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Friday, November 30, 2007

Politics, Voting or Not Voting


With the up and coming election for President of these here United but divided United States of America there is a lack of enthusiasm in some circles to not even care to vote. Part of that lack of interest in the election process is the responsibility of the current occupant of the office to some degree. The Decider in Chief, that ran on the principal of being a uniter and not a divider, became a total isolationist within his political party post 9/11. As long as he was happy the Congress was let loose on the people with full Republican brutality on the middle and lower classes of America.

Prosperity in America is more smoke and mirrors than reality. If the politics of our government is to protect and defend only the interest of the corporations and the top 5% of income earners then we have a bigger problem than we all think. If running for the highest office in the land is sponsored by corporations and industries that expect the return on their investment then we have a much larger problem. Political donations for most industries have a higher return than any other investment opportunity in America if the legislation they want is passed.

If our government leaders think that America should be the world police and intervene in the sovereignty of other nations with military force at the drop of a hat then we have and even bigger and larger problem. If you support all of our sons and daughters in our nations military then our political leaders need to know that use of our military is always a last resort. America is not or was not founded on nation building on foreign soil by force.

When you hear someone tell you that their vote does not count you need to remind them who is in the White House now and why he and his party is counting on them not to vote. When they tell you that they are just one vote you need to let them know that by not voting they are enabling the corporate take over of our society and government because they are counting on them to not vote. When they tell you that their vote is meaningless when the big picture is considered then I dare you to ask them if a child’s life is worthy of their vote? What if that child is only eighteen or nineteen years old and serving in Iraq or Afghanistan in our nations military. When you hear them reply that the government does not care about the poor, make sure you tell them that they are absolutely right because the poorest amongst us do not vote! Being poor does not make you absolved of your government’s actions if you do not vote. When the people fail to vote, then the parties that get the vote will walk all over you unencumbered. Not my cup of tea and thus I vote in every election.

Given all the aspects of each political party you can come to several conclusions but one thing is certain, the Democrat Party was not the one that sold the war in Iraq to the American people under a cloak of shame. Democrat’s didn’t sell out the seniors prescription subsidy program by letting the Pharmaceutical industry write the legislation for the government. Democrat’s didn’t write the No Child Left Behind legislation and then did not fund it. Democrat’s are not the ones that handed Haliburton no bid contracts for the Iraq War and then watched as that same corporation moved its corporate headquarters out of the United States of America. I’m not leaving the Democrat’s out of all blame but the price of gasoline was not $3 a gallon when they had control of the House and Senate.

When you find yourself losing your home you can not lay the blame on the Democrat’s because even today the Bush administration stated that they do not think it is a real crisis as yet. Over at Reuters they have this little hidden nugget on the news wires…

White House: too soon to discuss subprime loan plan
Fri Nov 30, 2007 2:43pm EST


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday said it was "premature" to discuss possible new steps to address the mortgage crisis and declined to comment on reports that officials are working on a deal with lenders to freeze interest rates on some loans.

"It's premature to talk about those discussions at this point," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters, when pressed on whether the administration is working on a new initiative regarding the mortgage market.

Stanzel said that administration officials "certainly have been working in close consultation with the private sector and with the industry to look at ways in which we can help people keep their homes."

In August, the Bush administration announced a series of initiatives aimed at preventing homeowners from defaulting on risky mortgages. Those included a tax-relief proposal to make it easier for some homeowners to refinance their home loans.

Economists have become increasingly concerned about the impact of the mortgage crisis, centered on subprime loans extended to riskier borrowers, on the broader U.S. economy.
- Reuters

They have some band aide programs but if you don’t qualify now because of the credit crunch on the middle and lower class then you better call a mover or some friends with a pick up. The red carpet of the White House and the Republican party does not venture further than the top 5% of income earners. If you are in that club then good for you, if you are not, then you better vote or consider yourself damned, screwed and tattooed by any future Republican lead government in America.

At least there is one thing that both political parties have in common . The top three of each party does not care about the middle and lower class because they can count on the majority of us to simply not vote. Big mistake on their part but then again they have the big bucks to sell the ones that do vote the sound bite that just might get their vote. Shiny object over hear on the boob tube while they throw them and you under the bus over there to corporate America.

I’m dumbfounded that the leaders from each political party are the leaders for the highest office in the land. Republican’s have Giuliani that is a Catholic, divorced several times, cheated on his wife in the lead that knowingly used his NYPD for a taxi service for his mistress.

Followed by a close second former Governor that has a larger collection of Flip Flops than Senator John Kerry. I personally think that Kerry had a yard sale and Mitt Romney bought the entire collection.

Then we have the angry Senator from Arizona. He’s a time bomb of anger issues that the White House is not the place to hand the football to him. Television debates don’t lie and McCain was blood boiling mad at Ron Paul and Mitt Romney over torture and Iraq. He needs therapy.

Democrats are no better…

Hillary Clinton does actually believe that she will be the next President of the United States. I find that arrogant. Number one rule of politics is that you can have a ton of money for your campaign but if the people do not think you are sincere then you lose. Canned speeches based on political polls is where and what she is all about and many people have opinions on many issues that are not popular but are still Democrat at heart. It might have worked for Bill but it isn’t working for her this time around.

Barack Obama is a political star but he does not play well to the moderates of the Democrat party. Rather than being himself where he would excel he is fashioning himself as a me too Democrat. Running in the shadow of Hillary is not him and he either does not get what the people want to hear or his political campaign advisors are leading him down the wrong road. In most of the debates he was upstaged with the right answers to the questions posed to all of the candidates. Personally, I do not think that some of the answers he gave were really from his gut. Given a few more years experience in Washington he would have my vote in a heart beat. You can see that he is over his head in this election.

John Edwards is a great politician that has mastered the double speak of politics. Ask him a direct question and you will always walk away with a dazed and confused look. Nice hair though! Four hundred dollar haircuts does not sell you as a man of the poor and middle class. Two America’s, yup and he proved that fact with his haircut.

That is my round up, one thing that I believe very important to all Americans regardless of political belief, you need to vote! Otherwise the limousines will pass you by and the people living the life of luxury will always benefit when you simply do not care to vote. Rise up and take your government back by voting. No matter what party you believe in you need to look at your lot in life and ask yourself if this person is worthy of your vote? Then look again who isn’t the top three and be amazed at the favors they will not owe to the maxed out donors of the campaigns. It’s your country and it is not sponsored by corporation ABC. VOTE!

Papamoka

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Thursday, November 29, 2007

One Democrat Talking Reality

I’m not going to mince words or deny that I like Joe Biden for President. Hell the Republican YouTube debate over on CNN convinced me that I’m no longer a Reagan Democrat. One of the biggest issues in America is immigration and the part of it that touches on the illegal immigration issue. Second issue on all of our minds is ending the war in Iraq and whatever that original nation that President Bush sent our troops to that begins with an A and they name dogs after it. It’s on the tip of my tongue but my tongue can’t spell for damn. Afghanistan!

Any who, the Biden campaign sent me this interesting video on Iraq, Pakistan, Immigration, Illegal Immigrants having licenses to drive and one candidate that is not about one single sound bite. Sound bites are nice but we need details and somebody that can walk into the oval office and start working on day one!



When you have a limited amount of cards dealt to you in your poker hand, I would rather go with a hand that is loaded with face cards than a bunch of folks bluffing with a pair of deuces. Joe Biden isn’t playing poker but he is playing to reality and we need a President that is a realist over someone willing to tell you they have the better hand because the bank roll tells you so in overwhelming television advertisements.

Papamoka

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Republican YouTube Debate on CNN


Thinking men and woman want straight answers to legitimate questions. Something we did not see from the many Republicans on the CNN YouTube debates. One thing that I personally found in the gang of dark warriors for no change in the status quo was a stutter. Every questions answer started with a stumbling, there was not one candidate that could just answer the questions without bobbing and weaving and the art of not answering the questions was something that political students should be forced to watch in our nations colleges. Romney and Giuliani perfected it on one question after another by diverting to something totally out of context from the question.

While the Mitt and Rudi cat fight was going on I noticed a certain twinkle of appreciation in their eyes for one another. I’m taking a big risk bet here but I’m putting the money where my keyboard is and no matter which one of these two wins the Republican nomination, they will pick the other for the second highest office in the land. I’m going to Google search the Vegas odd’s on that one before I go any further but in my gut it looks like they have something going on… politically of course.

Personally, the nightmare question of the night to the Republican candidates was posed by the gay retired Army General. He simply tried to point out that many of our military members are discharged from service for being gay or lesbian and thought that was wrong. Not one of the candidates had a clear and to the point answer if the military will ever accept gays or lesbians. For the most part they ran from the question and ducked into the religious pews of the conservative bible belt. Apparently, all of our military personnel come from the bible belt, news to me seeing that we buried Captain Jennifer Harris in Swampscott Massachusetts and many more New England troops since the start of this war. I’ll need some help from my friends in the military on what “Unit Cohesion” is but I’m guessing that most military members don’t give a crap what you do on your time off as long as you do your job when the time comes to do your military job. If it works in the private sector, why can it not work in the military?

It does matter if the question was planted as charged during the debate and post debate commentary. My question is if Karl Rove is really retired from politics during this election. If you watched the debate and CNN afterward it was instantly attributed to Senator Clinton’s campaign without proof. Throw the mud, it sticks in some corners simply because the accusation was on CNN. Even if it was planted, as much as it is wrong to do so, that man and that retired General is still a citizen and he has the right to ask the question of the candidates as much as anyone else in America.

Still the question proposed simply smells of Karl Rove and I wonder who’s paying his salary today? Each one of the Republican candidates were swallowing a little bile and hoping it was not their turn to answer next. Somebody Google search it and let me know where Karl Rove is working will ya? I’m laying bets that he is working for some political organization and on loan to candidate question mark.

Ron Paul actually impressed me but not enough to change my vote from my personal political party. He seemed to nervous and stumbled on his replies far to often. I do have to say that he is the far left of the Republican party and not ashamed of where he stands on ending the war in Iraq. Even John McCain could not sway him off his stance and those two had some words that was clearly uncomfortable for Ron Paul. McCain played the mad grandfather for most of the night and pretty much took the whipping stick to Mitt and Ron on several occasions. You could see the anger in his face regarding torture of prisoners of war and rightfully so. That anger is what troubles me if he were in fact in the seat behind the desk in the oval office. Mitt fumbled and stuttered through the question on what is torture and even more so on McCain‘s defense of the Geneva Convention.

Best comment of the night came from Mike Huckabee… “Jesus would never run for President” No kidding! I’m not thinking that he would be a Republican or a Democrat but he might be tipping over the tables of the finance committees of most of the candidates running for office. If money is buying the next Presidential election then Jesus and I are tipping the tables together.

Screw the money and follow the character of the individual. Pride and honesty are in the details but humility is in the soul.

Papamoka

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Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Is America Ready For A Black President?

BY MICHAEL LINN JONES

My first reaction to such a question is, looking back over the last 16 years.....can we afford any more white ones? The political system has become so institutionally corrupt that those who control events in the now smoke-free rooms have no concept of how transparent their hubris is.

For the first time in American history, a man stands forth as a candidate for the presidency who is black. Barack Obama is not exactly a child of privilege, but his success in education and politics puts him firmly in the elite class.

Senator Joe Biden got blasted for commenting on the fact that Senator Obama is "clean, educated, etc." Poor choice of words maybe, but another way of putting it is that Obama is unique in that he is addressing ALL Americans, not just one particular ethnic group. With all due respect, the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton cannot do this without "betraying" their traditional base.

Obama may be that fluke, that rarity that Jackson and Sharpton will tell us happens despite the ingrained racism of American society. Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were flukes also in that they carried certain convictions about the wealth of a nation being more than Wall Street and its boosters. In fact, FDR was castigated as a "traitor to his class."

Perhaps Obama may be cast as a "traitor to his race" since that is how he is supposed to run for office. Not as an American, but as a victim. But this man is not. He is an inspiration in many ways, and God only knows how his abilities and accomplishments might make his ego swell to planet-sized proportions. We always pray that no matter how far a person goes in life, they maintain a sense of equilibrium.....that they remember where they came from.

This is not an endorsement of Senator Obama. There are some points upon which I am uncomfortable such as immigration policy and gun control. The title of his book, "The Audacity of Hope" bothers me. It seems to me that if in the America we now live the word "hope" can be tied to "audacity" then we've lost something as a people.

Of course, we already feel that way. No matter one's political persuasion, there seems to be much out of kilter in how the nation's business is done. It is way past time for someone to offer the people as a whole something beyond platitudes. Platitudes, by the way, is a fancy way of saying "bald-faced lies."

Be prepared, however, for some racial slandering if Senator Obama attains success in Iowa. It will be subtle, of course, with enough innuendo to protect the slinger from charges of outright racism while at the same time doing just that. And, ironically, the first such use of such tactics will not come from Republicans, but Democrats. I won't say who, but if it takes a village (whatever that means) then said village should not be walled and gated.

Before George W. Bush, I always felt that Lyndon Johnson was the worst president in my lifetime. But he wasn't all bad...I do admire Johnson appealing to a Southern audience in the 60's with a plea for a "real" election, one that wasn't the usual chant of "nigra, nigra, nigra." It brought applause and in truth was a gutsy thing to say. Racism in the South was the most easily discernable in those days, although it wasn't until his march on Marquette Park in Chicago that Martin Luther King got belted with a thrown rock.

Racism exists everywhere, and is such a useful catalyst for the selling of fear and hatred. I grew up in Florida during the Jim Crow days; my parents hated it and were rather radical for their time in refusing to acknowledge the inherent goodness of segregation. It didn't make them many friends, but my Old Man always said that people liking you was nice but respecting you was necessary first.

Agree with Barack Obama or not, try to ignore the clouds of racial chaff that will be thrown into the wind. Even if just for the novelty of the experience, try to judge him by the content of his character.

If any candidate in 2008 appeals to the better Angels of our nature rather than the poisonous veins of suspicion and resentment, then we might actually be getting a little slice of our nation back.

And I don't think it matters a damn what his skin color is.
********************************
Cross-posted at Michael Linn Jones.com

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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Who Stole George W Bush?


Has the magnetic field of the Earth switched poles or could it be that this is opposite month. Something isn’t right in the cosmos because Washington is suddenly full of Liberal acting Republican’s and it goes all the way up to the White House. It’s freaking me out personally because if this is the case then I might just be a closet Republican. YUCK! I’m heading for the shower while you read this full post from the Washington Post I‘m grabbing my rubber ducky, I need my safe place…

Gates Urges Increased Funding for Diplomacy
Secretary Calls for Use of 'Soft Power'

By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 27, 2007; Page A02


Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called yesterday for a "dramatic increase" in the U.S. budget for diplomacy and foreign aid, arguing that al-Qaeda does a better job than Washington of communicating its message overseas and that U.S. deployment of civilians abroad has been "ad hoc and on the fly."

In a speech that emphasized the importance of "soft power" to prevent and end conflicts, Gates suggested beefing up the State Department's foreign affairs budget of $36 billion, even as he acknowledged that Pentagon observers might consider it "blasphemy" for a sitting defense secretary to make such an appeal for another agency.
- Washington Post

I’m still thinking this is opposite month. The Secretary of Defense calling for more funding for diplomacy in a Bush administration is like Teddy Kennedy giving a speech on cutting spending in the budget for children and family services. These two things don’t go together. What’s next, President Bush actually giving a crap about real peace in the middle east between Israel and Palestine?

Get the hell out! Bush is hosting a summit about peace? I’m feeling the vapors. My eyes do not believe the sights I see. No matter how much I rub them it still comes out that Bush is talking peace. Maybe I’m having a bad reaction from the cold medication we New Englanders consume like water at this time of the year. Then again I smell a rat… Where is the camera, this has got to be a joke on me by my friends over at Crooks and Liars. Maybe it’s was Steve Soto over at The Left Coaster, he likes to kid around with my head. If it wasn’t him then I bet the Gun Toting Liberal put them up to it. That hot ticket… really, where are the cameras? No joke on me? No cameras either huh? Maybe I should take an Advil or something because my head is starting to hurt. If this is true then my up is down and my right is left and the sun will come up at midnight. I better warn the wife to lay out my clothes for work for the next couple of weeks or I’m going to look like Bozo. This is debilitating for me.

Maybe President Bush found a bag of peanuts from the Jimmy Carter administration and he’s having an allergic reaction. The Oval Office is big and the desk has a lot of drawers. The peanuts could have been way back in one of the drawers and got loose and maybe George was hungry after his nap aka cabinet meeting. I’m getting worried as a citizen given the VP Dick Cheney’s heart problem. He’s next in line to the ascension to the thrown ya know! Turns out they found he actually had a heart and that is another opposite day scenario.

I’m heading back to the shower because my skin is starting to crawl. Read this piece from the Washington Post while I soap up and rinse…

Bush: 'Worth It to Try' on Mideast Peace
By TERENCE HUNT The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 27, 2007; 6:57 PM

WASHINGTON -- Hours after opening a Mideast conference, President Bush said Tuesday he was worried about the consequences if the search for peace failed but declared, "It is worth it to try."

Bush cautioned it would take time for Israelis and Palestinians to reach an agreement. The goal is to reach an accord within 14 months by the end of Bush's presidency.

"I don't think it's a risk to try for peace," the president said in an Oval Office interview with reporters from The Associated Press. "I think it's an obligation."

While Bush has been criticized for standing back from Mideast peacemaking for most of his presidency, he described himself as "very engaged, up to the moment" in bringing Israel, the Palestinians and more than 40 countries together for a conference in Annapolis, Md., to launch the first major peacemaking effort in seven years. The last significant attempt at Mideast peacemaking was at the end of the Clinton administration in 2000. Its failure was followed by a Palestinian uprising and violence.

He pronounced the Annapolis gathering a "successful conference" primarily because of the international participation that he said he had worked very hard personally to make a reality. "A moment like today just doesn't happen. It requires work to lay the groundwork for," Bush said.
- Washington Post

None of this makes sense to me other than a well planned strategy to make the Republican Party not look like Darth Vader for the run up to the next election. No offense to Darth Vader intended.

Does this or does this not take the sails out of the Democrat’s running for President if Bush actually manages not to blow the Annapolis summit? This charade loads the guns for McCain, Giuliani and Romney to play to the base that the “Me TOO!” Bush factor continues but with a spin that is so far from the real Bush that it just might work for them.

I’m thinking that President Bush and his staff hacked into the Joe Biden web site and stole his notes. Okay, maybe they clicked on the web site and had an epiphany and saw that Joe is right.

Bush is looking for his legacy and he has a year or more to make some impact that does not involve troops invading other countries because they simply hate Americans. He needs a showcase piece that he’s pretty sure that he can get Exxon Mobil to fund but he needs it to look nice without tanks and missiles.

I’m heading back to the shower… It may be heard from my bathroom the words “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.”

Maybe Michael Linn Jones is messing with me and he orchestrated this whole thing as an early birthday gag. I’m sure tomorrow the world will be righted again and Republican leaders will be the same old Republican’s again. You know, take from the poor and give to the rich and stomp on anyone that does not think the same as them. I can only hope.

Wash, rinse, repeat… I just can’t get this slime pretend political stuff off of my skin.

Papamoka

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HEY TRENT, THANKS A LOTT!

Courtesy www.flickr.com

BY MICHAEL LINN JONES

So Senator Trent Lott is resigning before the end of the year. What an odd bit of timing, I first thought.

But, silly 'ole me. I have to be educated the hard way about how Washington really works. My first reaction was: do voters have a CLUE as to how the future-soon-to-be-former senator will get along?

I know that the rumor mill started off immediately with a bit about some kind of gay escort service and all that. As if that is a scandal compared to what is going to happen. Congressional salaries/pensions/etc. are a scam; a sham, and a rip-off.

Both parties do it; this is not an indictment of one political party so much as it is a glaring example of how much chutzpah exists among the so-called "servants of the people." Where else in America can one work a job for 5 years and get 80% of their pay for the rest of their lives? Oh, and don't forget the COLA's (Cost of living adjustments) that can (and DO) raise a retired congressperson's income ABOVE what they were earning while in office.

To add insult to injury, the royals elites have devised a scheme known as "ethics," which is always good for a laugh in Washington. See, it might appear to us rubes down on the farm that leaving Congress and then going right to work for the people who were buying lobbying you for all those years as a little questionable.

But not to worry. Currently, those leaving office have to survive one entire year on their pensions, which is 80% of $175,000. Some bright spark decided to increase that to TWO years! What is going on here, folks? Two entire years on such miserable pay? I think such a scenario is more than most millionaires (and their minions) can take.

BUT.....if Trent Lott resigns before the end of 2007.....hooray!, he is limited to only the one year in the poorhouse before signing on to millions in compensation from some lobbying firm. The two-year requirement starts after the new year. It also explains why Dennis Hastert is resigning, too.

I've come to the sad conclusion that the only hope for the future of representative government in the U.S. is a radical change from our current system. Members of Congress should serve just like anyone else does in a jury. You're summoned and you have to do it. One term and you can go home, but in the meantime you'll have to sacrifice your normal life for a while for the greater good of the country.

You know, like those 150,000 odd people in Afghanistan and Iraq right now. Of course it won't ever happen. Like Senator Clinton says, we can't afford to have the U.S. government be a learning center for newbies. No, we need professionals like herself, her husband, Mr. Hastert, Mr. Lott, ET AL.

They've done such a fine job so far.

The question is: for whom, though?
*********************************
Cross-posted at Michael Linn Jones.com

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Monday, November 26, 2007

The Three Horsemen of Shame Finally Retired


There are no tears in my eyes with the sudden announcement that the last of the three horseman for President Bush is leaving public service. He is following in the well respected footsteps of our first horsemen of shame, Tom Delay who never saw anything illegal and you or any court can not prove it. Then of course Trent Lott is also following in the footsteps of shame of former Speaker of the House Denny Hastert, the second horsemen of shame who pretended that a congressional representative (Mark Foley) affection for boy pages was nothing to really worry about. Trent Lott was nothing more than a yes man for anything that would benefit the rich in this nation at the expense of the masses. That makes him the end of the Three Horsemen of Shame. Over at the New York Times they have this little diamond on Trent Lott’s retirement from the Senate…

Lott to Resign His Senate Seat Before Year’s End

By ADAM NOSSITER and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: November 26, 2007

PASCAGOULA, Miss. Nov. 26 — Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, who was forced to step down as Republican leader in 2002 after making a remark that seemed to support segregation, announced today that he will resign by the end of the year.


Speaking to a crowd of supporters at a televised news conference in Pascagoula, Miss., Mr. Lott said he and his wife, Trish, had decided that they still had enough “time left to do something else” after his 35 years in the House and Senate.

He said he had “nothing definite at this time,” but suggested he might want to teach. He said he had called President Bush and Vice President Cheney last night to notify them of his decision.

He was re-elected in 2006 to his fourth Senate term and had rebounded to become the No. 2 Republican this year after his party had lost its majority in the Senate. But in recent months, Mr. Lott, 66, has made no secret of his deepening frustration in the Senate, not only because his party is in the minority but also because an increasingly bitter partisan divide this year has left little use for his skills as a deal-maker.
- New York Times


Nobody can truly argue that the three horsemen ramrod the agenda for the Republican party and this president without care as to whom they hurt in the process. Even if the majority of the people were opposed to the agenda it did not matter because they were running the show and they were going full speed ahead with a White House that packed up the Veto Pen off to the Smithsonian.

With each one of these so called distinguished leaders of their political party is a scum bag trail of shame. What was once a gentleman with probably the full intention to serve the people evolved into scams and deviation, duck and weave, hide and cover tactics till the game was up. Absolute power corrupts because you think you are the law. That is not the case in this new Kingdom that President Bush and his Three Horsemen thought they built.

It kind of disgusts me that all of the politicians on both sides of the aisle will be slapping him on the back for a job well done over the years. No mention will be made about all the little people he stepped on to get what he wanted. No mention will be made about his special interest friends that benefited year after year with Trent Lott in their pocket because he never failed to cash a campaign donation check.

I will not miss Trent Lott and neither will you. He’s retiring just in time so that he can follow in the footsteps of Delay and Hastert and not be effected by the current rules for becoming a lobbyist in Washington. Now that is where the money is, just ask Jack Abramoff!

Don’t let the door hit you in the back side Trent.

Papamoka
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Sunday, November 25, 2007

Hunting Whales for Research is Bull!



Off the coast of New England is one of the greatest adventures that you could ever believe possible. Twenty or more miles off shore in the words of Scotty from Star Trek fame, “There be whales here.” I’ve only had the pleasure to have seen them once in my life and it was something to see that changes you for life. To see such a large creature up close and they are as much curious about us as we are of them was simply mind blowing. To see an animal bigger than a Greyhound bus that comes alongside the tourist boat and turns over so its eye can see all the folks on the boat simply takes your breath away. When the little whales act up and show off it makes you think that God is amazing to create such a wonderful thing. I watched as the little ones breached time and time again or faced head down and slapped their tail in the water at the surface so close that I got wet with the ocean water.

No disrespect to my friends in Japan but there is a game of cards here in America that we call Bull$hit. It’s a game where you have to catch your opponent in a lie and scream out that you know that they are bluffing. For Japan to claim that they need to kill whales for the sake of scientific research is simply Bovine By Product. Pick up the cards Japan because you are busted!

Two of the worlds largest producers of man made chemicals that resemble substances found in nature are the United States and Japan. Same thing goes for medical research from products found in nature that are synthesized into pharmaceutical products. Any real scientist worth their weight in the journal producing high fives of the Japanese chemist world are not the reason this hunt for whales is going on.

Japan Hunts the Humpback. Now Comes the Backlash.

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: November 25, 2007

Vessels from the groups Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace tail and harass the whaling fleet, while strong protests are lodged by environmental groups, many marine biologists, and officials from the United States, Australia and other countries. But this year those complaints have intensified, largely because Japan has added a new animal to its planned harvest of more than 1,400 whales from seven species — the humpback, Megaptera novaeangliae.

Japan hopes to kill 50 of these endangered whales, which have long held a place in the public’s imagination with their other-worldly songs, habit of rocketing their 30-plus tons out of the sea and migrations of up to 10,000 miles a year. Melville once described the humpback as “the most gamesome and lighthearted of all the whales.”

Whaling nearly wiped it out, reducing the humpback’s numbers to perhaps a 1,000 by the mid-1960s. Today, estimates put the total at roughly 30,000. They are considered at high risk of extinction by the World Conservation Union.

“Humpbacks are some of the most wonderful and mysterious creatures in the ocean, with the longest vocalization produced by any animal, including humans, with their bouts of song that last up to 23 hours,” said David Rothenberg, a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and author of a forthcoming book on whale songs and science.

“We still do not know why they need to sing so extensively, and we ought to leave these whales alone for enough years to find out,” he said.

Once a top target of whalers because they swim close to shore, the humpback is now the centerpiece of another enterprise, whale watching, which by some measures is a billion-dollar-a-year business, making it larger in inflation-adjusted dollars than commercial whaling was even at its peak.
- New York Times

If you think that just 50 Humpback Whales are going to be hunted then think again. This is one nations sanctioned open season hunting of an entire species including Humpback’s that will reap ten or twenty or one thousand times the “Scientific” (Bull $hit) research harvesting. There is no chemical product or scientific product that this hunt is undertaking other than the fact that some people in Japan and Asia are willing to forsake a species existence to simply eat whale meat.

This is an old link but if they are offering it to school kids for lunch what does that tell you about the “Research” (Bull $hit) behind the expansion of whale hunting Japan…

REUTERS
7:53 a.m. February 14, 2006

TOKYO – Whale meat is back on the menu in a growing number of Japanese elementary and junior high schools, Kyodo news service reported on Tuesday.

The board of education in Wakayama prefecture in western Japan, an area known as the birthplace of organised whaling in the country, is promoting the drive to put whale on school menus.

The board provided some 1,657 kilograms of whale meat for more than 100 elementary and junior high schools in Kyoto, Osaka and Nara prefectures and Tokyo in January of this year alone, Kyodo said, citing local officials.

The amount for January was about double the amount for all of 2005.

'We want (schoolchildren) to know Japan's traditional dietary culture through whale meat which was popular in the past,' it quoted a board of education official as saying.

Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986, in line with an international moratorium, but began catching whales again the following year for what it calls scientific research.
- Reuters

I’m thinking that George, I’m busy with Iraq, to much on my plate, screw you Whale Watching Liberal nut jobs, does not think this is important. Whereas this just might come under diplomacy and the State Department you can pretty much chalk whale hunting up to persona non grata status. Diplomacy and Bush even with nations we consider a close friend is the ultimate in oxymoron definitions. Especially, since the whale oil market died off a hundred years ago!

If he is to busy then I think our nations Senators and Congressional Representatives should care. If you live in the Pacific Northwest then you should care about whale hunting. If you live in New England and the Atlantic coastline then you should care about whale hunting. If you live along the coast of California down into the south of Mexico then you should care about whale hunting.

All of the whales killed by the fleets from Japan at one time or another were off the shores of your neighborhood. These are animals that travel ten thousand miles in migratory patterns every single year. This is wrong on so many levels that it is not even funny. Whale watching is a billion dollar American industry and we like our worlds whales! Peaceful creatures with elevated intelligence should not be hunted or killed for any scientific research (Bull $hit) purposes.

Get involved and get with it to stop the hunt before it expands to open season by Japan for all whales. You can Google search Green Peace and offer what help you think you can.

No offense to my many Japanese readers but have your whaling industry buy a couple hundred thousand acres of land in Wyoming or North Dakota or Texas and start a damn cattle ranch. Leave all of the Whales alone!

Save the Whales!

Get angry, get mad, get involved and save the peaceful creatures that just happen to live in the ocean. Get your kids involved and write or email your representatives in Congress. In doing so you are saving an industry that has adapted over the centuries from hunting the graceful giant to praising them and earning a living by offering whale watching tours.

Papamoka

Feel free to steal this post or link to it...

Cross posted at Bring IT ON!

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Friday, November 23, 2007

Bush Burns the Constitution


If you think that you are safer today than you were eight years ago then you are a fool. Only a fool would believe that our government is looking out for our best interests and personal security. When you here someone tell you that if you have nothing to hide when losing any right guaranteed to you under the Constitution is nothing to worry about. That is someone to be very afraid of. That person is the same kind of person they had in Germany in the 30’s and 40’s that thought the greater good meant some sacrificed lives were for the best. The greater good outweighed the individuals right to exist. Given that fact some six plus million people had nothing to worry about but disappeared off the face of the Earth.

This nation was not built on the principals of a police state to protect its people. It was built on fundamental freedoms. It was founded on an individuals rights. That is something that President Bush and his boys that know what is best for all of us have gambled on to make you forget what true freedom is. For the sake of safety your rights are being stripped away and when it happens from within the government then there is a problem. HUGE PROBLEM! Telling you what to be afraid of and why you need to forsake your individual rights is easy, fighting for your rights is what our cemeteries across this nation is filled with. They died defending the nation they loved and for those of us left to live the American dream it is a shame on our society as a whole to let this continue.

Over at the Washington Post they have the latest intrusion of rights based on drop a dime theories from Mine Fuhrer Bush…

Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request
Secret Warrants Granted Without Probable Cause

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 23, 2007; Page A01


Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.

Such requests run counter to the Justice Department's internal recommendation that federal prosecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas. The requests and orders are sealed at the government's request, so it is difficult to know how often the orders are issued or denied.
- Washington Post

I’m of the belief that the F.B.I. has worked for generations under the laws of the land and they had no problem snaring mob gangsters and secretive crime families without breaking the law. How is changing or corrupting our laws going to keep us safer from supposed terrorists? Unless of course our F.B.I. is totally incompetent and if that is the case then it should be shut down. That is common sense for law abiding elected leaders of our nation or is it not?

If this scenario as written by the WA PO is true then you need to get yourself an egg timer so you can judge how long it will take this to trickle down to the local level. Too late, it’s happening in Boston with the introduction of a plan to ask people to allow police to search your homes without a warrant because your son or daughter may have a gun or weapon. That would be search and seizure. Granted, crime in Boston by gangs is at an all time high but this opens up Pandora’s Box when it comes to your individual rights. Who is to say the neighbor you pissed off does not drop the dime on you? You stole his parking space on the street, just for giggles he or she calls the police and makes up a sham.

Boston police launch program to search homes for guns
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOSTON -- The Boston police will ask parents in high-crime areas to allow detectives to search their children's bedrooms for guns without a warrant as part of a new anti-crime program.

During the next two weeks, Boston police officers assigned to schools will go in plainclothes in groups of three to houses where they believe teens have guns, and ask their parents or legal guardians for permission to search.
- Herald Tribune

Getting back to the reason for this post. My good friend over at the Gun Toting Liberal touched a nerve with his latest post and I understand his outrage over the Washington Post article.

There were once THREE “Separate But Equal” branches of government — the Judicial Branch, the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch, where there were two houses of Congress — the House of Representatives and the Senate. One house would propose legislation to the other and the result would be either a new LAW or a STALEMATE. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the proposed Democratic Republic of our Founding Fathers and it actually WORKED for awhile.

But then — somewhere along the way — the Legislative Branch gave some of it’s “Separate But Equal” powers to the Executive Branch. They allowed a president “KING” by the name of “Forty-Three” to negate their hard-fought bills, after being ping-ponged back and forth for days, weeks and months, by signing them into laws with HUGE ASTERIXES known as “signing statements”
- Gun Toting Liberal

Both GTL and I do not trust the latest stunt by our government to protect us because we both know that the precedents to expand the powers is far greater an intrusion on individual rights. That is what this is all about. Freedom of our people should not be based on the whole. Each individual has the right to define freedom as it should be. Many a soldier, sailor and veteran fought and died for that belief.

One of the things I find ridiculous in a political argument is the fact that the Democrat’s were in charge of two houses of our government for forty or so years and no rights were lost to our citizens to protect us. Wars were fought, civil rights were created and our society grew because our minds were free to explore new possibilities. Pro or con against our government. Twelve years of Republican rule and we are tossing our rights out the window like the bath water for the baby. Baby included! There is a reason why FDR, Truman, Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Senior, and Clinton did not bust the Constitution, they swore an oath to uphold it. That is not the case with George W. Bush.

Fight for your rights. Vote for your rights and vote the people that are corrupting your Constitutional rights out of office! Then tell the rest of the clan in corporate America to get the hell out of Dodge or Washington D.C. as the rest of us know it. Take back America!

Papamoka

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Political Endorsement Value?


With all the folks running for President they find themselves at the mercy of the local political machines endorsement sale. If you looked at presidential politics like it was your Christmas shopping then this is parallel with the Black Friday shopping madness sales where you have to be in line at two in the morning for the doors to open at five. I tend to wonder what is the value of a local political leader in Iowa or New Hampshire when it comes to an endorsement for any one of the candidates. Just the endorsement alone is not a guarantee of votes behind the gesture or is it?

Does a political endorsement work the same as say Tom Brady of the New England Patriots putting his name behind some brand of breakfast cereal? Or for that matter Michael Jordan putting his name on a brand of sneakers or underwear sells the products but would the same thing work for votes for President of the United States?

I don’t know the answers to these questions but I do know who I prefer for the next President of the United States. For what ever value this little blogger has, I’m throwing my endorsement behind Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. You can click on the links below on why I think Joe is right…

Iraq War plan:

The Biden-Gelb plan would:

Keep Iraq together by giving its major groups breathing room in their own regions and control over their daily lives. A central government would be left in charge of common interests like defending the borders and distributing oil revenues.

Secure the support of the Sunnis -- who have no oil -- by guaranteeing them a proportionate share of oil revenue and reintegrating those with no blood on their hands.

Increase, not end, reconstruction assistance but insist that the oil-rich Arab Gulf states fund it and tie it to the creation of a massive jobs program and to the protection of minority rights.

Initiate a major diplomatic offensive to enlist the support of the major powers and Iraq's neighbors for a political settlement in Iraq and create an Oversight Contact Group to enforce regional commitments.

Begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces this year and withdraw most of them by the summer of 2008, with a small follow-on force to keep the neighbors honest and to strike any concentration of terrorists.
- Plan for Iraq


Biden Energy Plan:

1. Establishing A Responsible Policy Toward Iran
2. Restoring US Leadership On Climate Change
3. Increasing Fuel Efficiency and Use of Renewable Fuels
4. Investing In New Energy Technology
5. Expanding Renewable Energy
6. Requiring the Federal Government To Use Energy More Efficiently
7. Encouraging Americans to Use Energy Efficiently
8. Creating Green Jobs in the Technology of Tomorrow


Homeland Security:

The 9/11 Commission gave us a blue print. To be sure, implementing it will cost more. But we can easily afford it - if we change our priorities. This year, the budget for the Department of Homeland Security is $35 billion; at $60 billion, the tax cut for millionaires is nearly double that amount.

Senator Biden would take back one year of the tax cuts for Americans who make over a million dollars a year, and put this money in a dedicated Homeland Security and Public Safety Trust Fund to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations and invest in law enforcement.

For $10 billion a year over the next five years we could:
screen 100 percent of cargo containers coming into our ports,
better protect our chemical facilities,
improve air cargo screening,
make sure that our first responders can talk to one another in emergencies,
hire 1,000 more FBI agents,
hire 50,000 more local cops, and
create local counter-terrorism units in our large cities to stop home-grown plots
Precedent proves this can work. In the early 1990s, Senator Biden established the Violent Crime Reduction Trust Fund to address the growing crime problem. It put more than 100,000 cops on the street and increased investment in crime prevention programs. Violent crime rates went down.

The Bush administration slashed billions in federal assistance for state and local law enforcement and completely eliminated the COPS hiring program -- and crime rates went up. The most recent reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show a continuation in the upward swing in violent crimes first reported last year when after years of steady declines, violent crime jumped 2.5 percent --- the largest increase in 15 years.
- Joe Biden.com

These points are not just the only reason I am backing Joe Biden for President but they are a good beginning. I look at his campaign in the same way I look at inviting someone into my home for a coffee or for dinner. Joe would have no problem knocking on the door and sitting down at our families kitchen table as if he had been there a thousand times before. It’s uncanny how you can see that he is comfortable enough with his stand on any issue and he isn’t relying on a poll to dictate his opinion. Then there is the fact that in my gut I trust him over the rest of them to tell America all of the truth and not just what is comfortable to hear.

Now more than ever America needs a true leader and statesman. This is not a time in world history where you can learn on the job training. America needs someone that will be able to hit the ground running, Joe Biden does not have a hundred million dollars sitting in a campaign war chests which leads me to believe that he will not owe large favors down the road to special interest donors.

Other folks endorsing Joe Biden because they know Joe is right!






List of endorsements for Joe Biden are posted here…

Other folks aka Blogs endorsing Senator Joe Biden…

Vim & Vinegar

Please note that this endorsement is the personal endorsement of Matthew O’Keefe aka Papamoka only.

If your site is endorsing Joe Biden please leave a link in the comments.

Papamoka

*****Buzz Tracker has linked to this post...

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