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Subject: "The Worst Thing About Stupidity Is Its Insistency!" -- Sam's Despair

CLUELESS GEORGE is at it again! The President of the United States actually stood by a filing cabinet in Parkersburg, W VA and stated that Americans should not believe the treasury bonds were worth anything as a guarantee for Social Security benefits in the future! We buy those bonds, Europe buys those bonds, Asia buys those bonds and yet there is Mr. Bush undermining the revenue and the confidence for them and discouraging anyone from making a purchase! Meanwhile, Mr. Bush and his scripted circus act are traveling through the U.S. and are driving harder then Tiger Woods at the Masters to convince a wary American public his plan has merit! All Mr. Bush's policies reflect a unilateral attitude to do it his way or no way!

This is one time, and hopefully the beginning of many times, the American people WILL NOT CONFORM to his one party rule. As far as his ill-thought policies like this one, let's hope he is walking a beaten path that will lead to nowhere, and this will be the first of many ”nos” he gets that will not only make him a political lame duck, but a political dead duck!

All Intelligence investigations clear Mr. Bush and cohorts despite Mr. Bush and others insisting they never manipulated anyone, never lied about facts later proven untrue, and never ignored obvious pre-war intelligence and omitted dissenting opinions! Their propaganda was NEVER challenged by the media. They also reject the idea they manipulated information to shape their war policy. Also it’s not their fault about mistakes in judgment in enlisting Chalabi! Mr. Bush, Mr. Gonzales, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Bolton have never done anything wrong, yeah right!

More cover-ups? There have been accusations about the Pentagon trying to keep the American public from knowing or constantly seeing our seriously injured soldiers! They have been transporting them at night to avoid the bad publicity. Mr. Bush and the Bush/Rove political machine have been instrumental in banning coverage of photos of the coffins of our honored dead soldiers! We also know the media does not report TOTAL deaths or injuries of our soldiers or Iraqis, so this is just more subterfuge! Unfavorable news out of Iraq is inhibited by both the Iraqi government and the Bushies!

Lies of omission are not new in the Bush deficit of honesty! In fact lies, and misrepresentations of policies, falsehoods that led to war, budgets that DO NOT contain all the costs and questionable Administration appointments all lead to the truth of George W. Bush, as we can conclude the “Truth is brought by a lame messenger!”

Susan Carr
Tucson, AZ

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Subject: An Open Letter To Judge Roy Moore of Alabama

Dear Judge Moore,

I'm a JEW, God gave the Ten commandments to Moses, a Jew, on Mount Sinai, thousands of years before Jesus, a JEW, ever walked this earth. Jesus was not born as a Christian nor did he die as a Christian. Jesus died as a Jew. Jesus will get seen as a Jew from now to eternity.

I resent people such as you attempting to use the TEN commandments given to the Jewish people, not Christians, to make this United States into a Theocracy. We do not live in a Christian nation. I also resent you calling this United States a christian nation especially when my people walked this earth thousands of years before christians ever walked this earth.

As a Jew, I don't view myself as one of the chosen people, but neither should you, and we should not have a chosen religion either in this country. If you want people to see your religion in practice they can go to church and they can watch real christians tend to the poor and also not stop government from helping the poor, like most Republicans appear to do.

I notice many fake christians appear to bellow about sexual morality and reproductive matters when they instead should appear the first ones to go to a homeless shelter and wash the feet of homeless people and serve them meals. Preaching morality limited to sexual and reproductive matters without good works makes a person a fake christian in my view.

Since you appear to talk about adultery and homosexuality, you might want to save your loudest bellowing criticism for these adulterers: Former Republican speaker NEWT GINGRICH, Republican representative HENRY HYDE, Former Republican Representative BOB LIVINGSTON, and these homosexuals: Republican national committee chairman Kenneth Mehlman, Republican political consultant Arthur Finkelstein. I suggest you look to your Republican Party for immorality first.

As far as religion goes, I would say that God wants people to be honest, kind, generous and not act as hypocrites, which in my view you appear. When I see you wash the feet of a poor man next to the graven image of the Ten Commandments you had manufactured, then perhaps I would have some respect for you. Until then I will look to God for my morality and not you.

A BuzzFlash Reader

[BuzzFlash Note: For the record, on Mehlman, see "GOP national chair avoids question about his sexuality" (PrideSource.com).]

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Subject: Great interview with Barbara Ehrenreich

Congratulations on your interview with Barbara Ehrenreich. I've read Nickel and Dimed and identified with it, even though I'm one of the overeducated/underemployed population. (Lesson to any kids reading this: DO NOT major in English unless you really, REALLY want to teach or publish academic blah-blah. I was an English major because I wanted to become a Great Writer. OK, stop laughing.) At least my letters appear in Buzz every now and then.)

Ehrenreich zeroed in on a critical issue -- and nailed it. To quote:

Exactly. If you choose the right parents -- as Dubya obviously did -- nothing is impossible. Your financial screw-ups are fixed by Those in High Places; the rest of your messes are wiped up by the Nickeled and Dimed classes; best of all, your foot is solicitously placed on each rung of the ladder no matter how many times you fall off and land on your head.

If you're poor, you're probably (a) not favored by God -- and after all, He knows best; or (b) as Ehrenreich says, you made the wrong "choices." What?? You didn't go to college because you couldn't AFFORD to? SHAME on you: if you'd chosen the right womb to implant in, you might have made Skull and Bones. What?? You were poor and had kids??? How STUPID of you. Of course, you aren't entitled to birth control or abortion or even sex education; not only are they an abomination to God, but you couldn't afford them anyway. Your lot in life was Abstinence Only -- even if you died at 80 alone and childless. And poor.

For an administration that grovels at the feet of warm, fuzzy "evangelicals," the Bushites are amazingly Calvinistic. Predestination reigns. God chooses His favorites and bestows his favors accordingly. The favored are totally absolved of responsibility for the lives of the unfavored: the poor, the sick, the left-alones. Let the winners -- in God's eyes -- take all. The rest of you be damned. If your deprivation is good enough for God, it's good enough for us Bushes (et al.). Obviously, He doesn't care if you starve or freeze to death or raise your kids in rat-ridden hovels and drug-ridden streets. So why should WE care?

OK, maybe the irony gets a bit heavy here. But I can't help remembering a guy in his 20s that I worked with (briefly) a few years ago. He was bright, personable, and -- unfortunately -- a born-again disciple of Ralph Reed (remember HIM?). Shortly before he left to work for Reed's organization in Atlanta, we had a lunchtime conversation. Somehow, we got on the topic of whether people who earn more than they need (for themselves and their families for several generations to come) should feel responsible for other causes: e.g., the poor, animals, the environment. I said, "Well, of course they should. I mean, if you had $100 million and knew you'd never use it, wouldn't you want to share it with people who are hungry or homeless?" He stared at me as if I'd grown a second head. "NO! I'd sock it away and start working on my second $100 million. I'd want MORE." Me: "How MUCH more?" Him: "As much as I could get." End of conversation.

The people in power -- even the young and well-educated ones like my former co-worker -- actually BELIEVE that the more you have or "earn," the more you're entitled to and should pursue. And, conversely, the less you start out with, the less you deserve in the end. That's what you get for choosing the wrong parents. Or being too weak to will yourself to wealth. After all, who are WE to question the will of God?

Thank you for the Ehrenreich interview. It confirmed -- and let me vent about -- what I already suspected.

Barb in Athens, GA

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Subject: Disgraced Cardinal leads Mass for Pope

Disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law, who moved priests who raped children from church to church so they can rape again, led a Mass for thousands mourning Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica. What this says to me is that the Catholic Church doesn't take the issue of priests raping children seriously and it makes people everywhere question the moral standing of this religion.

In the last week we've heard how great the late Pope was and it made it look like being Catholic really meant something. But I doubt anyone is going to take a religion seriously that lets those who support child rape play a such a major role in the Pope's funeral. This is a man who should be in jail. I can't believe he's still a Cardinal!

Marc Perkel
San Francisco, CA

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Subject: Iraq Body Count ...

BuzzFlash,

I have tried to find a file that I kept throughout the Iraq war called Body Count, but when my computer was crashed due to a Geek trying to save my information so he could wipe my hard drive, my old hard drive files are not only missing, but in terrible order. For instance, A's quit and then R's begin and then I have hundreds of loose files, but not Body Count.

Anyway, I remember reading out of Iraq numbers that were at 50,000 body count and around that time, the US put a stop to the counting and of course, the US military was not reporting these numbers. Since then, I have seen the 100,000 and read one article that said it was probably closer to 200,000. These seem more realistic with our weaponry used on this Country. Reports were coming over the Internet through other papers back then. I wonder what al Jazeera has to say about body count today. I would believe them if they said 20,000 Iraqi civilians were killed.

I just can't believe that 20,000 people are all that have been murdered and I have told these people so.

I don't believe the count we have on our own military. I think we will find that it is much worse, even the numbers regarding our injured.

Oh, I would love to believe these numbers, but I just can't. We had so much more reporting through the Internet from Iraq the first year of the invasion. Now we don't have that, but we do have many dead reporters and newspapers shut down, TV stations shut down, records gone, but, without all of that, the most powerful military in the world who has been bombing this Country for over ten years with depleted uranium and the shock and awe performance that only killed so few that today they try and tell us only 20,000 people have been killed. No. When I think about the Iraq invasion and even compare it to 911 ... the deaths don't add up to be enough for that war.

Call me the doubting Shirley. :)

Thanks BuzzFlash,

Shirley Smith

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Subject: News Out of Iraq

The media has lately been stating that there is the possibility of troop draw downs in Iraq. This is based on fewer direct attacks from the Iraqis. What is not stated is that the US troops have pulled back from many areas and have delegated patrol duties to the trained Iraqi force. Because the US soldiers are not placing themselves in the line of fire with as much frequency, there are fewer attacks. Does anyone else see the spin?

A BuzzFlash Reader

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Subject: Sex Offenders

Why ankle bracelets? Wouldn't they be too easy to conceal? Wrist bracelets would seem more practical to me.

Cheri
Greenville, SC

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Subject: Bush/ DeLay/Cheney/Rummy

I have been calling these thugs NEO-CONS, REDS and other choice words. Now, I've decided to call them exactly what they are, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

Why? The DEMOCRATS are running for office against the republicans. AMERICA'S DECLINE AT HOME AND ABROAD was brought on by the REPUBLICAN PARTY. THANK THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOR THE WAR IN IRAQ. Thank the REPUBLICAN PARTY for outrageous gas prices. Thank the REPUBLICAN PARTY for high real estate taxes. Thank the REPUBLICAN PARTY for the escalating supermarket prices. Thank the REPUBLICAN PARTY for low wages, no jobs etc., you get the idea?

Bush isn't running for president again (?), don't you think it's best we attack the REPUBLICAN PARTY for all the ills of AMERICA instead of the leader and his little tails from now until 2008? THIS IS WHAT YOU GET WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!

Carol Keegan
Upper Marlboro, Md.

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