We begin the New Year with diminished expectations for the Obama administration in the face of worsening economic conditions following the Bushies’ End Game looting of the nation’s wealth. Predictions are now beginning to acknowledge that there’s not much hope for recovery until 2011 at least, credit card companies have jumped into the looting frenzy en masse to jump interest rates approaching 50%, juggled due dates and credit cut-offs even for cardholders and small businesses who have spotless records and pay off balances every month. Ranks of the unemployed continue to swell, reaching official levels close to 10% and unofficial levels over 15%. Citizens continue to die for lack of accessible, affordable health care, and states are now cutting their Medicaid and SCHIP coverage due to diminished income.

Nothing particularly happy about this New Year. Meanwhile, over in the Middle East where things have been decidedly unhappy for at least 4,000 years, Israel is at it again. Eight days’ worth of air bombardment of cities, towns and refugee camps have killed more than 400 Palestinians and injured more than 2,000 in retaliation for Hamas rockets fired into southern Israel across the border by that hopelessly terrorist enclave of perpetual victimhood and hate no other Arabic nations care to embrace for resettlement, knowing the players are incurable barbarians just like Israel does. After generations of forced incarceration in camps, this predicament was entirely predictable 60 years ago when the arrangements were made.

On Saturday morning leaflets were dropped into Gaza warning residents to flee with their families “for your own safety,” though where they should flee was not specified. 12 hours later IDF ground forces, under cover of tank and mortar fire amassed at the borders, moved on in.

So far 4 Israelis have been killed, 59 injured. While I can applaud the latecoming recognition of many in the region that what the Palestinians have been doing with their rockets and suicide bombers in Israel is indeed genuinely and properly labeled “terrorism,” I wonder when the civilized world is ever going to live up to its self-bestowed title and figure out some other, more effective response to terrorism than all-out war. Oh, and I do have a question about the timing of all this nastiness…

Is Israel attempting by this mass slaughter to dictate to incoming [on January 20] US President Barak Obama what his administration’s policy should be per this eternal conflict, or is it simply getting its licks in while the Bushies are still ostensibly “in charge?”

Janis Joplin once sang someone else’s song very poignantly – “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose…” – and that’s semi-true in my experience. We all make choices about what’s important in our lives, and usually become enslaved to that which we choose. At the low end of the scale there’s never enough, just paying the bills is a constant struggle. At the high end of the scale there is also never enough. The thirst for more and more and more rules lives and ruins them too.

As Wall Street melts down we’re suddenly informed we must Spend, Spend, Spend!!! They can never make up their minds. Either we’re not saving enough or we’re not spending enough, it’s always our fault. I call bullshit. Slave wages have not even kept up with the cost of living, they can’t have it both ways.

I read about a 50-something day care worker yesterday who a coworker noticed sitting in the corner crying. When asked what’s wrong, she finally said she couldn’t feel her face. The coworker was alarmed, saw one side of her face drooping as they were talking, speech slurring. She drove her friend to the hospital, but the woman just cried harder and wouldn’t get out of the car. Said yes, she must be having a stroke, but if she walked in the door she’d lose everything – house, car, meager income (job)… she was terrified. Her friend finally talked her into going, she is still in the hospital and her coworkers are trying very hard to raise the tens of thousands she’ll need to pay for the care. There is no insurance at that end of the scale.

Some people on that discussion board from Europe and Australia were horrified. Simply trying to imagine what it must be like to face utter ruin just because you need to see a doctor – when you might be dying. Where dying is the “reasonable” choice, just so your children aren’t left bankrupt. Every other civilized country in the world provides basic health care for their citizens. Only in America…

This is wrong. We all work, much harder than the greed-head capitalists who skim the wealth we create for themselves. There are only so many hours in a day, and humans need sleep. If two full-time minimum wage jobs or three part-time minimum wage jobs – 16 hours a day, the kids are home alone – can’t provide a decent income, it’s NOT because these people are “lazy” or “shiftless” or anything. That’s wrong too. Now that Wall Street has cashed-out, millions who are very much willing to work won’t have jobs – there won’t be any. Great Depression v2.0. This is what unfettered ‘free market capitalism’ has wrought. It’s not pretty, and I sincerely doubt Jesus would approve.

So the haters are busy whipping up more hate. Buzzwords like “socialism,” taxing the rich, scary black people, gays and terrorists around every corner… “God’s Voter Guide.” That’s f***ing obscene! Dogs and cats living together, total chaos!!! Booga Booga, blah, blah, blah, Osama bin Laden, blah, blah, blah, Barack HUSSEIN Obama, blah, blah, blah. Disgusting.

We need change, not hate. Hate’s not going to help anyone, it’s just going to cause more pain. Maybe if the so-called Christians spewing hate 24-7 and worshipping golden bulls on Wall Street were exposed as the liars, posers and hypocrites they truly are, we could finally all work together to improve our nation and everyone’s lives. As if this were the United States of America, sans secessionists and domestic terrorists in the White House.

There’s a difference between “socialism” that has the government working for the people, and “socialism” that has government working for the corporate greed-heads. One is how the rest of the free world functions these days. The other is fascism. Things can’t go on like this, so when the dust clears which choice will we make? Valueless money is just mammon. Belongs to Caesar, not to God (who is pennyless). Our nation is drowning in it. If We the People ever come to our senses, we’d realize there are way more of “us” than “them.” So I hope. Right now that’s pretty much all there is, and a great many others are hoping too…

Happy Halloween – Booga Booga!!!

Financial news of Wall Street meltdowns, Fed takeovers of big insurers and mortgage giants, and some serious death and destruction on the Texas coast from Hurricane Ike (which we’re finding out about piecemeal after 6 days of “Heckuva Job, Skeletor”), it has become more and more obvious that the country is in such terrible trouble that this will be one of the most important Presidential elections of our lifetimes.

So perhaps it’s not so surprising that both friends and enemies of Republican candidate John McCain are beginning to become alarmed at what appears to be some sort of serious mental decline that has taken hold and accelerating rapidly. What’s going on?

Since McCain – a 72-year old man who has survived four bouts with malignant melanoma – has refused to release the results of his most recent medical check-ups and testing, we aren’t likely to find out what’s actually wrong during this election cycle unless (God forbid) he suddenly becomes gravely ill. In which case it’ll still be All About Palin, since the ballots are already printed. John Ashcroft, it must be remembered, lost an election to a man who died during the campaign. So yes, that CAN happen in this country, on this level of politics.

Now, I don’t want to have to live through either a McCain or a Palin presidency. I think they’re both more dangerous than Junior Moron, and Palin’s definitely in line as heir to the Cheney “Imperial Vice-Presidency.” But I also don’t relish the thought of anything awful happening to any of the candidates, or having to watch as McCain painfully slides into some kind of overt dementia. This is a guy who really has had a long and storied career of public service, and who really has had a strong grasp of various foreign policy issues on a much higher level than merely being able to see Russia from the kitchen window. He’s looking sick, exhausted and is scarily losing his mental acumen – why have his handlers not checked him in for a few days of serious rest and medical attention?

It’s more than just not remembering how many houses and condos he and his heiress wife own. That can be understandable if you’re that rich and she’s got her own games going. It’s more than stupidly echoing failed Republican economic pablum on a day when the whole world suffered massive economic meltdown. Now McCain has lost touch so seriously he can’t remember who is running Spain – a NATO member and strong ally of the US – and even confuses things so badly that he thinks Spain is a South American dictatorship!

That’s just not right. And it’s not John McCain, who (in his younger days and in his right mind) knows all about Spain as a European country and NATO ally.

If it’s just jet lag and the stresses of hard campaigning, then he needs a few day’s R&R and nobody in his corner needs to apologize for it. If it’s more than that, they’re risking his very life forcing him to keep going in his obvious state of ill health and mental confusion.

Somebody please do the right thing. Help this man – whatever he loses by being out of the loop for a few days isn’t something that wouldn’t have been lost anyway if he keeps on demonstrating that he’s too old, sick and mentally unfit to be President. He deserves more just for having served so long. From his wife, his erstwhile “soul mate” in the Veep slot, his campaign lobbyists and his party.

Give him a rest. He obviously needs it.

We should know by Friday (or, Thursday when the Obama camp promises to ‘leak’ the choice to selected bloggers who will immediately ‘leak’ it to the rest of us). Who will it be? Will we be surprised? Disgusted? Outraged? Glad?

Don’t know if I have a favorite in this beauty contest. I’ve heard a lot of things, and thought about others. I’ve heard Hillary is out of the running, but she sure seems to still feel it’s her ‘right’ to be on the ticket. And given that she got half the votes cast, she may have a point. But how effective could Obama’s leadership be if he had a 2-fer on the Veep end that worked constantly against his policies and hogging the spotlight? So no, I wouldn’t be happy to see Hillary’s name drawn.

I’ve heard Richardson is out, but darned if I can figure out why. He’s plenty of admin and foreign policy experience, and would appear to lend strong National Security credentials. I think he’d be a good choice. I also think Biden is a good choice, though he himself says he’s out of the contest. I don’t know why on that one either.

My previous fave would have been Edwards, who could be kept plenty busy working on health care and poverty during Barack’s Presidency. Of course, the recent-ness of his revealed sexual infidelity means he’s not a serious consideration, even though John McCain has long been quite proud of his own sexual infidelities. Go figure.

It’s probably not going to be Dennis Kucinich, since he wouldn’t lend any mainstream clout to an Obama administration. Nor will it be that weird Libertarian-leaning guy with the beef against the Fed. Governor Sebelius could be an interesting choice, capable as well as female. But Hillary’s Hoards would never tolerate that.

General Wesley Clark? Might be good for the whole wartime NS situation given Obama’s lack of experience in those areas. Plus, Clark could run a tight JCS and probably get along with the various commanders on a militaristic level. Tom Daschle? Jim Webb? Evan Bayh?

Oh, well. We sit on pins and needles awaiting the official word, and the Convention awaits. I’ll certainly ‘leak’ the news the moment it gets ‘leaked’ to us, then do some background on the candidate. Let’s all hope it’s the best of all good choices!

Berlin

Jerusalem

Now, THAT’s how you woo the world! Our erstwhile allies are all pretty darned tired of being bullied. Maybe it’s not too farfetched to hope that Americans might finally get tired of being bullied too.

The Bushies (including John McCain) reacted to Obamapalooza just as everyone paying attention would expect. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice issued orders the night before Obama left to State Department employees in all the scheduled tour stops that they must not attend any speeches or events or aid Obama (or the other two US Senators on the tour) in any way when they’re in-country. But since assisting US leaders – or even arranging their events, as has been done for McCain’s travels – when they’re in-country is part of the diplomatic corps’ job description, most pointedly ignored the orders.

This is going to be a fun election.

In the wake of China’s crackdown on civilians and Buddhist monks and priests in Tibet, its links to Myanmar’s military rulers and genocidal juntas in Sudan’s Darfur region, this year’s Olympic Torch Run is meeting with anti-PRC protests along its route. Protests last week in London and Paris turned violent and were met with crackdowns of their own. The flame arrived in San Francisco Wednesday morning, a city with the largest number of Chinese residents in the US, and it was met with protesters.

The Dalai Lama told reporters outside Tokyo on Wednesday that he supports China’s hosting of the Summer Olympic Games, but insisted no one has a right to tell protesters “to shut up.”

The torch run seems a particularly good target for protest of China’s dismal record on human rights. The run was invented for the 1936 games in Berlin by Carl Diem, leader of the German Olympic Committee as a favorable propaganda vehicle for Hitler’s Third Reich.

So don’t be fooled by right-wing denunciations of the ongoing protests as the torch makes its way across the globe. It is a spectacle that never occurred in ancient Greece, but was invented to serve Adolph Hitler and announce him to the world he was about to throw into massive, murderous turmoil with his dreams of conquest and hatred of ethnic minorities and Jews. Linking the torch run to its notorious beginnings is apropos as a vehicle of protest against China’s brutal policies and involvement in ethnic and religious violence across the globe.

REMINDER: Don’t forget, kiddies – This is Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, brought to you again this year by the David Horowitz Freedom Center!

[cross-posted to DailyKos and Randall's blog]

Many years ago during the worst of the paranoid breakdown of “Tricky Dick” before his forced resignation, and again during the sneaky, behind-the-scenes horrors being brought to light in those infamous Iran-Contra hearings that made Ollie North such a wingnut hero, I used to console myself with the thought…

“As long as Frank Zappa is running around free, this is still America!”

Today, as we enter year number 8 of the most damaging and destructive American administration of my [Truman+] lifetime, Frank Zappa is dead and the steady erosion of our rights and standing in the world is worse than I’ve ever seen it. But I do have another true hero of freedom to console myself with…

“As long as Keith Olbermann is running around free, this is still America!”

Maybe it’s because I was born into the US Navy (NIS planning officer) where courage and resolve and honesty and patriotism were a way of life my siblings and I were fed along with mother’s milk. Qualities completely expected and always encouraged, a reflection of total dedication to defending and preserving that which was most noble about our nation’s aspirations as a beacon of freedom in the wider world. We were proud of that even if we were always “the new kid” in our classes for moving around the country/world a lot, always picked on by the bigger kids for being outsiders or having funny accents or just for being ‘military brats’.

So when Keith Olbermann looked right into the MSNBC camera this past Wednesday and said to the current occupant of the White House that…

“The Chicken Little of presidents is the one, sir, that you see in the mirror.”

…I just had to laugh out loud. If that idiot child at 1600 was watching, the whole thing no doubt went right over his pin-sized head. I have no doubt he has no idea who the heck Chicken Little is, and hasn’t the IQ to find out. Why, as this nation was being attacked on 9-11 he was having real trouble following along with the kindergartners reading “My Pet Goat,” and was far more interested in how that story turned out than in what was happening in New York City.

God bless you, K.O., and keep you free!

I do have to take minor issue with one of the statements in Olbermann’s special comment, for reasons of historical accuracy and to explain just a little bit about how we ended up with a certifiable moron in the White House. Because if we don’t understand the history we’re bound to get saddled with this type of situation regularly in the future. For so long as there is a future, which is questionable if this sort of thing is allowed.

Olbermann said, just two sentences after the Chicken Little remark…

“It is nearly forgotten today, but throughout much of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, it was widely believed that he was little more than a front-man for some never-viewed, behind-the-scenes string-puller.”

Because there is direct pertinence to the situation in which we find ourselves today, I think it’s important to set the record straight. The behind-the-scenes string-puller for the “Great Communicator” was in plain sight, spending much less time in secret bunkers than the current string-pulling cyborg. His name, as CIA baggage handler Eugene Hasenfus confessed to his Sandanista captors after parachuting out of a C-123 shot down over Nicaragua in October of 1986, was George Bush. The ex-DCI [Director of Central Intelligence] who was at that time Vice President of the United States.

Yet there was a Master of Puppets behind that not-invisible string-puller. Dick Cheney invented the presidential puppet show back when he was Chief of Staff to president Gerald Ford (who got the job after Nixon’s resignation). Arrange for a certifiable idiot to occupy the oval office, use him as cover for all sorts of nefarious, traitorous deeds. It was Cheney – with help from Ford’s SecDef Donald Rumsfeld – who arranged to have our current president’s father appointed by Ford to head the CIA, and got himself appointed Secretary of Defense for the elder Bush’s single term. It was Cheney who managed the coverup of Iran-Contra from Congress (and defense of Ollie North). It was Cheney who pulled VP George H.W. Bush’s strings for the entire operation.

Senior Bush was no genius, but he was a whole lot smarter than his #1 son. Getting #1 son elected in 2000 was Dick Cheney’s self-appointed task, and he’s had a puppet ever since with real sawdust for brains, his dream tool. It was Cheney who orchestrated Gulf War-I for the father, and Cheney who orchestrated the Iraq war for the son. It is Cheney who intends to attack Iran and scripts the puppet’s badly delivered macho posturing. He’s been the Puppet Master for decades, and has almost single-handedly pulled the strings of US intelligence and military policy during all that time (with a little sabbatical in between to be CEO of Halliburton).

But the generations changed while he was hiding in his bunker picking and choosing strings to pull. His deliberate outing of Valerie Plame and the entire CIA Brewster-Jennings counter-proliferation operation pissed some real patriots off big time. They have now turned en masse against him – all 16 intelligence arms of government including all military intelligence branches. They’ve told the truth and Cheney can’t get any more sympathy by conveniently traipsing off to Bethesda to have his cyber-heart recalibrated. His time is up.

It’s time to impeach ventriloquist Cheney and his puppet, before this master of puppets makes good on an extremely suspicious violation of absolute fail safes for the US nuclear stockpile to start an unauthorized, unimaginably damaging nuclear war.

With Bush and his cadre’s recent hyperbolic rhetoric introducing “World War III” in the same sentence with Iran, it looks to me like the various US intelligence agencies don’t plan to be made scapegoat once again for Bush/Cheney’s delusions of Hitlerian grandeur. They all got together this time and reported in the most recent National Intelligence Estimate that Iran does not have nuclear weapons and is years away from having nuclear weapons even if it tries really hard. CNN reported that…

A declassified summary of the latest National Intelligence Estimate found with “high confidence” that the Islamic republic halted an effort to develop nuclear weapons in the fall of 2003.

Worse, this report was prepared in December of 2006. Which explains why Cheney and the boyz were so anxious to keep a lid on it while they beat the drums toward a opening a new front in their forever-war. Ex-CIA counter-terrorism expert Larry Johnson offered this observation:

There are some unsung heroes in the National Intelligence Council who insisted on the integrity of the product. In the face of enormous political pressure to tailor information and pull punches that undermine Bush Administration talking points, the intelligence professionals did their job. They told the truth based on the facts in hand.

If Johnson is right – and he probably is – we should consider that the recent incident of six nuclear-tipped ACMs being wrongly loaded onto the pilings of a B-52 headed to Barksdale may have motivated some end-runs around the stone walls the Bush Administration had erected against releasing any portion of this NIE.

The incident, combined with the infiltration of the USAF Academy by hard-right wing fundamentalist evangelicals and their placement of hand-picked junior and senior officers in sensitive positions, is indeed a serious concern. Particularly if any of those people were involved in this gross breach of fail safes for our nuclear weapons stockpile.

Despite Bush’s insistence that the NIE won’t change a thing about his policy toward Iran, Democratic contender John Edwards scored some points against Hillary Clinton on the subject during the Tuesday NPR debate. Edwards castigated Clinton for her support of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment that designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a “terrorist organization,” thereby justifying war whenever the shrub cares to launch one.

I do expect that seasoned pros at the State Department (in trouble of late for its use of mercenary guards in Iraq), the intelligence services and the military are all wondering where Bush and Cheney think they’re going to get the manpower to launch another front in their war. Our troops are stretched too thin, and the nation simply doesn’t have enough money to fight a proxy war with hundreds of thousands more paid mercs. If they launched a draft they’d be courting some serious civil disobedience and the homeland’s not all that secure these days due to drastic cuts (and more on the way) for first responders, Guard and police. Heck, they’ve hired mercenaries to patrol the Mexican border!

The economy is tanking. Millions of Americans are going to lose their homes, their jobs, and now Bush is cutting payments to teaching hospitals so the indigent won’t even have the ER when they’re sick or injured. The rich don’t like taxes, and Bush has arranged things to their liking. Where is he planning to get the money for further adventures? China? They’re starting to balk at the costs so far. India’s got its own problems we’re not helping with, since we’re officially on Pakistan’s ’side’.

If we had a Congress full of actual public servants Bush and Cheney could be bridled by impeachment hearings. That would at least keep them from screwing things up worse before January of ‘09. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Congress full of actual public servants, so we’re on our own. We’ll need more than luck to make it through the next year.

Links:

U.S. report: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003

NPR’s Iowa Debate

Right Wing Claims Iran NIE a CIA Plot Against Bush

John Edwards Wins NPR Debate

Way back in early September I posted about a strange incident at Minot AFB in North Dakota, where 5 (now increased to 6) stockpiled nuclear warheads were taken out of storage, armed, attached to supposedly decommissioned Advanced Cruise Missiles, loaded onto the pilons of a B-52 strategic bomber, and flown to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana – a forward staging base for deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

My analysis at that time was that the whistleblowers who reported the incident to The Army Times – which then broke the story – were just doing their job, which had to do with some rather obvious “Saber-Rattling” by the Bush administration against Iran. In that post I noted that ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson agreed with my analysis on his blog.

On Halloween investigative reporter Dave Lindorff posted a diary on DKos based on his article for The American Conservative [October 22 issue online]. He titled his diary The Air Force Cover-Up of that Minot-Barksdale Nuclear Missile Flight and it’s full of little tidbits of information from the Air Force’s investigation report on the incident.

There is also some excellent information in an article by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya entitled Missing Nukes: Treason of the Highest Order.

Not only must service members who handle nuclear weapons or warheads follow a very strict chain of command (with lots of backup paperwork), they must be specifically certified for that task. The weapons, particularly those in storage or scheduled for decommissioning, are marked, they are sealed (seals must be broken). they carry tracking ‘tags’ and can be found anywhere on the planet by military GPS, and direct written orders from senior military officials as well as the base commander is required before the weapons could be loaded on a plane or flown off the base.

Thus it is clear that in the case of these particular ‘missing’ nukes, highest-level orders were given, procedures double-checked and triple-checked, flight permission was granted. This is not just standard procedure, it’s REQUIRED procedure no single person can get around.

According to a number of military experts, intelligence analysts and ex-military members of high rank, there are way too many large holes in the story for it to be anything but a whitewash coverup of a deliberate act authorized by the office of the President and the entire nuclear chain of command, in clear violation of US law and international treaty.

But it gets much worse. Nazemroaya reports that there have been a number of mysterious deaths of USAF personnel shortly before and shortly after the incident…

Airman 1st Class Todd Blue. Attached to the 5th Security Forces Squadron at Minot AFB, specifically the Weapons System Security section responsible for the security of all “priority ressources” – including all the nukes. Went home on leave immediately after the incident and died on September 10th at the age of 20.

USAF Captain John Frueh. Attached to the USAF Special Operations Command. Last seen with a GPS device, camera and camcorder in a backpack. Found dead on September 8 in Washington State, last call from his cell at 12:28 p.m. on August 30, the day of the Minot incident. The Air Force refused to allow Washington state police to investigate his disappearance as a missing person case until they had completed a military investigation. Did they know he was dead?

Clint and Linda Huff. Clint Huff was attached to the 26th Operational Weather Squadron at Barksdale AFB. He and his wife were killed on their motorcycle September 15th after an SUV they were passing turned hard left into them.

First Lieutenant Weston Kissel. B-52H Stratofortress Bomber pilot. Also died in a motorcycle accident on July 17, less than two months before the Minot incident.

Adam Barrs and Stephen Garrett. Attached to the 5th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, responsible for loading and unloading weaponry on the B-52H Stratofortresses at Minot. They were killed in a single vehicle accident on July 3.

The Huffs, Kissel, Barrs and Garrett died before the incident. But if there was advanced planning – and any significant operation takes advanced planning – they might have been involved.

But wait! There’s more…

Charles D. Reichers, USAF, Retired. Previous member of the Senior Executive Service of the AF, Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition and Management. Also a master navigator and electronic warfare specialist. Found dead of apparent suicide on October 14.

However, Russian Intelligence analysts reported in Pravda (The Russian news service) that the ruling of suicide was a coverup, that Reichers was murdered because of his involvement in the Minot affair. According to the Pravda article, the incident was linked to an operation to smuggle nuclear weapons away from the US military in connection to launching a war against Iran. A principal in that operation was said to be Daniel Richard DeVos, Who runs the Commonwealth Research Institute, a non-profit organization working for the Pentagon.

Anybody remember Iran-Contra?

General Russell Elliot Dougherty. Former commander of Strategic Air Command and director of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff. Reported dead of suicide on September 7.

In June of this year the command staff at Minot was rotated. Incoming officers were…

Colonel Robert D. Critchlow, transferred from the Pentagon to become commanding officer for the 91st Operations Group at Minot.

Colonel Myron L. Freeman, transferred from Japan to Minot to take over as commander of the 91st Security Forces Group, responsible for securing Minot’s nuclear arsenal.

Colonel Gregory S. Tims, appointed deputy commander of the 91st Space Wing.

Colonel Bruce Emig, transferred from Ellsworth in South Dakota to Minot to become the base commander.

Colonel Cynthia M. Lundell, transferred from NATO in Western Europe to command the 5th Maintenance Group (responsible for loading weaponry on the B-52s). Now assigned elsewhere.

Read the article for other juicy tidbits that may start putting the belligerent threats, September’s “Vigilant Shield 2008″ war games on US soil and Russia’s war games response, and all this talk of World War III into some perspective. I have doubts that Bush will allow elections in 2008, as he does not plan to leave power. I do believe he’s psychotic, thus extremely dangerous to the US and the world.

I no longer think the Minot “oops” was clever saber rattling. I think they were really trying to start a nuclear war.

[cross-posted at Randall's Blog]

Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day, so I think it be a Cracken good idee to invite me matey Cap’n Randall to spin a sea-yarn for all us swabbies. About dark buckaneers an’ dirty deeds in foreign ports, blunderbuss firing and cannonballs’ thunder, and Davy Jones’ locker.

The Cap’n eats fire, ye bilge rats! Don’ ye cross ‘im or he’ll sent ye straight to Davy Jones!

Follow me below to the bilges if ye dare….

Arrr ye Mateys,

Back from a year in the bilges not talkin to ye and all, I’d like to offer me humble apologies for not faring thee here, but Talk Like a Pirate Day comes only once a year ye landubbers! So for ye get yer sails all a bind, let yerself ponder how a pirate might view some recent news.

Blackwater. Arrr, a name after me own liking I must say. Rebounds of saber’s clashes and cannon ball ruin! Long known, these players of independent means have had their way in this waaar, providing the security that the King’s men could not. Not so unlike pirates, this community aaarmed mercenaries thrives on the occupation, reaping the spoils and the bounty of the bloody conflict.

The King’s General Petraeus. Arrr, an untrustworthy soul if for no other reason than he’s not a sailor. Blow me down mateys, how can these landlubbers expect respect when they’ve never ridden the seas? On the other hand me hardys, there be a certain Admiral Fallon who I might lean a little closer to in regaaards of a clear eye in these spoken matters. Seems the good Admiral thinks the General is akin to parrot poop when it comes to being an upstanding man worthy of military abides.

Rats fleeing the sinking ship. Arrr, it seems that the pace of Republicans  leaving the governing wing of the Good Ship America to find their way into its underbelly is apace beyond anyone’s expectations.

Arrr, the good Captain Reid of the Senate seems to have calculated his cannon balls with good reason mateys as he is now showing himself to be quite the cutlass bearing scallywag that we had been praying for all along. Now if the good lady Pelosi would set her eye on a similaaaar position, we might be seeing some movement here mateys.

So thaaar you have it ye scallywags, a gang plank you can use to to set sail on yer own news of interest to the pirates of the Kossac Seas. Ahoy mateys! And don’t forget to toast to the future where victory is only over the horizon. Drink what ye may, but this pirate would suggest a PBRrrrrrrrrr!

[Cross-Posted from Randall's Blog]
________

Fer more treasures of pirate wisdom on this blustery day, dip into the chest for these pearls and d’bloons…

Yarr, Be Doin’ Yer Part Fer Global Warmin’!

Hillary t’aint a proper buccaneer, arrrrr!

Arrh!!!! Here be Pirate Chef Kos Wednesday!!