September 2007 archive

Sep 20 2007

Crashing and Burning In Wingnut Land

They have the White House, they have the Supreme Court, they have Congress locked up in a Filibuster Cell and have thrown away the key.  They have the DOJ and FBI and DHS and CIA and NSA.  They have 24/7 control over the corporate media, they have an endless supply of K-Street cash, they have police with itchy taser trigger fingers and Blackwater thugs with licenses to kill.  They have all the political and economic power that deceit, subversion, coercion, blackmail, and blood money can buy.

But they’re crashing and burning anyway.

Republicans are crashing and burning nationwide.  They’re crashing and burning in places they’ve never crashed and burned before, even when Herbert W. Hoover was The Decider. They’re crashing and burning in Kentucky, they’re crashing and burning in Missouri, they’re even crashing and burning in Utah.

I love the smell of Karma in the morning.  It smells like . . . victory.

Sep 20 2007

No, The World Is ROUND, You Idiot

One of my big time pet peeves is how we as a society have completely bought into the idea that ‘Globalization is Inevitable and Good’. You see it everywhere, even on the so-called economic left. Most pundits, economic advisors, and hell even many of our trusted left-leaning fiscal bloggers all treat the issue as an unquestioned net plus for society.

Hogwash.

Sep 20 2007

My 9/11 Theory Vol. 1

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Of course we all know that 9/11 was a huge and tragic event for this country. All conversation about it should be handled in a very respectful manner and with immense sensitivity.

But it has become obvious over the years that we cannot just accept that the official story of 9/11 is one hundred per cent true. So it is not just a subject where we need to show sensitivity, but it is a controversial subject as well. This also must be handled delicately and with taste and decorum. Over the next several years I shall present my theories and views on 9/11 and what REALLY happened every week here on Docudharma.

With a subject as controversial as this, it is necessary to be able to go into great and exacting detail. But also to look at in the Big Picture. I intend to cover the subject COMPLETELY AND EXHAUSTIVELY so at the end, when I present my conclusions, there will be no possibility of doubt. But this is the beginning, an important place to start, so let us go there now and begin. Tonight in this comprehensive series, I bring you Vol 1 of what will be a shocking expose of our government and our nation….if not the world. Click now and follow me below for 9/11: The Beginning of the Story!

Sep 20 2007

Pony Party…Wicked Edition

What would life be, without pony parties?  What would a pony party be, without music?  Indeed, life itself would quickly become a dull gray platter on which we are the overcooked vegetables, the intermittent rattle in life’s dashboard, the irregular hum of the midnight refrigerator to the dreaming joy of our existence.  And what better music for an existential soundtrack, of course, than show tunes?

Sep 20 2007

Revisiting the Founders and Finding Myself

The recent essays about freedom, the use of police force (tasering) a student at a public speaking event, the failure of the Senate to restore habeas corpus, the continued use and sanction of torture, etc. led me to this morning’s thought process.

We have not only lost our way, but we’ve forgotten our common history.

Sep 20 2007

Do you ever wonder? The Series

Do you ever wonder? Well, yes and so another foray into life’s conundrums big and small. 

You are invited to follow me below the fold.

Sep 20 2007

On Freedom

We can talk all we want about freedom and opportunity, about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but what does all that mean to a mother or father who can’t take a sick child to the doctor?

That, my fellow Democrats, is our frontrunner for our party’s nomination for President of the United States, Sen. Hillary Clinton.  Sen. Clinton made that statement in presenting her plan for health care reform which, like that of former Sen. John Edwards, would compel all Americans to enroll in a health insurance program.  Citizens would have an option of many private insurance options, or a public option similar to Medicare.  Tax credits would ensure that no American is forced to pay more than a certain percentage of their income on health insurance.

Sep 20 2007

Pony Party: Deja Vu

Good morning!!

Due to scattered, random questions about which threads are ‘open’ I’m re-posting an edited portion of a previous Pony Party

Pony Parties should appear in the ‘Recent Essays’ section of your DocuDharma Front Page 3 times a day, 9 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. Eastern.  They serve as open fora, so feel free to ‘pimp’ an essay, say hello, vent, or throw up a plethora of ponies and pooties.  Basically, the floor is yours. 


They appear in the essay column, and due to their frequency and the additional open fora that will appear on the Front Page (more on that later), are meant to scroll away.  So please, don’t recommend the Pony Party essay.  I know it’s tough.  You’re nice people, and you like to give acknowledgment.  Trust me, we won’t take it personally.  But you know who might?  The person who gets bumped off of the Recommended Essays list by a Pony Party.  Put yourself in his/her shoes.

Sep 20 2007

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Public’s views on Iraq war barely budge
By Peter Grier, The Christain Science Monitor
Wed Sep 19, 4:00 AM ET

Washington – In Florida, retiree Robert Lacey says he believes the US military “surge” in Iraq has failed. Iraqi politicians were supposed to take advantage of increased security to settle their differences peacefully, and “that hasn’t happened,” he notes.

San Diego saleswoman Connie Howard agrees. Her father, husband, and son all have served in the military, and her son-in-law, a marine, is set for an Iraq tour, but she still judges the war a folly. “I don’t want to see any of them go,” she says of troops on their way to Iraq. “It’s enough.”

But Doug Brown, a Lockheed Martin employee from Buffalo, N.Y., says US troops need to stay the course. “If we pull out now, everything we’ve done will collapse and we’ll have to go back in again 10 years from now,” he says.

Sep 20 2007

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning

The muses are ancient.  The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them.  Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward.  In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.

It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse.  Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets.  Others have been suggested throughout the centuries.  I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts.  And maybe there should be many more.

Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…

Sep 20 2007

Midnight Cowboying – Candidatos venden chácharas para sobrevivir (English 2!)

We needed some Spanish around here. For Jeff and Armando:

Candidatos venden chácharas para sobrevivir

Ciudad de México – Tras un castigo presupuestal del IFE, debido a los excesos económicos y pobreza en propuestas, las incomparablemente patéticas campañas presidenciales han recurrido a un giro mercadotécnico sorprendente: la venta de un producto promocional que les permitirá generar los ingresos necesarios a sus campañas.

Durante un juego de la selección de fútbol, en el medio tiempo, salió al aire el primer comercial de “PRI-merClean”, un detergente viscoso tricolor con el lema “Dale un Madrazo al Pasado”. El candidato priísta aparecía sonriente, cantando con un tonito pegajoso: “¡No hay mancha tan fuerte, ni fango tan hondo, que no quite a fondo, nuevo PRI-merClean!”

Sep 20 2007

(Updated) Modernized Manifest Destiny, “Ontario pulls out of Caledonia talks”

(Correction: it was/is an American developer, not an American company. Plus, a new character)

I think this is a case in point of why the Neoconservative forces in the U.S. and in Canada de-affirmed the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Final update is at the end.

Manifest Destiny is a thing of the past, but its philosophy didn’t die with the forced relocations. The American company developer Henco attempted to encroach on Native lands in 2006, and I speculate that George W. Bush’s having signed NAFTA treaties which eroded some limits on U.S trade borders enabled Henco to proceed to Canada and attempt stealing Native soil from Six Nations. While it wears only a shadow in sound comparison to the Seige of Wounded Knee 1973, (I think it’s more so comparable now than before; however, I don’t have the expertise about treaties and prior circumstances in Canada to say how much more or less it is. There was a treaty violation here. I’m not sure it’s my place to say more in general) it bears valid comparison in the display of overt racism against the First Nations.

Krisztina Kun, a staff member at SFPIRG, and eyewitness to the standoff remarked that the blockade was characterized just as much by racial tension as it was by disputes over land ownership.
SOURCE
 

Load more