...and Clinton was impeached for a lie about sex!!
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Friday, December 30, 2005
Thursday, December 22, 2005
War on Christmas----or intellect?
The so called “war on Christmas” is a phony straw man constructed by religious know-nothings and hyped by television’s talking heads hypocrites. As a “call to arms", it is about as honest and substantive as President Bush’s hype and rational for invading Iraq.
Most bible thumping “Christians" are biblical illiterates who don’t have a clue about the book they claim as the foundation of their belief. They have not done a whit of serious study of the scholarly investigations as to how the Bible was written, why it was written nor about the theological politics that litter the path of its evolution.
As a result our information landscape is occupied by controversies that range from the frivolous---war on Christmas, seeing religious symbols in grilled cheese sandwiches---to the serious---trying to force “intelligent design” as a scientific study in schools.
If you lined up a hundred of the religious dimwits supporting these causes, I’d wager you couldn’t find a one who could tell you who Huldah was or what role she played in the origin of the bible---much less discuss the politics of how the bible was edited, or why their favorite “birth of Christ” story is found in the most unreliable of the synoptic gospels.
If there is an " intelligent designer" he (or she) missed the boat in the distribution process to bible thumpers! Meanwhile, happy holidays, season's greetings, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa and merry Christmas!
Bill Sanders
Most bible thumping “Christians" are biblical illiterates who don’t have a clue about the book they claim as the foundation of their belief. They have not done a whit of serious study of the scholarly investigations as to how the Bible was written, why it was written nor about the theological politics that litter the path of its evolution.
As a result our information landscape is occupied by controversies that range from the frivolous---war on Christmas, seeing religious symbols in grilled cheese sandwiches---to the serious---trying to force “intelligent design” as a scientific study in schools.
If you lined up a hundred of the religious dimwits supporting these causes, I’d wager you couldn’t find a one who could tell you who Huldah was or what role she played in the origin of the bible---much less discuss the politics of how the bible was edited, or why their favorite “birth of Christ” story is found in the most unreliable of the synoptic gospels.
If there is an " intelligent designer" he (or she) missed the boat in the distribution process to bible thumpers! Meanwhile, happy holidays, season's greetings, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa and merry Christmas!
Bill Sanders
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
SHAME ON THE NEW YORK TIMES
Lost in the wake of President Bush’s assertion that he has an inherent power to break the law, is the outrageous action of The New York Times that it sat on the NSA domestic spying story for a Year. The results of the Times decision was to facilitate the President’s lawlessness for a year at the expense of thousands of Americans' right to privacy.
Over the past year, the Times’ journalism ethics and allegiance to the First Amendment have been shown to be less than admirable. Moreover, the downward trend in Journalism to a more casual guardian of the public’s right to know does not bode well for a democracy.
I give you a quote from someone with substantial experience in the area of keeping dirty government laundry from the public’s prying eyes---H.R. Haldeman, in a recorded conversation with President Richard Nixon regarding the publication of the Pentagon Papers:
“…the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this because it shows that people do things that the president wants to do even though it’s wrong and the president can be wrong.”
Bill Sanders
Over the past year, the Times’ journalism ethics and allegiance to the First Amendment have been shown to be less than admirable. Moreover, the downward trend in Journalism to a more casual guardian of the public’s right to know does not bode well for a democracy.
I give you a quote from someone with substantial experience in the area of keeping dirty government laundry from the public’s prying eyes---H.R. Haldeman, in a recorded conversation with President Richard Nixon regarding the publication of the Pentagon Papers:
“…the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this because it shows that people do things that the president wants to do even though it’s wrong and the president can be wrong.”
Bill Sanders
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
IT IS TIME---IMPEACH BUSH!
It is time for Democrats to get up off their jelly backbones and impeach George Bush before his Imperial Presidency completely dismantles what is left of our democracy! But first, they will have to find the courage to aggressively campaign and expose his fear mongering for the demagoguery that it is! Second, they will have do their homework and take no prisoners when confronting the evangelical fascists and the media that is imbedded with the Imperial Presidency. Third, in this campaiagn, they should name and confront every Republican who voted to impeach Bill Clinton and expose them with a comparison of the charges!
President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to illegally spy on Americans inside the United States, without obtaining a warrant and bypassing the court that was specifically established to sanction (or prohibit) such domestic activity. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
President Bush has deprived two United States Citizens of their constitutional rights by incarcerating them indefinitely, incommunicado, in Military Prisons ---and denied them legal representation.Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
President Bush allowed the diversion of funds allocated for the action in Afghanistan---to develop plans for a war on Iraq---a direct violation of the appropriations language enacted by congress. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
President Bush failed to take corrective action against members of his staff involved in the unlawful disclosure of a covert CIA agent’s identity which is considered a serious security violation. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
Moreover, President Bush has orchestrated an assault on U.S. citizens' civil liberties and constitutional protections. This includes the construction of the Patriot Act provisions that facilitate broad scale invasions of privacy--- entering a home when occupants are not there and, without notice, snooping thru library records and other private papers. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
He has also presided over the authorizing of FBI intelligence operations against citizen’s protest groups active in causes such as the environment, animal cruelty, poverty relief and those protesting te Iraq war.
In his hubris, he defines the law as being what he declares it to be. He assumes presidential powers that makes Richard Nixon look like a piker. And with monumental comtempt, he looks us in the eye and announces he will continue down his imperial path whether we like it or not.
It is time to say NO MORE to the slicing and dicing of the core values that made this a great nation. It is time to stop curtailing the very freedoms we say we are fighting for in Iraq!
Bill Sanders
President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to illegally spy on Americans inside the United States, without obtaining a warrant and bypassing the court that was specifically established to sanction (or prohibit) such domestic activity. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
President Bush has deprived two United States Citizens of their constitutional rights by incarcerating them indefinitely, incommunicado, in Military Prisons ---and denied them legal representation.Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
President Bush allowed the diversion of funds allocated for the action in Afghanistan---to develop plans for a war on Iraq---a direct violation of the appropriations language enacted by congress. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
President Bush failed to take corrective action against members of his staff involved in the unlawful disclosure of a covert CIA agent’s identity which is considered a serious security violation. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
Moreover, President Bush has orchestrated an assault on U.S. citizens' civil liberties and constitutional protections. This includes the construction of the Patriot Act provisions that facilitate broad scale invasions of privacy--- entering a home when occupants are not there and, without notice, snooping thru library records and other private papers. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex.
He has also presided over the authorizing of FBI intelligence operations against citizen’s protest groups active in causes such as the environment, animal cruelty, poverty relief and those protesting te Iraq war.
In his hubris, he defines the law as being what he declares it to be. He assumes presidential powers that makes Richard Nixon look like a piker. And with monumental comtempt, he looks us in the eye and announces he will continue down his imperial path whether we like it or not.
It is time to say NO MORE to the slicing and dicing of the core values that made this a great nation. It is time to stop curtailing the very freedoms we say we are fighting for in Iraq!
Bill Sanders
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
The Price of Hubris and Delusions
The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goosestep.
–H.L. Mencken
In America we get what we deserve in our leaders because we elect them. Often, by design, ignorance or apathy—we do not closely examine their exhortations or philosophy. We embrace their delusions as our own and ride them on the shallow surface of reality’s riptide. Only when reality tugs at our person do we begin the confront the delusion. In this pattern we are condemned to repeating history.
George W. Bush embraced his inner circle's delusions that, as the world’s superpower, the United States could successfully impose democracy in the Middle East by the invasion and occupation of Iraq—thus assuring us of a solidified and tranquil source of oil. In one bold swoop of Pax-Amricana, we would rid the world of a two-bit dictator and erode the fervor of Islamic radicals.
Nevermind that Saddam Hussein had no relationship with Al Qaeda. Nevermind that Saddam Hussein was a secular egotist who's military had been decimated by the Gulf War. Nevermind that he was in line behind much more dangerous tyrants---like Kim Jong-il of Korea, for example. Americans fell in lockstep behind the Big Lie that Iraq was an imminent threat our way of life
Now, we are now seeing the tug of reality at work in the debate over how to free our troops from the Tar Baby of Iraq. In fact, the debate is only posturing to cover the political rear ends of the Bush administration and the democrats who gave them the green light to invade Iraq. The outcome of all this was preordained.
George Bush will bring the troops home in a fashion dictated by maximum political advantage. There will be much breast beating by the GOP chicken hawks--- and the substitute delusion will be that we are leaving a free Iraq, having established a fledgling democracy and set it on its course.
The reality is that by abandoning the real war on terrorism in Afghanistan and buying into the phony scenario that linked Iraq with Al Qaeda and 9/11—we have facilitated an increase in terrorism and made the world a much more dangerous place. The reality is that President Bush will ride away into a Crawford sunset, leaving Iraq in the jaws of chaos.
The price is untold thousands of Iraqi lives sacrificed on the alter of George Bush’s hubris and delusions. The price will be seen in the eyes of thousands of Americans who will struggle to find justification in the loss of a loved one.
The legacy will be a tear in the social fabric that will haunt us for years to come, much like that of Vietnam.
Bill Sanders
–H.L. Mencken
In America we get what we deserve in our leaders because we elect them. Often, by design, ignorance or apathy—we do not closely examine their exhortations or philosophy. We embrace their delusions as our own and ride them on the shallow surface of reality’s riptide. Only when reality tugs at our person do we begin the confront the delusion. In this pattern we are condemned to repeating history.
George W. Bush embraced his inner circle's delusions that, as the world’s superpower, the United States could successfully impose democracy in the Middle East by the invasion and occupation of Iraq—thus assuring us of a solidified and tranquil source of oil. In one bold swoop of Pax-Amricana, we would rid the world of a two-bit dictator and erode the fervor of Islamic radicals.
Nevermind that Saddam Hussein had no relationship with Al Qaeda. Nevermind that Saddam Hussein was a secular egotist who's military had been decimated by the Gulf War. Nevermind that he was in line behind much more dangerous tyrants---like Kim Jong-il of Korea, for example. Americans fell in lockstep behind the Big Lie that Iraq was an imminent threat our way of life
Now, we are now seeing the tug of reality at work in the debate over how to free our troops from the Tar Baby of Iraq. In fact, the debate is only posturing to cover the political rear ends of the Bush administration and the democrats who gave them the green light to invade Iraq. The outcome of all this was preordained.
George Bush will bring the troops home in a fashion dictated by maximum political advantage. There will be much breast beating by the GOP chicken hawks--- and the substitute delusion will be that we are leaving a free Iraq, having established a fledgling democracy and set it on its course.
The reality is that by abandoning the real war on terrorism in Afghanistan and buying into the phony scenario that linked Iraq with Al Qaeda and 9/11—we have facilitated an increase in terrorism and made the world a much more dangerous place. The reality is that President Bush will ride away into a Crawford sunset, leaving Iraq in the jaws of chaos.
The price is untold thousands of Iraqi lives sacrificed on the alter of George Bush’s hubris and delusions. The price will be seen in the eyes of thousands of Americans who will struggle to find justification in the loss of a loved one.
The legacy will be a tear in the social fabric that will haunt us for years to come, much like that of Vietnam.
Bill Sanders
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Friday, December 02, 2005
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Padilla in Bushland
What happens when truth collides with the fantasy world of the Bush Administration? Why, the fantasy world mutates before your very eyes into something quite different.
Invading Iraq because Saddam had weapons of mass destruction becomes invading Iraq because Saddam was a dictator killing his own people.
Saddam Hussein’s direct sponsorship of the 9/11 attack becomes Saddam Hussein’s long time evolvement with Al Qaeda..
No White House involvement in the CIA leak becomes no White House ILLEGAlITY in mentioning a CIA agents identity. And so on and so on!
Now, we find that Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang banger with an 8th grade education has gone from being one of the “most dangerous” persons to U.S. Security (named an enemy combatant–accused of plotting to construct and detonate a “dirty” radiation bomb) —to simply being a common criminal charged with conspiring to send money to support some foreign group somewhere.
What about the fact that Padilla, an American citizen was whisked off to a Military prison and held without charges, without a lawyer, without communications and without a trial for three years? Ah, well, says the nations chief law officer----Bush crony, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales–all that is “legally irrelevant”.
We have all fallen down the rabbit hole!
Bill Sanders
Invading Iraq because Saddam had weapons of mass destruction becomes invading Iraq because Saddam was a dictator killing his own people.
Saddam Hussein’s direct sponsorship of the 9/11 attack becomes Saddam Hussein’s long time evolvement with Al Qaeda..
No White House involvement in the CIA leak becomes no White House ILLEGAlITY in mentioning a CIA agents identity. And so on and so on!
Now, we find that Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang banger with an 8th grade education has gone from being one of the “most dangerous” persons to U.S. Security (named an enemy combatant–accused of plotting to construct and detonate a “dirty” radiation bomb) —to simply being a common criminal charged with conspiring to send money to support some foreign group somewhere.
What about the fact that Padilla, an American citizen was whisked off to a Military prison and held without charges, without a lawyer, without communications and without a trial for three years? Ah, well, says the nations chief law officer----Bush crony, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales–all that is “legally irrelevant”.
We have all fallen down the rabbit hole!
Bill Sanders
Monday, November 21, 2005
Friday, November 18, 2005
SHADES OF THE 50'S
Anyone who doesn't believe McCarthyism is alive and well in the Bush White House and the Republican party, just stay tuned to the smear campaign that is already being geared up to discredit Rep. John Murtha. Have they no shame? ( You watch----the answer is no.)
ET TU MURTHA?
Pennsylvania Democrat, Representative John Murtha , has exposed George Bush and his apologists for the bankrupt policies to which they cling while adrift in a sea of contradicting facts and criticisms.
You see, Murtha is not a bleeding heart liberal. Unlike Cheney, Bush and many of their congressional lackeys who have never served a day in uniform defending this country----Murtha is a long time "hawk" and Vietnam veteran of combat. The poverty of their reaction to his critique is astounding.
White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said at the press briefing, "he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the democratic party. The eve of a historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists."
Republicans said Murtha’s position was one of abandonment and surrender.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert said "They want us to retreat. They want us to wave the white flag of surrender to the terrorists of the world."
Bush, of course, has a recording device instead of a brain which has been spewing out the same reaction to Iraq critics for years: 1. They are irresponsible 2. They are unpatriotic 3. They undermine the war on terrorism and 4. (That all time favorite) Remember 9/11.
TORTURED BEDFELLOWS
On a related topic, the recent disclosure that the Shiite government was torturing Sunni Arabs (in a secret prison), gives lie to the Bush myth of how successful democracy has been implanted at gunpoint in the quagmire of Iraq. Surprise! Surprise!
What is more interesting is the official reaction to the news reports and pictures.
The official in charge of the Shiite-led Interior Ministry said the torture claims are sectarian bias (politically motivated).
Interior Minister Bayn Jabr said, "I reject torture and I will punish those who perform torture." Then he added justification, "No one was beheaded, no one was killed."Then the coup de grace:"Those who are supporting terrorism are making the exaggerations."
Sound familiar? Iraqi officials have been cribbing from Bush’s scrip.
Bill Sanders
You see, Murtha is not a bleeding heart liberal. Unlike Cheney, Bush and many of their congressional lackeys who have never served a day in uniform defending this country----Murtha is a long time "hawk" and Vietnam veteran of combat. The poverty of their reaction to his critique is astounding.
White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said at the press briefing, "he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the democratic party. The eve of a historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists."
Republicans said Murtha’s position was one of abandonment and surrender.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert said "They want us to retreat. They want us to wave the white flag of surrender to the terrorists of the world."
Bush, of course, has a recording device instead of a brain which has been spewing out the same reaction to Iraq critics for years: 1. They are irresponsible 2. They are unpatriotic 3. They undermine the war on terrorism and 4. (That all time favorite) Remember 9/11.
TORTURED BEDFELLOWS
On a related topic, the recent disclosure that the Shiite government was torturing Sunni Arabs (in a secret prison), gives lie to the Bush myth of how successful democracy has been implanted at gunpoint in the quagmire of Iraq. Surprise! Surprise!
What is more interesting is the official reaction to the news reports and pictures.
The official in charge of the Shiite-led Interior Ministry said the torture claims are sectarian bias (politically motivated).
Interior Minister Bayn Jabr said, "I reject torture and I will punish those who perform torture." Then he added justification, "No one was beheaded, no one was killed."Then the coup de grace:"Those who are supporting terrorism are making the exaggerations."
Sound familiar? Iraqi officials have been cribbing from Bush’s scrip.
Bill Sanders
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Alito and the timid critics
Why any thinking person would be pussyfooting on where Samuel Alito is coming from (or going to) as a lawyer and judge, is beyond me. In the words of a Yale professor of law, Alito does not have a conservative judicial view—he has a “radical” judicial view. He is, in fact, far out of the judicial mainstream as his record readily indicates.
So he’s “qualified”. When is the last time your heard the American Bar Association say someone is NOT qualified? So, he has a quiet and polite judicial temperament. How did that come into play when he made the decision condoning the strip search of a 10-year old girl not covered by an authorizing warrant? He may be a Bork on tranquilizers—but a Bork none the less.
His 1985 anti-abortion memo speaks volumes as to where the future of women’s rights is headed when he tilts the balance of the court to the far right. What is even more telling is his rational for it. He was just “an advocate seeking a job”—an exuberance of youth. Since when is a 35 year old man a “youth”? He explains that he has learned more over the years about the Constitution. One would hope so, but if you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’ll give you for a good price.
Moreover if Alito takes the anti-women's rights position of his memo-- when he was just an “advocate seeking a job”–what will be his position when he is out from under the pressure of worrying about a job?
Bill Sanders
So he’s “qualified”. When is the last time your heard the American Bar Association say someone is NOT qualified? So, he has a quiet and polite judicial temperament. How did that come into play when he made the decision condoning the strip search of a 10-year old girl not covered by an authorizing warrant? He may be a Bork on tranquilizers—but a Bork none the less.
His 1985 anti-abortion memo speaks volumes as to where the future of women’s rights is headed when he tilts the balance of the court to the far right. What is even more telling is his rational for it. He was just “an advocate seeking a job”—an exuberance of youth. Since when is a 35 year old man a “youth”? He explains that he has learned more over the years about the Constitution. One would hope so, but if you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’ll give you for a good price.
Moreover if Alito takes the anti-women's rights position of his memo-- when he was just an “advocate seeking a job”–what will be his position when he is out from under the pressure of worrying about a job?
Bill Sanders
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Saturday, November 12, 2005
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