Author: parvenu

One thing not discussed at all in the current Imus flap is his legal liability. It seems to me that if you publicly SLANDER or DENIGRATE another person’s reputation (without proof), you should be liable for a civil suit for damages. In the Imus case, he slandered every African-American woman on the Rutgers Basketball team by calling them “Hos”. The accompanying descriptive “nappy headed” simply further defines who he is identifiying as a “Ho”. The accepted definition of a “Ho” is ghettoese for the word whore, or prostitute. It seems to me that Imus, MSNBC, General Electric. and any other business interests associated with his show have legal exposure to a strong and costly civil suit! In fact there should busloads of lawyers headed for Rutgers even as we speak to recruit possible clients from the African-American members of the women’s basketball team. I find it strange that with the possibility of a big time civil suit that this event offers that the public discussion is limited to the old time, oft used adage that this is an opportunity to discuss the racial problems in America. We have all heard this line before; in the aftermath of Rodney King, after the brutal dragging death by a pickup truck of a black man in Texas, after the incident where the New York police fired 51 shots fired into the body of an unarmed black, and so it goes on. I say to hell with the opportunity to start discussing racism in America. I say “see ya in court”!

Fasten your seatbelts; George W. Bush does not intend to leave office.  Many mainstream Americans will immediately reject this idea a completely preposterous. However, since this is my prediction, sit back and read and I’ll give you my take on his plans. First of all let’s bring George W into clearer focus. Contrary to the caricatures portrayed on the late night variety shows, cartoonists, and people in the left blogesphere; George W is not a buffoon or a misguided fool. People let’s get one thing straight, George W is a highly intelligent schemer, who has been playing the Washington power brokers like a well oiled fiddle since his election to the presidency in 2000.
My military training taught me this very important axiom; “never under estimate your enemy”. America has demonstrated a longstanding affinity for under estimating the enemy. We have done this with amazing consistency in war after war, going back to the Civil War. However, in order to make a credible prediction, one must consider that all parties involved can and will play their most powerful strongest hand into the circumstances of any critical situation. George W is a man on a holy mission to save the world from “subversive radical Islamic extremists”. In my opinion he is an obsessive fanatic. From his perspective no other person Republican or Democrat, can be trusted to complete the mission. He alone has been ordained by God to save America from this exploding pernicious scourge. The fact that he believes this is true deep within his soul is what makes George W so dangerous.

All of the prestigious study groups, military and civilian, that he has personally commissioned have submitted reports to the President, only to have them rejected. George W rejected each and every study because the findings were contrary to his personal beliefs as how the battle, not especially for Iraq, but against all of radical Islamic extremists should proceed. Finally in desperation he reached out to a document similar to the one written by Frederick Kagan of The American Enterprise Institute. Kagan a resident scholar at AEI has NO Middle East education or experience. He has a BA in Soviet and East European studies and a PhD in Russian and Soviet Military History from Yale. (Wonder if he’s in the Skull and Bones along with Bush and Kerry? Hmmm?) George’s plan is to follow the Kagan model and escalate the number of troops in around the perimeter of Baghdad to more than 20,000.

This plan, like all of the previous operations in Iraq is doomed to a bloody horrific failure. However, George W knows that the Democratic Congress will attempt to oppose his troop escalation, so he and the right wing media will spend all of 2007 saturating the country with ridicule, placing the blame for these new Iraq failures on “Democratic obstructionists” and traitors. However, this right wing publicity campaign will be somewhat muted as the national interest shifts to focus on the Democratic and Republican primaries, and anticipation builds toward the nomination conventions for the two presidential candidates.
At some point prior to the actual presidential election, George W will issue an electrifying public announcement effectively stating that “Since America is still locked in a deadly war with militant Islam around the globe, He cannot and will not step down and relinquish the Presidency at this critical time.” America will be horrified, and this will create the greatest Constitutional crisis that America has ever seen. The forces coalescing around the pro and anti Bush camps will drag America closer and closer into a violent civil war. The issue will hinge on whether the country is actually at war in accordance with the Constitution. A narrow Supreme Court decision in Bush’s favor will fail to pacify the situation.
A truly bipartisan Congress will finally assume control  of the military, and the military will remove George W under a military provision which allows a military officer to be removed from command if it is determined that person is no longer fit to command. Bush’s removal will not be pretty. The election will then go forward for an abbreviated presidential term. Mitt Romney will be elected President. Congress will immediately undertake the huge complex problem of how to deal with a Commander-in-chief who may have mental problems and/or obsessions prior to taking the oath of office; or those instances where after assuming the responsibilities of the office, the President developed mental problems preventing proper command of the military of the United States government.      

How do we get the the Cheeseheads, the Hogs and the other football Fanatics to put down the beer, kill the TV, and pay attention to the dismantling of America that is going on all around them? Ignorance and inattention on behalf of the majority of Americans is the real weapon of mass destruction that is destroying the country. Here is the latest manifestation that is destined to further shred the fabric of the lives of middleclass Americans.
State governments are lining up to sell/lease their roadway infrastructure. Privatization of public roads, turnpikes and other toll roads is the latest firesale in America which has politicians and investment bankers licking their chops over the prospect of squeezing billions more out of the American public. Chicago leased out its Skyway freeway for $1.8 billion with all of the funds from this long term lease going to pay off bills for running the city. The Governor of Indiana has signed a lease privatizing the 157-mile interstate for 75 years. The tolls will increase, nearly double for cars, with truck tolls scheduled over time to increase by 120 percent.In the wake of the Chicago and Indiana leases, 20 other states have passed legislation allowing similar privatizing deals for their respective roadways. Forget the outraged motorist who now has to pay double to commute back and forth to work over these roads; WE ALL will be PAYING huge increased costs for all goods, produce and commodities that are currently trucked across country. The trucking companies, who are also fighting the theft of America’s highways, will ultimately pass along the increased tolls to the merchant, who will pass it along to YOU, the consumer. Private companies, particularly foreign bankers do not have to answer to the voters and hence can raise tolls to whatever level they desire. Their attitude is that if you feel the tolls are unreasonable, then feel free to use the other remaining (public) non-toll roads for your journey. Aside from the serious economic hardships these leases will cause on a nation-wide basis; consider the problems and confusion that will occur with emergency attempts to organize mass mobilization and population movements in the aftermath of a large scale terrorist attack on the country. This explosive trend can only be stopped at the Federal level, as this is clearly a new development that will ultimately cripple the nation. It is in the national interest that access to our highways be free and remain under government control. The current issue (January/February 2007) of Mother Jones magazine has an excellent in depth report on this subject titled, “How Goldman Sachs is Selling Off America’s Highways.” Please read it and take some action.
Thank you…

To my fellow Democrats who have been somewhat intimidated by the Republican campaign jingoism which brands all Democrats as being members of the “Cut and Run” party. In advance of the upcoming congressional elections, I wish to publicly declare that I am a “hard core”, “unashamed”, “card-carrying”, Run and Cut Democrat.
As a Korean War veteran, I have lived through a substantial portion of the landmark historical events that built those traditions that the world has come to recognize as demonstrative of the strength of the American character. There is a unique feeling that binds us to this land in which we reside, a feeling so strong and fierce that in its heat it summarily transcends all of our petty personal differences.

Many decades ago when Barry Goldwater ran for President, a popular political expression at the time was “My Country, Right or Wrong!” This saying not only epitomized the true patriotic fervor of belonging to America, while also acknowledging the ultimate responsibility of every citizen for America’s welfare and protection.
I recall an oil painting that I viewed many years ago. The gripping image captured in the artwork showed a large bald eagle snared in a dangerous situation where it is trapped atop a short woody shrub. One of the eagle’s claws is entangled inside the shrub by several twisted vines, which have snaked their way through the thick forest undergrowth. I find this depiction of the eagle’s struggle strongly apropos to America’s current state.  The message from the painting is obvious. Unless someone cuts the eagle loose, she is certain to perish in the clutches of the snare. Likewise the message from the national picture is just as clear. Unless we cut America loose from her current dilemma, she too faces a similar prospect. It is in this spirit that I will “run” to the polls on November 7 and cast my vote with the unrelenting intent of “cutting” America free from her current destructive entrapment.

The infrastructure of America has decayed to the point of falling apart. roads, bridges, the water and sewer piping that feeds our cities, the national electrical power and communication grids, our public buildings, schools and municipal, are all falling into dangerous disrepair across the nation. The National Debt is currently $8.5 Trillion and is rising on average at the rate of $1.75 Billion per day! Recently some cash bound states have leased their parkway toll roads to foreign investment cartels in an effort to provide some fiscal relief. Some see this as the first step in the selling off of America to foreign interests. This certainly is not the picture of America that those veterans, interred in Arlington Cemetery envisaged as they gave their lives in service to their country.
America is a great country with unlimited potential for achieving new wonders and marvels, but she does not have infinite resources. The main damage to America is the result of catastrophic mismanagement of OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom), the Iraqi war. The total cost of the Iraq war is projected to eventually be somewhere between $700 and $1.2 trillion, assuming a withdrawal starts in 2006 with the gradual final withdrawal taking place over the next 5 years. The official figures of the number of American servicemen wounded stands at 19945. However, due to inaccuracies in the military procedures tracking this statistic, the estimated number of wounded personnel ranges from the 19945 upwards to as high as 48100. Misspent resources (both personnel and fiscal) deplete America’s real defensive preparedness.

The purpose of the National Guard and the Reserves is to have a standing citizen/soldier military force available to defend the homeland against possible military invasion or a large scale internal insurrection. The indisputable truth that no politician will utter is the fact that the American homeland is more vulnerable now to an invasion by a sizeable foreign military force than at any other time in American history. The facts behind this assertion are as follows. At this time the National Guard and the Reserves are depleted. Army and Marine Corps enlistment levels are way down. There are approximately 160.000 American military deployed currently in Iraq. If a military threat arose against America, the draft would have to be activated. However, it would be impossible to train the draftees in time to produce an effective military counter force. Make no mistake; perceived American military weakness is certain to tempt a foreign aggressor to take the gamble. A foreign military invasion preceded by a series of high profile terrorist attacks around the country would be devastating to America.
The President’s argument for the status quo in Iraq is that if we “cut and run” from Iraq, America will lose all influence in the Middle East. The Republicans also argue that we would also be guilty of abandoning the Iraqi people to the “islamo-facists”. The old axiom, “Pride goes before a fall” certainly holds true here; and I for one will “run” to the voting booth and cast my vote in the sincere hope that it will help “cut” America loose from the deadly trap in which she is so deeply entangled.    

Connecticut senatorial candidate Ned Lamont has ONE great advantage over his opponent Joe Lieberman, and that is the fact that Lieberman is a SORE LOSER. Even though this fact is common knowledge, the Lamont campaign has not effectively tied this negative to Joe Lieberman’s public image in the mind of the Connecticut voter. The current situation is this, if Lamont makes this the cornerstone of his campaign (via radio and TV ads) he will win. If he doesn’t he will lose. The single message from the Lamont campaign should declare that Joe Lieberman is a “SORE LOSER” and then ask the simple question, “Why would you vote for a LOSER?”
The Republicans have dumped their candidate and the RNC is putting huge amounts of money into the Lieberman campaign. They are also telling all local registered Republican voters to cross over and vote for the independent/democrat? Lieberman. These tactics are creating a formidable opposition to the Lamont campaign.

The majority of voters in America are either democratic or personally subscribe to the principles that the Democratic party espouse, and in spite of this, the Republicans keep winning elections. The primary reason for this phenomenon is that the Republicans have learned how to craft their campaign messages in a simple, uncomplicated way that the least intelligent voter can understand. Their messages are so void of content as to be completely meaningless and at times they even border on the nonsensical, however short and simple works. For some reason Democratic candidates exhibit no desire to incorporate these techniques in their campaigns and so they continue to lose critical elections.

There is one thing that Americans don’t like, and that is a “SORE LOSER”. Lieberman already has this label hung on him by the national media after he lost the Democratic primary and declared that he would keep running as an independent. The Lamont campaign must keep this drumbeat up simply because there are a lot of Republicans who don’t like a SORE LOSER either!  

A hot question….Is the DailyKOS gone, shutdown, kaput?? I have tried accessing their website with NO success. I was able to bring up Googles’ last copy from the www.dailykos.com site and all of the latest entries posted were dated Friday, December 2, 2005. So does anybody have any idea what’s up over there??
— parvenu —

This is one Blog that American citizens who care about the future of the country better pay attention to. The issues detailed below are as serious as a heart attack, so listen up and pay attention to the dots!
Preface: General Eisenhower, who was elected President in 1952, introduced a policy that institutionalized the preservation of all of the natural resources on our land and under the ocean waters close to our shores and under American control and jurisdiction. Eisenhower championed this idea as the result of his personal experience with extreme material shortages in his position of Supreme Commander of the American and Allied forces during World War II. He stated that that it was a matter of national security that the United States protect and preserve its indigenous natural resources, and it must acquire any and all resources needed from foreign sources or from the international market. From his perspective preservation of indigenous natural resources was a major component of American Military preparedness. This policy was scrupulously followed by successive Presidential administrations until recent times.

In 1970, a major under water oil find off the coast of Washington was announced in the New York Times. The geologists estimated that the size of this reserve was larger than the Saudi Arabian reserves and that it would meet the oil consumption needs of the United States “at the current rate of growth” for the next 100 years! The particulars concerning this historic find remained on the pages of the New York Times for two days and then completely disappeared from print or discussion.

In 1972, geologists announced a gigantic oil find in the South China Sea. They estimated that the offshore reserves in this location were at least 100 times larger than any known oil deposits in the world, including Saudi Arabia. Immediately, all of the other Asian nations ringing the South China sea started contacting western oil interests for proposals for exploration off their respective shores. However, China announced to the world that the Peoples Republic of China and the PRC alone owned all of reserves in the South China Sea, and any exploration by anyone without permission from the PRC would be considered a trespasser and would be subject to all of the military might of the PRC. However, Nixon temporarily opened the door for exploration and drilling by American oil companies through his famous “Ping-Pong diplomacy” and a subsequent visit to Beijing in 1972.
Currently both Communist China and the United States of America are both locked in a post-cold-war struggle to acquire foreign non-indigenous sources of raw materials, including oil. The Chinese Communists flush with American billions are sending legions of trade representatives around the globe to purchase acquisition rights to raw materials from foreign governments. Their recent successes have been in the Sudan and in Canada to name two, and most such deals have occurred during the George W. Bush presidency. The Chinese do not view the United States as a competitor; but rather as a fading super power, whose decadent needs for raw materials are self-serving and are interfering with China’s destined expansion to become the ultimate power in the world.

June 22, 2005, Chevron made a $16 billion purchase offer for its smaller U.S. rival, Unocal Corp.  Subsequently, CNOOC Ltd., China’s largest offshore oil and gas producer is considering submitting a counter bid for Unocal that would trump Chevron’s offer.

A provision in the current Energy Bill being currently debated in the Senate would fund exploration for gas and oil in the site of the reserves offshore from Washington State. The Senator from Washington is fighting against this provision of the Energy bill on the grounds that offshore drilling in this area will create tremendous environmental and ecological damage. However, this is a weak argument compared to the risk it poses to the security of the United States! Make no mistake China is not our friend. As matter of fact, technically we are still at war with China from the days of the Korean War. We never formally ended hostilities with China. We (and the United Nations) signed a truce with North Korea which exists today, but that truce does not include China or relieve her from her role of combatant against the United States on the Korean peninsula.

So let’s connect the dots. If CNOOC buys Unocal, it will own an American oil company. If the Senate passes the Energy bill with the provision to open up the oil reserves offshore from the State of Washington, CNOOC/Unocal will have the right to setup offshore rigs and start pumping oil into tankers bound for China. It should be noted that the Communist Chinese kicked American oil interests out of the South China Sea as soon as their (PRC) engineers were capable of designing and building deep sea oil platforms, using technology that they learned from the hopeful American oil companies. Under these circumstances could you visualize any American oil consortium buying a Communist Chinese oil company?
America’s security is being compromised by greedy oil interests, who care little for the future security of the country and are only concerned with money regardless from whose hands it is received. The current situation merits the necessity for those real patriots to standup and step out before it is too late. With a dedicated nipple into American oil reserves, the Chinese will have won the battle for economic expansion without touching their own South China Sea reserves while draining ours to meet their needs. Sure the other members of the oil lobby will have their own nipples to exploit, but at the ultimate price of military preparedness and national security. This situation aids our enemies and compromises our own security. Its time to get our heads out of the behinds of “Desperate Housewives” and get in tune with world strategies. Its time to WAKE UP AMERICA!!!