Bob Roberts, MP3, and the Music Clear Channel Won't Play

The Times are a-changing...back!

I just came back from a tour of the wondrous A-Changin' Times (ACT) weblog
which set fire to my cerebrum, particularly within cortical islands awash in music...one of my first and enduring loves. And I was wondering if this could be the end of our pride and glory.

When one compares, for example, the songs from the golden age of music...when Hendrix, Quicksilver, CSNY, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Buffalo Springfield, and more than a few others were doing the job our Media is supposed to do...with the songs of today's commercial radio, one has to wonder...where the nuts? In both senses actually. It is, in a way, nutty to speak truth to power. One might get a spanking, locked up, ostracized. It may impact the bottom line.

And yet people, musicians and artists stood up anyway. The Beatles, like the Dixie Chicks after them, had their music burned, stamped upon...immortalized. And yet even the brave Dixie Chicks would never write such lyrics as the following:

___________________________________
What About Me?
by Quicksilver

You poisoned my sweet water,
you cut down my green trees,
the food you fed my children
was the cause of their disease.
My world is slowly falling down,
and the air's not good to breath,
and those of us who care enough
we have to do something...

Oooooooooooooo! what you gonna do about me?
Oooooooooooooo! what you gonna do about me?

Your newspapers, they just put you on,
they never tell you the whole story.
They just put your young ideas down.
I was wondering...
could this be the end of their pride and glory?

[REFRAIN]

I work in your factories, I study in your schools,
I fill your penitenturies and your military too,
and I feel the future trembling
as the word is passed around...
If you stand up for what you do believe,
be prepared to be shot down.

[REFRAIN]

I feel like a stranger in the land where I was born,
and I live like an outlaw and I'm always on the run.
I'm always getting busted, and I got to take a stand,
I feel the revolution must be mighty close at hand...

[REFRAIN]

I smoke marijuana, but I can't get behind your wars,
and most of what I do believe is against most of your laws.
I'm a fugitive from injustice, but I'm going to be free,
cause your rules and regulations...
they don't do a thing for me.

[REFRAIN]

I feel like a stranger, in the land where I was born,
and I live just like an outlaw, and I'm always on the run.
And though you may be stronger now, my time will come around.
You keep adding to my numbers as you shoot my people down...

[REFRAIN]
___________________________________

It's as if the REFRAIN were meant as a cautionary punctuum...(So I like to make up words! You can figure the meaning) serving to put an end to music as revolution.

But it never really ended. It has simply left the airwaves, and has wound up in places like MP3, which I heard will be shutting its doors in early December.

This, I suspect, is a product of a confluence of forces. The Music Mafia, who wants a piece of every song released...and the Political watchdogs who can't stand the freedom of expression going on over there.

How stupid can you get?

Is intellectual property lost on these guys? Do they not realize they are turning away a thousand Elvises? Killing a thousand geese with golden eggs?

Apparently all their stock is in Clay Aiken and Britney. Harmless kids with nothing to say.
Flashes in the proverbial pan.

It was not ever so...

During the late '60s and early '70s, we had some hip stations here in Charlotte that would play Quicksilver, Lennon's "Working Class Hero", CSN's "Ohio", "Chicago" and "Cathedral" as well as a host of other songs that challenged the status quo.
But these went by the wayside...at least until recently, when Dave -- one of the better DJs from the golden years -- returned...bringing his music with him. Now at least some of the old iconoclastic anthems can be heard again.

But MP3 is still going away...and who will take up their mantle?


Must we concede to a Bob Roberts future? I don't think so. But I am the eternal optimist. When I powwow with my nephew and his friends, I see a mirror of the same idealism of the historically hip, and realize that many of us in the historically hip category...are still, in the main, hip. We just need to be reminded at times. These are such times.

Together we make quite a constituency. One mustn't let down our guard, since it is their lives we are protecting and providing for.


We have seen the Internet Revolution gobbled up and discarded by moneyed interests. Many excellent sites and services have been removed from the table simply because people chose money over their webchild.

The powers that be want us to get all our information from TV and Radio and Print, and they are making sure there are less and less of these...looked at from the top.
They want us to have to go through gatekeepers and jump through hoops if we dare to want our word published.

The Clinton Administration opened up more freedoms than we can imagine...and now they are in danger of being taken away. Imagine going back to a time where nearly all your news and music is canned and stamped for approval. Dark Ages II.

Don't be surprised if this scenerio comes down the pike: The Internet is brought to its knees by an attack by terrorists. Will we be certain who those terrorists are? If one follows the money, one might see that the short-term beneficiaries are the Big Media and Bush Inc. And together they can say anything they want.

I hope this never comes to pass. We could not sustain such an attack on our now most important freedoms.

Long live freedom!
Bring back the music...

The Art of Worldly Wisdom

THOUGHTS TO THINK

The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Balthasar Gracian

To the extent that you have to exist in the world...


"The real danger of a world in chaos is the unhinging of your own integrity." - Gracian

FROM A REVIEW
Over 300 years ago, this worldly Jesuit priest, counselor to kings, the genius of his age, made a careful study of the powerful and elite who managed to prosper. Today, his words and thoughts still speak eloquently to the need for ethical behavior in our chaotic world. His writings were later confiscated and banned by the Church, but his wisdom survived.

The greatest minds of Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer, drew inspiration from his writings.

Balthasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom

A few choice maxims:



28. Be common in nothing.
Especially not in taste. It is great and wise to be ill at ease when your deeds please the mob! The excesses of popular applause never satisfy the sensible. There are chameleons of popularity who find enjoyment not in the sweet savors of Apollo but in the breath of the mob. Secondly, do not be common in intelligence; take no pleasure in the wonder of the mob, for ignorance never gets beyond wonder. While vulgar folly wonders, wisdom watches for the deception.

32. Have a reputation for being gracious.
It is the chief glory of the high and the mighty to be gracious, a prerogative of kings to conquer with universal goodwill. That is the great advantage of a commanding position - to be able to do more good than others. Those make friends who do friendly acts. On the other hand, there are some who fix themselves on not being gracious, not on account of difficulty but due to a bad disposition. In all things they are the opposite of divine grace.

34. Know your strongest quality.
Know your pre-eminent gift - cultivate it and it will assist the rest. Everyone would have excelled in something if he had known his strong point. Notice in what quality you surpass and take charge of that. In some people judgement excels, in others valor. Most do violence to their natural aptitude and thus attain superiority in nothing. Time enlightens us too late of what was first only a flattering of the passions.

37. Keep a store of sarcasms and know how to use them.
This is the point of greatest tact in human intercourse. Such sarcasms are often thrown out to test people's moods, and by their means one often obtains the most subtle and penetrating touchstone of the heart. Other sarcasms are malicious, insolent, poisoned by envy or envenomed by passion, unexpected flashes that destroy at once all favor and esteem. Struck by the slightest word of this kind, many fall away from the closest intimacy with superiors or inferiors that would not have been the slightest shaken by a whole conspiracy of popular insinuation or private malevolence. Other sarcasms work favorably, confirming and assisting one's reputation. But the greater the skill with which they are launched, the greater the caution with which they should be anticipated and received. For here a knowledge of malice is in itself a means of defense, and a shot foreseen always misses its mark.

40. Gain people's goodwill.
It is a great thing to gain universal admiration, but greater to gain universal affection. It depends on natural disposition but more so on practice; the first is the foundation, the second then builds on that. Great gifts are not enough, though they are thought to be essential - win good opinion and it is easy to win goodwill. Kindly acts are required to produce kindly feelings - do good with both hands, good words and better deeds, love so as to be loved. Courtesy is the politic magic of great people. First, lay the hand on deeds and then on the pen - words follow swords and the goodwill to be won among writers is eternal.

52. Never be upset.
It is a great aim of prudence never to be embarrassed. This is the sign of a real person, of a noble heart, for magnanimity is not easily put off balance. The passions are the humors of the soul, and every excess in them weakens prudence. If they overflow through the mouth, the reputation will be in danger. Let us therefore be so great a master over ourselves that neither in the most fortunate nor in the most adverse circumstances can anything cause our reputation injury by disturbing our self-possession but rather enhance it by showing superiority.

64. Avoid worry.
Such prudence brings its own reward. It escapes much, and is thus the midwife of comfort and so of happiness. Neither give nor take bad news unless it can help. Some people's ears are stuffed with the sweets of flattery, others with the bitters of scandal, while some cannot live without a daily annoyance no more than Mithridates (Mithridates VI, 132-63 BCE, King of Pontus, is said to have taken small doses of poison to immunize himself from it in an event that it might be used in an assassination attempt) without poison. It is no rule of life to prepare for yourself lifelong trouble in order to give a temporary enjoyment to another, however near and dear. You should never spoil your own chances in order to please another who advises but keeps out of the affair.

65. Cultivate taste.
You can train it like the intellect. Full knowledge whets desire and increases enjoyment. You may know a noble spirit by the elevation of his taste. Only a great thing can satisfy a great mind. Big bites for big mouths, lofty things for lofty spirits. Before their judgement the bravest tremble, the most perfect lose confidence. Few things are of the first importance, so let appreciation be rare. Taste can be imparted by personal intercourse; it is great good luck to associate with the highest taste.But do not profess to be dissatisfied with everything; this is the extreme of folly, and more odious if from affectation than if from unreachable ideals. Some would have God create another world and other ideals to satisfy their fantastic imagination.

87. Culture and elegance.
We are born barbarians and only raise ourselves above the beast by culture. Culture therefore makes the person; the greater a person the more culture. Thanks to this, Greece could call the rest of the world barbarians. Ignorance is very raw - nothing contributes so much to culture as knowledge. But even knowledge is coarse if without elegance. Not alone must our intelligence be elegant, but also our desires, and above all our conversation.Some people are naturally elegant in internal and external qualities, in their thoughts, in their words, in their dress, which is the rind of the soul as their talents are its fruit. There are others, on the other hand, so gauche that everything about them, even their most excellent quality, is tarnished by an intolerable and barbaric want of neatness.

88. Let your behavior be fine and noble.
A great person ought not to be little in his actions. He ought never to pry too minutely into things, least of all in unpleasant matters. For though it is important to know all, it is not necessary to know all about all.One ought to act in such cases with the generosity of a gentleman, with conduct worthy of a gallant person. To pretend to overlook things is a large part of the work of ruling. Most things must be left unnoticed among relatives and friends, and even among enemies. All superfluity is annoying, especially in things that annoy. To keep hovering around the object of your annoyance is a kind of mania. Generally speaking, everybody behaves according to his heart and his understanding.

90. The secret of long life.
Lead a good life. Two things bring life speedily to an end: folly and immorality. Some lose their life because they have not the intelligence to keep it, others because they have not the will. Just as virtue is its own reward, so is vice its own punishment. He who lives a fast life runs through life to its end doubly quick. A virtuous life never dies. The firmness of the soul is communicated to the body, and a good life is not only long but also full.

92. Transcendent wisdom.
I mean in everything. An ounce of wisdom is worth more than a ton of cleverness is the first and highest rule of all deeds and words, the more necessary to be followed the higher and more numerous your post. It is the only sure way, though it may not gain so much applause. A reputation for wisdom is the last triumph of fame. It is enough if you satisfy the wise, for their judgement is the touchstone of true success.

106. Do not parade your position.
To boast about your position is more offensive than personal vanity. To pose as an important person is to be hated - you should surely have had enough envy. The more you seek esteem the less you obtain it, for it depends on the opinion of others. You cannot take it, but must earn and receive it from others. Great positions require exercising a sufficient amount of authority - without it they cannot be adequately filled. Preserve therefore enough dignity to carry on the duties of the office. Do not enforce respect, but try to create it. Those who insist on the dignity of their office, show they have not deserved it, and that it is too much for them. If you wish to be valued, be valued for your talents, not for anything obtained by chance. Even kings prefer to be honored for their personal qualifications rather than for their station.

109. Do not be censorious.
There are people of gloomy character who regard everything as faulty, not from any evil motive but because it is their nature to. They condemn all - these for what they have done, those for what they will do. This indicates a nature worse than cruel, vile indeed. They accuse with such exaggeration that they make out of motes beams with which to poke out the eyes. They are always taskmasters who could turn a paradise into a prison - if passion intervenes they drive matters to the extreme. A noble nature, on the contrary, always knows how to find an excuse for failings, saying the intention was good, or it was an error of oversight

122. Distinction in speech and action.
By this you gain a position in many places and win esteem in advance. It shows itself in everything, in talk, in look, even in gait. It is a great victory to conquer people's hearts. It does not arise from any foolish presumption or pompous talk, but in a becoming tone of authority born of superior talent combined with true merit.

125. Do not be a blacklister of other people's faults.
It is a sign of having a tarnished name to concern oneself with the ill fame of others. Some wish to hide their own stains with those of others, or at least wash them away; or they seek consolation therein - it is the consolation of fools. Their breath must stink who form the sewers of scandal for the whole town. The more one grubs about in such matters the more one befouls oneself. There are few without stain somewhere or other. It is only of little known people that the failings are little known. Be careful then to avoid being a registrar of faults. That is to be an abominable thing, a man that lives without a heart.

127. Grace in everything.
It is the life of talent, the breath of speech, the soul of action, and the ornament or ornament. Perfections are the adornment of our nature, but this is the adornment of perfection itself. It shows itself even in the thoughts. It is mostly a gift of nature and owes least to education - it even triumphs over training. It is more than ease, approaches the free and easy, gets over embarrassment, and adds the finishing touch to perfection. Without it beauty is lifeless, graciousness ungraceful. It surpasses valor, discretion, prudence, even majesty itself. It is a shortcut to accomplishment and an easy escape from embarrassment.

128. High-mindedness.
This is one of the principal qualifications for a gentleman, it spurs us on to all kinds of nobility. It improves the taste, ennobles the heart, elevates the mind, refines the feelings, and intensifies dignity. It raises him in whom it is found. At times it even remedies the bad turns of fortune, which turns itself around because of envy. High-mindedness can find full scope in the will when it cannot be exercised in act. Magnanimity, generosity, and all heroic qualities recognize in it their source.

114. Never compete. Every competition damages your reputation.
Our rivals seize occasion to obscure us so as to outshine us. Few wage honorable war. Rivalry discloses faults that courtesy would hide. Many have lived in good repute while they had no rivals. The heat of conflict revives and gives new life to dead scandals, digging up long-buried skeletons. Competition begins with belittling, and seeks aid anywhere it can, not only where it should. And when the weapons of abuse do not effect their purpose, as often or mostly happens, our opponents seek revenge and use them at least for beating away the dust of oblivion from anything that is our discredit. People of goodwill are always at peace, and those of good reputation and dignity are of goodwill.

174. Do not live in a hurry.
To know how to separate things is to know how to enjoy them. Many people finish their fortune sooner than their life. They run through pleasures without enjoying them, and would like to go back when they find they have overrun the mark. Postilions of life, they increase the ordinary pace of life by the hurry of their own calling. They devour more in one day than they can digest in a whole lifetime; they live in advance of pleasures, eat up the years beforehand, and by their hurry get through everything too soon. Even in the search for knowledge there should be moderation, lest we learn things better left unknown. We have more days to live through than pleasures. Be slow in enjoyment, quick at work, for people see work ended with pleasure, pleasures ended with regret.

192. A peaceful life is a long life.
To live, let live. Peacemakers not only live, they rule life. Hear, see, and be silent. A day without dispute brings sleep without dreams. Long life and a pleasant one is life enough for two - that is the fruit of peace. He has all that makes nothing of what is nothing to him. There is no greater perversity than to take everything to heart. There is equal folly in troubling our heart about what does not concern us and in not taking to heart what does.

203. Know the great people of your age.
They are not many. There is one phoenix in the whole world, one great general, one perfect orator, one true philosopher in a century, one really illustrious king in several. Mediocrities are as numerous as they are worthless; eminent greatness is rare in every respect, since it needs complete perfection, and the higher the species the more difficult is the highest rank in it. Many have claimed the title Great, like Caesar and Alexander, but in vain, for without deeds the title is a mere breath of air. There have been few Senecas, and fame records but one Apelles.

232. Have a touch of business sense.
Life should not be all thought, there should be action as well. Very wise folk are generally easily deceived, for while they know out-of-the-way things they do not know the ordinary things of life, which are of real necessity. The observation of higher things leaves them no time for things close at hand. Since they do not know the very first thing they should know - and what everybody knows so well - they are either esteemed or thought ignorant by the superficial multitude. Let therefore the prudent take care to have something to the businessman about him - enough to prevent him being deceived and so laughed at. Be a person adapted to the daily round, which if not the highest is the most necessary thing in life. Of what use is knowledge if it is not practical, and to know how to live is nowadays the true knowledge.

245. Have original and out-of-the-way views.
These are signs of superior ability. We do not think much of someone who never contradicts us; that is not a sign he loves us but rather that he loves himself. Do not be deceived by flattery and thereby have to pay for it, rather condemn it. Besides, you may be given credit for being criticized by some, especially if they are those of whom the good speak ill. On the contrary, it should disturb us if our affairs please everyone, for that is a sign that they are of little worth. Perfection is for the few.



http://www.tigertom.com/ebook/power/dem/classic/gracian.html

This is Anonymoses, from whom God hid nothing.

Arrogance is a Disease that often leads to War

The Yin and Yang of Conservatism

The 7 States of Sickness
(from "Natural Healing Through Macrobiotics" by Michio Kushi)

1. Fatigue or Tiredness
2. Aches and Pains
3. Blood Diseases
4. Emotional Disorders
5. Organ Diseases
6. Nerve Diseases
7. Arrogance


FURTHER EXPLANATION

1. Fatigue or Tiredness - The major causes are lack of physical exercise plus over-eating and over-drinking, particularly meat and sugar.
2. Aches and Pains - The nervous system starts to weaken.
3. Blood Diseases - Thought incurable, these can often be cured by proper diet.
4. Emotional Disorders - This category includes problems such as irritability, impatience, upset, anger, anxiety, worry, fear, and uneasiness. A healthy person is not bothered by negative emotional states. If we become angry even once a year, we are not completely healthy. Ideally, we should not become angry even once during an entire lifetime.
(This was written before The Great Dewakening; The Current Unpleasantness. It could be argued that anger,as a defense mechanism, should be reserved for such times as these...although I much prefer Gandhean Satyagraha to vehemence and anger. Besides, there is always the Butterfly Effect to consider, as well as the even more subtle Taoist notion that one need not lift a finger, or make any ripple in the material world. A vision, well-wrought, can change minds and worlds effortlessly, internally. I digress...)
5. Organ Diseases - Organs begin to degenerate.
6. Nerve Diseases - Dullness, forgetfulness, social crimes.
7. Arrogance - This occurs when we try to separate ourselves from nature and the universe, and happens in one of two ways. The first is yang arrogance, and it appears in the form of a domineering, conquering, or self-insistent personality which tends to drive others away.
This yang arrogance is what George W. Bush, and many on the flagrant right-conservative site of the dial, have digested...although it occasionally takes root among those left of center...at which point they become neo-cons, after having passed through Dennis Miller.

"The yin type of arrogance shows itself in the form of withdrawal or a refusal to listen. Many of the elderly and and those who consider themselves devout or religious suffer from this form of arrogance. This type of person is usually not open to the opinions or suggestions of others."

Kushi continues: " Arrogance is actually the underlying cause of all human sickness and unhappiness and is at the same time the end point of the first six stages. Ultimately, all people who suffer from arrogance commit suicide by dying an unnatural death, either through sickness, war, accident, or other causes. The basic purpose of macrobiotic healing is to cure arrogance."

So here we have it. The explanation of what is today called "Conservatism"...although the only thing these folks are concerned about conserving is their ego; their arrogance -- whether it be in the form of Bush-style brashness, or the quieter, more obscurantistic hard-headed self-righteousness exhibited by the more reposed.

Arrogance is a killer...of self and others. It incorrectly places the ego where God, the Tao, the spirit, Stewardship, Magnanimity, or whatever name you call it, should be.

An image came to me last night which made me laugh. It was of a party where the brashest, most arrogant person arrives first...and every succeeding person had to one-up every preceding person. Imagine a Foghorn Leghorn, an Ahnold...followed by increasing degrees of Ahnoldness or Fogginess, if you will. How obnoxious can one party get?
Could such a party bear any fruit? Would any come out alive?

Arrogance is a perennial problem among those in power. We see it in the upper chambers of government and business...and we see the rotten fruit.

Arrogance is not to be confused with confidence. Post-docs are confident. Those with lesser degrees are arrogant...if I were to draw an analogy from the Academy. Those with a little education tend to be the know-it-alls, while the truly educated...continue learning. No room for arrogance when one is so outwardly focused.

arrogance and posterity

There is, I believe, a type of arrogance which might not be unhealthy, and it was discussed in Schoenhauer's essay, "On Genius". Here Schopenhauer talks about the "arrogance" of the writer or artist whose work is intended for posterity...or as some have said...that for whom one writes after having been rejected by the commercial presses. The "genius", as Schopenhauer says, may try to adjust himself to his times, and to the "artists" and critics of the day...but he will never attain greatness for having done so. His or her "arrogance" allows this de-gravitation, so to speak, from the chauvinism of contemporaneity.

Such folks are not in competition with one's regulars, but are rather in league with the guiding lights of the ages. Fixed stars, not shooting stars.

If one must be arrogant, let it be the kind of arrogance borne of having moved beyond one's own mere life or lifetime. The Mr. Creasotes of the world will eventually eat themselves to death. Not our concern.

I'll end with a quote that could well describe most liberals. It is from a book called, "How to be a Gentleman", by John Bridges.

"A gentleman never makes himself the center of attention. His goal is to make life easier, not just for himself, but for his friends, his acquaintences, and the world at large."

While a Conservative may succeed in getting to the point where friends and acquaintences are included within their sphere of concern...they always, always, fall flat on the last point. It is this point where Liberals go far beyond the current crop of Conservatives...at least among the more outspoken of them (there are always exceptions, of course) and shine as the true gentlemen and gentlewomen of our age, and, at times, all ages.

So rather than try and out-arrogate the RepCons...we can simply continue being the worldly gentlemen and women we are. Win or lose, we set the example, and live it. Simply living it will make for a better world. Is this not a worthy goal? Need we really be in some public driver's seat? The driver's seat is overrated...

The "Driver's Seat" is Overrated

At the end of "Beelezebub's Tales to his Grandson", Gurdjieff makes the following analogy of who and what we are:

Picture a Stagecoach. It is the body, and optimally we will keep it in good working condition...but this is not who we are. Sorry Ahnold!

There is also a Horse which moves the Coach forward. The Horse is our Will and Emotions. But it is not who we are. Sorry Adolph and George!

Then there is the Driver. He tells the Horse where to take the Coach.
The Driver is our brain. But it is not who we are. Sorry, Mr. Roverer!

Say what? We are not our brains either?? What gives?

The West, according to Mr. Gurdjieff -- who, after all had at least a double-digit IQ -- has forgotten the Passenger: The one who tells the Driver where to take him. When the Passenger gets to his destination...he gets out. And we mourn the carriage!

But there will be more carriages. Count on it. SUVs even...especially here in The United States of Biggie-Size-it. But we are not our cars, our carriages, our horses, or our brains. We are, as they say, souls who happen to have a body...not the other way around. For these few...when they die...they really die. But we are the animation; the passenger. And it is here where we all meet and interpenetrate within the supraphenomenal goo; the Eternal Thou; Ethernal Tao; Jones.

The passenger knows no arrogance. Arrogance is reserved for the carriage, the horse and the driver. Drive Miss Lazy! Time is but a material concern.

Free the Ostriches!

Free the Ostriches!
[article]

End the Tsarist Occupation Government!

Spamblogs, Jenn Theater and Social Spam

A heads-up from your uncle...

Jenn Theater: Social Spam
- Posted by Clay Shirky at 6:15 PM
One of my colloquial definitions for social software is “stuff that gets spammed”, since there has to be some sort of valid participatory channel for spam to show up. We’ve seen spam extend from usenet to email to IM and now comment spam, but this, I think, is a new one: a spam weblog, Jenn Theater.
http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2003/11/16/jenn_theater_social_spam.php#557

How Candidates should answer questions

Here's what is going on at the Democratic Debates: Democratic Debasement.
Questions are framed in such a way as to show the candidate in a bad light, or to get them to bring out the bad qualities of another. Playing into their hands is unintelligent, and acting on it, ungentlemanly...and diminuitive to the party as a whole.

Governor Dean showed the way to a new approach tonight when he paid a complement to Mr. Kucinich, and John Edwards, Al Sharpton and General Clark have each given compliments to others on the stage, and with good effect...both to them and the recipient of the praise. But don't stop at niceties! Why not see who can pay the highest compliment to one or more of the others. Way more effective than tooting ones own horn...and it is a form of product placement and good PR for everyone involved...including the Democratic Party. There is much to brag about!

Maybe the one who pays the best compliment, and one who receives the highest compliment will become a team. POTUS and VPOTUS, say. And what if, say, Howard Dean receives the most votes, but then performs an amazing act of grace and says that he wants to serve as VP to Wes Clark, whom he feels would be more suited, given the nature of the current crisis, and wishing to comport with the natural order...since, being a younger man, he could well prepare for the future role while serving as VP.

And wouldn't John Edwards make a better Attorney General than John Ashcroft? Who would doubt that?

And who better for the Secretary of the Department of Peace than Mr. Kucinich?
So many wondrous opportunities ahead! May they all find a place in the coming Democratic Correction.

Again...so many possibilities! Keep an open mind...

But aside from praising others while preparing your response, one may well toss out responses to questions made to others...but please...only if you know you can also answer the specific question, posed to you, as well.

We brought you Exuberance. Bush brought you Terror.

Use the time to celebrate each other, and the party you represent. One of the strong suits of the Democratic Party is that it welcomes, nourishes, and celebrates diversity...and are known for being excellent producers of exuberance in the process. We are not the Doom and Gloom. We are living the Doom and Gloom. We were the Exuberance! (How soon some forget!)

Another thing... It doesn't hurt to meditate prior to debating. Keeps one centered...in the best sense of the word.

RATE THE QUESTIONS

Someone should collect all the questions asked during the debates (or on Russert, etc.) and then simply list them...like this:

1) Why do you suck?
2) Why do people like you suck?
3) Do you still beat your wife?
4) If your daughter were raped by Willie Horton, would you let your child stay at Neverland?

This way we can see clearly just how stupid these questions really are.
And to think just how much jing these folks rake in...and for what? Questions that have already been asked a hundred times? Questions about their operating system? Their modus underwearandi?

The questions asked in a debate of such import should be of utmost importance.
One is reminded of what Sartre said about certain refugees whose silence was tied to their staying alive. But at certain times, a moment would open up where one could speak with another. Their utterances were the opposite of small talk. We've all but forgotten that language. This is tied to freedoms we are now in jeopardy of losing.

Would we only have raised our consciousness in word-drunk times...

Bush's Actual Words

Forget about his ghostwriters and speechwriters...what has he written, and where is it?

There ain't even much by way of said ghostwriters and speechwriters, so I know, or at least suspect, that his own scribblings are well locked away, if not shredded.

Clinton and Gore gave us copious amounts of fine writing and high ideals, grounded in pragmatic, democratic sensibility. Can the Republicans show up at this debate of ideas? I seriously doubt it. He probably won't show up at the official debates. He has done with debates, I assure you this. As Gore Vidal said, "A politician has to hide his game." And in this sense, Bush is the supreme politician. Nothing gets out that isn't wrapped in payola.

Someone should take it upon themselves to gather, in one place, all of the writings and unscripted utterances of The Occupant. This should make any of the Democrats a shoe-in.

The Mirror Test

"A Conservative Government is an organized Hypocrisy."
- Benjamin Disraeli

Historically hip dude, Ben Franklin -- not to be confused with Osama Ben Franklin Roosevelt Greer Garson Kanin Abel -- is credited with devising a system, an hermeneutic, a rule of thumb whereby one might adjudge the costs and benefits of possible future actions. You simply draw a line down a page and put the plusses on one side and the minuses on the other. Should one side greatly outweigh the other...you've got your answer. A pretty good, but not failsafe system.

I'd like to propose another system. Call it the Mirror Test or the Mirror Test...if you are Italian. In this system, one simply reverses the players, as in politics, and then weighs the fairness...or whatever criteria you might be looking for. Dixize perexaump.

Take, for example, the more controversial assertions that the Bushitler Admenstruation, Flush Sinbaud, Faux News, Phat Robertson and other knuckleheads and slabberdegullions who have a sort of bundle or fasces of beliefs...extract those beliefs...and foist them upon, say, the glowing Clinton Administration. A mirror test. You know.

How, for example, would the Bushies take to Janet Reno's rearranging of the laws in order to better spy on them? Would they champion the so-called Patriot Act? If so, I'd suggest it was simply because it had the name "patriot" in it. Oh yes. They would also have had Clinton impeached for having the nerve to use a Republican word.

If Bush had won the Popular Vote, but Gore had family and work partners in the Supreme Court, and Clinton's Court took charge of deciding who would be president, and went on to, of course, pick Gore...would you have accepted it? Would you have thought it best to simply crawl back into a hole and pretend it didn't happen? Or would you consider Gore illegitimate, and having a strong memory...remember that fact? Maybe even be a little perturbed, and wondering if this is not a bad precedent (and President) for a nation with such high ideals and standards as the United States of America?

The problem with the Mirror Test is that one would have to at least affect an air of impartiality; disinterest. And many of those whom I think would best benefit from taking such a test...are actually and certifiably...interested. They will make money off the deal. To these people I can only suggest that you read Eckhart and Jahaezus.

I would like to challenge any reader who should happen along to try and apply the Mirror Test to whatever agenda they may be pushing. Applying Kant's Categorical Imperative might not hurt either. Kant would never go along with Bush's policy of preemption, and he would have a difficult time with our own storehouses of weapons of mass destruction. Some day the war machine will have to be forever put to rest, and just as with the chariot-makers of old...they are going to have to get a different job. Time to retrain these hawks and profiteers. Let them become History Teachers.

On second thought...

So...the job for ye Bush apologists, should you light here, is to hold up that mirror.
There really is a reason why most of the world despises The Occupant. Open your third eye and see...

And speaking of which...did anyone see Andrew Sullivan on ABC's George on Sunday?
Surely, after that, he must realize that he is fighting for his foe. Will he now come to his senses?

What a great show that is! Best on Sunday morning! A class act!

"Hurry up! Rush is Jonesing!"

The League of Liberals blog has been added to the weblog of Anonymoses: Uncle of All Blogs

Avuncularity soon to be considered

In a bold move on Sunday, beloved blogographer, Anonymoses -- reputed to be the so-called "Uncle of All Blogs" -- linked the fine folks at the League up to his Internet home page on the World Wide Web...which is fast becoming the lastest thing to hit the bloody Red States since individually-wrapped cheesefood...an apt metaphor for those territories that don't comprise the headland, generously called the heartland, although we all know it is the anusland. We do, of course, exclude the thousands of points of light who have wherewithal sufficient to serve their apotropaic interests, and ours.

The Selection of Bush was a bomb at the end of Clinton's bridge to the 21st century, we had safely crossed...only to fall into a booby-trapped ravine set by Bush's cadre of Men Who Hate Peace. Wouldn't be prudent. Dut'n pay! And now we find ourselves corncootered to death by twangs of nucular greed, and the world and earth MOABed to the point where no life could grow if it wanted to. Consider how Jefferson gridded our ecosystem to death, unwittingly, and contributed to our own dustbowl, our own Iraqification. Gaia will definitely NOT be voting for Bush or Cheney...or any other member of the Greed-Oil-Pollution Party. (Or was that the Groping-Oxycontin-Phatrobertson party?)

At any rate, we are the big tent; the Great Raft. Mahafreakingyana! As such we would do well to be not only Liberals, Progressives, and Independents...we need to marginalize that which is already, de facto, marginalized. Tell them your uncle made you do it. Tell them we are non-conservatives, but better yet, tell them we are pro-humanity. We college grads understand the interdependency of all life, and are not narrow in our biophilia, like the so-called "pro-lifers". Too bad they stole the domain name...

As President Clinton said in his most recent, a must-read-and-study address...we need to remain happy. We are always truthful, but sometimes our anger poisons the message. Ann Magnussen, while fronting Bongwater, put it well: "When you start thinking like that, you start thinking like they do...it's time to let go of the material world."

BushWorld's Jackboots infect Miami

BushWorld's Jackboots infect Miami

Mr. Bush, Are you with us or against us?

Images of rallies in London and Oxford

Bush bombs Florida with MOAB

Record high temperatures in American South and World

Slick move, Ex-Lax! With global warming already threatening life on earth, shouldn't we be dropping icebergs?

Bush Planning to Invade Syria in time for Presidential elections

Don't let him get away with it. Too many have died already.

How to get the people's mind off the fiasco in Iraq? Invade Syria, of course!
Bush doesn't really believe in Democracy in America...why would he care about it in the Middle East? Can you spell O-I-L?

"Democracy" is just a code word..like "Compassionate". It means we are coming to whip your ass.

LINKS
http://meionline.com/features/164.shtml

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/590C99F5-C951-401B-B372-A389AC5FA00C.htm

"I was a drug addict from about 1996, 1995 or whatever, to just five weeks ago"

...Rush admits.

Wounds Worse Than Death

If you think being killed is bad...try surviving!

According to recent Pentagon data, there have been over 9,000 US casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom, but we only hear about the number of Americans killed. Some of these wounded will also die, and add to that list. But we must not forget the wounded. They are the ones suffering the most. And that number is growing rapidly. Let us keep them in our prayers. The dead are beyond our hope.

Bush's Honeymoon is over. Get Him, Lenny! You too Howard! John! Dennis! Wesley!

iddybud

Remember that great scene in "Of Mice and Men" where big and dumb Lenny is finally allowed to unlease upon the brutal son of the Ranch-owner? Malkovich, as Lenny, grabs his swinging fist and nearly turns it to putty.

Well...goddammit the honeymoon that our killer president has received has gone on long enough, thank you. Clinton's lasted how long? A day? A week? And HE was a GOOD man! Have we completely lost our moorings?

The Democratic candidates are worried that they will not have enough money to bribe the Media Mafia into siding with them this time...as it had sided with Bush last time, since he offered them more money, frankly.

But the Democrats don't really need to even have a dime. They need to expose Bush for what he, and his, really are. If they can do that, even FOX will have a hard time defending him.

"Do what you love, the money will follow" is not bad advice, even for the Democratic candidates. If you truly love this country, its people and resources, and respect the wishes of the world...stand up and make your case. Be bold. Pussyfooting will get you nowhere.

"No Pussyfooting" should be your mantra...and let the chips fall where they may. The working-class Tories who now back Bush Inc. will come around once they realize that Bush really doesn't have their interests at heart. Many others as well.

Do your freaking job and diminish your opponent...by simply telling the truth, the whole truth. This will do more to help your campaign than bags and bags of mere money.

Do I need to repeat myself? Very well...
The honeymoon is over.
The honeymoon is over.
The honeymoon is over.

And if ye timid and pussilanimous media monkeys are listening...this applies to you too. Bush will soon launch a new war against Syria and possibly Iran, and we will all be expected to become compliant little flag-waving slaves. But remember, even Dubya's daddy said this war, these tactics used by the son, are foolhardy.

Before you are, once again, asked to toe to corporate line...think at the top of your intelligence, and manifest the Edward R. Murrow or Gore Vidal within your souls...and speak truth to power...before it is too late.

We needn't carry this ludicrous policy of preemption into the new millennium any further. It is wrong-headed and will eventually bring America to its knees.

If Dean has been a lesson, it is that people WANT someone to be the un-Bush. So...go get him, Lenny! Watch the movie if you don't know what I'm talking about. "Of Mice and Men" (starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinese). Maybe someone will emerge as a Man or Woman...and will stand stark against the mouse now in office.

Eek No more!

Here is Iddybud's take on the matter... Enjoy!

Madeleine Begun Kane, Humor Columnist, Fair & Balanced Song, a political song parody about The Fox lawsuit against Al Franken and Penguin Books, to be sung

"Ranting righties spouting wingnut madness"
Among the great and wondrous lyrics from the deliciously funny Madeleine Kane...

Madeleine Begun Kane, Humor Columnist, Fair & Balanced Song, a political song parody about The Fox lawsuit against Al Franken and Penguin Books, to be sung to Love and Marriage

A Cure for Conservatism!- Pill May Help People Overcome Fears

A Cure for Conservatism!
Pill May Help People Overcome Fears

Why do many conservatives act the way they do?

Fear. Fear of losing their job, their money, their position, their wife, their religion, their promotion, their raise, their SUV, their ego, their dominion over nature...and on and on ad nauseam. Since they are not allowed to evolve, they are afraid of change. Since they are not allowed to read Buddhist texts, they are unaware of the concept of the fearless bodhisattva ideal, and as such have not given the concept or reality of fearlessness much thought. In fact, many wallow in fear, and are great purveyors of fear. Our current administration has profited monstrously through the purveyance of fear...while fearful dittohead freepers gather weapons to protect them from all that they fear...while soaking their minds in crap like The Fear Factor or The O'Reilly Factor.

Drug Companies make a fortune manufacturing fears and then claiming to have a patent on the cure. Tsk tsk. Are you in the field of health, or are you in the business of harming people through the quality of life killer, fear, and then harming them more with questionable products? Just asking. If you want longevity, become true healers...and renounce the obscene superprofits so others may live better. There have been great miracle cures, and those are rightly applauded. Focus on doing well by doing good, and your souls will breathe from higher streams.

Excerpts from President Gore's Speech on November, 9, 2003

Excerpts from President Gore's Speech on November, 9, 2003

After I invented the Internet, I went on to invent flashmobs, smartmobs, the nuculus, Radiohead and metrosexuality, and I took the initiative in inventing Oxycontin -- which, as you may know, has some famous adherents, including Rush "With drugs on loan from a guy named Guido" Limbaugh.

OK...OK...so Gore never really said that. He did, however say the following thangs:

By closely guarding information about their own behavior, they are dismantling a fundamental element of our system of checks and balances. Because so long as the government’s actions are secret, they cannot be held accountable. A government for the people and by the people must be transparent to the people.

...

The administration is justifying the collection of all this information by saying in effect that it will make us safer to have it. But it is not the kind of information that would have been of much help in preventing 9/11. However, there was in fact a great deal of specific information that WAS available prior to 9/11 that probably could have been used to prevent the tragedy. A recent analysis by the Merkle foundation, (working with data from a software company that received venture capital from a CIA-sponsored firm) demonstrates this point in a startling way:

“In late August 2001, Nawaq Alhamzi and Khalid Al-Midhar bought tickets to fly on American Airlines Flight 77 (which was flown into the Pentagon). They bought the tickets using their real names. Both names were then on a State Department/INS watch list called TIPOFF. Both men were sought by the FBI and CIA as suspected terrorists, in part because they had been observed at a terrorist meeting in Malaysia.
These two passenger names would have been exact matches when checked against the TIPOFF list. But that would only have been the first step. Further data checks could then have begun.
Checking for common addresses (address information is widely available, including on the internet), analysts would have discovered that Salem Al-Hazmi (who also bought a seat on American 77) used the same address as Nawaq Alhazmi. More importantly, they could have discovered that Mohamed Atta (American 11, North Tower of the World Trade Center) and Marwan Al-Shehhi (United 175, South Tower of the World Trade Center) used the same address as Khalid Al-Midhar.
Checking for identical frequent flier numbers, analysts would have discovered that Majed Moqed (American 77) used the same number as Al-Midhar.
With Mohamed Atta now also identified as a possible associate of the wanted terrorist, Al-Midhar, analysts could have added Atta’s phone numbers (also publicly available information) to their checklist. By doing so they would have identified five other hijackers (Fayez Ahmed, Mohand Alshehri, Wail Alsheri, and Abdulaziz Alomari).
Closer to September 11, a further check of passenger lists against a more innocuous INS watch list (for expired visas) would have identified Ahmed Alghandi. Through him, the same sort of relatively simple correlations could have led to identifying the remaining hijackers, who boarded United 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania).”
In addition, Al-Midhar and Nawaf Alhamzi, the two who were on the terrorist watch list, rented an apartment in San Diego under their own names and were listed, again under their own names, in the San Diego phone book while the FBI was searching for them.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but what is needed is better and more timely analysis. Simply piling up more raw data that is almost entirely irrelevant is not only not going to help. It may actually hurt the cause. As one FBI agent said privately of Ashcroft: “We’re looking for a needle in a haystack here and he (Ashcroft) is just piling on more hay.”

In other words, the mass collecting of personal data on hundreds of millions of people actually makes it more difficult to protect the nation against terrorists, so they ought to cut most of it out.

Signals From The Grave: How the Dead are Defeating Bush

Signals From The Grave: How the Dead are Defeating Bush

FROM THE ARTICLE:

By DOUG SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - Gertrude M. Jones didn't want flowers or cards when she died. She wanted to get rid of President Bush.

The 81-year-old woman's obituary asked that memorial donations be given "to any organization that seeks the removal of President Bush from office."

And people around the country are following her wishes.


MORE

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Liberal views force soldier out of military
Bush's Republican Guard

Credit where it is due: Wolfowitz stands up to Sharon's Insanity

Paul Wolfowitz is to be commended for rejecting Ariel Sharon's heavy-handed, aggressive, land-grabbing policies, which can only lead to more bloodshed, and has, essentially, labeled him an extremist. Less is more. May peace at last break out in this troubled region, as a spirit of tolerance and generosity reign over all...

http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.11.07/news1.wolfowitz.html

Bush's Pinocchio Moment: or We're all wearing the blue dress now

Bush's Pinocchio Moment: or We're all wearing the blue dress now


Now that it is painfully apparent that the mission in Iraq - whatever it is - is far from over, the President has disavowed what, at the time, was hailed as one of the most dramatic "photo ops" ever staged for an American politician.

"The ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign, of course, was put up by the members of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, saying their mission was accomplished," Mr. Bush asserted during a Rose Garden news conference. "I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff. They weren’t that ingenious, by the way."

This surely was a Pinocchio moment for the President but, amazingly, his nose didn’t seem to grow one bit. And the White House press corps, polite to a fault, didn’t erupt in a well-deserved chant of "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

Mr. Bush’s backpedaling also must have been news to his political staff, who had gleefully - and publicly - taken credit for orchestrating every element of the event, down to directing that the ship be turned so that winds were light and the backdrop for the speech was open ocean instead of the nearby skyline of San Diego.

In truth, the White House communications staff had approved the banner and produced it. The sailors hung it up, and the message to the world couldn’t have been clearer.

God's Antagonism to Faux News

When a free mind is disinterested, God is compelled to come into it

"A philosopher named Avicenna said: "The rank of a disinterested mind is so high that what it sees is true, what it desires comes to pass, what it commands must be done." You may take this for the truth, that when a free mind is disinterested, God is compelled to come into it; and if it could get along without contigent forms, it would then have all the properties of God himself."
- Meister Eckhart, "About Disinterest"

How many folks in the Media, or indeed, nearly any other profession, church or political organization is truly disinterested, impartial? Supporting a special interest is, de facto, interested...not disinterested. Partial. Biased. And even if the party pretends to be fair and balanced, they themselves are partial, interested...and usually paid for being so.

God does not come to these people. Don't expect any high wisdom or anything else godly to issue therefrom. Indeed, you may find that it is as far from God as you can get. God did not, would not, work for Bush. But Tony Snow did, as did Brit Hume. But alas the same thing would apply to Jim Carville...but he never pretended to be speaking for God or from God's little corner.

And consider the case of Frank Luntz, who tricked us, via MSNBC, into thinking he was an impartial questioneer, as he led a supposedly undecided (regarding recount) group of voters...into the Bush camp. Should Gore just give up?

Why did Luntz do this to us? Why did MSNBC? GE? And why did the entire media machine follow suit?

Check out some of Enron Frank's work:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/07/18/RECALL.TMP&type=printable

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1429.shtml

Most of these insufferable bloviators are partial, as I said, for money. Money can buy them more and more things, and make them more attractive in the eyes of the shallow. Many good matches follow. Shallow couples breeding shallow, partial notions. And yet the more things they accumulate, the farther and farther away from God and the truth they become. As Eckhart (from whom God hid nothing) says: "Keep this in mind: to be full of things is to be empty of God, while to be empty of things is to be full of God."

People need to really begin to understand this equation.

Many people get the false notion that non-conservatives think God should just go away, or that he or she doesn't really exist. But I think this is a wrong assumption. It is rather that God is intensely personal, not intensely public...and should remain that way. And as such, non-conservatives do often have intensely personal relations with God, and his close ally, the Truth.

Imagine a stock market where the value lay in one's personal connection with God. How topsy-turvy the world would become. Suddenly the poor are the most highly prized, for as Eckhart said in his "Talks of Instruction": "The more things we keep for ourselves, the less we have his love; the less we own things, the more we shall own Him and His... When we get rid of outward things, in return, God shall give us all that heaven contains, yes, heaven and all its powers, and all that flows out of God. Whatever the saints and angels have shall be ours as much as theirs."

Jeez! That sounds almost as good as stock options at Enron! Maybe even better!

People, readjust. The rat race is for rats. Screw the raise and seek the rays.

"For of all his gifts, gifts of nature, gifts of grace, not one was made with the idea that that we should regard them as property...and in order to teach us that, to impress it on us, he frequently takes away everything, physical and spiritual. We are to have what we have as if it were loaned to us and not given; to be without proprietary rights to body or soul, mind or faculties, worldly goods or honors, friends, relations, houses, castles, or anything else."

Besides...you may look good in wings!

Polyphonic Spree: Follow the Day and reach for the Sun

Polyphonic Spree bringing light to our dark age.

Polyphonic Spree: Follow the Day and reach for the Sun

Jeez I love that song! Maybe there IS hope!
If you missed the band on Conan...you can at least hear them on the iPod/VW "Pods Unite" commercial...or just click here.

FLASH FROM THE FUTURE
In the future, there will be a movie called "Fahrenheit 9/11" or "Seabiscuit" or something like that. Watch it. It will change the way you look at your president. Or horses. Something like that.

WE RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULE PROGRAMING
OFFICIAL SITE
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" soundtrack (featuring the song)

Time to dust off the sandles...

---

LYRICS:

Light and day
is more than you'll say

cus all
my feelings are more
than i can let by
or not
more than you've got
just follow the day

follow the day and reach for the sun!

you don't see me flyin to the red
one more you're done
just follow the seasons and find the time
reach for the bright side
you don't see me flyin to the red
one more you're nuts
just follow the day
follow the day and reach for the sun

just follow the day
follow the day and reach for the

you don't see me flyin to the red
one more you're nuts
just follow the seasons and find the time
reach for the bright side
you don't see me flyin to the red
one more you're nuts
just follow the day
follow the day and reach for the sun!

BushWorld: Coming to a High School Near YOU!

This isn't Columbine. This is BushWorld.
Imagine Clinton pulling this shit! You can't...because he wouldn't.
Time to voice your outrage at Bush's fascistic police state tactics...

Jessica Lynch Heroically Exposes Lying Liars in Military, Media

“They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff,” she said in an excerpt from the interview, posted Friday on the network’s Web site. “It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that they had no truth about,” she said.
She also said there was no reason for her rescue from an Iraqi hospital to be filmed. “It’s wrong,” she said.

MORE on Jessicagate

Middle East to Bush: Mind your own Business

"they are not going to listen attentively to the speech of the American president, first, because the consecutive American administrations, in the past 50 years, supported those regimes ... And because all true democracies in the world came as a result of internal struggle, not due to foreign intervention, particularly American."

---

The Many Roles of the Right Wing (Cartoon)

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Show me the money! or What are we winning, and who is we?

OK folks. Time to show your winnings!
Who among us has benefitted from this war? I haven't....monetarily or otherwise. And chances are...99% of us will never see a benefit. All we will ever see is the bill...and the blood.
NOT a good deal.

Edwards and Kucinich need a Clay Aiken-style Makeover

It might not cause them to win, but it might make them a good number two. Not in the scatalogical sense, mind.

Oh! The Hume/Hannity!

Hume/Hannity!

Oh! The Humannity!

Bret Hume and Sean Hannity should get together and create a show called:
Hume/Hannity. Oh! The HumeHannity! Oh! The Humanity!

The bill is in the mail.

Democrats, Use Your Time Wisely

Say what the Media are Afraid to Say

You are playing into the hands of of your real opponent. Stop chewing each other up. Instead bring out the big guns and level them at Bush and Company.

Say the things the media are too timid to say. Read Buzzflash for a good start. There is hardly anyone better at siphoning out the goods and listing them on one page. Many great sources, really. To simply say what everybody already knows is to say nothing at all. As Ogilvy says, "You can't bore someone into buying your product."

Use the time remaining wisely. Eight people blasting at Bush for a dozen hours can be way more effect, and inexpensive, than a hundred paid advertisements.

Who is the opponent? Dean? Clark? Edwards? No...it is Bush the Preemptor. Replace him. The world demands it.

Sports, Ideology and Other Distractions

On Exploiting Decent People

Basically there are two types of people. Decent people, on the one hand, and exploiters, on the other.

Exploiters know that decent people will not stand being exploited, and so they create chaos, confusion and other distractions like Sports and Ideology in order to hide the fact that they are indeed being exploited.

Millions of Americans can tell you who won this or that game, but ask them about atrocities this country is committing around the globe, and they glaze over or deny it because it wasn't mentioned during the 18 minutes allotted for nightly news. Even the 24-hour "news" shows rehash the same old stuff during their 48 minute cycle. (I may be wrong on the exact minutes, but one does have to allow for commercials...which more and more often come disguised as news...thus supplanting bigger stories. Ever see a news item on Viagra? [See: Product Placement])

But sports is not the only tool these exploiters have in their arsenal. They also have very confusing ideology. Try reading some of the "conservative scholars" and note how exploitation is disguised as so much philosophy.

Decent people don't need ideology to prop themselves up. They know how to do the decent thing, and assume that other decent people do too. But a lot of decent people are being snookered by the exploiters, and are even being recruited to do their gruntwork. They drink the kool-ade, the ideology, and think they are so clever because they now have a philosophy to back up their yet-to-be-transcended egoism and selfishness. And they think that, one day, they will be able to rise to the top of the pack -- forgetting that they are just becoming a dog in the process.

Now don't get me wrong...dogs are fine creatures. The epitome of loyalty. But loyalty, as the cliche goes, can be blind. And oftentimes it is. Many a dog has a cruel master.

But the hope is, I suspect, that they too may become the cruel master himself.

Now Jesus was no cruel master. Nor was Gandhi, Buddha, Eckhart or Doctor-King. Nor were they exploiters. They were, in fact, decent people. Decent people exploited and tortured by cruel masters.

Rising to the Top

Look at the top. Do you really think you would be comfortable there? Are these the people you really want to hang out with? I guess it depends on which top you are speaking of...right? I, for example, would find it tremendously boring to spend my spare moments with John Ashcroft, Neil Boortz, Dick Cheney, Jerry Falwell or the Dubster himself. But to hang out with, say, top-level comedians, entertainers, artists, musicians, scholars, writers...well this might not be so bad. Certainly not nearly as boring. And why waste your time trying to get ahead, when once you get there you are bored out of your mind. Even Bill Gates would cause me to glaze over.

Are you sure you are in the right profession? Have you really considered where, and with whom, you might wind up?

And if it's the money you are after, have you never considered that 95% of the people will never know how much, or little, you have...and that the other five percent don't care? Do what you love. Find, or create, your future community. No man is an ithsmus. On second thought...maybe all men are ithsmi.

Women, of course, are continents.

The Evolution of Cooperation

People try to divide people into Liberals and Conservatives, but I think it makes more sense to divide them into exploiters and decent people, irrespectively.

Neitzsche once said that people are greater artists than they imagine, and indeed, most people seem to live in an imaginary world where, for example, sports scores have import to life. This is, of course, ridiculous. And yet we see people killing each other over these trumped up distraction sports businesses, and their all-important competition.
You know, competition...what real mean do to each other. Compete and go to war. Cooperation is for girls and metrosexuals.

Layer upon layer the hoodwinks blind the exploited and protect the exploiters.

Decent people don't steal, cheat, lie and kill...and are not in a me-first game of winners and losers. Decent people look out for those who are downtrodden, even at the expense of their own time and treasure.

I hope America can realize, literally, its own decency, and shake off the chains of ideology at least enough to cause a few good ripples of human decency. It will save us from ourselves and the world. The world of exploiters.

Let the Power Fall

Congressman Jim Leach, one of the very best and most respectable Republicans in American government, has now come out against the madness that has been unleashed upon Iraq, saying: "I think that is one of the most misguided assumptions in the history of United States' strategic thinking".

"If we stay longer, we are going to have more, not fewer, problems in Iraq, and ... consequently more problems around the world and potentially in the United States as well," Leach said. And Senator Hollins says Iraq is, chapter and verse, Vietnam.

But things are not getting any better here either. For example, U.S. October layoffs have surged 125% , and since the President’s first round of tax cuts in 2001, the economy has hemorrhaged 2.75 million jobs. This is not good. This is bad. Much worse than 4 years ago. Infinitely worse. Not at all worth propping up with your vote. Best to let the power fall. At least Bush's power. Students are already calling for his recall, and 44% of Americans polled said they would vote against Bush, while only 38% said they would vote for him.

I say let him be Baseball Comissioner. He is more suited for that role. And no one has to die for him to profit.

Even his father, George Bush Sr., in his book "A World Transformed" made this warning:
"I firmly believed we should not march into Baghdad ...To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant, into a latter-day Arab hero …

...assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war. "

If only little George had learned to read...

Metrosexual Smartmob Nexus

or... Republicans are so 20th Century

Whiny wuss and "real man", Mark Steyn, thinks he has discovered something new. Something called the "metrosexual". Now he thinks he is Magellen, but in fact he is not even Ellen. He is only parroting the words of his dopehead doctator, Rush Limbaugh...who rants, or ranted, on and on about metrosexuals. This fact alone should cause responsible parents to walk the other way...but Steyn is a rebel, an iconoclast, a real Bob Roberts...and the times are a-changing...back. At least in the minds of these 20th Century centurians.

But what are these "Uniters Not Dividers" up to? Well...they are up to their usual -- i.e. dividing. Oh! You're not a homo? Well you must be a homo sympathizer!
Now they just call it by the name, metrosexual. Lynchings may not be far behind. In fact, now that it is uncool to harass gays, these dittohead freeper types may well start targeting metrosexuals for liquidation, as it is now famously called by adipose wrecks of the reich.

For a take on how women feel about metrosexuals, take a look at blogstress, Iddybud, who always has the most marvelous things to say on a wide variety of subjects...

Abrams Down

Abrams Down

Shortly before dawn on Aug. 28, an M1A1 Abrams tank on routine patrol in Baghdad “was hit by something” that crippled the 69-ton behemoth.
Army officials still are puzzling over what that “something” was.

Solar Clusterfuck Signals Birth of Solar Age

Unprecedented Solar Clusterfuck

Sun Pyrotechnics Signals Birth of Solar Age

and/or Death of Earth

To puff the blaziness on. Poffpoff. And even if Humpty shell fall frumpty times as awkward again in the beardsboosoloom of all our grand remonstrancers there'll be iggs for the brekkers come to mournhim, sunny side up with care. So true is it that therewhere's a turnover the tay is wet too and when you think you ketch sight of a hind make sure but you're cocked by a hin.

- James Joyce, "Finnegans Wake"

Early Monday, Paal Brekke, deputy project manager of the SOHO spacecraft, was still digesting the significance of the three additional outbursts on top of two back-to-back monster flares Oct. 28 and 29.
"I think the last week will go into the history books as one of the most dramatic periods of solar activity we have seen in modern time," Brekke told SPACE.com.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solar_flares_031103.html

Coincidence? Or...destiny?

Soldiers granted stock shares in the companies they work for

One of the greatest sins is that the soldiers are overworked, poorly paid wage slaves, who give the greatest sacrifice while the companies for whom they kill reap all the rewards. And should they actually have to serve time in Hell --apparently an even worse place than Iraq -- well, this is not a good bargain at all. Is it?

Soldiers should be issued stocks in Halliburton, Bechtel, FOX, GE, the pharmaceutical companies, and those mere few who can actually claim they are winning something tangible in the war.

IN PROGRESS...

Should Democrats just let Bush win?

Tired of Democrats being shat upon? Well imagine what will happen if Democrats take back the White House... I frankly don't look forward to more Clinton-bashing foisted upon Dean, Clark or Edwards. These are good men who do not deserve the Republican evildoers doing them in as well.

Maybe we should drop out, quit our jobs, live simply, and let America see how bad the Republicans really are. They sure have a good jumpstart...not to mention a 3 year honeymoon for grand dragon Bush.

Zell Miller: Lester Maddox with a touch of Gary Condit

There is a turd floating around the toilet just screaming to be flushed. His name is Zell Miller, and he is creating a stink in the Democratic Party.
A Maddox and Condit apologist, the redneck codger has lost touch with us colored people, and should be recalled immediately. As a Southerner, I bemoan the return of backboneless backwoods bigotry as typified by Miller.

Stick a fork in his ass. He's done.

Bush says to act as if American soldiers aren't dying

Journalists, editors, wusses say "Yowzuh massuh! We work for YOU, not the soldiers or their families."

Complaints of being treated like 9-11 families

A White House spokesman said Bush has not attended any memorials or funerals for soldiers killed in action during his presidency as his predecessors had done, although he has met with families of fallen soldiers and has marked the loss of soldiers in Memorial Day and Sept. 11, 2001, remembrances.


Umm...what would Jesus do? What would any decent human being who has caused a death do? How many is it now? How many notches?

OK, so it pisses some of you off that I would say such a thing. But is saying it any worse than the action which precipitated my response? Ponder the math. Weigh your anger at a mere handful of words. Then calculate how much worse it is to send hundreds of sons and daughters to their death. And not a happy death either. A life of horror then a death.
We need to call a truce. Bring home all who are not there purely voluntarily. Forego the pipedream of salvation in the form of profits. Lives are infinitely more valuable. As the old saying goes: "Until a man can create a flea, does he dare kill a man."

Retreat, as the Chinese ancients knew, is not surrender. Retreat is probably something being overlooked, as it may appear less than macho. Yet brains trump braun. Use your head. Use your heart. Allow the world to heal this damaged place, and these damaged people.

If you do this...you will not have to gag the media and engender distrust or disgust among your fellow human beings. We are all such human beings, and we all die. But we all needn't die having killed.

If you do this, you can accept the hugs from family members and soldiers alike who celebrate your newfound wisdom.

The world is tired of the dying, the killing. Weary. And even though you may think it is better to be feared than loved, God is the only one who should be feared, and she would much prefer love. Much rarer. And a helluva lot more fun.

Give up on your fear-mongering. Become a love mongrel. Pretend it is the 60s, and get on the right side this time. What did those Beatles albums ever do to you, anyway?

Change! Change! Change!


But isn't this really a story about the media?

"I think most people -- if not all people who are there -- don't want to be there."

"I think most people -- if not all people who are there -- don't want to be there."

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Congress: Whoppergobblers

"How many more whoppers will it take before Congress is full?"
- Michael Moore, "Dude, Where's My Country?"

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How BushWorld Ruins Good People

Less Than Zeno

Al Gore was brought down. Dan Rather was brought down. And now John Edwards and Gen. Wesley Clark are in the process of being brought down.
There are yet others. All good people. All great people. Is great goodness a threat to BushWorld? Does the cave resent the sun? How long must we tolerate the darkness? The secrecy? The lies? And why do so many of our best have to suffer...when we should be celebrating them?

Look at how good people are treating Rush Limbaugh in his time of trials, tribulations and karma. Are they marching in front of his house with placards demanding that he be treated in the very manner that he himself advocated for people like himself? No. In fact I have heard compassionate voices and responses to his dilemma.

Are there no gentlemen left in BushWorld?

Al Gore, John Edwards, General Clark and Dan Rather are all gentlemen. Listen to how Mr. Gore describes his sister's struggle with cancer. Or John Edwards' brave struggle against the Goliaths of Industry who would harm us with their unsafe products and pollutions. Or General Clark's seizing the horns of excellence, and excelling in all that he has done. We need to celebrate these things. It is what is best about America and Americans. Anyone, really.

I needn't speak of Dan Rather, as it should be apparent the sensitivities he has shown, and the concomitant punishments he received, from BushWorld, for having dared to be less than Zeno, concoctator of Stoicism.

Maybe he thought 9-11 was a big deal.
Maybe he was channelling the collective pain of the many. He was a release valve...and a reminder of how gentlehumanity behaves.

Picasso! Picasso! Picasso's in town!

"Picasso! Picasso! Picasso's in town!"

Now that people know that Bush looked the other way as New York was attacked, Bush reverses his policy on ignoring Korea's threat to the "Left Coast".

Excellent reporting by bodhisattva, Tom Burka:
http://tomburka.com/archives/2003_10.php#000305

Avunculations of Anonymoses

Some people say to me, they say: "Hey Mose! Why you gotta be so dang avuncular?", to which I invariably recite the Bardo Thodol in a whisper into their left, or spiritual, ear.

Great Mobile Homes of Mississippi: The Trailor Park

Great Mobile Homes of Mississippi: The Trailor Park

The Oxymoron List

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The Oxymoron List

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"No Child Left Behind" changes name to "No Child Lying Liars"

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The "Left Behind" cult up in arms.

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Clear Channel Doesn't Play Songs. It plays Jingles.

Talk about product placement! I can't even hear the Rascals anymore without seeing Peggy Fleming strut her skates for Claratin. Or is it Prilosec? Every drug these days has a song, and some are even good for you. Well, at least their harmful effects have yet to be ascertained. Some will hijack your brain, if you don't mind some company creating a product that will do so. Who NEEDS implants? We will install them ourselves. Through our mouths. After all it does bring them profits, and this is a capitalistic system. Suck it up. It's the way the game works. Drug dealers in suits and church. Rush's people. His brain was hijacked. Is yours?

When a station plays a song cum jingle, does it have to pay royalties to Smith-Kline? I have no idea, but figure that if it doesn't now, it will in the future. Well, there can be arrangements made...

Story is told how Kodak failed to see the wisdom of letting, if not encouraging, Paul Simon to create a song about Kodachrome. Of course they now see the benefit.

The practice, although bastardative, is fine with me...but I should think that artists might be more restrictive and selective about their song's eventual placement.

Now that people doubt the success of attempts at Liberal TV and Radio, their very doubt should be proof enough that their age-old accusation of the media's already being liberal is just so much hooey. Which reminds me. I want to append Whitman to read: "So I contradict myself. I am stupid." Maybe I should say "intellectually lazy". I'm not sure what it is that makes hypocricy so ubiquitous among the wingnuts. Maybe that's why they are called wingnuts!

My question then becomes: What product or service should have Einstein on the Beach?

Hated Cub Fan Saves Girl's Life

Hailed as Hero of All Chicago Gals

If you examine the following picture, you will see that the Chicago fan, Steve Bartman, was, perhaps inadvertently, a life-saver. Remember how the very tolerable Ashley Judd got killed in Simon Birch? Steve Bartman would have saved her...and he did save the hapless fan in last night's game.

Well maybe...

I say be merciful on the poor fellow. It's only a game. Looks like the fielder would have missed it anyway. And imagine when Chicago actually does win...which may still happen. Watch the tape of Susan Lucci when she finally won. All the sweeter when it does come. And it will.

Be patient. As Augustine said, "The reward for patience is patience."
Hang in there, Cubs fans. I always pull for the underdog. The overdog is usually so arrogant...

Enjoy!

Conservatism Unedited

Conservatism Unedited

Want to see into the "mind" of the Texas Republicans...unedited?
Check this out:
http://homepage.mac.com/kaaawa/iblog/C2128262602/E657251496/index.html

These are the internal emails. Not a pretty picture. Reminds me of the early days of the WWW before they learned about the spellchecker and the type-clean "received wisdom" from the RNC.

Here is but a sample of their famous compassion:

18 - Jackson-Lee - as much as we despise her, she cannot be drawn out. She still has the 5th ward and downtown Houston. The Queen lives!!!!

Faux News: Mother of All Bulls*it

...don't watch Fox News. The more you watch, the more you'll get things wrong.

...and I thought war was about decreasing the enemy!

Call me stupid, but I had thought that the US and the UK had launched this "war on terrorism" in order to decrease their numbers...not swell them!

I guess I was wrong. The bible tells me so...

The 2003-2004 edition of the British-based think-tank's annual bible for defense analysts, The Military Balance, said Washington's assertions after the Iraq conflict that it had turned the corner in the war on terror were "over-confident."

and in the first paragraph, Reuters says:

War in Iraq has swollen the ranks of al Qaeda and galvanized the Islamic militant group's will, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said on Wednesday in its annual report.


It is unfortunate that the Bush Administration has made the world a more dangerous place, by increasing the numbers of those who would harm us.
I frankly would rather have a world of friends than a world of enemies.

I guess those who make weapons needs to have people to swallow them.
Swallow them. Hmmm. An interesting metaphor. Kinda like medicine, pharmaceuticals. Something tells me there is red meat in that intuition somewhere. Someone should look into that. For while we fear biological and chemical weapons...in abstracto... we may allow ourselves to put too much trust in everyday products...which are already killing us.

Why did Clinton bomb a pharmaceutical company? A favor to one of their competitors? See...I am not entirely partisan!

Someone needs to remove the greed gene from human beings. It has driven us to do absolutely heinous things, ungodly things, to satisfy it.

Do I digress?


If you do not agree with the Bush Doctrine of preemption, which has led to this escalation of enemies...you can change it, and the world, at the election box. Any of the Democrats would do the trick, as they all, so to say, "work well with others"...and are true Peace Lovers...not, like the Bush weapon and oil cartel, purveyors of war.

War is not peace.

Two Nations Under God

Blogmeistress, Iddybud, has brought up some good points concerning the er...Pledge of Deference? Pledge of Obsequiousness? Pledge of Obeisance? Pledge of Rhetoric? What is that damn thing anyway? Oh yes...the almighty Pledge of Allegiance!

Americans are so fucking goofy sometimes. Here is this silly poem that some nobody scrawls for Highlights Magazine (or something like that), and before long it becomes something people are willing to kill to preserve.

Why not preserve "Leaves of Grass"? Clearly is is an infinitely better poem.
But to kill for it? I seriously doubt Walt Whitman would like that very much.
Nor do I suspect is the ghost of the writer of the almight Pledge of Allegiance all that happy about all these wingnuts rallying people to fight and kill for it.

I am not going to kill squat for a poem. I won't even do it for a bible.
Words only approximate. Translations make matters even worse. Editing worse still.

So while these ne'er-do-wells are all afluff on the matter...remember what an infantile waste of emotional energy these fools are expending...and do not allow yourself to be so fooled.

The very same people who are bitching about the words "under God" -- which, by the way, WAS appended in the 1950s by the then Falwells and Robertsons -- they seem to have forgotten the "One nation" part.

Ah selective memory!

The whole matter is childish...and a product of Mass Diversion Inc.
Not something you'd want to buy. A broken and bastardized product.
And if you must buy...stick to the original. It is authentic. Unretouched.
Pure.

Unlike those who live to muddy the waters...



Some of the recent changes and improvements at Blogger.

Google Search: "Drudge"

Does Drudge Fudge?
Sometimes I will call up the Drudge Report and just sit back and admire it. Invariable, it will refresh itself after a minute or so. This peculiar phenomenon has caused us at Conspiracy Theories Inc. to wonder if he isn't inflating his numbers...automatically, if you will.

[Twilight Zone theme]

Run!

Center for American Progress article in NYT

Center for American Progress article in NYT

FROM THE ARTICLE:

Podesta laid out his plan for what he likes to call a ''think tank on steroids.'' Emulating those conservative institutions, he said, a message-oriented war room will send out a daily briefing to refute the positions and arguments of the right. An aggressive media department will book liberal thinkers on cable TV. There will be an ''edgy'' Web site and a policy shop to formulate strong positions on foreign and domestic issues. In addition, Podesta explained how he would recruit hundreds of fellows and scholars -- some in residence and others spread around the country -- to research and promote new progressive policy ideas. American Progress is slated to operate with a $10 million budget next year, raised from big donors like the financier George Soros.

Contact me!
- Anon

George, Why have they been sentenced to die?

Even people on Death Row get the occasional commutation. There is no guarantee our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will be so lucky. There isn't. Sorry. I wish it were different. I wish our leaders weren't such slaves to money that they are willing to hurl our citizens into a hellish death to up their bottom lines. Up their bottoms indeed!

Slavery was a bad institution. People were literally worked to death. Some were even killed indiscriminately. But if it turns out that Halliburton (or whomever) are little more than megaplantations...I cannot imagine it will sit well with people back home. And I feel sure it doesn't sit well with the people picking the oily cotton over there either. Not with targets on their backs.

And are we really just paying our military to be free workers for the Oil and Energy plantations? I imagine the foot-soldiers really love that idea, huh!

Well, here's one now. Let's see what he says on the matter:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/6967466.htm


This looks like a modern-day crusade not to free an oppressed people or to rid the world of a demonic dictator relentless in his pursuit of conquest and domination but a crusade to control another nation's natural resource. At least to me, oil seems to be the reason for our presence here.

There is only one truth, and it is that Americans are dying. There are 10 to 14 attacks on our servicemen and -women daily in Iraq, and there appears to be no end in sight.


We soldiers have faced death in Iraq without reason or justification. How many more must die? How many more tears must be shed before Americans awake and demand the return of the men and women whose job it is to protect them rather than their leader's interest?


How much is this war like slavery? How much is it like what we did to Native-Americans? How much is it like Death Row? Is this really what America is about? Are we just displacing people and stealing their land and resources...then making them, and even our own soldiers...slaves for Oil plantations? Don't ask me? I do not know. But if it is drifting this way, I say it is wrong. Just as it was wrong before.

As Shakespeare hints: "All's well that ends well"...and indeed, it needn't end badly. So far the beginning was strong (but deceptive), and the midgame very weak and deadly.

We needn't end badly. No one's life needs end badly, unjustly, or for a mammoniacal cause benefitting only the masters. Johnson hesitated bringing home our soldiers and many died badly because of his misplaced mercy, or lack thereof. Let us hope for more mercy...and Godspeed.

Let our people go!
Bring them home.

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Hey Nonny, Nonny!

People; hominids, often say to me, they say: "Hey Nonny...who are you talking to when you write your blog?" To which I usually respond: "Which blog"? (For you see, it really does make a difference.) But this usually confuses the querent (since I hang out at sanitoria, usually feeding them soylent green through the tynes of the fence) and they move on to greyer fissures, being fissure kings in the court of The Fisher of Rolando. Percevalis est.

Sometimes they, in their insanity, ask me (again) how I came to be named Nonny, to which I (again) respond by telling them that it is a nickname for Anonymoses, which generally sends them down the path of asking about other nicknames that have been foisted upon me over the millennia.
Names like Surreal McCoy, Yokel from the 8th Dimension, Mr. Wondrous, Adamant Steve, Clara Bowie (on my prettier days), Buckwheat, Annoythemost, Analmouse, (these two from detractors), Oliver Sutton, Lee Marvin, Abel Baruch, Melchizedek, Acey Bach, T. Wedanta, Swamiprob, Hugh Pada, Yaggers, Ryni, Daveithe, A.L.P. Coel, Luke Cool, The Number 13, Sharday, George Michael Jackson Brown, Prince Albert Gore Vidal Sassoon, Osama Ben Franklin Roosevelt Greer Garson Kanin Abel, All and Everything...you get the picture. I rarely tell them.

I'll have to get back to you on the rest of the story. My glass fingers do weary early.

Are you a member of the Second Superpower?

Are you a member of the Second Superpower?

President Pat Robertson: It Could Happen!

Conservative Republican Emeritus, Pat Robertson, is alienating Democrats AND Republicans these days, and we at Anonymoses offer our condolences for his now glowingly evident senescence. His most recent whopper is when he suggested nuking Foggy Bottom -- long associated with the Underground Railroad.

In related news, I heard that Jimmies Bakker and Swaggert have collaborated on a book they plan to call "Evangelists do more than Lay People". I know, I know...an old joke. But it does relate...

Anonymoses presents:

THE POLITICAL VERBIVORE

Tired of the same old blather? Tired of words like piffle, nexus and pathetic?
Tired of phrases like "There is no question but that ..."?
Let the Political Verbivore help you out of Clicheville. Let him or her show you some new words with which to browbeat your political opponents.

The PV will pop in here every so often and edify us with his or her verbal blepherospasms.

Why here he is now!


Not much time. Here eat these. Gotta go.

SCAREBABE - Relates to scaring babies. Used as a noun or adjective. EX: Bush's scarebabe policies toward the most primal foods of water and air caused Republican mothers to sit on their hands during the election. Tom Delay was such a scarebabe that he never campaigned among real people.
QUAKEBUTTOCK - A coward. EX: If you weren't such a quakebuttock, you wouldn't need a gun.
WHARFINGER - The owner of a wharf, but SOUNDS like Warfinger, which is not yet a word. OK I just deemed it a word. It means organic disgust at war, and all its rotten fruits.
WARFINGER - Organic disgust at war, and all its rotten fruits. EX: The only thing I shoot is the warfinger, and I do it in your direction.

John Malkovich to play Richard Perle in Imaginary New Film

Richard Perle: They really did it!

Kelsey Grammer: A Bob Hope or a Nixon?

Kelsey Grammer has a golden opportunity. I wonder if he knows it. Now that Bob Hope has died, there will be great nostalgia for him. And no one looks like Bob Hope as much as Kelsey Grammer.

But Kelsey Grammer is thinking about getting into politics. The man in politics he most resembles is Nixon.

Granted, all three are Republicans. Hope's son-in-law was apparently a lobbyist for a military contractor. Hope is no Nixon, but Grammer may be thought of as one...should he forego this golden opportunity, and chose politics instead.

Kelsey is a smart man. Almost as smart as David Hyde Pierce. Maybe he will realize he can do more good as a funnyman than as just another Republican token.

Time will tell. But Kelsey...if you take my advice...remember where you heard it. I take donations.

Tony Snow Melts into God

Arnold Wins Recall! : California Verifiable Laughingstock

Lawsuits, impeachment & another recall to follow

A Big Victory for Enron, gropers, and ze gestapo

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