Author: McGirk SF

It’s a (not so) dirty little (not so) secret fact that when the Brittish army killed Irish protestors, and went on to use torture in North Ireland, American citizens donated millions over several decades to the IRA. The IRA even had official offices in Boston for years. This wasn’t a secret to anyone. And Bill O’Reily knows this first hand.
 Yet dispite living for years in a place where real understanding about the source of terrorism was commonly known and widespread, he ignores his heritage. He’s nothing but a little sellout bitch. Not just to the Irish, but to all Americans.
I’m a bit young to have first hand knowledge, but IRA support was near unanimous in Boston for decades. Back then, nice Catholic girls would go from bar to bar collecting for ‘the cause’. It was almost a social obligation to donate to ‘the cause’ at that point in time. It was so popular, even our Italian buddies would kick down and allow collecting in the North End, from what I’ve heard.
 I’m not endorsing terrorism, but to say terrorists exist because they are ‘evildoers’ that ‘hate freedom’ is compleatly absurd. Terrorism is not a philosophy, it’s a tactic people resort to when they lack an ‘official’ military to fight on their behalf. And miltary responses to terrorism with popular support NEVER works. Torture NEVER works. Dealing with terrorists requires diplomacy, in the long term. In the short term, this is more the job for the CIA or FBI to handle. Every time you kill a terrorist, you spawn a new one. Every time you torture one, you spawn two more. If you do either to a civilian, you spawn something like ten more. The military is trained to fight other armies. As they should be, I’ve got zero complaints there. But soldiers aren’t trained or qualified to do a job best suited for law enforcement or the espionage/intelligence branches of defense to do. Using the military against terrorists is akin to sending the Marines after the mafia or street gangs. That would not be a wise move. Gangs in San Francisco and Oakland both have killed more people this year than Hamas and Hezbolah have killed in Israel, combined. But cruise missles fired into Hunters Point or Fruitvale are not tactics used by the police. That would not fly. And the use of torture will NEVER win the hearts and minds of the civilian population. This directly increases support for terrorism infinetly more than the terrorists could ever get by their own means. Not to mention the danger it puts the footsoldiers on our side of the conflict into.  
 To be objective on the IRA thing, the Brittish were smart enough to not cower in the face of terrorism and degenerate into full on suspension of civil liberties in England. They learned from their mistakes, abandoned failed policies, and eventully came to the table and negotiated in good faith. That did more to end the conflict than anything Bush’s policies will ever do.
 I missed out on all this pro-IRA sentiment firsthand, (not neccisarily a bad thing) so mabey I’m not the best person to talk about this. The days of open IRA support were over by the time I was old enough to get into bars, where all the talking/fundraising took place. But Bill O’Reiley was a local TV anchor on channel 7 back in the heyday of IRA support. I don’t have any firsthand knowledge on his opinions, but he certainly would have been looked down upon in Boston if he didn’t ‘support the cause’ back then. Regardless of what he thought, he knows the real deal. All Irish Catholics that retain their ethnic identity know the real deal. Bush/Cheney’s tactics will NEVER win. Pat Buchanan has opposed the war on terror from day one, exactly for this reason. Say what you want about Pat, (And he deserves it, more often than not) but his foreign policy positions are in compleat accord with us progressives. That’s because, dispite being a conservative, he understands history. He knows the pitfalls that go along with imperialism.
 We (Irish Catholics) all know firsthand that the current US stratergy is a loosing one, yet O’Reily has sold his soul to the Bush agenda. He could legitimatly point out the flaws in the neocon philosophy, but lacks the stones to do so. It’s bad enought that he sells out and endorses this shit, but on a personal level, it’s fucking humiliating to see any Irish cowering and endorsing fascism like Billy does due to terrorism. The English never did this. Have some fucking self respect, you pansy! And how dare you condone torture? Bobby Sands is rolling over in his grave, dickhead. You’re not Irish, Billy. You’re white.

I had originally posted this on Daily Kos a few months back. I just realised I forgot to cross post it here, so here it is
I often wonder why people still adhere to the outdated concept of “Liberals” and “Conservatives”. These dynamics no longer exist. The country is being run by the Neo-Cons, a bunch of idealogues who kept all that sucked about conservatives, took everything redeeming, tossed it out the window, and replaced it with everything that sucked about liberals, thus forming a supersuck movement.

Now, the NeoCons are smart. They keep using the old terminology to hoodwink us all. We have to come up with a new name for ourselves, the people who are left on the outside. Why? Because there are alot of people who have far more in common with us than the DLC still consider themselves conservatives in the old teminology, and would never consider themselves liberals. To tell the truth, we don’t neccisarily qualify for that name ourselves.

 
To get my point, picture a circle divided into four segments. We’ll avoid good/evil/order/chaos, and just go A B C D. Now back in the day, A and B were on the same side, and C and D on the other. The NeoCons have rotated the circle, with B and C now united, but A and D have not figured that out yet.

The conservatives I’m referring to could be called Libertarians. Thats the term I use, but I’m not talking about the Ayn Rand Elitest types. I mean Libertarian as far as civil liberties go. These types were isolationists who did not go for “Liberal” wars and nation building. (Remember,  Bush family aside, democrats were in charge at the beginning of every war we’d been in during the 20th century). They were for fiscal responsibility, something previously atributed with Republicans. They belived in states rights. They opposed censorship from holier than thou PC types. They hated the gradual erosion of civil liberties. They felt the drug war was unethical, and a huge waste of money. They support the second amendment, and when Waco and Ruby Ridge occured, they became worried about federal agents. And they agreed with Scalia and Thomas on one occasion, when they opposed the recent ruling upon “eminent domain”.

 This sounds like a lot of the people who post here.

Those “Liberal” policies were not anything the majority of us favored, we mearly tolerated them in order to address the issues we do value, since we are stuck with a two party system.  For the libertarian types I’m refering to, they did the same thing in regareds to the robber barons and the fundamentalists. Since “our” globalists and drug warriors have no problem abandoning our progressive agenda to get in bed with the fundies and the fascists, we need to give them the boot. And since we need more people to make the democratic party viable, replacing them with libertarians sounds like a major improvement, both on compadibility and numereticly. After all, some people hear do try to defend a Leiberman or a Biden, never because they support their positions, but because we need the warm bodies. Ditching Joementum would no longer be an issue if we were to gain a Ron Paul. Hell, we’d finally have someone who has the balls to call out Bush on the war.

Some of them may potentialy have reservations on some of our social issues. Realisticly however once they know which “Liberal” goals we do have and which we don’t, I’d be surprised if anyone didn’t find whatever concessions they would make to us more acceptable than ones previously made to the Fundies and Elitests. These types are also highly unlikely to be the knee jerk single/wedge issue voters.  If there is disagreement over government regulation or socilization of energy/healhtcare, a potential compramize would be to mandate that sutch industries exist as non-profits. The only potential for us confict would be over guns. However, I’ve noticed that a majority of people on this web site tend to support the second amendment. Some always have, others have changed thier minds as a result of this administration. Either way, its a non-negotiable issue for people who live in rural communities, hunters and farmers in particular. Still, for those few who remain stuck on banning guns, realize that hunters, farmers, and outdoorsmen could very quickly become the winning edge on the issue of saving the environment. This should be an adequit compensation. I mean fuck guns, mother nature is far more powerful and destructive than nukes. The whole US postal service could get disgruntled at once and still not approach a hurricane in magnitude. So let’s whatch out for her instead of the postal ones.
This alliance could abolish the patriot act, save the planet, bring manufacturing back to America, end our dependance on foriegn oil, and stop the war on drugs. By legalizeing hemp, farming would become viable again, our dependance on oil would shrink dramaticly (Even if we foolishly maintain our current use of motor vehicles, hemp would still eliminate at least 25% of our various oil needs) trees would be saved, medical costs would drop, and taxation on pot would fund rehibilitation programs for other drug addictions. Oh, and we’d be able to smoke up without worring too.
These people I’m refering to have been sold out by the Republicans. As of now, they do not have reason to belive the Democrats would do anything differently. We should start to make an impression on them that we are not “that kind” of Liberal because, to tell the truth, we are not. And we don’t have to appease either, since these aren’t “that kind” of conservative.

I don’t know if anyone has posted this, but it seems that the Military is getting ready for another war, this time against us.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm

By Adam Brookes
BBC Pentagon correspondent

A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military’s plans for “information operations” – from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.

More down there. Down where? Down there!

As the world turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the military opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies and the modern media offer.

From influencing public opinion through new media to designing “computer network attack” weapons, the US military is learning to fight an electronic war.

The declassified document is called “Information Operations Roadmap”. It was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University using the Freedom of Information Act.

 Well, at least a FOIA request was answered for once. That being said, I have no more good news in regards to this. It gets worse.

Perhaps the most startling aspect of the roadmap is its acknowledgement that information put out as part of the military’s psychological operations, or Psyops, is finding its way onto the computer and television screens of ordinary Americans.

“Information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and Psyops, is increasingly consumed by our domestic audience,” it reads.

“Psyops messages will often be replayed by the news media for much larger audiences, including the American public,” it goes on.

So far, the military has not been exactly convincing in its propaganda. Plus, dispite the efforts of Bush and company, our troops have integrity to spare, and have a habit of letting cats like these out of the bag.

Public awareness of the US military’s information operations is low, but it’s growing – thanks to some operational clumsiness.

Late last year, it emerged that the Pentagon had paid a private company, the Lincoln Group, to plant hundreds of stories in Iraqi newspapers. The stories – all supportive of US policy – were written by military personnel and then placed in Iraqi publications.

And websites that appeared to be information sites on the politics of Africa and the Balkans were found to be run by the Pentagon.

I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think this is exactly legal. If there is a way to shut this down, we gotta get on it.

While I have to say the BBC has declined somewhat in recent years, It is still light years ahead of the American media. Props to Mr. Adam Brookes. What are the chances we’ll get coverage of this on Faux News?  Slim to none. Oh well, we’ll just have to keep hammering. Every little bit helps, said the old lady, as she pissed into the sea.

I was loving it a few weeks ago when Howard Dean knocked Wolf Blitzer on his high, haughty, self important ass. Now it’s Katie Courics turn.

More down there. Down where? Down there!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/

This is what every Dem should be saying. He dosen’t fall into their Rethug traps. He isn’t afraid to call out bullshit for what it is when he hears it. He was a total bad ass on this, no question. Katie Couric tries to spin the lie that Democrats took money from Jack (Abrahm)off*, but Dean will have none of it.

Katie: Hey, wait a second. Democrats took-Democrats took money from Abramoff too, Mr. Dean.

Howard: That is absolutely false. That did not happen. Not one dime of money from Jack Abramoff went to any Democrat at any time.

Katie: According to the CRP, Abramoff and his associates gave 3 million dollars to republicans and 1.5 million to democrats…

Howard: Not-one-dime.

Katie: We’ll obviously have to look into that and clarify that to our viewers at a later date…

Yes Katie, I hope you’ll do that. I hope you will actually get the story right.

Oh yeah. That’s the shit. Right there. Sweet!

This is exactly the opposit of how those DLC losers would have handeled it. If we’re gonna take this country back, we need everyone in a position to get themselves on television to kick ass like Howie D.

For further review, check this out at Think Progress.They sight the very report Couric does, and it backs up Howard’s claim, not Couric’s. Let’s see how soon she admits it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was misinformed by whomever she gets her notes from.  I’ll give her the benifit of doubt, since she hasn’t previously struck me as a blatent right wing hack. Mabey she’ll smell the coffee and step up and be real, unlike Tweety.

http://thinkprogress.org/...

*Parenthesies in tribute to George Clooney’s recent speach at whatever awards ceremony he was at. (Dammit! I’ve been brainwashed by celebrity culture, too.)

 A while ago, one of my dearist friends asked me to pass on an E-mail she recieved. Being the total rock star that I am, I decided to do her one better and put it up for a national audience. Anything for my sexy scorpio.

I know there isn’t a link, and I may be breaking format regulations, but I don’t think anyone will have a problem.

    >LIFE WITHOUT BLACK PEOPLE
    >
    >
    >A very humorous and revealing story is told about a group of white people who were fed up with African Americans, so they joined together and wished themselves away. They passed through a deep dark tunnel and emerged in sort of a twilight zone where there is an America without black people.
    >
    >At first these white people breathed a sigh of relief. At last, they said, No more crime, drugs, violence and welfare. All of the blacks have gone! Then suddenly, reality set in. The “NEW AMERICA” is not America at all-only a barren land.
    >
    >1. There are very few crops that have flourished because the nation was built on a slave-supported system.
    >
    >2. There are no cities with tall skyscrapers because Alexander Mils, a black man, invented the elevator, and without it, one finds great difficulty reaching higher floors.
    >
    >3. There are few if any cars because Richard Spikes, a black man, invented the automatic gearshift, Joseph Gambol, also black,! invented the Super Charge System for Internal Combustion Engines, and Garrett A. Morgan, a black man, invented the traffic signals.
    >
    >4. Furthermore, one could not use the rapid transit system because its procurer was the electric trolley, which was invented by another black man, Albert R. Robinson.
    >
    >5. Even if there were streets on which cars and a rapid transit system could operate, they were cluttered with paper because an African American, Charles Brooks, invented the street sweeper.
    >
    >6. There were few if any newspapers, magazines and books because John Love invented the pencil sharpener, William Purveys invented the fountain pen, and Lee Barrage invented the Type Writing Machine and W. A. Love invented the Advanced Printing Press. They were all, you guessed it, Black.
    >
    >7. Even if Americans could write their letters, articles and books, they would not have been transported by mail because William Barry invented the Postmarking and Canceling Machine, William Purveys invented the Hand Stamp and Philip Downing invented the Letter Drop.
    >
    >8. The lawns were brown and wilted because Joseph Smith invented the Lawn Sprinkler and John Burr the Lawn Mower.
    >
    >9. When they entered their homes, they found them to be poorly ventilated and poorly heated. You see, Frederick Jones invented the Air Conditioner and Alice Parker the Heating Furnace. Their homes were also dim. But of course, Lewis Lattimer Later invented the Electric Lamp, Michael Harvey invented the lantern and Granville T. Woods invented the Automatic Cut off Switch.
    >
    >Their homes were also filthy because Thomas W. Steward invented the Mop & Lloyd P. Ray the Dust Pan.
    >
    >10. Their children met them at the door-barefooted, shabby, motley and unkempt. But what could one expect? Jan E. Matzelinger invented the Shoe Lasting Machine, Walter Sammons! invented the Comb, Sarah Boone invented the Ironing Board and George T. Samon invented the Clothes Dryer.
    >
    >11. Finally, they were resigned to at least have dinner amidst all of this turmoil. But here again, the food had spoiled because another Black Man, John Standard invented the refrigerator.
    >
    >Now, isn’t that something? What would this country be like without the contributions of Blacks, as African-Americans?
    >
    >Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “by the time we leave for work, Americans have depended on the inventions from the minds of Blacks.” Black history includes more than just slavery, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Marcus Garvey & W.E.B. Dubois.
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >PLEASE SHARE, ABUNDANTLY
    >
    >

Well, you heard the lady. Cut, Paste, Foreward.

 There have been so many assholes profiting off human suffering in the past several years, its easy for some to get lost in the crowd. It’s even easier if they are not well know to begin with. Here’s a guy who deserves a bit of attention. His name is Finis Shellnutt. He is, at the very least, an ignorant piece of shit. At worst, he could even make the entire Republican House look respectable all by himself. Anyone who suspects something sketchy went down in regards to Katrina will definetly want to check this guy out.
It’s easy to suspect foul play these days. And when a Bush is somehow linked to the problem, its quite reasonable to focus on them. However, the Bush family aren’t the only bad people in this country. With allegations that the levees were blown, the first instinct is to suspect this adminastration. but in this case, I think a more reasonable place to look would be on a more local level. And of course, you always follow the money.

We remember all the bogus stories about looters that Fox news ran. Unfounded rumors and what not. But at least once, they had a detailed first hand account.

http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/...

Shelnutt came to Hopsicker’s attention when he popped up last weekend in a Katrina feature on Chris Matthew’s Hardball year-end review. Coincidentally – hey, it happens – Shelnutt was also a principal source of the rumours of looters shooting police.

    From the FoxNews transcript of the September 2 O’Reilly Factor:

    O’REILLY: And on the phone from the French Quarter, 53-year-old businessman Finis Shelnutt, who’s surrounded by looters….

    You’re on St. Louis Street. That’s high ground in the French Quarter. No water in the street. But what’s the looter factor there? How many of them are there and what are they doing?

    SHELNUTT: Bill, it started off I guess the night after the hurricane the looting started. And the police were chasing looters a block away from me. And a couple of looters stopped and shot a policeman in the head – in the forehead and killed him.

    Shelnutt continues, describing how he was trapped by the “human volcano” of looters, until a sympathetic O’Reilly says “we’re going to get you help.” Hopsicker found Shelnutt to be the source for at least two reports on FoxNews which spread the poisoning meme that looters were menacing citizens in zombie-like packs and shooting police.

Well, my first instinct is to wonder why he was still in the city to begin with. I guess he was to stupid to heed the warnings and evacuate. I’m also curious as to why he decided to call Fox News. If he just saw an officer get shot, the police would be the normal people to call. Even if local lines were down, I would think the state police would certainly be an option, especialy with the French Quarter being unflooded. Any corpse would not have floated away. With a public statement on record, you’d think someone would have asked him to file a police report.

In light of these suspicious allegations, Hardball still found him to be important enough to bring in. One would hope that Tweety would call him on those allegations. But, as we all know, this is the “Liberal media” and conservatives don’t get the luxury of fact checks and follow up questions.

But, to backtrack, a few days after his desperate plea for help to O’Riley, we see Finis pop up again, this time in Germany’s Das Spiegel. (link expired)

New Orleans – Finis Shellnut is wealthy and he isn’t hiding it, even in the difficult times following the Katrina disaster. The 53-year-old real estate magnate sits in front of one of his buildings in the French Quarter, enjoying a chilled bottle of French champagne.

    The man is a walking glitz machine, from the diamonds on his Rolex to his gold-framed glasses to the silver cross dangling on his chest under his half-open shirt. Shellnut is doing well these days, extremely well. He senses a lot of post-Katrina business coming his way. “Our party’s about to get going again,” he says. He sits next to a flyer depicting his face and advertising his phone number. “The storm destroyed a great deal,” he says, adding, with a smile, “and there’s plenty of space to build houses and sell them for a lot of money.”

    Shellnut wasn’t particularly hard-hit by the storm and the flooding in New Orleans. “My real estate is in the city’s better neighborhoods,” he says, clearly pleased with himself, “a tree fell down here and there, but otherwise everything’s just fine.”

Pissed off yet? Well, cue up you favorite vulgar insult cause you’ll need it.

Despite all the chaos and destruction, the storm and the floods came with a silver lining for people like Shellnut. “Most importantly, the hurricane drove poor people and criminals out of the city,” he says, “and we hope they don’t come back.”

    Shellnut has even conjured up ancient Gallic legend to support his theory of Katrina’s supposedly sanitizing effects. He says that the name “Katrina” once symbolized a kind of cleansing process that only leaves behind the purest elements of a society.

Ok, now that thats out of your system, time for the big one. Courtesy of my hometown San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/...

“Katrina is the best thing to ever happen to this city,” said 53-year-old Finis Shelnutt, who owns a French Quarter restaurant and now spends his day sitting alone at a table outside hoping to sell a cold beer or soda to journalists or rescue workers passing by.

    Telling of the deep-rooted divide that exists between black and white and rich and poor in this Southern city, Shelnutt said the storm created an opportunity to clean up New Orleans, which is filled with “slums and too many bad areas.”

    He hopes the city builds a golf course or two where the poor neighborhoods, home to mostly black people, are still underwater.

    “Change is good,” Shelnutt said, denying it was a race issue. “They will find there is a better world elsewhere, like in Houston or Atlanta.”

I’m thinking of that special word I usually reserve for Barbera Bush. What a “See You Next Tuesday”. I mean, even David Duke was pissed off at what happend during Katrina, and this Shellnutt prick is practicly pitching a tent in his pants. Its ironic this guy dwells in the French Quarter. I think Americans should think twice about calling the French wimps. The last time anyone talked this kind of shit in France, they chopped their heads off.

I find it very interesting that the source of the debunked tales of looting and murder come from a local multi-millionare real estate bigshot, the guy most likely to profit off this. He struck me as a bit too happy with what occured. He certainly seems to have given alot of forethought into what he could do with that real estate if only that part of town were “cleansed” of the poor.

A lot of people are quick to dismiss claims that the levees were blown. I just don’t understand why so many claims from the people who lived there are outright dismissed. Is it because talking heads from the “Libral Media” use a sarcastic tone of voice when they mention it, or because those honest right wing partisans say “don’t be ridiculus”. We tend to forget that the vast majority of people in this country don’t give a shit about politics. Does anyone realy think that poor, underemployed, undereducated people pay much, if any attention to national politics. I don’t think that people who just had their whole world wiped of the map, have no idea weather friends and family are alive, haven’t eaten or bathed in days, and have literarly nowhere to go would be thinking like Karl Rove and trying to find a way to spin this with the media in order to smear the Bush administration. I doubt they are running around getting their stories straight and comming up with talking points for a media blitz. I don’t belive they are looking to take advantage of the situation so they can gain …ummm, whats in it for them again? Well, never mind. I think its far more likely these people were in a deep state of shock none of us can fathom. If they were cohearently thinking at all, it would probably be about food, sleep, shelter, where they will live , who else is alive, ect. Thats a bit more likely than thinking up bullshit stories.

And mabey the levees didn’t blow up. But taking a serious look is not an unreasonable request. And I don’t see a reason why Finis isn’t someone worth looking in to. At the very least be we’ll just be pointing out to America what scum those with power realy are.

Yesterday on CNN, Nancy Pelosi got a knockout shot in at CNN talking barbie doll Kyra Phillips.A single shot that may knockout the entire MSM propaganda network. While being interviewed in the partisan framed manner we’ve become all to accustomed to, Ms. Pelosi did what we’ve been waiting for someone to do when she said, “Kyra, if you want to make a case for the White House, you should go on their payroll.”

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

If you watch this, you will notice Kyra’s facial expression as her eyes pop wide open.  Her tone of voice changes as she recoils back slightly and gives a very nervous smile.
Later in the interview,  Kyra once again denies that she “or any other CNN employee” is a paid hack a bit to emphatecly, and veers into exaggerated personal disdain for the way the White House handeld the hurricane.

If you view for yourself, and you agree with me, I’d suggest writing CNN and voice your suspicions. Throwing the “or any other CNN” employee” would be helpfull as well. Some kind of investigation could answer this question of her priorities. It is possible that Ms Pelosi has found another Armstrong Williams, which would be a victory for the good guys. It is a public outing of the Rovian propaganda matrix, one that will carry over to all other talking heads in the 24 hour.

Even if  Kyra Phillips is innocent.

See, the way I look at it is like this. If Kyra is not a paid hack, the body language says something else. If you think back a month or two, you’ll remember that Bob Novak, against his lawyer’s advice, wrote a response addressing his involvement in the Valerie Plame incident. (  http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak01.html  ) It appears that poor Novak’s feelings were hurt, and he was extremely self conscious about having his integrity questioned by his peers, in addition to the many people he had pissed off over the years. This looks like a pattern here. With Fox News, Jeff Gannon, Judith Miller, ect. the MSM is being dismissed by the public. Here in the liberal blogosphere we get more hits on any given day than any  24 hour news station has vewiers during prime time, the only MSM figure who gets any respect is Keith Olbermann. Every other talking head in the buissiness must be nervous as hell. With falling ratings, they are worried about their relevence.

When the Right first began building their propaganda matrix, they started by pushing the theory of a Liberal media bias. Prehaps there really was one at one time, or mabey they just saw it that way. Regardless, over time they were abel to subdue the press by stigmatizing them to the point where the MSM became self-conscious and overcompensated. “LIberal media bias” became the all purpose excuse for any criticism.This coincided with unleashing their own right wing hacks, and eventually, bribery of reporters and collumests. Add to all this the pattern of all mass media to imatate whatever new formula shows any success, and you get the sad joke of a press we see today.

As the public sees through this, the people in the MSM are very worried about their own careers. With so few figures respected these days, they are all desperate for something to gain credibility. I don’t know who will manage to do so, but I do know this: no one wants to lose anymore than they already have.  

Nancy Pelosi may have information on Phillips I’m not aware of, or mabey she just had enough of the bullshit. Either way she has exposed their Achilles’ heel. The hacks do not want to be exposed, and the honest do not want to be labeled as hacks. Where as the “Liberal Media” started as theory and evolved into a talking point, Right wing propaganda and paid disinformation from the right is a proven fact. If they can subdue the press with smoke and mirrors, imagine what we can do with the real deal. If a reporter is worried of being labeled as a member of a liberal media that dose not exist, they’ve gotta be scaired shittless of being labeled or exposed as part of a very real and unscrupulous lie factory.
From now on the left has to call any hint of bias “White House propaganda”. No reporter’s credibility can handel that.

Here in California, as you all know, we were victems of the energy industry manipulating the market to screw us out of billions. Interestingly the price fluctuations were paralleled with what was happlening in DC. The price started to rise then stabelized while the 2000 election results were held up.  Once Bush got in the went through the roof. Clinton then capped the prices for the remander of his term, Bush then removed the caps, and then they realy went nuts until May when Jim Jeffords left the Republican party, thus giving Democrats controll of senate. That day the prices dropped back down and never rose again.
Which brings me to oil.
I read in one of our newspapers (either the SF Chronical or SJ Mercury News) about one of the oil refineries in the bay area (Pittsburg?) being suspisciously closed about a year ago. There was nothing wrong with the plant at all. After our energy debacle a few years back, one can’t blame me for being suspicious. We have to watch these people like hawks. So since we have that one refinery here sitting idle as prices go through the roof, I Imagine this must also be going on in other parts of the country. Are there any refineries in your state not in operation at this time or running below capacity? Let’s try to figure out to what extent this is going on.

 Yeah, like we didn’t see this comming. I would have assumed they’d be smart enough to wait a week or so before letting this out of the bag. Oh, well at least we know what Chaney has been up to the past few days.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/hurricane_katrina.html

 From article:”WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (HalliburtonWatch.org) — The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Chronicle reported today. The work was assigned to Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary under the Navy’s $500 million CONCAP contract awarded to KBR in 2001 and renewed in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi.”
Gee, I feal alot better now, the Government is finally getting shit done. It’s refreshing to know that Halliburton will get $500 million. With all the people starving to death right now, I assumed that there must not be any money left. We can feel secure knowing that the CEO of Halliburton won’t need to dip into his offshore tax shelters in order to put prime rib on the table. And hey, those bones might still have a shred of beef on them by the time they float on down to Bourban St.

We’ve seen the right wing attack machine in action for at least a decade now. We’ve seen how vile and brutal they can be in attacking those on the left. But it has been surprising how tepid they have been with Sean Penn. I mean, they love attacking Barbera Striesand, Angelina Jolie, Michael Moore, ect. So when Sean Penn goes to Iran to cover the elections for liberal San Francisco’s home newspaper, as he had prexiously done in Iraq, you’d think the Roveites would be in a self rightious uproar. You’d think they would be spinning this into Jane Fonda territory, seeing how it’s the closest anyone in Hollywood has come to her visit to Hanoi many years ago. So why don’t we see the right doing anything beyond the bare minimum of criticism. I wondered about this and then it hit me.
Do you know why you don’t see the Limbaughs, Hannitys, and O’Rileys giving Sean Penn shit?
Well, put it this way, Could you picture Sean Penn taking any shit from these guys?
Me neither.
The right could and would spin his visit into aiding and abetting the enemy if, say Susan Sarandon had done the exact same thing. They should be downright sexuly arosed at sutch an inviting target. But it ain’t happening.
For those too young to remember Sean Penn did a few months in jail for punching out a paperazi photographer   about 20 years ago. He’s had no incidents since then, He was still pretty mutch a kid when it happened. But I think that may be the reason that they back off. Penn’s a grown man now who I’m sure would not make the same mistake again. (mutch as I’d like to see him take a pillowcase of RC Cola cans to most wingnuts) But it goes too show what we are dealing with.
These assholes are bullies. Howard Dean, Harry Reid, and Larry Johnson have shown that standing up to them works. Sean Penn proves the perception one might do so is also more that enough to send them running away like the pussies they are.
Well, anyways, here’s Sean Penn’s six part series on his visit to Iran, enjoy.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/22/DDGJUEAF041.DTL&hw=sean+penn&sn= 004&sc=600