U. S. Attacked On 9/11 From Where? Definitely Not Afghanistan Or Iraq February 28, 2009

Bush and Obama and their war enablers have stressed repeatedly that the United States was attacked on 9/11 from Afghanistan, and thus do they justify our war there and our slaughter of civilians and destruction of the country.

Bush even convinced the usual gang of idiots (pretty much everyone working in government in Washington) that Iraq was part of the grand conspiracy to blow up New York and Washington and thus had to be crushed and its citizens slaughtered by American troops. Naturally he lied, being incompetent, inadequate, and Republican.

But now Mr. Obama has settled on Afghanistan as the culprit behind 9/11, saying the attacks came from there.

Well, no, they didn’t.

It could more accurately be said that the attacks came from Boston and New York.

That’s where the hijackers stole the airplanes and turned them into successfully lethal weapons.

In fact, had not the airline corporate officers been so concerned about protecting their profits that they refused to put legitimate security in place over the years, had they done something so simple as install reinforced doors to the pilots’ cabins, there would have been no 9/11 and the country could have gotten rid of Bush in 2004, tarring him as comically inept, not very bright, inarticulate, and apparently illiterate.

Instead we have a useless, brutally stupid war in Iraq that today is morphing into a useless, brutally stupid war in Afghanistan which may soon morph into a useless, brutally stupid insurrection and war in Pakistan. Obama’s presidency threatens to shatter on the mountains of Southwest Asia.

The tragedy of September 11, 2001 could as easily have been planned around a kitchen table anywhere in the world. It did not require a whole country or even a piece of one, even though that would have been handy. But the hijackers trained in the United States, they lived in the United States, and their bosses could have worked from anywhere.

And yet here goes the United States hurling more troops into Afghanistan, killing more civilians, driving more people into extremism as they seek to defend their countries against an American onslaught. All because New York and Boston, enabled by corporate boardrooms, blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon back in 2001.

Remember that the next time the United States drops a five hundred pound bomb on a four-year-old Afghan or Pakistani child and claims it as another successful mission that killed a terrorist.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, Afghanistan, Obama, Pakistan, 9/11, 911, September 11, World Trade Center, George Bush, Civilian Deaths, New York, Boston, United Air Lines, American Airlines, Pentagon

Bobby Jindal And The Pink Poobahs February 25, 2009

The Repooplicans chose Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to give their reply to President Obama’s address to Congress last night.

Jindal is a frothing-at-the-mouth Catholic who at least once conducted an exorcism, and a hard-right Conservative who is willing to sacrifice the thousands of unemployed Louisianans on the altar of his ideology by refusing to let them have extended unemployment benefits included in the Federal recovery plan.

But the Republican leadership, such as it is, apparently loves him.

“Bobby Jindal represents everything that’s great about the American dream, the American story, and what it means to put Republican ideas into action,” said Phil Musser, a strategist who previously ran the Republican Governors Association.

Uh-huh. Which is to say that Republicans would rather see struggling working people starve and lose their homes than lift one finger to help them. Republicanism at its finest.

But The Lion thinks there’s a deeper, darker agenda going on here.

“What makes him so appealing to Republicans is he’s an Indian-American representing a Southern state,” said Louisiana State University professor Robert Mann, who evoked the party’s recent election of its first African-American leader. “A lot of it is the same reason they elected Michael Steele their chair: They’re looking to push out in front any bit of diversity they can dredge up.”

Yup, the pink-skinned poobahs of the GOP have decided that their strategy for the 2012 election is to pit their darkies (don’t forget they just chose Michael Steele, a Black conservative, to head the Republican National Committee) against the Democratic darkie, Barack Obama. Yup, they say among themselves, we’ll split the darkie vote, take back the White House and get on with destroying the United States, just like Reagan and Bush wanted us to do.

They really are devious, deep thinkers, with a profound, well-thought-out realistic agenda that addresses the real problems facing the American people and the world. Aren’t they? Well, aren’t they? After all, they did give us the last eight years of Republican thought and glory and grandeur. Didn’t they? Well?

Additional thoughts:

The so-called exorcism involved, on its face, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, and assault on the woman. Apparently Mr. Jindal believes that crimes committed in the name of ignorant religion aren’t really crimes. That mindset would, of course, make him a perfect Republican (‘It’s not illegal if a Republican does it’).

One should also consider whether this country should have as its leader someone who believes demons and devils and suchlike are real things to be confronted in person. Do we really want a virulent religionist with a twelfth century mind to control the military, economic, and political power of the United States? He would need a lot of psychiatric help before being allowed anywhere near real power.

Technorati Tags: Bobby Jindal, Michael Steele, Barack Obama, Obama Speech to Congress, Exorcist, Republican National Committee, Reagan, Bush, Louisiana, Republican Governors Association

Strong Medicine For Bad Times (A Soldier In Every Living Room), And How Conservatives Lie February 16, 2009

A couple of pieces worth reading.

This one on the current crisis and what America’s top intelligence official sees coming, and how the Department of Defense will crush the complainers (people like the Quakers, unions, the PTA, anyone with a brain and a conscience).

And this one on how George Will, never one to accept truth and reality without a fight, lies about our little global environmental problem.

Technorati Tags: George Will, Chris Hedges, Talking Points Memo, Common Dreams, Dennis Blair, Economic Collapse, Global Warming, Climate Change

Harley, R.I.P. 02.14.2009 February 14, 2009

 

He had the best nose of all my cats.

Technorati Tags: Cats, Harley

Israel Using Gaza As Weapons Testing Ground For U.S. Weapons February 12, 2009

The only difference between the Israelis and the so-called terrorists in Gaza is that the Israelis have better, more potent weapons and delivery systems, courtesy of the United States, which seems to think that any population of poor people is a legitimate and fertile testing ground for some of the most horrid weapons its engineers can dream up and produce.

In the latest case the Israelis are dropping an American DIME on Palestinian civilians. It’s about as nasty a piece of work as you can think of.

Read about the latest piece of viciousness at Common Dreams.

Technorati Tags: DIME, Gaza, Weapons Test on Civilians, Israel, Terrorism, Palestine, Banned Weapons

And A Little Child Shall… February 12, 2009

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Grumpy Lion

Alex Rodriguez Is Sorry He Cheated And Lied To Make His Millions. Shaughnessy Apologizes To Him. February 11, 2009

Dan Shaughnessy writes sports stuff for the Boston Globe. The Globe apparently pays him to do it. Today he boo-hoos that he doesn’t understand the vitriol being showered on Alex Rodriguez, who plays professional baseball for the oh-so-professional New York Yankees.

First, full disclosure. The Lion thinks baseball is at least as boring as watching a fat person tan at the beach. It’s possibly even more boring than American football as presented by the NFL.

That said, this Rodriguez fellow is pretty much the superstar of superstars in the baseball world. He hits a lot of home runs. He’s photogenic. He gets pretty women. He makes more money than his fans in the bleachers could spend in a lifetime.

He had a contract with the Texas Rangers that paid him something like $180 million dollars. He traded that out for a contract with the Yankees that pays him $270 million over ten years.

He lives a pampered life of privilege and perks.

He earned it by cheating and lying. He admitted it. He took steroids to bulk himself up so he could become the best player that ever was, according to him. By cheating.

Okay, fine. Lots of ballplayers cheat and lie when it comes to steroids. Nothing they say can be trusted and whatever stats they put up in the statistic crazed world of baseball are worthless. A Bonds or Rodriguez home run is a cheap shot, not worth the baseball hide it’s imprinted on.

Al got caught, years after the fact. You can’t miss the story. It’s bigger than the economic meltdown. And once caught he went on the air and said he was sorry, he was young, he was naive, blah blah blah.

And then bunches of baseball writers and newspapers and editorialists went after him, heaping various degrees of vitriol on him for cheating his way to fame and fortune.

Shaughnessy doesn’t understand it. ‘But why so much hate? Why so much glee at the sight of another superstar with feet of clay?’ writes Danny boy.

The Lion suspects that Shaughnessy simply doesn’t read the rest of his newspaper, the part about the economic meltdown in which millions of Americans have lost their jobs, millions have lost their homes, and more misery is on the way. Those people didn’t do anything wrong to get what they had. They mostly came by it honestly.

Then the rich and the powerful up on Wall Street took it away from them, and then got their asses bailed out by the government handing them billions of tax dollars from the very people whose lives the financial ne’er-do-wells ruined.

And then Mr. Alex Rodriguez, with his hundreds of millions of dollars, his privileged lifestyle, his pampered career hitting baseballs, playing a kid’s game, comes along and says he cheated and lied to get all of that good stuff. Not only that, but he won’t even have to pay any penalty, other than some embarrassment at having to admit in public that he’s a cheat and a liar.

He gets to keep his Midas contract with the Yankees. He gets to keep the money. He gets to keep his job. He even gets to keep fans who adore him, which says a lot about America. Oh, maybe he loses an endorsement or two, maybe a million dollars here or there in potential income. But that’s it.

But Shaughnessy doesn’t understand the vitriol engendered by this sleazebag as the country swirls down the drain because of the actions of the rich and the powerful who cheated and lied in their lust for money.

Maybe Danny might do better to ask what Rodriguez and his mega-millionaire baseball buddies have done to improve the lives of any of the people being slammed by the economic disaster. What’s that, Dan? Oh, they entertained the fans by playing baseball, and so what if they cheated a little. That’s okay with Dan, apparently. After all, Rodriguez said he’s sorry.

Technorati Tags: A Rod, Alex Rodriguez, Baseball, Steroids, Dan Shaughnessy, Bailout, Superstar, Economy, Grumpy Lion

And Nazi Influence Keeps On Rolling. In Israel. February 9, 2009

Okay, there likely aren’t any Nazis in Israel, but there are Israelis who have taken the lessons of Nazism to heart and would happily apply them to the Israeli Fatherland and the surrounding sea of Arabs (‘rats’ Ariel Sharon and others called them, using the familiar language of dehumanization popularized by old Uncle Adolf) the Israelis seem determined to wipe off the face of the earth.

The latest and most slavering of the bunch appears to be one Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Israel Beitenu (Israel Is Our Home) party, now running in a strong third place before the coming elections, and thus forcing the other candidates to kowtow to him, since either of the other parties may well have to ask him to be a partner in a coalition government.

Some quotes from today’s Globe about Lieberman’s politics and beliefs:

Portraits of two Israeli-Arab politicians, defaced by red Hebrew letters reading, “Shame and Disgrace!” flashed on a giant video screen [at a Lieberman rally].

Avigdor Lieberman’s attacks on Arabs have shaken up the race for Parliament and prime minister. He is drawing large, boisterous crowds of voters who delight in chanting his slogan – “Without loyalty, there is no citizenship” – and back his proposal for a mandatory loyalty oath to the Jewish state.

Lieberman’s momentum, fueled by Israel’s recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, has tightened the [election] contest.

Yet the two leading candidates, wary of his clout, have refrained from criticizing him.

He also called for outlawing Arab parties whose leaders had condemned the Israeli offensive.

About one-fifth of Israel’s 7 million citizens are Arabs, and a dozen serve in the 120-seat Parliament. Many of their leaders want to define Israel as a binational state, with more control by Arabs over public institutions and their own communities, rather than as a Jewish state.

Lieberman condemns such advocacy as treasonous.

Anyone refusing to sign [the loyalty oath] would lose citizenship rights, including the right to vote and to run for public office, but could remain in Israel on residence permits.

Perhaps Lieberman can come up with a good symbol for them to patch onto their clothing so they can be identified easily in public. A yellow crescent, perhaps.

One can imagine this fellow standing near the Gaza border with his friends cheering thousand-pound bombs and white phosphorus raining down on children in the densely populated urban areas of Gaza.

One could point out, on the good side, that ‘Heil Lieberman’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it as the original, even though it comes from the same dark heart of evil that resided in Hitler and his millions of followers and supporters.

If Israel continues its murderous attempts to justify its original theft of Palestinian lands, its slaughter of Arabs on the slightest pretext, its brutal treatment of the Palestinian people, then we can fully expect that the next great abhorred symbol in world history, right alongside Hitler’s twisted cross, will be the  Star of David. And right up there with Adolf will be Lieberman, the revered hero of the neo-Israelis.

Heil!

Technorati Tags: Israel, Nazis, Hitler, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel Beitenu, Israel Elections, Gaza, Palestine, Star of David, Netanyahu, Livni

Want To See The Future? Oz Burns. February 1, 2009

Still think global warming is just joke fodder for the fathead Limbaugh crowd?

Still think you can just turn on your air conditioner when things get too warm?

Still think it’s way off in the future?

Check this out. Kiss a continent goodbye. And your ass, too.

Technorati Tags: Global Warming, Climate Change, Australia, Environment

For Want Of A Shoe How The American Family Does Fall February 1, 2009

The Lion had just started out on a walk around the neighborhood to get his heart pumping and lungs working after a hard morning writing  job advice when he saw his neighbor painting an outside door, newly installed.

Said neighbor, who The Lion shall call Smith even though his real name is considerably more ethnic than that, not that Smith isn’t ethnic in case any Smiths out there are miffed at not being considered ethnic, but Smith is more English than anything and English doesn’t qualify as ethnic.

So, the neighbor painting his breezeway door.

Given that it is February and given that Smith lives on Cape Cod, which is in New England, which is in the northeast part of the United States and easier to find than Iraq on a map, one would not expect Smith to be outside painting a door. Be that as it may, he was.

The Lion would be remiss to fail to point out that Smith is a family man, with a lovely wife and three children who hang out at his house. And a noisy dog, said dog being escape prone, hence the new door to replace the old, loose escape door.

In fact, so far there is nothing unusual, or at least particularly remarkable about the scene. Except for one thing.

Smith was barefoot.

In February. Standing on the pavement of his driveway. Happily barefoot and painting his door.

“Love the footwear,” The Lion said.

Smith laughed and painted. He’s a jovial sort, despite the children and wife and dog and eccentric neighbor.

“It’s a dangerous thing to go barefoot in February, Smith.”

He smiled and wiggled his toes. “I hardly notice.”

“Oh, not for the cold, Smith, not for the cold. It’s a far more profound danger of which I speak.”

“Oh?” He slapped some more paint on the door.

“Sure. This could cost you everything.”

“How so?” He stopped painting.

“Suppose a less eccentric neighbor happened along and saw you painting barefoot.”

“Um.”

“He, or more likely she, would keep on walking, but she would be thinking ‘Smith hasn’t any shoes’. And she would mention that to one of her cronies.”

“I don’t see the danger in that,” Smith averred. Smith is not normally given to averring, so I knew he was paying attention.

“Well, her crony tells someone else that you had to sell your shoes, so you must have lost your job.”

“Well, perhaps. But obviously I’m not hurting.”

“It’s perception, Smith, perception. Pretty soon the word will be around that you are actually destitute and that you had to sell everything and your house is empty and you and your wife are sleeping on the floor.”

“That’s a big jump.”

“People leap all the time in times like these. The next thing is that you’ll have sold your children to make ends meet. White slavery or the circus.”

“But they’re still here. They live here.”

“Really? I hardly ever see them.” It’s true. The Lion rarely sees a child. Of course two are in high school, and the daughter is very beautiful and apparently popular (The Lion occasionally wishes he were young and in her high school, but that’s neither here nor there.) The other child is too short to be seen often. “So you see how someone who is not eccentric could come to the conclusion that because you are barefoot you must have sold your children.”

Smith looked a bit puzzled. He also began to hop from foot to foot.

“Perhaps you can guess what happens next?” The Lion said.

Smith shook his head.

“Well, normal people consider it cruel and criminal to sell one’s children. Beat them, fill their head with lies and fairy tales, call them names, okay, but sell them, that’s a no-no.”

“What do you think they’ll do?”

“Easy. Since the economy has slashed the police force and the social services crowd, they’ll take the law into their own hands. They’ll come with torches and pitchforks, tar and feather you and your wife and throw you out of town after burning your house and cars.”

“But the kids live in the house.” He began to look panicky.

“No matter. The crowd will assume they are someone else’s kids whom you intend to sell for profit. They’ll be sent to an orphanage, probably in Afghanistan.”

“Then what?”

“Nothing. You’ll be destitute and homeless, you and your wife. If she’s still speaking to you. All because you went barefoot in February.”

“I have to go in now,” Smith said.

“Oh. Sorry, didn’t mean to upset you.”

“No, I’m not being rude. I just want to put on some shoes before I finish painting the door.”

The Lion is almost certain that Smith will come out of this crisis in good shape. He’s been through tough times before. In fact, The Lion is almost convinced that the Smith crowd is actually in the Witness Protection program and thus has little to worry about. Unless someone reports him to the U. S. Marshals for going barefoot in February.

Technorati Tags: Grumpy Lion, Humor