May 1, 2006

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: Stephen Colbert for Wings of Justice!!

Dear Buzz,

Again and again, it is the singers, the songwriters, the actors, the essayists and the comedians who dare speak truth to power. Why? Because not only are they the experts at communicating simple truths to the people in ways that resonate...but because they are compelled by their art to speak out. The Singer must sing (Natalie Main of the Dixie Chicks), the Songwriter must write (Neil Young's new CD), the Essayist must write (Norman Mailer), the actor must testify (George Clooney, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon), and the Comedian must make us laugh through our horror at what we are witnessing (Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and his predecessor, Lenny Bruce, who made everyone uncomfortable with his biting truths).

In his speech before the press club dinner, Stephen Colbert not only points out the painful and awful truth about the Bush misadministration and their utter incompetence, but he does it while standing just a few feet away from the Liar in Chief, who is seated at the podium looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Looking Bush right in the eye, Colbert DARES Bush to react to the TRUTH Colbert methodically and consistently speaks to his "liberal media" colleagues and to Bush himself. It was GREAT, and the fact that the blogosphere and mainstream media alike are abuzz with the story just attests to the power and the glory of Colbert's performance.

I nominate Stephen Colbert for the Wings of Justice Award...maybe he'll brag about it on his show!!! Let's hope he will....he deserves it!

Video and transcript: Stephen Colbert. "Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Perhaps the Most Courageous, Honest, and Bitterly Hilarious Challenge to the Bush Monarchy Delivered in His Presence. Just Devastating. It was Also an Attack on the Brainlessness of the Washington Press Corps. Watch It. Part I 5/1

elaine in petaluma

Subject: Rush Limbaugh Immune From Federal Criminal Law?

Rush got his hand slapped for the violation of the Florida statute preventing getting the same prescription from multiple doctors.

But there is still deafening silence with respect to his multiple felony violations of federal law. Recall that Rush "structured" the oxycontin purchases by withdrawing numerous increments of funds just under $10,000.00. "Structuring transactions" to avoid IRS reporting requirements is a felony under federal law, 31 U.S.C. §§ 5322(a) and 5324(3).

Such conduct is a crime, apparently, for everyone but Rush.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Iraq

About two weeks ago on CNN World News there was a brief news account regarding 63,000 women and children who had to leave their homes and were living in tents in the desert, due to their husbands, sons and brothers being killed or taken away by opposing forces. Why is there no news on this? If this is not civil war, what it is?

M. C. Kerr
Stevensville, Md.

Subject: Thanks, Neil - You're a Hero!

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It's all over but the shouting. Will the last 30% please leave the country?

We'll swap you out for the millions of illegal Mexicans who'll be marching on Monday.

I know not what country you want to scurry to, but get the hell out of Dodge, ya counterfeit cowboys!

This weekend marks the point of no return for Bushco.

Seventy percent of this country rejects "the reality these losers have managed to create" and try to drag the rest of us into. Their dark agenda - while still threatening - won't advance another step further on any front they pursue.

The link below is to to an epic landmark - an entire CD - by a legendary artist - dedicated to the sole purpose of bringing Bush into account for his actions. Thanks, Neil!

If you like Neil Young, you'll love the CD. It's classic Neil Young - who can deliver a message like nobody else.

If you don't like Bush, you'll like the CD.

If you don't know anything about Bush or Neil Young, you'll end up liking the CD a lot more than you end up liking Bush.

You'll appreciate as you scan the titles and listen to the tunes; this is a CD for AMERICANS, for PATRIOTS, for people of all nations and faiths who reject Bushco, bankruptcy and dictatorship.

http://action.truemajority.org/campaign/living_with_war/forward

W - ya effed with the wrong people; the youth of the '60's - who're now in their 60's. They're gonna finish you off.

Note: Once you start the CD, you can't control the sequence of songs. If you want to surf the net while listening, just minimize that screen and open up your browser again - as if you were starting the Internet from scratch. Then you can surf and sample the music.

Brent Mack
Rockledge, Florida

Subject: Mr. Young

BuzzFlash is without a doubt my favorite site, sans Yahoo fantasy baseball and Fanball, but might I digress. Mr. Neil Young puts out a complete album, excuse me a complete album of anti-war songs. An anti-war concept album, and he isn't the top banner at the MastHead........Disgraceful.

Otherwise keep up the great work.

Sincerely,

CP

Editors,

As one of the fundamental principles of politics is to effectively define your opponent as being unacceptable to the situation, an analogy for the Bush administration recently occurred to me: As a form of computer virus that is destroying the normal process for its own purposes and with no regard to the health of the larger system, while using the weaknesses of that system to control it.

An example:

WARNING: The W virus is crashing the current operating platform, World Order (western edition) 3.3, user titled The American Century. This bug has about two and a half more years before its expiration date and appears as though it will trash every conceivable file by that time.

If it became normal to refer to this administration as the Bush Virus, not only would it clue people to their effect and provide a difficult frame for them to answer to, but the organic origins of the term would strike a deeper chord in the group psyche.

John B. Merryman
Sparks, Maryland

Subject: More on Dubai

Today on the news there was an article on MSNBC about the go-ahead or approval by Bush for the Dubai Co. to run some military sites where some aircraft and such are being made. It is said that this has been carefully looked into and should pose little problem with U.S. security. The deal has had little opposition from Congress. I cannot believe the nerve of this man to even consider this after the port incident in the recent past. He is relentless, like a spoiled, petulant child who will push to constantly get their way. Congress lets him do what he wants to do AGAIN! WHEN ARE YOU, CONGRESS, GOING TO PUT CLAMPS ON THIS MAN??? How can you think that this new deal in the workings could not pose a threat to the national security? The Dubai Co. should have nothing to do at all with ANYTHING concerning our military. There ought to be a furor raised in Washington over this matter, not complacency. What has happened, does Bush and Co. have something over all you all out there at the Capitol Building?

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Limbaugh and Florida

The State Attorney should have put in the agreement that limbaugh would have to refrain from lying on the radio!

The formal agreement between Mr. Limbaugh and the State Attorney will be filed with the Court on Monday. The terms of the agreement are substantively as follows:

-- Mr. Limbaugh will continue in treatment with the doctor he has seen for the past two and one half years.

-- After Mr. Limbaugh completes an additional 18 months of treatment, the State Attorney has agreed to drop the charge.

-- Mr. Limbaugh has agreed to make a $30,000 payment to the State of Florida to defray the public cost of the investigation.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Another Reason Why Bush Is the Worse President Ever

Dear BuzzFlash:

After purchasing and reading the "Rolling Stone" cover story about the Bush presidency, I was not surprised at the litany of failures and his messianic complex that contribute to his ranking so low when compared to other Presidents. Of course, Bush doesn't give a damn about any of the issues in a fair litmus test historians utilize, so failure equates to indifference in that regard.

As I stated earlier, his is a one track course with no concern for anything but his own selfish gain. Selfishness in politics is a given, but I do think that every man who occupied the Oval Office up to the current moron had at least a modicum of concern and love for his country, and although he may have failed in policy or actions, there was at least a desire to do what he thought best for his country.

We like to belittle the famous losers like James Buchanan, but let us remember that the Civil War was an inevitability and that the seeds of division were well planted and previous Presidents Fillmore and Pierce did nothing to help Buchanan.

Andrew Johnson was as much a victim of political infighting and his impeachment was on very trivial charges, much like Clinton's. It was true Johnson was not effective as a Reconstruction president, but the voters of Tennessee thought enough of him to return him back to the US Senate after his time in the White House.

Herbert Hoover is the most maligned (up until now) president of the 20th Century. While his attempts to curb the impact of the Depression failed miserably, let us not forget the collapse was due to greedy investors buying ridiculous amounts of speculative stock on margin and not having the money to cover themselves when the stocks fell, ala 2000. Hoover didn't have anything to do with this. Plus, history seldom mentions that Hoover, after he left office, served his country selflessly and heroically. Hoover had a heart - he simply detested the thought of any person anywhere going hungry. To that end, he was appointed to spearhead relief efforts for post-war Europe for food, agriculture and other programs to help feed millions of starving Europeans, and did so brilliantly. He combated hunger the rest of his life, and may very well be the President who, more than any other, made amends for his four years in office. We seldom hear of this, though.

Now, does anybody in their right mind think that George W., after he leaves, will embark on any such endeavors? Don't make us sick. He will, no doubt, latch on to his last stronghold, the ultra-religious right and filthy rich, make speeches to the gullible and continue to think he was God's personal President, and that detractors simply were too stupid or evil to understand. Now, that's irony.

Bush - the worst, the most evil, the genocidal, the looniest President ever. The damage he has already done will take decades to recover from. Kudos to my neighbor to the north, Mr. Watson in Springdale. I agree, Mr. Watson - our ignorance and apathy put this jerk in the Oval Office, and it's our fault.

Scott
Fayetteville, AR

Subject: The Decider insists on English

Bush says that the national anthem should be sung in English, not Spanish. What I find amazing is that people want to sing the anthem at all considering the stolen elections, the fake war in Iraq, the domestic spying, the secret CIA torture camps, the corruption, lawlessness, and corporate greed. And in spite of being threatened with deportation and prison these hard working people still want to sing the anthem. I say why not? But Bush says if they are going to live in America they need to learn the language. And Bush gets to say that because he's the "decider".

I'm Marc Perkel - And I approved this message!

Marc Perkel
San Francisco, CA

Subject: Limbore and When He Said "Send Them Up the River"

Hi BuzzFlash,

Back in 1995 when Bill Clinton was President, BuzzFlash reported how LimBORE went on the air to talk about how Lax the Nation's Drug Laws were in America.

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/gophotwrush.html

Excerpt: RUSH LIMBAUGH TALKS ABOUT DRUGS. SHOW: RUSH LIMBAUGH (9:00 PM ET) October 5, 1995, Thursday 11:15 AM

... But here is the real nuts and bolts of this that everybody's going to focus on and misread, I believe. Blacks make up 12 percent of the United States' population. They constitute 13 percent of all monthly drug users, according to this same report. However, black males in their 20s represent 35 percent of those arrested for drug possession, 55 percent of those convicted for drug possession and 74 percent of those sentenced to prison for drug possession. Now people are going to sit there and say, This proves that America's racist. This proves that cops target blacks unfairly and put them in jail unfairly. They got to be falsely accused. They've got to be falsely convicted. They got to be falsely imprisoned'--and this is supposed to prove to everybody that this is terribly wrong.

Now I think the proper way to look at this is the exact opposite. Let's all admit something: There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them.

And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up. If you're a black living in the inner city--and--and I firmly believe that, no matter what your race, if you have children--or even if you don't--you don't want to be surrounded by drug infestation. You don't want your kids running around being tempted by the quick profits of drug sales or the quick high of drug use. And if the cops are in these neighborhoods and ridding these neighborhoods of these people, then that's good and you ought to be happy about it.

What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use, too many whites are getting away with drug sales, too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too. That's how you deal with this, ladies and gentlemen.

... A lot of people say that we have a heavy sentence for this crime and a light sentence for another crime, and what we ought to do is reduce the heavy sentence so it's more in line with the other. Wrong. In most cases we ought to increase the light sentence and make it compatible with the heavy sentence, and be serious about punishment because we are becoming too tolerant as a society, folks, especially of crime, in too many parts of the country. I know all of us are tough on crime. None of us in this audience probably think that we personally are tolerant, but this country certainly appears to be tolerant, forgive and forget.

I mean, you know as well as I do, you go out and commit the worst murder in the world and you just say you're sorry, people go, Oh, OK. A little--little contrition.' You know, I mean, how many times have you heard it? Guy kills four people, goes to jail, gets convicted and people get mad because he didn't show any remorse. So what if he shows remorse? He still killed four people. You going to think less of him or more of him? People say, I feel better. He--he said he's sorry for it.' We're becoming too tolerant, folks.

So after reading LimBORE's own words, I wonder why he let his lawyer get him off so easy on your Doctor Shopping for Hillbilly Heroin? Yup, Rush, you should have listened to your very own words that day and simply let them "convict and throw you up the river," instead of letting you get off the hook so easily today, after they took your "pretty" mug shot. Why am I even slightly surprised that LimBORE "says" one thing but "does another"?

Tom Wieliczka
Windsor Locks, CT

Subject: Analogy for Bush

Doesn't Bush remind you of the arsonist/firefighter who shows up at his handiwork and wants to be lauded as a hero?

Charles Karafotias
Titusville, FL

Subject: Rolling Blackouts and Amnesty

It's laughingly ironic that Houston, home of Enron and the Kenny Boy Lay trial, has been struck with rolling electrical blackouts. What a hoot. Enron used this tactic to rape the state of California and criminally reap hundreds of millions of dollars in profit.

Legislature Still Reviewing Rolling Blackout Situation (KXAN)

Corporate America will one day soon rue the day they have broken our immigration laws and are calling for amnesty for illegal aliens. The same people they are exploiting today will eventually turn on them and call for their pound of flesh. They will become the new unionized labor in America when they are strong enough politically. There is another Chavez or two out there waiting in the wings. Twenty to thirty million strong, they will show America what it really means to organize for a cause. They have the guts and heart to do what we so-called middle class, American Borns do not.

Lawton Watson

Subject: Third Anniversary of Mission Accomplished

Three years ago the president, in a Schwarzeneggeresque performance, complete with a crotch-hugging Top Gun costume, and a really boffo entrance on a bunting-draped carrier flight deck proclaimed to the world - "Mission Accomplished". Even at the time skeptics, unimpressed by the American media's giddy delight with the glitz and glitter, soberly asked - "Just what mission is that, George?"

We now understand what the mission was; to launch America unabashedly on the road to dictatorial rule and perpetual warfare. Just like dictators throughout history, President Bush arrogates power to himself by instilling, then exploiting fear in the people. Then, like Dudley Do-Right, he presents himself as especially anointed to save the people from the dreaded, but unseen (indeed, invisible) archenemy - "terrorism!"

He has assumed powers specifically denied him by the constitution and international law, which by treaty obligation have the same authority as the constitution: spying on citizens in the absence of a court order, holding people incommunicado for years with no criminal charges, seizing people and spiriting them to foreign countries to be tortured, and the supreme crime against humanity - making an unprovoked war of aggression against a sovereign nation. In his arrogance he has even threatened nuclear war against Iran because he supposes that by and by they might want to develop a weapons capability on a par with that of nearby countries: India, Pakistan and Israel.

There was a time not too long ago when it would have been unthinkable that America could be universally regarded as an international pariah. Yet today, even our former closest allies are dismayed at what we have become - a rogue state bent on imposing its will on the whole world at any cost whether of treasure or lives. Congratulations might be due, but no thanks will be forthcoming for accomplishing your mission, George.

Robert R. Regl
Hattiesburg, MS

Subject: A bitter pill to swallow (Ellis Henican/Newsday)

But that doesn't mean police and prosecutors should ease up on the blacks, Limbaugh roared.

What this says to me," he told his viewers that night, "is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too.

Funny, he didn't sing the praises of treatment.

He didn't come out in favor of 18-month dismissal deals.

He certainly didn't speak up for liberal drug policies.

And here we are, and there he is.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Russert

Check out the transcript (p. 5) of Sunday's Meet the Press. It's hysterical. Bush's Secretary of Energy, trying to explain away Bush's comments during the 2000 campaign that the strategic oil reserves should not be used for political gain -- which is exactly what Bush is doing now -- commented that those comments were made, "Ten ... nine years ago ..." Ten, nine years ago ... 2000?

MR. RUSSERT: And this is what candidate Bush had to say about it back then.

Let’s watch.

(Videotape, September 21, 2000):

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: Today, my opponent, in response to public outcry, proposed that our nation tap into the strategic petroleum reserve. That’s bad public policy. The strategic reserve is an insurance policy meant for a sudden disruption of our energy supply or for war. Strategic reserves should not be used as an attempt to drive down oil prices right before an election.  It should not be used for short-term political gain at the cost of long-term national security.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Isn’t that exactly what the president is now doing?

David Fisher
Bronx, New York

Subject: The Poor Dollar

I have been watching the exchange rate with Canada closely, and a funny thing happened Friday. The Canadian dollar is exactly as strong against the American dollar as it was in 1991, which was during the Bush I term.

Here are the numbers:

2006-04-24 Monday, April 24 0.879275 USD

2006-04-25 Tuesday, April 25 0.883626 USD

2006-04-26 Wednesday, April 26 0.887233 USD

2006-04-27 Thursday, April 27 0.890076 USD

2006-04-28 Friday, April 28 0.892618 USD !!!!

1991-10-29 October 29, Tuesday 0.890313 USD

1991-10-30 October 30, Wednesday 0.890631 USD

1991-10-31 October 31, Thursday 0.890472 USD

1991-11-01 November 01, Friday 0.892618 USD !!!!

1991-11-04 November 04, Monday 0.892061 USD

This is not 'happy' news so it might not get reported.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Nah, Sen. Gore Is Not Right for This Time in History

Nah, Al Gore's not our man for 2008.

Please, fellow BuzzFlash readers, go back to the first "Presidential" Debate in 2004: I believe Jim Lehrer asked him if he still believes Bush doesn't have enough experience to be president.... Al danced around but never answered the question. All he had to do was say "Yes! He does not have enough experience!"

An "unofficial" transcript of the debate is here:

http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2000a.html

Mr. Gore never said anything like what he should have, like "Yes, he has no experience, the Texas Governor's office is about the weakest in the Country, and this shrub has never accomplished anything on his own without daddy or daddy's buddies to carry him"

So I turned off the telly and never listened to Sen. Gore again. And did not vote for him or the shrub either. Now he's resurrecting himself...

Turns out the shrub was the worst thing to ever happen to this Country.... second worst President ever. If I had known the Nixon apologists and PNAC were behind this front-man 2000, I would have moved to Texas and voted early and often to keep the shrub unemployed. Worst Prez'nit is still Reagan, but then he wasn't really Prez'nit either. So I am partly responsible for the shrub being in office..... and I beat myself up about it every day.

Thanks...

Bill Darbyshire
Galien MI

Subject: Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert cut through that crap-fest Correspondents Dinner like a cold knife through a hot pile of Texas turds. (You know, they say after you give a Texan an enema you can fit him in a bread box)...Anyway, before Colbert came on it was pretty much a parade of ossified pricks, buxom news babes, and shiny corporate suck-ups, all holding their sphincters real tight so no truth could escape and offend the president. After Colbert, people looked confused, angry, yet slightly relieved and hopeful that one day they too might take back their own sphincters and start TELLING THE TRUTH TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE! And good on you Stephen Colbert for giving Helen Thomas the props she so richly deserves.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Greed in America

Who said corporate America can make as much profit as they wish? We are now seeing what the market will bear and it's not pretty. Huge salaries by the CEO's of the big companies, not just the oil industry. Paid for by the middle class. Senator Kennedy said Congress works Tuesday through Thursday and the other days are for fund raising. Anyone see anything wrong with that? Greed has compromised not only industry and government but our culture as well. Just look at who our children see as role models. I doubt Russ Feingold is on that list. Wouldn't it be refreshing to see someone say,"You know, I've enough money to live on and to leave for my children so could I please have a pay cut?" How many millions or billions are enough? The culture of greed carries on. Congress won't even raise the minimum wage in this country, keeping the poor even poorer and those in the middle class struggling even more. A Democracy should be beholding itself to the people, not lobbyists and corporations. We have sacrificed honesty and integrity for greed. That is not what the founding Fathers had in mind for my Country.

Dave Boxhorn
Waukesha, Wisconsin

Subject: How Does That Work?

10th of september 2001.....

While most of us are debating whether it was the drugs, the booze... or the Yale education, that did the damage....

The entire planet is forming an orderly, but cheerful, queue to sneer at the mental retard currently occupying the White house...( Let's be honest..... a known inability to correctly pronounce three syllable words in your own language is pretty big clue!)

His approval ratings that week had set new lows for a first term president

Yet 24 hours later ....

After thousands of Americans have been murdered, on his watch....

Which he was forewarned about....in briefings that told him, and his handpicked staff, ......that OBL was planning a strike in the New York Area using hijacked airliners...

And....while he are being flown from bolt hole to bolt hole.... from which he would not surface for days.... (thereby allowing the Veep to do what he has done at every manufactured crisis point from then on..... run the country).... while the person "elected" to that job......

(And it's a real stretch to describe the gerrymandering scandal of 2000 in Florida.... overseen by "Retard"'s brother.... or what happened in Ohio in 2004.... as anything recognisable as an "election".)........

Any way ...... as I was saying...

The person "Elected" to that job is "Unavailable" (On another of his vacations usually) ...

Panic evacuation of the Whitehouse, including the President's family....?

Last person to know?.....

George Bush.... he's out there, in the woods, pedalling away on his Mountain Bike..... "Ipod" on and earphones jacked in

I..... and I'm not kidding..... knew about it before he did!

And I live thousands of miles away.... on another continent.

But the evening of 11th September.....even though he is missing in Action.... no-where to be seen... and won't be for days.... Bush becomes the font of all wisdom and manly courage....?

How does that work?

I mean as a viable way to run and strengthen a nation...

How does that work?

Dave Goodrich
UK

In reading an article in The Week online about Iran's nuclear weapons capability I have to wonder: Why is it that the U.S. has a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons but insists that no one else in the world should possess them? The Week quotes a Wall Street Journal editorial which states: 'Nobody wants another war...Still, the U.S. is wise to develop “a full range of military contingency plans,” if for no other reason than that Iran’s fanatical, unstable leaders simply cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons.' And I'm thinking, but Bush and his fanatical Christian fundamentalist oil cronies are stable enough to be trusted with nuclear weapons? Has anyone been paying attention to this administration and its lies and bully tactics? Doesn't everyone realize Bush wants to conquer as many nations as possible, especially the oil producing nations, no matter what the consequences to his country, or any other for that matter?

http://www.theweekmagazine.com/article.aspx?id=1418

Patricia Schoenberger
Eden Prairie, MN 

Subject: The Sinking Ship

Isn’t it just like the Bush supporters who are on board a sinking ship to hoist another nationalistic flag rather than to raise a distress signal for help? They damn well want the whole world to know that their ship is sinking.

Cliff Fink
Ocala, Florida

Try "Would Be Dictator." No President has shown the brazen willful disregard for the Constitution of the United States of America as this one has. He has betrayed his oath of office repeatedly and willfully. This is merely the latest outrageous act on his part, intentionally disobeying over 750 laws because he "disagreed" with them and did not like them so he claimed some specious phantom unilateral authority to flout them. This is grounds for immediate impeachment. As President he does not have the luxury to ignore laws duly enacted by Congress. It is his sworn duty under the Constitution to "take care to see that the laws are faithfully executed." He has deliberately chosen to ignore that because in his words "it would be a heck of a lot easier for him to be a dictator." This man is a menace to our constitutional democracy and he should be impeached with all possible speed before he does any further damage to our country.

Bush challenges hundreds of laws (boston.com)

Dan DeLisio

Subject: Mailbag 4/28/06

Special thanks to Dee Turner ... I agree that there likely are many others who feel the same way. I was seriously disappointed about the demise of Howard Dean, first because it was like every one of the candidates were trying to tear him down ... and I thought they should form an alliance against the Bush administration. After Kerry was the one, however, I figured once again that anyone is better than Bush ... so I worked and voted ... and was more disappointed than with Gore (He at least held on for a month) he let us all know that he disagreed with the Supreme Court ... but ... it looked as if we had no choice! I likely will not vote, if Kerry is the one, which I don't think will happen ... I think a lot of people are tuned into Gore now. His fatal mistake would be to pick the same VP candidate again ... Can't take Lieberman, either.

Shirley ... St. Louis

Subject: Stephen Colbert

While checking out the TV news regarding the White House Correspondents' dinner, I noticed that there was no mention of the terrific job that comedian Stephen Colbert did. Little wonder, I couldn't believe what I saw and heard either. Colbert socked it to all of them. I wonder if he noticed the chill in the room as he spoke. The media types expected Colbert to do a comedy act, something to make them laugh. Instead, he spoke truth to power. It was still comical. I laughed out loud to see the strained looks of Geedubya and the embedded media. After all, the president and many in the media need to be reminded that none of them have ever walked on water...of course many of them will get to burn in hell if they don't straighten up! Kudos to Stephen Colbert. I suspect that he won't be invited back to D.C. anytime soon. In fact, the media is already pretending that it never happened.

Dee Turner
Atlanta

Subject: The Christian Problem with G.W. Bush

At no time in my 46 year life can I remember Christianity so entwined with politics as in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. Every news outlet proclaimed that the American Christian community had finally found their candidate in G.W. Bush. Bush, who openly claimed to be a "Born Again Christian" and spoke their language represented hope for Christians, who had for years felt marginalized. Election exit polls repeatedly stated that it was the Christian voters who were voting on moral issues that elected and re-elected Bush, along with keeping the Republican majority in our government.

The support of G.W. Bush by the Christian conservatives and many mainline Christians was a dubious choice to begin with. Other than Bush's claim of being "Born Again", he had never done anything in his personal, business, or political life that would back up any claim to living the words of Jesus Christ. His personal and business life had always been under a cloud of questionable legal and ethical circumstance. His political life had shown no legacy of any tangible attempts to do anything but pander to the very wealthy. As Governor of Texas he presided over more executions than any other Governor in current history. Bush, even refused the pleas of the Conservative Christian leadership to save the life of Karla Faye Tucker, a women convicted of murder who had found Christ and been "Born Again" while on death row.

G.W. Bush is now considered by all but a few to be one of the worst presidents ever. His policies have punished the poor, the sick, the young, the elderly and rewarded the ultra rich. There is enormous evidence that he attacked Iraq based on orchestrated lies, making him a mass murderer and war criminal. Bush ignored the threat of Katrina and still ignores the pain and suffering of the Katrina victims. He has done nothing about the genocide in Darfur and his solution to every problem of social justice is tax cuts for the wealthy elite.

Had the Christian community that supported Bush based their support on an examination of the man and his record and not on faith in a self-proclaimed "Born Again Christian," they might have seen a problem right away. G.W. Bush has acted just as any group that had taken the time to know him would expect. He is what he has always been. His actions and policies as president have made it impossible to ignore that, though he claims to be Christian and to be guided by a higher power, he doesn't act that way. His life is saying one thing and doing another. He is not the "decider" but the "deceiver." The problem for the Christians who supported Bush, is now that it has become so apparent that he is not what he claims, they just can't scrape him off. No matter how outrageous his incompetence, arrogance, and indifference become, it is what he has always been. As it becomes impossible to deny that Bush is not what any impartial observer would call "a good Christian," it has become very difficult for the Christian community to explain their support for him. If their Christian faith, which is the guide for their living a moral and Christian life, led them to believe in Bush on faith, how do they come to terms with the reality that Bush does not reflect Christian values nor does Bush live the Christian faith?

Thank you,

Steven Bailey

Subject: Colbert deserves an award 

You guys should initiate an award in honor of the Colbert gig at the WHC dinner last night. Talk about a turd in the punch bowl. Colbert was speaking truth to power. Both to Bush and the MSM. Colbert shows how it's done!

Colbert Cahones Award?

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Stephen Colbert

Mr. Bush,

I had difficulty watching his routine and it wasn't because I was embarrassed, it was because it was truth as opposed to arrogant boasting in the face of disaster. There has been little funny about your destruction of this country. I found the one you did a few years ago looking under furniture for WMD worse. Joking like we should have all gotten the joke that there were no WMD and it was just a way to get the country on board for the attack. Stephen Colbert gave you exactly what you deserve, it fact he was mild compared to what you have done to the families of those injured and killed in your war based on lies and I suppose you will invade Iran because you can't help it.

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok.

Subject: Our United for Peace and Justice Protest in NYC

As usual, mainstream media did not report the truth - if they reported anything at all about this most UNITED protest in NYC this past Saturday April 29. But I was there. YES, we were well over 300,000 people with a common message: end the Iraq war/bring our troops back home/IMPEACH BUSH. See my page, put your speakers on:

http://www.sauvessanges.com

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Peace,

Monique Frugier
Ardmore, Pa.

Subject: Elizabeth Bumiller's column

Dear Mr. Calame:

How is it possible that Ms. Bumiller could devote a whole column to the correspondent's dinner without mentioning the surprise highlight of the evening, Stephen Colbert's exposition on the Bush White House? It's the talk of the town, and the Bushes left in a huff immediately afterward, yet to read Ms. Bumiller, we'd never know it happened. All the news that's fit to print? Or all the news that fits someone's agenda?

White House Letter: A New Set of Bush Twins Appear at Annual Correspondents' Dinner (NY Times)

Yours truly,

Robert Lockwood Mills
Monroe, CT

Subject: Oil Pricing

I found it interesting that Chris Matthews failed to inquire why "A windfall profit tax" would lead to curtailed production and exploration. Why we allow production decisions to be left to the oil companies, or why we would put the "foxes" in charge of the "hen-house"? Are you telling me that if we should think about taxing these enormous profits, the oil companies will punish us by further reducing production to further increase their profits.

Is not oil strategic to the future of the United States?

High Gas Prices Will Last Years, Bush Aides Say (LA Times)

Tim Krause
Lisle

The Democrats are not innocent though you seem to think they are heroes..... they VOTE yes and amen to every bill Bush puts in front of them on war, patriotism, budgets.... and they approved every one of those psychos who are running US security and foreign policy..... you, and they, may think that they will win big.... but I think that many people - like me - are not going to bother to vote.....   Except against Joe Lieberman of course, luckily I vote in CT.... but if no one  who was not against the war were running against him I wouldn't bother. This guy from Greenwich may not be ideal, but he is still not the average self serving Democrat.   We need a third party, both these parties are corrupt to their core.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Colbert Skewering

Like they have with the entire destruction of our democracy, Bill of Rights and freedoms, nothing reveals the fascist, Orwellian milieu we live in in the 21st Century than the MSM's use of its major weapon of ignoring real news. Colbert's personal skewering of Bush is the best case in point yet!

As soon as you Buzzers get this on a DVD premium, let me know. I've got a lot of ostriches in the family!

Will Wyche
Palm Springs, CA

Subject: Gas Rebates

How very typical! A check for $100. Our government is so used to being prostitutes themselves they now want to take the rest of us along with them, considerably cheaper than what they collected, but then I have always been surprised at how cheaply some millionaires sell themselves to the lobbists--like my own congressman, Charles Taylor.

The OPEC spokesman says there is no shortage of oil. Could it be the likes of Exxon-Mobil and the other refiners who are responsible for $3.00 and rising gasoline. Look at their publicly announced gains and take a guess at how much more is hidden, siphoned off, plain stolen. Who does our government support, is this thievery? Who supported the oil companies all the way? Who is still supporting the oil companies? Why do we tolerate this????

Edith M. Conrad
Asheville

Subject: Ken Lay: The Devil in the Penthouse

There’s a demon in the penthouse.
He wears a suit and tie.
He slaps my back and tells me
Of a stock I need to buy.

He sells me with his savoir-faire.
It sounds somewhat sublime.
And all the time this bandit has
His broker on the line.

Fred Freesqueeze
Cedar Hill, TX

Subject: Re: With help from Hollywood movie magic, U.S. recreates fake Iraqi villages in Mojave desert for training purposes -- big shift to anti-guerilla tactics 5/1

Prewar, military strategists predicted US would lose if the fighting shifted to urban warfare and I believe they are correct.  Look for US death rates to climb.    

Rosamond

Subject: Paging Comrade Stalin 

Buzz, wow.

From Chicago Tribune:

To others, the insistence that information considered important be kept confidential is part of the Bush White House's insistence on discipline and order.

"I really think they think of it in terms of good governance," said James Carafano, senior fellow for national security and homeland security at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "It's a very corporate style of leadership."

Bush team imposes thick veil of secrecy (Mark Silva/Chicago Tribune)

Good governance?! Good god...

Though a very corporate (read: dictatorial) style of leadership indeed. Uncle Joseph would be proud.

Elizabeth

P.S. Who are these people? The Carafanos and all the other Bush apologists? Have they always existed in this country, waiting for their Leader to materialize and show them the way from obscurity to power? Or are they just blowing with the political wind, singing praises of Bush in hope of getting a slice of the power pie, but not necessarily agreeing with him? I cannot fathom the level of withdrawal from reality necessary to support Bush and his policies. Who are these people?

Subject: "Remember Me, I Did This To You!"

In the 1993 movie, "A Bronx Tale," Chazz Palminteri tells a motorcycle gang member who he has beaten to a bloody pulp, "Remember me, I did this to you!" The American public needs to internalize that message because this is what the Republican Party is saying to all of us right now. We will remember come November!! I know that I will. Peace.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Porno Sites

I object to being sent to a porn site for the Stephen Colbert video. It is not even progressive porn, just garden variety stuff for straight white men. You ought to be ashamed of promoting it.

A BuzzFlash Reader

[BuzzFlash Note: We slipped up. Our publisher's mom was surprised to see that, too. (We've replaced that link with this one at dailykos: Video and transcript: Stephen Colbert. "Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Perhaps the Most Courageous, Honest, and Bitterly Hilarious Challenge to the Bush Monarchy Delivered in His Presence. Just Devastating. It was Also an Attack on the Brainlessness of the Washington Press Corps. Watch It. Part I 5/1.) You have our apology.]

Subject: Immigration and African Americans

Why is it when anyone raises a legitimate question about illegal immigration, they are considered racists? Why can't reasonable questions regarding the effects and consequences to the millions of native born and legal residents who will be adversely impacted by the loss of jobs be considered? Why are folks who attempt to bring this very legitimate issue to the table only pooh poohed by folks who don't fall into the category of the low-income poor whose daily lives are a struggle, and diminished by so-called academics who don't have a clue?

As the old saying goes, until you walk a mile in somebody else's shoes you should keep your mouth shut. This is just plain common sense. We in this country have not worked out ways to assist our own native low-income citizens without in-fighting about people pulling themselves up by their own boot straps.

As a member of an ethnic group whose members have had to fight and struggle for every gain we have made while also including others who did not participate in the fight but share in the benefit, to dismiss our concerns as racist, is yet another form of the so-called liberals not having a clue as to how the so-called have nots in this country really live. Before indicting everyone who has questions about this issue, why don't you try instead to understand what we are saying? Haven't you learned anything about intolerance?

Lana W. Floyd
Miami, Florida

[BuzzFlash Note: We don't like the "divide and conquer" aspect -- pitting groups against each other when they share a common opponent -- the Bush-supporting corporate elite.]

Subject: Wings of Justice!

Hi there,

Thank you very much for all you do. I can't tell you how much I look forward to your updates and latest premiums.

I'm sure y'all have seen it but I really hope you give Stephen Colbert the "Wings of Justice" award. I was floored, cracked up, inspired and moved by the words he said as satire but rang with a clarity and honesty that I sincerely doubt Mr. Bush has been exposed to during his sheltered presidency. If there was a "Gargantuan Balls" award, Mr. Colbert should get that one too. I can't imagine the courage it took to stand in front of the most powerful and oppressive political persons this nation has ever known and unflinchingly deliver a stinging indictment of them one after another (Bush, Scalia, Jesus, etc.). He also showed the White House Press for the enabling, glad handers they truly are in Bush's assault on our democracy.

Thank you Stephen Colbert and thank you BuzzFlash for keeping the reality of our democracy at the fore of our thoughts.

Scott Burdette
Seattle

Subject: How to contact Congress to fight it!

Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio has drafted a resolution specifically prohibiting Bush from launching a pre-emptive war on Iran without Congressional authorization. Write a personalized email to all of your Congressmen demanding they support the DeFazio's resolution. Get the word out NOW.

FIGHT this NOW:

http://aliberaldose.blogspot.com  

Eric

Subject: Post and Blog about Kerry Speech

Hi There,  

Like Kerry Or Not - This is A GREAT SPEECH! Please blog about and post links below.

If you already posted about it - I request you do it again - we can use the drumbeat! Please.   Highlights - 6 Min http://www.johnkerry.com/video/flash/042406_dissent_high.html  

Extended Highlights - 19 Minutes

http://www.johnkerry.com/video/flash/042406_dissent_20min.html   

Full Speech 40 Minutes http://www.johnkerry.com/video/flash/042406_dissent_full.html  

Peace & Love - Lots Of It!!!  

Leslie Gabriel
Hillsdale, NY

Subject: GOP Hypocrite Of The Week

While I agree that Porter Goss, head of the CIA, makes an excellent Hypocrite of the Week, your reasons for awarding him that title are dubious. Mary McCarthy was not fired for revealing that the Bush administration was illegally torturing prisoners in a Gulag spread across Europe. She denies leaking that information, and the CIA agrees that she isn't suspected of that action.

Mary McCarthy was fired 10 days before her retirement because she donated money to Democratic candidates and worked for the Kerry campaign in 2004. The CIA is being systematically purged of any "disloyal" employees, defined as those who are not dyed-in-the-wool Busheviks like Porter Goss.

Dan Lissman
Worthington, Ohio