Sanders cartoon/commentary

Inside the Bachmann & Perry campaign

2011-09-06T06:28:00.000-07:00

The Two Faces of Rick Perry

2011-08-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

2011-08-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

No one could have seen it coming!

2011-05-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

2011-05-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

Recent startling discovery.

2011-04-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

While working the desk at Six Mile Cypress Slough (our wetlands preserve) on a slow day, I decided to Google my old Band and see what turned up. To my amazement, up popped two videos from 1990 when we were regularly playing the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival in Davenport, Iowa. They were shot by some unknown person at a Sunday gig that we played at the grave site of Bix Beiderbecke before 200 jazz fans. Apparently, he uploaded the videos recently. Bix became a legend as a young white innovator with his jazz cornet. He died at age 27 of alcohol addiction. The first video below is actually the second set we played. The video below that is our opening set.

BBMS PRESENTS BASIN ST SALOON. OAKDALE,CEMETARY,BIX'S GRAVE. 7/27/90

2011-04-24T12:33:00.000-07:00

BBMS PRESENTS BASIN STREET SALOON BAND OF MILWAUKEE,WI AT BIX FEST 7/27/90

2011-04-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

Sir Rob 'em Good at work.

2011-04-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

...and happy landings!

2011-04-20T15:57:00.000-07:00

Profile in Courage

2011-02-25T17:58:00.000-08:00

Statesman at work!

2011-02-25T11:23:00.000-08:00

CEO still at work

2011-02-23T07:58:00.000-08:00

For Whom the Bells Tolls

2011-02-11T15:04:00.000-08:00

Governor Scott keeps his promise, unfortunately!

2011-02-11T15:01:00.000-08:00

Fool Obama once...

2010-12-20T13:47:00.000-08:00

Slow Learner

2010-12-09T16:16:00.000-08:00

Truth & Consequences

2010-10-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, if gays in the military suddenly enjoyed the same constitutional rights as their heterosexual comrades, it would have “enromous consequences for out troops.” He’s got a point. One of the “consequences” would be 14,000 lingquists, tecnicians, pilots, riflemen and commanding officers would still be honorably serving their country, instead of pounding the pavement of civilian life.

Another “consequence” would be the survival of military combatants who otherwise might be dead were it not for the skill and bravery of their gay comrades who fought along side them in battle.

The final “consequence” would be dealing with homophobic career officers and enlisted personnel whose ignorance and bigotry facilitates contentious behavior in a unit.

That should be simple: Shape up or ship out!

2010-08-09T15:35:00.000-07:00

2010-07-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

2010-07-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

2010-07-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

Boehner, Dr. Quack!

2010-07-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

Collateral damage isn't collateral!

2010-06-09T06:51:00.000-07:00

In April WikiLeak exposed an Apache helicopter crew gunning down unarmed civilians, including two journalists, in Iraq. Included in the footage, shot from the Apache camera, can be seen on You Tube, we witnessed the murder of two men who drove up in a van to rescue a wounded civilian. The van which was riddled with bullets, also contained two children, who, fortunately were not killed.

We hear the Apache crew laughing and joking about “those dead bastards,” and chomping at the bit to kill the wounded, crawling civilian. When watching the children being taken from the van, one of the crew members remarks, “That’s what they get for bringing their kids.”

What we haven’t seen or heard in the intervening time is any news about the U.S. investigation or decision making as to the culpability of the Apache crew.

Now we hear via Associated Press that the Army has detained a 22 year-old Army Specialist in connection with the leak of the Video. Ah, yes, as standard procedure from Defense and State Departments, the messenger is the real culprit!! The State Department spokesman praddles about exposure of information classified as secret.

I have been a unit commander in Korea, with secret clearance, and am here to tell you a great deal of what the Army classifies as secret should be classified as Cover Our Asses. Meanwhile the culprit Army Specialist remains in confinement with no charges leveled against him. And meanwhile, the dead civilians rest under Iraq soil.

What is wrong with this picture?

2010-06-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

2010-05-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

I don’t know why anyone should be surprised, much less shocked , by the catastrophic oil well blowout in the Gulf Of Mexico—unless, of course, you’ve been living under a rock. Environmentalist and reputable scientists have been warning us about the risks of off shore oil drilling for at least 30 years.

Politicians, presidents and regulators have been in the back pocket of Big Oil for a long as I have been drawing political cartoons and that is 50 years. However, that particular relationship reached a new high—or rather low—when the Bush administration allowed Vice President Dick Cheney to gather oil executives together to secretly rewrite U.S. energy policy.

The only new aspect to this debacle is the blatant disregard for even the pretense of regulatory oversight by the Minerals Management Service which allowed BP to write its own “regulations.”

The hypocritical dimensions to this tragedy are almost too numerous to mention, not the least of it are the Senators and Congressmen who are, today, sitting in judgement with their back pockets filled with contributions from the oil industry.

Then there is Mr. Kum Ba Ya, who has been President for a year and apparently had a deaf ear to all the environmental and scientific road signs blinking DANGER! DANGER! He bought into the oil industry fairy tale about the technological advances that made deep water drilling a viable alternative.

This is not to mention the myth that offshore drilling would greatly add to our energy independence.The only thing it will add is big oil profits.

Which brings me to two questions: Why wasn't the adminstration and BP mustering barrers to protect the Lousiana wetlands on day two after the blowout? And why aren't giant oil tankers in the gulf sucking up the oil spill?

The Real World

2010-04-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

Chickens coming home to roost.

2010-04-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

2010-04-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

Fish or cut bait, Mr. President!

2010-04-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

It is time for the Obama administration to look back and reclaim this nation’s honor that was tainted by the Bush administration’s policy of torture. It is time to reclaim for future generations those principals of the Geneva Convention, of Nuremberg and of accountability that were the legacy of a past generation.

President Obama says he wants to look forward and not dwell on the past. That is acceptable only if you subscribe to the idea that there is nothing to be learned from the past and therefore no lessons to be learned for the future.

To suggest, as President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder did, that those carrying out torture techniques should have immunity from prosecution because they were only following orders, is an insult to the legacy of Nuremberg and gives credence to the twisted legal logic of the Bush Justice Department sycophants, John Woo and J.S. Bybee. It is also an insult to the legal profession.

When battered by the sordid details of the Bush White House policy which facilitated the CIA’s water boarding in secret, black site, prisons --- President Obama assured us that anyone exceeding the Woo-Bybee torture guidelines would be prosecuted.

Well, Mr. President, it is time to fish or cut bait.

Recently disclosed internal CIA e-mails not only revealed that the CIA destroyed video tapes of water boarding (which we knew a year ago) but that higher ups including former agency head, Porter Goss, approved of their destruction. (Can anyone spell obstruction of Justice?)Associated Press reported that Jose Rodriguez, the agency’s top clandestine officer thought the tapes would be "devastating" to the CIA.

The AP story further reports that the documents indicate that "the videos showed that interrogators DID NOT FOLLOW the water boarding procedures" handed down by Bush administration.

For more evidence of how far we have drifted towards denial and away from the harsh truth, one need only look at the Associated Press lead paragraph which uses the euphemism, "harsh interrogation" for the word torture.

Separating men from the boys in Florida.

2010-04-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

Another Limbaugh Lie.

2010-03-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

De Ja Vue!

2010-03-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

If there was one quote that best articulated the sum of the early 60's, I would nominate this one by Barry Goldwater,”...extremism in defense of liberty is no vice...and moderation in pursuit justice is no virtue.”

This week a note with that quote attached to a brick was thrown through the window of a Democratic Headquarters in New York. De ja vue. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

When I moved to the Kansas City Star from the Greensboro Daily News in 1963, a subculture of extremism had swept across the Midwest in quest of various lost “liberties” as seen in the eyes of the beholders.

George Wallace rode the crest of a “segregation forever” landslide into the Governorship of Alabama in January of 1963 using rhetoric that was red meat to prejudiced tendencies across the country. His “stand at the schoolhouse door” of the University of Alabama plus his bigoted bombast crackled across the synapses of those on the border of paranoia—and those ready and willing to exploit that border for personal and political gain.

The reverberations from the Greensboro sit-ins and the path President Kennedy laid out in his civil rights proposals, fed into those circuits.

The reality of equality in education was played out in the confines of institutions that were isolated from the daily give and take of social intercourse. Not many adults spent time in schools before or after the Supreme Court decision that resulted in integration.

However, most all adults exercised their social habits in places of public accommodations from time to time---and when the impending reality of equality of service in restaurants, bars, motels and such loomed large in the national consciousness---suddenly, it was up close and personal.
This was not only an affront to segregationists and others with ethnic prejudices but is was a coalescing force among those with strong anti-government sentiments, particularly those who embraced the outer edges of a libertarian view.

The John Birch Society, an ultra-conservative “Patriot” group, founded in 1958 by candy manufacturer Robert Welch, Jr.–-claimed a membership in 1961 of over 100,000 and (in gross exaggeration) “sympathizers” of upwards to a million.

The Bible of the Society was Welch’s Blue Book, in which he equates the U.S. and Soviet Governments as being controlled by “cabal of internationalists” bent on a “New World Order”. He considered liberals to be “secret communist traitors” .He called President Dwight D. Eisenhower a possible “conscious, dedicated agent of the Communist Conspiracy.”
The John Birch Society opposed the Civil Rights movement because Welch considered it to be rife with Communists.

Also active in this fringe milieu was one Robert Bolivar DePugh, a financially successful entrepreneur in veterinary medicine who founded Biolab Corporation in the small town of Norborne, Missouri in the late 50's.

By the early 60's he had organized and recruited a terror prone militia group called the Minutemen. They believed a Communist invasion was coming and their mission was to amass a cache of weapons and train in guerilla warfare.

Taking a page from the John Birch Society’s book, they were dedicated to eradicating Communist spies they “knew” infested our government.

DePugh published a monthly magazine called “On Target” with a logo image of the circle and cross-hairs of a rifle scope (think Sarah Palin). Its mantra was “Traitors beware, the cross-hairs are on the back of your neck.” My name was superimposed under the cross-hairs for some time.

One October afternoon, I was seated at my drawing board in one corner of the large room that housed the entire editorial staff of the newspaper. As I sat there making some preliminary sketches, I heard a commotion and the loud clatter of a typewriter crashing to the floor. Looking up I saw a uniformed postman wading past reporter’s desks, knocking off typewriters and inboxes.

He had his mail bag over one shoulder and was shoving objects and people out of his path as he headed directly towards me with a fixed glare in his eyes. Chasing several feet behind him was our security guard. About halfway through his charge, the man reached into his mailbag. My first thought was that he had a gun.

The security guard caught the man just as he got a few feet from me. As the guard yanked him by his neck to a stop, the man’s hand pulled a sheaf of papers from his bag and threw them in my direction, yelling “Put these in the paper you son-of-a-bitch!”

They turned out to be copies of white supremacist cartoons. I picked up one to examine it. It depicted a large black man leering as he choked a little white girl.

The Goldwater campaign for President dovetailed nicely with the ugly fanaticism of the time and rallied silk stocking CEOs to the “conservative groundswell” that hijacked the Republican Party.
However, back then there were no 24/7 television talking heads to bring the paranoia into living rooms night after night—and no internet for instant fanning of the flames—and people actually read newspapers.

Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson by an historic landslide.

The irony of the note attached to that brick thrown through that New York headquarters, is that Barry Goldwater in later years, reflecting on his presidential campaign in 1964, concluded that the Republican Party had been taken over “by a bunch of kooks!”

De ja vue!

Like the Florida budget can afford this...

2010-03-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

GOP on the record!

2010-03-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

Thus saith Stupak...

2010-03-10T07:49:00.000-08:00

Imagine this: A member of the U.S. Congress is blocking health care reform until the legislation prohibits federal or private dollars being spent on vasectomies. Get the picture? This is a perfectly legal medical procedure that will be banned in the U.S. because of the religious tenants of one member of Congress and highly vocal lobbyists who support such a ban.

This parallel is exactly what is going in the efforts of Congressman Bart Stupak and the abortion lobby. A perfectly legal medical procedure will be effectively banned to accommodate the religious beliefs of a few. Not only would Stupak prohibit federal money being used for this legal medical procedure–but it would prohibit private insurance money from being used.

Of course, we would never see legislators wringing their hands over vasectomies, even though the procedure plainly interdicts the path to human reproduction. After all, vasectomies are a male thing, not to be tampered with—and in cafeteria pick-and-choose religion, that form of life interdiction is left in the food-for-thought line.

The real relevant question ( that should be raised with outrage), is why any form of money should be denied for a legal and scientifically sound medical procedure?

Like father, like daughter.

2010-03-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

Tea Party hero at work.

2010-03-09T11:01:00.000-08:00

Rubio the hypocrite

2010-03-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

Whacko at work!

2010-03-03T06:34:00.000-08:00

Vampire Health Care

2010-03-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

From The GOP Big Tent...

2010-02-28T16:48:00.000-08:00

Some things never change!

2010-02-27T06:32:00.000-08:00

Reality check on economic history

2010-02-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

The election of Ronald Reagan in 1981 revitalized America Inc.—the merged assets of corporate, political and personal greed—that had been somewhat dormant since the 1930s. At the same time, a credible survey of University seniors, revealed in anonymous responses that large numbers of our potential future leaders were cheats. Significantly, the champion cheaters were business majors with 86% of them admitting they cheated.

President Reagan’s embrace of the 1930's trickle-down economics and his simpleton mantra of “government is the problem”not the “solution”struck a responsive chord in the hearts of millions of American voters. They loved his cue-card homilies, his welfare bashing and his de-regulation fear mongering.

I mattered not that Reagan led us to abandon our progressive tax structure so as to enrich the wealthiest among us. It mattered not that Reaganomics increased our national debt from 2.5 % of the national economy when he took office—to 5% by the time he left. (The interest payments on the that debt went from $69 billion in 1981 to $169 billion at the end of his administration.)

It also mattered not that two years into Reagan’s first term, we experienced the worst recession since the great depression with an unemployment high of
10.8 %. In short, the Reagan presidency started American Inc. on the road to our present destination.

We look back and see a path of unbridled greed, littered with corporate carcasses like Enron, Tyco, and Author Anderson--- that were once guided by corporate felons.

The zenith of de-regulation and the facilitation of corporate-political greed came under the aegis of George W. Bush, his evangelical right wing base and the Republican party. Texas Senator Phil Gramm led the charge.

After the 1929 stock market crash, Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act that would separate commercial banks from investment banks (which deal with speculative trading and mergers) and thus encourage market stability.

In 1999 Senator Gramm shepherded a bill through Congress that gutted the Glass-Steagall Act allowing commercial banks, investment banks and insurers to merge—think Citibank, Travelers Group, Smith-Barney, etc. Then after George W. Bush’s election, Gramm slipped an amendment into an omnibus appropriations bill titled Commodity Futures Modernization Act. It deregulated derivatives trading and exempted energy trading from regulatory oversight----think the current economic disaster and the Enron debacle.

Meanwhile Un-curious George inherited a $236.2 billion surplus, spent more than $500 billion in Iraq and walked away leaving a $1.3 trillion deficit. The Republican hypocrisy is palpable!

Weather Report: Snow job continues to cripple nation!

2010-02-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

The hypocrisy continues...

2010-02-06T06:34:00.000-08:00

Heritage for future generations.

2010-01-24T17:54:00.000-08:00

Activists At Work!

2010-01-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

Back To The Future

2010-01-21T15:48:00.000-08:00

Beyond Contempt!

2010-01-16T18:51:00.000-08:00

Weather Report: Snow job continues to cripple nation!

2010-01-15T16:18:00.001-08:00

White House Weaseling Revisited

2009-12-31T10:26:00.000-08:00

Primitive Ritual

2009-12-22T07:01:00.000-08:00

What is wrong with this picture?

2009-12-20T15:22:00.000-08:00

Health Care cheerleader at work

2009-12-18T15:36:00.000-08:00

Tiptoeing thru the Tiger Woods fiasco

2009-12-10T12:19:00.000-08:00

Does wealth and fame exempt one from the laws and protocols that apply to us common folks? To use Sara Palin’s favorite term—“You betcha!!”

Frankly, I could care less about Tiger Woods sexual proclivities. That is between Woods and his wife.

What is at issue is Woods lofty claim that he does not have to answer to the Florida Highway Patrol or the police—because “it” is “private” matter. Really? If you believe that try it the next time you crash a car and are investigated by the Florida Highway Patrol or local police.

According to the facts Woods drove his car out of his driveway, weaves across a public street careening into a row of hedges, drove over a curb and swerved into a fire hydrant, then hit a tree. Anyone who does that is clearly incapacitated—but by what?

Apparently, the Florida Highway Patrol is satisfied with a witness —a Mr. Adams–who assured them that he could detect “no alcohol, no other type of drug whatsoever.” Again—really?? Did the Florida Highway Patrol check out Mr .Adams expertise that qualifies him for sniffing out “other” drugs that are otherwise only detected by blood tests?

Privacy? It is my understanding that when most of us get behind the wheel of a car and drive it out onto public streets, we forfeit our right to privacy—but then most of us are not famous or wealthy.

This is not to trash Tiger Woods. I feel his professional proficiency and high profile has served to inspire young men and women of color. It is a protest, however, against another example of the double standard that is often operating in cases like this.

Thats a gimmie, Tiger.

2009-12-06T06:17:00.000-08:00

The incredible shrinking benefit

2009-11-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

Weasel at work.

2009-10-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

The Big Fishermen (and woman)

2009-10-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

Don't hold your breath for the trickle down.

2009-10-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

2009-09-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

2009-09-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

2009-09-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

2009-09-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

2009-09-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

Latest from the dark side

2009-09-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

Charlie Teaparty To The Rescue

2009-09-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

I ran into my old friend Charlie Teaparty the other day and he was carrying an armful of hand painted signs and had an angry expression on his face.

“Hi, Charlie. Where are you headed?”I asked.

“I’m goin’ to save this country from a national disaster,” he fumed.

“What national disaster?"

Old Charlie’s eyes narrowed to a squint. “You mean you ain’t heard about Obama tryin’ to turn us into a socialist country?”

“Are you talking about his health care proposals, Charlie?”

“ You darn tootin,”Charlie said, as he shoved a sign in front of my face. It said in crude lettering, “No Rationing! No Death Panels!”. Then, he switched to one that proclaimed,.”Hitler Were A Socialist!”

“ ‘WAS’ a socialist,” I said, pointing to the last sign.

“Well, I’m glad you agree,” Charlie replied with a touch of pride. He separated another sign that said “Don’t Mess With My Medicare!” Handing it to me he smiled, “You can take this one to the protest rally.”

I put my arms around his shoulders and explained, “Look, Charlie, none of that stuff is true. There are no ‘death panels’. They are not going to take away your medicare and Obama is not like Hitler! Where do you get his stuff?”

Charlie snatched the sign back. He squinted at me again and spoke in slow a deliberate cadence, “You don’t watch Fox News, do you? I’ll bet you don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh neither. Have you ever heard Senator Grassley speak?”

“Those are rhetorical questions, Charlie.”

“They ain’t no such things! They’s questions you don’t need to answer, ‘cause I already know the answers.”

I t was then I noticed he had something strapped to his back. “Is that an AK-47,” I asked in disbelief.

“It ain’t no popgun,” he replied.

“Why, in the name of sanity, do you need an AK-47 ?”

“Anybody who knows history kin tell you liberty needs to be reeefreshed by the blood of tyrants!”

I allowed as how I hoped he was speaking metaphorically and Charlie replied, “I only speak American.”

“And you think Obama is a tyrant, Charlie?”

Drawing himself up into what I suspect he felt was a superior posture, Charlie declared, “Well he ain’t an American. He was born in Kenya. I seen his birth certificate. It cost me some bucks but it was worth it to know the truth.”

“You have money to spend like that,” I asked.

“I have an investment that is gonna pay big dividends soon,” he confided. “I met this fella who let me get in on the ground floor of a deal to buy a bridge that will connect New York with a place called Brooklyn.”

Death Panel

2009-08-21T15:45:00.000-07:00

Latest insight on Health Care Bill

2009-08-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

Senator Grassley's "bipartisan" effort

2009-08-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

Money talks

2009-08-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

If wishes were horses...

2009-08-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

Some things never change (70's cartoon)

2009-08-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

More hypocrisy on health care

2009-08-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

The Choice

2009-07-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hypocrisy in action!

2009-07-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

Run for the rubber room, Lou!

2009-07-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

More GOP Hypocrisy

2009-06-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

Mark Sanford, the Governor of South Carolina should be impeached or forced to resign!

He lied to his constituents and went AWOL from his official duties for the better part of a week, leaving the State vulnerable--- with no way to contact him. What is it about dereliction of duty that the Governor,mainstream media,and his apologists don’t understand? It is irrelevant what he was doing on his secret getaway.

What he was doing on his getaway time is totally relevant to his wife and family but that is a separate issue from his responsibilities as an elected head of state. What he was doing in his absence is relevant to the hypocrisy factor in relation to the “family values” standards that evangelical bible thumpers hold in such public high esteem.

However, I would not hold my breath until his fellow Republicans call him to account.

Health Care Hypocrisy

2009-06-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

Abortion Terrorists

2009-06-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

Abortion Terrorists

2009-06-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between an “Islamic” religious fanatic who beheads someone of a different faith and lifestyle---and an American “Christian” fanatic who shoots someone of a different faith and lifestyle?

What is the difference between “Islamic” religious organizations and leaders who sow the seeds of violence with the fervent embrace of hateful adjectives for their “enemies’----and “American” religious organizations and leaders who do the same?

What is the difference between “Islamic” religious organizations and leaders who extol those followers who commit murder and praise Allah----and those “American” religious organizations and leaders who extol those followers who commit murder and praise God?

The answer: We wage war against “Islamic” terrorists, their supporters and conspirators. We don’t, against abortion terrorists, their supporters and conspirators.

The answer: There has been an eight year avalanche of rhetoric, special legal construction and call to arms that fills the public discourse about the threat of “Islamic” terrorists to our country. There is a vacuum the size of the Grand Canyon when comes to defending American women and doctors from threats, intimidation and murders at the hands of abortion terrorists.

Where are the political leaders? Where are the scientific community leaders? Where are the mainstream religious leaders? Where is local law enfrocement? Why do we only hear the silence of the lambs?

Consider the source

2009-05-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

Experts in the area

2009-05-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

Legacy justification

2009-05-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

Sputtering Speaker

2009-05-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Groveling Old Party

2009-05-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

Strange Bedfellows

2009-05-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

Airheads and tea bags!

2009-04-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

Some are above the law!

2009-04-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

The torture justification memos contrived by the political hacks that ruled the George W. Bush Justice Department should be required reading for every American. Sadly that will not happen—and if President Barack Obama has his way the United States will move “forward” leaving yet another legacy of not holding accountable those responsible for war crimes.

To suggest as, Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder did, that the CIA interrogators should have immunity from prosecution because the techniques were declared legal by Bush sycophants is equivalent to the Nuremberg defense that they “were only following orders”. It is an insult to any but the dimmest of intelligence!

When the torture started in 2002, the FBI objected to the techniques and withdrew from the questioning. CIA lawyers suspended their black hole operations for fear of criminal prosecution and demanded legal cover from the Justice Department. They received it the form of a secret memo by John Yoo and signed by J.S. Bybee, head of the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel.

When Yoo and Bybee left the Justice Department, the new Office head, Jack L. Goldsmith apparently viewed the memo so legally incompetent, he advised not relying on that opinion, withdrew it and resigned in June of 2004. Goldsmith’s successor, Steven Bradbury resurrected the opinions, giving the CIA” legal” cover.

In 2005, the CIA was so fearful of legally being held accountable for what some of them knew to be criminal violations of our laws (not to mention international treaties), they destroyed 92 videotapes that documented the torture techniques. Apparently, Obama and Holder do not consider obstruction of justice as an offense worthy of accountability, either.

Moreover, the most offensive excuse for torture is the argument that its specific use on a “top Al Quaida” leader, Abu Zubayda, harvested vital information that has protected America—--specifically, yielding the name of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen whom Bush arrested for plotting to make a dirty bomb—a charge so flimsy that it was later dropped. They also claim Zubayda gave up the much sought after nickname of an Al Quaida leader known as KSM.

However, author and journalist Jane Mayer in her book Dark Side, points out that those two specific bits of information were given up before he was tortured---- and former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations reported that not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of his “confessions”.

Finally, the techniques adopted by the Bush administration are directly out of the interrogation manuals used by communist Russia and North Korea.

Imagine Americans being held for years without charges or trials. Imagine Americans being waterboarded a hundred times in a two week period (as was the case with Zubayda).Imagine Americans being sleep deprived for 11 days at a time, of being forced to kneel leaning backward at a 45 degree angle (and other stressed positions)for hours on end. Imagine repeatedly having your head slammed against a wall.

Imagine, the offending government having doctors there to facilitate the effectiveness of the techniques. Imagine the offending government, declaring such treatment is not torture because its puppet lawyers said so.

Now, imagine President Obama saying yes, we tortured but the perpetrators should not be held accountable. I can’t imagine it!!

Wayne LaPierre, NRA genius.

2009-04-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

Back in January of 1990 the Wisconsin Legislature put forth mild support of an even milder attempt to get some control over guns and automatic weapons that were flooding the market.Wayne LaPierre was head of the Wisconsin wing of the National Rifle Association and made the case against any form of control—over any form of guns—including assault weapons and also including armor piercing bullets. Mr. LaPierre is now President of the NRA and his whacko arguments—one of which is seen in the cartoon below--- are the same now as they were back then. The only difference between now and then is the U.S. Supreme Right Wing Court agrees with him!

2009-04-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

Murder facilitators at work.

2009-04-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

Catholic Dogma and hypocrisy on Obama visit.

2009-04-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

America Inc. revisited.

2009-04-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

The election of Ronald Reagan in 1981 revitalized America Inc.—the merged assets of corporate, political and personal greed—that had been somewhat dormant since the 1930s. At the same time, a credible survey of University seniors, revealed in anonymous responses that large numbers of our potential future leaders were cheats. Significantly, the champion cheaters were business majors with 86% of them admitting they cheated.

President Reagan’s embrace of the 1930's trickle-down economics and his simpleton mantra of “government is the problem”not the “solution”struck a responsive chord in the hearts of millions of American voters. They loved his cue-card homilies, his welfare bashing and his deregulation fear mongering.

I mattered not that Reagan led us to abandon our progressive tax structure so as to enrich the wealthiest among us. It mattered not that Reaganomics increased our national debt from 2.5 % of the national economy when he took office—to 5% by the time he left. (The interest payments on the that debt went from $69 billion in 1981 to $169 billion at the end of his administration.)

It also mattered not that two years into Reagan’s first term, we experienced the worst recession since the great depression with an unemployment high of 10.8%.In short, the Reagan presidency started American Inc. on the road to our present destination.

We look back and see a path of unbridled greed, littered with corporate carcasses like Enron, Tyco, and Author Anderson--- that were once guided by corporate felons.

The zenith of de-regulation and the facilitation of corporate-political greed came under the aegis of George W. Bush, his evangelical right wing base and the Republican party. Texas Senator Phil Gramm led the charge.

After the 1929 stock market crash, Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act that would separate commercial banks from investment banks (which deal with speculative trading and mergers) and thus encourage market stability.

In 1999 Senator Gramm shepherded a bill through Congress that gutted the Glass-Steagall Act allowing commercial banks, investment banks and insurers to merge—think Citibank, Travelers Group, Smith-Barney, etc. Then after George W. Bush’s election, Gramm slipped an amendment into an omnibus appropriations bill titled Commodity Futures Modernization Act. It deregulated derivatives trading and exempted energy trading from regulatory oversight----think the current economic disaster and the Enron debacle.

Meanwhile Un-curious George inherited a $236.2 billion surplus, spent over $500 billion in Iraq and walked away leaving a $1.3 trillion deficit. The Republican hypocrisy is palpable!

America Inc. roots.

2009-04-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

In my opinion there is an important lesson to be learned from the current crisis caused by America Inc.—there is no such thing as compassionate conservatism. Notice: I did NOT say there is no such thing as A compassionate conservative.

The difference being, generally speaking, that conservatives of the Rush Limbaugh, Reagan, Bush, etc. species may, indeed, have their personal, individual compassionate moments and act them out to the benefit of another less fortunate individual.

However, they are not inclined to support compassionate efforts that require a collective financing beyond the abilities of a few individuals—particularly if those efforts go towards aiding others who are judged as lacking in total motivational skills.

In calculating the motivational math for their “boot straps” philosophy, the “compassionate” conservatives frequently do not factor in the lack of education, the bias of race and sex, IQ, the negative environmental influence—nor the stunted mental acuity any or all of these may have on an individual or group.

In their calculating, there is no consideration that some fellow human beings are not as mentally-emotionally swift as the rest of us--- but still have similar dreams and aspirations.

Hence, it is the fault of those who sign up for balloon mortgages they can’t afford, that caused the housing collapse.

Back To The Future with the GOP.

2009-03-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

American values??

2009-03-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

Captives were routinely beaten, slammed head first into walls, forced to stand for days, with their arms shackled above them (the John McCain experience in North Korea)–and some were waterboarded.

These are not words about some third world dictatorship. These are the words about U.S. policy--- from a leaked International Committee of the Red Cross report----as a result of their access to 14 “high value” detainees after they were transferred from overseas CIA “black sites” to Guantanamo.The report concluded that the Bush administration treatment of al-Qaeda captives “constituted torture”.

Retired CIA agent John Kiriakou, who led a CIA team that interrogated al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah, confirmed the use of waterboarding and considered it a form of torture.

The U.S. Army Field Manual classifies such treatment, including waterboarding as torture.

These interrogation techniques are a violation of the Geneva Convention, an agreement the United States has signed and pledged to uphold.

The War Crimes Act of 1996, passed by a Republican Congress, makes it a felony to violate the Geneva Convention .

Four military prosecutors at Guantanamo have resigned under protest over the rigged “legal” system established by the Bush administration.

What excuse is even remotely adequate to justify not pursuing an investigation and prosecution of those in high office that have led the United States down such a path?

Meanwhile, back at the asylum---

2009-03-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hypocrites at work!

2009-03-23T12:32:00.000-07:00