Subject: Letter To President Bush

Dear President Bush:

Congratulations on your victory over all us Non-evangelicals. Actually, we're a bit ticked off here in California, so we're leaving you. California will now be its own country. And we're taking all the Blue States with us. In case you are not aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, all of the North East States, and the urban half of Ohio.

We spoke to God, and she agrees that this split will be beneficial to almost everybody, and especially to us in the new country of California. In fact, God is so excited about it, she's going to shift the whole country at 4:30 pm EST this Friday. Therefore, please let everyone know they need to be back in their states by then. God is going to give us the Pacific Ocean and Hollywood. In addition, we're getting San Diego.

(Sorry, that's just how it goes.)

But God is letting you have the KKK and country music (except the Dixie Chicks).

Just so we're clear, the country of California will be pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and antiwar. Speaking of war, we're going to need all Blue States citizens back from Iraq. If you need people to fight in Fallujah, just ask your evangelical voters. They have tons of kids they're willing to send to their deaths for absolutely no purpose. And they don't care if you don't show pictures of their kids' caskets coming home.

So, you get Texas and all the former slave states, and we get the Governator and stem cell research. (We would love you to take Britney Spears off our hands, though. She IS from the south, right?)

Since we get New York, you'll have to come up with your own late night TV shows because we get MTV, Letterman, The Daily Show, and Conan O'Brien. You get...well, why don't you ask your people at Fox News to come up with something entertaining? (Maybe you should just watch Crossfire. That's a really funny show.)

We wish you all the best in the next four years and we hope, really hope, you find those missing weapons of mass destruction. Seriously. Soon.

Sincerely,

California

Subject: National Review Online

I keep e-mailing the National Review and have yet to receive an answer to this question: As staunch supporters of the war in Iraq, how many of its writers are eligible to join the armed forces? If any of them are eligible, when are they going to do the "right" thing and enlist so that they can join the fight in Iraq? If they are eligible and haven't enlisted in a fight they so strongly believe in, how do they justify it?

Dale

Anybody notice that the wounded insurgent ... shot by a Marine in Fallujah is now being widely referred to as an 'enemy combatant'? See for example ABC. It will be interesting to see if this is a rhetorical shift that will culminate in the designation of the Fallujah insurgents as 'illegal combatant,' and thus not protected by the Geneva Conventions.

Forwarded, from post by Scott in Iraq Update November 17
http://scoop.agonist.org/

Subject: Bummed About Election?

A closing message from an election battle ground state:

"Just stop it!" is something that you might say to an overly exuberant puppy that continues to jump on visitors. The dilemma is whether to offend the guest by swatting the puppy on the nose, or ignore the antics and hope it will stop.

After participating in an intensive election ground war, literally scouring for votes in Wisconsin, we were able to eke out a slim victory for John Kerry. This was solely possible because of the complete disgust that many in Wisconsin have for the war, not for the love of John Kerry's policies. After the national defeat I expected to see a bit of party self-reflection and a sea change towards a better approach.

I was reading Sam Hurwitt's article in the East Bay Express about activism at Berkeley hoping to see a glimmer of higher wisdom and understanding. Instead, I came away with the anguish of seeing so much good enthusiasm and effort completely wasted. Although the virtues of "joyous veganism" may inspire a select group at Berkeley, the message is at best incomprehensible in the battle ground states. I thought to myself, "Please just stop it! Don't encourage them. Perhaps they'll find something better to focus their energy on."

I mulled the article around in my mind. "Such a waste to worry about animal rights when prisoners are being tortured and civilians are being killed with our tax money," I pondered. "But alas, these activists are harmless?" Forget about it.

The next day, I see a long AP article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about a PETA campaign condemning hook and line fishing. "MY GOD! What have they done?" I trembled. Was not John Kerry the candidate of gay sex, gun bans and killing unborn babies to nearly half of Wisconsin voters? And now, by proxy, the next Democratic candidate will be the candidate who wants to abolish fishing! "Not fishing, a veritable religion in this water abundant state! Oh the humanity!" I gasped. Forgive them, they know not what they do.

There are so many important issues to devote precious time, energy, and money in these days of the second Bush term. If we cannot find an issue that a solid 50% or 60% already agree with, perhaps we should listen more to reason than the heart's desires. There was a time, long ago, when the Republicans were known as the party of bigotry, exploiting workers, poverty and corruption, but they learned. So I say, "Just stop it!" or the voters are going to swat us again.

Dan Schwartz
Sussex, Wisconsin

Re: DeLay Supporters Move to Protect His Spot (AP/Yahoo)

I hope people see these Republicans for what they really are. This is shameful. President Bill Clinton did nothing and look what they did to him. The Republicans that vote for this that represent blue districts should be thrown out of office. Tom DeLay should go to jail.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Conqueror

Judith

Subject: Gnats on an Elephant

The idea that an illegally elected regime (who is making the CIA and FBI and all other investigative organizations political) can be brought down or even annoyed by "Investigative Journalists" or even "Bloggers" is laughable.

I appreciate you opening the eyes of the world to this bunch of war criminals, but the days of Deep Throat and Watergate Tapes and so [on] are over.

I think it's time to just come to terms with the fact that we're all in very, very, very big trouble.

PK

Having been born and raised in the south I am dumbfounded as to why the democrats and news people didn't zero in on the bush administration being the most secretive since Nixon. The southern red neck is down right paranoid of the government. But you have to use words like, "Bush has gone out of his way to make sure YOU the American people never find out what he and his people are doing behind your backs!" Lines like that sell in the south. I'm surprised Edwards didn't do it.

Sharon Swift
Memphis TN

Subject: Re Boycott Mainstream Press Nationwide

We have no mainstream press in Oklahoma. Well, the Tulsa World isn't quite as bad as the Daily Oklahoman or as we call it "the Daily Disappointment," the Jokelahoman.

I have been trying to get people to boycott the Disappointment for about a decade. If you have to read what the opposition is saying, go to the library. They even tried to give me a free subscription because I was a victim of the 1999 Big Tornado. I wasn't damaged a lot, but they started just leaving me a copy.

I called them several times to complain and finally I told them as soon as I got all the rubbish out of my yard, they start throwing trash in it again and my cat doesn't need that much kitty litter.

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok.

Subject: A letter to the New York Times concerning their attacking the bloggers

Dear BuzzFlash,

I just want to share with your readers the letter I sent the New York Times about their fine reporting. The media really needs to hear what you think of the swell job they are doing. It's good so they can tell their sponsors all the people who won't be reading their tripe.

Gary Floyd
Medford, MA.

Subject: Rats!?

Hi Buzz,

OK, so now we see the rats, some of them, jumping off the sinking Ship of State--at least some are. But that will not put their consciences to ease. They have aided and enabled this criminal in his quest for grandeur and treasure for four years. And that goes multiple for Powell who gave, knowingly, false testimony so the bushco mob could make an illegal invasion of a defenseless Iraq.

And Condi, who could not know anything from all the reports she was reading (maybe reading), including the infamous PDB of early August, but she could guess that 'maybe someone in the bowels knew,' and for this incompetence get a promotion. Better to find that 'someone in the bowels,' and give the Sec of State to him (her).

And we now see a newcomer to replace Ashcroft, the bushco mobs' mouthpiece and torture advocate, Gonzales. It was so delightful to see Gonzales give bush-the-pres a kiss on his right arm before mouthing his acceptance in such a humble way. What? Next we will see kisses on the hand of bush by all his cabal-inate? Where have we seen that before?

Best

Cole...

Subject: Bush's war

I just read the letter saying our Democratic elected leaders should join the Republicans calling this Bush's war. I think this is what we all should do, but the big problem with our leaders is, a lot of them voted for the invasion of Iraq knowing full we he was lying about the whole thing. Thanks.

Rich Meyer

Subject: Back to the Gulf

Well Fellow Buzzers I am once again off to the Persian Gulf.

My job is that of an engineer onboard a US flagged ship, contracted by the Government to bring our Boys over to that quagmire. This will be my 5th trip this year. So hopefully I'll be writing again in around 75 days. Later.

G Shep
Florida

Subject: Wake up America!

If the best qualities of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln were embodied in one magnificent candidate to run against George W. Bush, he still would have lost. This should be a wake up call to Hillary, Dean, Kerry and the rest of you hopeful Democrats, forget about 2006 and 2008. It won't matter, so long as the electronic voting machines are in the hands of Conservative partisans. If they continue to control the election process, no Democrat will ever stand a chance in a major election. Was the election stolen again? The evidence seems overwhelming, yet go and prove it. As the Republicans stay in power, it will get worse since there are no more checks and balances. The Republican spin has been mind boggling. Such nuggets as, "it was the moral issue," "the young vote didn't show up," though statistics suggest the opposite is true. Every kinky theory has been explored, ad infinitum, but the fact Kerry was picked to win in a landslide by the once respected exit polls, seems to be buried with the 2000 election debacle. Florida in 2000, now Ohio and other select states cannot have a trusted exit poll. But, lo and behold, the polls were wrong by a large margin only where the electronic voting machines were placed to do their dirty deeds. The lack of the main stream reporting on this fact is nothing short of disgusting and bordering on fascist-like censorship.

Now, trying to solidify their ill-gotten gains, the neo-cons are saying Michael Moore, Barbra Streisand, Alec Baldwin, the Dixie Chicks, Linda Rondstadt and the rest of those Hollywood elitists turned off many voters and the Democrats should distance themselves from those unpatriotic bastards. This smells of a new Karl Rove scheme. We must never forget how energized the Democratic base became with the help of Michael Moore and the overwhelming majority of the entertainment field. Those are the real patriots whose main goal is to protect the true American values from the fascist-like element that seeks to destroy all that was good and pure about the great American experiment. Should the Democrats distance themselves from these patriots, it will only weaken the Democratic base immeasurably, and another of Karl Rove's evil schemes will have won.

You have to control the media in order to turn a coward (who went AWOL in time of war and AWOL the day of the most horrific foreign act of violence on United States soil) into some kind of hero. Then, to be able to twist speeches and events to make a true American hero, who has proven his bravery beyond a doubt, into some kind of traitor. It is appalling. They even have the people who are fighting to keep our young men and women safe, having to declare their support of the troops every time they bring up an issue in support of our troops. Meanwhile these greedy, oil driven war mongers, whose lies have gotten more than a thousand Americans killed and thousands more wounded, wrap themselves in the flag and somehow convince their misguided loyalists, they are making America safer. Regardless of what country they are killed in, Americans being killed almost on a daily basis, does not add up to a safer America. That is why, if you take away the dirty tricks and electronic voting machines, George W. Bush got whipped soundly. Most Americans are aware of the evil this Administration is spreading. The investigations that are so sorely needed are probably destined to wind up in limbo for many years. They will be buried with the Presidential and Gubernatorial papers of the two Bushes, the Presidential papers of Ronald Reagan and don't forget Cheney's energy task force and Ken Lay. The unparalleled and disgusting secrecy goes on and on.

Why aren't our Democratic leaders screaming from the rooftops about all the election violations that are coming to light? Their acquiescence is a mystery. If the main stream media is silencing them, they should shout it every time they appear on C-Span or at a lecture or anywhere there is a camera or microphone. The truth will get out if repeated loud and often enough. Just ask Karl Rove how he gets his followers to believe his insidious lies. Repetition, repetition and then more repetition. We have to stop making and listening to hypothetical excuses of what went wrong. The election was stolen, pure and simple. Until something is done to stop the dirty tricks and more importantly, put an end to electronic voting that can't be traced, the Democrats will never win another major election. There can be only one reason the Conservatives fought so hard against a paper trail and that is, they intend to steal elections and they most certainly do.

Mel Spiegel
Jupiter, Florida

Subject: So it was over in Fallujah, but not over.

I woke up to the news today and they were saying, "They said it was virtually over in Fallujah, but now it isn't over and they are adding days."

Same song, second verse, could get better, but it is going to get worse.

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok.

Subject: BUSH, CHIRAC, AND IRAQ

Open Letter to Elizabeth Bumiller, Reporter, New York Times

"Decisive" victory? The last time I checked, it was the lowest margin of victory of any sitting President since Woodrow Wilson. And he was a much superior President.

And why should Chirac hurry to congratulate Bush, anyway? Bush hasn't done much good for France or the world lately. In fact, you could rightfully call him the "Axis of Weasel." A rich preppie draft-dodger who has managed to sell tax cuts for the wealthy, while at the same time sending poor boys to die in Iraq for democracy and oil (oh, and 9/11 and those pesky missing weapons of mass destruction, too.) Neat trick, built on a house of lies.

And anyone, such as yourself or Judith Miller, who blindly, slavishly sucks up to Bush and his neocon minions, is equally guilty of promulgating this ugly, immoral administration's war agenda. If you don't tell the truth, they'll sell their lies through you.

Please use your intelligence to dig under the surface and Question Authority, rather than repeating their "inside" party lines or lies. Otherwise, you will end up like Condi Rice, the Smiling, Lying Cobra. Selling her eternal soul for a little more power with God's "own"
self-professed President.

Stay strong. stay skeptical. Be a true, investigative journalist rather than a stenographer for this Administration's agenda.

Thank you.

David Wyles
Venice, CA

Subject: The Diddly Awards from Mother Jones . . .

BuzzFlash,

There were five Republicans up for this award, but this quote really strikes a nerve with me knowing what we are doing in Iraq today.

Now there is a real moralistic Christian view towards others . . . What does it say for the Christian Conservative Republican Bush administration that lied us into a war and so far has taken over 100,000 lives, and that count was before the attack on Fallujah?

Just wonderin . . .

Thanks BuzzFlash,

Shirley Smith

PS. The winner was Vernon Robinson and what his ads said were even more unbelievable and worth the read. I don't know where I am living but it has to be a parallel universe . . . tell me it is. I want to go home . . . now.

Subject: The March

I was there. Constitution Ave., Pennsylvania Ave., and every street leading into The Ellipse was solid pedestrians. The entire Ellipse all the way to the Washington Monument was elbow to elbow people. Early newspaper estimates of the crowd were 2-3 million.
Park police estimated the crowd at well over a million, as did the Pentagon. In the ensuing days, the estimate was lowered, lowered, lowered, until you get the pitiful figure you quote in your BuzzFlash headline, now the "official figure," genned up over a
period of weeks.

Traffic was backed up all the way to Baltimore north, and to Quantico south the night before the march, not to mention the substantial turnout from people living in the area. There were probably 100000 from Georgetown alone, going to the march on foot (as if
there were any other way to get there!). Hell, there were 250000 people at the march who lived within blocks of the Mall. The city was in crisis, without adequate shelter or even food for the people who came. Restaurants had waiting lines of hours and ran out of
supplies and closed. Indeed, only 2 million or so made it to the march, while as many were unable to reach it, trapped far away on Connecticut or Florida, or even stuck in traffic miles from Washington.

It was big. 250000? You, have been had! Whodathunk BuzzFlash would be yet another propaganda victim!! 250000 people isn't even a big crowd around the Washington monument.

You state:

"On November 15th, 1969, 250,000 War Protesters Staged Peaceful Rally In Washington to Protest Vietnam War. Isn't It That Time Again? 11/16"

Please rephrase that to something more realistic:

On November 15th, 1969, nearly 2,000,000 War Protesters Staged Peaceful Rally In Washington to Protest Vietnam War. Isn't It That Time Again? 11/16

Of course, I agree entirely with the sentiment.

Jim T.

[BuzzFlash Note: We borrowed the archived NY Times headline...silly us!]

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Inauguration

Dear Buzz,

I'm already wanting to protect myself from the depressing symbolism of another Bush (AKA Killer) inauguration. Anyone have any ideas on what to do on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005 to counteract the pain of four more years?
Jean in PA

Subject: Margaret Hassan's kidnapping...

Margaret Hassan's apparent murder may well go down into History as one of America's darkest moments.

There is all indication (denial by many Muslim groups as being involved), that the timing involved in the kidnapping of Margaret (just pre-election, pre-Fallujah) reeks of a second "Berg" episode. Berg's video was apparently established by many on the net (much professional input) as a 'front' and 'fraud.' Could Hassan's episode be similar?

The atrocity of the act serves great purpose to further inflame the radicals who are behind this illegal war. If this country is found in the future to have sanctioned such despicable acts of crime we will be looked upon by those in the future as a "lost and wandering" people, not to mention the ignorance that will be so blatantly obvious.

It's all getting overwhelming, the insanity of it all...we can only hope now that the rest of the planet will do what is required.

Louis Lemire
Prairie du Chien, WI

Subject: Red-State Bashing vs Election Fraud

Dear Buzz,

A good friend just forwarded me a colorfully-worded tirade about "red states." I had seen it before, and felt exactly in tune with it when I first read it. I think I'd even forwarded it on once or twice.

But I've since thought about it a lot, and now I feel differently. Because if I believe all those states really went red, then I'm believing exactly what the Republicans want me to believe - that the majority of Americans voted for Bush.

And I just don't believe that. There were so many people standing in line for so many hours; I am unable to seriously entertain the notion that most of them endured that wait in order to cast a ballot reflecting satisfaction with the incumbent. There are too many patterns - very obvious patterns - in the discrepancies between the exit polls and the
final results. Patterns of almost exact mirror-image reversals cannot logically be of random origin. There were too many reports of difficulties in registering and voting; I could go on and on.

So I figure that I can believe one of two things. I can believe that most people voted for Bush and all those states actually went red, or I can believe that there was election fraud. I can't believe both of those things, because they contradict each other. I have no real choice but to believe the latter; not merely because I'm disappointed with the
outcome, but because there is so much evidence pointing toward it, and so little
evidence pointing toward the former.

Which brings me back again to the "red state/blue state" issue. If I believe there was fraud, then it follows that I must also believe those states (or at least most of them) weren't actually red. But if I continue the red-state bashing, even in jest, it plays right into the Republicans' hands because it indicates that I accept their doctored version of the results. And I damn sure don't do that.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: auditing the election

We can't recount the vote on touch screen machines, but if we act quickly it should be possible to determine if the machines are working properly. It may well be too late for this year's election, but what if, ideally before the polls open but on site at the precinct, or after the polls are closed and the tapes run, the election board consisting of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, would test the machine by casting 10 votes for each and every candidate. If the Republican gets 11 votes and the Democrat 9, or if the Libertarian or Green or whatever minority candidate gets 11 and the Democrats 9, then the machine is misaligned. As the voters in Ohio claimed who continually pressed Kerry and saw their vote credited to Bush. The same thing goes for the optical scanners, which we use in the district where I worked as a Judge here in Cass County ND. 2285 votes were cast and the machine totaled them, but what if they shaved a few from each contest? Our county auditor had to have the ballots reprinted twice because of miswording on a measure and a wrong coding. These measures should be made law for future elections, or I fear that we had our last honest election, in 1996.

Jim Lee, Fargo ND.

PS: I think we need a constitutional amendment that only two members of a family can be elected president.

Subject: Re: Bush's Guernica: The Executioner's Song, A BuzzFlash Editorial

I still think Americans (at least half) need PICTURES of suffering children, wounded soldiers without arms, legs, eyes, torture, whatever... and their dead soldiers in their face, because they just don't seem to GET it.

Why should they be sheltered from reality when hundreds of thousands are LIVING and DYING in it?? The children and women (and men, of course) in Fallujah and Baghdad and Mosul are forced to see what happens when a bomb hits and human beings are ripped into shreds, when a person is shot, when blood flows....they can't change the channel or surf elsewhere!

Why do Americans think it's "the right thing to do" to collaborate with the war criminals - WHOEVER they are, the President, Rumsfeld, the soldiers - and allow people to believe that war is something clean, you go in, say hands up, and walk away a hero??

Every day now reports of deaths are being posted on the DoD website, one at a time, maybe two, but you all wait for THEM to tell you a number, even if the numbers are wrong.... why is that?? who do you protect, or is it that you're afraid to lose your thousands of readers if you deal with death and horror in war?? SO much cleaner to talk about a stolen election.... about which nobody gives a damn.... while Bush is making dangerous and long lasting appointments at a pace that makes one's head spin....and laughing his ass off at the way you guys are following a scent that the Democrats have no interest in even KNOWING about.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Media

Hi BuzzFlash,

IT'S THE MEDIA STUPID, is on the mark.

Since President Clinton was in office, I realized it was the media.

Everyone listen up!

IT'S THE MEDIA STUPID!

So what do we do about this private owned media? I have no idea, but if there are any ideas out there in Buzz Land, let's hear them.

Air America is a great start. A God send. We need more airways, with speakers like Randy Rhodes, and Mike Malloy, etc. etc.

Angie...Phill

Subject: Bush's Guernica

Re your story posted yesterday...

It reminded me of this black day:

UN conceals Picasso's “Guernica” for Powell's presentation  (wsws.org/ 2/8/03)

Joe