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| October 27, 2005 |
MAILBAG ARCHIVES | ||
The BuzzFlash Mailbag The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. Read the BuzzFlash FAQ for info on submitting to the Mailbag. THIS IS PART 2 OF THE OCTOBER 27, 2005 BUZZFLASH MAILBAG. CLICK HERE FOR PART 1 RE: OIL PROFITS WELL HELLOOOOO! WHEN BUSH RAN FOR PREZ IN 2000 THE DEMS TRIED TO TELL EVERYONE THIS WOULD HAPPEN IF WE PUT TWO OIL MEN IN OFFICE, AND NO ONE LISTENED! PULL OUT THE TAPES! A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Freedom Is Never Free We need to stop pretending and lying to ourselves about this: It's the Soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It's the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It's the Soldier, not the politicians that ensures our right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It's the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag. Often people repeat a cliche (thank a soldier for your freedom) without comprehension. It has no bearing on facts today, and I am not demeaning the soldiers. I have ultimate respect for men and women who are willing to give their lives for freedom. But this war is not about freedom. Our soldiers are being used in a bed of lies for a corrupt government, and we need to do our parts in getting them home. It is the brave reporter in this war that is trying to get the truth to people that are fighting for freedom of the press. It is the brave citizen speaking out or writing, even though they may not be a poet, fighting for our freedom of speech. It is the protestor trying to get media attention to alert fellow citizens, fighting for their right to assemble and freedom of speech to ensure Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. A Gold Star Mom was being interviewed on C-SPAN. If I had known I was going to be haunted by something she said I would have gotten her name. It was during the protests in Washington. She had short blonde hair, very pretty, intelligent and respectful as she took calls from people. Her voice broke as she talked about her son, who was presently in Iraq. The part that I cannot forget is when she quoted him. (paraphrased since I did not write it down at the time because I had no idea I would hear the plea over and over again in my head). Mom, where are the people? You know, like Vietnam? We can't do it once we are here. We need you. You know...all the people? She faded away, fighting back tears. I realized why she was there, talking to people calling in and trying to explain to them that we were lied into a war, not because of bad intelligence from the CIA, not because it was a mistake. We are there because of purposeful and deceitful lies. She was trying to help her son by getting the truth to people. Soldiers are not allowed to speak out against the war in a time of war. He is stuck in the lies of his "leaders." Yes, it is that brave soldier whose coffin is draped by the flag, but when that flag and the freedom it once stood for are desecrated by corrupt "leaders," the ones that fight for the soldiers are the real heroes in this war. This is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people. We do not get a free pass. When our soldiers are in trouble because their leaders lied to them, it is up to us to fight for freedom. This time it is the soldiers that need us. It is our turn to step up to bat for them. Freedom is never free. That applies to us...we, the people, too. Sharin Bowers Subject: Joe Scar and the talking point Yesterday I saw one of the trolls on some blog say that Valerie Plame's neighbors all "knew" she worked at the CIA and so she wasn't undercover. Damned if Joe Scar didn't say the same thing tonight when he was a guest on some tv show and the host (whoever the woman with the weird voice is after Keith Olbermann) didn't challenge him on the lie....even tho she went on to have Valerie Plame's neighbors tell about being asked this question by investigators. They had no idea she worked for the CIA. Then she had on a CIA agent who worked with Valerie who confirmed she was undercover. What is UP with this blatant lie of a talking point, and how come Joe wasn't slapped down immediately for spouting it? RM Subject: Congratulations, White Sox! OK, as a Red Sox fan, I'll admit to being bummed out that the ChiSox swept the BoSox in the ALDS this year. But, you know what? Chicago had an awesome team, thanks to talented players, and, thanks to a real players' manager like Ozzie Guillen. The fact that they swept a Texas team in four straight made this victory even sweeter. I felt like I was watching the Red Sox again this year, that's how happy I am for this Chicago team, who more than deserved a World Series championship (as had Boston in 2004). The good guys won! TWO years in a row!!!! Congratulations, White Sox (Hey, Buzz, I know you're a fan; I'll buy you a beer!) And, Red Sox, I still love you all. Lisa Subject: Matthews Is Supplying Spin They'll Use Is today Fitzmas? I hope so, and I'm wishing for the biggest, sweetest, shiny red Schwinn mountain bike of all: the indictment of the president. It could happen. However, for whatever reason, I believe all you really need to know about how the right will react to this is being tested on Hardball. Already Matthews is isolating this case as though it exists in a vacuum. I have heard: Libby was just OBSESSED with Wilson and was acting on his own to discredit a man he disliked (as though Wilson were the only whistle blower to be smeared by this administration, please, conveniently forget O'Neill, Clarke, Shinseki, et al.); this was the only piece of information to be discredited prior to the run-up of the war (please forget IAEA stating no nukes, Scott Ritter's team saying no chemicals, oh, and the Downing Street Minutes); and best of all, poor president Bush, being undermined by all those underlings running amok. Matthews keeps putting lines in the mouths of his interviewees about how Bush should respond if Rove goes down. Matthews doesn't get that Bush can't respond without Rove. The hand will have been removed from the sock puppet. Kristi Warriner [BuzzFlash Note: We have to wait till Friday, it seems.] Subject: The Astros Barbara Bush does NOT represent all the fans of the Astros. I've been a fan for 44 years. She and GHW show up for All-Star and World Series games, because FOX will show them on tv. We have NO control over FOX or Drayton McLane. All we can do is stay home from the ballpark. And, we do. A Long Suffering Astros Fan [BuzzFlash Note: Hey, you got the pennant! And Oswalt was awesome in the playoffs! And as Cubs fans are still saying, "Wait until next year." We sure do know what it means to be long-suffering fans, and we do feel your pain. Of course, we're all still in pain from the past two presidential elections.] Subject: Miers Takes First of Bush's Plamegate Bullets! Bush suffers his first major defeat, at the hands of his own party, but we won't hear much of it on the Sunday pundit circus. Tomorrow Plamegate's first indictments are expected to fall. That will certainly be the top, and probably only, story covered by the punditocracy for the next few days, if not weeks/months. So, by orchestrating this phony "we need to see personal attorney/client documents," the Republicans threw Bush a lifeline, allowing him to have Miers walk the plank without sinking him even further in the public's mind. But the brilliance of doing this so stunningly fast, within less than a week of when they came up with the "documents or no nomination" strategy, says to me that this was all planned around the possible indictment drop. Giving credit where I believe it is due, in the midst of immense legal problems it looks like Karl Rove still spent some time plotting strategy for his protege, pResident Shrub. Now, if Shrub's up to his rep, he'll have Bush wait until sometime mid of late next week, and then have him drop a controversial, right-wing judge onto the Senate as his new nominee. The resulting battle will help force next week's political TV talk shows to book guests to discuss the new nomination, giving the indictments of Rove, Scooter et al., the more important Bushie offense, less prominence once again! And it all provides the right-wing radio cabal (Rush, Hannity, Savage etc.) topics they can handle, rather than them having to discuss indictments all week! Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons. Rove foregoes that old recipe and throws a puffy, sweet camouflaging meringue over the sour stories and gives the sweet-toothed press a slice of pie! I also ran this on my blog, http://bluecollarpolitics.com Jack Ballinger Just a thought, but isn't it extremely convenient that Harriet Miers chooses Thursday -- the day indictments in the Plame investigation are due to be announced -- to tender a letter withdrawing her nomination for the Supreme Court? A bit of choreography with the White House P.R. machine perhaps? Can we guess the date of her letter? Why are the reasons given today any more valid than they were when she was first nominated; that is, attorney-client privileged communications unavailable to the Senate Judiciary Committee, sorry-assed lack of verifiable credentials, a weak resume, indeterminate stance on social conservative issues, e.g., abortion? Knowing only too well how Orwellian the schemes of this administration truly are, it is not much of a stretch to consider that the Miers nomination was crafted precisely for this moment in history. After all, the blaring headlines do tend to take some of the focus of the MSM off the forthcoming indictments, do they not? SherAn Dear BuzzFlash, I truly do not believe that President Bush really wanted Harriet Miers nominated to the supreme court. I think he nominated knowing that she would not make it. I think he did it to keep everyone fixated on her and not the real things such as Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the slipping economy, and on and on and on. While they have our attention focused on her we are missing the big picture. Gearing up for WWIII. Take care and have a Safe, Free (we hope) American Day. Sincerely, A Sailor Subject: Miers - Have We Been Had??? Has it occurred to anyone that there could well be a reason why Miers was chosen - to me it reeks of Rove - and the fact that she's in the tight inner circle with Dubya and Karl. It's gonna be Janice Rogers Brown - and now that Bush has apparently 'appeased' the masses by offloading Miers, it will be that much easier to ram through our worst nightmare. We've been had. Paul B. Subject: Cicero Nails Bush I found these quotes, attributed to Cicero, and am delighted at how well they apply to the man-child in the White House.
Thanks. Mark Hunter Subject: GIs Getting Billed by Gov't rec'd an email from my cousin who's a Vietnam vet. Reported that his buddy (also a Vietnam vet) rec'd a bill from the govt. for "losing" a bayonet during a combat! I forwarded this to a friend of mine whose son is in Iraq. Oh, yeah, he said, not surprised - his son was charged for a tent stake while in training camp in Okla. Gov't took it right out of his paycheck b/4 he was shipped out to Iraq. M G Finch Subject: Occupying Media 'Bandwidth' The supreme court position is a good news cycle hog, especially since progressives will be 'up in arms' about the new nominee. Could we have some progressive web site do a poll on what news tricks the Bush crime family will put out to drive out time/space given to the indictments? Here is my list in order of effectiveness. 1. Saddam Hussein. MSM loves to show his ugly face. Also it helps 'sell' the war, by making all the deaths seem like they were about deposing him. Many recent pointless announcements have been made. They can gin up another pretty easily. 2. Terror Alert. Always works well. 3. International capture of some Al Qaeda or other criminal. 4. Military escalation, saber rattling. How about Korean or Russian nukes? 5. Culture war. Can't beat gay marriage, abortion, etc. There are lots of ways to make a story on these. I have not seen any pictures of Gavin Newsome recently. 6. Some outrageous anti-liberal move. E. g., drilling, relaxing health standards, FDA, etc. 7. The border issues. It's not hard to fan the flames here. Chertoff has already started making noises about new initiatives. Mostly BS, but they can be linked to terror, and right-wing agendas. Others? We can count on Murdoch, the Sulzberger family, Roger Ailes, and all the rest of the gang to pick up whatever the WH throws out. Spin City Subject: America...Governed by Religious Extremism and Fanatical neocons!
It’s time for Americans to take stock and a hard look at George W. Bush, his Administration, and the Republicans, who have the absolute authority of the power in control of our nation. We must be ready even if it means opening a quarrel, filibustering, and taking a firm stand for our future. The fight is for our Democracy and our future and the future of the next generations! Martin Luther King told us, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort or convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy!” Corruption, lies and scandal have infiltrated our government under Bush and his cronies and put us in variance with the laws of God and man. There is no room for torture, abuse, empire building or an unjust war! Unless the majority of Americans and the Democrats in Congress speak out and fight, we will find ourselves controlled by religious extremism, and the Neocon fanatics changing America and the world to fit their image! God never commissioned them to be world policemen, and our founders knew the value of the separation of Church and State! It is up to us to disentangle religion from our government! Indifference now could effectually destroy all we hold dear! It is time to quash the Bush system that caters to the powerful elites! Looking at the results of George W. Bush’s term in office, we find that we can no longer trust the Administration’s word or judgment alone! The writing is on the wall for a new Supreme Court nominee! It’s not a coincidence the media frequently uses the words, “Judicial MONASTERY”! It is also obvious the religious extremists have put in a claim to run our government and to shape the thoughts for citizens THEIR way! We must be up for the clash of doctrines, fight all the way, and take part in making it an opportunity for a change that is needed to assure a bright future for those that follow us! Susan Carr Subject: Senator Ted Stevens & National Lotteries I recently read the article detailing Senator Ted Stevens' temper tantrum on the floor of Congress, and threatening to resign if the money allotted for his "Bridge to Nowhere" was scrapped in favor of diverting those funds to help in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. When he threatened to "resign from this body" if Congress took that action, they should have taken him up on it. Who is he to be making threats? Apparently, the majority of Congress is spineless. It's unbelievable that they actually caved under to such blackmail. No wonder our country is in deep s**t. I endorse "impeaching" them all at this point. Perhaps it's time we institute a national lottery of sorts and have ordinary, everyday citizens take turns at representing the people. Candidates could be taken from lists of registered votes, given a number, and drawings held by each individual state. Those people whose numbers are selected would take a turn at representing their state or district for a two-year or four-year period of time. The federal government could remodel Walter Reed after it's shut down into BOQ-type housing, provide government messing facilities, and medical care at government expense for those randomly selected representatives. It certainly can't be any worse than we are currently stuck with, and it would give the average American more of a "real-world" opportunity to truly participate in our democratic representation government. Lisa J. Subject: Distractions ... Harriet Miers Withdraws Her Nomination To Supreme Court... Frankly, I think that the nomination itself was intended to be a distraction from Katrina, Rita, Iraq, and Treasongate/Plamegate. Now that some changes - and not nearly enough of them - have been made ("You're doing a heckuva job") Brownie for one, it is time to use the same distraction - Harriet Miers, to distract from the 2000th death in Iraq, Hurricane Wilma, and the coming indictments. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a terror alert sometime soon. Leslie............Evanston Subject: Contempt So their game is partly ideological but mostly about power. Partly means that to get what they want they feel free to do anything, go anywhere; and with total impunity. And they never give up. They never will. Won't matter so long as we the people get serious about changing the world. A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: White Sox Victory in the 2005 World Series Sirs: I found your "heading" for the Yahoo article about the Sox winning the series a little over the top. You almost managed to insult everyone in Houston in a couple of sentences. People living here are not all Republicans, we do not all support the present administration, we have no say in the racial makeup of the Astros, most of us, unlike the Bush family, could not get tickets to the game. All the fans of the Astros wanted was a good first World Series experience, and we all hoped for the best. The games WERE close after all. I find it in poor taste to wish for their defeat based solely on their racial status. If you have been keeping up with other news, it was reported recently that there is a crisis in the recruitment of players of African ancestry across baseball in general. It was reported that the black youth prefer to go into basketball and football instead of baseball. As for any quality Japanese players that are looking for a team, send them down to Houston! After all, EVERY other MLB team has their share, now don't they? You also did not mention the fact that a fan in Chicago slapped the wife of one of the Astros' players in their stadium. Was that a mature reaction to an opponent? Is this the behavior that you like to see from the "rainbow coalition" White Sox organization and fans? I am unaware of this type of behavior happening in Houston, but then again...there are jerks in all cities. Your title for this article was a cheap shot in my opinion. Let them play ball and keep the politics and personal perceptions out of it. Also, let me stress again, that we Houstonians do not have the luxury of determining who is paid to play on the team. Drayton McLane has yet to call me personally to ask my opinion on a prospective player. Please allow SOMETHING for the inhabitants of this city, without making it seem like it is somehow "dirty" to root for our home team. You do not have any more inside information about the workings of this organization than do I. Better luck next year to the 'Stros! Maybe before next season Drayton will be lucky enough to find a Fijian outfielder! Rein in on the hostility, dudes! E. B. Siwak [BuzzFlash Note: "A little over the top" is just our style. Hadn't you noticed?] Subject: 2000 US Soldiers Die In Iraq, Bush-Apologists Note that 16k Are Murdered in the USA Each Year Dear BuzzFlash, The Bush apologists are trying to downplay the significance of losing 2000 (and counting) US soldiers in Iraq. The statistics show that 16k were murdered in the USA in last year alone! Why is no one hearing: "Where's my draft lottery ticket, let's get outta here!"? (Note: These statistics mean nothing to the families of those who have been murdered, be they in Los Angeles, Kansas, Crawford or Baghdad.) The USA has a population of 290 million people. The chances of being murdered in the USA are 1 in 20,000 (16,000/290,000,000). It is a low number but still way higher than winning the state lottery! To put the 2,000 deaths of US troops into context: If I assume that there has been 500,000 US troops in Iraq since the start of hostilities. (Soldiers get rotated in and out of Iraq). The lowest possible ratio of US military deaths to the total number of soldiers in Iraq is: 2,000/500,000 = 0.004 or 1 in 250. Compare that number with the 16k who were murdered in the USA in the past year (1 in 20,000). Actually between March 2003 and Oct 2005, one would expect 40k murders to have been committed in the USA (16k + 16k + 8k), the likelihood of being murdered in the USA within that 2 and a half years is 1 in 7250. US troops are 20 times more likely to die in Iraq than they are back home in the USA. If one takes the number of seriously wounded to be 15k, the likelihood of being seriously injured in Iraq is 1 in 30. John McLaughlin mentions 50k medical evacuees for injuries or mental health problems. That makes 1 soldier in 10 has been evacuated from Iraq. These numbers make do not account for the private contractors who have been killed. Their deaths do not have to be acknowledged. When a self-righteous Bush fanatic is downplaying the death rate of US troops in Iraq, him ask or her, if that is the case, why people aren't rushing over to escape the bloodshed in the USA? A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: DeLay Letter From AP:
Well, he should know, he IS an expert on the subject ... Mike Curtis Protest for the sidewalk in front of the White House....Bugle playing TAPS! Have someone get one of those bugles that plays taps at funerals. Anyone can use it. And play taps every hour on the hour. Give people a place to pick up the bugle and a time schedule for them. Sign me up. Taps should be played at least 2000 times. Even thru the night. It would be a great protest and would give them all the sound of their own demise. It would be great to get people to bid on the privilege of standing there with the bugle playing that haunting sound. How about celebrities? Susan Sarandon....Barbra Streisand....It would be a great protest..... I'll open the bid at $100. Donate the money to a fund to start civil cases against those who got us into this disaster. Charge them with fraud. Whatever! Gold Star Mom's for Peace.......how about it? Alice B Subject: The reason Harriet Miers bailed ... is because she is neck deep in covering up Bush's AWOL scandal, drug arrests and god knows what else and the Senate Committee had already made it known they were going to subpoena people to testify to that. A BuzzFlash Reader
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