George Bush Can't Dance

And the Fuhrer was a lousy artist.

George "Dancin' Fool" Bush on the steps of the White House March 4, 2008.
No Further Comment

Raiders Of The Lost LapTop....

Say what you will about the Colombian military, but they sure know how to spend our tax dollars. While the United States can’t manage to avoid zillions of civilian casualties in Iraq, the Colombians have the technology to bomb a foreign country, kill everybody on their target list, and still manage to preserve an enemy laptop. A very special laptop.

You see this laptop belonged to Raul Reyes, the FARC’s now-dead #1 foreign policy guy who had been negotiating hostage releases with Venezuela, France, Switzerland and Spain. Apparently Reyes stored inside it the very evidence to support every harebrained conspiracy theory that the Colombian government would like the world to know about. And they are all true, because the Colombian secret police would never lie.

Monday, General Oscar Naranjo held a press conference to disclose that
the government now had evidence that Ecuador's President had ties to FARC,
"including contacts about political proposals and local military commanders."

In the evening another Naranjo press conference revealed the fruit of an even deeper search of the laptop where still more FARConia was to be found. This time the ties were with Venezuela, and included a possible 300 million dollar cash money payment, although it remained unclear whether “Venezuela actually delivered this money to the rebels.”

Rubbed again, the magic laptop revealed correspondence between Hugo Chavez and the FARC going back 16 years. Who knew laptops even lasted that long and/or jungle rebels would upload a decade’s worth of incriminating evidence each time they upgrade their hardware?

Rub the magic laptop again and it reveals that the FARC were constructing nuclear weapons in their primitive jungle camps!

In conclusion “Naranjo did not provide details of the payments, or the uranium claim, and none of the documents were made public” The End!

Because Ohio Rocks...part 1

I'm a little "antsy" because of the election today, elation, paranoia, nervousness but in the end, I hope we will all get some satisfaction and because Ohio Rocks, I am posting the official DEVO version of Satisfaction! DEVO, a totally original rock band from AKRON, OHIO. This version of Satisfaction is what made them famous and was produced by Brian Eno.
Let's all indulge in a little DEVOLUTION!

Children! Play Nice!

'Did I say Osama? I meant Obama!' says Clintonite

by James Oliphant

A lawyer in a predominantly Democratic suburb of Cleveland relates this tale to The Swamp on the day before the all-important Ohio primary:

So last night around dinner time, the phone rings. It’s the Hillary campaign–official number, per the caller ID. The woman on the other end asks me if Hillary can count on my support Tuesday. I say I have not decided.

She asks what would help me decide. I say, “Well . . . maybe she can make Bill her vice president.” She does not know how to take me, of course, but has to assume I am serious. “I don’t think she can do that.” “Bill will have a significant role in major decisions, though, won’t he?” I ask. “Oh, certainly he will be very involved. Do you like Bill?” “Very much.” I reply.

She then launches into a two-minute spiel on all the very specific initiatives and proposals Hillary has put forth on health care, the war in Iraq, etc., etc. At the end of her spiel, she says, “And we haven’t heard anything that specific from Osama bin Laden.”

I say, “You did not just say that.” She replies, “I’m sorry . . . just a slip of the tongue.” She then thanks me for my time and encourages me to vote for Hillary on Tuesday.

The lawyer says he was "stunned" and tells The Swamp the call originated from the Clinton campaign in Columbus. Are the dirty tricks ramping up as we get down to the wire? Swamp readers in Ohio and Texas, relate your own encounters with the Clinton or Obama campaigns if you've had them.

This was reported just this morning, thanks to Americablog!
Negative Campaigning? Dirty Tricks? Naw, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

Where's Vicki?

You can click on the image for enlargement. This is the last time that the public has seen Vicki Iseman, the woman identified as the lobbyist that John McCain supposedly had an affair with. This is a screen capture of her biography on the website of the firm, Alcade and Fay which she worked for.
The bio was pulled the day after the New York Times ran the controversial story which was condemned by everyone connected with John McCain including his wife.
Every one except Vicki.
This post is not trying to actually insinuate that something has "happened" to Vicki.
We'd just like to know: Where's Vicki Iseman and what does she think about all of this?

The Return Of Per Duck

In the 1970's I discovered the music of the Norwegian Guitarist, Terje Rypdal. He was a rock guitarist who became a very unique jazz player and composer. His music is very evocative of the atmosphere of Norway and the ocean.
Not only an original guitarist but he became a composer and has quite a few recorded orchestral pieces with his atmospheric guitar as a featured instrument.
This is a piece from the early 80's called The Return of Per Duck.
An artist named Kaj Stenval created the evocative cartoony Duck paintings which tell a story. I really enjoyed this and it is a very good way for me to share my appreciation of Terje Rypdal..

Just Ask Derrick!

The reporter has obviously picked the wrong person to demonstrate that Obama Supporters don't have a grasp of the issues or their candidates position. Listen, this guy will give you coherent talking points. A young man with a future!

WHY WE NEED PAPER BALLOTS!

The video is satirical piece from The Onion, one of Americas longest running political satire journals.
But really, have we gotten anywhere in resolving the controversy regarding the political affiliation of the companies providing the electronic voting machines in America since the 2004 elections?
Have any real attempts been made to resolve the hackability issues?
Have there been any attempts to resolve the issues of accuracy?
There has been a lot of talk, but as we head into the 2008 Presidential election, controversies regarding the accuracy of the role of electronic voting machines in the primaries in many states, including current unresolved issues in New york and New Hampshire demonstrate that there are huge problems and very little has been done to safeguard the integrity of our right to an honest vote.
This is an article from February 29th, 2008 from Cleveland Newscast 5 that only highlights the inaccuracies still plaguing the Ohio Electronic Voting Technology.
In a pretest of the system, two out of three attempts to scan ballots failed!

The Senator Has A Little Accident....

This is an incredible encounter last year between a reporter in the Green Zone in Baghdad and John McCain when he went for his fabled walk outside of the Green Zone with an armed escort in a flack jacket to prove how everything was just peachy and getting better every day in every way! (if you recall, shortly after the Seanator was wisked away, a bomb blast leveled the market and killed 21 people) This story comes from the TBR News Organization and is one of the scariest things I have read in a long time and it's pathetically ridiculous to boot! It seemed a perfect opportunity to recycle this image from March of last year.

"There is nothing new here to report. The troops are clearing out one nest of patriots only to have them move down the road. The DoD is fudging on the death tolls and they never mention the lunatics, the drug use or the semi-mutinous grunts, the constant attacks on the Green Zone with mortars and rockets and so on, and on. I am considered useful so I get to stay here. At least I get good food and relative safety unlike the foot troops. Now, the nutty Cheney wants to hive off more troops to invade Pakistan to help out their vanishing dictator. Never happen, Dick. And here is just a personal vignette of an experience I and my psychologist buddy had with the Republican probable nominee, Senator McCain. He came here, as you might know, to “inspect the situation.” Jesus, what a farce! There he was, walking around a marketplace with more armed guards than Bush has, and wearing a huge bullet-proof vest. Anyway, after he “inspected” the market, he came to the Green Zone for some rigged conference with the lying generals. My buddy and I were going to visit another friend when we saw guards, etc, in front of a rec room door. Curious, we went into another unguarded room, opened several doors and guess what? There was the Senator all by himself, sitting on a folding chair by a card table. We were a little awed so I said ‘Hello, Senator. Sorry to bother you.” He looked at us like we were cows and kept blinking. Finally, he smiled and said, ‘Hey, there, soldiers! How is it going? Is it going good?” and my friend the shrink said, “Why yes, Senator. Everything is great!” And McCain smiled at nothing and looked around the room.

“Well…I’m glad to hear it. You are the General?” And I said, a little sarcastically, “Why no, Senator, not quite yet.” And he looked at me like I was a sheep or something, smiling s silly smile. “Oh” he said to the table, “Let’s hope it gets a little cooler here. Have you been here long?” My friend said, “Too long Senator.” “Why that’s good, General,” the Senator replied to the ceiling. Then his lips moved but he said nothing. He looked up and smiled. My wife’s grandfather did just that. And the Senator may have been sitting right near us but believe me, he was somewhere else. Then he began a conversation with someone who wasn’t there and my friend took my arm and said, “I think we should get the hell out of here,” and we started to go back the way we came when some civilian came in. “It’s time to go to the meeting, John,” but McCain just smiled and kept on talking to the table. The civilian said, “All right, gentlemen, time to go. The Senator is very tired and has jet lag.” And when we left, the Senator was talking complete nonsense. Later, one of the staff personnel told both of us that the Senator had “a little accident” and he had to change his pants. Jesus H. Christ! This nut is going to be a President? My friend, who is a pro, said he was very obviously suffering from pre-Alzheimer’s and believe me, although I am not trained, this one was a pure space case. They must know this. I guess they give him a shot of something before he gets out in public but if you saw him with a vacant stare, talking to himself, you would not have to be a professional shrink to know that putting this pathetic man into the Oval Office would be a worse mistake than putting Bush in. At least as far as we know, Bush doesn’t talk to the walls and wet himself.”

Eeeeyikes!

Worthless or Worth Less?

Every day I watch in fascinated horror as the value of my American dollars which I take out of the ATM Machines here in France dwindles. As of today, the value of one US Dollar is a mere 49 centimes. Back in the 90's, the dollar was worth something! I remember when my dollars were worth about 1,30 Euros. When the Euro was first introduced, the Euro and the dollar were fairly equal in value.

Now, the news here always has features of French tourists in New York shopping. Yes, the cost of living is dramatically rising here as well. The big news story of the week is the astromnomical rise in food prices in the last year. For name brands, the price has increased as much as 48%.

We pay a lot more for fuel because of taxes. It is sold by the liter and would probably work out to over 6 dollars a gallon with the present adjustment for exchange.
But in the USA, I read that the price for regular gas will hit $4.00 a gallon this spring! This must be affecting all of those who actuually have to deal with thinking about the cost of things. In other words, the middle class and the poor.

I really wonder what is behind the strategy of the Federal Reserve Board? Today I read a piece about Republican Congressman Ron Paul commenting to Ben Bernake, the Chairman of the federal Reserve.

In the article, Congressman Ron Paul slammed Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke during a House Financial Services Committee meeting yesterday for following a policy of deliberately destroying the dollar and wiping out the American middle class.

Paul held Bernanke to task over his refusal to address the decline of the dollar and its clear link to inflation.

"Inflation comes from the unwise increase in the supply of money credit....to argue that we can continue to debase the currency, which is really the policy of that you're following, purposely debasing value of currency - which to me seems so destructive....it just puts more pressure on the federal reserve to create capital out of thin air in order to stimulate the economy and usually that just goes into mal-investment," said Paul.

Paul highlighted the fact that the M3 money supply was rising at a rate of 16 per cent and that this was the real rate of inflation.

"History is against you," Paul told Bernanke, "History is on the side of hard money - if you look at stable prices you have to look at the only historic sound money that's lasted more than a few years - fiat money always ends, gold is the only thing where you get stable prices," he added, pointing out that despite the price of oil's rapid ascent, it had remained flat when compared to the price of gold.

"I cannot see how we can continue to accept the policy of deliberately destroying the value of money as an economic value," said Paul, adding that the policy was "immoral," and would lead to a reduction in American's living standards and "the middle class being wiped out."

Asked how he could defend a policy of deliberately depreciating the dollar, Bernanke stumbled through his response and was basically forced to agree with Paul's point.

Paul's comments came on the day that the dollar hit its all time low against the Euro.

Earlier this week, former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan laid the groundwork for the further collapse of the greenback by encouraging Gulf states to abandon their dollar peg.

A History Of Evil

I found this little video by Ole-Magnus Saxegarde on YouTube to be most entertaining and a really brilliant piece of Primitive Flash Animation.
In the artist's own words:

"The film was intended to show what people have believed in and pointed to as evil throughout history. It was meant to get you to think about what evil really is. It is meant to show that when we get too obsessed with "evil" we might end up taking part in it ourselves.

One has to separate evil and human cruelty. Human cruelty is people not being nice to one another. Evil is soemthing else, it is something we have created, a word and a concept for things that are not acceptable. It is a label for things that we do not understand and dont want to understand.

But is evil really ever a complete explanation for anything?

A lot of bad deeds has been done in the name of good. The people that did them meant good, are they evil?"

Stolen Ideas

In the 1970's I saw a number of my aquaintances get hooked by what I felt was a bizarre cult, Scientology. I started to see Scientology recruiters every where, on college campuses and even at rock concerts. One day soon after I had moved to New York City in the late 70's, I was walking on Broadway near 34th Street and the sky suddenly opened up and I was in a sudden downpour. I had a few blocks to walk to my truck and I was surprised by a short guy who whipped out an umbrella and put it up and said to me to get under it. One is always wary of over friendly guys with umbrellas in Manhattan. I told him I had to walk to 8th Avenue and he said "No Problem"...then the conversation took a turn for the worse.. The little weasel was a Scientology recruiter and started to feed me his propaganda....I froze, looked at him, said "See ya!" and sprinted 2 blocks in the pouring rain happy to have escaped with my mind!
Today, I discovered a post on a forum named Eturbulation.org which has an entire pamphlet from Germany written in 1934 about a cult named Scientologie.
It outlines much of the same gobbledeegook that L. Ron Hubbard claimed as his own work in his books on Scientolgy years later.
Scientolgy has been banned in Australia and on the verge of a ban in Germany. It is a manipulative organization that tries to garner power and influence.. They want their own "state". It can and has had very destructive effects on many people. It's alarming that it can exert an influence and get huge amounts of donations from the very wealthy. In the heavy college campus recruitment phase of the 1970's, they gave out a questionaire that if looked at analytically, one could see the ways it appealed to the insecurities that plague us poor confused humans. If you were a poor schnook and got suckered in, you were just fodder, at the same time, if you were a wealthy, talented individual, and fell for the mind massage, the treatment was different but still designed to separate you from your wallet so you could attain the next level of "superior development".
The pamphlet was scanned and it reveals the origin of the plagirized theophysics that L.Ron Hubbard based his mind controlling power trip scam on.

Rainin' In Paradize

I love the Spanish artist Manu Chao and here is a clip directed by one of the greatest directors working today, the Serbian, Emir Kustarica.
This is a piece from his last CD, Radiolina

A superstar practically everywhere except the United States, Spaniard Manu Chao writes political anthems ideal for crowds of hundred thousands in soccer stadiums and central plazas. However the songs work at home, in earphones, or small scale protests as well. To reflect his political concerns about poverty and globalization, he mashes together styles from Latin America and West Africa with punk rock, Spanish flamenco, and sonic collages(there are a lot of sirens on this album). The 21 songs on La Radiolina repeat several musical themes changing up the lyrical subjects and languages. The stand out on the cd is Me Llaman Calle, a melodic and thoughtful song about the hard lives of prostitutes(written for the excellent Spanish film Princesas about Dominican immigrant women in Madrid).

Rainin'In Paradize is a poppy anti Imperialist/anti Iraq War Anthem.

Define Patriotism, Please.

This was a poll on CNN's website yesterday. It accompanied an article by
Nedra Pickler entitled, "Conservatives Say Obama Lacks Patriotism". The gist of the piece seems to center about displays of loyalty, such as the required official made in China American Flag lapel pin. By this standard, the conservative noise machine degrades concern and involvement with your country into a ritualized conspicuous show of outward signs of mass conformity.

Of course it was nothing but a smear piece, and Ms. Pickler even has the nerve to quote as her source, Republican "consultant", Roger Stone, the brilliant mind behind the Anti Hillary Clinton 527 organization, C.U.N.T., that's: Citizens United Not Timid (To Educate The American People About What Hillary really Is)

What is the most disgusting to me is the fact that CNN dared to run a poll that only spread a false assumption. What if they had ran a poll that asked, "Is John McCain Really Insane?" or "Is President Bush Still An Alcoholic?" This is a throwback to the days of McCarthy, when someones loyalty to their country could be questioned by smear and innuendo.

This is not about Barack Obama's Patriotism. What is Patriotism as defined by these critics? An unquestioning acceptance of what ever direction the leaders of your country decide to pursue whether you feel it is right or not? Keeping your mouth shut and not criticizing the power in charge? Blindly following the herd and displaying the the outward symbols of obedience, subservience and loyalty?
Sorry, sounds too much like being a good German to me!

America did not arise from blind obedience and it will not survive if it falls to it.

Here's a couple of portraits of great American Patriots proudly sporting their lapel flag pins and gosh, aren't they the kind of guys who's upstnding American ideals bring a tear to your eye!
Randy Duke Cunningham, gee Randy, I hope the pin doesn't get rusty while you are doing time.

Oh, here's a flashy photo of Bob Ney (R-OH), tanned and very patriotic in his blue suit with his official United States Patriot lapel pin. I hope he gets a chance to wear the blue suit again in public after he finishes his prison sentence for defrauding the United States Government.

Former Governor of Ohio is dressed to impress with his regulation flag lapel pin. He just pleaded guilty to multiple misdemenors. I hope the judge is swayed by his patriotic display when he is sentenced!


Finally, in our gallery of satorial proper patriotic displays, we have
Senator Larry Craig posing for his mug shot after he was set up by unpatriotic bathroom police in the Milwaulkee Airport. He looks doubley patriotic, don't you think?

HE'S BACK....

Every 4 years he rises from his crypt, hungry...Every 4 years he appears to suck the blood out of the Democratic Party Presidential Campaign, then sated he sinks back into oblivion.

Seriously, the man handed us George Bush in 2000 and helped again in 2004.
He used to stand for something and battled against the power of the big corporations.
When was the last time you heard anything from him about consumer advocacy?
He seems to be resting on his laurels and feeding his ego by making himself the nagging virus of presidential campaigns!

At least Ron Paul and Dennis Kuchinich went through the motions of doing things to present their ideas top the American people and participated in an admittedly flawed process, but they did it and then withdrew. This guy has done nothing. If he was so concerned with the problems in the political world, where has he been when he isn't busy trying to be president? When does his advocacy start to look like lunacy?

Ralph Nader doesn't deserve to be in a debate with Obama, Clinton or McCain.
He doesn't need your votes, the man needs intervention!

Casse Toi Pauvre Con!

Yesterday at the Salon de Agriculture, where most french politicians traditionally go to meet the people and be seen fondling farm animals, President Nicolas Sarkozy paid a brief visit, surrounded by security.

In the rush through the crowd to his prearranged photo ops, he shook some hands.
One fellow, echoing more and more, the sentiments of the French populace, shrunk from the Presidents sweaty touch saying "Ah, non, touch moi pas" (Don't touch me!)
Sarkozy in his normal frenzied manic state, aggresively barked, "Casse toi, alors, pauvre con!" a very loose translation, but carrying the same vulgar aggression : Get lost you pathetic asshole!

This got captured on a cell phone video and now it has had as of 21:30 CET, over 240,000 hits on YouTube! No matter what Sarkozy thought he was going to do tomorrow, this is all that the rest of France will be talking about. That and the prices for basics in the big stores increasing almost 40% across the board....

You really get the feeling that he meant it when he said that he expected to only have one term. He seems to have an agenda of destroying social gains made under the Socialist party with what ever it takes. The richest are getting much richer and the middle class are getting...poor.
This should be good for another point or two loss in his ratings!

The Politics Of Fear

Watch this clip from Fox News this morning as Bill Kristol explains how Hillary has to confront Obama to win.

KRISTOL: [Obama’s] riding a wave of euphoria. She [Clinton] needs to puncture it. The way you puncture euphoria is reality, or to be more blunt, fear. I recommend to Senator Clinton the politics of fear

Kristol explained that his fear-mongering political strategy would focus on Iran. He recommended that Clinton say the following about Obama: “He wants to negotiate on January 21st with Ahmadinejad. Here’s what Ahmadinejad has said about blowing up Israel.”
Kristol has invested heavily in a strategy of convincing policymakers to bomb Iran. Here’s some examples of what Kristol has advocated:

– “We could in a military confrontation with Iran much sooner than people expect.”

– The Iranian people would embrace “the right use of targeting military force.”

– President Bush “could easily build political support” for an attack on Iran “at the beginning of 2008.”

Because the concept of engaging Iran is a threat to Kristol’s agenda, he appears desperate to do all he can to delegitimize the idea of negotiation. As Kristol’s Fox News colleage Juan Williams has said, all Kristol wants is “war, war, war.”

Hey! Little Buddy!

Hey. Little Buddy, psst, Anonymous, over here, I wanna show you sumthin!

Here's the movewment that can potentially unite conservative and liberals....
Uhhh...wait a minute, March 19th is a Wednesday? I think there is a problem here. Now if we could just make it a Monday, the 17th or the 25th, maybe I could get behind it.
Let's ask my little buddy, Anonymous!
Anonymous, honestly, what do you think? Too many sick days already this year?

John McCains Friends

In this video, film maker, Robert Greenwald from Brave New Films tells you who exactly John McCains friends are and who they represent!