I’ve got a $50 Amazon.com Gift Certificate for the individual that comes up with the best caption for this Anne Leibovitz photo of the Dictator in Chief and his Cabinet.

Rules: 

Caption must be posted as a comment on this post

You may enter as many captions as you like but please make each entry an individual comment

No profanity

No racial epithets

Only one winning caption will be selected

Judges (my) decision is final

Point will be awarded for cleverness, humor, satire, relevant historical reference, contextually relating image to current political or world events.

Please feel free to forward news of this little contest - I know it’s not a huge prize but this is not commercially sponsored (I.E. I’m paying for this out of my own pocket just for fun - I chose an Amazon Gift Certificate because I figure that anyone that reads my blog can find something they’d like on Amazon)

Be creative.

Link Love Genuinely Appreciated.

President Bush my yet get all the love he deserves from the government he has so effectively co-opted for his own purposes. Today the US House of Representatives votes on on sending articles of impeachment against President Bush to the Judiciary Committee. The 35 articles introduced by Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio, on Monday are pressuring the Democratic Party to make good on a promise many of them made before the 2006 elections: to impeach!

While I feel it is unlikely that the essentially spineless Democratic House of Representatives will actually pass the measure, one can hope for a minor miracle. It would be tragic to see Bush finish out his disastrous second term and walk away from the mess he’s left for the next President as well as future generations to clean up.

In my humble opinion, the image below sums it all up:

Today’s unprecedented announcements have lead to mass chaos here in the United States. At this point it is uncertain if a Federal state of emergency will be announced or not, particularly in the former state of California where no one seems to know who is in charge or which government, if any, has the right to declare a state of emergency or even martial law…

It all began merely six hours ago when, due to the continued precipitous fall of the US dollar, China, became so concerned with the apparent inability of the United States to honor the now $36 trillion in unsecured loans or even meet the annualized $1.2 trillion in interest payments, that the Chinese government called the notes due and payable immediately.

In response to this action the McCain - Romney White house made an offer so incredible - so unbelievable - so truly incomprehensible that nothing like it was ever imagined by the general public or conceived of in our constitution or under any law nor by any prior administration. Under the incredible pressure being exerted by the Chinese, coupled with the threat that the US would be expelled from the G-8, and would also be cut off from any further exports from China as well as facing the prospect that OPEC would agree to the Chinese demand to dispense with the US dollar as the sole currency under which OPEC oil could be purchased President McCain, with Vice President Romney at his side proposed the shocking one-time deal.

In exchange for their agreement to forgive all debt including any past due interest payments as well as to cease their demands upon OPEC and extend further credit for the now $3 trillion in annual Chinese imports (mostly from toys, pharmaceuticals, animal feed, and personal care products) McCain offered California to China.

Of course the Chinese accepted the deal immediately and have announced that their new territory will be renamed Chinafornia. There was one additional caveat to the Chinese acceptance of the deal. They insisted upon a one thousand year lease, including all mineral rights to the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve. Being in no position to negotiate, McCain agreed and the Chinese have apparently already contracted with Russian owned Rosneft to immediately drill exploratory wells and begin construction of a pipeline in anticipation of future oil discovery.

Many questions remain unanswered at this time which has lead to the aforementioned unease particularly among US citizens who now find themselves to be occupants of what appears to now be foreign soil. Among these questions, the most crucial appear to be whether the residents of Chinafornia have now lost their US citizenship and become in effect naturalized Chinese, or whether they will be considered illegal aliens and ultimately forced out of the country as the millions of Chinese that had been waiting for approval to immigrate to the US begin arriving as soon as the first flight lands tomorrow morning.

Of course property ownership is another huge question that has yet to receive any satisfactory answer from either the former administration or Chinafornia’s new leadership. Do homeowners retain the rights to their property and now simply pay their taxes to China? What about businesses in the territory? And who is responsible for Chinafornia’s own massive $586 billion budgetary shortfall?

Business owners are justifiably nervous - one man could be heard angrily demanding to know what sort of trading regulations will be put in place? As many companies based in Chinafornia have offices throughout the United States and even the globe one has to wonder: will those companies be split up?

At this hour little is known and even less is certain. The one thing we do know is that China is taking this deal very seriously and reports indicate that they’ve immediately dispatched one hundred and sixteen carrier groups including some 540,000 combat troops towards the Chinafornia coast, ostensibly to provide protection for the new territory. The obvious question has to be asked: protection from whom?

Certainly the US Military is over matched should combat ensue. In spite of McCain’s bold pre-election platform that due to his own distinguished military service he was the more qualified Commander in Chief in a time of war our military capabilities have continued to deteriorate due to a combination of arrogance and ineptitude. Like his immediate predecessor, the draft dodging, booze swilling “Bonesman” (who after leaving office finally acknowledged that the pre-election reports that had my own personal hero, Dan Rather cast from the pantheon of reporting greats were in fact completely accurate) McCain has made glaring strategic errors at every turn.

His “maverick” reputation has certainly been firmly established. Sadly the reasons for this - principally for failing to heed the advice of his generals who have actually seen the combat zone from beyond the comparative safety of the “Green Zone”. But also for ignoring the pleas of his own Secretary of Defense and other Cabinet members, as well as an impassioned Op-Ed piece in the New York Times written by none other than Colin Powell. Of course Powell has no credibility either. The disgraced former commander never recovered from the lies he told America on behalf of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest of the Neo Cons.

While it is easy to blame McCain and Romney for the current situation, we have to remember that the descent began at the hands of the aforementioned group of political thugs that have dragged us so far from Kennedy’s vision of this country that he wouldn’t recognize it today if he were resurrected.

Ever the ridiculous optimist, Romney was quick to point out that there is in fact a silver lining to the Chinafornia debacle. “It puts” he said, “a huge dent in the immigration problem. With the number of illegal aliens residing in what used to be a US State” he continues, clearly reluctant to pronounce the name of the ex-state, California, “as well as the huge amount of unprotected border that this “wilderness” area comprises, it takes an enormous burden off our border patrol and will ultimately save us tens of millions of dollars as a result of no longer having to defend this extensive region.”

McCain too, attempting to salvage the remainder of this disaster they call a term, tried to put a positive spin on things. “With their unparalleled ability to get the most from their citizens and their ability to manufacture virtually anything we can at 100th the price, the advantage of having a new Chinese territory so close to the US will have a dramatic impact on the shipping costs as well as the lead times for Chinese imports” he said.

In spite of these impassioned messages of hope, the American people - who - it must be said have mostly themselves to blame for this situation - having not once but thrice allowed elections to be corrupted by a republican machine that somehow managed to generate more votes for McCain than there were registered voters in both parties - combined! are not having any of it. And by the look of things in the District of Columbia where McCain and Romney made their historic announcement, things could turn ugly fast.

Of course how that happens remains a question that no one appears willing to even speak aloud at the moment…

…This Just In…
It appears that while this broadcast was being taped, preliminary news has come in from an unidentified source at the WhiteHouse and according to this source the district of Columbia may have been sold off to the highest bidder in a silent auction that apparently just concluded moments ago.

The initial reports suggest that Saudi Arabia has penned the winning bid however a second source claims that Iran, flush with cash from recent oil sales to China, India and Russia has actually made an offer that was as excessive as it was unexpected.

Our man on the ground in Iran reports that Ahmadinejad has already been on Iranian television announcing his winning offer. His all too familiar rhetoric has taken a decidedly nasty turn. “He will, he claims, accomplish his task of wiping Israel from the map, only now”, he says, “by first wiping out the dog that protects her”.

This reporter has personally had and seen enough for one day. He can only hope that this telecast has been the worst nightmare he has ever had and that tomorrow when he awakes he will find that California is still part of the Union and not the newest addition to the Republic; in spite of how much he can save on lead painted toys, contaminated pet feed and pharmaceuticals, regardless of how this would solve the immigration problem and in spite of the mountain of debt that can now be stacked not only to the moon but nearly to Mars.

In fact it can be said that there’s a certain delicious irony in the fact that GHWB and his lame duck son had both spoke of one day putting a man on Mars though one has to suspect that neither one had a dead two dimensional US President in mind when they made that suggestion.

Copywrite 2008 © Oliver W. Starr

In today’s New York Times Nathan Thrall and Jesse James Wilkins write eloquently about JFK’s meeting with Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961. According to the accounts of Kennedy’s aides and even Kennedy himself, the meeting was a disaster with Khrushchev “pummeling” Kennedy on multiple topics and from nearly every angle.

From the article:

Kennedy’s aides convinced the press at the time that behind closed doors the president was performing well, but American diplomats in attendance, including the ambassador to the Soviet Union, later said they were shocked that Kennedy had taken so much abuse. Paul Nitze, the assistant secretary of defense, said the meeting was “just a disaster.” Khrushchev’s aide, after the first day, said the American president seemed “very inexperienced, even immature.” Khrushchev agreed, noting that the youthful Kennedy was “too intelligent and too weak.” The Soviet leader left Vienna elated — and with a very low opinion of the leader of the free world.

Kennedy’s assessment of his own performance was no less severe. Only a few minutes after parting with Khrushchev, Kennedy, a World War II veteran, told James Reston of The New York Times that the summit meeting had been the “roughest thing in my life.” Kennedy went on: “He just beat the hell out of me. I’ve got a terrible problem if he thinks I’m inexperienced and have no guts. Until we remove those ideas we won’t get anywhere with him.”

Two months following this meeting Khrushchev ordered the beginning of the construction of what became the Berlin Wall. Shortly after that he ordered the installation of missile bases in Cuba.

Obama is no Kennedy but he does share some of the same apparent traits. Traits that appeared to be problematic for JFK in the aforementioned meeting. What I believe was originally a cavalier answer to a question posed by a clever Internet viewer for one of the YouTube debates has metastasized into a policy platform that has proven to be incredibly problematic for Obama.

This position, however, may be an unfortunate indicator of a much deeper problem, one that America needs to be clear may exist; Obama may be unwilling to admit when he’s wrong or acknowledge when his judgment has been erroneous. This is troubling. If his stance is completely inflexible, even when it is obvious that this stance isn’t politically or practically correct, this does not bode well.

One of Obama’s obvious weaknesses is the fact that he is inexperienced. A willingness to learn, to be open-minded, to find experienced cabinet members and take their advice would be the obvious solution to shore up this deficiency. However that solution can only be effective if Obama is willing to admit it when he’s wrong and change direction as a result.

So far nothing I’ve seen indicates that Obama has the ability to do this or the self confidence to admit it when he’s made a bad call. In fact, at every opportunity  where Obama could have acknowledged that another route might be preferable he has stubbornly refused to change course and in some instances this has been damaging to his campaign.

If Khrushchev thought that Kennedy was too intelligent and too weak what will other less than friendly foreign leaders - and particularly Vladimir Putin - make of Obama? A man that is already being categorized as intellectually elitist by his own constituents?

While I am on record as fearing for our country should McCain be elected I share equal concern about an Obama Presidency. While they say that an old dog can’t learn new tricks, perhaps the younger dog will put that so called “intellectual elitism” to some practical use and start taking the advice of a few people that have the experience he so clearly lacks.

Obama is clearly fond of trying to position himself as walking in the footsteps of John F. Kennedy. Make no mistake about it, he definitely sees himself in this light. We can only hope that he is capable of shining that light in the shadows of the JFK Presidency and taking care to avoid making the same mistakes that a man ten thousand times his better made during his brief time as our President.

Great Scene. Are you Mad yet?

“We Can Bomb the World to Pieces, but We Can’t Bomb it into Peace” - Michael Franti & Spearhead, Bomb the World

Regardless of what you believe or disbelieve about the official account of what happened during 9/11 there are certain facts about governmental policy and the doctrine of those in power then and now that are incontrovertible.

Continue reading →

After Bush’s remarks made earlier today in Israel, one has to wonder if the man has completely lost his marbles. While I’m no fan of Obama and have sincere doubts about his ability to lead this country (though I share equal skepticism that McCain can do any better)I have no doubt that Bush’s inflammatory remarks reflect far worse upon Bush than they do upon Obama.

What truly boggles the mind about the President’s idiotic statement is the fact that his grandfather, Prescott Bush not only worked for companies that aided in the Nazi buildup, Prescott himself profited handsomely from these same companies, once his funds - which were seized under the “Trading with the enemies act” were returned to him in contravention of the law following the war. Some accounts have him netting as much at $1.5 million from these companies, a huge amount of money at that time.

According to John Loftus, a former US Attorney who prosecuted Naxi war criminals in the 70’s:

“This was the mechanism by which Hitler was funded to come to power, this was the mechanism by which the Third Reich’s defence industry was re-armed, this was the mechanism by which Nazi profits were repatriated back to the American owners, this was the mechanism by which investigations into the financial laundering of the Third Reich were blunted,” said Loftus, who is vice-chairman of the Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg.

“The Union Banking Corporation was a holding company for the Nazis, for Fritz Thyssen,” said Loftus. “At various times, the Bush family has tried to spin it, saying they were owned by a Dutch bank and it wasn’t until the Nazis took over Holland that they realised that now the Nazis controlled the apparent company and that is why the Bush supporters claim when the war was over they got their money back. Both the American treasury investigations and the intelligence investigations in Europe completely bely that, it’s absolute horseshit. They always knew who the ultimate beneficiaries were.”

“There is no one left alive who could be prosecuted but they did get away with it,” said Loftus. “As a former federal prosecutor, I would make a case for Prescott Bush, his father-in-law (George Walker) and Averill Harriman [to be prosecuted] for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. They remained on the boards of these companies knowing that they were of financial benefit to the nation of Germany.”

According to some historians, the Bush family political dynasty was founded with these funds making Bush’s remarks today absurd in the extreme as well is profoundly ironic.

Here’s a guy, with the lowest approval rating of any US President in the history of this country, who has dragged this country into a war based upon lying to the US Congress and the American people, who has himself (along with his family) secured astronomical profits as a result of this ill-conceived and unlawful military activity, and whom, if it were not for the strength of his family’s political connections would not only not have been Governor of the state of Texas but would never have had even one let alone two disastrous terms as our President.

Clearly, this man has no moral compass whatsoever. Frankly I am amazed that he is even allowed upon Israeli soil. If there were any justice in the world the man would be brought up on war crimes and hopefully one day he will. Moreover, one can only hope that the $40 billion class action suit recently filed against the Bush family by two survivors of Auschwitz will devastate the family financially; removing them from their ill-gotten position of influence and putting them back into the pond from whence they crawled where they too can experience the “benefits” of their political machinations just like the rest of us do.

Until then let us not allow the rhetoric of a person with hands as obviously dirty as those of this President cast to aspersions when what we know he’s done (not to mention the things that we suspect including possibly a role in 9-11 and the murders of not one but perhaps two Kennedys) are in and of themselves grounds for impeachment and imprisonment.

Suking up to Hitler - heh. Try funding him, profiting from his efforts and founding a political dynasty as a result. As Keith Olberman said once again in his broadcast last evening, “with all due respect Mr. President, shut the hell up.“

What do you make of this?

Editor’s Note: The following press release announces the beginning of the Orion Project. This boldly audacious project, founded by Disclosure Project Creator and New Energy proponent Dr. Steven Greer intends to the world out of the dark ages of fossil fuels and into a new level of prosperity, freedom and peace- all while disrupting the hegemony of the 6 trillion per year, or 200 trillion aggregate reserves of the global fossil fuel cartel.

With reserves dwindling and countries already beginning to jockey for control of the last remaining accessible oil reserves, someone has to take the lead and stride fearlessly into an oil-free future. It should be no surprise to those that know him that Dr. Steven Greer - the man that pulled together one of the most remarkable press conferences in modern history - The Disclosure Project - would be at the helm of this new and innovative approach to facilitating a rapid push from concept to completed technology resulting in pollution free devices that have the ability to tap the Zero Point and generate clean, distributed power anywhere in the world. For more details, please see the press release below.

Announcing: The Orion Project

A new non-profit research foundation named The Orion Project (www.TheOrionProject.org) has been created to develop new, out-of-the-box energy solutions.

Based near the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA, The Orion Project has been founded to bring together highly accomplished scientists, researchers, inventors and thinkers who have expertise in advanced energy generation and propulsion technologies. Their goal is to develop bold new energy generation technologies within the next two years that will completely replace the need for oil, gas, coal and nuclear power.

It is known that, since the time of Nicola Tesla in the early 1900s, advances in energy generation and propulsion systems have been developed, only to be ignored, actively suppressed or forgotten. The Orion Project’s Director, Steven M. Greer MD, notes that:

“In the past 18 years, our team has developed a database of scientific advances in new, clean tech energy systems that, if properly funded and supported, have the potential to completely revolutionize how we generate energy. These breakthroughs in physics- so-called Zero Point Energy, electro-gravitic propulsion and other systems- have, up to this point, been developed and hidden in illegally classified projects in the US, UK and elsewhere. The Orion Project has identified the most qualified brain-trust of scientists and inventors who understand this new science, and are ready to come together to help solve the energy and environmental crisis facing humanity today.”

The Orion Project has announced a $3 million capital fund raising campaign so that these promising clean-technology energy researchers can be brought together in one place to build the initial proof of principle prototype to help solve the energy crisis once and for all. This prototype will be designed to meet all the energy needs of a typical home or business while having a zero-carbon footprint using new electromagnetic and related energy breakthroughs.

Dr. Greer states that, “The world needs an immediate Manhattan-style project to find real energy solutions and deliver them to the people. Now the public can support this quest through a tax-deductible donation. If 100,000 people go to www.TheOrionProject.org and contribute $30 each in the next 60 days, we will be able to open this new energy research facility and bring together some of the best minds on the planet to help solve our critical energy needs. Now is the time to act - the Earth has waited long enough for humanity to come together to find a way to live in harmony with her and with abundance and peace for all of her children. This cannot happen with the zero-sum game of fossil fuel. Only these new energy sciences hold the key to unlocking the wonderful future that awaits us.”

For more information on The Orion Project and its specific scientific projects, or to request an interview with Dr. Steven Greer or Dr. Ted Loder, please go to www.TheOrionProject.org.

Please Re-Post

You have to hand it to our current administration. Even in the waning days of their questionably legitimate term in office they’re still trying to make us sit still, shut up, and stop asking questions. This time it’s our right to assemble that is about to get an interesting revision in - of all places - the National Mall in Washington DC.

If they’d had it their way, the Bush administration would finalize a new management plan for the National Mall that would severely curtail the rights we enjoy to stage peaceful protests in what is without argument one of the most crucial venues for public demonstrations in the country.

In addition to restrictions on granting permits that include mandatory “rest periods” . According to lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice, which advocates for protest groups, “the Park Service is unfairly linking appearance and protest.” Further, she stated; “They’re suggesting that robust political speech and use of [the Mall] . . . for political protest is somehow incongruous or in conflict with the location itself,” .

More troubling, however, than a restriction on the frequency with which permits for large events would be granted is the plan to create a “designated protest area”.

Opponents of this concept refer to the area as “the protest pit”, and it is fairly clear from the location and the planned attributes that flowery facility-oriented discussion aside, they want to make it easier for officials to contain a group and even control it if necessary. For some reason this is reminding me of New York city and the debacle during the Republican National Convention a few years ago.

While you may not be one inclined towards public protest and therefor think this has little importance in your life, just keep in mind that freedom to assemble, freedom to protest and freedom to write what we want and publish it where we wish are all part and parcel of one of this country’s most crucial underpinning concepts. We must recognize that our freedoms have been under near constant threat during the reign of constitutional surgery that has been enacted by eight years of Presidential Special Directives and other machinations of this country’s highest office.

We must take a stand and say “No More!”.

As bloggers we are really on the front lines of this type of battle and it is incumbent upon us to take action by supporting those that are actively preventing further erosion of our rights and by helping use our favored medium to spread the word.

Below are links to both the information about this pending decision and one click resources that will allow you to take action yourself to preserve our access to this national landmark. Please help the folks that are working so hard to keep our voices unfettered.

Click here to sign a statement protesting the new plan, and here to send a letter protesting this possible course of action by the National Parks Service.

Additional information can be found here. A copy of my version of the letter is below for anyone that would like to use my somewhat strident language in addition to the text supplied by the link above.

Jan 31, 2008

National Parks Service / National Mall Plan

Dear National Mall Plan,

I have read about the plans for the National Mall and believe it is profoundly undemocratic for the government to direct people where to protest and to restrict the use of the National Mall for demonstrations.

The Mall is an historically important location for free speech in the Nation’s Capital. I oppose any effort by the Bush Administration to alter the fundamental right of the people to assemble on the Mall.

During the past seven plus years of the Bush administration - which in and of itself is of highly questionable legitimacy - we have seen a substantial erosion of our constitutional rights without due process, with little regard for the rights of the people of the United States and even less regard for the limits of the rights afforded the President of the US as defined by our constitution.

The degradation of individual freedoms in this country must go no further. To curtail our right to assemble or to speak truth to power by limiting our right to assemble on the National Mall is an affront to our democracy, an insult to the men and women putting their own lives in jeopardy around the world to preserve the very freedoms that we are losing here at home, and represents a nearly despotic act that violates both the spirit and law under which the US was established as a sovereign nation.

This proposed act represents yet another abuse of the office of the President. It must be stopped as must all further efforts to limit free speech, freedom to assemble, freedom of the press or freedom of any other sort as defined by our Bill of Rights. The runaway administration of Bush and his cronies has gone too far - I urge you to put an end to the abuses levied against our freedom and put an end to this ill-intentioned and illegal act immediately.

Sincerely,

Mr. Oliver Starr