculous news story. Palin then preceded to let everyone know that the clothes she was wearing were from a small thrift shop in Alaska, then started a lovely soliloquy about her wedding ring, which her husband had in his pocket because it sometimes hurt when she was shaking hands with her admirers. It cost her $35 and she bought it herself. She figured it wasn't the ring but the love it symbolized that mattered. It was a three hanky performance if I ever heard one. But that story, as touching and lovely as it was, never explained the $250,000 worth of stuff the Republican Party gave her and her family.

Everyone who's asked about Palin's expensive new wardrobe acts annoyed, and says, "It's all going to charity." That's not an explanation. Why was the stuff given to her in the first place? And if Palin preferred her respectable Republican cloth coat why didn't she say so when they were delivering all those boxes to her hotel room, or when the hair stylist and professional makeup people came knocking? And who did the shopping? I was intrigued when a top McCain aide said a third of the items were already returned because they were the wrong size. Palin isn't that ignorant. She knows her own dress size. Who was sifting through the racks on her behalf? It wasn't McCain, he's dressed for monotony. Could it be that standing beside Cindy McCain, who's always stylishly, and expensively dressed and coiffed, made Palin look a little like, well, Joe The Plumber? Perhaps Cindy McCain tried to help Raggedy Palin out by shopping for her? Ugrade her style? Palin should feel insulted. This should make her realize that the party she belongs to isn't interested in Joe The Plumbers, they just need their votes. The Republican Party looks down on common people, they despise the Democrats for actally caring about them. Republicans think they're aristocrats, and Palin will shrug off the insult, because they've made her feel she's been adopted by royalty. She's their little princess now, and there's no doubt in anybody's mind that she means to be Queen.

McCAIN: ECONOMIXED UP.

McCain admitted he needed to be educated on economics. He said it to the Wall Street Journal, and repeated it to the Boston Globe. Do we, with our struggling economy, really want a president-in-training when it comes to the economy?

THE McCain-LIEBERMAN TICKET

There's an article by Jane Mayer in the Oct. 27th New Yorker magazine called THE INSIDERS that explains how Sarah Palin became McCain's choice for vice president. It turns out she wasn't his first choice, he wanted Joseph Lieberman. But just the fact that he's known to be pro-choice knocked Lieberman out of the running. Romney was suggested, but McCain actually hates him.
A blogger named Adam Brickley, inspired by the Hillary Clinton campaign, thought, having a Republican woman as a candidate was the way to go. He searched Wikipedia and election sites for Republican women but rejected them one by one until he came upon Sarah Palin. Why Palin? Brickley is quoted as saying, "I hate to use the words 'cult of personality' but she reminded me of Obama." OK, so now we have Hillary Clinton inspiring a Republican to settle on a candidate who reminds him of Obama. Hence, Copy-Cat-Politics is born! Go, mavericks.
The article details how interest in Palin grew and how McCain was eventually cajoled by his conservative cronies to put aside his personal choices, (Country first!), and choose the candidate they preferred instead. Sort of like an arranged marriage. It's a sad story. He (McCain) loved Joe (not the plumber) Lieberman, but had to marry the bride (Palin) that his conservative parents chose for him. Damn, I'm tearing up again.
So, we have a candidate for president whose most important decision prior to campaigning was made by others, and a vice presidential candidate who can't dress herself. Yes, I know the $150, 000 included makeup and hair styling. All that money just to make her look like Tina Fey? Go mavericks!

PALIN THE BARBIE DOLL GETS PANACHE

Sarah Palin has finally been outed as McCain's Barbie. When you buy a doll, first you play act with her, give her dialogue, maybe even a speech or two, but eventually you want to dress her up. And that's what the Republican Party has done with Our Sarah. They bought her $150,000 worth of clothes. $150,000 worth of clothes so she could look like, you know, the average gal, like Joe the Plumbers girlfriend, maybe. I'm sure Joe's girlfriend would buy $150,000 of clothes in two months in a McCain blinking minute.

Was Sarah Palin's wardrobe too small town? Small towns are the 'real America' according to Palin herself. Her fans liked Palin because she looked like a real person, but the Republican Party thought perhaps Palin looked too real. It made them nervous, because let's face it, few of them are from small towns. So,they had to tone down her small town Soccer Mom style with a little urban panache. $150,000 worth. That's panache and then some.
This worries me. We have a potential presidential candidate (hey, he is 72)who can't be trusted to dress herself. And McCain thinks Obama's unprepared.

Actually McCain explained that the clothes, when Palin's finished with them, will go to charity. Our Sarah is just breaking them in for those poor unfortunates, like Joe the Plumber's girlfriend
who don't have the Republican Party buying them a wardrobe. Excuse me, I think I'm gonna cry.

AL-QAEDA SAYS, "VOTE McCAIN!

It was reported today that Al-Qaeda wants McCain to win the election. They must be confused. Isn't Obama the terrorist? It seems that while McCain's thinning hair stands straight up at the thought of Obama becoming president, the real terrorists are rooting for McCain, because they think he'll continue Bush's unpopular wars ad infinitum, which helps them recruit more terrorists. What they don't realize is that McCain, unlike Obama, is already tested, and what he's planning is to protect, or invade, (he's not telegraphing his moves), the Iraq-Pakistan border. Now no president has ever thought of doing that before. What a maverick.

PLUMMING THE DEPTHS OF POLITICS

First we'll let Joe The Plumber, McCains newest Weapon of Mass Misdirection, speak for himself.
"You know I've always wanted to ask one of these guys a question and really corner them and get them to answer a question for once," he said, "instead of tap dancing around it and unfortunately I asked the question, but I still got a tap dance. Almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr."

Obama actually spent five minutes tap dancing for this fraud. He received a real answer, he just never asked a real question. He pretended he wanted to buy a business for $250,ooo to $280,000. This wasn't the "American dream" he spoke of, this was, and is, a pipe dream. Joe owed back taxes, wasn't really a plumber-just worked illegally as one for over a decade-and would actually benefit from the tax plan that Baraca very patiently laid out for him. These five minutes would've quickly faded if Obama hadn't in the course of those five minutes stated he wanted to "spread the wealth." Starting with the third debate McCain has used that sound bit-it's too small to be called a bite-to tie Obama to socialism. Smear campaigns are used by those without the intellectual heft to actually compete . Smear campaigns worked for Bush, hopefully they won't work for McCain.

Joe The Plumber is McCains new war cry. You can see his face light up with glee when he says it. This guy is a McCain-Rove invention.He's not Joe, He's Samuel Joseph Wurzelberger-but Sam The Plumber doesn't doesn't have that everyman ring to it. and besides this has nothing to do with Joe or Sam, it has to do with McCain unable to climb out of the mudhole that's become his Campaign Headquarters.

I smell a rat. This Joe The Plumber who voted for McCain in the primary, confronts Obama with a total fabrication of his situation-for what reason? He obviously wasn't looking for an honest answer, the answer was immaterial to him. And McCain has invited Joe (or Sam) to attend the coming rallies. Was it a setup? Is McCain using volunteer constituents to ask Obama leading questions in the hope that in the course of answering Obama will honestly say something that McCain can regurgitate as duplicitous misdirection. McCain is not Bush. McCain is turning into Nixon.

McCain SEEING RED.

John McCain is now calling Obama's "spreading the wealth" comment, socialism. You can spell that c-o-m-m-u-n-i-s-m if you like. John McCain's initials are the same as Senator Joseph McCarthy, the chief red-baiter of the 50's. Coincidence? I'd rather not indulge in mcCainism.

IGNORANCE ATTRACTS IGNORANCE

Sarah Palin's paucity of knowledge would be amusing if she weren't running for vice president of the United States. She has taken political double talk to a new low. She doesn't know what she's talking about and it shows. When reporters expose this fact McCain calls it "gotcha journalism," a catchy phrase to cover up the fact that she keeps tripping over her own ignorance. During her debate with Joe Biden she was an amusing cartoon, while he spoke like he actually knew something. But the next day Sara Palin's fans were delighted because her ignorance hadn't revealed outright stupidity. They felt relieved, and could now whole heartedly support her run for vice president. With smiles and winks and down home chumminess she won them over. Is that all it takes? Shouldn't there be some semblance of knowing how to connect the dots with some intelligence? It was like seeing someone at the Olympic Trials arriving at the finish line smiling and waving, and though not really qualifying, allowed to go on to the actual Olympics because she didn't fall on her face. She knows how to rally the troops. But ignorance attracts ignorance, and her fans are becoming a mob. You can hear them shouting "terrorist", "kill him", and other ugly things, that belie all culture and civilization in a primitive cry for blood. It isn't Sarah Palin's fault that she inspires the prehistoric at her rallies. She isn't aware of anything except her own ambition. If she hears anything at all, it's her name coming to her like kisses on the breeze. The rest sounds like Power. The guttural shouts, the snarling invectives, the punchlines of prejudice: it all sounds like POWER. But you can't blame Sarah Palin. She's ignorant. She's totally, and frightfully, ignorant.

OLD DOG, OLD TRICKS

McCain, during the last debate, reminded me of an old bulldog who looks domesticated but is tied up because you never know when he'll come after you. It's that temper thing you keep reading about. That tight smile, isn't friendly, not to me, even when his lips are saying "My friends." over and over and over again, there's a tension crouched behind that smile that knows, without even looking, where your jugular vein is located.
Continuing my dog metaphor, Obama was like a sleek greyhound, confident that even if the old bulldog broke his tether he could easily outrun him. Which is exactly what he's doing.

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

The third non-debate has taken place. Most pundits rated Obama the winner, yet McCain was out the next day toadying to the faithful in order to maintain some kind of momentum. McCain came out fighting during the last debate, but he's punchy with ambition, and he's using methods he would denounce if he wasn't the one using them. Karl Rove while pushing Bush for president in 2000, maligned McCain, who was also running, in the most despicable way. He claimed McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh was actually an illegitimate black child. McCain is now using Karl Rove disciples to hack his way to the presidency using the same unscrupulous methods against Obama . He has gone from victim to bully, trashing Obama with whatever mud his managers can find. You don't climb to the top on a ladder of mud. Bush did it, and we suffer the result; McCain should know that path is dead, as will be his run for the presidency if he doesn't regain his integrity. He talks integrity, but actions speak louder than words.

Why is everybody so upset by Sarah Palin? She's exactly what she says she is--a "soccer mom."Whenever she speaks you can picture her leading a PTA meeting and feel perfectly comfortable; it's only when you try to picture her leading the country that you find yourself sweating and squirming. Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin is funny, Sarah Palin leading this country is frightening. For months McCain slammed Obama for being a celebrity and not having enough experience. So, he countered that by getting his own celebrity, with even less experience. Perhaps, countradicting his own objections to Obama made sense to a maverick. But, it seems to me, there's less maverick and more political posturing in his decision. If it was a dog trick we'd be seeing McCain biting his own ass.