Republicans For Socialism

----------------------------------------------------------------- Bailout

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The New Yorker Sept. 29, 2008

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When Madmen Reign

Bob Herbert has an interesting column in the New York Times today called “When Madmen Reign.”

He begins his article by saying, “I’m not holding my breath, but I would like to see the self-proclaimed conservative, small government, anti-regulation, free-market zealots step up and take responsibility for wrecking the American economy and bringing about the worst financial crisis since the Depression.
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Even now, with the house on fire, the most extreme among them won’t pick up the fire hoses and try to put it out.”

That is a great description of the situation at the moment. Since the time of Ronald Reagan this radical philosophy of deregulation and the Sanctity of the Market has ruled.
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Lots of laws and regulations which were designed to protect the consumer and the economy from abuse and the greed of speculators have been eliminated. These ideas used to be referred to a voodoo economics. And now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
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You Better Behave!

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Does anyone remember the words to that upbeat Christmas song which tells kids that they better behave because....
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You little creeps. Urgh! I’ve just about had it with you guys. Either behave or:

--- (1) I will drop you off at a fire station.

--- (2) Your bodies will end up in the freezer.
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CNN has a story right now called "Mom tells cops icy bodies in freezer are her kids"
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/09/29/kids.bodies.freezer.ap/
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Silvestre Reyes

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The congressman who represents El Paso, Texas is Silvestre Reyes. He seems like a nice guy. I called his office in Washington, D.C. this morning urging him to vote against the $700 Billion bailout for the rich financiers on Wall Street.
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After the bill was defeated (in the house) it was late enough that I assumed his Washington, D.C. office would be closed, so I called his office in El Paso to see how he voted. He voted for the debacle to pass. It made me want to look into his background a little.
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Congressman Reyes has a 2 year degree from a community college. His only political experience before being elected to congress was a 2 year stint serving on the local Canutillo school board. Gosh, this sounds very similar to Sarah Palin.
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But at least Reyes is merely a congressman, not a senator, and certainly not the Vice President of the United States. I guess it is about time to retire this rotund old grandfather figure again (he already retired once from the Border Patrol).
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Wouldn't this white haired old man look fine standing next to John McCain?

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LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvestre_Reyes

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Reverse Robin Hood -or- Staging A Financial Coup

In less than 40 days the American voters will determine who will be the next president.

In the very last waning days of the Bush II administration the biggest fleecing of the American tax payers ever to occur is unfolding. I call this the Reverse Robin Hood phenomenon. The biggest robbery in the history of this country.

We are used to seeing the president and his cronies clean out the treasury at the end of his administration in our neighbor to the south, Mexico. Standard operating procedure. Doing it in The United States Of America is nothing less than outrageous.
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I got an e-mail this morning from a prominent national figure. Below I have copied his mail in full.


Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

"Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

"At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

"Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions."

Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something -- NOW! Here's what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.
When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century.

You have to call them now and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the White House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW.
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What The Right Wing Is Saying About McCain

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The following are all observations that I read today from well respected, conservative, Republican, right-wing journalists.

Sarah Palin is emerging as an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

The impetuous way in which McCain chose Palin makes one second-guess his executive decision-making ability.

The conservative elder George F. Will accused McCain of "characteristically substituting vehemence for coherence." The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist argued that such impulsiveness sows doubts about McCain's ability to apply "calm reflection and clear principles" to important decisions. He ended his broadside by all but declaring McCain unfit for the Oval Office.
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First Debate Between Obama and McCain

The first presidential debate between McCain and Obama was last night. I give them both a score of B+. I don't feel like either side "won." I guess there is more to be lost than there is to be gained, so the campaigns for each man can feel pleased that their man didn't say anything really dumb and just totally blow it.

It worries me that Obama is having to move so far to the right. For example when McCain scorned him about not believing that we are actually winning the war in Iraq, Obama should have answered by saying something to the effect of, “Yes you senile old fool. Any one with half a brain can see that we are absolutely not winning in Iraq any more than we did in Vietnam.” A big part of Obama’s popularity is because people think he is going to get us out of these futile and costly wars. Iraq and Afghanistan. But the longer this drags out the less likely that looks.

Regarding health care Obama now talks about making sure that affordable health care is available to everyone. Making that statement is light years away from saying that he will do everything in his power to assure that there is universal health care. That everyone living in America will receive government paid health care, like the socialized medicine system called Medicare currently provides for old folks.

Obama is going to have a difficult time winning at this rate.

The only good news is Palin is looking worse all the time. It now is clear that McCain has always had an eye for pretty women (it used to be called lust or coveting). -
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Car Sleepers - The New American Homeless

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The BBC has a heartbreaking article about some middle class people in America - real estate agents and mortgage brokers who have lost their homes and now live out of their cars. Often with their dog(s).
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LINK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7585696.stm
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McCain vs Obama

It is unwise for a country to deify their leaders.

The Japanese did it with their Emperor, the Germans made Hitler and then later Helmut Kohl into virtual deities. For a while the British did it to Churchill, and later to some degree to Margaret Thatcher and recently to Tony Blair. The Americans have done it to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

All of these people were just superior human beings with all the faults and foibles that us humans tend to have. A little bit of greed, a certain lust for power, arrogance, self centeredness, and for many powerful leaders a strong sexual appetite.

Many of the finest leaders have tempered these baser human traits with a strong element of genuinely caring about what happens to the people who are less well off.

Honesty and integrity coupled with intelligence have helped people like Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King achieve worthwhile societal goals which would not have been possible without their great dignity. All of these people were good listeners. The best were good at gathering as many facts as possible (even opposing view points) and honestly taking them all under consideration before making a final decision. And then after having made a decision, having the strength of character to not vacillate and second guess it.

They surrounded themselves with extremely talented people who might even have been significantly smarter than they were. And they were lifted upwards by the support of all the smart, strong people around them.

One other trait the very best leaders in history have had is they are cool under pressure. Rather than freaking out when faced with grave difficulties, they continue to calmly analyze the situation and make the best decisions possible. I don’t really know if Putin in Russia is a good leader, but his self control and coolness under pressure (some would say ice water in his veins) is in part responsible for his power and success.

Good leaders are not dictators. They do not issue orders. They don’t have to. People follow them because of their actions (not their words). Leadership and setting the example. And to maintain this relationship between great leaders and the masses requires constant integrity and extraordinary honesty on the part of the leader.

But to those who knew them well, all of these people were still very human. Some more so than others. John F. Kennedy had close friends in the mafia while he was president, and he got their help so that he could screw around on Jackie with Marilyn Monroe. JFK apparently had a serious prescription drug problem. Franklin D. Roosevelt kept a lover on the side.

If you look deep enough into any of these people’s lives you will find that they were not saints, they did not have magical powers, and they were not wizards like Gandalf.

It is far too common to see good leaders rot from within due to believing the adoration of their supporters. This is like believing your dog when he sits in front of you and looks you in the eye with total adoration.

So in looking at Senators McCain and Obama which candidate is better at remaining cool under pressure and analytically making the best decision possible? Which candidate has the most positive personality traits of a leader?

If the American voters think about this rationally before casting their vote the country will get the kind of leader that it deserves.
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The Three Trillion Dollar War

The book The Three Trillion Dollar War written by Stiglitz and Bilmes is outstanding. Professor Joseph Stiglitz in a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. This book is an effort on the part of two of America’s finest economists to get beyond the intentionally murky accounting of the government to try and determine the true cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

America has now spent more money on these wars in Iraq and Afghanisten than on WWI, Korea, or Vietnam. American soldiers have now been at war longer than in WWI, Korea, or WWII.

I rate this book a rock solid 10.
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English Language

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The El Paso Times reported today that 24% of the residents of El Paso, Texas only speak English. The survey they are reporting on also says that 74% of people in El Paso speak Spanish when at home.
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I was shopping at Wal-Mart last week and couldn't find what I was looking for. So (in English) I asked one of the employees where it was located. She explained to me (in Spanish) that she only speaks Spanish, and would it be possible for me to speak Spanish?
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So I answered her in Spanish. Fortunately I am fluent in the Spanish language. I told her that we are in the United States of America and she needs to learn how to speak English.
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A cruel hoax is being perpetrated on these immigrants from Mexico. Until they become 105% fluent in the English language they will be relegated to the least secure and lowest paying jobs in society. But you still hear intelligent, caring, well educated people arguing for education to be performed in Spanish.
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Do not move to El Paso, Texas if you are biased against Mexicans. And unless you speak Spanish fluently you will not be happy living in El Paso. Those are today's words of wisdom from a third generation El Pasoan.
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Extortion

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It is beginning to feel more and more like the greedy traders who control the stock markets are holding the American people and the Federal government hostage. I think this is a clear cut case of extortion.

Let us continue to operate with absolutely zero control, regulation, or oversight and GIVE US hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate welfare, or we are going to drive the price of oil way up, the value of the dollar way down, and we will keep the markets on their roller coaster ride until you cry Uncle.

It is going to take leaders with real strength and integrity to take on these powerful robber barons. There is no certainty at all that America is going to make it out of this one still being one of the most prosperous countries on the planet.

What is responsible for this decline in America? The discredited policies of Reagan and Bush, deregulation, sending most of the country’s manufacturing base overseas, tax cuts for the wealthy, and trickle down economics.
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Insatiable Greed

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I got an e-mail from a friend today that had such a nice, short summary of what caused this financial mess that I am passing it along.
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----"A bailout made necessary by the Bush administration's deregulatory fever
---- and Wall Street's insatiable greed."
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It would be unwise for us to forget that these Bushies are the same retards that took America into war in the wrong county. They have a track record of getting it wrong on most issues.
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X-Men

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Yesterday evening I watched X-Men on DVD. What a fantastic movie. The wonderful Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) does an excellent job in it, as do his colleagues. LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Picard

Probably today I’ll watch X2, X-Men United. I bought a new DVD of it from Amazon.com recently. When this second X-Man movie first came out I was living in Holland. On a trip to London, England I stopped by the flea market in the Portobello Market near Notting Hill.

This fellow was selling low priced DVDs. I was delighted to see one of X2 so I bought it. I thought I had made a great purchase.

Only after I got home to The Netherlands did I realize that this was pirated. It was made from a video camera on a tripod placed at the back of a movie theater. Video quality was poor and the audio was even worse. At least now I own a legitimate copy!
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Bailout

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A recent poll found that 83% of Americans want the people who are responsible for the unsound lending practices which have caused such damage to the American economy to be held criminally responsible, and 71% of Americans want more government regulation.
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That is well above a 2/3 majority of the American people who reject right wing philosophy of deregulation. Listen-up elected officials.
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McCain vs Obama

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Newsweek did some detective work and found out how many cars John and Cindy McCain have: 13.
Some are foreign cars and some are American made.
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Barack and Michelle Obama have one car, a Ford Escape hybrid.
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$700 Billion Dollars

When I was an undergraduate in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the Vietnam War was still raging. As was fashionable at the time among left wing intellectuals I studied Karl Marx and read Das Kapital. I’m sure that some people must have thought that in order to fight Communism you would need to study it.

Even as a young, long haired, marijuana smoking, anti-war liberal I saw major flaws in government ownership of the means of production and distribution. From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. Give me a break!

Later in my life journey I happened to be in Trier, Germany and saw the house that Karl Marx was born in. On one of my trips to London I visited Highgate Cemetery where I got to see his extremely flamboyant, un-proletarian grave site.

Nationalism of the insurance and financial industry is a really odd thing for the deregulation, stand-on-your-own Republicans to do. Just like totally unregulated capitalist economies cycle wildly from boom to bust, now that the Republicans see their trickle-down, tax-cuts-for-the-rich ideas totally discredited they are going from desperate extreme to extreme and wildly grasping at straws. These guys were always very self-centered. Now they are becoming dangerous, loose cannons.

I sort of miss the good old days when these rich bastards would just jump out of high windows when they lost it all.
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Republicans For Socialism and Nationalization Of The Economy

The same intellectually challenged con artists who took us into war in the wrong country, and the same people whose deregulation mania has gotten the country into the current financial mess, now want $700 billion (maybe $2 - $3 trillion) to be spent to nationalize big parts of the economy.

Republicans For Socialism. Great campaign slogan! Well, not really the type of socialism which helps out the middle class or people down on their luck. This is more like Socialism For The Rich.

This is more money than the country has spent on the Iraq war so far. And the way the Republicans want this all to be set this up there will be almost zero oversight.

Now is the hour to see if the Democrats have any backbone at all, or if they are just a slightly more intellectual and caring wing of the same loser philosophy.
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Deport Them!

The Republicans have easily found the money to bail out the Robber Barons and the Fat Cats on Wall Street. They have put many trillions of dollars on the government credit card.
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These same insensitive bastards say there isn’t enough money to provide universal access health care to the 50 million people in America who don’t have health insurance. And these same people want to ruin Social Security by privatizing it (so that they can get their greedy, smelly little Republican hands on this money).

----------------- Deregulation = Self Regulation = No Regulation

These immoral and ravenous people who are still asking for less government regulation while they are bailing out the rich folks deserve to be deported. These creatures are such disgusting examples of humanity that they make me feel like vomiting.
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Bush and his cohorts have done more damage to America then the Muslim Terrorists dreamed of. These guys certainly don’t deserve to be allowed to call themselves Americans.
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The Three Trillion Dollar War by Joseph Stiglitz

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I saw this author interviewed last night on PBS. And I just ordered his book from Amazon.com The following is from Amazon:


From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review
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Readers may be surprised to learn just how difficult it was for Nobel Prize-winning economist Stiglitz and Kennedy School of Government professor Bilmes to dig up the actual and projected costs of the Iraq War for this thorough piece of accounting. Using "emergency" funds to pay for most of the war, the authors show that the White House has kept even Congress and the Comptroller General from getting a clear idea on the war's true costs. Other expenses are simply overlooked, one of the largest of which is the $600 billion going toward current and future health care for veterans.
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These numbers reveal stark truths: improvements in battlefield medicine have prevented many deaths, but seven soldiers are injured for every one that dies (in WWII, this ratio was 1.6 to one). Figuring in macroeconomic costs and interest-the war has been funded with much borrowed money-the cost rises to $4.5 trillion; add Afghanistan, and the bill tops $7 trillion. This shocking expose, capped with 18 proposals for reform, is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the war was financed, as well as what it means for troops on the ground and the nation's future.
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description
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The true cost of the Iraq War is $3 trillion—and counting—rather than the $50 billion projected by the White House.Apart from its tragic human toll, the Iraq War will be staggeringly expensive in financial terms.
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This sobering study by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda J. Bilmes casts a spotlight on expense items that have been hidden from the U.S. taxpayer, including not only big-ticket items like replacing military equipment (being used up at six times the peacetime rate) but also the cost of caring for thousands of wounded veterans—for the rest of their lives. Shifting to a global focus, the authors investigate the cost in lives and economic damage within Iraq and the region.
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Finally, with the chilling precision of an actuary, the authors measure what the U.S. taxpayer's money would have produced if instead it had been invested in the further growth of the U.S. economy. Written in language as simple as the details are disturbing, this book will forever change the way we think about the war.
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Stock Market Dead Cat Bounce

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A wealthy American friend of mine who lives abroad sent me a few e-mails today.
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One of his notes contained a really fun quote:
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"This market jump is a dead cat bounce if I ever saw one.
We are in for a very deep depression fer sure.
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If you were scared last week you are going to be terrified next week."
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China Tainted Milk

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The deliberate contamination of milk in China has now spread from just baby formula to 3 out of 4 of the major companies producing milk for human consumption.

What has been happening is simple greed, mixed with a lack of effective governmental regulation.

If you water down the milk it increases your profits. But to fool the tests so that you don’t get caught you need to add some of the industrial chemical melamine to the milk. Just plain old simple greed.

Of course melamine gives lots of babies and people kidney stones, and in fact kills people. But shucks, who cares? Profits are up this quarter.

One couldn’t have designed a more effective terrorist plot if one had tried. The lesson to be learned: Deregulation = No Regulation = Greed Rules!
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McPain

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McCain + Palin = McPain
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Deregulation

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Self regulation equals no regulation. Unfettered, free-market capitalism means boom and bust,
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The Chinese economy has been growing very fast and has basically been operating as laissez-faire, or a simulation of the wild west. Laiseez-faire is a doctrine opposing governmental interference in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary for the maintenance of peace and property rights. This is what big business and the Republicans in America have been striving for.
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I saw this in today's news. This is what happens when the government abdicates its responsibility to protect the consumer from abuse and fraud.
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* Melamine found in ordinary milk in China

The chemical which has contaminated baby formula in China has now been found in ordinary milk. Milk contaminated with melamine has been discovered at three of the country's largest milk producers. Two others were screened but were cleared of contamination. Together the five producers cater for almost three quarters of China's market.

Earlier today, it was announced that a fourth baby had died in the melamine scandal. More than 6,000 infants have fallen ill after drinking contaminated formula milk. Another 12 people were arrested today in connection with the scandal, bringing the total number of suspects to 18.

It was revealed last week that 22 Chinese brands of formula were contaminated with melamine, a chemical substance used in the fertilizer industry. The government has announced it will broaden an ongoing search for traces of melamine in all milk products to include animal feed.
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Recession or Depression?

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This is what Slate has to say about the current situation:
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"Widely reported hopes that the bailout of American International Group was going to lead to a market rally went out the window yesterday morning with the opening bell as stocks plunged, credit markets seized up, and investors around the world scrambled to put their money into safe government bonds and gold. In short, it seems investors decided that it's officially Time To Panic. Knowing full well that casual readers might chalk up this latest development as simply another in a string of bad days in Wall Street, the papers make sure to emphasize that if you were worried yesterday, you should be terrified today."
LINK: http://www.slate.com/
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So is this just typical media exaggeration and hyperbole? America has had a mental cripple bozo as president for the last eight years. People like the head of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Secretary are both smart men but they really don't know what action they should take. They are scrambling from one extreme move to another.
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None of this inspires confidence in the country's leadership.
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I think it is a clear overstatement of the severity of the situation to say that we are already in a depression. But stopping a "panic" is difficult. Generally it takes inspiring leadership, and the Dumb Ass that America has as president at the moment has lost all credibility.
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This "panic" situation is much like holding a revolution. Once it gets started one really doesn't know how it is all going to end up. And it tends to have a life of it's own.
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What is the best advice one can give for getting through the current situation? Think about the people you have known who always seem to have a smile on their faces. People who are almost always happy. This is the type of person that succeeds in difficult situations. To quote Monte Python “Always look on the bright side of life.”
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Clearly these are interesting times we are living in!
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LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122169684690350209.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
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Government Bail Outs

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The policies of deregulation have now been completely discredited.
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For some time it has been becoming more and more clear that unregulated markets and wild west lawless capitalism is a prescription for boom-and-bust and disaster.

We have now seen the Republicans in America engage in the biggest bail outs of the rich and the financial markets in the history of mankind. Bush II and his fellow travelers have effectively nationalized Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG. This is socialism in its sickest form.

They are perfectly happy to spend many hundreds of billion of dollars to bail out the super rich Wall Street types. But because they have squandered the country’s resources on warfare for so many years, they can’t find the money to help out the 50 million people who do not have health insurance. And they don’t want to find the money to make the American old age retirement program financially stable.

What terribly misplaced priorities these people have.
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Welfare and government bailouts for the super-rich. Tough love for the middle and working classes. Whatever happened to Of the People, By the People, and For the People?
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LINK: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_3651755,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf
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Orion

Orion
Originally uploaded by Paul Garland

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The constellation Orion was looking very pretty early this morning so I went inside and got my tripod and camera.

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Click on the picture and it will enlarge.

Fairy Tales

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If I found out that my investment advisor really believed and had faith in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus myths I would think of him as delusional. If he believes in these myths, I would imagine that Alice In Wonderland, Bilbo Baggins, and Mr. Toad would not be very far behind.

These are delightful stories that help teach valuable ethical concepts. But they sure are not real.

The same applies to believing that a woman can get pregnant and have a baby while still a virgin. Or turning water into wine, walking on water, or coming back to life after your dead body has had three days to putrefy. Christianity (like most organized religions) is founded on fairy tales and stories of miracles.

The Bible is full of delightful tales that help teach us and our children valuable ethical concepts. But these fictional stories sure are not real. In my view anyone who thinks these fairy tales are real is of doubtful intellectual stature. You sure wouldn’t want this type of person to be in a position of authority and leadership.
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Sarah Palin

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--- God Bless the National Enquirer.

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Downsizing & Outsourcing

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CNN Money has a story today which starts out this way:
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TOKYO (AFP)--As Lehman Brothers workers packed their bags across Asia, an employee of the once venerable Wall Street firm in Tokyo said he felt like he had been handed the death penalty.
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These same sharks are the ones who have encouraged companies to downsize and outsource so that profits will increase making share values go up. They weren't the slightest bit concerned about the effects of job losses when they only applied to other people.
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These self centered, arrogant Wall Street bastards are getting just what they deserve. A little humility and concern for others would have been appropriate along the way. None was given and they will get very little from others now.
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The Global Financial System

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The American financial system, and to a certain degree the entire global financial system, is going through a gut wrenching period that is going to hurt of lot of people.

And the cause? Insufficient regulation by the American federal government. For the last eight years avaricious businessmen, Republicans, and the upper financial classes have been asking for less government regulation and lower taxes on rich people. The Bush II administration has given them exactly what they asked for. They made their beds, and now WE ALL have to lie in them.

More and more financial analysts are recognizing that unregulated markets and capitalism do not tend towards equilibrium. Rather deregulation causes larger and large swings of the boom and bust cycle.

These rapacious bastards don’t care at all that 50 million people in America do not have health insurance. The suffering of these people and their families is completely irrelevant to these greedy, immoral pricks (of course unless they can figure out a way to make money off the suffering of these unfortunate folks).

John McCain is more of the same. Reduce government regulation, reduce taxation on the wealthy, blah, blah, blah. This is not the American dream. This is the nightmare we get when greed overrules compassion. When dishonesty and agressiveness overrule fairness, integrity and good manners.
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This may be the legacy of a generation which believes "Give me mine, screw everyone else."
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Pit Bull With Lipstick

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--------------------- From Sep. 15, 2008 The New Yorker

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Funny Movie

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If you want to spend a little over an hour laughing your ass off at senseless, escapist, potty humor then I’d heartily recommend that you rent the DVD called Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay.

And if you want to take a little break and go to the bathroom, or to make yourself a cup of cappuccino, why not?

Really fun movie!
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Collecting Old Cameras

The second time I lived in Europe I stayed there 15 years.
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In the antique and flea markets of Europe I built fairly nice collections of German stoneware pottery from the 1500's and European made oil lamps from the late 1800's to the early 1900's.
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I developed a great collection of fluorescent minerals and European vaseline glass which fluoresces green under ultraviolet light. I also collected some old stuff from the Ancient Greeks and Romans that is about 2,000 years old.
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Now that I am living back in America I am focusing my attention on collecting old film cameras. -

My oldest film camera dates from the 1870's and is fully functional. I have several medium format cameras, one of which I used to try and recreate Ansel Adams' famous picture of El Capitan in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas.
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This morning I bought a couple of movie cameras from the early 1960's for $5- each. In my assortment of cameras I also have a lot of old 35 mm film cameras, including three Nikon SLRs (which all still work great).

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666

I was raised as a Christian. Every Sunday our family went to church. I was baptized, confirmed, and served as an altar boy. I have sat next to the sea of Galilee (lake Tiberius) dipping my bare feet in the water, and I have swam in the filthy Jordan River.

Later in my life journey I was re-born. I had faith.

When I saw a license plate that contained the consecutive numbers 666 it worried me a bit.

What a superstition. And the story of that guy’s mother getting pregnant (by the Lord) without every having had sex is a complete fairy tale. Yea sure he could walk on water.

And the best Biblical scholarship now says that 666 was probably a mistranslation anyway!
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Galveston Island

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The people who live in Galveston, Texas have just been through a terrible ordeal. My heart goes out to them. The coastal area around Galveston is beautiful. Port Arthur and the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge are close, as is one of the country’s biggest, most dynamic, and most polluted cities - Houston, Texas. I have visited the area many times.

But I also am a realist. People who choose to ignore history and live on the slopes of an active volcano eventually get what they have asked for.

It is nice living at sea level near the ocean. After I got out of high school me and a couple of friends rented a place in Hermosa Beach. Easy walking distance to the beach in Southern California.

In college one of my hobbies was collecting orchids in Central America and growing orchids in a greenhouse in the desert of El Paso, Texas. So after I got my bachelor’s degree I went to work for a nursery in southern Florida. South of Miami. These people were the first to commercially clone orchid plants. I spent plenty of time wandering around in the Everglades.

A bit later in my life story the company I was working for offered me a promotion to become the Plant Manager of the country’s largest sweet potato cannery which is located in far south Louisiana. Near New Iberia. My house backed up to a bayou and was 20 feet above sea level. I spent three seasons down there, and in my personal time I enjoyed scuba diving in the Gulf Of Mexico and visiting the Atchafalaya swamp.

So based upon my own personal experiences I can attest to the fact that it is indeed very nice living near the ocean. But it is also dangerous. While I was living in Louisiana I survived a direct hit from the Category 5 hurricane Andrew. At the time it was the most damaging hurricane to ever hit America.

If my home town of El Paso, Texas out in the Chihuahuan desert runs completely out of water people will say, “Well fool, that’s what you get for trying to make the desert green.”

And the people who live in southern Italy near Naples and Mt. Vesuvius can’t seem to understand that Pompeii and Herculaneum have been covered over by countless volcanic eruptions of the nearby volcano. Not just once, but many times. Yet they choose to continue living there.

The same applies to the people of Galveston. Figure it out…
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Hurricanes/Tropical Cyclones are just super-monster thunderstorms that get cancerous and grow all out of control. They occur when it is warm.
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After Hurricane Andrew lots of people didn't have electricity for many days. Some people weeks. So in a humid, hot climate your airconditioner doesn't work. You are using candles to see with, and they generate more heat.
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Your refrigerator and freezers don't work, so all your food spoils. The people who own generators are heroes.
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You may not even have fresh water out of the tap for a long time. So you can't flush the toilet or take a shower, even though it is hot and humid and your air conditioner isn't working. Not good.
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Satire - Sort Of

The good news about Sarah Palin:

1. She is a gun freak and normally carries a concealed firearm.

2. Her 17 year old unmarried daughter had sex and is now pregnant. Teenage boys will love the example that this would set for the nation.

3. When she was younger she enjoyed being a beauty queen and was into parading around her beauty in front of guys.



The bad news about Sarah Palin:

1. She is Rush Limbaugh’s candidate.

2. She believes creationism should be taught in school as equal to evolution.

3. She doesn’t believe global warming is caused by human activity.

4. Palin was 100% in favor of the “bridge to nowhere” until it was cancelled. Then she changed over to opposing it. But the money was still sent to Alaska anyway, and she sure didn’t refuse it.

5. The pit bull with lipstick is just as ready to be president as George Bush II was when he was first elected. And as he still is after eight years of on the job experience.
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6. I have three ex-wives who I didn't properly vet either.
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7. Read this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ei=5070&emc=eta1
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Texas Western College 1966 NCAA Champions

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A truly great man died this week. A member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Coach Don Haskins. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Haskins

The movie Glory Road tells the story of the tough time he and the miners from my alma mater Texas Western College had in winning the NCAA tournament in 1966.

This was a truly historic event in the country’s continued effort to overcome the sickness of the slavery era. In the final game of the season he played only his black players. It had never been done before. And they won.

This movie played tonight free at the historic Plaza Theater in El Paso, Texas. It is also available on DVD. If you are a fan of sports, or you believe in hard work and perseverance in the face of obstacles you need to watch this movie.
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An added bonus to fans of Bones, Dr. Temperance Brennan...Don Haskins' wife Mary is played by Emily Deschanel.

On the back of the DVD box there is a quote from Larry King saying “A flat-out terrific movie!” I agree 100%.
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Predator Drones

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I read this morning in Slate that The Los Angeles Times leads with word that the Bush administration is sending Predator aircraft "equipped with sophisticated new surveillance systems" to target militants inside Pakistan. This new technology was apparently a key weapon in the fight against Iraqi insurgents and now drones with this special equipment are being pulled from other areas and sent to help out in Pakistan. This is yet another example of how the Bush administration has decided to pursue more unilateral attacks in Pakistan instead of trying to cooperate with the Pakistani government.

So instead of communicating and engaging in diplomacy, the Bush administration has once again begun unilateral, aggressive warfare against another country.

Probably there are lots of bad guys operating in the border tribal areas of Pakistan. And lots of people who hate America. I don’t doubt it at all.

But it sure is getting easier and easier to kill innocent men, women, and children in hopes of maybe getting some of these “evil doers” also. President Bush and many of the top brass in the military no longer pay much attention to this collateral damage.

If Bush and Cheney and their right-wing, religious fanatic fellow travelers could only look in the mirror without any bias or preconceptions, in many cases they would see looking back at them an image of an “evil doer.”
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In trying to defeat these Muslim terrorists they have become almost as twisted, dishonest, and evil as their enemies. How truly sad.
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Paris

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I have been to Paris so many times that I've lost track. At least ten, maybe 15 times.

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A friend of mine is visiting there right now. I saw this cartoon in the September 8, 2008 version of the New Yorker magazine. It made me think of her.

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Bring Back The Draft

The first action of the new president needs to take is signing an executive order bringing back the draft.  Deferments will be available to anyone whose parents make less than $175,000- adjusted gross income per year.

Right now America has a military made up largely of poorly educated, lower class mercenaries who come from poor families.  Most of the young people who join or re-enlist do so because this is their only financial opportunity or the only way they have to get away from home.

These poor people would still be welcome to join the military if they so choose, but the sons and daughters of the ruling class would be required to serve for two years.

I promise you that the streets would erupt in protest.  It is the surest way to stop America from fighting wars when we should be talking.

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Losing Wars

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Today is September 11. It is my plan to fly my American flag today.

It has been many years now since Osama Bin Laden and his Muslim fanatics hijacked all the airplanes and knocked down both of the world trade center buildings in New York City.

Although I served in the U.S. Army after graduating from college and have a couple of medals and an honorable discharge from the military, I freely admit that I don’t know how to fight wars, much less how to win wars. But apparently neither do the top American military guys.

The allies won WWII, but it was touch and go at times. This war clearly had to be won. Hitler was evil, the Nazis were evil and it just had to be stopped.

But since then things have gradually gone downhill. Or maybe it is because the U.S.A. has been fighting wars when we should have been engaging in diplomacy or some other options.

We did not actually win the Korean war but at least we didn’t lose it. We got our asses kicked in Vietnam, just like the French did in Indochina before us.

Many people are still trying to figure out why we even fought the war in Iraq. No one who is intellectually honest can say that we won this war. And in today’s news we read that the Chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, so the top professional military guy in America, says in a report in the Washington Post that we are not winning the war in Afghanistan either.
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WASHINGTON — The nation's top military officer offered a blunt assessment of the war in Afghanistan on Wednesday, saying that although victory is possible, the current strategy isn't necessarily leading in that direction.
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"I am not convinced that we're winning it in Afghanistan," said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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No wonder so many people around the world don't admire or respect Amercia any more.

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And now it has come out that President Bush II issued secret written orders more than a month ago authorizing American troops to enter and fight in Pakistan too.  Does the American Congress in Washington D.C. have no balls at all?  Why don't they stand up to this poor sick man?  

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McCain vs Obama

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I got the following by email today from a friend. It seems like a clear summary of the situation that the American voter finds themselves in at the moment.
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If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "token hire."
If you're a conservative and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "game changer."

Black teen pregnancies? A "crisis" in black America.
White teen pregnancies? A "blessed event."

If you grow up in Hawaii you're "exotic."
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're the quintessential "American story."

Similarly, if you name you kid Barack you're "unpatriotic."
Name your kid Track, you're "colorful."

If you're a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the individual you're "reckless."
A Republican who doesn't fully vet is a "maverick."

If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your organization from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to $400,000, then become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new African American voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, then spend nearly 8 more years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, becoming chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, then spend nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you are woefully inexperienced.

If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, then you've got the most executive experience of anyone on either ticket, are the Commander in Chief of the Alaska military and are well qualified to lead the nation should you be called upon to do so because your state is the closest state to Russia.


If you are a Democratic male candidate who is popular with millions of people you are an "arrogant celebrity".
If you are a popular Republican female candidate you are "energizing the base".

If you are a younger male candidate who thinks for himself and makes his own decisions you are "presumptuous".
If you are an older male candidate who makes last minute decisions you refuse to explain, you are a "shoot from the hip" maverick.

If you are a candidate with a Harvard law degree you are "an elitist-out of touch" with the real America.
If you are a legacy (dad and granddad were admirals) graduate of Annapolis, with multiple disciplinary infractions you are a hero.

If you manage a multi-million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an "empty suit".
If you are a part time mayor of a town of 7000 people, you are an "experienced executive".

If you go to a south side Chicago church, your beliefs are "extremist".
If you believe in creationism and don't believe that global warming is man made, you are "strongly principled".

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
If you have been married to the same woman with whom you've been wed to for 19 years and raising 2 beautiful daughters with, you're "risky".

If you're a black single mother of 4 who waits for 22 hours after her water breaks to seek medical attention, you're an irresponsible parent, endangering the life of your unborn child.
But if you're a white married mother who waits 22 hours, you're spunky.

If you're a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls you "First dog."
If you're a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the right-wing press calls you "beautiful" and "courageous."

If you kill an endangered species, you're an excellent hunter.
If you have an abortion you are not a Christian, you're a murderer (forget about if it happens while being date raped.)

If you teach abstinence only in sex education, you get teen parents.
If you teach responsible age, appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the very fiber of society.

If you're a Republican senator who solicits gay sex in an airport bathroom, you get to return to your job in the Senate and you are encouraged to run for re-election.
If you're a Democratic Senator who is out of public office and have an affair, your political career is over, and your wife who has terminal cancer is to blame.

And finally:

Quiz question for the RNC, specifically those on the Religious Right.

Who is one of the most revered, and famous community organizers in history?

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JESUS CHRIST
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Healthcare

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“Being able to see a doctor when you’re sick should be a human right. It’s a life and death issue, the same as if your house was on fire or you were a victim of a crime. And just like our free and universal fire and police protection that is afforded every citizen, health insurance should be provided FREE OF CHARGE TO EVERYONE.”

This is how Michael Moore describes it in his new book called Mike’s Election Guide 2008. I recommend reading this book. It is a good analysis of the current situation that Americans find themselves in.

Chapter 2 is named: How to Elect John McCain. Or, How Many Democrats Does It Take to Lose the Most Winnable Presidential Election in American History? A blueprint for how to blow it.

After reading his analysis and then sleeping on it, I have come to the conclusion that the Obama campaign is doing almost exactly what will be required to lose this election. It is really such a shame.

When the Republican administration took over from the Democrats eight years ago the Federal Budget had a surplus. Now after two terms of these corrupt Republicans the next president is going to inherit a national debt of around $500 billion.
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Faces Of Dignity

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On Sunday mornings I sometimes take the dog and go over to the flea market in Socorro, Texas. This is a fairly large market where almost all the vendors are just poor people. There are very few commercial vendors. Probably 90% of my conversations there take place in the Spanish language.
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My little black doggie is well know there. Several people remember him and always say high to him.
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It takes around 30 or 45 minutes to walk the entire market. Generally when we are done we go by the white burrito truck and eat brunch. Today I got a burrito made of chile verde. The lady who runs it had saved some big bones with meat for Inu. Like always, after we got our food we went and stood under the nearby tree while we ate. Sometimes people walk by us, but we normally have this space to ourselves.
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Today there were two gentlemen there. One had his grocery cart containing all of his worldly possessions. They were both nice guys, a little down on their luck, who had led very hard lives. Inu laid on the ground next to one of them and ate most of the meat off his bones, and I ate my burrito. When we were finished eating I went to the car and got my Nikon D300. I wanted to see if my lunch partners would allow me to take their pictures. They both had very expressive faces.
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When I returned with the camera the fellow with the grocery cart had picked up both of Inu's almost meatless bones and was holding them in his hands. He seemed concerned that I would mind that he took the bones. I told him that of course he was welcome to them. It was apparent that he was looking forward to eating this food. I photographed both the guys (after asking each of them for their permission with as much humility as I could muster).

Then I pulled a $20- bill out of my pocket and offered it to the gentleman who had taken the bones that Inu had already chewed most of the meat off and then left laying in the dirt. I said to him that I would like him to have this money so that he could buy some food.
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He thanked me but refused the money...he said that I probably needed it more than he did! I doubt that he realized that my camera and lens cost almost $2,000-.
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And sometimes now that I am retired I feel a bit poor. I'll bet these guys don't complain that their taxes are too high or because they don't have health insurance. They are happy just to get a decent meal.
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Good Heavens, what dignity and grace these men had.

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42 to 13

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The university of Texas at El Paso played a football game against the team from the university of Texas at Austin last night.  And Austin beat El Paso by 42 to 13.

 

I attended both universities, but I graduated from U.T. El Paso.  It is my hometown too, so I guess it would be normal for me to support the El Paso football team.   But frankly after living in Europe for almost 20 years I find American football brutal and boring.  I would much rather watch what the rest of the English language speaking world calls football, and what in America we call soccer.

 

The score got me to thinking.  I think that ratio is about right.  42 to 13 is the same as multiplying by 3.2

 

The city of Austin is 3 times nicer than El Paso in most ways.  Austin is much greener and more attractive.  Austin is at least 3 times ahead of El Paso in creative, modern thinking. 

 

El Paso is a very poor border town.  Being located right on the border with Mexico has certain advantages, but in general it is negative.  Genuine problems with poverty; having to deal with people who are illiterate in the English language, and in fact in some cases can’t even hold a decent conversation in the English language.  Abysmal average educational standards in large part caused by all the poor immigrants.  Not to mention the political corruption and the horrible war being waged against women.  And the drug lord mafias routinely killing each other.  Mass firings (and killings) in the police forces.

 

On the other hand El Paso has lower humidity than Austin.  And the desert has a beauty of it’s own, if you can overlook all the trash and plastic bags. 

 

The sticker weeds in El Paso can be a problem for your doggie.  Cars, food, utilities, insurance, and gasoline cost about the same either place, but housing is cheaper in El Paso.  The property taxes are higher in El Paso than in many other parts of Texas.  If one doesn’t have health insurance, cheap drugs and dental care are available nearby in Mexico.

 

Comparing schools, UTEP vs. UT Austin, the ratio of 3 times nicer, better, and bigger also applies.  UT is nationally respected for its educational standards.  UTEP is know locally as “high school on the hill” only somewhat in jest…

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Gloria Steinem on Governor Sarah Palin

From the Los Angeles Times
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Opinion
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Palin: wrong woman, wrong message
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Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
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By Gloria Steinem
September 4, 2008
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Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.
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But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.
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Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."
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This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.
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Palin has been honest about what she doesn't know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."
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She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a job candidate's views on "God, guns and gays" ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.
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So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.
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Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
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I don't doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.
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So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.
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Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.
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Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.
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And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.
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This could be huge.
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Gloria Steinem is an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women's Media Center. She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack Obama.
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