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| January 5, 2006 |
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The BuzzFlash Mailbag The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. More reader opinion is at "Contributors." You can write to Mailbag at http://www.buzzflash.com/contact/mail.html. Guidelines for submissions are at BuzzFlash FAQ #18. THIS IS PART 2 OF THE JANUARY 5, 2006 BUZZFLASH MAILBAG. CLICK HERE FOR PART 1 Subject: What Would You Do? Here is a question for everyone. If you owned a company and one of your employees was secretly taking bribes from one of your suppliers to funnel business in his direction or to make decisions that benefited him instead of your company, what would you do? If you, then, found out he was doing this, and his corrupt actions were exposed, what would you do? After his actions were exposed, he then returned the bribe money, what would you do? Now let's say that his actions cause you massive losses and discredited your company, or even caused lives to be lost, WHAT WOULD YOU DO??? Every one of these crooks that have had anything to do with Abramoff should be KICKED OUT!!! Giving back the ill gotten gains does not wipe the slate clean. Davesdad Subject: Military Recruitment and Student Loans Has anyone else considered that the recent massive reduction in student loans for middle and lower income students might have anything to do with the low rate of military recruitment? Could this possibly be a tactic to recruit more enlistees, as young people with military time are eligible for the GI bill to finance their post-high school education? A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Uhh, Why Is It? Why is it that these reptiles finally come to their senses when they're about to be shipped off to prison or they're on their deathbed like Lee Atwater? Why didn't they engage their brains (Duke Cunningham) when they were running their mouths in such a malicious manner?
And, uhh, why is it that when the s**t really hits the fan - they (Karl Rove) get DEMOCRATS for lawyers??? While it's up to God to judge these folks, my money says that they're likely to get seated somewhere next to Limbaugh in Hell's Hot Zone for Blowhards. Now this observation is FUNNY - only because it's ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY TRUE (and somebody can make a lot of money off the video if they can creatively package and present the material). What we've got going on in government today is: YOUNG REPUBLICANS GONE WILD! Yeah, just like Girls Gone Wild - only these are Young Republicans who never matured or developed any respect for the game that they were playing. They suck! Oh yeah, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, Abramoff, other clinging vines, countless elected reptiles in the House of Representatives and even Bush himself - all Young Republicans who never grew up. Being a lobbyist, campaign consultant or elected official is easy and fun work if you have absolutely no moral compass, respect for government or the taxpayers of the country. And no, respect for taxpayers has zilch to do with the g**d*** tax rate. It refers to not feeding the taxpayers a steady diet of Spun-Bull**it. That's what respect is all about. So, no, this isn't the beginning of the End, it's merely the end of the Beginning. We will rout these immature YR's and Neocons completely out of government by the time this process is through. You guys can take your circus and set up shop in Iraq. I'm sure you'll be greeted with flowers and treated as liberators. Oh, wait, that was one of your Spun-Bull**it lines. Come to think of it - I don't think they'll want any part of your asses either! As far as I'm concerned, you folks are Criminals Without a Country because I don't recognize you as being part of mine! Brent Mack Subject: Who Are the Bad Guys? Not being a legal scholar there are many aspects of the law that I don’t understand. Being ignorant of the law I am forced to rely on those with legal credentials to interpret the legal ins and outs that are outside my area of expertise. What I do know and understand is that we have a court system that is supposed to make sure that people are equal before the law. Since 9/11 far too many sissies have decided they don’t want legal protections for anyone they think might be a bad guy. That would be the "Lock them up just in case” law. We have a system where those accused of something go to courts where there is a Judge, a Prosecutor, a Defense Attorney and a Jury of the accused's peers. We all know that this system does not deliver equal justice to the rich and the poor. But that is the system we have. Now we want to scrap even that? Since 9/11 we have been bombarded with reasons why our laws won’t work against terrorists. Excuse me, but how do you know if these folks really are terrorists if they aren’t hauled into a courtroom to have it proven? How can anyone justify just putting people in jail and saying they are the bad guys? Where is the proof? Where is their opportunity to prove that they didn’t do any wrong? Why are we afraid to let someone, anyone, have their day in court? National Security demands that we disregard the rule of law that we tout as the basis for our democracy? Then there is something seriously wrong with our democracy. We are either a nation of laws or we are not. We either believe that everyone deserves justice or we don’t. We either think that people are innocent until proven guilty or not. If not, then quit all the high-flown rhetoric about being the good guys. Remember the old western movies? The good guy was the Sheriff who stood up to the mob that wants to lynch some prisoner without a trial. We need to decide once and for all if we are with the Sheriff in the white hat or the mob. We need to decide soon. Marjorie L. Swanson Subject: BuzzFlash Just wanted to let you guys know that I have recently found your site. And ever since I've located this awesome site I have been glued everyday to all the informative readings you have posted. I am so glad to know that there's a site where the truth about this sick and psychotic administration is exposed. Thank you BuzzFlash and I look forward to reading from you this year. Happy New Year!! A (new) BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Perspectives on Patriotism There are colossal differences in how people view patriotism. Anyone who dares to voice their differences with this administration have been painted as anti-American or unpatriotic by the right wing of the Republican Party. What a bunch of nonsense. This particular point of view can only be believed by those who are ignorant and uneducated or both. This point of view will be spouted repeatedly by those who know better but attempt to convince enough of the above mentioned to keep their party in power. This country was formed, designed and started by men who would certainly be viewed as radical lefties by today’s conservatives. Those conservatives would be the ones who scream traitor at anyone who disagrees with Bush or his administration. (Sorry ladies, but during the revolution we were supposedly only in charge of domestic duties like sewing a flag or serving refreshments, ala Molly Pitcher.) Freedom of speech is supposed to be one of our most basic freedoms. Yet if you voice an opposing opinion to this administration you get condemned as a traitor to your country. What the ultra-conservatives cannot seem to understand is that not speaking out against threats to our civil liberties, dishonorable acts committed by our government and all other illegal or immoral behavior is unpatriotic. Not the opposite. Do liberals love their country? Totally. Do they want it to be the very best that it can be? Absolutely! Do we think that can be accomplished by George W. Bush? Not in a million years. Patriotism is best served by those who would make sure that laws are obeyed, the Constitution is protected and the people are represented in ways that allow them to reach up for the American dream. George W. Bush and his administration have been amongst the most secretive in memory. Yet, they think that our personal privacy is something to be discarded as they see fit. ·George W. Bush took an oath to protect the Constitution of the United States and yet, allegedly thinks it is just “a goddamn piece of paper”. George W. Bush is responsible for starting a war based on information that has since been shown to be wrong. Whether he was duped or evil doesn’t really matter. Questioning him and his administration after all the mistakes they have made is not only patriotic, it is imperative. Marjorie L. Swanson Subject: Dee Dee Myers on Tony Snow Show 1-05-06 (Fox) Today at 10:35 EST, Dee Dee Myers who was replaced as Press Secretary by Bill Clinton for incompetence, said on Right Wing Propagandist Tony Snow radio show, that the Democrats only have a small chance of taking over the US congress. I guess she figures, the American people just never had it so good under Bush ..... the Abramoff bribes, high gas prices, NSA spying on Americans, etc. is not any kind of reason to not vote in the Republicans again. Next,I would expect her to get a show on FauxNews as their resident Liberal who supports Right Wing points of view. I guess this proves that money trumps everything with some former democrats. Phil Davis Subject: What a great lead-in to meeting with the Ex-Sec's of State and Defense Over 100 dead in suicide attacks in Iraq, just when Doofus Dubya was talking about how great things are. As ex-sec of defense I suppose Cheney will be there. You realize what this is. It is the same principle he used with the secret wire taps. He invited the Dimwit Dem leaders in for a confab and then claims they all loved the idea so they are partly to blame, even though he swore them to secrecy. He would like to spread the blame again, and will again swear the entire bunch to secrecy so later he can go after them for subverting his war on all of us. When will the Dimwit Dems learn that he can't be trusted? Tell him to fix his own d**n problem and do not, DO NOT, believe he is doing anything other than what he is doing, which is bringing them into his web of deceit. 130 Iraqis, 7 U.S. soldiers killed in bombings: One attack near Shiite mosque, another at police recruiting site (MSNBC) Karen Webb Subject: OK, just read an article (Progress@America) that set me off. AGAIN!! Dear Buzzers: For someone who's never traveled abroad (well, except to Nogales, Mexico, when visited family in Phoenix, AZ, decades before I moved there myself), I see the flaws in all of their arguments. As I've said (in earlier messages), this whole phony argument about domestic surveillance being critical to catching "terrorist communications" is beyond credibility. I'm no more a terrorist than Donald Duck or Bugs Bunny. Yet I earned my own FBI file during the latter years of the Vietnam War. (That was kept a secret too.) In other words, spying on us protestors is hardly new; I guess it was just more effectively concealed -- not that it's been openly announced lately, of course.) I've already (in previous messages) said that I, when slaving as copywriter/video producer for an ad/marketing agency in Phoenix, had the unpleasant experience of dealing with Darrell Sawyer, of Sawyer Aviation -- the flight school that trained Mohammed Atta (and possibly others responsible for 9/11.) In case any of you have missed it in earlier messages, I used to fly from Phoenix to Tucson, where the agency owner would drop me off at the -- cheaper -- audio recording studio to nail the sound track -- and, meanwhile, go off and visit her parents who lived in Tucson. Although I had no clue how to take off or land, I was great at the middle part. (I've never had enough sense of direction to drive, but, ironically, although air speeds are faster than cars move, the sensation seems like slow motion. My boss would say, "Just aim for the mountains up ahead." I did. I never messed up. But if I'd had to take off or land, I'd have been dead meat. Literally. My point is that someone (in this case Darrell Sawyer) who agrees to "train" someone to fly a plane without wanting to learn how to take off or land should have set off alarm bells. But he was a greedy SOB. He didn't give a hoot, as long as the client paid the bucks for lessons. I knew this guy personally. I have never met Condoleezza Rice or anyone else in the assministration (thank goodness! I'd probably have an ulcer by now if I HAD met them) -- but I KNOW, at gut level, that 9/11 was allowed to happen. (I've said this before, but Condi's statement, "How could we know that they were planning to fly planes into those particular buildings?" strains my credibility.) In short, everyone knows that terrorists (the REAL ones, that we've stopped looking for) don't send engraved announcements, complete with addresses, times, and R.S.V.P.s to announce one's presence at the planned attack site. We're now repeating the pattern. I strongly suspect that the Busheviks DID know of a coming attack -- and deliberately let it happen to advance their plans (already, well before, underway) to invade Iraq. Although I'm encouraged by the dropping polls, I also believe that the neocons will stop at nothing -- including (and I've also written this in earlier messages) the plutonium storage sites (there's one in here in GA) or the unprotected ports in NJ. Sometimes I feel like a vagabond, having moved around the country so much. But having been there, seen that, helps to give one a wider perspective than the MSM offers us. Hang in there -- and keep telling the truth. I'd be lost without you Buzzers. Of course, we'll all probably end up in that tin shipping crate at Gizmo. (But at least we'll have some good conversations before the torturers arrive.) Barbara Lee (Barb) Blazyk Subject: Jack Abramoff Anyone else notice what Abramoff was wearing in his two court appearances? One day, black trench coat and black fedora. In Florida, suit and tan baseball cap. I'm as jaded as BuzzFlash -- I'm thinking the hat choices are a signal of some sort to his political friends. No, that can't be............ A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Right-wing Bull**** Hi, Buzz!! Peggy Lynn Zahrte has obviously done a lot of thinking about abortion, and asks all the right questions. The Reich claims to be "pro-life," but, as Peggy says, they don't seem to care much about babies AFTER they're born. They don't really care that much about abortion itself, in my opinion, because they haven't done anything to lower abortion rates in this country. They really want two things: to oppress women by denying us the right to control our reproductive function; and to have an issue to trot out when they need to fire up the base. I wish someone who has the public's ear would ask this question, as long as we're talking about rights: Does any person have the right to live off another person's body without that person's consent? The answer has to be "no." If my sister were dying of kidney failure (which God forbid), she couldn't take a kidney of mine without my consent, even to save her life. So how can the Reich claim that a fetus has the right to live off its mother's body without her consent? As they used to say in the 1860s, I can't see it. The next time the Reich starts bragging about how pro-life they are, we need to bombard them with these questions (in addition to Peggy's excellent ones): What's pro-life about war? What's pro-life about cutting funds for poor children's medical care? What's pro-life about gutting environmental laws that keep our air and water clean enough not to cause illness and death? What's pro-life about cutting funds to enforce mine safety regulations? What's pro-life about neglecting the needs of disaster victims both here and overseas? What's pro-life about neglecting to prepare for a possible bird-flu epidemic? What's pro-life about torture? IN WHAT WAY, RIGHT-WINGERS, ARE YOU PRO-LIFE AT ALL? Jane Hawes Subject: Dead Man Walking! The prosecutors in the Abramoff case had better get a signed affidavit from Jack, and quickly. Abramoff is a "Dead Man Walking." Look for Jack to have a heart attack or his plane goes down in the next 3 months. Did you notice the bulge in jack's coat the other day? He was wearing body armor. A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: smells fishy to me Well now this is interesting. I see starting with GW Bush taking office, a huge amount of government safety records on coal mines has been made secret. I also see the owners of these coal mines have given GW Bush a great deal of money. Smells mighty fishy to me. Look for GW Bush to give a speech on how he has to keep that stuff secret because it is his job to protect the american people. he will also throw in 9-11 several times and how they want to kill us. yep, 9-11 sure has come in handy for these Bush folks. I hear the word "folks" tested well for Bush in focus groups. kate johnson Subject: When Is Someone Going To Say It? Regarding the January 2 Mailbag and this reader's comment: "Never mind that the spilling of innocent American soldiers' blood, let alone Iraqi civilians, should ever be considered or questioned." I am struck AGAIN by the failure to mention the perhaps 10's of thousands of INNOCENT IRAQI SOLDIERS' bloody deaths. I mean, if AMERICAN SOLDIERS are truly "innocent" victims in this illegal sham of a war, what about the OTHER innocent guys who were just doing THEIR duty, ie: defending their homeland against unlawful invasion...? NO ONE has mentioned THESE dead Iraqis, only, over and over and over again, the AMERICAN military casualties, as if only THEY count as REAL human beings deserving of "a number." NO ONE has mentioned trying to count these Iraqi military bodies, not Robert Fisk nor anyone else. I've said this before and I am stating this again so that you people can begin to understand that from the GET-GO, these Iraqi soldiers, like their US/Aussie/Brit/Italian counterparts, were simply DOING THEIR SWORN JOBS. They were guilty, as it turns out, of NOTHING... When will ANYONE begin to acknowledge those innocent lives lost because of all these LIES? Please TRY to understand that Bush LIED and THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of IRAQI SOLDIERS died before "Mission Accomplished" too!!! A BuzzFlash Reader [BuzzFlash Note: All kinds of Iraqis have died. "Soldiers" is not a very useful term since Saddam's Iraqi army was disbanded. Both those choosing to fight and many civilians have died.] Subject: “the Structure of a Play Is Always the Story of How the Birds Came Home to Roost!” Arthur Miller told us the truth in more then just what theater is about. The unjustified Iraq War is not a stage play with ASSURED SUCCESS, as Bush would have us believe. The reality is, more “Iraq War birds” came home to roost yesterday, as the violence in Iraq was the deadliest since the election. Talk about “benchmarks,” today WAS WORSE, as 118 people including 7 American soldiers. Total deaths have risen rapidly as we now approach 2200 soldiers’ deaths, and over 16000 seriously injured. Killing more people is little justification for honoring the dead. Good to check daily as you won’t hear it on the networks! Attacks in Iraq Kill 100 as Post Election Violence Escalates OR http://nytimes.com/pages/world/worldspecial/index.html IS THIS PROGRESS??? Suicide Bomber Attacks In Southern Afghanistan (NY Times) In yesterday’s post, it was mentioned that Afghanistan has had under-reported but more violent activity from the Taliban for the past several months. Today’s attack killed ten and wounded fifty. George W. Bush came out with a publicly staged P.R. document called a “National Strategy for VICTORY” It is more like a warmed over rerun of the Bush Campaigns but unfortunately with the realistic result of more death, rendition, torture, chemical weapons, displaced Iraqi families, a ruined country, and orphaned children! Except in this case, loss of life does not resemble the fiction of an Iraq "VICTORY," despite the Neocon actors’ scripts for a “clear plan for Victory!” Iraq is a quagmire and Bush’s fiction of winning is a fallacy. Forgive us if we remain unimpressed with Bush’s “sequel” to his past campaigns warmed over with canned humbleness, crafted to show “humility” and assert a deceptive identity of an arrogant dictator! All the phony set-ups and background play more like the ads preceding show business awards. Forgive us again if the phony photo-op of the meeting of former State and Defense Secretaries or Bush promise “to take to heart” their advice rings untrue, as long as there is no evidence of a change of strategy. Bush and his cronies are bad actors, inept playwrights, and over-zealous preachers, trying to peddle their illusions to the American people, while real people die, suffer and little is accomplished besides so called benchmarks, that have little relation to the under-reported living conditions or the political in-fighting really occurring in Iraq. Susan Carr Subject: Chris Matthews Plays Wiffleball! Chris Matthews really should rename his program, the soft pitches he throws when it come to bush and his Iraq insanity wouldn’t even qualify for softball. If anything positive comes out of this mess in Iraq it will be in SPITE of this bungling Keystone Cops administration not because of them. Giving any credit to bush and company for any positive outcome would be like calling a drunk diver who crashed into a bank robber’s get away car a hero. Cary Subject: Alito: The Hal 9000 Series Pre-Hearing Report on Alito - SaveTheCourt.org http://media.pfaw.org/stc/alito-final.pdf to download the full report (PDF, 1.5 MB) The danger Alito poses is a bias in favor of agenda. This disposition reminds me of HAL, the Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer in "2001 A Space Odyssey," a machine willing to use stealth -- to abandon all -- to keep his "mission" from failing. Clearly, Alito has proven himself as a man with a mission. His responses in past cases have bent openly towards the outcome of a situation as opposed to addressing the specifics of the case, an inconsistency of reason that confirms service to cause rather than law. Read the report. His lack of impartiality, his service to ideology and his disturbing lack of credibility make it clear that he must not be confirmed to the Supreme Court, it concludes. The work of the highest court in the land is to serve Justice. How fast it all degrades without the tempering of mercy, the vision and dedication of fairness for all. No matter what side you come down on politically, you must agree on this. Strength, love, and thank you BuzzFlash! Deborah Conner Subject: Camp Casey Photos and Article Greetings, I am an American Indian/Latino living in Austin. I went up to Camp Casey on the last day and took photos I wanted to share along with a piece I wrote about the experience. The photos and article are listed on my site, the direct link is: www.NativeWorkplace.com/NNP.html You can view the pics and read the piece. Please contact me if you choose to use them. Cristala Mussato-Allen Subject: re recess appt don't know if you reported this or not, but one of the bloggers said that the recess appt made by bush was one of the engineers of the florida voter purge. A BuzzFlash Reader [BuzzFlash Note: You are probably referring to Hans Von Spakovsky, described in Brad Blog as "a key player in the 2000 Florida Election Boondoggle, a member of the extremist Federalist Society and a former Republican Party Chairman in Georgia, von Spakovsky was Bush's political appointee at the DoJ who recently made the papers as well. He was revealed to be behind the overriding of opinions given by career DoJ attorneys in the Voting Rights division concerning the Georgia Photo ID requirement laws and the Texas redistricting pet project of indicted former House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay."] Subject: Amy Ridenour Testifies Before Congress I saw Amy Ridenour from the National Center for Public Policy testifying before Congress on CSPAN the other day and it was just jaw dropping. She testified that they gave Abramoff $300,000.00 for the Capital Athletic Foundation without even so much as a one page grant proposal. She tried to portray herself as a naive soul who assumed the trip was for educational purposes so congressmen could study privatized social security and socialized health care even though she has been president of that organization since 1982. She said that they now knew better and would be conducting business differently in the future. I couldn't help but wonder how this money laundering mill manages to keep its tax-exempt status and why this woman is walking around free and not behind bars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Ridenour Laura Wilkerson Subject: Bush 41 vs. Dan Rather Craig Crawford on Book TV said the basis for part of his book was studying Rather's interview with Bush 41 when Rather tried to ask about Iran Contra. Craig's theory was that Bush went into the interview planning to attack Rather. Craig went to CBS and interviewed people about it and ran into a cameraman who worked the interview. The cameraman said he knew the attack was planned because when it came time for the attack, Roger Ailes - who was there off camera - held up a big cue card telling Bush when to attack Rather. Anyway, the interview with the cameraman kind of put the seal on what Craig thought, it was an organized, planned attack. I would add, an attack on a journalist to protect Bush's keester and cloud a huge issue. Craig talks about this starting at 6:30 http://www.booktv.org/feature/index.asp?segid=6547&schedID=393 Attack the Messenger: How Politicians Turn You Against the Media -- Craig Crawford thanks, phillip Subject: George Bowling George you said it all in your submission. I like you am in my sixties ex Viet era vet and am at a loss as to what our present in-power generation of citizens will tolerate and how they simply turn their heads to lying, stealing, betrayal, and out and out corruption in our federal government. It is also inconceivable how so many corrupt people have gravitated to politics and are actually elected over and over again. Do voters just not give a good G-damned or are they just as corrupt as those they support? How far will we go down this mined path to total destruction? An alarmist? I don't think so! We had better wake up soon or it will be too late! Lawton
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