As reported in the Star, the recent summit concerning North Korea's nuclear program also yielded a provision whereby Japan and North Korea have pledged "'specific actions' toward settling issues of 'the unfortunate past' - a reference to Japan's war time occupation of the Korean Peninsula - and other 'outstanding issues' - such as Japan's bitterness that North Korean security agents snatched more than a dozen Japanese in the late 1970's and early 1980's to help teach the country's spies to speak Japanese."
Are Americans just too good to admit that they have ever done anything wrong?
Republicans are a disgrace, stick your heads up your ***. Act ignorant. Act superior. Start wars. Get a clue.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Your Typical Ignorant/Delusional Right-Wing Hick
Some woman, "Goodwin," wrote into my local paper about the resolution condemning Turkey for genocide and the effect it would have on the troops. She said the Democrats should practice the "diplomacy" they are so fond of.
Goodwin is just your typical ignorant/delusional right-wing hick. “Diplomacy” as well as “good governance” and the “Bush administration” has nothing to do with the truth or reality. These kooks think they can just pick and choose the history that suits them - they have no use for it except to inflate their own self-worth or to nurse their own grievances.
It is absurd that ANYONE would even consider electing Republicans. They don’t read the paper, they only see what they want to see, all Iraqis killed are TERRORISTS, it would be irresponsible to pay for this war – better to pass the buck off to the grandchildren, new recruits can get the desert training they need in Iraq – IN COMBAT, troops don’t need body armor – it’s TOO HEAVY (Michelle Malkin - a ridiculous, superstitious and ignorant woman who has been insulting me, a military family member, since this war started), there is no shortage of these brave Republicans willing to fight this war they started, that is why the Army has lowered it’s standards AGAIN, taking violent criminals, and helicopter gunships don’t need guns. Petraeus “wrote the book” on counterinsurgency, which calls for as many troops to occupy Baghdad as are in the entire country, but it would be treasonous to call him on it. The glowing success in Fallujah, it turns out, is due to MARTIAL LAW, the city is under 24-hour lockdown, surrounded by berms and barbed wire, vehicles are banned and residents had to submit to fingerprints and retina scans to get ID cards that let them stay. How long can they keep this up after the troops pull out? Osama bin Laden, meanwhile, is not off in a cave somewhere plotting more attacks; he is “impotent.”
These backwards, backwoods throwbacks can even say with absolute certainly that global warming is a hoax while their own military leaders quietly go about discussing the need for new policies that would “oblige intergovernmental cooperation” by future U.S. administrations, knowing that environmental stresses may severely damage economies, destabilize political systems and upend millions of lives, causing mass migrations across international borders, including our own.
These hicks are a disgrace to this country.
************************
Goodwin is just your typical ignorant/delusional right-wing hick. “Diplomacy” as well as “good governance” and the “Bush administration” has nothing to do with the truth or reality. These kooks think they can just pick and choose the history that suits them - they have no use for it except to inflate their own self-worth or to nurse their own grievances.
It is absurd that ANYONE would even consider electing Republicans. They don’t read the paper, they only see what they want to see, all Iraqis killed are TERRORISTS, it would be irresponsible to pay for this war – better to pass the buck off to the grandchildren, new recruits can get the desert training they need in Iraq – IN COMBAT, troops don’t need body armor – it’s TOO HEAVY (Michelle Malkin - a ridiculous, superstitious and ignorant woman who has been insulting me, a military family member, since this war started), there is no shortage of these brave Republicans willing to fight this war they started, that is why the Army has lowered it’s standards AGAIN, taking violent criminals, and helicopter gunships don’t need guns. Petraeus “wrote the book” on counterinsurgency, which calls for as many troops to occupy Baghdad as are in the entire country, but it would be treasonous to call him on it. The glowing success in Fallujah, it turns out, is due to MARTIAL LAW, the city is under 24-hour lockdown, surrounded by berms and barbed wire, vehicles are banned and residents had to submit to fingerprints and retina scans to get ID cards that let them stay. How long can they keep this up after the troops pull out? Osama bin Laden, meanwhile, is not off in a cave somewhere plotting more attacks; he is “impotent.”
These backwards, backwoods throwbacks can even say with absolute certainly that global warming is a hoax while their own military leaders quietly go about discussing the need for new policies that would “oblige intergovernmental cooperation” by future U.S. administrations, knowing that environmental stresses may severely damage economies, destabilize political systems and upend millions of lives, causing mass migrations across international borders, including our own.
These hicks are a disgrace to this country.
************************
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Your Attention Needed
More apologies needed
In regard to “Clinton, Obama failed test” (9/24, Letters), I would like to make a few observations.
Perhaps apologies by these candidates “to the nation and to Gen. (David) Petraeus” are in order, but first maybe a few other apologies might be worth consideration.
We have seen John Kerry “Swift Boated,” John McCain’s patriotism and honor questioned, and Max Cleland referred to as unpatriotic.
As for the referral to Gen. Petraeus, it’s worth noting that the “betray us” phrase was first coined by Rush Limbaugh in referring to Sen. Chuck Hagel. (Earlier this year, he called him “Sen. Betrayus”). Has Limbaugh apologized? Has Karl Rove?
Is the White House (“We are not into nation building”) going to apologize for the lies perpetrated on the American people?
It appears the “radical left” is not the only one that owes apologies to the American people.
Ron Monnig
Slater, Mo.
Churches and politics
I am writing in reference to your story “Church will keep tax status after 2004 anti-war sermon” (9/24, A-4).
After all those years sitting in church listening to sermons that made it clear that to be a good Christian you had to vote Republican, I am outraged at the Internal Revenue Service for investigating whether an anti-war sermon in a supposedly “liberal” church would warrant the loss of tax-exempt status.
If you’re not outraged, then you’re not paying attention.
Scott Laurent
Kansas City
In regard to “Clinton, Obama failed test” (9/24, Letters), I would like to make a few observations.
Perhaps apologies by these candidates “to the nation and to Gen. (David) Petraeus” are in order, but first maybe a few other apologies might be worth consideration.
We have seen John Kerry “Swift Boated,” John McCain’s patriotism and honor questioned, and Max Cleland referred to as unpatriotic.
As for the referral to Gen. Petraeus, it’s worth noting that the “betray us” phrase was first coined by Rush Limbaugh in referring to Sen. Chuck Hagel. (Earlier this year, he called him “Sen. Betrayus”). Has Limbaugh apologized? Has Karl Rove?
Is the White House (“We are not into nation building”) going to apologize for the lies perpetrated on the American people?
It appears the “radical left” is not the only one that owes apologies to the American people.
Ron Monnig
Slater, Mo.
Churches and politics
I am writing in reference to your story “Church will keep tax status after 2004 anti-war sermon” (9/24, A-4).
After all those years sitting in church listening to sermons that made it clear that to be a good Christian you had to vote Republican, I am outraged at the Internal Revenue Service for investigating whether an anti-war sermon in a supposedly “liberal” church would warrant the loss of tax-exempt status.
If you’re not outraged, then you’re not paying attention.
Scott Laurent
Kansas City
The "Jena 6"
Jason Whitlock, a black sports writer, is clearly guilty, himself, of bias in his deliberate attempts to discredit any “cause” that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton involve themselves with. His Sept. 30th column on the “Jena 6” doesn’t address the attempted murder charges, at all, and he still proclaims that the nooses incident had nothing to do with it - his words, not the words of the young men involved.
I am not sure of what relevance it is whether the boys go to church or not and who they were living with at the time. Just because people like Alan Bean, Jackson and Sharpton make a scene doesn’t mean there is nothing to the story. And the fact that a teenager has been in trouble with the law before is not reason to dismiss everything he has to say, throw him in jail and throw away the key, along with all of his friends.
How is it to Whitlock’s credit that he, being more mature and accomplished, can so easily disregard the pointed intent of nooses hanging from a schoolyard tree? Maybe it is this callousness that got him where he is today? Does his apparent embarrassment over these media circuses entitle him to speak for everybody else?
As reported on Friday, black babies born here in the U.S. are twice as likely to die as infants and there seems to be no explanation except “the stressful effects of racism,” according to a new series of studies from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ Health Policy Institute.
It says the causes of black infant mortality can be attributed to poverty, poor nutrition, inadequate prenatal care, teen pregnancy, heredity, high blood pressure, stress, obesity, low birth weight and prematurity. But, over the past few years, it has become clear that whether rich or poor, well educated or barely literate, African-American women were still more likely than white women, first-generation, poor Hispanic immigrant women and foreign-born black women to have premature and low birth-weight babies.
Some things are not so easily explained away.
I am not sure of what relevance it is whether the boys go to church or not and who they were living with at the time. Just because people like Alan Bean, Jackson and Sharpton make a scene doesn’t mean there is nothing to the story. And the fact that a teenager has been in trouble with the law before is not reason to dismiss everything he has to say, throw him in jail and throw away the key, along with all of his friends.
How is it to Whitlock’s credit that he, being more mature and accomplished, can so easily disregard the pointed intent of nooses hanging from a schoolyard tree? Maybe it is this callousness that got him where he is today? Does his apparent embarrassment over these media circuses entitle him to speak for everybody else?
As reported on Friday, black babies born here in the U.S. are twice as likely to die as infants and there seems to be no explanation except “the stressful effects of racism,” according to a new series of studies from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ Health Policy Institute.
It says the causes of black infant mortality can be attributed to poverty, poor nutrition, inadequate prenatal care, teen pregnancy, heredity, high blood pressure, stress, obesity, low birth weight and prematurity. But, over the past few years, it has become clear that whether rich or poor, well educated or barely literate, African-American women were still more likely than white women, first-generation, poor Hispanic immigrant women and foreign-born black women to have premature and low birth-weight babies.
Some things are not so easily explained away.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
General Betray Us - Move-On Ad
I guess since the right-wing Kulturkampf has been calling anybody who disagrees with them traitors as well as every other name in the book since before this war started, the move-on ad didn’t even strike me as being all that unusual. I took it to mean that the general’s testimony was not going to be entirely straightforward because he had been put in an impossible situation.
What I was thinking about was the army’s new counterinsurgency manual. As I have said countless times, it calls for as many troops to occupy Baghdad as are in the entire country. And General Petraeus was in charge of writing it.
The so-called religious right has joined forces in an Unholy Alliance with an extremist-leaning sort in the mold of a backwoods militia, not exactly your Sunday school crowd, and they just stand mute while the likes of Ann Coulter say that all liberals are “godless.” They can question your faith but you can’t question a general?
It is unpatriotic to question the president, the premise of this war or its execution? Bush has unequivocally stated that we will still be at war in Iraq when his presidency is over. Karl Rove has no regrets, Cheney would do it all over again and Bush is looking forward to raking in the dough making speeches and not one of them has the decency to acknowledge the lives that will be lost.
The right-wingers are livid if you should mention the strain on the military, lagging enlistments, a draft. It is unpatriotic to question why more of them are not willing to fight this war they started? The surge is purportedly tamping down violence in Baghdad, but it is treasonous to question why the commander-in-chief did not take any steps to prolong the surge, if necessary?
Nobody wants this war to have been “in vain.” But, if you are going to start a war you had better make damn sure you know what you are doing and you had better make damn sure, every step of the way, that the troops are getting the support they need, for real. Refusing to acknowledge the real cost of this war and refusing to address obvious problems reeks of politics, not patriotism.
What I was thinking about was the army’s new counterinsurgency manual. As I have said countless times, it calls for as many troops to occupy Baghdad as are in the entire country. And General Petraeus was in charge of writing it.
The so-called religious right has joined forces in an Unholy Alliance with an extremist-leaning sort in the mold of a backwoods militia, not exactly your Sunday school crowd, and they just stand mute while the likes of Ann Coulter say that all liberals are “godless.” They can question your faith but you can’t question a general?
It is unpatriotic to question the president, the premise of this war or its execution? Bush has unequivocally stated that we will still be at war in Iraq when his presidency is over. Karl Rove has no regrets, Cheney would do it all over again and Bush is looking forward to raking in the dough making speeches and not one of them has the decency to acknowledge the lives that will be lost.
The right-wingers are livid if you should mention the strain on the military, lagging enlistments, a draft. It is unpatriotic to question why more of them are not willing to fight this war they started? The surge is purportedly tamping down violence in Baghdad, but it is treasonous to question why the commander-in-chief did not take any steps to prolong the surge, if necessary?
Nobody wants this war to have been “in vain.” But, if you are going to start a war you had better make damn sure you know what you are doing and you had better make damn sure, every step of the way, that the troops are getting the support they need, for real. Refusing to acknowledge the real cost of this war and refusing to address obvious problems reeks of politics, not patriotism.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
A Common Thread
TIME did a “10 Questions” interview with Lynne Cheney, why I don’t know. For a vice president who has tried his damnedest to stay out of the public’s eye, preferring to run his political machinations from some undisclosed location, who knows or cares what his wife has to say?
Surprise. Turns out his wife has no criticisms, whatsoever, of this administration. If you know what you are doing is the “right thing” to do, and you know “where you are going,” then, apparently, it doesn’t matter if somebody else’s kids have to pay for your botched war. We have been “safe” for six years because Bush and Cheney have doggedly adhered to their ideological beliefs.
Mrs. Cheney is an historian? Seems they grew up in small town America (read fly-over hicks), but how do you become a writer, historian and second lady and be so out of touch with reality?
There is a common thread running throughout the fabric of all the tales the right-wing weaves. Bush is gonna make some speeches, replenish the ol’ coffers, Cheney is going to have a cup of coffee and sit in her big leather chair at their Wyoming ranch in the Tetons, the surge is a success…OBLIVIOUS.
Surprise. Turns out his wife has no criticisms, whatsoever, of this administration. If you know what you are doing is the “right thing” to do, and you know “where you are going,” then, apparently, it doesn’t matter if somebody else’s kids have to pay for your botched war. We have been “safe” for six years because Bush and Cheney have doggedly adhered to their ideological beliefs.
Mrs. Cheney is an historian? Seems they grew up in small town America (read fly-over hicks), but how do you become a writer, historian and second lady and be so out of touch with reality?
There is a common thread running throughout the fabric of all the tales the right-wing weaves. Bush is gonna make some speeches, replenish the ol’ coffers, Cheney is going to have a cup of coffee and sit in her big leather chair at their Wyoming ranch in the Tetons, the surge is a success…OBLIVIOUS.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
A Downright Moron
Joe Galloway Commentary: Bush fulfills H.L. Mencken's prophecy
By Joseph L. Galloway McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007
It took just eight decades but H.L. Mencken's astute prediction on the future course of American presidential politics and the electorate's taste in candidates came true:
On July 26, 1920, the acerbic and cranky scribe wrote in The Baltimore Sun: " . . . all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily (and) adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/galloway/story/19824.html
By Joseph L. Galloway McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007
It took just eight decades but H.L. Mencken's astute prediction on the future course of American presidential politics and the electorate's taste in candidates came true:
On July 26, 1920, the acerbic and cranky scribe wrote in The Baltimore Sun: " . . . all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily (and) adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/galloway/story/19824.html
America's Implied Bargain - Another Bogus Contract With America
"The implied bargain America offers it's citizens is supposed to be that anyone who works hard and plays by the rules can support his or her family and move onward and upward." - Center For An Urban Future
Saturday, September 22, 2007
A Proper War Memorial
I found Michelle Malkin’s comment, concerning the airliner crash in Pennsylvania on 9/11, that a “proper war memorial should stir to anger and action” to be offensive. As a Kansas City, Mo, native, I have always admired our very own Liberty Memorial that is the only monument entirely dedicated to WWI in the country.
The Great Frieze on the north terrace wall depicts “progress from war to peace,” carved in stone that stretches 400 feet across and stands 13 feet high. The following is taken from the Liberty Memorial Museum’s website:
“In honor of those who served in the world war in defense of liberty and our country.” The quote best depicts the reasons and emotions behind the raising of the Liberty Memorial Monument. World War I (1914-1918), which ended on the Western Front in Europe on November 11, 1918, had dramatically changed the world and deeply affected future generations.
After the guns were silenced and the huge celebrations had died down, concerned citizens in the United States reflected on the past War and on the losses sustained. What could be done to honor and remember, they wondered. Just two weeks after the Armistice, a meeting of Kansas Citians brought forth the idea and need for the creation of a lasting monument to all men and women in the war and to those who died.
A community-based fund-raising drive in 1919 raised over $2,500,000 in less than two weeks through public subscription in Kansas City and around the nation. This staggering accomplishment reflected the passion of public opinion about the Great War, which so recently ended.
**********
Malkin was also incensed about the use of a red crescent of trees. A quick web search on the red crescent provided many links to an organization similar to our own Red Cross and a web page that explores the history of the crescent as a symbol of Islam.
It states “the crescent moon and star symbol actually pre-dates Islam by several thousand years.” It goes on to say that the symbol was chosen to honor the goddess Diana or “to a battle in which the Romans defeated the Goths on the first day of a lunar month.” At any rate, it is “essentially an ancient pagan icon. It is certainly not in uniform use among Muslims.” The article lists countries whose flags depict the symbol and notes that “The majority of these countries are not Arabic-speaking, but rather are part of the greater Muslim world.”
9-25-05
The Great Frieze on the north terrace wall depicts “progress from war to peace,” carved in stone that stretches 400 feet across and stands 13 feet high. The following is taken from the Liberty Memorial Museum’s website:
“In honor of those who served in the world war in defense of liberty and our country.” The quote best depicts the reasons and emotions behind the raising of the Liberty Memorial Monument. World War I (1914-1918), which ended on the Western Front in Europe on November 11, 1918, had dramatically changed the world and deeply affected future generations.
After the guns were silenced and the huge celebrations had died down, concerned citizens in the United States reflected on the past War and on the losses sustained. What could be done to honor and remember, they wondered. Just two weeks after the Armistice, a meeting of Kansas Citians brought forth the idea and need for the creation of a lasting monument to all men and women in the war and to those who died.
A community-based fund-raising drive in 1919 raised over $2,500,000 in less than two weeks through public subscription in Kansas City and around the nation. This staggering accomplishment reflected the passion of public opinion about the Great War, which so recently ended.
**********
Malkin was also incensed about the use of a red crescent of trees. A quick web search on the red crescent provided many links to an organization similar to our own Red Cross and a web page that explores the history of the crescent as a symbol of Islam.
It states “the crescent moon and star symbol actually pre-dates Islam by several thousand years.” It goes on to say that the symbol was chosen to honor the goddess Diana or “to a battle in which the Romans defeated the Goths on the first day of a lunar month.” At any rate, it is “essentially an ancient pagan icon. It is certainly not in uniform use among Muslims.” The article lists countries whose flags depict the symbol and notes that “The majority of these countries are not Arabic-speaking, but rather are part of the greater Muslim world.”
9-25-05
War In Iraq Politics
Michael Ramirez’s cartoon (8-29-05) depicts Cindy Sheehan holding a doll/baby labeled “POLITICS” and she is wearing a pin that says “LET MY SONS DEATH BE FOR NOTHING.” As if she, as a mother, wouldn’t be doing this if this had been a Democrat-led war.
The arrogance of those who would still have us believe that the justification for this war was not falsified and that the war is not going badly is revolting.
But, I can’t say it any better than to quote Molly Ivins, “…government policies have real consequences in people’s lives. This is not ‘just politics’ or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies.”
Ivins was speaking of certain environmental policies that contributed to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, but it is all the same. This administration’s vision is backwards and corrupt.
Personally, it insults my intelligence to have someone say that my opinions are politically motivated as I have no political affiliation and find politics in general to be quite repulsive and this is precisely why.
-9-04-05
The arrogance of those who would still have us believe that the justification for this war was not falsified and that the war is not going badly is revolting.
But, I can’t say it any better than to quote Molly Ivins, “…government policies have real consequences in people’s lives. This is not ‘just politics’ or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies.”
Ivins was speaking of certain environmental policies that contributed to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, but it is all the same. This administration’s vision is backwards and corrupt.
Personally, it insults my intelligence to have someone say that my opinions are politically motivated as I have no political affiliation and find politics in general to be quite repulsive and this is precisely why.
-9-04-05
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