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| March 20, 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. Subject: Will Nobody Stand Up to the Borrow and Spend Republicans? Buzz: Once again, I waste time with CSPAN, hearing callers complain about so-called "Tax and Spend" Democrats. I thumb around the radio, and hear right-wing hate mongers once again denouncing, you guessed it, "Tax and Spend" Democrats. I open the paper and I see Mallard Fillmore once again uttering, you guessed it, "Tax and Spend Democrats." Makes me sick. Buzz, we just saw the lunatic-controlled Republican Party push the National Debt to 9 TRILLION DOLLARS. And WHO VOTED FOR IT, Buzz? Didn't EVERY vote to kick this obscene debt limit up come FROM A REPUBLICAN SENATOR? Are they crazy? Do they REALLY believe that Jesus is going to rapture them in a week or 2 so they don't have to worry about the damage they've caused? What other explanation is there for their complete abandonment of looking at things in the long term? Buzz, is it TOO MUCH to ask for even a SINGLE DEMOCRAT to stand up and denounce these BORROW AND SPEND REPUBLICANS? HELLO, RUSS FEINGOLD! ARE YOU READING THIS? PLEASE, IF NOBODY ELSE WILL DENOUNCE BORROW AND SPEND REPUBLICANS, WON'T YOU? Pound that phrase over and over again. The future of America depends on SOMEONE with GUTS who HAS A BACKBONE and WILL STAND UP to the lunatics! Joe Bacon Subject: Security and Hypocrisy It may be that a generation or two has managed to pass through our educational system without developing an appreciation for the government's checks and balances system. To edify, the legislative, executive and judicial branches hold each other accountable so that no one branch can end up dominating the other two. It may be that we are approaching a time when the idea that "the end justifies the means" is generally accepted. In fact, we may already be there. Fear may be dominating how we view our society in a way that robs us of our objectivity. A majority may be willing to live in a police state simply to maintain a private comfort zone. If this be the case, then it is assured that the element of fear will not shrink in influence, but will grow in direct proportion to how often it is used to manipulate public opinion. The majority will come to accept that those who listen in on our telephone conversations or read our e-mail and do so without court approval, are acting in their own best interests. People will simply try to make sure that they don't use certain words that could trigger undue attention. Attention that in turn, could lead to increased government surveillance. Political discussions will consist of sitting around with people of like mind and agreeing that the current government is right in whatever it is doing. Those who might disagree will be immediately suspect. Their names might be turned into the appropriate government agency. He or she might then become a person of interest. This used to be the political environment that we associated with the old Soviet Union or even the current government of China. Yes, the above is an example of the tactic of fear. If you, the reader, are the least bit susceptible to it, then you are already a victim of it. On another matter, the current Congress is about to adopt a new set of rules that will make it less vulnerable to the bribery tactics of lobbyists. This is the equivalent of the foxes upgrading the security system of the chicken coop. Lloyd J. Klapperich Subject: Prospects for a Dictatorship Dear BF, You are my safe haven in a once in a lifetime storm. Recently retired Supreme Court Justice O'Connor warned of the increasing likelihood of a drift towards a Dictatorship in the land of opportunity. Prescient words, Guess what, we are there. W and his Administration represent neo-fascism in all its wonders. Not elected in either of two terms he is following his Mein Kampf-the PNAC. Like Hitler he believes in pre-emptive war (blitz krieg) and dominance over the less fortunate - Iraq and, soon, Iran. We all remember Hitler's cry for "lebensraum quickly followed by the Anschluss etc. and finally war with Russia. Six years of war ensued ending with the final destruction and implosion of Germany. Some people do not like the analogy. After all W has not killed any Jews! How about Arabs? No concentration camps! How about "Gitmo," Abu Ghraib, and others a-building. Torture! How about rendition? We even have a Waffen SS. How about the US Army and its tactics? Even our biggest ally is complaining of the US operation against and treatment of ordinary Iraqis. Impeach the dictator Bush and his fascist entourage. When will the lily-livered Democrats stand up and be counted? I am appalled at the failure to support Sen. Feingold, a courageous and forthright gentleman. I hope he runs for the Presidency in '08. We don't need the Bidens, Clintons, Liebermans and these old pols who are Repuglicans light. God Bless and Save America. A. Leslie Palmer Subject: World's First Gay President I offer to run for world's first US gay president...or world dictator (whichever is most suitable for the times at hand; "Big Gay Brother" sure has a nice ring to it, but "El Presidente" has its appeal, also). My platform (needs updating, I've been running unofficially since 2000; but the important points are all there): http://www.gay-bible.org/zeke-4-prez.htm Vote for Zeke in two-double-oh-eight, Zeke Krahlin Subject: Please see this movie: "V for Vendetta" Dear Buzz: Earlier in the day I mentioned I was going to see the new movie, "V for Vendetta." Now we are back home and turned on the computer to e-mail you about the movie. Lo and behold, as I was reading the mailbag first - the message written by one of your readers says it all. The movie is terrific in the message it portrays. As "A BuzzFlash Reader" says, I felt compelled to write. Please, everyone, go see this movie. And don't believe anyone who criticizes this movie. I mean NO ONE. My sentiments are the same as the message below. I will just say: Ditto! Thanks. Dolores M. Dryden Subject: What Opposition Party? Friday morning I called my senators--both Democrats--to inquire as to their respective positions on my new hero, Senator Feingold's, censure proposal. I was informed by the drones who answered their calls that "they are as yet undecided." To which I replied, "May I ask what the hell Sen. X is undecided about? Is there some specific law the good senator is waiting for Bush to break before he/she has to ponder the advisability of an impotent expression of congressional disapproval?" Never in my I'd-hate-to-say-how-many years have I felt more like pounding my head against a wall! What in the name of God is the matter with these people??!! Can the entire Democratic party (with, so far, three exceptions) truly be that anatomically-impossibly spineless? To begin with, what's the big deal about a censure? Knowing Bush as they do, they have to know he'll just file it away in the same drawer as all those August '01 intelligence briefings on Al Qaeda's getting ready to hit the US mainland. Whereas allowing Senator Feingold to stand alone with his thumb in his bum is sending Boy George a message that the Democratic party will present no obstacle at no juncture, should he happen to do whatever may pop into the uncharted wilderness of his head. So, you smart folks at Buzz, it looks to me right now like we are pretty much doomed. I mean, consider the following: 1. We have no opposition party worth mentioning. 2. In terms of telling us the truth, if it should be ultimately detrimental to the criminals in power, the members of the Fourth Estate are not worth the powder to blow them up. 3. There's no real reason to hope for better things to come when Twitwit's term expires, because in all probability, the GOP will only pull off yet another rigged election. This will happen because the majority of the population believes that the widespread use of glitched-up computerized voting machines is a crazy liberal conspiracy theory. Pretty grim, huh? While I've been contemplating all this gloom, only one thing cheered me up. When I called one senator's office, the person I spoke with, after I'd jumped down his personally blameless throat, said very politely, "So you want to tell Senator Y that you're definitely in favor of censure." I replied: "I suppose execution would be out of the question." And much to my surprise, the guy totally cracked up. Hey, maybe one of these days, he'll run for office. Ellie Remore Subject: Open Letter to Pelosi Dear Ms Pelosi, I just received a letter from the DCCC with your signature on it requesting money from me to support the Democrats. You certainly must be joking, right? You'll get money from me when you start behaving like elected officials that represent their constituents. Perhaps Senator Feingold jumped the gun when he called for censure. So what, get over it, and back him up. I wasn't quite sure what censure even was until a friend of mine who is an attorney explained it to me. Now can you please explain to me why the majority of Democrats do not want to get on record saying that they know the President of The United States of America is breaking the law and it needs to stop? Please explain to me when it is a good time or politically correct to hold this man and his administration accountable for their actions? Are all of you in D.C. on some sort of payroll/payoff that we don't know about? What in the heck is going on there? If you're interested I can tell you what's going on here in my little circle of friends, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. ALL are for censure and impeachment. So chew on that for a while and let me also add this, my sister, a tried and true Republican, asked me today who would be a good person to vote for. I told her I don't know, I just don't know. Well, as you can tell, I am a pretty disgruntled American, which is putting it as mildly as I know how to. Please take me off your mailing list or "Don't call me, I'll call you." For my last two cents I would like to add that I predict some Republicans jumping on the censure bandwagon before the Democrats do and once again you will all look like the scared little donkeys/asses that you are. Colleen Martinico [BuzzFlash Note: Over the weekend, Newsweek's poll showed 20% of Republicans, 60% of Democrats, and 40% of Americans overall, favor censure.] Subject: And the B.S. Goes on ... "Pulling the Chain" For those that never heard the term, “pull the chain,” General Bernard Trainor finds “Operation Swarmer” modest and “flushes” expectations that it will have much effect as he questions the results and its success as being negligible. The media has given extremely broad coverage “showcasing the Iraq military” as leading the way, but also admitting there was little or no resistance, and many detainees were let go. Sounds easy, so easy, that what do you want to bet the “bad guys” got out of town! “Catapulting the Propaganda” about “Operation Swarmer” and the news coverage it received comes under the heading of “showcasing Bush efforts” to try and get his ratings out of the toilet! Susan Carr Subject: Texas Fires Am I missing something, but in the past when you had big fires like the one in Texas, the National Guard came in and helped. We have had several fires and other national disasters in the last several years, and for some reason, Cheney was not there like Al Gore. I wonder. A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Things Deserving Posting Hello BuzzFlash, Here are two things quite worthy of posting. The first is a clip from "Boston Legal" that puts the criminality of this admin in our laps, and the second is a press conference by the Scholars for 9/11 Truth. http://www.boston-legal.org/ ("Stick It" Closing Arguments) http://www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/alexandria.html Thanks, Charles T. Knowles Subject: America's Debt Vs. Americans' Debt Dear BuzzFlash, When Congress raised the nation's debt limit, I got to thinking about the new bankruptcy law and the reasons its supporters said it was needed. Here's a small sampling: "By tightening our current laws and making it more difficult to escape fraud by declaring bankruptcy, we are expressing no tolerance for those who would game the system to make up for their wrongdoing." Former Rep. Goss (R-FL) (now CIA Director). "Too frequently, however, individuals who have the financial ability to honor their debts are simply seeking an easy way out of repaying those debts. While this may prove convenient for the debtor, it is not fair to their friends or to their neighbors who are ultimately stuck with the bill." Rep. Chabot (R-OH). "All Americans suffer when people who have the ability to pay their bills do not do so." Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI). "It is high time that we provide relief to consumers burdened by paying for the debts of others." Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA). "It [bankruptcy] has been all too often abused, however, by those who do not need it, those who can pay their debts, slick con artists who game the system, irresponsible spenders who ignore the consequences of their actions." Rep. Hart (R-PA). So, while Congress saw fit to scold the American people for sins the credit industry said were being committed, Congress itself has no problem with "gaming the system" and letting the consequences of its own irresponsible behavior fall upon each American citizen. There's a line from Oliver Stone's "Platoon" that seems appropriate: "You have to be rich in the first place to think like that." Cathy Vance Subject: Bush's "Humpty-Dumpty world view"
A Buzzflash Reader Subject: Re: Warrantless Wiretapping Lots of commentators have conjectured that the reason for the secrecy and stonewalling by the administration over explaining the authorizing of the the wiretaps was likely that domestic political opponents were being targeted -- ala Nixon. Here is another conjecture (offered without evidence): Suppose the NSA has been monitoring the diplomatic communications of our "allies", say, England, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia. To reveal this would mean that codes have been broken. Codes would then be changed immediately and any advantage would be lost. Moreover, the backlash against the USA would be extreme, understandably. Or maybe BOTH reasons are true. Who knows? A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: A Nonviolent Idea Since our representatives in Washington are such cowards, and yet the Americans by a huge number support censure and impeachment, would it work if MoveOn.org, The World Can't Wait, AfterDowning Street, and other activist sites all worked together to get a list going where you agree, if a certain number (they would have to figure this out) signed that they would take a certain day, stay home, do not purchase anything, do not go to work, school, don't participate in the economy any more than you can; wouldn't that get a message to the government that Americans are not going to put up with this, and that we have strength and power greater than they have thought? That we do not want this war to continue? I am not a computer geek, but I know the internet connects LOTS of people, and we can also spread the word by mouth. Is this a possibility? Don't you think it would be simple to get a lot of people to participate and that an economic boycott would get the attention that obviously the marches by hundreds of thousands around the world is not getting? I think it would not be a huge risk for people yet it would be powerful. It seems to me that this is in the tradition of Gandhi and King; it's non-violent yet it is powerful. I do think many would participate, and it would only happen when we have the number that will make it count. Speaking for myself, I am tired of feeling impotent and upset, and I believe that it is time to act. A BuzzFlash Reader CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF THE MARCH 20, 2006 BUZZFLASH MAILBAG |
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