BuzzFlash Mailbag for September 05, 2008
BUZZFLASH MAILBAG
Want to join the conversation? Share your thoughts with other Mailbag readers by clicking here. You also may comment below; post articles yourself at BuzzFlash.net; or send urls for BuzzFlash to post to: www.buzzflash.com/contact/newstip.html.
Subject: McCain running against the Republican Establishment?
John McCain is running against the Republican establishment? The Republican establishment that he now admits failed the American people. John McCain is going to take America back from people like John McCain? And that's change we can believe in? I wonder if the Republicans running for reelection in the House and Senate are going to pick up on McCain's theme and run against the Republican party too?
I'm Marc Perkel - And I approved this message!
Marc Perkel
San Bruno, CA.
Subject: "Uppity Obamas"
I am a 72-year-old white Southerner born and raised. I haven't heard the word Uppity in years. It was used by segregationists to describe a black person who appeared to believe that he had as much right to dignity as a white person.
During the women's movement of the '70s, occasionally women would jokingly describe themselves as "uppity" for demanding equal rights.
Uppity is a racial slur.
Barbara Rochelle
Atlanta, GA
Subject: ATTENTION COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS!! RISE UP!!!!
Please make a YouTube video about why you are a community organizer and tell us about the disadvantaged citizens you have helped (or are trying to help ) and then post it on YouTube.
It would be great to have some small town, white-bread community organizers from the Midwest or Rust Belt do this ... because apparently the racist GOP bastards could give a rat's ass about the Community Organizers who are helping disadvantaged African American and minority communities (for little or no salary).
How dare Giuliani and Palin use the public airwaves to bully and mock Barack Obama for being a decent human being.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS RISE UP!!!!!!
BRIAN
Subject: "Are we in the "End Times" or are our best days still ahead of us."
Marc Perkel asks this essential question in the Mailbag 9-4. As another Buzzer often says, "It'll be up to us." We can, RIGHT NOW, choose to ignore the fear and hatred put out by scared End-Timers and instead work for positive change with all our hearts and minds. The human story is being written by us RIGHT NOW. Our best days ARE still ahead if we want them.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: PALIN
What do you call a veep mother who doesn't believe in sex education? a grandmother ...
frank hackett
taylor mi.
Subject: "Uppity"
I am puking sick of these o-so-clever bigots who think they can use the word "uppity", leaving the second part of this disgusting phrase to echo in the head of the listener. I have heard it all my life in this country and so have you. What these nasty bigots are calling the Obamas is "uppity niggers". They think they are getting away with it. Are they? Are we permitting them to do so? Why is no one calling them out on their sorry souls?
Edith M. Conrad
Asheville, NC
Subject: Musicians Opposed to McCain
I am going to send an email to my friends urging them to download one or more of these fine artists next time they are looking for music from iTunes. All of these artists have opposed their music being played for the McCain campaign.
Heart, "Barracuda"
VanHalen, "Right Now"
Jackson Browne, "Running On Empty"
Chuck Berry, "Johnny B Goode"
John Mellencamp, "Pink Houses" and "Our Country"
(Mellencamp also rejected the Reagan campaign for using Pink Houses)
Hall & Oates,"You're Still the One"
ABBA, "Take a Chance on Me"
Mike Myers, "Wayne's World" (this was used in a uTube video)
Frankie Valli, "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" (also used in a uTube video and Warner Bros told them to stop.)
Plus let's include Brooks & Dunn for graciously issuing the nice statement about the use of their song "Only In America" by Obama.
And we can't forget the Boss for rebuking Reagan's interpretation of "Born In the USA" back in 1984.
Cydney Pair
Bloomington, Indiana
Subject: Jesus was a Community Organizer
The Alaskan Governor and her Republican fans need to go back and read their bibles more closely.....
Jesus was a community organizer, and Puntius Pilate was a regional Governor.
Hmmmmm... Obama a community organizer for a few years when just out of college. Palin a governor of a remote area of the Roman Empire...errr... a remote American state with a very small population......
Pontius Pilate: Roman Governor -
http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Carter-Pontius...
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Experience
Heard on the Diane Rehm show: Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilot was a governor.
Robert B. Weiser
Parkersburg WV
Subject: McCain/Palin: What's to Come
After watching the news coverage of the McCain campaign over the past week, it is apparent to me that, despite having publicly accused the Obama campaign of playing the "race card" in the past months, the McCain campaign and its supporters are going to attempt to shut down any and all legitimate criticism or questions of Palin by playing the "gender card." Don't let them. Call them on it fast and furious.
From this point onward, ANY questions or criticisms of Palin will immediately be met with accusations that "she's being attacked because she's a woman." This will be their tactic. The McCain campaign and its shills in the media have already set the stage. I predict that, as always, the first reaction of the MSM will be to take a hands-off policy toward Palin and bend over backwards to prove that it's not a "liberal media." I hope I'm wrong about this. But, the MSM so frequently disappoints that they've lost all credibility beyond redemption as far as I'm concerned.
The Obama people and all of Obama's grassroots supporters must be prepared to respond immediately and effectively to these right-wing attempts to stifle legitimate questions and criticisms of Palin and the McCain/Palin ticket.
Don't back down. Continue to voice legitimate criticisms and questions of Palin and McCain, and don't let the right-wing howlers intimidate you into silence. Keep the spotlight focused tightly.
It should be very obvious by now to all of those Hillary supporters and independents out there, including all moderates, progressives and liberals, that Sarah Palin has become a real danger to the progressive movement and to the advent of the positive change that we need to turn this country around and head in a positive direction with force. She re-wraps authoritarian, right-wing "conservatism" into a fresh, new, attractive and disarming package. Therein lies the danger.
It would be a real mistake to underestimate her. She's a smiling, poised, pretty new face on the national scene with a natural oratory gift and a disarming charm about her - something the religious right has sorely lacked. Her stage presence and poise, no doubt honed through her beauty pageant days, will serve the right-wing establishment well. Hell, as far as personality and charm goes, I like her! That doesn't mean she gets my vote, though! I vote policy, not personality. People who simply vote for a person based on personality without regard for policy positions are almost always disappointed, and their uncritical way of selecting those who represent them guarantees that they usually blindly vote against their best interests. Of course, they end up with buyer's remorse, but it's not just they who have to suffer the aftermath. The fact that so many Americans vote so superficially condemns the rest to suffer the outrages of the likes of Bush/Cheney.
Until now, the face of the religious right has been that of the screeching, scowling, finger-shaking face reeking of anger, hatred, condemnation and judgment - just plain old U G L Y! Think Colter, Hannity, Combs, Limbaugh, Dobson, Falwell, Robertson, O'Reily, Weiner ("Savage") ...ad nauseum. Ugh! The danger of Palin is that she replaces this distasteful, revolting image with a sweet, gentle attractive, welcoming one that could easily make their so-called "conservatism" look respectable again at a superficial glance. A superficial glance is what far too many Americans give their political choices to the detriment of the well-being of the nation. Her charm will cause many to jump on board the republican bandwagon without taking a closer look at the snake oil they're really peddling.
Using her as their mouthpiece, the right-wing howlers and manipulators will easily be able to re-brand and re-sell their utterly failed and discredited policies of "conservatism" - the same policies that have led this country to its present state of corruption and crisis - to an easily manipulated, easily frightened audience of authoritarian followers looking for someone new in which to pledge their blind allegiance.
The right-wingers are working overtime to paint a mythical portrait of Palin as "one of us", and they're attempting the same for McCain. They're lying about how well she was vetted. The press knows it and the American people know it. They've managed to parlay this question into a non-issue in the press. The myth needs to be dispelled immediately, before it has a chance to grow into something with so much momentum that it replaces reality completely and completely obscures the truth about who she really is and for what she actually stands.
She is, no doubt, a very nice, likable woman. But that doesn't make her a good or wise choice to be placed one heartbeat away from running the country in the current state of global crisis and conflict. The fact that she's a women has nothing to do with this observation. Her extremist right-wing positions and her lack of experience are the issue. Let her be judged on these alone, absent the noise of the gender or "mommy" issue.
I don't subscribe to the politics of personal destruction, and I don't condone anyone who wages personal attacks against Sarah Palin or goes after her family in order to discredit her. Children are off-limits. My questions and criticisms are quite simply about her political positions and her experience.
I don't wish to see her destroyed, sent home to Alaska crushed. I truly wish her family and herself all the best. But, I strongly oppose the political positions she has taken. They are not the positions of mainstream America.
If the "conservatives" are given even one more term of presidential power - the next President likely having the opportunity to appoint several Supreme Court judges - they'll put the final nail in the coffin of the American economy, women's right to choose, our civil and human rights as enshrined in the Constitution, a Supreme Court that respects civil and Constitutional rights and limits on Presidential power, the social net and progressive reforms of the New Deal, the separation of church and state, etc.
I'm convinced that the most important, enduring and unreported legacy that will emerge from the next Presidential term will be that it will, in all likelihood, appoint as many as three Supreme Court judges. If it is a Republican Presidency, much or most of the social progress that has been made during the 20th century will be overturned ranging from women's rights to civil rights to Constitutional rights to a whole host of other issues. Once the Court tips in favor of the right-wing "guardians of the morality gates", the right wingers will flood the courts with cases designed to limit and destroy personal freedom, personal choice, civil rights, corporate and government accountability, etc.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: The "surge has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams"?
A candidate for President of the United States makes this ridiculous claim yesterday and BuzzFlash ignores it? Are you serious?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/04...
Oh, wait ........ it was Sen. Obama ?!?!?!?!
Now I get it.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: The central RNC irony
BuzzFlash,
Both Palin's and McCain's speeches drew loud applause for defending and promoting the policies of GW Bush. If you decode the wording, the candidates approve of Bush's use of torture, imprisonment without trial, rendition, and suspension of most of the Bill of Rights. It would seem they truly admire the Bush administration record.
Yet, in the same speeches the candidates claim to represent "change." You have to admire the speech writers for pulling off such a magic trick ... at least well enough to convince their own delegates that "change" and "more of the same" mean the same thing.
The soft-on-torture liberal
Phoenix, Maryland
Subject: Republicans are Toast
Hey Republicans, do the math. More of the same does not equal change. If you run on that platform you are TOAST.
http://www.cafepress.com/rageonapage
metallion
NYC
Subject: "McCAIN-PALIN: A BRIDGE TO NOWHERE"
Will EVERYBODY who reads BuzzFlash please help get this meme out into the world at large - PLEASE???
Excuse my ego-tripping, but this is the kind of catchphrase that will stick right into people's skulls once it starts spreading. It ties together that freakin' bridge she was on both sides of (hey, there's ANOTHER metaphor!) with Bob Dole's loser '96 campaign. (Remember his bridge to a better past vs. Clinton/Gore's 'bridge to the 20th century'?).
C'mon guys - make this your headline soon...leave it at the top of your home page for a while... I guarantee it - if we get this rolling, within a few weeks everyone will be saying it. (Any royalties should go straight to the Big O's campaign chest...)
Miscweant
New York NY
Subject: That's all well and good, but...
Here's the headline:
Obama Answers Republican Ridicule, Democratic Candidate Responds To The Attacks Unleashed Wednesday At The GOP Convention - CBS News
And the artcle:
"What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?" she asked an energized crowd at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. "The answer is to make government bigger."
Today, Obama fired back.
"You're hearing an awful lot about me, most of which is not true," he told a group of union workers at a hydro plant in York, Penn. "What you're not hearing about is you."
And my two cents:
With all due respect, Senator Obama, this isn't a knife fight. It's not even a gun fight. This is non-stop shelling with heavy artillery. It's an entire wing of F-4s strafing and naping everything in sight. I hate to say it, because your criticism is undoubtedly correct, but this kind of measured, reasonable response just ain't enough.
You are to be admired for taking the high road, but just stop for a second, look, and listen. In spite of that, the GOP still mocks you unmercifully. In spite of that, they come out and call you "uppity" - not with dog-whistle words like "elitist," but straight-out, racist, no-noose-barred "UPPITY."
The Republicans say you can't be trusted to pull the nuclear trigger? Well pull it now. It's time to go thermonuclear on their liver-spotted, pasty white asses. Maybe you can't do it yourself - there's always the "See? We told you he was an angry, scary black radical!" 'tar baby' the GOP has been been itching to stick you with. But why the hell does Joe Biden have to praise Sarah Palin on national television? Why isn't HRC out there kicking Palin to the curb? You have millions of people behind you, Senator - that translates to multiple megatons in political power. The issues are on your side. The mood of the country is on your side. WE are on your side. But we need the General to ride out in front and cry, "CHARGE!"
Fred Woolsey
Wallingford, PA
Please, Senator, for America's sake - PUSH THE BUTTON.
[BuzzFlash Note: What if the Obamas claimed "Uppity"? Buttons with their pictures, saying "Uppity with Obama"? Make the racists look like idiots? Just a thought ...]
Subject: 18 cents
The infinity of dreams is tempered by the horizon of reality which can never be met
we sit here languishing our past a skewed narrative reality be damned
contemplating a better future sans foundation it took but a moment to send our brothers to war
^^
Democrats
we traded blood for oil we banished those coffins and we let them suffer they bled for us
and we belittled them used them as props screamed about patriotism and rallied a ship of fools
we invoked jesus proclaimed a war against evil rallied to claim victory as the innocent die
we're correct and we are change agents we're gonna give tax cuts to the rich and watch it trickle down
pull yourself up you poor people eventually you can lick the fruits of our policy don't you dare demand more you uppity folks
the american dream is within grasp the economy is great and fuck china
and fuck iran russia and the commies she's an expert coz they share a border
beware of the muslim hussein obama the uppity nigger and community organizer
^^
Republicans
Giuliani said it best what kind of experience is that while the republicans waved flags that said service is our motto
with y'all i do not expect logic but do you have a memory of a goldfish have you not seen our country bleed she bleeds red
you're against a man who rejected what was entitled to him for the least amongst us who is christian again?
18 cents sir is the bank balance of my friend he cannot pay his rent without help
Give me one reason One fucking reason For him to vote for you..
P.S.: His rent has been taken care of
Akhil Bhardwaj
Jersey City, NJ
Subject: Native Son
The lady from the Arizona delegation who placed McCain's name in nomination, decribed him as a native son of Arizona. Mr. McCain did not reside in Arizona until he married Cindy, I think that was in 1981. Just a fact!
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Ron Paul
WHY has the CORPORATE CONTROLLED MEDIA left Ron Paul off its list of people to talk to during the Republican Conv.? If Ron Paul was a DEM., it would have been non-stop 24/7. Anyone have the GUTS and ask the CCM why Ron Paul was left out?
H. D. Cole
Oakland MD.
Subject: Executive experience and the presidency
Only twice in American history have the voters elected a president with no previous executive experience. Those two presidents were Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.
Now I understand why John McCain and Sarah Palin are so anxious to make sure that sort of thing never happens again.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...)
I think we should flood America with posters and bumper stickers that read:
Abraham Lincoln John F. Kennedy -- NO PREVIOUS EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE
I've created a small poster that can be downloaded from my website,
http://www.hules.us/files/experience_poster.pdf.
John Hules
San Francisco, CA
Subject: Hillary Effect
Hillary Clinton has to be SEETHING. She spent millions of campaign dollars--some of it from her own pocket--on an 18 month campaign to run for President. After all that effort to become the first woman in the White House--some "nobody" comes out of nowhere and may steal her presidential trophy. Sarah Palin didn't travel for months on the primary campaign trail; she didn't go through debate after debate; she didn't spend a fortune on campaign advertising. She just got picked.
If Obama really knows his stuff and knows what's good for his party, he'll make every use possible use of Hillary on the campaign trail. It's in Hillary's personal interest that Obama wins; not just for the sake of the party or for the country, but to protect her own potential stake in presidential history.
Hillary Clinton can't possibly want Obama to lose so that she'll have a better chance at 2012. Because if Obama loses, then Sarah Palin becomes the first woman vice president, and quite possibly the first woman president. That's got to drive Hillary batty. That could be the best weapon that Obama has to win the presidency.
marc levenson
san leandro, california
Subject: What's With Those Progressives Who Claim That There's No Significant Difference Between Barack Obama & John McCain
"They believe that no matter which nominee wins the election, it's going to take a mass uprising to bring about change.
"They're not taking into consideration the fact that if McCain wins, the trap-door will shut as quickly and as tightly upon freedom and democracy here in America as it did in Germany after its 1933 election."
"Based on?"
"That's what totalitarian governments do."
"And our mass uprising?"
"Crushed before it even starts."
"But couldn't the same thing happen if Obama is elected?"
"Depends."
"On what?"
"Whether he means it when he says that change must come to (not from) Washington."
"If he does mean it?"
"Freedom and democracy will have a chance."
"If he doesn't?"
"We might as well elect McCain because freedom and democracy will have no chance at all."
"So why vote for Obama?"
"Any chance is better than no chance at all."
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: PALIN NIGHTMARE
I just can't understand why the democrats aren't OUTRAGED at the lies in Palin's speech Wed. night !!! What really scares me, is that McCain-Palin will be elected because the undecideds don't listen to the tv-radio stations or read the documented proof of these lies ... SOMEHOW these lies need to be exposed for ALL OF AMERICA to hear & see !!! I know my family & I won't be able to survive another 4 years like the last 8 years ... SOMEHOW, SOME WAY the dems must find a way to expose these corrupt, low-life liars to all of America ... NOW !!!!
Very afraid,
SHIRLEY
BLUE SPRINGS, MISSOURI
Subject: Bret or Bart?
Just wondering: Of the two Mavericks, which is Bret and which is Bart? I could never keep them straight.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050037/
Tom S.
Cedar Mill
Subject: Just couldn't do it!!!
I did something tonight that I swore I would not do...I DID NOT watch one republican...not one lie. I got this horrid wave of depression just after I watched a stupid fat faced Lindsey Graham saying..."I don't think Barack doesn't care...I just don't think he gets it!" Did he steal that line from BARACK??? Yeah...they lie and the steal...right down to stealing speeches. I will be so glad when this week is over and we can watch a real debate between these candidates...I think Barack can sweep the old codger right under the rug...and I will be glad to watch that (sorry, that was disrespectful), but they just lie...and lie...and lie! I will try to go to sleep tonight...and not think about the last two stolen elections...I know they can do it, folks...and it scares me to death ... I will also hope and pray that the smart one can kick the stupid one's ass!
There I said it and I am glad I did ...
Thanks Buzz for being there for all of us to just let go!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shirley
St. Louis
Subject: Why is McCain's GOP using Obama's Words and Ideas?
Unity, peace, compassion, change, reform, we are just one America, gosh where have we heard these words before -- does this count as plagiarism?
My tax cuts will create jobs. You mean like trickle down economics?
I will get rid of failled programs. Oh, like Bush's failed FEMA, or Bush's failed No Child Left Behind policy?
He offered not one single new idea.
But, he sure had plenty of sob stories.
Who was he talking about when he talked about the "me-first, country second crowd?" The rich? Transnational corporations?
"We will produce more energy at home ... These new energy sources will create new jobs." Wow, Obama is now the McCain's GOP policymaker.
Iraq, Iraq, POW, Iran, Iraq, Russia, fear, fear, fear ...
A BuzzFlash Reader
[BuzzFlash Note: As George Lakoff wrote at BuzzFlash this week: "Palin is masterful at the Republican game of taking the Democrats’ language and reframing it—putting conservative frames to progressive words: Reform, prosperity, peace. She is also masterful at using the progressive narratives: she’s from the working class, working her way up from hockey mom and the PTA to Mayor, Governor, and VP candidate. Her husband is a union member. She can say to the conservative populists that she is one of them—all the things that Obama and Biden have been saying."]
Subject: Palin Acceptance Speech
Palin's speech last night sounded a lot like Arnold Schwartzenegger in 2003 when he was in the recall election with Gray Davis. Lots of bluster about no new taxes, he'd cut up the state's credit card so we would never have a deficit budget again, cut state spending, create a slush fund to cover bad years, blah, blah, blah. You know, Terminator stuff, that Californians really ate up. Guess what, California is in the exact same condition now as it was in 2003 - a $17 billion deficit. Arnold has actually proposed raising taxes plus more deficit spending. He did not fulfill even one of his 2003 promises.
When will Americans wake up and realize that increasing taxes on the top 5% of earners and decreasing taxes on the rest of us would be a good thing. George Bush Sr raised taxes in 1992 in a bad recession and Bill Clinton raised taxes again in 1993 and we then saw 90 months of economic growth and the National Debt was actually reduced.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Maverick Plays Bond Card
...and she's SARAH PALIN! The new liar...oops... I mean co-pilot in my Flying Circus!
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000345/bio
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Republican Convention Tribute to 9-11
Did anyone else notice the Republican Convention Tribute to 9-11 and how at the beginning it linked 9-11 to Iran? Isn't that how we got into Iraq - by subtly linking 9-11 to Iraq?...here we go again! Will America fall for this again?
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: The Palin Children
There is something seriously wrong with this family. I feel so sorry for the children.
That infant should not have been in a stadium filled with thousands of people. The germs, the NOISE level. I never saw him cry. I didn't see a bottle, or a diaper bag, or even any water for him. Unless he is more disabled than we're told, he didn't seem to move, or cry or anything. And for Mother to bring him up on stage!!! What the HELL.
Bristol, poor girl. Doubtful she had any real discussion about birth control ever with her mother. Besides the talk about birth control, what about disease? AIDS? To be going through her adolescence in front of the entire world, dragged on to the international stage is just too horrible to imagine. I have a 17 year old daughter.
Sarah Palin has no business being on that stage. She is an insult to any THINKING PERSON as far as her ability to be VICE PRESIDENT, LET ALONE PRESIDENT.
And to drag her family, with its numerous skeletons and problems, through the gauntlet of public scrutiny so she can satisfy her lust for power, or to bring on Armageddon or whatever her agenda is, is just despicable for a woman, for a Mother, for a citizen.
I PRAY they dump her soon as the liability she is.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Primal Instincts
Oh, what a difference a day makes (and a week and a different political party convention). I was practically on the edge of my futon weeping with joy for the hope that was brought into my mind and my thoughts as I watched the Democratic Convention.
The long past days of yore, my youth and embracing of the hippie/flower child philosophy of peace and love and standing on a hilltop in Italy with the words and music of "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (in perfect harmony)" echoed through my mind and I felt that resurgence of hope and brotherhood for all mankind.
I was elated that perhaps, finally, we might have a chance to recapture that idealistic mindset that would embrace all people of all colors, of all religions (or none), of all creeds, regardless of sex, orientation and what have you.
For the first time in my life while watching a political party convention I was glued to the TV, watching, listening, in anticipation of a brighter tomorrow for our descendants.
Then came the debacle of the Republican Convention this week. Hard as I have tried, I have been unable to viscerally stomach the lies, the corruption, the deception, and the hatred that emanates from these "people" (sewer cretins is actually more apropos).
I have felt so dirty, ashamed of my fellow countrymen, so disgusted that the overwhelming urge to take a good long bath in lye and bleach to purge the stink and filth from not only my body but also my mind.
Our choices couldn't be more stark -- not only for our own good but for the good of our country and our very future.
I just hope the populace at large really GETS what this election is really all about.
"One World, One Dream -- Yes, We Can"
Lisa Johnson
Tacoma, WA
Subject: romney speech at rnc
Did anyone notice that in Mr. Romney's speech last night there is this little statement that should be front page "that we should stand up to the tyrannosaurus appetite of government unions." How many government jobs are union in this country a million or more do you want to work for minium wage with no benefits think about it. How will this help your family, your community or the country. The economy is in the toilet and they want to do away with even those jobs that are middle class and put you all in poverty.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Community organizers
I don't normally send out a link to my blog, but today I am making an exception
I couldn't bring myself to watch the convention but read about the Palin speech this morning in many places. It upset me enough that I sat and wrote ... and ultimately posted a blog entry that you might be interested in reading re: my community work as well as my personal experience with poverty.
I expect nothing from you but feel compelled to reach out and share what is in my heart with as many people as I can.
Thanks for reading ... Joyce V
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Video of Palin and Iraq as "God's task"
Please keep posting that amazing video of radical Palin's Praying for a Pipeline piece.
It needs to get out there. Now.
http://vodpod.com/watch/984830-praying...
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: The Predatory Oligarchy
A short essay I also posted on my blog, http://themadprophet.blogspot.com --
Same small politics? Yes, but it's also the same old big money.
Money talks and bullshit walks, as the oligarchs behind the GOP curtain know all too well. Since their brutal drubbing at the hands of FDR and the New Deal, the vested interests - the J.P. Morgans, du Ponts, Mellons, and their kin, both genealogically and financially - have been operating on the principle of "if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em." And they have been wildly successful, even to the point of buying a controlling interest in an entire religion. Steadily chipping away at the regulatory framework that shielded the vast majority of Americans from their predations, an erosion enabled by purchasing political power through what amounts to legalized bribery, the vested interests have been able to consolidate vast areas of our political, cultural, spiritual, and intellectual landscape under their control. They have done so by shrewdly and systematically exploiting that characteristically human obsession which the apostle Paul called "the root of all evil": greed.
Once enough politicians, pundits, preachers, and publishers were in their pockets, it became possible for the vested interests to so manipulate public discourse that a majority of citizens - Nixon's "silent majority" - could be persuaded that voting against their best interests was, in fact, in their best interests. In this regard American Christianity, or at least that influential part of American Christianity with links to Southern Fundamentalism, was indispensable. Because while the very rich were indeed very rich, they didn't have nearly enough money to buy off an entire population. And even if they could, if they did so they would no longer be very rich. However, being shrewd business people, they realized that it wasn't necessary to buy the entire flock as long as you owned the shepherd. So they purchased men like Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye, Bill Bright, James Kennedy, Jerry Falwell, Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, Ralph Reed, Rod Parsley, and many others. Some of these men were unscrupulous charlatans from the start, others were well-meaning but naive and only became unscrupulous charlatans after they had been suborned by their new-found access to power and previously unimagined wealth. The rest were useful fools. And these shepherds-turned-sheep rapists pressed their flocks into the service of the vested interests by exploiting their followers' moral sensibilities and their faith in a higher meaning beyond possessions and worldly power, principles many of their leaders no longer - or never - shared. Old Time Religion pushed aside the New Deal.
For the rest of that "silent majority," not nearly as devout as their fundamentalist brethren, a different mechanism was needed. Applying the same thinking that made fundamentalism a wholly owned subsidiary of the GOP, the vested interests, starting with their Champion and White Knight Ronald Reagan and continuing non-stop through the administrations of Bill Clinton and both Bushes, knocked down the regulatory barriers that prevented them from controlling the media until they were able to bring virtually all public sources of information under the control of a few megalithic corporations. They were now the popes of the Church of the media, and they installed as cardinals and archbishops men and women who themselves aspired to be popes one day. And so the rest of the fleeceable flock was brought under their sway, some by manipulation of the "facts" presented by formerly reliable news sources, others through emotional manipulation by hate radio and its fellow media travelers, a domain stocked with ranters who skillfully exploited the simmering resentment many Americans rightly felt, redirecting it away from its proper target - the vested interests themselves - and against scapegoats and boogeymen like liberals, feminists, minorities, and immigrants.
Today the Republican curtain has been pulled away and many of us can clearly see who's behind it. But are there enough of us? I certainly hope so. Because we are, I fear, quickly approaching a point of no return in America, beyond which there is little chance of reversing course without catastrophic upheavals on a national or global scale. That may happen when global warming finally reaches a point where even the staunchest, truest believer can no longer ignore it, but that will be like burning the house down to get rid of a termite infestation. Something has to change NOW, and if we can't pull it off given the long odds facing the GOP this election cycle, I'm afraid that the next time "we the people" get a chance to run things there won't be much of anything left to run.
Fred Woolsey
Wallingford, PA
Subject: Front page of Boston Herald 04 Sep 2008
Has anyone at BuzzFlash seen the front page picture? It should be plastered on every billboard in the USA.
It's a picture of Sarah Palin holding and aiming an automatic rifle. Headline caption: BACK OFF
Everyone needs to see this as soon as possible.
A BuzzFlash Reader
The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. You can write to Mailbag at http://www.BuzzFlash.com/contact/mail.html. Guidelines for submissions are at BuzzFlash FAQ #18.BUZZFLASH MAILBAG
buzzflash
delicious
digg
yahoo
technorati
Technorati Tags: BuzzFlash Mailbag Array
